Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:55 pm on 6 June 2018.
I think it's very important to separate the question of energy poverty, and how we solve energy poverty, from the exploitation of natural resources that are here today but if we were to exploit them now they would be gone tomorrow and they'd be gone for every single future generation. We don't support the extraction of shale gas. We will not support the extraction of shale gas. What we will go on supporting is the development of energy development systems that can provide affordable energy and address energy inequality across communities. Of course, projects like the Swansea tidal lagoon are pathfinder projects for Wales, they will be new projects, but they could showcase Wales as the provider of renewable energy for millions of homes, and just as shale gas has temporarily given the United States some degree of energy independence, I believe, in the long term, renewable energy generation through tidal power could give Wales a degree of energy independence as well, as well as affordable energy for the people of the country.