Date published: 2005/09/27
The Financial Times says (subscription service):
Business vented its anger yesterday at the looming threat of power cuts if Britain suffers a harsh winter this year, blaming failures in the planning system for the lack of sufficient storage now the North Sea no longer supplies a surplus of energy.
Sir Digby Jones, director-general of the CBI employers' body, warned that his members were "really worried that this winter they're going to have the switch thrown on them". He told a fringe meeting at the Labour party conference that Britain had only 11 days of spare gas capacity, compared with about 55 days in other European countries.
The reduction in North Sea gas supplies, which saw Britain become a net gas importer rather than exporter late last year, meant capacity was now crucial, Sir Digby told the meeting. But failures in the UK's "decrepit, derelict planning regime" had allowed local authorities to block applications to build more storage tanks.
"We're the fourth largest economy on earth and it's an absolute disgrace that we risk running out of fuel because of something that was entirely avoidable," Sir Diby said.
Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, insisted it was "rather alarmist" to talk about fuel running out, stressing that domestic customers were not at risk of power cuts, no matter how bad the winter proved.
How complacent and stupid can you get? So the government minister seems to say it is ok if half of industry has to shut down? This is the problem you have when the country is run by incompetent spin doctors instead of competent technocrats. In a related article, the Financial Times also says:
The alert coincided with a warning by the Meteorological Office that government and industry should plan for Britain's first cold winter in a decade.
You have been warned.
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