Russian Gas

Baroness Worthington Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I do not agree with the noble Lord. We have significant gas storage in place. Two units have recently been completed and two are in the process of being built. We have more than enough gas available to us. We should not underestimate the amount of dependency that we have on our own sources to be able to provide energy for our country.

[Baroness Worthington (Lab)]

My Lords, I agree with the Minister that diversity is the answer to this problem. Will she comment on what the Government are doing to encourage the greater use of renewable gas in our markets? A report in 2009 from the National Grid identified that up to half our domestic demand for gas could come from renewable sources. It is currently being used in the much less efficient generation of electricity and it should be used in the heat market.

[Baroness Verma]

The noble Baroness is right. We need to look at all aspects of usage of our energy supplies. But this feeds into a much wider question which will take a little longer to debate. The bigger point is that we need to ensure that we have a diverse mix of energy. That is what this Government pledge to do.