Unequal benefits
The Scotsman | 26 December 2013 | www.scotsman.com
The guid folk of Fetterangus – all 350 of them – have indeed every reason to celebrate a very Merry Christmas and many Happy New Years stretching away into the future (“Best Christmas present ever – wind turbine to earn village £75k a year”, 23 December).
I am not so sure, however, about the communities, particularly the deprived ones, who are funding this largesse from their fuel bills. Normally resources are allocated among communities on the basis of need, but the community benefit schemes associated with the renewables subsidy regime are distorting these traditionally progressive mechanisms.
Surely the aforementioned schemes and the millions of pounds being transferred to already rich landowners on whose estates commercial wind farms are located call into question the much-vaunted egalitarian nature of Scottish society. The energy strategy so enthusiastically supported by the Scottish Government achieves little more than an increase in an already disgraceful degree of inequality.
John Milne
Ardgowan Drive Uddingston
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/12/26/unequal-benefits/