OUTRAGEOUS THAT TAXPAYERS SUBSIDISE BRITISH ENERGY - CABLE
3.42.36pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 2nd Jun 2003
Ahead of the release of British Energy's annual results tomorrow, in which it is widely expected that huge losses will be unveiled, Dr. Vincent Cable MP - Liberal Democrat Shadow DTI Secretary - condemned the Government's bail-out of the company.
Dr. Vincent Cable MP said: "British Energy has proved to be uncompetitive and unviable. It failed to develop a commercial strategy to deal with changes to the electricity generating market and the fall in the wholesale electricity price. "
"It continues to fail to address these issues. As a result, the whole basis of the current restructuring must be called into question."
"It is outrageous that the burden of subsidising this failed company falls upon the taxpayer. Administrators should have been called in last year.
"Other generators, including those producing power in an environmentally friendly manner, have been allowed to go to the wall. The subsidy to British Energy continues to undermine those remaining generating firms."
"The Government must seek to retire some of the nuclear generating capability earlier than it had scheduled. At present, all pressures to remove excess capacity from the market are falling on other, unsubsidised generators.
Reducing this capacity will help to support the wholesale price of electricity and enable British Energy and others to operate profitably."
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[Other news stories from June 2003 (39)]
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[British Energy Bail Out Must End - Stunell]
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