Renewable vandalism
Holyrood Magazine, www.holyrood.com/index.php 27 June 2011
It seems astonishing to me that Finance Secretary John Swinney has complained to Scottish Power about its 10 per cent electricity bill hike when he knows full-well that it is his government’s ludicrous renewable energy policy that is to blame. Its fanatical brand of on-shore and off-shore wind ‘religion’ is funded by massive subsidies which all have to be paid for by the beleaguered consumers.
The Renewable Obligation Certificates and feed-in tariffs will continue to pour money into the pockets of landowners, the Crown Estate and greedy power companies for years to come, until Scotland is bristling with 6000 turbines and our electricity bills have trebled. By that stage the Scottish Government will have presided over the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in Scotland’s recent history.
Moreover, with wind turbines only producing electricity for around 21 per cent of their active life, Scotland will still need to build new gas-fired power plants or import nuclear-generated electricity from England and France to provide base-load backup. What a shambles.
I hope Mr Swinney has the good sense not to express surprise or cast blame too widely when Scotland’s tourist industry collapses because no one wants to visit our vandalised landscape anymore.
STRUAN STEVENSON, MEP
Brussels
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/06/27/renewable-vandalism/