Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Christopher Pincher and Chris Huhne(12 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Chris Huhne)
We have made assessments of the impacts of short-term disruptions to shipping through the strait for both oil and gas. There is no reason to believe that such closure would create a physical shortage of oil or gas in the UK. Price impacts would depend on the exact nature of the disruption. The UK has access to a wide variety of oil and gas sources and routes, including production from the UK continental shelf, imports from Norway, storage, and oil and liquefied natural gas from global markets.
Christopher Pincher
Given that 20% of the world’s traded oil, and 35% of the seagoing trade, passes through the strait every day, presenting a significant terrorist risk, will my right hon. Friend encourage the diversification of supply, including overland pipelines, such as project Nabucco, the Abu Dhabi pipeline and the Iraq pipeline across Saudi Arabia, despite its being called IPSA?
Chris Huhne
My hon. Friend is right to highlight the overland capacity. Unfortunately, the IPSA pipeline, as he may know, is not currently functioning—I do not know whether that is anything to do with its namesake. Diversification is a crucial part of our strategy, and the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Charles Hendry), and I have been working hard on getting closer relationships with some of our key suppliers, including the Norwegians.
Annual Energy Statement
Debate between Christopher Pincher and Chris Huhne(12 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Chris Huhne
The hon. Gentleman should know that there will not be a change in tariff before April. The key point is that the old tariff is applicable to any scheme that is installed either before or after 12 December, but any scheme that is installed after 12 December will have a lower tariff from April. We will have plenty of opportunity to debate this later today and I am sure he will want to contribute to that debate.
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend encourage Ofgem to deal with the tariff anomaly whereby household energy bills fall when households use more energy? Surely, that places a burden on single and less well-off households and flies in the face of our desire to encourage greater energy efficiency in households.
Chris Huhne
There are many anomalies that Ofgem is looking at in this area. A key part of that will involve looking at any unfairness in the system and making sure particularly that we simplify tariffs. There are far too many tariffs and that is confusing for consumers. If we can get a dramatic simplification, that will make the market work much more effectively. Currently, only 15% of consumers switch, whereas with car insurance about half do so through online sites. We need to get up to that figure and we will then find that the market works much more effectively.
Weightman Report (Fukushima)
Debate between Christopher Pincher and Chris Huhne(12 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
Although it is interesting to listen to the hon. Member for Newport West (Paul Flynn) describe the tsunami as a “scandal”, will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State confirm three points? First—this bears repetition—we do not sit atop a seismic fault; secondly, we do not stack five nuclear reactors in a row; and thirdly, we use a different cooling mechanism. Those are three reasons why, although we should not be complacent about our nuclear energy strategy, we should be confident that we have one of the best records in the world.
Chris Huhne
Bearing in mind your injunction, Mr Speaker, I can confirm all those points.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Christopher Pincher and Chris Huhne
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
20. By what date he expects proposed legislation to enact the green deal to enter into force.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Chris Huhne)
The Energy Bill, which was introduced to the House of Lords on 8 December 2010, contains the primary legislation for the new green deal proposal. Secondary legislation will allow the Government to implement and administer the requirements of the primary legislation. We intend to lay the secondary legislation before Parliament in March 2012, so it will be in place to underpin the delivery of the green deal for October 2012. That timetable is naturally subject to the time taken for parliamentary scrutiny.
If I may clarify the answer I gave to the hon. Member for North West Leicestershire (Andrew Bridgen), I am informed that some DECC officials have indeed spoken to the Office of Fair Trading about the provision of credit for the green deal, and we have an ongoing engagement.
Christopher Pincher
When the green deal is rolled out, will my right hon. Friend ensure that the green deal MOT on domestic properties focuses not only on insulation, but on smart metering and energy-efficient boilers, so that customers in my constituency and around the country get the most energy-efficient and bill-cutting green deal?
Chris Huhne
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question, because very substantial incentives to install renewable heat solutions are available under the renewable heat incentive, alongside the green deal. The green deal itself will deal with insulation, but I confidently expect that many of the providers will offer heat solutions alongside that, which is very important.
