Energy Industries Club

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

Background

The Energy Industries Club is an energy industry body that keeps its membership secret. Its members are drawn from firms and companies in the field, including suppliers, major customers, oil and gas companies and nationalised industries.

Its website says that members meet over eight lunches a year, at the Naval and Military Club in St James Square, London. A "high profile guest speaker provides a brief presentation and opportunity for lively discussion" about "current and future challenges affecting the energy industry". The website adds: "To facilitate free discussion, meetings are private with no reporting of the proceedings."

Pro-nuclear lobbying

On March 15, 2005, the body organized a gathering of UK's top opinion formers: analysts, corporate traders and members of the media where the keynote speech, entitled "UK Nuclear Energy: fuel of the future?", was delivered by Mike Alexander, the Chief Executive of British Energy.

Committee

The following people are listed on the Club’s ‘Committee’ webpage:

President

• Mike Rolls

Past Presidents

• Louise Kingham

Dr *Jeff Chapman

• William Fortescue

Dr *Robert Hawley

• David Jefferies
• Michael Lodge
• David Porter, CEO of Association of Electricity Producers

Dr *Alf Roberts

Members

• David Green
• John Ingham
• Robert Lane
• Chris Murray
• Lawrence Slade
• David Smith
• Graham Ward

Secretary/Treasurer

• Steve Blackwell

Other Past Presidents

Other Past Presidents include Robert Evans and Archie Lamb REF NEEDED

Guest speakers

In 2012 and 2013, guest speakers have included:

• Tim Yeo MP, Chairman, DECC Select Committee
• Geoffrey Spence, CEO, Infrastructure UK
• Ed Davey MP, Secretary of State, Energy and Climate Change
• Tony Cocker, CEO, E.ON UK
• Basil Scarsella, CEO, UK Power Networks
• Ian Marchant, CEO, Scottish & Southern Energy
• Graham van’t Hoff, Chairman, Shell UK

A Complaint and Request To Remove From the Site

NuclearSpin has had a request from the Energy Industries Club (EIC) to remove its listing from the website. The EIC has pointed out that the article on which its entry is based, written by Jonathan Leake and Dan Box (see reference below), was according to its Secretary and Treasurer, Steve Blackwell, “garbage”. Blackwell argues that the article "tried to imply that the Energy Industries Club is some sort of ‘secret society’ supporting nuclear".

Blackwell says "It is nothing of the sort - purely one where people with an interest in energy meet over lunch with high level speakers from across the sector. Some members used to work in the sector ands remain members even though they are retired. We have former Chairmen of the major energy companies who still attend occasionally”.

The meeting to which Dan Box was invited by the EIG was Chatham House rules and therefore should not have been reported. The EIG also point out that the membership list is not secret as such; it is just never given out to protect members.

Although the EIC says it is neither pro nor anti-nuclear, it may have pro-nuclear members. Steve Blackwell, who has a history of working in the gas industry, argues that although he has no axe to grind either way on nuclear, if we are going to have to reduce carbon dioxide emissions then as Britain’s ageing nuclear power plants are decommissioned they are going to have to be replaced by new nuclear power plants. A list of speakers to the club is available below.

Related Articles

• Jonathan Leake and Dan Box, The Nuclear Charm Offensive, New Statesman, May 23, 2005