What a gloriously ramshackle company EdF is! No company does anti-climax as well as EdF does – time after time!
Last week, we heard French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, all gushily enthusiastic on the Andrew Marr Show, promising that the go-ahead would be given ‘in the coming week or month’ (bit of a giveaway there!). This was followed by a much-trailed summit of French Ministers, convened by Hollande himself, to put the finishing touches on the announcement.
And then, having laboriously choreographed this impressive political firepower, we heard from EdF yesterday that there won’t now be an investment announcement ‘at least until the summer’, conveniently setting to one side the latest deadline (of May 12th) offered to the UK Government just a couple of months ago.
The ostensible reason for the delay is that they have to consult with their trade unions – which had threatened to take them to court if they didn’t! And that’s a minimum of 60 days.
Most experts now believe there won’t be any announcement until early 2017 – which would be a full two years since we were told for the first time that an investment decision was ‘imminent’.
The vast majority of people (including the investment community) now recognises that the Hinkley Point proposal is a total turkey. It’s only the face-saving obstinacy of politicians in the UK (particularly George Osborne, who has personally backed it despite deep Treasury reservations), in China (when you put £6bn on the table, it’s not good to be told to bog off), and France, that keeps the turkey on life-support. Meanwhile our own energy strategy here in the UK is still left with a great gaping Hinkley hole at its heart.
And because of Osborne’s idiocy, no work is being done on the strategic low-carbon alternative (efficiency + renewables + storage), which is the only thing that will allow us to get out of this mess.