Steve Webb's view on the Severn Barrage

I contacted Steve Webb MP via his website on 19th August as follows:

'In view of your welcoming the apparent abandonment of Horizon's plans for Oldbury Power Station, I would be grateful to hear your views on how future needs for electricity generation will be met and particularly how you perceive the resurrection of proposals for the Severn Barrage.'

I received a prompt acknowledgement from a case worker and then his response which is reproduced in full at the foot of this page.

Yet again Mr Webb displays his tendency to defer big decisions in favour of muddling through. Sadly this is nothing new, witness his condemnation in January 2009 of Ed Miliband , then Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, who had just announced five preferred options to generate green energy from the river, which also included two smaller barrages and two lagoon schemes. Mr Webb's response then was to advocate consideration of more options, prove feasibility with pilot schemes, and no reasonable prospect for power generation until well into the 2020s. So guess what, nearly three years have passed and the timescale for generating power from the barrage is heading for the 2030s. Taken to the extreme this philosophy will leave us in the dark some time very soon!

So Mr Webb's solution is gas. We will become increasingly dependent on this fuel for electricity supply, not to mention heating and transport. Yes it releases less CO₂ than coal or oil so that's good news. Sadly it leaves us increasingly hostage to countries which are politically unstable and less favourable to the West than we might like. Luckily there is an alternative. We can raise the pace of exploration for shale gas which looks to be plentiful under the UK and the search is on locally. I wonder how Thornbury folk will respond to fracking in the vicinity? I'll come back to that soon.

Steve Webb's letter:

'Dear Mr. Rodliffe,

Thank you for your e-mail regarding meeting our future energy needs, which I have just read on my return from a family holiday.

In brief, my view is that we need a diverse range of energy sources to sustain us over the coming decades, including to reduce our reliance over the long-term on imported and increasingly expensive oil and in order to reduce our CO₂ emissions in line with national and international agreements.

By far the best first step in my view is much greater effort at energy conservation and energy efficiency. Rather than build more and more generating capacity simply to continue to be as profligate as we currently are with energy, we should first prioritise using the energy that we do generate much more efficiently. There is huge potential for using subsidies, taxes and regulations to encourage energy-efficient behaviour and this can be cost-effective for the individual as well as for us as a nation. Even now the regulations on the energy efficiency of new homes are less strict than in many other countries, and the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock still leaves a great deal to be desired. This is to say nothing of public buildings such as schools and hospitals where energy is often extensively wasted.

In terms of generating capacity, I am sure that we will need to rely heavily on gas – ideally with carbon capture – for decades to come, but I also want to see a diverse range of renewable sources. This must include everything from continuing the growth in domestic renewables such as solar panels to large-scale off-shore wind and wave infrastructure projects. Whilst there is a big upfront capital cost to many of these projects, they will in due course generate relatively cheap and reliable energy, especially relative to what I anticipate will be the ever escalating cost of crude oil.

I hope that this is helpful in setting out my views.

With best wishes,
Steve Webb MP '