European Commission and industry quizzed by Lords
The House of Lords Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment and Energy EU Sub-Committee will be speaking to Philip Lowe, Director General of the Directorate General for Energy (DG Energy), European Commission, on Wednesday 21 November.
He will be followed, at 12pm, by David Odling, Energy Policy Manager for Oil and Gas UK.
The Committee are investigating how the issues of the cost of energy - as a big cost to industry - can be reduced and decarbonised, whilst also allowing the manufacturing process to continue to expand and encourage economic growth, helping Europe to climb its way out of recession.
Mr Lowe and Mr Odling are likely to face questions on issues including:
• UK Government proposals to pay UK energy providers to guarantee UK energy security rather than working collaboratively, and less expensively, with other Member States to share the burden of energy security;
• whether, during this time of economic crisis, EU energy policy should be driven by reducing costs or boosting investment and how energy policy can play a role in job creation;
• the role of the EU's internal market, given the increasing globalisation of the energy market;
• the respective roles of gas, shale gas, coal and renewable energy in the future;
• how exactly the gas sector contributes to economic growth in the UK and on the wider EU economy; and
• whether the gas industry's investment decisions are driven primarily by short term cost consideration or longer term investment returns and if renewable targets for 2030 and beyond could suppress investment in the industry.
The evidence session will take place at 11am on Wednesday 21 November in Committee Room 3A of the House of Lords and will be webcast live at www.parliamentlive.tv.
The evidence session is also open to the public. Journalists wishing to attend should go to Parliament's Cromwell Green Entrance and should allow time for security screening.
