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« Ross responds | Main | Ross McKitrick: an evidence-based approach to pricing CO2 emissions - cartoon notes by Josh »
Thursday
Jul042013

TPA fights green taxes

The Taxpayers' Alliance is doing a sterling job fighting green taxes, with the Mail covering a new campaign launched today.

 

Punitive green taxes will help inflate the average family energy bill by almost a third to £1,900 by the end of the decade.

By 2020, green charges and tax will make up £620 of the typical annual bill for gas and electricity, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

The group will today launch a campaign to persuade ministers to ‘stop the energy swindle’ as households struggle with record charges.

 

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Reader Comments (27)

Good!

A secondary headline in the article reads 'This swindle is a political vanity project'. That is exactly how I hope the great majority will come to view this and other outcomes of the ludicrous Climate Change Act. And the Act itself.

Jul 4, 2013 at 11:52 AM | Registered CommenterJohn Shade

Good to see people with a different main agenda catching up to the nature of the swindle. Nice also to think that the topic might be on the way to regular pub discussion - reaching a ‘tipping point’ even...

Jul 4, 2013 at 12:02 PM | Registered Commenterjamesp

I hope it exposes the Green Taliban as an important contributor to the steeply rising energy poverty. As well as highlighting that they ignore the decimation of certain birds who fly close to the wind turbines and the destruction of countryside.

Jul 4, 2013 at 12:03 PM | Unregistered CommenterConfusedPhoton

Someone has set up an energy swindle calculator, not sure how accurate it is - but made me smile if it makes people stop and think about it.

http://energyswindle.org/

Jul 4, 2013 at 12:28 PM | Unregistered CommenterJack Cowper

Somebody said that Camoron exposed his complete lack of understanding of the subject at yesterday's PMQT. We are truly in the hands of ignoramuses.

Jul 4, 2013 at 12:40 PM | Registered CommenterPhillip Bratby

Jack Cowper,

An excellent website. Make sure to e-mail your MP - it's very easy to do from this site.

Jul 4, 2013 at 12:44 PM | Unregistered CommenterCapell
Jul 4, 2013 at 12:52 PM | Registered CommenterPaul Matthews

Somebody said that Camoron exposed his complete lack of understanding of the subject at yesterday's PMQT. We are truly in the hands of ignoramuses.

These abominable ignoramuses, ignorant of science but also of common sense, decency, empathy, financial discretion, economic wisdom and indeed have visited upon us a spavined nightmare vision of some sort of Utopian but completely inviable reality [the EU].

Ignoramuses, it is they who bear a tangible and deliberate ill will towards the British, the green agenda - is but one division of the forces part of the all out assault on the nation.

They call themselves Libdems, Liebour, Tory, time to wise up Britain, kick them all out.

Jul 4, 2013 at 1:05 PM | Unregistered CommenterAthelstan.

Just watched the news that Cameron has opened the largest off shore wind farm. I gather he is proud of it. He also trumpeted that it was a first for Britain. What an incompetent idiot he is.

Jul 4, 2013 at 1:19 PM | Unregistered CommenterPeter Stroud

Meanwhile, BBC Breakfast this morning hectors us that we are using "too much" hot water, and if we take shorter showers and boil less water in the kettle, like good little citizens should, we could save £22 a year - yes, A YEAR - on energy costs.

I mean, what's £620 a year in green taxes when we can easily save as much as TWENTY TWO pounds a year by adopting a strict regime of timing ourselves in the shower??

Jul 4, 2013 at 1:34 PM | Unregistered CommenterAngusPangus

Climate Skeptic Movement is approaching this the wrong way.

Sorry to say this but Immigration, Law and Order Education these are the main public concerns.

Sorry to say but Higher Energy Bills and Fuel Poverty is a Cinderella Issue.People just pay extra .Then they Demand Higher Wages and Benefits and Business just puts up its Prizes.

Boris Johnson said Wind Turbines couldn't pull the Skin of a Rice Pudding.The Sun is Backing Shale and someone Bugged Rupert Murdock.

Link Climate Mitigation and Carbon Reduction to Reduced Public Spending is a better bet.

The 17 Billion Wasted on Windmills think how many Hospitals, Policemen, Schools ,Soldiers that buys.

Think of the Headlines that buys

A Press that has been battered by Lord Justice Levison .Get them on an anti Wind (Politician Eco Vanity) Turbine cause.

Government is bringing compulsory anti pornography internet filtering.

The Press needs a new Crusade.

Jul 4, 2013 at 2:04 PM | Unregistered Commenterjamspid

Yet another reason to recognise that AGW is a regressive, right wing project.

Jul 4, 2013 at 2:22 PM | Unregistered Commenteresmiff

It is good to see this campaign getting off the ground.

However, I think that they underestimate how much one is already paying as a consequence of the current energy policy (which was largely inherrited from Labour, and the coalition have simply continued to run with it).

