There's good reasons for this - when assessed against the conditions imposed upon electricity generators by the government.
Probably the largest though is security of supply. Yes - I don't want global warming, and yes - if it happens - it will be hugely expensive.
Can you imagine how expensive it will be if we don't have electricity?
The national grid yesterday warned of regular rolling blackouts. This is no myth - everyone is talking about the energy gap.
Just a quick graphic to show how large the problem is (taken from the RWE factbook (it's easy to find on the web).
The blue shows how much electricity is being generated (read it with the vertical axis on the left) whilst the grey line shows how much is spare (used when plants are offline being serviced, or when peak demand rises above long term projections). That can be read with the vertical axis on the right.
As you can see we'll run out of electricity just in time for the opening ceremony of the 2012 olympic games.
Ofcourse this is with no new build - and remember that renewables can be expected to fill some of this gap - but I believe the timescales involved (when compared against the timescales for windpower grid connections) mean that coal and nuclear (on existing sites with current grid connections) must play a role - right Mr. Miliband?
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