The press has been full of the confusion over energy pricing and that even the energy company staff selling them dont know which is the best for any particular customer. The criticism of the energy companies have been growing a pace the government is under increased scrutiny over its “green politics“.
The ever increasing energy prices, along with the reported huge profits made by the energy companies, are focusing attention of the coalition government’s green credentials. Until recently their standing was not too bad with the Green Deal to make 14 million homes energy efficient by 2020. Along with the plans to “try” and break the hold of the 6 major providers and to help cash strapped home owners are essential for them to keep public support for their alternative energy programme.
However, at the recent Conservative party conference the Chancellor, George Osborne, took a huge step to destroying confidence that is necessary for investment. He said ”We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business,” when talking about the government’s climate change policy. This is not encouraging for people who are worried about their jobs – if the government wont help industry reduce their energy bills by investing in alternative technology then they may well just stop investing here.
Industry currently has a very focussed campaign - the carbon price support scheme that the Chancellor introduced in the last budget. The purpose of this policy is to stop the price of carbon falling. This is supposed to be an incentive to find alternative sources of energy and of course it also generates significant revenue for the Treasury.
By keeping up the price of carbon, it will in all likelihood drive up even further household bills. It should be remembered that according to government figures every 1% increase on fuel bills pushes another 60,000 households into fuel poverty. These home-owners have to rely on a cash restricted scheme operated by energy suppliers for any relief while at the same time the coalition government are putting together a support package for industry.
At the same time the alternative energy industry has created 10′s of thopusands of jobs in past couple of years. But, the £1billion competition announced by the last govenment for carbon capture technology has only 1 entrant. It appears that big projects are not the right direction at the moment but the time is right for the government to provide support for the alternative energy industry and to back British companies in developing new technology and thus new high-tech jobs to take the country forward.