Some months ago, there was a post covering an interview of Chairman/Financial Director of Scottish and Souther Energy. It was a BBC Hardtalk interveiw, and was available on iplayer.

He clearly stated that only 50% of the electricity bil represents the costs of supply. The other 50% covers matters incidental to the government energy policy, ie., subsidies for renewables, subsidies for improvements to insulation and other energy saving initiatives, assistance to those in fuel poverty (this latter item might include write offs of bad debts).

I do not know what the average UK electricity bill is, but I would guess that it is in the region of £650. If that is so, already the customer is paying £325 to cover incidentals relating to current enrgy policy.

The istuation with gas is not yet so bad. It may well be the case that about 70% represents the costs of supply, with the remaining 30% covering incidentals relating to current energy policy. If that is so and if the average gas bill is about £830, then the customer is already paying about £250 to cover incidentals relating to current enrgy policy.

It seems to me that the customer is already paying approximately £575 to cover incidentals relating to current enrgy policy.

Of course, there are big furture increases given the already set and escalating carbon floor price, plus further subsidies for rewables. I suspect that a more realistic 2020 figure will be between £800 to £900.

I would recommend people to listen to that interview since it is an eye opener as to what people are already paying.

Jul 4, 2013 at 4:22 PM | Unregistered Commenterrichard verney

Not all the costs of government stupidity are added to energy bills; they have given the vehicle manufacturers billions to research and produce white elephants! Ah sorry I meant electric cars. Your road tax and your fuel tax are also raised to fight CO2 emissions.

Jul 4, 2013 at 4:38 PM | Registered CommenterDung

I had never heard of Kenneth Minogue before yesterday, the only Minogue I was aware of was the one with legs that went all the way up to, ah er mmm better not go there ^.^
Sadly I came across him only because I read his obituary in the DT yesterday. There was also a leader article today by Peter Oborne who wrote even more about him and the beliefs he held dear. I believe Minogue would have been a soul mate of most people who post on this site, he fought for individual freedom and against the ever increasing attempts by government to control all aspects of our lives.
Oborne quoted AJP Taylor from his English History 1914-45:
"Until August 1914 a sensible law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the state", oh dear what have they done to us?

Jul 4, 2013 at 4:57 PM | Registered CommenterDung

It’s disingenuous for DECC to say this:


‘It’s the global gas price, not green subsidies, that has primarily been pushing up energy bills.
‘Sixty per cent of the increase in household energy bills between 2010 and 2012 was caused by this.
‘Investing in home grown alternatives is the only sure fire way of insulating our economy and bill payers from this volatility.’

When it comes to energy pricing only an idiot would use historic price trends and current supply chains to predict future European gas markets. Gas is going to get very cheap in Europe. The world is awash in new gas coming on line and infrastructure is rapidly being built to turn these massive surpluses into a global commodity. In future, global markets and spot deals will set the prices in Europe. Companies such as Gazprom are already panicking as their supply stranglehold is being eroded – competition is coming. This is already evidenced by short term deals being signed in preference to long term expensive contracts and companies such as Centrica doing deals to bring cheap US shale gas here. The conditions that set high gas prices in Europe over the last 10 years have vanished. Of course DECC knows this but they seem reluctant to update their pricing models because it will make them look entirely stupid on renewables. Not only will the UK be locked in to pay for high cost renewable energy generation but it is diverting certainty away from the right investment – scaling up our ability to access and utilise cheap domestic and international gas supplies. Gas is the banker, the no-brainer, everything should be directed at maximising gas generation because everything else will undoubtedly be peripheral. If the dreamers in DECC are allowed to continue their policy fantasy of carbon free energy for much longer the expense will destroy the remnants of our manufacturing industry and our economy.

Jul 4, 2013 at 5:56 PM | Unregistered CommenterChairman Al

>We are truly in the hands of ignoramuses.

PPE seems to maximise the lack of ability.

Jul 4, 2013 at 6:00 PM | Unregistered CommenterAC1

You've got to laugh:
//
Course material

The programme is rooted in the view that to understand social phenomena one must approach them from several complementary disciplinary directions and analytical frameworks. In this regard, the study of philosophy is considered important because it both equips students with meta-tools such as the ability to reason rigorously and logically, and facilitates ethical reflection.
//

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy,_Politics_and_Economics

Jul 4, 2013 at 6:44 PM | Unregistered Commenternot banned yet

O/T
Or maybe not.

http://www.coalguru.com/other_region/uk_coal_mine_holdings_ceo_joins_green_investor_geencoat_uk_wind/10443

http://www.greencoat-ukwind.com/

“The flotation is being backed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and SSE, who have agreed to buy a combined 45% of the shares on offer.”

So the CEO of failing UK Coal joins the board of this scam Turncoat outfit funded by the taxpayer.

