Companies wishing to prospect for shale gas in the UK have been granted ten-year tax breaks and will get special planning permission from the Government if they go for large scale projects. To avoid delays, the Government also used its budget to announce plans to tempt local communities with cash to accept these developments.
This controversial push to exploit shale gas for electricity production comes as the Government’s already contentious plans to subsidise new nuclear stations ran into legal trouble in Brussels.
With many EU countries opposed to nuclear power, including Germany, it is unlikely that a majority of the 27 member states would vote to set aside existing competition legislation to let the UK favour nuclear power over other forms of generation.
This setback for nuclear in the UK is a blow for the industry worldwide, since Britain has been seen as the flagship country for a new nuclear renaissance, the only large western economy to embrace a new generation of nuclear power stations.
With Britain’s coal-fired stations gradually being closed because of EU legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions, and plentiful supplies of wind power untapped because of planning delays, the UK Government’s energy strategy is in disarray and the future uncertain (see our story of 5 February, UK’s nuclear plans come unstruck).
By backing two forms of energy generation despised by environmental groups, the country’s coalition Government is fast losing any hope of earning the reputation it claimed it would gain of being “the greenest government ever”.
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