Energy strategy must find a balance to keep lights on across UK

WE will hear more today on how the Government plans to keep the lights on and the heating working without relying on imported energy from states run by dictators – and at a price we can all afford.

But in some clear management of our expectations yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that, whatever he and his ministers come up with, we should not expect much in the way of reduced bills.

“We will do everything we can to help people with the energy price spikes,” Mr Johnson said. But he pointed out they are “a global thing,” exacerbated by what Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine.

He went on: “As we did during Covid, we will make sure we look after people to the best of our ability.” But the sting was in the tail. “We’ve got to be frank with people,” the PM concluded. “There’s a limit to the amount of taxpayers’ money we can simply push towards trying to deal with global energy price spikes.”

We have been told, clearly, that there is no magic wand to help ease our eye-watering energy bills in the short term. But an energy strategy should, in any case, be looking further ahead and so we have every right to hope and expect a carefully thought-through plan that will give us security, sustainability and fair pricing when it comes to energy in the years ahead.

Already the special interest groups are lining up to make their feelings known. On pages 16 and 17 of today’s Western Morning News, the Devon director of the Campaign to Protect Rural England gives a big shout out to more nuclear power and the continued use of fossil fuels – with carbon capture – in order to spare farmland taking more solar panels and wind turbines.

Elsewhere, arguments will be made in completely the opposite direction, against nuclear – which some say is poor value for money and still has risks – and definitely against more home-produced fossil fuels because of the climate change dangers.

The Government must steer a careful course between these vested interests, avoiding upsetting Conservative voters in rural areas who are, for the most part, wary of solar and onshore wind, but accepting the need to keep the lights on at all costs.

It is surprising how views about supposedly “unacceptable” ways of generating energy, whether green or not-so-green, can radically change when there is a risk that the lights will dim, the heating cools and the fridge, TV and washing machine all conk out for lack of power.

It is hard to see how the strategy can fail to include a pledge to step up the building of nuclear power stations or how it can reject calls for more so-called green initiatives, whatever countryside campaigners say. Whether or not it also includes turning back towards the exploitation of more fossil fuels and perhaps giving the go-ahead to fracking for shale gas and exploring new oil fields, remains to be seen.

What is not in doubt is that Britain must put itself in a position to produce more of its own energy as quickly as possible to reduce our reliance on imports from highly dubious regimes.