Yeo’s highly critical comments came in a speech to the City today on the eve of the first parliamentary debate on the Energy Bill.
Yeo, a senior Conservative MP, confirmed he would be leading the campaign in Parliament to amend the Bill to include a firm target for the decarbonisation of the power sector by 2030.
Yeo said: “Either we can upgrade our energy system and embrace the technologies of the future or we can fossilize it by clinging to the combustion-based power systems of the past”.
He added: “Shale gas seems to have seduced some in Government into premature confidence that it is an energy panacea; a golden calf that can meet all of our energy needs cheaply and even revive lost manufacturing industries.
“But we must remember: the scale of recoverable reserves is not yet known and gas power stations are considerably more polluting than the cleanest forms of renewable energy currently available.
“The price of most fossil fuels, including gas, may continue rising as global energy demand increases and other countries like Japan and Germany turn their back on nuclear power.
“Gambling on gas could be costly” he insisted.