UK 'may struggle to keep lights on'
Green energy policies must be changed or Britain will struggle to "keep the lights on", according to the former environment secretary.
Increasing the reliance on renewable energy sources such as windfarms while cutting carbon emissions is a "flawed" plan, Owen Paterson will say in a speech next week.
According to The Sunday Telegraph, the Conservative MP will also call for the 2007 Climate Change Act that requires Britain to reduce fossil fuels use to be suspended until other countries sign up to similar restrictions.
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Need more nuclear power
Mr Paterson, who was sacked in the summer reshuffle, wants a series of small nuclear power stations created to meet domestic power demands.
"Blind adhesion to the 2050 targets will not reduce emissions and will fail to keep the lights on," he will say. "The current energy policy is a slave to flawed climate action.
"It will cost £1,100 billion, fail to meet the very emissions targets it is designed to meet, and will not provide the UK's energy requirements.
"In the short and medium term, costs to consumers will rise dramatically, but there can only be one ultimate consequence of this policy: the lights will go out at some time in the future.
"Not because of a temporary shortfall, but because of structural failures, from which we will find it extremely difficult and expensive to recover."
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Climate change denial
Caroline Flint, shadow energy and climate change secretary, said: "Owen Paterson's latest outburst points to the growing climate change denial in the Tory party. The fact that David Cameron appointed him as Environment Secretary for two years makes a total mockery of the Prime Minister's promise to lead the greenest government ever.
"Labour is proud of Britain's leadership on tackling climate change. Climate change is a threat to our national security and to scrap the Climate Change Act now would damage Britain's influence abroad and put a halt to much-needed investment in clean energy here in Britain."
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