Smart Commodities UK Editor Garry White says two things are vital for Britain to be able to power itself in 2015. Firstly, despite environmentalist concerns, more coal stations are needed in the short term. Secondly, British Energy (LON:BGY) must be sold to Electricite de France SA (EPA:EDF), which would provide the expertise for an efficient nuclear powered energy system…

I had a bet in one of our morning meetings about six months ago.

I bet everyone in the room that when British Energy was sold, it would go to Electricite de France SA. If it didn’t happen, I’d eat my hat.

Then, at the start of June, the deal with EDF fell through. It looked like I’d made the wrong call. My colleagues are uncharitable folks, I’m afraid. They laughed at me.“You were so categorical,” they said, “But you were wrong.”

Well, it looks like I might be about to have the last laugh. And it’s all down to one man. His name is John Hutton.

It seems odd praising a member of the current Labour government, but John Hutton is that rare breed of politician… a man doing the right thing.

On Thursday last week, he risked the ire of the Guardianistas by saying that getting our energy strategy right was more important than pandering to the whims of every green organisation in the country.

Well done him.

We must defeat dogma

The environmentals have already cost us vital time and damaged our prosperity. They have delayed our new energy strategy in the courts and at places like Kingsnorth power station. We can’t let them win.

“The government repeatedly tells us climate change is the biggest threat we face and this seems to suggest that he (Hutton) doesn’t even get the basics,” said Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Dave Timms.

Sorry Dave. It’s you that doesn’t get the basics. You are just blindly following an unthinking dogma.

By 2012, the last of our Magnox nuclear reactors will be closed. A number of older coal-fired stations may also have been shut down - especially if people keep listening to people like Dave.

Demand is expected to overtake supply somewhere between 2012 and 2015, creating a serious generation gap. There is a real chance that the lights could go out within the next 5 years. Unless we do something about it.

Coal and nuclear is the answer

To fill the energy gap we will need more coal-fired power plants. If we don’t, we are going to be at the mercy of the Russians because we need their gas. That would be a disaster.

We also need to start building the next-generation of nuclear power stations right now. When these are ready, we can decommission the dirtier coal plants.

Of course, coal burning will put extra emissions into the atmosphere, but I am afraid that is something we will have to live with. The alternative is far scarier.

An economy without energy is a dead economy. It brings strife, political turmoil and poverty. This is where Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace are trying to lead us.

They oppose coal power. They oppose nuclear power. But they don’t have any reasonable alternatives.

They have various flowery theories about developing alternative power, but they have no plans that could produce the amount of energy an economy the size of Britain needs.

If we listen to them, we are on a one-way track to an energy poor future. Energy poverty will generate real poverty.

So, Hutton is starting to put the greens in their place. Well done him.

He’s also right about British Energy, owner of all our nuclear power stations. We need to sell it to the French – and sell it soon.

We should sell British energy to the French because they have the skills and we do not. It’s that simple.

France generates 79% of its energy from nuclear power and has some of the best nuclear engineers in the world. We have a skills shortage that is getting more acute by the day.

Despite the opening of a nuclear skills academy in Cumbria and new plans for a National Nuclear Laboratory, we don’t have enough engineers.

On 12 August, Bill Macdonald of the Health & Safety Executive Nuclear Directorate said:

“We have a real demographic problem because 40% of our staff are over the age of 60. We are struggling to get enough specialists; you can’t train them from nothing. If it takes longer, it takes longer. The [nuclear] programme will be put back; the government don’t like it.”

That’s why we need the French… and why we need them now.

John Hutton also said that a deal between EDF and British Energy could be done in the next fortnight. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Let’s hope the deal goes through. For all our sakes.

P.S. To discover how you could profit from out looming energy crisis click here.

Source: We Might Have a Future in Two Weeks’ Time