Chris Huhne's speech at the Royal Geographical Society was, on the whole, a reasonably pragmatic and down-to-earth one.
There was one thing that jarred for me, though. He compared a portfolio of energy supply sources, in this context electricity generation technologies, with financial portfolios backing pension funds etc. And he used those famous words "energy security".
The two things are just not comparable in this way. Financial assets are, in the main, liquid; power generation assets have long lead times and are concrete (excuse the pun). One cannot play power asset the way one can play financial ones. We will build just enough generating capacity and if one technology fails, or proves to be highly expensive relative to others post hoc, then we will suffer the consequences, there's no getting away from it. Sure, a diversity of supply lessens the degree of supply upset but sure as eggs is eggs it doesn't constitue security.
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