David Miliband on the energy crisis

On a recent BBC Question Time panel, David Miliband (ex foreign minister, one time competitor for the leadership of the Labour party) addressed the issue of the energy crisis. He did a wonderful job summarizing the inanity of much of the debate surrounding energy issues. I've linked to the iPlayer video before, but as non-UK readers won't be able to watch, and as the video has probably expired by now, I thought I'd post the transcript, because it really is a great comment that cuts right to the heart of the issue:

Look, we've got an environmental crisis of absolutely overwhelming proportions, we are going to need every conceivable source of low-carbon energy we can find. As it happens, this country is a leader in offshore wind, a world leader in offshore wind. We're going to need some onshore wind as well, but honestly, you've got the Lib Dem Secretary of State arguing with the Conservative Energy Minister about 1% of our energy.

The truth is if you care about the energy mix, and you care about low carbon, 30% of our energy comes from coal at the moment, and it comes from coal that isn't dug in this country, it's imported from Russia. The biggest thing that we can do to actually contribute to a global environmental challenge as well as to ensure our own reliability and decent cost of supply is to switch from having 30% coal to putting that 30% into gas. Gas is actually being discovered all around the world, including in America, shale gas, unconventional gas.

We're going to need the wind, but the truth is to debate 1%, when you've got 30% coal, we're not doing justice to the environmental challenge never mind the energy challenge.

I'm not a natural labour voter, but based on this, it's a shame his brother Ed was made leader instead of him....