YP Letters: North the poorer for carbon scheme's failure

IT is most frustrating to read (The Yorkshire Post, January 20) of the report from the National Audit Office on the Government’s waste of £100m in their failure to kick-start a carbon capture scheme in this region.

At a time when all main parties were eager to throw far more money at subsidising and promoting on-shore wind farms and imposing hefty carbon taxes on fossil-fuelled energy providers, many people were supporting the efforts of the Don Valley Power Project, based on Hatfield Colliery where decades of coal reserves were available.

This project was considered by the EU energy experts as the most advanced scheme in Europe and they were prepared to offer a grant of €400m as long as the UK government matched this sum.

Further support was promised from global companies in the Far East who wished to make a significant investment. Not only would this scheme have provided thousands of skilled jobs but it would also have attracted high-polluting industries to the area as a reliable low carbon energy source would greatly reduce their burden of carbon taxes. Added to our decision to leave the EU, this means we will have to continue our reliance on importing more of our energy at higher prices when the situation could well have been much rosier for the North.