EU plan could lead to power blackouts

Energy providers have begun a fierce lobbying campaign against new plans by the European Commission to clamp down on industrial pollution, saying they could cause the premature closure of a quarter of Britain’s electricity generation capacity and leave the country struggling to keep its lights on.

David Porter, the head of the Association of Electricity Producers (AEP), has written to the Business Secretary, John Hutton, to argue against the imposition of the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), which tightens existing limits on emissions of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen.

Mr Porter claimed the directive threatened the future of coal-fired power stations and could create an unbridgeable “generation gap” in the UK, which is already struggling to bring new generation on line to replace plants slated for decommissioning.

Independent