When Chris Huhne, the UK energy secretary, announced last month that he was cancelling public funding for the Severn barrage – the massive tidal power project which was due to provide around 5 per cent of the UK’s electricity needs – it initially looked like the project was dead in the water.
But the government had left itself some wriggle room. As Sylvia Pfeifer reported at the time (italics mine):
Mr Huhne also confirmed there would be no state funding for the Severn tidal power project, saying the government did not see “a strategic case at this time for public funding”.
