Energy Bill
Debate between Dan Byles and Andrew Percy
Dan Byles
It is a pleasure finally to be speaking on Third Reading. I am a member of the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change, which has carried out inquiries into energy market reform and pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, and I also sat on the Public Bill Committee, so it has been a labour of love getting here.
Although I support the Bill, I admit that I have some concerns. I am concerned about the level of complexity we are starting to pile on to our energy sector. Perhaps that is inevitable, as this is a highly complex policy area, but I sometimes feel that unintended consequences lead to another sticking plaster being put on, leading to more unintended consequences, so that a highly complex system evolves. I do not necessarily blame the DECC team for that, as this is a difficult and complex area, but I hope that as the Secretary of State introduces the secondary legislation he will bear in mind the need to try to minimise the complexity as much as possible, in keeping with the aims of the Bill.
The energy sector still faces huge challenges. As for the oft-quoted figure of £110 billion a year of infrastructure investment, I have seen a lot of estimates that put the figure much higher. Some people grossly underestimate the scale of change required in our energy sector, particularly in the argument about decarbonisation. The year 2030 is just 17 years away and at 10 minutes to 6 today, in real time, 40% of our electricity was being provided by gas and 35% was being provided by coal. That means that 75% of our electricity was being provided by gas and coal. Gas heats 83% of our homes. We will have a substantial slice of gas on the system for a long time, so we need to get on and start exploratory drilling for shale gas once again, so that we can ensure that the gas is provided from a domestic source. The Institute of Directors has told us that shale gas production could provide up to 74,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly, and up to a third of peak demand—and that is just the central scenario. We need to search for shale gas, and to accept that gas will be on the system for a long time to come.
We also need steadily to increase investment in renewables; I entirely accept that. Sometimes people throw at me that I am anti-decarbonisation—we have heard that from some Opposition Members—but I am not. We need to move to a low-carbon future, not through a rash, uncosted 2030 decarbonisation target set this year, but through the nuts and bolts of the contract for difference and the levy control framework, as the CBI has said.
Andrew Percy
One of the reasons why I was not here earlier is that colleagues from our region and I were with a Treasury Minister, trying to ensure that when the money for renewables comes on stream, British companies benefit from it. Does my hon. Friend not agree that once we get the Bill out of the way, the biggest challenge is to ensure that it is British companies, such as Tata Steel in Scunthorpe, who benefit from the additional money going into renewables?
Dan Byles
I entirely agree. This needs to be seen in a much wider context than energy; this is about jobs and investment, including inward investment.
Gas will be on the system for a long time; we need to bring forward new gas generation. We need to increase renewables on the system, and we desperately need new nuclear. There is hardly a credible scenario for a decarbonised future that does not involve new nuclear on the system. We need to incentivise generation capacity in all three. The Bill is long overdue, and I will support it this evening, because it will achieve that aim.