September 21, 2011
Wales

Carwyn Jones: UK Government reluctant to devolve energy powers because of wind farm plans

www.walesonline.co.uk 21 September 2011

The UK Government is reluctant to devolve more energy policy to Wales because it wants to build more windfarms than the Welsh Government is prepared to, Carwyn Jones claimed today.

The First Minister told a committee of AMs that he believed the UK Government would not devolve policy on energy projects above 50MW because it thought his government’s policy was “too narrow”.

The Welsh Government has come under attack from residents, particularly in Mid Wales, over the number of windfarm developments already being built under its controversial TAN 8 policy.

Mr Jones told the Assembly’s Environment and Sustainability Committee: “I admit that this is a discussion that we’ve been having for years, it’s not something recent.

“There is no sense in my opinion why Scotland and Northern Ireland have the powers that we don’t have in Wales.

“From the discussion that we’ve had recently the only answer that I can give is that the feeling is held by the UK Government that the Welsh Government is too narrow, that TAN 8 is too narrow in its cope and so they want to create additional energy developments and wind developments than we would have allowed under TAN 8.

“What conclusions you can draw from that I don’t know but that’s it.”

More to follow..

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/09/21/carwyn-jones-uk-government-reluctant-to-devolve-energy-powers-because-of-wind-farm-plans/