Energy: Self-sufficiency

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend raises a very important point. We are trying to make sure that we have greater self-sufficiency through our renewables but this means only that we reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and, although it is helpful to say that that is what we want to do, we are not currently at that stage. However plausible our scenarios of future energy, I think that there will still be a place for some fossil fuels.

[Lord Tomlinson]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is an illusion to pretend that we can ever attain self-sufficiency in energy without showing a rather more robust and urgent approach to the nuclear industry than the present Government are doing?