Wales Bill — House of Lords, 2016-12-14
Topic: Energy
Dafydd Wynne Wigley (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): My Lords, here we go again. I rise to move Amendment 36 and to speak to Amendment 37, which is coupled with it. I shall speak to Amendment 60 a little later I welcome the Minister’s acknowledgement in the previous stage of the Bill that the limit placed on energy projects is in fact arbitrary. However, he failed to outline in any way why such a low arbitrary limit is necessary. I am sure that I will catch his eye, or his ear, in a moment so that he will be able to respond to that point in due course. The Minister rightly made the point that if you have to put a limit somewhere it will always, in some respects, be arbitrary. An obvious solution is to remove the limit altogether, as is the case in Scotland. Does he not think it bizarre that the Government are happy to use words such as "arbitrary" to justify their imposition of a regime which means that Welsh people will not decide how and when Welsh resources are developed? I do not want to replay the battles already fought. However, I am keen to respond to some points that he made during our last discussion on this matter First, as he knows well, and as I have already made clear, the Silk commission serves as no cover to justify the failure to enhance the Bill, since the Government have blatantly ignored unanimous Silk recommendations on other matters. The Minister cannot have it both ways. Although I accept that the 350 megawatt limit was agreed in the cross-party commission, that was in the context of an understanding that other parties would support the devolution of a range of policies in other areas and part of a carefully constructed compromise, as he will well recall, several aspects of which are now being sidelined. The Government have ignored the recommendations of the commission on policing, youth justice and rail infrastructure, among other areas. Just to cherry pick from the commission’s recommendations makes a mockery of the process Secondly, I am pleased that the Minister has agreed that I was right to highlight the absurd situation of the tidal lagoons, which means that the already approved 320 megawatt Swansea Bay lagoon would be within the threshold, while almost all the other proposed lagoons would not be within the competence of the Assembly. That makes it impossible for the Assembly to develop a coherent expertise, recognised by all people in such matters. Since we already have projects on the stocks in this area and close to each other in size, it really begs the question: seeing that it is arbitrary, why should it not be so at a slightly higher level I do not agree with the Minister that the 350 megawatt limit is the only way to do things, as he said, even when it comes to tidal lagoons. He justified the arbitrary 350 megawatt limit by intimating that some strategically important energy projects were not safe in the hands of Wales—at least, that was the implication. Of course, it is the policy of my party that the people of Wales should decide on how all its resources are utilised, regardless of technology or size. However, I emphasise that the Minister need not be concerned about strategically important energy projects being scuppered by Wales. Nuclear energy is already listed in the reservations. A limit well in excess of 2,000 megawatts would still fail to capture much of what is considered as strategically significant by way of energy generation. Fundamentally, a more sensible and pragmatic approach to these energy limits would create a clear, lasting devolution settlement. Even more importantly, in practical and pragmatic terms it would be easier for the developers and for the expertise within the Assembly The amendments in my name, unlike the previous ones tabled by Plaid Cymru MPs, recommend a 2,000 megawatt cut-off offer. This would still not encapsulate many of the projects which I had hoped the Government would recognise should be decided on by the Welsh people. But I hope that it offers a more amenable arbitrary limit—yes, arbitrary, as the Minister put it—which would increase Welsh people’s ability to decide how Welsh resources are utilised and give the Assembly a coherent role. The 2,000 megawatt figure, although undoubtedly arbitrary, has been inspired by the Labour amendment in Committee; I readily acknowledge that it proposed the same figure. I therefore hope that I can count on their support for this amendment. Can the Minister outline how any arbitrary limit, be it 350 megawatts or 2,000, can be increased without the need for primary legislation in a pragmatic and sensible fashion, or adjusted in any way that circumstances require, to ensure that we get to a point where Wales’s natural resources are decided on by Welsh people to the maximum possible extent?