Deadline must be set to close dirty power plants

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - The government must set a deadline for closing all coal-fired power stations whose smokestack emissions have not been slashed by carbon capture technology, a parliamentary report said on Tuesday.

The Environmental Audit Committee also warned against the government allowing coal-fired power plants to be built that were "CCS ready" -- able to be fitted with carbon capture and storage technology once it is commercially proven and available.

"Carbon capture and storage has undoubted potential, but there is a real question about when it will become technologically and, equally importantly, commercially viable," said committee chairman Tim Yeo.

"We cannot afford to develop new coal-fired power stations when we have no guarantee about when they will be fitted with CCS, if at all," he added.

Carbon capture and storage is the holy grail in the battle against global warming because in grabbing emissions of climate warming carbon gases before they reach the atmosphere and burying them deep underground it allows business as usual.

Because of a combination of age and European emission laws, Britain will be forced to close up to one-third of its power plants within the next 15 years.

NUCLEAR

It wants new nuclear plants but also knows that it will have to allow construction of fossil fuel plants -- including coal in all likelihood.