Posted by jossc — 23 April 2009 at 2:55pm
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Comments
It's certainly far from everything we've been asking for, but when Ed Miliband announced his new consultation on coal policy in the House of Commons this lunchtime it was clear that something had changed. For starters, E.ON isn’t going to get its
way over Kingsnorth, at least not with its current
plan.
Showing admirable signs of climate leadership in the face of resistance from Whitehall officials and his cabinet colleagues, the Energy and Climate Change secretary told MPs that no new coal-fired power stations would be built in Britain unless equipped with at least some carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. In a key departure from previous policy, he said that from now on power companies planning to build new coal plants will be required to fit full CCS by 2025 at the latest, provided that the Environment Agency is convinced that the technology works.
Following today's announcement by Ed Miliband of new regulations for coal plants and the launch of a consultation on coal policy, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said:
"At last Ed Miliband is demonstrating welcome signs of climate leadership in the face of resistance from Whitehall officials and cabinet colleagues. He is the first minister in twelve years to throw down the gauntlet to the energy companies and demand they start taking climate change seriously."
