Energy Industries Club

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

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

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.

Key Personnel

David Porter, the President of the Energy Industries Club is also the CEO of Association of Electricity Producers (AEP). Past President's include Robert Hawley, Robert Evans and Archie Lamb.

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