Power and politics

A caustic new report, which highlights a lack of purpose in the work of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, underlines Labour's failure to get to grips with the minutae of renewable energy production. No doubt Ed Miliband, the Doncaster North MP and cabinet Minister in charge at the time, had the right intentions but the results have, so far, been disappointing. This is despite planning for heavy investment in green power in Yorkshire, such as at the huge carbon capture and storage clean coal power plant at Hatfield, near Doncaster.

Britain may well have failed to make progress quickly enough, according to the influential Public Accounts Committee, but that does not mean it would be well-served by acting with undue haste now. The country should not be driven by an EU target, which calls for members to supply 15 per cent of all energy sources from renewables, and the private sector should be left to continue its climb out of recession rather than face more regulatory pressure from Brussels.

In the long-run, however, businesses and Government will have to make major changes to the way Britain generates and uses power. This should not be feared but embraced because harnessing the power of the natural environment should help secure a sustainable energy supply and make companies here more competitive on the global stage. Although public cost-savings will sweep away Yorkshire Forward, which was behind so many green energy initiatives in this region, both coalition parties have previously shown a genuine desire to transform Britain's energy mix. Now they must put it into practice.