As the energy debate remains a pivotal concern for Australian voters, the imperative for both major parties to present viable and legitimate policy solutions has never been more critical.
Britain Remade suggests we now rank 15th out of 16 countries by construction cost per megawatt-hour of generating capacity. The causes are depressingly familiar.
All of our existing nuclear plants are scheduled to close by 2036 in the UK, so this government and the next must demonstrate urgency on this.
The national humiliation, The out-of-control budgets. The broken political promises. What most drives one to despair is the opportunity cost.
We face a situation where getting each project over the line is iteratively harder and no sooner is a project approved by the Secretary of State but a series of judicial reviews land from community groups.
The Government needs to be investing both in the next generation of nuclear power stations and developing the storage technologies needed to make renewables reliable.
When our political class feels that it cannot act, it cobbles together ad-hoc explanations for why its apathy is actually cunning strategy, hard-headed pragmatism, or just somehow grown-up.
A fairer deal for those who have to tolerate new power lines and pylons is the best way to reach Net Zero and secure Britain’s energy supply.
Johnson’s defenestration and the war in Ukraine have fatally undermined the push for decarbonsation. But increasing our domestic energy supply will prove just as difficult.
We might get the most optimal outcomes from the Independent Net Zero Review by extracting the best of it and focusing our efforts. Let’s prioritise those priorities.
Short-sighted overregulation and creative accounting to offshore our CO2 emissions are no way to build a prosperous, sustainable future.
And her government has decided that the best time to do all this is in the middle of the most serious energy crisis in decades.
Small Modular Reactions could also generate tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions of pounds worth of exports.
The second part of a mini-series on ConservativeHome this week about how the Government can help Britain’s economy to grow faster.
Developing our remaining reserves creates employment opportunities and generates much-needed tax revenues as we transition to alternatives.