Responding to Labour’s call for an investigation, auditor general, Sir Amyas Morse, said the spending watchdog would begin looking at the “costs that the government has incurred in running the latest competition” in the coming weeks.
He said it would also examine how Decc reconciled the cancellation of the competition with its aims to “maintain security of energy supply and reduce emissions”.
Morse’s response was prompted by a letter from shadow energy secretary Lisa Nandy. She wrote: “…it is important that MPs and the public have a full understanding and appreciation of the costs to the taxpayer of the Chancellor’s decision to once again suddenly cancel his CCS programme without any notice.
“In particular, I understand that the private companies who have been pursuing CCS as a consequence of Ministers’ previously stated support for their work are now seeking to recover their costs. There will also have been costs associated with administration of the scheme, and initial studies.”
Prime minister David Cameron justified the decision at a meeting of the Commons liaison committee last month, saying it seemed to him that “the economics of carbon capture and storage really aren’t working at the moment.”
In March 2012 the NAO published a report into a previous CCS competition, which was also scrapped by the government. Morse said the watchdog would explore whether the report’s recommendations had been taken on board by Decc.
Is this the end of the road for CCS in the UK? Read Utility Week’s analysis here