“The case against nuclear power”. Greenpeace. January 8, 2008 – ‘We can have nuclear AND renewables.’ In reality going nuclear would squeeze out renewables. Indeed, then Secretary of State for Business Patricia Hewitt said in Commons debate on 2003 Energy White Paper: ‘It would have been foolish to announce …. that we would embark on a new generation of nuclear power stations because that would have guaranteed that we would not make the necessary investment and effort in both energy efficiency and in renewables.’ Since then nothing has changed. Another insider, Jeremy Leggett, says: ‘The DTI set up a renewables advisory board to advise ministers how to execute the white paper plan in November 2002. By September 2003 the board’s industry members, of which I was one, were already troubled by slow progress and issued a statement of concern. One warned me DTI officials would deliberately go slowly, to keep their hopes for nuclear alive; renewables would be teed up to fail. I didn’t believe it at the time, but recently I have heard two of Tony Blair’s senior colleagues confirm that the DTI has long suppressed renewables to make space for nuclear.’vi”
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