Update – Energy Bill vote

Our amendment to the Energy Bill, to include Emissions Performance Standards for new power stations, was defeated by 252 votes to 244. So if we’d got just 4 more Labour MPs to rebel, we’d have won it. That’s agonisingly close, and really annoying – but it does also show what a difference thousands of us working together can make. Next time, we’ll just have to make sure there are even more of us. We’ll put up a link to how individual MPs voted as soon as this is published.

In the meantime, a few silver linings:

• -About 5,000 of us emailed our MPs this week about the Energy Bill. “Emissions Performance Standards” aren’t an obviously sexy topic, and MPs getting this volume of pressure sends a powerful signal.
• -There’s still a possibility of the Energy Bill being amended in the Lords
• -The Lib Dems and Conservatives supported the amendment and so are now on record as supporting an EPS – this is something we can hold them to in the future