Most people will only be thinking about one energy bill this week. With temperatures dropping many will be worrying about how they can heat their home without breaking the bank. Fuel poverty is widespread in Britain—affecting about one in ten households according to the Government’s own statistics.
But today another kind of energy bill is sitting on the desk of MPs.
I’ve been in Parliament for six years—and believe me I’ve seen some shoddy legislation pass through the House of Commons—but this Energy Bill really is up there with the worst.
On a very basic level, and most importantly for the people who are shivering in their homes today, this bill offers nothing on energy efficiency and fuel poverty. If ever a chance had presented itself to roll out a mass insulation programme—which could return £1.27 in tax revenue for every £1 invested by government and create over 100,000 jobs in the UK—this is it. But instead we have a piece of legislation that’s being framed by the Government as "helping bill payers" while doing the exact opposite.
Now you might be thinking (if you’ve studiously avoided reading anything at all in the last few months but Government press releases about the UK’s energy policy) that at least the Government are sticking to their post-Paris pledge to be part of the worldwide fight against climate change. Well, it’s not quite like that. Cameron has gone from hugging a husky to conspiring to melt the poor dog’s home, all the while speaking as if he’s built it a luxury mansion.
At a time when we should be speeding up deployment of renewable energy, getting serious about energy efficiency, and working out how to leave the vast majority of fossil fuels in the ground, this Bill takes us in the opposite direction. It builds on the government's current strategy to maximise the economic recovery of oil and gas. A glance at the Department for Energy and Climate Change's Twitter account makes clear its current thinking:
Particularly damaging is the early closure of the government's Renewables Obligation for onshore wind. The proposed change was amended out of the Bill by the House of Lords but might well be put back in. It would undermine investment, destroy jobs, and it flies in the face of Ministerial rhetoric on keeping costs down—especially considering that the government is to spend an eye watering amount on subsidies for new nuclear power..@andrealeadsom Oil is a vital part of our energy mix + we're focused on what more can be done to support the oil & gas industry #DECCorals — DECC (@DECCgovuk) January 7, 2016
This attack on onshore wind will also crush the aspirations of many local people and businesses to harness wind power for their own benefit.
Even the environmental olive branch offered in this Bill is rotten. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is much-loved by the fossil fuel firms because it is the ultimate distraction from an inevitable truth: that it is essential we keep the vast majority of oil, coal and gas reserves in the ground. Indeed, a Carbon Tracker report from 2013 shows that even if CCS were deployed in line with an idealised scenario by 2050, it would only extend fossil fuel carbon budgets (which state the amount of carbon we can burn before global temperatures rise by two degrees) by four per cent of total global reserves. It is extremely unlikely that CCS will come online before 2030, and even if it does, by that stage the global carbon budget may already be used up. In summary: CCS just won’t help us avoid catastrophic climate change.
It’s hard to know why the Government’s proposals are so exceptionally poor. Is it because it fears standing up to the fossil fuel companies, or is nervous about handing communities the means to generate their own power? Or do ministers just not care? Are their warm words nothing more than hot air?
Ultimately we needed a Bill that locked Britain into maximising the economic security, energy security and employment security that home-grown renewables provide. We got nothing of the sort. Across the country people have taken the fight against climate change into their own hands—they have created energy co-ops, they have run anti-fracking campaigns and solar schools. My hope resides in those movements. The government just can’t be trusted on energy policy.
