Yesterday it was claimed in both the Mail and the Telegraph that energy prices were likely to increase by almost a third to £1,900 by the end of the decade.
Yesterday it was claimed in both the Mail and the Telegraph that energy prices were likely to increase by almost a third to £1,900 by the end of the decade.
The claim was based on a report by the Taxpayers’ Alliance and was really intended to show how energy bills were being driven up by green taxes.
The TPA report claimed that electricity bills would increase by 29 per cent between now and 2020 due to green measures, and 100 per cent by 2030 – based on a report by Liberum Capital.
However as Damian Kahya puts it at the Greenpeace Energydesk blog:
“Energydesk contacted the TPA to ask how they’d worked this out. Their response is somewhat confusing…What they are saying here is that the government wants gas bills to be high because otherwise people will revolt against rising electricity bills to pay for clean energy. If this were true, it would be the story of the century and act of political self-destruction on an epic scale. But it’s not….
“Most people, including The Committee on Climate Change and The government and The CBI say gas prices have risen (driving up bills) and will probably rise more. But they do not predict they’ll rise because of a conspiracy to ensure they keep pace with green energy.
“They predict they’ll rise because gas is getting more expensive. In fact, that tends to be cited as a reason to use green energy – so as to protect consumers from rising gas prices.
“If, as some others predict, gas prices do not rise, then the pressure on consumers paying a gas and electricity bill will be reduced. In other words, they will be more able to afford any increases in their electricity bills.
“In short, the claim made by the TaxPayers’ Alliance – which underlay two national stories and a parliamentary campaign – has no evidence to support it at all.”
Definitely worth a read.
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14 Responses to “Misleading Taxpayers’ Alliance claims about green energy costs”
Cole
Eh?
blarg1987
Lets see, The space programme / military programmes, all asked for abilities to process many calculations into units as samll and light as possible, the worlds first official computer was ordered to calculate gunnery tables, who issued these contracts? The state.
Yes the private sector innovated off that i.e found other markets, but things like the ARM chip came of the back of the BBC schools computer programme which was a state contract.
You look at smart phones, the vast majority of their technology can be traced back to state contracts, all that has happened is the innovation to combine several off the shelf parts into a product for the mass market.
SadButMadLad
Oh that fallacy. Yes the state did encourage such inventions but no way did it stipulate what it should be. Business decided that itself by competing with each other to get the tenders from the state. And if the state wasn’t there, the inventions would still have been carried out.
blarg1987
No it is fact, as I said the state created the market and the private sector is good at innovating from the thigns that are produced.
Yes I agree inventions would still have been carried out, however I do not think we would have landed on the moon, and have gps, or many other things we take for granted. If we did we would only be having it now or when the markets believe it is economically viable. As these things cost more, then fewe industries are willing to take the risk.
Also of note, many private companies do get paid to do the R and D, the F 22 and F 35 have clauses which mean that all tenderers get paid to submit a tender at no cost to themsleves .