London, 1 September 2010

M&C Energy Group, one of the UK’s largest purchasers of energy, has called on Chris Huhne to ‘listen to his party’ and get behind nuclear energy. The call comes on the back of a recent Liberal Democrat Voice poll which revealed 68% of Lib Dem members back nuclear as part of the UK’s energy mix.

M&C’s energy analyst, David Hunter, commented: “Chris Huhne’s historic opposition to nuclear is well-documented, however it seems that grass roots Lib Dem members are falling in line with wider public support for nuclear.”

In the poll, more than a quarter of respondents even went so far as giving the green light to public subsidy to kick-start the much-needed nuclear new build.

M&C, which has been calling for ‘immediate action’ to secure the UK’s energy future, believes that Mr Huhne must now put aside his own personal objection to nuclear and take necessary action.

Mr Hunter added: “The challenge is gargantuan and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change must now take the lead to stimulate nuclear new build.  OFGEM, the industry regulator, estimates that £200 billion of investment needs to be found in the next decade to secure Britain’s energy future.  If getting the ’green light’ by members gives Mr Huhne permission to press ahead then he needs to do so and fast or the UK will fall further behind in the race to light and heat Britain.”

Mr Hunter also expressed concern at what he refers to as the marginalisation of Scotland, which is still committed to eliminating nuclear power north of the border.

Mr Hunter concluded:  ”In an ideal world, we would switch to 100% renewable energy sources, unfortunately this is not practical.  If Mr Huhne can accept that then the Scottish Government should also ‘sanity check’ their energy policy to ensure Scotland isn’t left literally in the dark.”

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