When watching a recent Sky News broadcast from the United Kingdom, we were shocked at the obvious bias in giving time to a sceptic conservative and suggesting that investing in clean energy would lead to higher energy prices for consumers.  This in spite of the UK Government’s ambitious move to meet its legally binding target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels and in spite of a high level of investment in wind, solar, tide and wave energy. The sceptics and deniers – and some in the media as well – are at work to derail a plan to move faster to a clean energy, low carbon future. Maybe it was a strong appeal from the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, but the signs are that the UK Government is losing its way and its will. Read more

UK energy minister attacks climate sceptics as bill set for vote

By Elizabeth Rigby, Jim Pickard and Pilita Clark in Financial Times (3 June 2013):

Ed Davey sought to prove he remained committed to the green agenda on Monday as the energy secretary prepared for a Commons showdown over his refusal to commit to a 2030 green electricity target.

The Liberal Democrat energy secretary lashed out at unnamed “sections of the press” for giving an uncritical platform to “dangerous” climate sceptics who denied that humans caused global warming.

“This is destructive and loudly clamouring scepticism born of vested interest, nimbyism, publicity-seeking controversialism or sheer blinkered, dogmatic, political bloody-mindedness,” he told a group of scientists and business people at a Met Office event in London.

His attack on climate sceptics, before Tuesday’s vote on the energy bill, prompted a furious response from some MPs. David Davis, a senior Conservative backbencher, described his remarks as “astonishing”.

“The last thing Britain needs at a time of rising energy bills is an energy minister who uses dodgy statistics and alarmist rhetoric to justify even more massively flawed green energy policies,” he said.

The speech was aimed in part at persuading Lib Dem backbenchers against supporting an amendment to his energy bill on Tuesday which would commit the UK to near carbon-free electricity generation by 2030.

Mr Davey last year gave into pressure from George Osborne, chancellor, and delayed a commitment for almost all energy to be generated from low-carbon sources such as wind and nuclear by 2030 – much to the dismay of his own party.

The coalition will face a substantial rebellion today as at least a dozen Lib Dems join forces with Labour, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru to support the amendment tabled by Tim Yeo, the green-minded former Conservative minister and chair of the energy select committee, calling for the 2030 target.

Mr Yeo said David Cameron’s majority could be whittled down to just 20. “This could be seen as an encouragement to the House of Lords to take up the fight,” he said.

The energy secretary will rely on Tory MPs to vote down the amendment. Peter Lilley, a Tory backbencher, said the 2030 commitment should be rejected because it was impractical to remove carbon from Britain’s electricity market in such a short timescale.

“We shouldn’t legislate for the impossible in the hope that it will become possible,” said the MP, who sits on the energy select committee.

Mr Lilley, who is also a member of Downing Street’s parliamentary advisory board, said the rollout of renewables would not be enough to meet Britain’s energy needs while the nuclear programme had been “disappointingly slow”.

Mr Lilley, an outspoken critic of the renewables industry, said Britain’s looming energy crunch had been delayed by the recession, giving some breathing space. But he warned: “We have ended up with a spaghetti of regulation, subsidy, tax and controls which this energy bill merely compounds.”

Source: http://www.ft.com/