Consumers could be stung with 2% energy prices rise
Published on : 24/04/2009
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New coal-fired power stations built in the UK with carbon capture technology could push consumer energy prices up by around two per cent, it has been claimed.
The government has unveiled an ambitious plan to create four of the new electricity-generating facilities by 2020.
Each one would be fitted with carbon capture storage, which would pipe excess carbon emissions to underground storage facilities in the North Sea.
However, the new plants could cost taxpayers dearly.
Benedict Southworth, director of poverty lobby group World Development Movement, said: "The government is committing billions of pounds of taxpayers' money on a technology that remains untested on a large scale and may never be economically viable."
"It is also yet to be proven that ¬climate-damaging carbon dioxide emissions can be stored safely underground," he added.
Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband is supports the new generation of 'clean coal' power stations.
