Attacks on Brown's UK Nuke Plans Increase

Is resistance futile?  We'll soon see.

Scientists Take on Brown Over Nuclear Plans - Guardian (UK) - 04 Jan 08

"Today the nuclear consultation group, made up of 17 energy economists and several of the government's independent advisers on nuclear waste, condemned the methods used in the second attempt to gather public and expert opinion.

'We are profoundly concerned that the government's approach was designed to provide particular and limiting answers,' said Paul Dorfman, a spokesman for the independent group, which includes professors of Oxford, Sussex, and Lancaster universities, and Rutgers in the US. 'Those answers risk locking in UK energy to an inflexible and vulnerable pathway that will prove unsustainable,' he added.

In an 87-page report, the group says: 'Significant issues were not consulted on in any meaningful way or resolved in practice. It has left the government vulnerable to legal challenge and may lead to hostility and mistrust of any future energy decision,' the paper warns."

Yes Minister, Nuclear's Best - Guardian (UK) - 03 Jan 08

"Global investment in renewables firms accelerated still faster in 2007. Meanwhile growing numbers of experts warned that oil and gas were running out faster than expected. But in the UK, it was business as usual. In August the Guardian revealed that ministers were being briefed by officials to the effect that the UK couldn't come close to a 20% target. In a development worthy of Yes Minister, options for avoiding the 20% commitment included counting nuclear energy as renewable.

Gordon Brown is insisting that the 20% target stays. But how will he deliver it, when his government has some of the least effective programmes for renewable energy in the industrialised world? How can he deliver surrounded by civil servants intent on seeing a re-nuclearised Britain - almost at any cost?"

Attacks on Brown's UK Nuke Plans Increase

Is resistance futile?  We'll soon see.

Scientists Take on Brown Over Nuclear Plans - Guardian (UK) - 04 Jan 08

"Today the nuclear consultation group, made up of 17 energy economists and several of the government's independent advisers on nuclear waste, condemned the methods used in the second attempt to gather public and expert opinion.

'We are profoundly concerned that the government's approach was designed to provide particular and limiting answers,' said Paul Dorfman, a spokesman for the independent group, which includes professors of Oxford, Sussex, and Lancaster universities, and Rutgers in the US. 'Those answers risk locking in UK energy to an inflexible and vulnerable pathway that will prove unsustainable,' he added.

In an 87-page report, the group says: 'Significant issues were not consulted on in any meaningful way or resolved in practice. It has left the government vulnerable to legal challenge and may lead to hostility and mistrust of any future energy decision,' the paper warns."

Yes Minister, Nuclear's Best - Guardian (UK) - 03 Jan 08

"Global investment in renewables firms accelerated still faster in 2007. Meanwhile growing numbers of experts warned that oil and gas were running out faster than expected. But in the UK, it was business as usual. In August the Guardian revealed that ministers were being briefed by officials to the effect that the UK couldn't come close to a 20% target. In a development worthy of Yes Minister, options for avoiding the 20% commitment included counting nuclear energy as renewable.

Gordon Brown is insisting that the 20% target stays. But how will he deliver it, when his government has some of the least effective programmes for renewable energy in the industrialised world? How can he deliver surrounded by civil servants intent on seeing a re-nuclearised Britain - almost at any cost?"