By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
More demands to shift renewable electricity subsidies onto gas bills:
From the Telegraph:
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Energy suppliers have urged Ed Miliband to charge households more for running a gas boiler to boost the uptake of eco-friendly heat pumps and electric vehicles (EVs).
In a letter to the Energy Secretary, suppliers including EDF, EOn, Octopus and OVO warned that a typical household paid four times as much per year in levies on electricity usage than on gas usage.
This makes it less financially attractive to switch to electrically-powered heating and transport, they said, even though ministers want households to adopt EVs and heat pumps to help reduce carbon emissions and Britain’s dependence on natural gas.
The suppliers, supported by charities including Citizens Advice and National Energy Action, called on Mr Miliband to urgently review the system and “rebalance” levies so that they were more evenly spread between electricity and gas usage.
In practice, this would mean charges on gas bills would have to go up for millions of households.
Read the full story here.
Matt Oliver is the Telegraph’s Industry Editor, so I am surprised he has fallen for this dishonest nonsense.
Does he not realise that these so-called “levies” are in reality subsidies for renewable electricity, and therefore reflect the actual cost of producing electricity.
Where else then should these costs be loaded onto?
The letter no doubt serves the interests of the companies sending it. Oliver notes the letter cones from “around 30 organisations including suppliers, investors, industry associations, and charities in the Electrify Britain campaign”.
Launched by EDF and Octopus, Electrify Britain’s aims are:
- to encourage the use of renewable energy
- to promote the adoption of heat pumps
- to electrify transport
In short, they are Net Zero zealots, who do not care about the interests of the public.
I doubt if even a large hike in the price of gas will make any real difference to heat pump installations, which remain unaffordable for most. But what it most certainly would do is leave millions in fuel poverty, unable to afford to heat their homes.
A cut in the price of electricity might benefit the well off, with electric cars and power guzzling appliances. But the pensioner trying to keep warm with his gas boiler will be much worse off.
There is also another problem. A cut in the price of electricity would mainly benefit non-domestic users, whereas the offsetting increase in gas prices would disproportionately affect households.
If Electrify Britain really want lower power prices, why don’t they campaign for an end to pernicious carbon tax, which would lower prices straightaway?