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EU climate plan is wildly impractical 

On January 23 the EU Commission published its proposals “to fight climate change” which inevitably will soon become a “directive”. These proposals attracted little or no comment from the media – even though they look set to destroy our economy.

Proposals can be basically divided into three headings, all to be achieved by 2020:

1. Fifteen per cent of our energy needs should come from “renewable” sources which means wind farms, tide and probably a Severn Barrage.

2. Ten per cent of our transport fuel is to be “bio fuel”.

3. We accept a much more Draconian version of the “emissions trading scheme” which already adds 12 per cent to our electricity bills.

Nuclear power will not be considered as a valid measure even though no CO2 is emitted by a nuclear generator.

The cost, according to Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, will be 0.5 per cent of the whole EU Gross Domestic Product a year. The UK is deemed a “rich” country and will pay, through taxes and electricity bills, much, much more.

To meet proposal No.1 will mean building 20,000 wind turbines or building two structures as high as the Eiffel Tower every day until 2020 – obviously impossible. The cost, according to the Carbon Trust, will be £2 million per megawatt of capacity. The cost of the required 33 gigawatts will thus be £66 billion plus £10 billion to connect up to the National Grid.

Proposal No.2 is sheer lunacy – even Friends of the Earth agree – and will make fuel at the pumps and food much more expensive, say another £5 billion a year.

Proposal No. 3, even by the EU’s own leaked estimates, will cost electricity users in the UK about £6.5 billion a year, or £260 for every household in the country. It will also cause heavy industry to decamp to lower cost areas such as the Far East.

The whole impractical and prohibitively expensive scheme is announced at a time of financial instability with the prospect of a recession just round the corner. If allowed to proceed, it will destroy the UK’s economy.

It’s time our politicians set about governing us from Westminster. We must reject the Lisbon Treaty and re-adopt the old system of government whereby Parliament has the ability to reject impractical and fanciful edicts from Brussels.

Peter Wyatt

Totnes

———

What do we do to deserve such ministers as Jane Davidson, who would condone covering the glorious Welsh landscape with useless wind generators – it does make you wonder who actually votes for these people.

Indeed, the latest sorry saga surrounding the ex-Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain, should make us all thoroughly examine our consciences in the forthcoming elections in May.

A question that begs to be asked of Mr Hain is: “Are there any wind companies with er… connections, (directly or indirectly, to his now notorious think-tank?”

The people of Port Talbot must be wondering what has happened to democracy when they are having a 350Mw wood-chip burning power station which is primarily dependent on fuel delivered from abroad thrust on them – that must do wonders for “controlling” the economics of the scheme and its carbon footprint.

Remember, there is a 2,000Mw gas power station already in the pipeline for west Wales and we export more power than we use – so why is Wales being inflicted with a wood-chip burning power station and even more ineffective wind generators?

Finally, we must not overlook First Minister Rhodri Morgan, who thinks chopping down thousands of trees to be replaced by useless mechanical monsters is a wonderful idea – reminds me of the Latin tag attached to the briefly lived Roman Emperor Galba: “Omnium consensu capax imperii, nisi imperasset – All could agree he had the ability to be Emperor, had he not become Emperor”.

Dave Haskell

Boncath, Pembrokeshire

Western Morning News

4 February 2008

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

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