Closing down coal

Great news that E.ON have cancelled plans to build a new coal-fired power station in Kent. Now let's hear the Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband say that no new coal-fired capacity will be allowed unless power stations are fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, and that if CCS cannot be made to work, then they will be closed.

So far there have been a few small-scale CCS experiments around the world, but nothing to say that it is a viable industrial solution. The really sensible thing to do would be to test the technology on our existing gas-fired power stations. In the mean time the government would do better to concentrate on cutting demand, increasing energy efficiency and boosting renewables rather than pin its hopes on "clean coal".