Richard Lochhead: ...because our economy relies heavily on the industries and activities around our coast. Traditionally, we have obtained food from our seas. Our fishermen make their living from the seas, as do the onshore fishing sectors—fish processors, harbour services and so on. In recent decades, we have used our seas for trade, transportation, recreation and extracting oil and gas to meet our energy...
Charles Hendry: ...costly, and has failed to bring on new technologies. In its present form—and the Government say that there will be no changes before 2009-10—it provides a significant incentive for methane and onshore wind farms, but it does so at the expense of other renewables technologies. Indeed, the most recent change undermined the use of biomass in co-firing in coal power stations. The...
Murdo Fraser: ...needs to be aware that there is real frustration in the communities in the Ochils and Perthshire that are involved in public inquiries because they oppose planning applications for large onshore wind farms. They face a hugely unequal struggle. They have to find, sometimes, tens of thousands of pounds from their own pockets to employ legal representation and expert witnesses so that they...
Geoffrey Cox: ...them to land the ray whole. That will lead to all kinds of changes to the manner in which they process the ray: they will no longer be able to do what I have described on board so they will have to find space and facilities to do it onshore. It will also add to the economic cost of processing ray. Indeed, I am told that it is likely to add 25 per cent. to the cost, which is enough to turn...
Nick Brown: ...view is now regarded in the Labour party as a rebel left-wing view. All the key features of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent—the platform, the delivery system, the warheads and even the onshore-based support—depend in part on our relationship with the United States. The Trident II D5 missiles are leased from the US missile pool. They are manufactured, tested and serviced in the...
Lord Tombs: ...technical problems involved. Some supporters of this particular nostrum see its adoption as rendering the electricity grid obsolete. However, they seem to be able to simultaneously support large onshore and offshore wind farms which will require the grid to transport their output, wherever it may be available, to distant urban areas. This incoherence does not appear to worry them. The...
Malcolm Wicks: ...the Government make a judgment, I am sure that they will consider the hon. Gentleman's ideas. In January, the DTI appointed PB Power to carry out the consultation work. Once it has reported on its findings, the Government will have a fuller understanding of the costs and be able to make a decision about whether to support a UK demonstration project. I shall also update Members on some of...
Stephen Ladyman: ...of the sea. The weather was extremely bad, with reports of a 5 m swell and a forecast of severe gales. There was no safe option to enter any south coast port. A decision was therefore taken to find an anchorage with good shelter from the south-west winds. The most suitable option was Portland, because it would have provided the best shelter combined with good access to port facilities and...
Don Foster: ...between internet gambling and problem gambling, he told me that he had commissioned no such research. It is equally worrying that the Government's efforts to bring online gambling companies onshore and under our proposed regulatory regime, which we spent so much time in Committee discussing, have so far completely failed. Frankly, the Chancellor's recent Budget means there is now no chance...
Simon Hamilton: ...sentence on an important area of responsibility in her Department. That snub follows in the finest traditions of the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lord Rooker, who could not find a free date in his diary to go to Brussels to assist in the negotiations to set the fishing quotas for 2005. The fishing industry is a much smaller sector than farming. However, as Mr Ford...
Jim Mather: ...be obliged to consider the application but—given our policy position, our generating capacity, our multiplicity of energy resources and our strong alternative strategies—it would be unlikely to find favour with this Administration. In any case, we are confident that no operator could justify such an application to its shareholders or customers. The UK white paper recognises that other...
James Gray: ...in years to come. If we are to be able to deploy people in the way that we have asked them, and if we are to rely so heavily on the TA—as we have for the past four or five years—it is vital to find a way to ensure that their pay and conditions and their terms of employment are as good during deployment as when they are at home. There are other aspects of the Territorial Army's life...
Malcolm Wicks: Yes, and work is under way on that. Geothermal energy is an important technology. It is one of an array of renewable technologies that we need to consider. We need to find ways of incentivising some of the newer technologies more than, say, onshore wind farms, and we are looking closely at how that can be done. It is important that those involved with zero-carbon housing and other buildings...
Nanette Milne: ...there. In August 2006, there were 1,092 fewer Scotland-based vessels than there were in 1999. During that time, nearly 3,000 fishermen lost their jobs. Because, in the white-fish industry, five onshore jobs depend on every one at sea, many people in north-east fishing communities such as Fraserburgh and Peterhead are experiencing real hardship as a result of the harsh treatment that has...
Martin Horwood: ...worrying and the need for action more urgent. Fossil fuels meet 90 per cent. of UK energy needs, so we must tackle the contribution that such fuels make to our carbon emissions. It is tempting to find the solution to energy supply problems in certain fossil fuels, given that oil and gas supplies will be exhausted at some point, while there is an abundance of coal worldwide and a relative...
Malcolm Wicks: ...have published two independent studies on noise from wind turbines in 2006 and in 2007, both available on the BERR website at http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/explained/w ind/onshore/page31267.html and http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file40570.pdf. Based on the findings of these studies, the Government will not carry out any further research into noise from wind turbines at...
Lord Patten: ...have disagreed with him greatly on his political views. These islands used to be blessed with the best power source of the Industrial Revolution—King Coal. Now, the slowly exploited potential of onshore and, increasingly, offshore wind can be joined by what might be thought of as King Tide, at least in the Severn if the barrage is realised. Despite the obvious problems outlined by a...
Alan Duncan: ...massive energy shortfall. It is our duty to set political scrapping aside so that we can make sure that we do what is right for the country. So let me make it absolutely clear that, where we can find agreement with the Government, we are up for it and we will reach that agreement. Our vision on nuclear is clear: we must refine the planning system, set a price for carbon to establish a...
Lord Redesdale: ...Conservative Party has not been quite as firm in its support of nuclear policy as has been suggested. Indeed, in some cases, it has almost joined the Liberal Democrats in their scepticism. But I find, yet again, that I am on my own on these Benches regarding scepticism about nuclear power. This attitude is based not on some luddite view of nuclear power but on very real concerns. When it...
Bob Spink: ...to ensure that they, too, were looked after. To answer my hon. Friend's question, when the first explosion took place at Buncefield, the damage occurred several kilometres away...he will find that because there was nothing structurally to prevent the explosion spreading outwards, or the subsequent suction inwards after the oxygen had been used up, properties...several kilometres away, were...