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Department: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Alan Whitehead

Main Page: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)

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Speaker’s Statement
Tuesday 8th November 2016

(7 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Nick Hurd Portrait Mr Hurd
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I know my hon. Friend to be a great champion of his area and of innovation there. Cornwall has interesting assets in relation to geothermal. I have written to him, but I can place on record here that the answer is yes.

Alan Whitehead Portrait Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)
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On clean energy, we are close to the first anniversary of the announcement by the Secretary of State’s predecessor that all unabated coal generation would close by 2025 and that a consultation on that closure would be launched in spring 2016. As we can see, it is not spring any more, and no consultation appears to be in sight. Is that because the Department is reconsidering his predecessor’s commitment, or because the Department has not got around to writing the consultation yet?

Nick Hurd Portrait Mr Hurd
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The hon. Gentleman will not have to wait much longer for the answer to that question. The Government are committed to the transition from coal to clean energy. In fact, he will know that this year is the first in which we will generate more electricity from renewable energy than we do from coal.

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