U.K. Will `Put the Brakes' on Imported Gas Supplies

By Kitty Donaldson

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Business Secretary John Hutton pledged to ``put the brakes'' on imported gas supplies by building new nuclear and coal-fired power stations.

New generating capacity is vital to secure future British energy needs, Hutton told the ruling Labour Party's annual conference in Manchester, England today.

``Our ambition must be more than weathering the economic storm unsettling the world,'' Hutton said. ``Above all, our ability to emerge stronger and fitter means dealing with one of the most important threats to our competitiveness, indeed our sovereignty as a nation, and that is the new international battle for energy security.''

Western Europe imports about a quarter of its gas from Russia, which threatened to cut off supplies to Belarus in December 2006 and temporarily cut off deliveries to Ukraine the previous January. Concern intensified in August when war broke out between Georgia and Russia, threatening a pipeline that delivers gas to Europe.

Britain is a net importer of gas, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair inaugurated a 1,200 kilometer (745 mile) pipeline to bring gas from Norway.

Nuclear power generates 19 percent of U.K. electricity, and most stations will reach the end of their lives over the next decade. The government says new plants will help secure energy needs and reduce carbon emissions blamed for global warming. Nuclear and coal plants are opposed by environment campaigners.

Building new coal-fired power stations ``would make no difference to the U.K.'s total carbon emissions'' but stopping the program would ``damage our energy security,'' Hutton said.

The Case for Coal

``Some people claim that consenting new coal-fired power stations would make our climate change targets unachievable,'' he said. ``But the inconvenient truth is that our carbon emissions are capped by EU agreements; additional emissions have to be offset by reductions elsewhere.''

Coal produces about 40 percent of Britain's electricity, and the government has yet to approve a new generation of plants. The last such station to be built was Drax Group Plc's Drax power station, completed in 1986.

Environmental campaigner Greenpeace said there would be no need for new nuclear plants if the government met its targets for improving energy efficiency and developing renewable sources such as wind power.

``John Hutton is massively overstating the role that nuclear can play in securing our energy supplies, because the bulk of our energy is used for fuelling our vehicles and heating our homes, where nuclear can't play a role,'' Greenpeace spokesman Nathan Argent said in a statement on the group's Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net