§ The Earl of LAUDERDALEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the total of funds currently put to research either by the National Coal Board or the Department of Energy into better extraction and utilisation of energy from coal.
§ Lord STRABOLGIMy Lords, the total funds deployed by the National Coal Board on research into the better extraction and utilisation of energy from coal for the current financial year is expected to approach £30 million. This year, the Department of Energy and the National Coal Board expect to contribute £2.5 million towards participation in the Fluidised Bed Combustion and Coal Research Information Projects based in this country, and operated under the auspices of the International Energy Agency.
§ The Earl of LAUDERDALEMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that very informative and, may I say, encouraging reply. May I ask him whether he has compared the volume of investment in this kind of research in this country, with that put into the same work by the American Energy Research Development Association?
§ Lord STRABOLGIYes, my Lords, certainly. Apart from the figures that I gave for general projects, we are also contributing £15 million a year to mining research and development, and £5 million a year to coal utilisation. As the noble Earl knows, the tripartite working party envisaged expenditure over 10 years of 2228 £60 million, and we are looking favourably on this. Indeed, as the House is probably aware, the Prime Minister, at a lunch yesterday, said that in the longer term we expect coal to be our source of substitutes for oil and natural gas, and the raw material for our petrochemical industry.
§ The Earl of LAUDERDALEMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that further information, which is very helpful to those of us who did not have time to read our papers this morning, because of doing our "prep" for this supplementary. May I ask him whether we are hoping to get some substantial help towards these sums from the European Community?
§ Lord STRABOLGIMy Lords, discussions are going on in Brussels about extending the Community's energy R and D programme to include major projects in coal gasification and liquefaction. We are exploring the possibility of Community funding for National Coal Board work in these fields.