Sunday, December 2, 2012

Victoria's Green Matters - 29th Nov 2012


Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:At long last our ‘greenest government ever’ has decided on an energy policy for the future. It has been a long time coming because of the in-fighting between the LibDem energy secretary and the Conservative chancellor.

Most people will only really be interested in how much energy will cost and, while investment in renewable energy will still need subsidies in the early stages, hence increases in fuel bills, these will be off-set over time by the increasing cost of the rapidly declining stocks of fossil fuels.

Whichever way you look at it, we need to keep the lights on and cutting carbon emissions is a legal requirement so we must work within these boundaries. Cost is a crucial factor but trying to forecast the future when it comes to energy prices is an extremely difficult job. We know that the price of fossil fuels is rising and will continue to do so but the cost of green energy, including its subsidy, is already falling.

However, one of the main causes of disagreement within the government was the need to de-carbonise power generation. It was hoped that plans for this would be included in the policy but it has been deferred until after the next election. Green jobs in the renewable energy sector is the one area where employment is increasing but if the government neglects to invest in the renewables’ market, jobs set for the UK will go abroad.

How very sad that these chances are being jeopardised. Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

No comments:

Post a Comment