Ukraine: Gas Supplies Debate

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Lord West of Spithead

Main Page: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Wednesday 2nd April 2014

(10 years, 7 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Verma Portrait Baroness Verma
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My Lords, the noble Lord is of course aware that the Government have invested £1 billion to ensure that CCS projects go forward. However, the Government have no plans to re-evaluate the role of coal in the UK’s energy mix.

Lord West of Spithead Portrait Lord West of Spithead (Lab)
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My Lords, although the Minister makes a strong case for what the Government are doing, one feels that there is an element of complacency. The noble Lord, Lord Lawson, is absolutely right: to achieve this is not a Sisyphean struggle when we can do things regarding contingency. One never knows quite what will happen. Thirty-two years ago, the Argentinions invaded the Falklands with less than 24 hours’ notice. Things change, so we should have contingency plans in place. We seem to have made it very difficult to get our shop in order to provide power, when power is needed if things go wrong.

Baroness Verma Portrait Baroness Verma
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My Lords, I reassure the noble Lord that we have plenty of supply and I urge him not to err into thinking that this country is fast running out of it. We have only a tiny dependency on Russia—less than 1%—so the Government are doing a very good job of ensuring security.