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Energy Bill

I considered putting my name to the amendment, and would have done if I had got round to it. It has been admirably moved. Co-firing has major benefits to be discussed in the Committee. Drax is a coal-fired power station. From the briefing that we get, you would automatically think that we are going to remove all coal-fired power stations and that that will be the end of the problem. There has been a recent case of green groups stopping shipments of coal to Drax power station. The problem with coal is that it is the highest carbon dioxide generator of any form of generation that we have in the country. However, we still generate a great deal of baseload from coal, so removing coal from the mix is unrealistic at present, although there are major problems with coal-fired generation. Many people have almost stopped talking about coal-fired generation, almost believing that it will be shutting down and disappearing from the mix. Indeed, a large number of coal-fired generators will quite soon not be on the grid because they will not meet the strict environmental controls set down by the Government—and rightly so. However, co-firing needs to be looked at extremely carefully, because it is unlikely that Drax will be leaving the energy mix soon. An enormous amount of money has been spent on Drax to make it more efficient and environmentally friendly. Co-firing can change the nature of the use of coal. We have discussed pre-combustion and post-combustion technology. It has been estimated that the use of biomass in the co-firing process at Drax alone will save 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. I find it difficult to think of many other areas that would save that amount of carbon dioxide. Under the figures given by the Energy Saving Trust, that is the equivalent of changing a vast number of boilers or of insulating almost every house in the country to a high level. Therefore, I very much hope that the Government will look again and give their reasoning on the amendment. We support it and I hope that the Government can explain their thinking about how co-firing is to be considered in future.