Gordon Brown is planning several new nuclear power stations in Britain which would take some pressure off our reliance on fossil fuels. However, this solution could take as long as solving the England football team's problems.

It seems we have finally been pushed into a corner and nuclear energy is the quickest way out in producing energy that emits little CO2.

Safety worries from examples like Chernobyl now seem almost non-existent with countries such as France and Finland taking advantage of new and more modern technology producing the majority of their power from nuclear resources. France produces almost 80 per cent of her power through nuclear sources.

The proposed power stations are likely to take ten years to build, unless the power companies hire the same idiots responsible for building Wembley Stadium. There is anxiety over what the general public is going to do about the environment and rising energy bills.

Many of us are trying to recycle and cut down on energy consumption, though it is difficult in winter. New technology, such as electric cars and solar panels, should be made more readily available to the public if the government hopes to reach renewable energy targets. But the aims to achieve higher renewable sources and a reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 could be cast underground with nuclear waste if the new plans go through.

Energy companies seem to now be the richest and most powerful corporations in the world.

Over the winter, they have exploited people with constant price hikes and the Government has been unable to do anything. With crude oil now selling at more than a hundred dollars a barrel, the Government will be hoping that nuclear power can stop to this trend, but we are unlikely to know this for another decade or more.

Meanwhile, energy suppliers hold the customer to ransom, left confused by so many price increases. I have known people over the winter change energy suppliers two or three times after seeing prices rise across the market. Energy suppliers are clever, they know that people have to get their energy from somewhere and eventually they all put their prices up and it becomes a closed market again.

The near future looks bleak, many will still struggle with energy costs during this unstable time. Even more people could suffer if energy companies leave users to bear the cost of the new power stations. Hopefully, Business Secretary John Hutton will follow up his plans for tax breaks offered to energy corporations within the nuclear power movement so that this doesn't happen.

The Government must use this nuclear power ambition to force issues and take more opportunities to develop alternative energy sources.

In the quest to save the planet, the Government must be prepared to compromise.

Greenpeace have called the nuclear project, "too little, too late", but they were opposed to nuclear energy in the first place. Everyone has to support new, safer energy sources. This would allow a better chance of conserving energy and cutting carbon emissions.

The Government say that the power stations will take ten years to come online. That will take us to 2018 when England hopes to host the football World Cup. It would be nice if they were both on time for once.