Miliband denies clash over 'clean coal'

Allegra Stratton, political correspondent
The Guardian, Thursday 26 February 2009

The climate change secretary confirmed yesterday that he was "hopeful" more than one "clean coal" power station would be piloted, despite the government running a competition to fund only a single demonstration plant.
As revealed in yesterday's Guardian, Ed Miliband admitted he wanted an expansion of carbon capture and storage projects to bury the greenhouse gases emitted by coal plants. But a parliamentary committee forced him to deny reports that he was locked in a battle with the Treasury over the funding of a wider roll-out.
Substantial government funding is seen as crucial to developing the as-yet unproven technology, as energy companies are unwilling to bear the full cost, estimated at between £250m and £1bn for each plant.
In his first evidence session to the newly created energy and climate change committee, Miliband denied there had been any disputes or delays, but confirmed he wanted more pilots of clean coal. Yesterday a spokeswoman for the department said an announcement on further CCS plants was due in coming weeks.
Setting out his department's thinking, Miliband said: "What we're not going to do with this process is have a policy which essentially has a moratorium on any coal-fired power station. We've got to drive carbon capture and storage, and we've got to find a way which is properly funded as well; that's what we're working on."
Committee member and Conservative MP Charles Hendry said Miliband's comments that "there are no delays to the project and no in-fighting with the Treasury is completely at odds with everything we are hearing from other sources".