We reprint below UKIP statement on energy, we are happy to reprint any statement Labour is prepared to make on the British coal industry or energy should they ever decide to make one.
Energy policy is of the utmost importance to the coal communities in general and Hatfield Main in particular . The position of the Parties elected to office in the forthcoming general election will determine whether we have any coal mines left at all, and what will happen to fuel and power.
Thus far we have been unable to obtain a clear statement (or any statement) from Labour which tells us they will ensure the survival of the British coal industry.
Bad for the Environment, Bad for the Economy, Bad for Democracy
The joint undertaking by the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat leaderships to retrench and strengthen the Government's failed Climate Change policies shows how much they are all at odds with reality and the needs of both the country and the Environment", says Roger Helmer MEP, the UKIP Energy spokesman.
"It is clearly apparent that none of them are aware of the looming crisis in energy generation that faces the country. Cheap plentiful, reliable energy is not a luxury, but the very stuff of life", he said.
"By unilaterally setting fantasy targets on UK emissions, by closing down coal generation, they are condemning this country to shortages and inflated prices that will hit, as they always do, the poorest hardest. Worse they will move manufacturing offshore, increase unemployment, undermine investment and cancel growth. More ridiculous still is that is doubtful that this policy will achieve any global reduction in CO2 emissions, rather it arguably increases them," said Helmer.
"It is a simple fact that industrial production will move offshore. Beyond the UK and beyond the EU to countries and jurisdictions that have far lower environmental standards. According to the Government's own studies this will for example in the petroleum sector, increase emissions in comparison to the same work being done in the UK by upwards of 35%."
"Chasing these targets in the last few years has already caused the loss of 42,000 jobs in the European Aluminium industry, 80,000 jobs in Steel manufacture, jobs are going in chemicals, petroleum and the rest. Many of these jobs are high paid, high skilled and high value to the economy at large. It is wanton deskilling from which the UK and the EU will find it almost impossible to recover".
"That we are being presented this by a cabal of the establishment, more interested in the applause of Al Gore than they are the interests of their own electorate is a travesty of democracy. Thank goodness that at least UKIP stands in the way of such political and economic lunacy and offers the country a choice."
"There have been many times over history where the consensus was not just wrong, but willfully, damagingly wrong. Now is one of those times", said Helmer.