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		MEP calls for Coal Tuesday, 23rd October 2007 Strasbourg - In a speech in the European parliament last night, East Midlands Conservative MEP Roger Helmer called for coal to be a key element in Europe's future energy strategy. Mr Helmer told Parliament that the demands of energy security in an uncertain world, and at a time when our own North Sea production is running down, meant that we must be prepared to diversify our energy sources, and make the most of energy sources within the UK, including coal and nuclear power. He expressed concerns that we are too dependent on imported oil and gas, which mostly comes from unstable or unreliable areas, such as gas from Russia, which is threatening politically motivated boycotts and oil from the Middle East, Nigeria and Venezuela and stated that while we should certainly develop renewables where these were economically viable, we also have to make the most of our domestic reserves of coal, which could last for 200 years. Challenged to explain why the Conservatives had allowed the mines to run down in the 1980s, Mr Helmer replied: "That policy was right twenty years ago, when the threat to energy supplies came from the miners. Today the position is transformed, both by the relative price of oil and by the political instability of the primary producing countries". Asked about the implications for CO2 emissions, he replied: "Many scientists are starting to doubt the simplistic relationship between atmospheric CO2 and climate. Many believe that climate is driven by solar and astronomical factors, not by human activity. But if we are panicked about our carbon foot-print, there are carbon sequestration technologies in development which would allow us to burn coal without emitting CO2". He also described nuclear power as "the cheapest, safest, cleanest and most reliable mainstream base-load power generation technology available today", quoting senior Spanish MEP Alejo Vidal Quadras with whom he recently visited the Olkiluoto nuclear plant and waste disposal facility in Finland and who has said that "Nuclear waste disposal is simply a technical problem which has been solved". Mr Helmer ended by calling bi-partisan support for a new generation of nuclear power stations to support the energy needs of the UK's growing economy.