The Energy Bill is set to become law after the government saw off a last ditch attempt in the House of Lords to insert an amendment on the decarbonisation of coal plants.

The move led by crossbench peer Lord Oxburgh was defeated by 262 votes to 215, on 11 December 2013, as peers considered Commons' amendments to the bill.

The bill was back in the Lords after MPs overturned an amendment by Lib Dem Lord Teverson that would have made old coal plants subject to new regulations limiting carbon emissions.

The government had argued that this would threaten security of supply and increase costs to consumers by accelerating the closure of coal power plants without speeding up the opening of new ones.

'Wrong message'

In the Lords, Energy Minister Baroness Minister urged the House to accept the Commons' decision.

She repeated the government's objections to the amendment, and said that delaying the bill would undermine investor confidence.

Lord Teverson said he would withdraw it in favour of Lord Oxburgh's "compromise" amendment, which also secured the support of the opposition frontbench, Labour's Viscount Hanworth and crossbencher Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, among others.

But Tory former Environment Secretary Lord Jenkin of Roding appealed to peers not to "delay" the bill any further, emphasising that it would send the "wrong message" if it had to be sent back to the Commons again; a stage known as parliamentary "ping pong".

Lord Oxburgh, a leading geologist and climate change expert, said his proposed amendment was intended to "make it clear that a role for unabated coal in the national energy mix is not foreseen beyond 2025 and that, indeed, is the government's position".

But Lady Verma said it would risk security of supply and damage investor confidence.

She said everyone was agreed that unabated coal has a "limited future" as the UK moves to a low-carbon economy, "but no responsible government should take risks that put energy security in danger".

Lord Oxburgh was not dissuaded from pressing for a vote on his amendment, which was defeated by a majority of 47.