UK Government announcements on energy policy today make clear the profits of international energy companies will trump UK households need for lower energy bills. BBC interviewer Nick Robinson skewered Ed Miliband on a morning interview, in which he accused Labour of “guesswork” over the UK’s energy preparedness. In particular Miliband failed to provide a shred of evidence that prices would drop as a result of the new energy policies.
Each household pays an average of £1750 for energy each year, so it is their money being spent to criss-cross the UK with copper cabling, shipped over from the mines of Zaire and the DRC. The decisions being made now will determine how hundreds of billions will be spent over the next 5 years. And there has been no meaningful consultation with anyone outside of tight circle of Miliband’s favoured energy execs – the same old story.
Miliband promises no power cuts this winter
Only a small part of the total investment is to come from Great British Energy. The multinational energy companies are expected to come up with £40bn a year according to Chria Stark, from “Mission Control”. So far just one major utility company has announced concrete investment plans as part of a vast decarbonisation programme that is supposedly to be completed in the next 5 years.(Iberdrola pledged £22b, although there have been few details.)
“What we are setting out today is a plan for a new era of electricity,” Miliband told millions of listeners on the Today show. But actually there was no plan. No specifics, no roadmap, and no timing for any of his claims.
Still no clue how they will spend the £8.3 billion
There was remarkably little detail about Great British Energy , the centrepiece of the government’s growth mission – no word on exactly how it would be operating, or what its first priorities would be. But enough was released to get a clear picture.
Hidden in the small print of the government’s accompanying press release, was piece of news. It appears the £8.3bn pledged to Great British Energy will be spent almost entirely on local or community energy. That is the good news. On the other hand, much of this money will be funnelled though local authorities which means it may be delayed by bureaucracy, and local interest groups will also slow down projects.
And based on the progress to date, it will be another year before any of those local community funds begin funding actual projects.
The key line in the announcement earlier today was one saying Great British Energy will spend its entire £8.3b on ”increas(ing) the quantum and consistency of Community Funds for transmission networks.”
Note the word consistency. The entire top down approach will dependent on rigid rules, that will stifle innovation and slow down the-already lumbering process to a snail’s pace
Local authorities will have little freedom of actions since “the recommended level of benefit, scope, eligibility, delivery costs, and the role of communities and developers“ will be decided by central government. It is the worst of all worlds – our energy money handed to local government with one hand, but then controlled and restricted by government edict with the other.
There are no significant plans to date for individuals and local communities to operate free of the dead hand of local government.
