Date published: 2006/06/30
The BBC says:
Nuclear power alone cannot solve the UK's energy inefficiencies, the government's environment advisers warn.
An energy review, due next month, is expected to call for additional nuclear power stations to be built as replacements for older plants.
The Sustainable Development Commission said the nuclear option "won't get us anywhere near tackling the UK's energy and climate change crisis".
Its chairman called for more efficient homes and less wasted power.
"The government has been so busy trying to make the case for nuclear power it risks overlooking the much bigger challenges facing the UK today," Jonathan Porritt said.
"Even if the UK's nuclear capacity is doubled, that would still leave 84% of total energy consumption unaccounted for."
The commission recommended the country's "wasteful electricity network" be upgraded, with a greater emphasis on local power grids to reduce the proportion of supplies which were lost before reaching households.
It also suggested "smart energy meters" and "sensible billing", with the intention that less energy was sold in the future.
It said the annual road tax should be reconsidered to penalise transport users with the least environmentally-friendly vehicles, and for "radical" building standards so new houses no longer need heating by 2010.
"Even if nuclear gets the 'green light'," Mr Porritt said, "it won't get us anywhere near tackling the UK's energy and climate change crises, hence the crucial importance of getting it right on efficiency, renewables, heat and microgeneration."
The Sustainable Development Commission is just another useless quango which should be disbanded. Nobody ever claimed that nuclear power was the solution to all of the energy problems of the UK. Nothing is, including the alternatives that Porritt mentions. A complex problem requires complex solutions, not hand waving by a bunch of worthies. And does anyone seriously think that building standards can be changed so that "new houses no longer need heating by 2010"? And petrol tax, not road tax, is the tax which should (and does) "penalise transport users with the least environmentally-friendly vehicles". A bit sad that this is the best these people can come up with. We need technocrats, not babblecrats.
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