Some conflict of interest?

Jul 4, 2013 at 6:46 PM | Unregistered Commentermartin brumby

This report seems to focus only on the direct impact on household gas and electricity bills. The overall financial burden must be much greater because the multitude of subsidies, carbon taxes, FiTs, etc drive up the cost of just about everything.
What service or product will not be made more expensive by these charges?
They hit all forms of manufacturing, service industry, transport, commodity business and so on.
It would be enlightening to see what their effect is on the overall cost of living, on top of the direct increases in power and gas.

Jul 4, 2013 at 6:48 PM | Unregistered CommenterMikeH

Yet another reason to vote UKIP.

The problem is political and the only way it will change is if we vote against those responsible anywhere and everywhere we can.

Jul 4, 2013 at 7:03 PM | Unregistered Commenterdave

RICS have published a study showing no payback to householders from solar in their lifetime. Sorry, no link cos I'm on the mobly - The Independant, Environment.

Jul 4, 2013 at 7:40 PM | Unregistered Commenterssat

RICS have published a study showing no payback to householders from solar in their lifetime. Sorry, no link cos I'm on the mobly - The Independant, Environment.

Jul 4, 2013 at 7:40 PM | ssat
///////////////////////////////

And we can no longer buy cheap panels from China (either for original fitment, or as replacement for worn out units).

The additional tarriff that the EU has now imposed on these panels makes solar even less attractive for the home owner. What with the risk that it may put off future potential home buyers, and the risk that the government will in the future be forced to reduce feed in tarriffs, it is difficult to see why anyone would wish to incur such a substantial capital outlay. I suspect that the solar industry is in for a tough time.

The only cost effective form of solar energy is low grade energy for domestic hot water heating, provided that one resides in a sunny climate.

For examply, in Spain, one can buy systems for as little as about €800, but more typically fitted for about €2,000 and these can provide the majority of domestic hot water for 10 months of the year. The system would pay back in about 4 to 10 years depending upon whether you can fit it yourself. Not such a great capital outlay and a reasonable pay back time. The position in the UK is not so good since it is a rather cloudy country.

Jul 5, 2013 at 12:13 AM | Unregistered Commenterrichard verney

If your taxing the people for environmental purposes.

I think it needs to be more clear:
Exactly what activity is being taxed.
Why that particular activity.
How much of the tax goes toward nature preservation and environmental concerns.
What projects are undertaken to help the natural environment.
How much difference the money/project makes to the natural environment.

Jul 5, 2013 at 3:03 AM | Unregistered CommenterGreg Cavanagh

I do not have the wherewithal. No need to agree:-)
What is needed is for someone to start a campaign to build wind farms in Richmond Park, Bushey Park and in the centre of the Thames in Kingston-upon-Thames. Then see if Ed Davey supports the building of these energy inefficient relics to a bye gone age. I doubt if he would because if he did then he would not last long as an MP (Mega Pratt).

Jul 5, 2013 at 8:09 AM | Unregistered CommenterStacey

I have long wondered when TPA would get their act together. As others note, this only touches the surface of the extent to which Green influences cost the taxpayer. I am sure someone is working on a more definitive overview of the total cost of the madness even as we sit and despair. As more and more people start to realise how incomparably asinine our current crop of policymakers is, the cries from the alarmists will become ever more shrill and the contrast between the sane and the raving loonies ever more stark.

The political capital to be gained from standing against this flagrant waste of money is immense.

This stupidity is unsustainable.

Jul 5, 2013 at 8:45 AM | Unregistered CommenternoTrohpywins

I can't get this out of my head, I have to share it, it I may Andrew, honestly - the despair bouncing - resonates in my skull and Strewth "lxy001"@ 25 recommends, dear God.

It all started with this, to paraphrase James Delingpole - "weapons grade toss" from Camoron.


David Cameron was on hand to cut the ribbon on the London Array, a massive renewable energy project, in a move that industry sources hoped would herald renewed enthusiasm from the government for renewable power after the animosity to windfarms on the Tory backbenches.

"This is a great day for Britain and a big win for renewable energy," Cameron said at the opening ceremony. "London Array shows you can build large-scale renewable energy projects right here in Britain. This is because when it comes to clean energy, the UK has one of the clearest investment climates globally."

Graun'


Even bigger groan:-


lxy001

04 July 2013 7:37pm
Recommend
25

Now we need home owners to invest in energy efficient LED bulbs, insulated their lofts etc. Use bikes or buy more efficient cars and we can make more progress on reducing fossil fuel imports.

"NOW"? Then "WE"? Dear me and for ferkin ell - I hope he/she/it/flora/fauna - is not including me.

Is it any wonder, that, the nation has "gone to the dogs"?

Jul 5, 2013 at 9:41 AM | Unregistered CommenterAthelstan.

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