THANK you, Western Telegraph, for reporting (September 11) on the bid submitted by Pembrokeshire County Council et al for funding to design an ‘Energy Kingdom’ for the Haven waterway which would combine renewable generation and hydrogen storage.
We wish the partnership success!
What with projects such as the Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum’s Marine Energy Test Area, the port is heading in a good direction in both environmental and business terms.
Unfortunately, Whitehall threatens us with an electricity future which is neither green nor affordable and which would see tens of billions spent with overseas state enterprises…
Your readers may not know about a highly contentious nuclear power consultation, launched in the holidays and so far buried by Brexit.
The consultation proposes imposing a nuclear levy on all UK electricity bills, to fund up-front the construction of new nuclear stations.
Why is this levy proposed? Because the foreign firms which would construct and operate these reactors cannot find financial backers.
Should we be forced to pay for these money-eating devices, their owners would then happily profit from selling us the power generated. And these so-called ‘entrepreneurs’ would have profits guaranteed, because the levy wouldn't just raise capital for new reactors – we understand it could be upped to underwrite cost overruns. So much for risk-taking: with all burdens of uncertainty falling on the power consumer, 100 per cent feather-bedded capitalism.
Any organisation or individual may respond to this consultation; we urge the people of our three counties to emphatically reject this nuclear levy.
Nuclear stations are the cuckoos of power generation: consuming massive amounts of capital which could otherwise be invested in more benign and more efficient technologies, their operating inflexibility is the last thing one wants when a responsive grid is necessary for a green future.
Yes, investment is needed; but surely instead of nuclear power which is toxic in so many respects, West Wales would collectively prefer to be funding Welsh renewables projects?
The slogan ‘Nuclear Power – No Thanks!’, was coined in 1975; 44 years later, that very same message needs to be heard loud and clear, shouted from one end of the A40 to the other.
CHARLES MASON,
The Environmental Network Pembrokeshire,
ELEANOR CLEGG,
Friends of The Earth Pembrokeshire
CHRISTOPHER JESSOP,
Independent Energy Consultant,
Marloes
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