Business secretary John Hutton's plans to see a new coal-fired power station under construction this summer suffered a significant setback after E.ON, the company behind the proposed plant at Kingsnorth in Kent, asked him to delay the decision on whether the plant should be built.
Until now Hutton's Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Dberr) and E.ON had both been pushing for a decision to be made by 'end May 2008 at latest'. According to documents obtained by Greenpeace under the FoI Act, E.ON's plans were so advanced that contractors had already been secured to commence building work 'from summer 2008 on current tenders'.
But now it's apparently the power company itself which is calling for a delay. The reason appears to be because of confusion over where government coal policy currently stands; the company's statement calls for a delay on the Kingsnorth decision until after a Dberr consultation on carbon capture and storage technology is completed. Environment and development groups are calling for a comprehensive review of Britain's coal policy which gives proper weight to climate change considerations.
Coming only days after John Hutton's department was caught trying to have carbon capture and storage (CCS) coal plants designated as renewable energy sources, this is a big problem for Hutton. There are already reports of a split within the government over prospective coal policy. Now E.ON's inference that it has little confidence in Hutton's ability to push through a positive (for them) decision on Kingsnorth could fatally undermine the business minister's position.
Our Executive Director John Sauven was quick to point out that "E.ON's Kingsnorth climbdown is a major blow to John Hutton. With the most ardent coal generator now calling for a delay Hutton’s under-fire department is looking isolated. It's time for the Prime Minister to step in and take control by initiating a full government coal review. It looks like reports of disquiet around the cabinet table are making E.ON nervous. Ministers are increasingly concerned about the damage to Britain's climate change reputation if Kingsnorth is approved. The world's leading scientists say new coal stations shouldn't be built unless the carbon emissions can be captured and buried from day one."
Without CCS technology, which by Dberr's own estimates cannot be ready for at least seven years, the new Kingsnorth coal plant would emit as much CO2 each year as the 30 least climate polluting countries combined. And with seven other similar power stations in the pipeline, the consequences for the climate would be disastrous. Yet John Hutton is quite prepared to go ahead with the plan - even if that means going it alone.
