Of course, what we should all be pointing out is that the quickest, 
cheapest, safest and cleanest ways out of this problem are energy 
efficiency, combined heat and power and renewables.

Chris

Russian gas row reignites nuclear debate

Domestic bills likely to be forced up
Terry Macalister
Monday January 2, 2006

Guardian
A Russian gas supply crisis triggered warnings last night that UK 
householders will face further significant price increases in 2006. 
Growing unease over future energy security in Britain also led to calls 
for a quick decision on a new generation of nuclear power stations. 
Analysts predict that, as things stand, by 2020 almost 70% of Britain's 
electricity generation will be reliant on gas imported from countries 
such as Russia.

Many homeowners began the new year yesterday with a 14.5% rise in their 
bills, but British Gas said a 40% increase in wholesale prices since 
September made further rises inevitable.

The latest energy scare came yesterday when Russia cut its supplies of 
gas to Ukraine in a row over pricing. The shortages and accompanying 
political row threatened to spill into continental Europe, which gets a 
quarter of its gas from Russia via a pipeline through Ukraine. A 
spokesman for British Gas, which controls 55% of the UK residential 
market, said: "No decisions have been made yet, but across the industry 
suppliers are looking at their pricing because of steep increases in 
wholesale costs in the last quarter.

"Most suppliers recognise that they [the price increases] will feed 
through to the retail market to some degree," he added, arguing that his 
company's residential energy business made a financial loss in the last 
six months.

British Gas lost 1 million customers in 2004 and 670,000 in 2005 on the 
back of a 14.2% rise in bills from September 2005, plus a 12.4% hike in 
September 2004. There was also a 5.9% rise in January of that year. 
Yesterday, rival Scottish & Southern Energy put an extra 13.6% - around 
£50 a year - on domestic gas bills, while npower put up its prices by 
14.5% for gas, the equivalent of around £58.

The consumer group, energywatch, warned suppliers that there was "no 
excuse" to use the Russian problems as a reason to unleash another round 
of price rises during 2006. "We don't draw very much gas at all, well 
none, from that part of the world, and there are lots of other sources 
of gas for us. However, it might put a bit of pressure on prices there 
and, sadly, the gas and oil companies are always looking for excuses to 
ramp up prices," energywatch's chief executive, Allan Asher, told the BBC.

Energy minister Malcolm Wicks said the dispute posed "no immediate 
threat" to UK supplies but he conceded it could impact on gas prices. 
"There is no immediate threat to gas supplies in the UK; none of the 
UK's gas is imported directly from Russia."

British Gas admitted that the Russian problems had not had any 
discernible impact yet on British prices, but said a range of other 
earlier problems had already made its business unprofitable. These 
included the rundown in UK North Sea supplies, a lack of sufficient 
existing infrastructure to import liquefied natural gas, plus the 
stranglehold of large French and German monopolies controlling pipelines 
in mainland Europe.

The crisis in Ukraine has highlighted the need for Britain to have 
indigenous supplies, such as nuclear, the former UK energy minister 
Brian Wilson told the Guardian yesterday.

"This [crisis] could have a short-term impact on gas supplies and prices 
in the European Union but long-term it points up a more serious issue of 
Britain's reliance on imported gas," he said. By 2020, 70% of UK 
electricity will come from gas and 90% of that will have to be imported. 
A substantial amount - at least a third - will come from Russia and 
confidence in that must depend on Russia honouring its contracts."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006