HC Deb 26 July 1966 vol 732 cc1425-6
26. Mr. Palmer

asked the Minister of Power if he will make a statement on the application of the Central Electricity Generating Board to use natural gas for electrical power generation and the probable effect on the coal industry and the nuclear power programme.

Mr. Marsh

I have had no such application, and would refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to a supplementary question by the hon. Member for Barkston Ash (Mr. Alison) on 21st June.

Mr. Palmer

In that case, does not my right hon. Friend agree that it would be very helpful if the House could have a new statement on fuel and power policy, as we have been promised?

Mr. Marsh

My hon. Friend does not do himself justice if he thinks that we can produce a new fuel policy in a matter of two or three months. These are very important and serious decisions. In the short term they will take us certainly until the end of this year and into the first couple of months of the next. In the long term the model will take longer than that.

Mr. Lubbock

Is the Central Electricity Generating Board making investigations into the possibility of using natural gas in peak load gas turbines, particularly bearing in mind that this would save imports of oil?

Mr. Marsh

I understand that the C.E.G.B. is looking at this question. In the first instance, it would have to put proposals to me and so far it has not done so.