LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME


[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]

Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Windfarm subsidy faces huge cut 

Credit:  Brian Brady, The Independent, www.independent.co.uk 3 June 2012 ~~

Treasury officials are drawing up plans for swingeing cuts in state support for onshore wind-farms, it was claimed last night. This is a dramatic move that threatens to undermine David Cameron’s claim to lead the greenest government ever.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has demanded a 25 per cent cut in a subsidy regime that is worth some £400m a year to the industry, according to a report in The Observer.

The cost-cutting move is believed to have opened up a split with Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary, whose party has a long-standing commitment to developing the renewable energy market.

But the veteran Tory MP Tim Yeo, who is chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, complained that Mr Davey’s department was being stifled by Treasury demands.

He said: “This is an example of where the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s attempts to stimulate renewable energy are being hamp-ered by Treasury intervention.

“The way to deal with this – and realise the savings the Treasury wants to achieve – is to have more onshore renewable energy, which requires lower levels of subsidy, and less offshore, which requires more. We need to change the balance.”

Claims of a Treasury move against onshore subsidies will improve Mr Osborne’s standing among his own MPs, which has been flagging in recent weeks following a string of U-turns on his Budget announcements. In February, more than 100 Tory backbenchers wrote to the Prime Minister demanding cuts to the multimillion-pound public subsidies for wind-farms, which they see as evidence of too much Lib Dem influence.

Chris Heaton-Harris, a Tory MP who led the backbench campaign for cuts, told The Observer he was greatly encouraged by the suggestions that Mr Osborne had listened to his colleagues.

“I want to see a dramatic cut,” he said, arguing that onshore wind power was expensive compared with gas and that it would drive up fuel poverty.

But Juliet Davenport, chief executive of the renewable electricity supplier Good Energy, said the move was “a reckless act of political opportunism” designed to boost Mr Osborne’s popularity among his own MPs.

Gordon Edge, policy director at the industry group RenewableUK, said: “It is crackers to kill dead the deployment of the cheapest renewable technology if you genuinely are worried about the cost.”

Source:  Brian Brady, The Independent, www.independent.co.uk 3 June 2012

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.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky