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Allowing Eggborough power station to close is “bonkers and utterly barking mad”, energy minister Michael Fallon heard in a heated debate on Monday.
The outburst came from Conservative MP Andrew Percy, whose Yorkshire constituency is home to many of the power station’s 800 workers.
The coal plant is set to stop generating by the end of 2015, after a surprise government decision put its £750 billion biomass conversion plan in jeopardy.
The plant’s owners had expected to secure early approval for subsidy but were told in December the budget would only stretch to one biomass conversion, at neighbouring Drax. Three offshore windfarms were also omitted from the final list on affordability grounds.
Percy accused the minister of changing the selection criteria at the last minute, a charge Fallon rejected.
The closure of Eggborough would exacerbate a forecast capacity crunch and put bills up, Percy argued. “We potentially face a situation in which 800 people who are currently gainfully employed will be sitting at home, having been fired, paying increased bills for a form of generation that is 50% more expensive than the form that they were sacked from generating.
“To me, and to my constituents, that seems completely and utterly barking mad. It must not be allowed to happen.”
Shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex agreed there were “significant concerns” about the way the process for early approval for subsidies had been run.
Fallon defended the process, saying nine projects had got through and were ready to sign this month. He added: “We are not able to give taxpayer support to every single renewable project that came forward for the intermediate regime.”
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