This week my mailbag was full of emails and letters from residents on the Energy Bill. Some wanted me to vote for a decarbonisation target and some wanted me to vote against.
No-one disagrees that we need to improve our energy security in a low carbon way. We have a crumbling energy infrastructure, aging dirty power stations and an impending energy gap. This is a result of the dismal failure by the last Labour Government to secure investment. Geographically, there is no reason why Britain can't become the biggest exporter of green energy in Europe. It is a disgrace that we find ourselves in this position.
Already this Government is investing heavily in renewable energy and is examining the opportunities in new nuclear, carbon capture and other technologies. I have visited many of these technologies flourishing here in Swindon, from RWE Renewables to companies generating energy from waste.
The Energy Bill makes our low carbon future certain, but in a way that is affordable to consumers, the people who will ultimately pay. Indeed, the Energy Bill will reduce the average household bill by £158 as it will force companies to put customers on the lowest tariff. Bills are going in the right direction and it is vital that we don't endanger this.
That is why many had reservations about the decarbonisation target. Specific contractual measures in the Bill already secure new low-carbon electricity generation. It was unclear what the target would have added.
The target threatened to push up household bills as its level would have been arbitrary. It would have been arbitrary as we currently are not in a position to know what a realistic ambition for 2030 would look like. This is because the technologies that we will rely on to build our low-carbon energy mix remain uncertain.
Is new nuclear an option? Will offshore wind and tidal power become more affordable? Will new waste technologies contribute large scale to our energy mix? We are not saying we are not committed to a green energy sector, but that we don't yet know how this sector will look. Until we do, we have no idea if the target we set can be met. Blindly picking a figure would be irresponsible when the costs of getting it wrong will be borne by consumers.
Instead, we are setting a decarbonisation target as part of our 5th Carbon Budget in 2016. By then, the shape of the green energy sector and the UK's future energy mix will be clearer and the target informed.
I fully understand why people are calling for the target, but ultimately, energy security and a low-carbon economy will be delivered through clarity on available technologies, not an arbitrary figure blindly set with no real plan for its achievement.
