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Energy, the State, and the Market - British Energy Policy since 1979 (Paperback, Revised edition)
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Energy, the State, and the Market - British Energy Policy since 1979 (Paperback, Revised edition)
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The transformation of Britain's energy policy in the last two
decades has been more radical than any such change in developed
economies. Since 1979 the great state energy monopolies created
after the Second World War have been privatised and made subject to
competition. Images of Arthur Scargill and the miners' strike of
the 1980s remain vivid, but what effect has the new market
philosophy had on Britain's energy industries? Since 1979 the
National Coal Board, British Gas, and the Central Electricity
Generating Board have all been broken up. Energy trading,
electricity pools, auctions, and futures markets first developed,
but they failed to solve the old energy policy problems of security
of supply and network integrity, and the new ones of the
environment and reliance on gas. The government introduced a new
regulatory regime as a temporary necessity but regulation did not
wither away, rather it grew to be more pervasive. Changing the
ownership of the industries did not reduce the government's
involvement, it simply changed its form. The 1980s and 1990s were
years of energy surpluses and low fossil-fuel prices. There was
little need to invest, and much of the investment in the so-called
dash for gas was artificially stimulated. The new owners sweated
the assets, and engaged in major financial engineering. Takeovers
consolidated the industry into a smaller number of dominant firms.
As investment priorities became more urgent, with the environmental
pressures of climate change and the gradual switch to imported gas,
the market philosophy was found wanting. Energy policy could not
rely solely on the market. And it is the government which finds
itself responsible for resolving the core issues of energy policy.
Helm's book tells this story. It is a major study of the new market
approach to energy policy in Britain since 1979. It describes the
miners' strike, the privatisations of the gas, electricity, nuclear
generation, and coal industries, and looks at events such as the
dash for gas, regulatory failures in setting monopoly prices, and
the takeovers and the consolidations of the late 1990s. Helm sets
out the achievements of the new market philosophy, but also
analyses why it has ultimately failed to turn energy industries
into normal commodity businesses. The revised paperback edition
includes a new chapter on the White Paper on a low-carbon economy
and updated discussions on nuclear power, to incorporate the 2003
Nuclear White Paper, price reviews, and emissions trading.
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