Our energy policy is still gravely incoherent

We were promised an energy policy that would underpin long-term security of supply for Britain, but it is hard to discern it amid the bewildering cascade of announcements that came pouring out of Whitehall yesterday.

Grant Shapps, the Energy Secretary, fell between two stools – desperate to show that the Government remained committed to its statutory net zero target by 2050, but equally anxious not to scare voters with a list of expensive impositions on householders and vehicle owners.

Nonetheless, he reasserted plans to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, even though hardly anyone believes this is feasible, and despite the EU agreeing to exempt vehicles powered by so-called “e-fuels”.

Mr Shapps said this showed Britain was “more forward-leaning on this stuff than the EU”. But the 2030 date, reduced by five years by Boris Johnson, is arbitrary and unrealistic given the dearth of infrastructure.

Merely wishing something will happen hardly amounts to a coherent approach. There was a great deal in the strategy designated “world-beating”, almost as a rhetorical device rather than backed up with any evidence.

The changes include overhauling planning rules to speed up the building of new wind turbines and solar panels, backing projects to capture carbon underground and produce clean hydrogen, and encouraging households to replace natural gas boilers with electric-powered heat pumps.

Mr Shapps said he wanted to “power Britain from Britain”, but since we will need oil and gas for decades to come as the transition to zero carbon is fulfilled, there was little to show how domestic production would be boosted. A new competition will be staged to select the best Small Modular Reactor technologies, with the aim of 25 per cent of electricity coming from nuclear, yet there is no obvious strategy for achieving this.

Artificial caps, backed by fines – the so-called zero emissions mandate – will be set on the percentage of non-electric new cars that can be sold from next year and boiler companies will be penalised for not selling enough heat pumps.

Mr Shapps said the aim is to make the country both more resilient and greener, but in the medium term these may be mutually exclusive aspirations. There is a worrying lack of reality at the heart of this policy that could lead to serious electricity supply issues in future.