The Environmental Audit Committee are asking ministers to outline to parliament that any power station running on fossil fuel should be closed down unless it has the capacity to curb the release of the carbon it emits, and store it underground.
News of the move comes after government plans for a new coal-fuelled power station were announced. The station is to be built in Kingsnorth, Kent.
The Environmental Audit Committee - who were established in 1997 as part of a pre-election manifesto commitment by Tony Blair's New Labour Government - insist that no carbon-based power plants should be built unless that are equipped with 'Carbon Capture and Storage' (CCS).
The process of CCS is a system designed to stop the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is generally accepted that - if the system is implemented across the board - it could reduce carbon emission from carbon based outputs by more than 80%.
As such, The Environmental Audit Committee is suggesting that the government sets a date by which all carbon-based power stations are engaged fully with CCS.
The proposed power station at Kingnorth has brought much debate.
Conservative leader David Cameron has announced - on the back of the plans - that he would fully implement CCS if his party were to gain power in the next general election.
With the current labour government not yet committing to a fully-scale inclusion of CCS, many parts of the country are seeing the planned construction of the site at Kingsnorth as a case in point for New Labour's current environmental policy.
At present, Gordon Brown's parliament are still deciding whether to grant permission for E. ON, the company who proposed the move, to build the power station.
If the move goes ahead, it will mark a month of some inconsistency in terms of the government's environmental policy.
Indeed, Gordon Brown has recently acknowledged that Battersea Power Station - which has been in-operational for 25 years - may be used as the site for a new photovoltaic tower that would power 8 million square metres of retails outlets, offices, and accommodation.
He also pledged a desire for cars on sale in Britain to be hybrid or electric only by 2020.
It was also announced that London 2012 - for which Brown could be Prime Minister - aims to be the greenest Olympics to date, with the more ambitious plan of being the world's first fully sustainable games.
It has been argued that - if the plans for the Kingsnorth go ahead - it could represent a tangible example of the government's true policy towards the environment, where it's green initiatives are promised only as aims for years to come.
The government has committed to a demonstration of CCS by 2014, but critics say that - until the technology is deemed practical and usable - no steps should be taken to produce new carbon-fuelled power stations.
Their overriding fear is that, should CCS falter or fail, Britain could then be stuck with a number of old power stations, all relying on coal and emitting high levels of carbon.
If this were the case, it would be difficult to maintain the necessary levels of power and close these plants down altogether.
As a result, some lobbyists are calling for an investment in sustainable energy power plants instead.
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Posted under Articles, Climate, Environmental News, Renewable Energy
This post was written by Chris Woolfrey on July 30, 2008