CHRIS HUHNE, the Energy Secretary, believes that Britain can meet its carbon reduction targets without nuclear power by investing heavily in renewables and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

But CCS is unproven and, even if it is feasible, it will prove to be very expensive technology.

A coal-fired power station with CCS facilities will cost more than twice as much as a conventional station and running costs will be much higher.

Having a fleet of coal and gasfired power stations with CCS would mean collecting the CO2, greatly increasing its pressure and piping it hundreds of miles to depleted off-shore oil and gas fields.

And 20 or 30 back-up gas stations would also have to be built to provide electricity during periods of cold, almost windless weather when the wind turbines produce almost nothing.

On top of those costs, another £200bn will be needed to build the wind farms and extend and modify the national grid so that the unpredictable and intermittent supplies of electricity can be used.

With turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East causing a threat to our oil and gas imports, and the EU facing economic collapse because of the need to bail out Greece, Ireland, Portugal and, possibly, Spain, it is surely unwise for Britain to be planning to spend huge sums simply to meet our over-ambitious carbon reduction targets.

Our electricity bills will be doubled in real terms by 2020.

James Allan, Hartlepool.