Overcoming addictions

Nice to see the new Lib-Con (or is it Con-Lib...or just a simply Con?) government's Energy and Climate Change secretary (secretary for DECC now there's a title!) the Liberal Democrat's Chris Huhne following in the wake of his counterpart in the Republic of Ireland, the Green Party Minister for Energy, Eamon Ryan, in a public all for the UK to end its addiction to fossil fuel. As he put it,

"But as oil becomes ever more difficult to extract, and as demand for oil surges in the emerging economies, we need to recognise the dangers inherent in our history of fossil fuel addiction"


http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/Energy_Summit/Energy_Summit.aspx

Also interesting to note his brazen appropriation of the language of the 'Green New Deal' championed by the Green Party and think tanks such as the new economics foundation.
No mention of peak oil, unlike Eamon Ryan's open acceptance of this as the policy and geological context within which we need to address energy security, and of course nothing about reducing energy consumption. It will be interesting to watch how far each - Huhne and Ryan - can get in their plans for decabonisation of the economy given the constraints each face politically as junior coalition partners in bed with right-wing, non-progressive parties.