The smart money is on energy efficiency and renewables yet a government terrified of "backing winners" appears happy to back the nuclear, oil and gas losers
30 March 2012 - Follow the money: in the billion-dollar world of the energy business that is good advice. So what do the collapse of a quarter of the UK's new nuclear power plans and the gas still billowing dangerously from Total's Elgin rig in the North Sea tell us about keeping the lights on and tackling climate change at a price we can afford?
It tells us first that, despite decades of lavish public subsidy, nuclear power remains uninvestable without heavy state backing. And second it tells us that even "safe" gas and oil fields pose serious risks, making the race to the ends of the Earth and the depths of the oceans for new fields a true fool's errand.
E.on and RWE are huge, blue-chip multinationals, yet see nuclear as too big a gamble and that's despite the substantial subsidy it would enjoy in the UK, alongside other low-carbon energy projects. When the free-marketeers at the Economist damn nuclear power as the "dream that failed", you know you're in trouble. read more>>>
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