Yesterday's announcement from Alastair Buchanan, the chief executive of energy regulator Ofgem, that energy prices will rise even further is depressing news for hard-pressed British consumers. We are competing against developing nations like China for imported gas, while at the same time, several coal-fired power stations are to be shut down in the next few years, before alternative sources (including nuclear) will be ready. The lights may literally be close to going out in 2015.
On hearing the news, the logical reaction is to ask why the coal-fired power stations cannot be kept going for longer. BBC news, which featured the story ad infinitum on Radio 4 yesterday, never posed that question. The reason is that once again, the EU, in the shape of the Large Combustible Plant Directive, is once again the unmentionable elephant in the room. This dierctive restricts the level of emissions combustion plants (such as coal-fired power stations) built after 1987 may legally produce. Plants built before this date are not legally obligated to restrict their emission levels, but are restricted to 20,000 'running hours' between 2007 and 2015, by which time all LCPD plants must close.
Why don't the government (or the Beeb) let us know who the real culprit is? or better still, why don't they tell the EU where to go? It is much more important to keep warm and to keep industry runing than to obey the diktats of the EU. Thanks to rising energy prices, hypothermia deaths have doubled in Britain over the last five years, with hard-pressed pensioners being the main victims. 1,876 vicitms were recorded in 2010/11. Our subservience to Brussels is costing lives. It is time to come out of the EU before thousands more pensioners are killed by its decrees.
On hearing the news, the logical reaction is to ask why the coal-fired power stations cannot be kept going for longer. BBC news, which featured the story ad infinitum on Radio 4 yesterday, never posed that question. The reason is that once again, the EU, in the shape of the Large Combustible Plant Directive, is once again the unmentionable elephant in the room. This dierctive restricts the level of emissions combustion plants (such as coal-fired power stations) built after 1987 may legally produce. Plants built before this date are not legally obligated to restrict their emission levels, but are restricted to 20,000 'running hours' between 2007 and 2015, by which time all LCPD plants must close.
Why don't the government (or the Beeb) let us know who the real culprit is? or better still, why don't they tell the EU where to go? It is much more important to keep warm and to keep industry runing than to obey the diktats of the EU. Thanks to rising energy prices, hypothermia deaths have doubled in Britain over the last five years, with hard-pressed pensioners being the main victims. 1,876 vicitms were recorded in 2010/11. Our subservience to Brussels is costing lives. It is time to come out of the EU before thousands more pensioners are killed by its decrees.