Tax Payers Alliance Misses the Point on Renewable Energy
A recent article by the Tax Payers Alliance claims a report by BIS, its ‘International Comparison of Energy and Climate Change Policies Impacting Energy Intensive Industries in Selected Countries,’ shows that DECC policies are killing British Industry by increasing energy costs.
26th July 2012 | Peter Rolton: Chairman, Rolton Group
Carefully selecting a single table from the report, one which shows the UK to have the highest policy-driven increase in Electricity prices due to Energy and Climate Policies, the piece rests it case.
At this superficial level of analysis, one could without further thought be tempted to think they had a point.
However, a more considered evaluation would include a look back into the history of recent years which so significantly informs our current circumstances: with the discovery of North Sea Oil and Gas, the UK enjoyed a period from the 1970s through to the new millennium of relatively cheap energy plugged into the world’s most developed gas grid.
Prior to the last few years of Labour administration, successive Governments ignored the need to invest in Renewable and Alternative Energy infrastructure, and the UK was simply left behind by the rest of Europe.
The size of the investment being made is a direct reflection of the UK’s target of 15% Renewables by 2020; an increase of 13.7% which is the largest of all EU Member states. Is it really surprising therefore that the sector requires the most investment?
The TPA analysis also ignores the positive effect of developing a growing green economy, driven by these very policies. Rather than this being a case of killing industry, it about getting the investment needed to get UK back in shape to be a world-leading Low Carbon Economy. If this can be achieved, the UK will have the low carbon secure energy supplies so urgently needed by 21st century manufacturing.
Without the investment and the transition it is paying for, we are left with the unpleasant prospect of the UK as a Carbon Intense and Energy Insecure place to do business, with energy costs that are dictated by imported energy from diminishing sources overseas.
British Manufacturing has had tough times; I would suggest that this head in the sand approach from the TPA and the consequences of such attitudes would finish it off for good rather than open up the possibility for a better sustainable future.
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