Earth Equity News

U.K.'s Liberal Democrats Abandon Pledge to Oppose New Nuclear Power Stations. By Terry Macalister, Guardian (UK), May 13, 2010. "The Liberal Democrats have thrown overboard one of their most distinctive election pledges and will not stand in the way of a new generation of nuclear power stations, the new energy minister, Chris Huhne, made clear today. The Lib Dem MP, who had previously described atomic power as a 'failed technology.' said the new coalition government with the Conservatives believed a new construction programme could go ahead as long as it was done without financial support from the state. It would be 'entirely up to the nuclear industry in the first instance because they have to decide whether or not they're able to build nuclear power stations without new public subsidy, and that's the key,' Huhne explained. Asked whether the U-turn was a major climbdown, the energy minister said in an interview on the BBC's Today programme: 'This is a coalition agreement that has always involved compromise on both sides. There are a whole series of compromises which have been struck in this agreement which I think are obviously unpleasant for each of the parties.'"