Adam Smith Institute

Europe's favourite think tank website
  • Narrow screen resolution
  • Wide screen resolution
  • Decrease font size
  • Default font size
  • Increase font size
Out of the frying pan... Print E-mail
Written by Dr Eamonn Butler   
Saturday, 28 June 2008

Gordon Brown wants oil-rich states to invest in Britain's renewable power projects as a long-term solution to the world fuel price crisis. At the Jeddah eneergy conference in Saudi Arabia this week, the Prime Minster said that it would cost the UK £100bn to meet its 2020 target of having 15% of its power supply from alternative energy sources, and he hoped that some of this investment could come from the Middle East.

I'm not sure this is altogether a good idea. With our gas supplies under threat from Russia and other unsavoury East European regimes, and our oil supplied by countries that are often even more unsavoury and even less democratic, energy security is something to worry about. If Middle East governments are going to be controlling large stakes in the nation's alternative sources, it's out of the frying pan into the fire. I'm surprised that the backbench MPs who are trying to derail the plans to build new UK nuclear power stations don't understand that.

Comments (1)Add Comment
...
written by Steve Giess, June 28, 2008
Apparently the founding idea of the EU was that by binding countries together tightly we could avoid future wars. Presumably then if the EU were to bind tightly with both Russia and a major Middle-Eastern oil producer we would achieve security. If this analysis is rejected as being wishful thinking then what does it say about the founding tenet of the EU?

Write comment
This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.

busy
 

About the ASI

The Adam Smith Institute is the UK's leading innovator of free-market economic and social policies. Politically independent and non-profit, the Institute promotes its ideas through reports, briefings, events, media appearances, and its website and blog. For further information, click here.

Join our email list

Keep up-to-date with the latest events, reports and information from the Adam Smith Institute by joining our fortnightly email list. It's free and you can unsubscribe at any point. Just enter your email address here: 


Support the ASI

Enter Amount: