Cllr Diogo Rodrigues,Labour’s candidate for the Bridgwater East and Bawdrip ward in the forthcoming Somerset County Council elections, introduced Alan Whitehead MP, Shadow minister for Energy and Climate Change, to Labour members this Saturday at their Unity House base in Bridgwater. The Southampton MP used the opportunity to address an audience in an area soon to have a third nuclear power station to outline Labour’s emergy policy.
Alan Whitehead MP said: “Labour’s policy for the future direction of our energy system can be summed up by the three Ds – decarbonisation, decentralisation and democratisation”.
Decarbonisation
Alan went on to Explain these D by D. “Well firstly, we clearly need to maintain a steady route of our energy systems towards a process of decarbonisation. We are committed to making sure that the UK meets its climate change targets set both by the recent Paris accords, and by our own Climate Change Act. And we know that energy use – by which we mean of course all energy: heat, electricity and transport – accounts for something like 70% of our greenhouse gas emissions.”
Decentralisation
“So to the second D: Decentralisation. The development of a more decentralised energy system becomes possible with the developments we are discussing today – a flexible, smart system, which enables energy properly to be produced in smaller units and fed into the system. We see this in terms of self-sustaining local arrangements, which involve mini grids and are off the system except for necessary back-up arrangements. It also allows areas of the country – cities in particular – to vertically integrate and run their own local energy retail arrangements for customers. We are already beginning to see this latter development with the emergence of municipal retail companies such as Robin Hood Energy.”
Democratisation
“So to the third D: democratisation – that is, to move towards a system where the consumer ceases being a passive recipient of an energy supply but instead becomes either an active professional consumer with control substantially of their own energy requirements, or has, through participation in local energy schemes, become a stakeholder in their energy environment. That means of course being a part of a local generating, supply and retail environment at municipal level, or taking a greater part in that local process through active involvement in any of those processes.”
Concerns for Community Benefit
Cllr Mick Lerry, the Leader of the Labour Group on Sedgemoor District Council, said that he was concerned regarding the agreement for financial community benefit as DECC had disappeared into the new department.
Alan responded by saying: “If Mick could provide evidence of where Sedgemoor District Council were regarding the agreement, as he had assisted the Council previously, he would take up the issue in Parliament”.
Alan also wished both Diogo Rodrigues and Chelsea Chadwick all the best for the may elections.
The people of Bridgwater should have had cheaper electricity as part of the deal of yet another Nuclear Power station on their doorstep. The infrastructure of the town has not been considered in this whole rolling stone of a project rather the momentum of the project overtook common sense . Yes there are jobs but that’s not enough.