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Embracing alternatives
Editorial, Guardian
“Wow!” wrote one blogger after reading this paper’s disclosure of ministers’ plans to ramp up the provision of greener energy. And if they were actually put into practice, he or she vowed, “I will dance around the house singing hallelujah!” Which about sums up the astonishment many environmentalists felt about yesterday’s announcement. Such ambition from a government already so far behind its renewables targets? From the prime minister who went to Saudi Arabia at the weekend to ask for more oil? From the energy minister who admitted just a few weeks ago to negotiating with the EU to reduce the UK’s green commitments? Surely it was too good to be true?
We shall see. But judging by yesterday’s statements, the government has at last got serious about the need to move the UK from being an economy ever-more hooked on gas and oil from abroad to one that generates its own, cleaner energy. It was not just the promise of 30 times the amount of offshore wind power, 7m solar water-heating systems, reducing energy demand – all by 2020 – it was also the language used. Gordon Brown forecast “the most dramatic change in energy policy since the advent of nuclear power” while admitting it would be a wrench – and an expensive one at that. The economy will not grow as fast as it otherwise would have done and all these new plants should cost about £100bn, most (if not all) of which will eventually land on household bills. “Green tax to hit gas bills” was how one paper responded to the plans yesterday; Mr Brown had better get used to such headlines.
(27 June 2008)
Comment by Ashley Seager at Guardian: A renewed effort on green energy.
Rising bills will pay for low-carbon economy
Terry Macalister, The Guardian
Household gas bills could rise by up to 37% and electricity costs by 13% as the government lines up consumers to pay for a green revolution that would move Britain from oil dependence to a low carbon economy.
A renewable energy strategy outlined by ministers yesterday signalled that energy bills could soar by hundreds of pounds, and could push over 2 million extra people into fuel poverty.
John Hutton, the industry secretary, said proceeding with business as usual was not an option in the face of climate change, and added that the price of change was “really quite modest”. But he promised special measures to ensure the poorest sections of the community were not hit hardest: “We have got to provide help, if we can, to low-income families particularly those with children, to meet the rising cost of energy.”
(28 June 2008)
Britain goes slow as trains, planes and ships cut fuel costs
Dan Milmo and Jo Adetunji, Guardian
The soaring cost of oil has led to the slowing of vehicles of almost every type in Britain, from planes to trains, ferries, merchant vessels, buses and private cars.
Pilots and ships’ captains have been ordered to go slow, train drivers have been asked to switch off engines and coast downhill and bus companies are training staff to drive more smoothly in order to cut costs.
As the oil price hit a record high of $142 a barrel (£71.14) yesterday, two big British airlines, easyJet and BMI, confirmed they had asked their pilots to fly more slowly.
(28 June 2008)
