PM to put nuclear power at heart of UK’s energy strategy

theguardian.com:

Boris Johnson is to put nuclear energy at the heart of the UK’s new energy strategy, but ministers have refused to set targets for onshore wind and vowed to continue the exploitation of North Sea oil and gas.

Amid deep divisions among senior Conservatives, the strategy will enrage environmentalists, who say the government’s plans are in defiance of its own net-zero targets and neglect alternative measures that experts say would provide much quicker relief from high energy bills.

The prime minister will launch the plan on Thursday, after a period of intense political wrangling set against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has convulsed energy markets and sent home energy bills rocketing.

Whitehall sources said rows over the strategy between No 10, the Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) continued right up until the eve of publication, with an insider describing the process as “chaos”.

The cabinet eventually agreed that atomic energy would form the backbone of the strategy, and up to eight new reactors are planned.

Targets for onshore wind and solar power generation will also be raised, in a push for 95% of Great Britain’s electricity to come from domestic renewable energy sources by 2030.

But the plans risk infuriating environmental campaigners, after the opportunity to remove barriers to more onshore wind farms appeared to fall victim to Tory in-fighting, new North Sea drilling won the government’s blessing, and ministers appeared to open the door to fracking.

Opposition parties were scathing about the strategy. Two former energy secretaries from Labour and the Liberal Democrats branded it “ludicrous” and “hopeless” for failing to expand onshore wind power or tackle