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In focus with Sir Bernard Ingham
Up to our ears in debt but value for money still has no appeal
Well, now we know how much Chancellor George Osborne is committed to value for money in energy policy. Not much. True, in his autumn statement he halved subsidies for solar panels but only because their cost has come down substantially. He also brought in £250m energy cost relief for intensive energy users who are supposed to be a prime target for reducing carbon emissions, thereby complicating energy policy still further while usefully helping to retain heavy industry in the UK.
Joanna Yarrow makes some very sensible suggestions for reducing personal carbon footprints, but converting to a green energy tariff is not one of them. It ought surely to be obvious that anyone receiving electricity from the mains supply must draw it from exactly the same mix of sources as everyone else connected to the common grid. Paying for it to a "green" supplier no doubt gives a glow of self-satisfaction, and may contribute a little to future renewable sources, but it cannot make a scrap of difference to the amount of carbon dioxide released in generating the energy actually used. Only reducing consumption can do that, and claiming otherwise is to promote a pernicious illusion.
