Queen's Speech - BPF Looking for Clarity on Energy

In the Queens Speech on 9th May Her Majesty will outline the Government's legislative agenda for the coming year. This will include an Energy Bill which, it is believed will attempt to ensure the UK has an affordable, low carbon and secure generating mix.

With a quarter of the UK's electricity generating capacity being de-commissioned by the end of the decade Peter Davis Director-General of the BPF said "there is an urgent need to invest now in new power generation to prevent power cuts hitting industry from 2017".He said "our population is rising fast and we are all individually using more power. It is worrying to see two firms withdraw from building new nuclear power stations in Anglesey and near Bristol when 17 reactors will be retired by 2023."

"The Government appears to be going for another 'dash for Gas' (more gas fired power generation) but we already rely heavily on imports of gas and have inadequate gas storage, only 13 days supply compared to 122 days in France. Already high energy prices could rise more than a quarter over the next few years."

Mr Davis hopes to see clarity and more rapid progress feature strongly in the Energy Bill. He also hopes there will be incentives for a big expansion in UK Energy from Waste which, using unrecyclable household waste, could generate 11% of our energy needs, providing local heat and power and saving fossil fuels.

Tim Yeo MP, Chairman of the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee warned last week of an energy crisis "looming over Britain" unless urgent decisions and investments were made.

ENDS

For all media enquiries, BPF logos and images, please contact Philip Law, on 0207 457 5011 or email plaw@bpf.co.uk 

Notes for editors:

The British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the UK trade association for the plastics industry – representing the whole supply chain including polymer producers, distributors, additives suppliers, machinery manufacturers, processors and recyclers.