EDF holds Britain to ransom over proposed new reactors

EDF, the French state-owned electricity company, wants British ratepayers to absorb a rate increase on their fossil fuel bills in order to help pay for four proposed new EDF reactors in Britain. EDF has been accused of holding the British Government to ransom by demanding that the market be fixed to make nuclear energy competitive by ensuring that consumers paid more for electricity from fossil fuels, such as coal and gas. British consumers could see as much as $380 added to their electricity bills, a potentially untenable burden on low-income households. Unlike in the U.S., the British government has so far refused to grant subsidies to new nuclear programs, and expects private industry to finance construction. As Ben Ayliffe, a campaigner for Greenpeace, U.K., observed of EDF: “Even with the full resources of the French Government behind them, it seems they cannot make the economics of new nuclear stack up.”