Policy & Politics Blog
9 June 2011
The price of everything and the value of nothing?
Like most householders, I read the news earlier this week of yet another increase in gas bills with a resigned sigh - and then promised myself to put the finishing touches to insulating our home.
But today's Daily Mail story - in which so called green taxes were blamed for rising fuel bills - prompted a very different reaction.
It's not green measures that are making energy bills soar - it's the electricity and gas price rises. The UK is dependent on imported oil and gas for much of its energy supply. And with such volatile prices, this means more price rises are likely. Even the energy companies themselves admit this.
But we don't have to carry on like this. The UK has huge renewable energy resources - wind, wave, solar, geothermal. Exploiting these will help us break our dependence on oil and gas - and insulate us from future price hikes. We need to support these emerging industries to help them thrive. We've supported nuclear for 50 years and continue to do so.
It's the short-sightedness of the 'green tax' argument that really irks me. Investment in energy efficiency helps cut fuel bills. The next round of fuel price rises could push a further 100,000 households into fuel poverty, so saving energy is even more important.
That's why we're pushing a Warm Homes amendment to the Energy Bill currently going through Parliament. This would make the Government publish a strategy to cut carbon emissions from homes and end fuel poverty (as they are legally obliged to do by 2016).
And all this will cut bills - analysis by the Government's independent advisors shows that bills will be lower in 2020 if we invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency rather than carry on with business as usual.
Moving away from fossil fuels and nuclear power to focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency has strong public support. If the UK Government followed the lead of Germany, its claims to be the greenest ever would be much stronger - and we could all look forward to an end to ever-rising fuel bills.
Posted by Tony Bosworth | 09 Jun 2011 | Climate Change, Energy
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