Energy Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)

Katherine Fletcher Excerpts

Committee stage
Tuesday 6th June 2023 Public Bill Committees

What we are doing on this Committee today, and what we are doing over the next few sittings—I am proud to be on this Committee, because this is a revolutionary Bill—has a lot of cross-party support, as Opposition Members have said, because we all recognise that this is such an important topic that will affect this country’s energy production, net zero targets, and how we move forward for decades. We should therefore be able, when the House is roughly speaking as one, to take the public with us, but every now and then little parts of the Bill can become exceptionally explosive—excuse the pun—in relation to bringing people with us.

[Katherine Fletcher (South Ribble) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend is making a powerful case around what many of us hear on the doorstep. Does he agree that being able to define exactly what any levy would be for is a really important part of explaining something when people are fearful of their energy bills? Some have concerns about the hydrogen levy: “What hydrogen is it? Is it green hydrogen produced by wind? Is it blue hydrogen produced from carbon fossil-fuel sources with associated carbon capture and storage?” Blue hydrogen still contains some contaminants. Does he believe that “hydrogen” has been defined enough to allow us to explain things to the general public?

[Alec Shelbrooke]

My hon. Friend touches on an important point, drawing on comments made by the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Southampton, Test. We are being asked to add a levy before we know how it will be used or what type of hydrogen it will generate. I do not think that people like signing open cheques without the way forward being defined.

I want to develop the argument for why hydrogen is an important step and to look at its applications in the automotive industry. The reason I say that is purely—