23 June 2017
* Lucas: “Consumers and taxpayers are going to be ripped off by this absurd project”
Caroline Lucas, the co-leader of the Green Party, has responded to a report by the National Audit Office on Hinkley Power Station. The report says that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s deal for Hinkley Point C has locked consumers into a ‘risky and expensive project’ with uncertain strategic and economic benefits.[1]
The multibillion pound project at Hinkley is currently supported by both Labour and the Coservatives, but opposition to the plans is expected to grow as the costs soar.
Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party, said:
“The National Audit Office’s damning report confirms what many of us have been saying for a long time: the Hinkley deal is overpriced and risky. Not only are consumers and taxpayers going to be ripped off by this absurd project but it will also divert resources away from building the clean energy infrastructure we need, and threaten our climate change targets because of the snail’s pace at which it will be built.
“The fight against Hinkley isn’t over – and we will be joining campaigners in continuing to highlight the major shortcomings of this project. This is a crossroads for Britain – and the signing of this deal has seen us swerve down the wrong path. By reversing this decision we can put the resources needed into building a decentralized energy system where Britain puts to use its most abundant resources: the sun, sea and wind.”
[1] Report available from the National Audit Office
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