Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has been doing a misplaced victory lap on social media over the government securing 131 new clean energy projects. The first bidding round for green energy projects took place under the Tories in 2023, though no deals were made as the subsidies were too low, so they increased the subsidies for the 2024 round. Miliband upped them even further, doubling the allowance. Not solely a Labour – or Miliband – win, then…
This isn’t something to boast about, especially since the expansion will saddle energy bill payers with a £10 billion cost. Consumers will end up paying foreign companies £82 per MWh in government subsidies to build these solar and wind farms. Meanwhile, Net Zero Watch has research that suggests a loophole in Government contracts could cost households up to £180 million a year. Their director aptly said:
“How many times were we subjected to the chorus of ‘wind is cheap’? That refrain now rings hollow and these results show Miliband’s green utopianism to be even more costly and impractical than once feared.”
Still, Reeves continues to blame the Tories for the surprise “black hole” as she prepares for the “painful” budget that’s sure to see tax rises for working people. Labour are doing as they always do: tax and spend, tax and spend…
Despite the general hullabaloo over climate inside government at the moment – including the resignations of Chris Skidmore and Climate Change Committee CEO Chris Stark – Rishi Sunak remains committed to reaching the 2050 UK Net Zero target. His position falls between two stools: doing a bit more on North Sea oil, but sticking to the big 2050 target. As we enter 2024, the rubber is now hitting the road on the countdown to Net Zero, along with the associated costs for taxpayers…
Key to reaching Net Zero for any future Labour government is a process called carbon capture and storage – which syphons off carbon emissions at the point of electricity generation. Carbon capture technology is not cheap and generally requires government investment. Guido hears that the UK government will, in the next 24 hours, approve a significant scheme in North Yorkshire. You’d expect it would be welcome news for the green lobby…
It’s curious, then, to find energy think tank Ember – Labour’s “independent climate advisers” according to The Guardian – out attacking the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ahead of the move. The Drax scheme (whatever you make of Net Zero) will avoid taxpayer’s money being spent on a range of policies such as the imposition of heat pumps (735,000 to be precise, costing £5 billion), loathed by homeowners, or increasing imported biomass by 10%, which greenies themselves claim to hate. The project is set to be endorsed by ministers partly because it will save taxpayers £700 million a year – or £25 a household – vs other more costly routes to Net Zero nirvana. Further complicating things for its critics, it will also create 10,000 jobs, underwriting 7000 more. In high tax times, if we must continue to have Net Zero, it must be done as efficiently as possible. The climate will be right for politicians who work this one out, Labour or otherwise…
Green energy companies have been turning up the spin on incentives for landowners to embrace wind turbines. According to council documents from last summer, one Welsh local farmer claimed he was offered a night out at a lap dancing club along with a chunk of change to convince him to sign up to the energy endeavours. Electrifying…
One resident said: “I can just imagine them [Bute Energy] trying to turn the head of a lonely farmer by offering him a night out at a strip joint in Cardiff.” Bute Energy have denied the allegations…
Green energy companies have offered vast financial incentives to Welsh farmers to sign up for wind generators and pylons, with some earning £100,000 a year. Though a whirl in a strip club apparently wasn’t enough for the farmer to give up his green land…
