Thread by @emilygosden

Last night the government finally published its consultation on using the Regulated Asset Base funding model for future nuclear plants - the model EDF is lobbying for to support Sizewell in Suffolk, the proposed sister plant to Hinkley Point...

...in short, this means energy consumers will have to pay for nuclear plants while they are being built and will be on the hook for cost overruns... thetimes.co.uk/edition/busine…

...except in the case of really extreme cost overruns, when the government (i.e. taxpayer) could either pay the extra, or scrap the project altogether and then have to pay compensation to investors.

What's really interesting is the justification for exposing customers to risk...

...the government says that for Hinkley Point, it was right the developer bore all the construction risk because projects to build the same reactors in France and Finland were hugely delayed...

...but now the government says for Sizewell it’s totally fine for consumers to be exposed to risk.

What’s changed? Well, a reactor is now running in China, and Hinkley is on schedule so far.

But France and Finland are still delayed - in fact France even more so than it was...

...and most tellingly, government says investors still won’t finance nuclear projects because of the risk of cost overruns - which is why it needs the alternative RAB funding model...

...all of which seems to boil down to the government saying:

It’s fine to expose consumers to these risks, because they’re not really so risky any more... even though they’re still so risky that financial investors won’t go near them.

How reassuring.