Energy Department Says Clean Coal Program May be Scaled Back

It now seems that the energy department thinks that plans for four new clean coal pilot plants are going to be vulnerable to government cuts. The Treasury is currently reviewing the government’s £9 billion clean coal program. This has brought up a lot of fears that this plan is going to be drastically scaled back.

Senior sources within the energy department believe that these plans for the four new coal pilot plants are the most vulnerable to cuts right now. The number of plants could be halved or staggered so that the third and fourth projects are not up and running for more than a decade.

Christ Huhne, who is the energy and climate change secretary, will be questioned by a committee of MPs on how his department’s overall program to cut carbon emissions will be hit by the Treasury’s imminent spending review. Despite the fact that clean coal plants or wind farms are subsidized by consumers, Treasury officials classify the support as government expenditures.

Tim Yeo, who is the former Conservation environment minister and chairman of the select committee for energy and climate change, said that Osborne should not scale back subsidies for green energy. He said that it is in his view that subsidies, which are paid for from consumer prices, should not be the concern of the Treasury.

This £9 billion clean coal program is aimed at introducing carbon capture technology. This will allow dirty coal plants to store their emissions underground. The feed in tariff that was introduced in April to subsidize small scale wind and solar devices is also under threat due to cuts.