Widespread media coverage for Lib Dem energy policy push

Yesterday’s energy policy push by Nick Clegg has received wide coverage in the media, including:

The thinking of Nick Clegg, the LibDem leader, is both fresh and dramatic. He envisages energy self-sufficiency in this country by the year 2050 and claims this can be achieved cleanly.

The LibDem plan is based on a combination of greater energy efficiency and a step-change in the provision of renewable energy from wind, wave, biomass and solar power.

This stands in sharp contrast with the energy policies of both Labour and the Conservatives which are predicated on a significant expansion in nuclear generation. [Daily Telegraph]

The refined Lib Dem energy strategy certainly identifies the problem correctly. It focuses on our fossil-fuel dependent electricity generators and our woefully insulated houses. It wants a massive investment in renewable energy to address the first, and promises beefed up building regulations and insulation paid for by the utility companies on the second. [The Guardian]

Nick has also made his case in a piece over on the Guardian website.

Unsurprisingly, fans of nuclear power (such as the author of the Daily Telegraph piece quoted above) have taken issue with this part of yesterday’s proposals, though you can see how the case against nuclear power has been made in more detail previously on this site by Steve Webb and David Boyle.