Staying in the EU will save consumers £12bn in energy transition costs, says Lord Bourne
Published 27 May 2016
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Writing for Utility Week, Lord Bourne, parliamentary undersecretary of state for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has promoted a remain vote in the upcoming referendum on EU membership, citing benefits in controlling energy costs, security of supply and investment.
Lord Bourne said “if we stay in the EU, we’re expected to more than double the amount of electricity we can import from the continent over the next five years, saving consumers nearly £12 billion in energy costs over the next two decades.”
Referring to evidence published by National Grid in March, Lord Bourne also stated that a Leave vote could cause energy costs in the UK to rise by at least £500 million per year.
He asserted that a promoting a Leave vote would be to flout Decc’s responsibility to make sure “our families and businesses have the certainty of secure, affordable and clean energy supplies”.
Continuing to put forward a range of other Remain arguments forward relating to energy, he said that “Being in the EU single energy market attracts billions of pounds of investment in UK energy” and that “The EU is our biggest source of foreign investment in energy- £45 billion from across Europe was invested in our utilities sectors in 2014.”
Read Lord Bourne’s full comment here.
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