Clause 4 - Amendments of the Utilities Act 2000
Sustainable Energy Bill
11:15 am
Mr Andrew Robathan (Blaby, Conservative)
I am willing to take this at face value—I do not think that there is a Government plot, as I do with most of the clauses. However, can the Minister explain whether new clause 2 will address the major mistake that Ofgem made in the implementation of NETA?
The whole idea of NETA should have included an environmental impact assessment; it should have included the impact that NETA would have on driving down electricity prices. It has been successful in achieving that for good or ill. I do not think that the consequences of driving down electricity prices have been as good as we might wish, and we have already heard that electricity prices are bound to rise—I appreciate the reasons for that, although we are keen on efficiency and the generation of production.
There should also have been an assessment of the impact that NETA would have on CHP and renewables. It actually made renewables entirely unproductive: as the Minister knows, people were closing down wind farms because the generation of electricity was not worth it. Will the new clause
specifically address the issue that Ofgem should take into account the environmental impact of its policies? The old clause was designed to do so.