Fourth Carbon Budget
Debate between Christopher Pincher and Chris Huhne
Chris Huhne
The key point of having a review is to make sure that in the tradeable sector, where we have industries exposed to international competition—and we want them to thrive—industries are not exposed to unique costs that will not be imposed on the competition in the EU. That is what the review is designed to achieve. Under the Act, any review will have to be preceded by a recommendation from the Climate Change Commission—and we have absolutely no plans to change that, so it will depend on recommendations from that commission.
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
I welcome my right hon. Friend’s ambitious announcement. I remind him that in evidence to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, Lord Turner said that our carbon targets might lead to an appreciable increase in domestic energy prices. I urge the Secretary of State to roll out the green deal with all speed to ensure that any domestic energy price increase is offset by the energy saving elements of that green deal.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Christopher Pincher and Chris Huhne(13 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
20. What recent progress he has made on facilitating new nuclear power stations without public subsidies.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Chris Huhne)
The Government are committed to removing any unnecessary obstacles to investment in new nuclear, and we have made good progress. We are consulting on the revised draft energy national policy statements, including the nuclear NPS; I made a decision recently, on regulatory justification in respect of the AP1000 and EPR reactors, which was subsequently approved by both Houses, with an enormous majority in this House; we laid the Nuclear Decommissioning and Waste Handling (Designated Technical Matters) Order 2010, which was subsequently approved by both Houses and published last week; there have been consultations on funded decommissioning programme guidance, and an updated waste transfer pricing methodology for the disposal of higher activity wastes; and regulators are on track to complete their assessment of the reactors going through the generic design assessment process.
Christopher Pincher
I am grateful for that answer. Given some of the comments from investors, can the Secretary of State confirm whether there is an appetite in the City to invest in new nuclear and whether we have the domestic skills to decommission our Magnox plants and build a new generation of new nuclear? Will he also confirm whether the planning regime is fit for purpose, so that we can ensure we meet our target of 16 GW of nuclear generating capacity?
Chris Huhne
From my contacts around the City, I believe that there certainly is an appetite to invest not just in new nuclear plant, but right across the range of low-carbon technologies. I hope that we will be able to describe that in greater detail in the statement later. On planning and other issues that could present obstacles, we are considering how to clear the way right across all the technologies we will need in a low-carbon future to ensure that that happens.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Christopher Pincher and Chris Huhne(13 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Chris Huhne
The hon. Lady knows that we have already made an announcement, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport has announced support for electric vehicles, which I hope her constituents and Nissan employees at Sunderland will welcome. That was a very unusual exception to the general rule that we have to wait for the outcome of the comprehensive spending review before we are able to announce such matters, so on that issue we have bent over backwards.
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
T7. We all know that these are difficult times and Departments need to make spending reductions, but what action is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that Departments, agencies and our many, many quangos continue to reduce their carbon emissions and use energy more efficiently?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Christopher Pincher and Chris Huhne
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
16. What steps he is taking to increase the security of the UK’s energy supply.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Chris Huhne)
I have to say, I thought we had had this question on security of energy supply before.
Chris Huhne
Excuse my reluctance to be repetitive, Mr Speaker.
We are determined to increase the UK’s security of supply, for precisely the reasons that I gave in answer to the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi) earlier. Our energy import dependence will increase dramatically over the next 10 years as oil and gas production from the North sea gradually diminishes. We have to work on our renewables and on energy saving to try to ensure that we are energy-secure. One element of that is not just physical security but resilience against price shock.
Christopher Pincher
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for reminding me of his answer, but I shall ask him another question. Does he have any plans to support the development of greater gas storage in Britain, both as a means of enhanced energy security and as a method of developing our gas wholesale market?
Chris Huhne
My hon. Friend will perhaps be reassured to know that yes, plans are under way to increase gas storage. That is likely to continue. There needs to be greater gas storage, and that will help to provide us with greater security of supply.