18 April 2013
South East Dorset Green Party welcomes call for openness on nuclear subsidies.
As Navitus Bay critics continue to challenge Government subsidies for renewables SEDGP welcomed the request for disclosure on how much the public will have to pay to support nuclear energy.
MPS are calling for the disclosure of full details of the proposed deal being negotiated between the Government and EDF Energy over a guaranteed price for electricity generated by planned new nuclear power stations
The cross-party group, which includes Simon Hughes, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP and member of the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee, say the public costs involved may be considerable and it is only right they are exposed to public scrutiny.
Alan Whitehead, a member of the Commons Select Committees on Energy and Climate Change, said because of commercial confidentiality there was likely to be very limited public access to the details once the deal had been agreed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
“For such key negotiations, with such important outcomes - potentially locking in UK taxpayers and energy consumers to a 35-40 year contract - there are concerns that these talks may lack the necessary democratic accountability, fiscal and regulatory checks and balances,” he says in a letter to DECC. “It is also argued that one of the main impacts of this contract may be to shift the economic risk of building new nuclear facilities from the nuclear corporations to the taxpayer and consumer.
And these risks may prove very large.”
Mr Whitehead said it was possible the outcome of the negotiations will be subject to an inquiry into whether European Union state aid legislation has been contravened. “Therefore, in the context of openness, transparency, fiscal and regulatory accountability, and best value for the UK taxpayer and energy consumer - it seems reasonable to suggest that these negotiations should be subject to an in-depth and timely review,” he said.
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