I've been watching (but under-reporting) Greg Clark's statements on energy and climate change. It's interesting that our lead spokesman on Energy and Climate Change appears to be emphasising energy supply rather than environmental issues in his presentation of his thinking.
He has written for The Guardian's Comment is free this morning:
"Despite the UK having some of the best natural resources in the world, Britain generates less energy from renewables than any other EU country apart from Malta and Luxembourg. If that were not bad enough, Britain has the least energy efficient homes of any major European country. We are literally uninsulated against the long-term rise in energy prices, with fuel poverty the result for millions of families."
He continues:
"The Conservatives will give support to the key measures that the government has now committed to – including paying families and businesses for generating heat or electricity, plans for fitting carbon capture and storage technology to coal-fired power stations and improving domestic energy efficiency with the upfront costs repaid through savings in energy bills – indeed these are policies we have already proposed in our Low Carbon Economy green paper."
I'd still like to see much more discussion of nuclear power from the Tory frontbench and as a climate change sceptic I'm much more relaxed about coal making a bigger contribution to keeping the lights on.
Do read John Webley's article on the extraordinary supply shortfalls associated with wind power from last Saturday if you haven't already.
Tim Montgomerie