nuclear-news

UK’s Lib Democrat leader wimping out on nuclear power

the Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, said that he was putting too much trust in nuclear power….“He’s wrong about nuclear. It won’t deliver emissions cuts fast enough or big enough”. She dismissed his claims that there would be no public subsidies for nuclear power, suggesting that the nuclear industry’s failure to pay its full waste and decommissioning costs, is itself a subsidy.

Sceptical response to Huhne’s ‘green government’ pledge | Ekklesia,  21 Sep 2010 Environmental groups have given a sceptical response to comments made by the Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne at the Liberal Democrats’ party conference today (21 September).Huhne reiterated the coalition’s pledge to be the “greenest government ever”……..

Despite the Liberal Democrats’ previous opposition to nuclear power, Huhne said he would “deliver” on the coalition’s agreement “that there is an important place for new nuclear stations in our energy mix as long as there is no public subsidy”.

He justified this by saying that Conservative ministers are themselves delivering on Liberal Democrat policies which made it into the coalition agreement.

Martyn Williams of Friends of the Earth said, “Chris Huhne is right to say that being the greenest government ever is a necessity – but the real challenge is whether he can deliver these ambitious plans when his coalition partners are poised to slash his budget in next month’s spending review”.

Williams suggested that the coalition’s cuts could hit existing policies to support renewable energy………….

The Labour Party’s Ed Miliband accused Chris Huhne of being insufficiently committed to the nuclear industry. But the Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, said that he was putting too much trust in nuclear power.

Lucas described Huhne’s speech as “a combination of half-hearted measures and bad policy”.

She said, “He’s wrong about nuclear. It won’t deliver emissions cuts fast enough or big enough”.

She dismissed his claims that there would be no public subsidies for nuclear power, suggesting that the nuclear industry’s failure to pay its full waste and decommissioning costs, is itself a subsidy.

“Instead of weasel words, the Lib Dems should be offering robust and ambitious policy change – yet this was clearly lacking” insisted Lucas……

Sceptical response to Huhne’s ‘green government’ pledge | Ekklesia

September 23, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, reactors