Isramart : Energy bill in Queen’s speech latest step to low-carbon economy in Britain

Isramart news:
The latest energy bill is designed to help the UK move towards a low-carbon economy. It includes a £9.5bn levy on electricity suppliers to fund four demonstration carbon capture and storage (CCS) coal power plants. The “CCS Incentive”, as the levy is known, was announced last week by energy secretary Ed Miliband as he outlined plans to fast-track major energy infrastructure projects such as coal plants, nuclear power stations and windfarms.

Currently only two of the four demonstration projects, those from Scottish Power and E.ON, are proceeding to the next stage of the CCS competition. Professor Stuart Hazeldine, a geologist at the University of Edinburgh and CCS expert, recently claimed the government’s competition to build to such demonstration plants was “dead on its feet.”

Shadow energy secretary Greg Clark last week said he supported Miliband’s energy plans, but criticised the government for delays on energy policy that had led to a “last minute scramble.” He also said industry figures had suggested the CCS competition was likely to be delayed from its 2014 deadline for active demonstration plants.

The bill also includes provisions to establish a mandatory social price support scheme to help more of the most vulnerable households with their energy bills, and strengthen the powers of regulator Ofgem to refer market abuse to the competition commission.

Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, said the bill would ensure consumers could “be confident that British energy is sustainable and secure.”"Carbon capture and storage is a key technology to tackle climate change, and 18 days ahead of the crucial talks in Copenhagen, this bill sets up a new CCS Incentive to support the development of up to four commercial-scale CCS projects in the UK,” he said.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat shadow energy secretary, said he was disappointed that measures on energy efficiency were not in the bill. “If you insulated every home properly in Britain it would be equivalent of taking all the cars of Britain off the roads. What the country needs is a united policy to deliver a warm home for every household,” Hughes said.

Green groups called for a legally-binding limit on greenhouse gas emissions from future coal power plants. David Norman, Director of Campaigns at WWF-UK, said: “Our main concern with this bill is that it does nothing to prevent new large coal plants being built with only a small fraction of their emissions being captured. Without a guarantee of a legally-binding policy which limits CO2 emissions, the bill gives the energy companies too much carrot and no stick.”

Greenpeace’s Jim Footner added: “It will be easier for the Government to sell public funding for carbon capture and storage to cash-strapped British consumers if it goes hand-in-hand with a legal limit on emissions from power stations. And this legal limit would make sure that the coal utilities can’t simply get paid to carry on causing climate change.”