Tory energy plans a recipe for disaster - Hughes (Southwark Liberal Democrats)

Southwark Liberal Democrats <info@southwark-libdems.org.uk>

Tory energy plans a recipe for disaster - Hughes

March 19, 2010 2:17 PM
Originally published by Simon Hughes MP

Commenting on the Conservative's Energy Security Green Paper, Liberal Democrat Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Simon Hughes said:

"Blindly pledging to build a new nuclear plant every 18 months is a recipe for disaster.

"Nuclear power has always required huge amounts of public money and David Cameron's signal that the Tories are ready to turn on the taps of taxpayer support risks billions that we simply can't afford.

"Nuclear energy is not clean energy. A new generation of nuclear power stations would leave us with a legacy of deadly radioactive waste that will take hundreds of years and billions of pounds to clean up.

"As David Cameron himself said only four years ago, not having a plan to deal with this toxic legacy is completely irresponsible.

"Today's announcement has shown us yet again that for all of Cameron's posturing, the Tories can't be trusted to deliver on the environment."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. Today's announcement represents the culmination of a massive U-turn by David Cameron. In July 2006, the Tory leader said that nuclear power should be a "last resort," while accusing the Government of being "irresponsible" in its enthusiasm for a new generation of nuclear plants: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/06/nuclearpower.conservation

2. In a speech in December last year, Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith said that no new nuclear power stations would be built under a Tory government: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/01/zac-goldsmith-environment-david-cameron

3. A survey of 141 Tory candidates for ConservativeHome found that reducing Britain's carbon footprint was bottom of their list of priorities. http://conservativehome.blogs.com/goldlist/2010/01/cutting-the-deficit-is-the-top-priority-of-tory-candidates-reducing-britains-carbon-footprint-is-the.html