"Axe carbon tax to keep lights on and cut energy bills, says ScottishPower chief"

Axe carbon tax to keep lights on and cut energy bills

"ScottishPower says tax will force coal plants to shut too soon and push up bills"

"Keith Anderson, chief corporate officer, warns that the "carbon price floor" (CPF), which taxes companies for burning fossil fuels, will make Britain's remaining coal plants "largely uneconomic by around the middle of the decade".

With Britain's spare power margin already forecast to fall as low as 2pc by 2015, the carbon tax will force more closures and "threatens to make us even more vulnerable to the risk of blackouts", he warns."

I think too many people will die prematurely as a result of not rolling out a national program of home insulation, before the government forces the remaining coal burning electricity generation plants to close. As suggested by someone working for the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) of Ireland, that I was talking to the other day at a conference, we need a trusted nationally organised engineering program to insulate homes properly, in much the same way that the whole country transformed from coal gas to natural gas.

The government are milking the energy system for all the tax they can get, the energy suppliers and generators are milking the energy system for all the profits they can get. We are heading into a national energy disaster equivalent to 100 or more Piper Alpha's.



If we are going to comprehensively change our energy system at great cost as the government wants, lets start by doing things in the right order. Insulating homes, cutting energy bills, reducing the consequence of future energy bill rises on peoples budgets and long term health.

Let's borrow the money on a national basis, train up the workers to a high quality on a national service basis and then move on and get the job done; with councils given the power to engage in compulsory loft clearances (if necessary) so the work can proceed street by street in the most efficient and comprehensive manner possible.

The programme of work is finite and the materials needed are relatively cheap. For the economy as a whole the return on investment is very good, especially in terms of the balance of payments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal


Perhaps we should call this the "New Deal Insulation Programme" and admit that the Green Deal has failed

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James Arathoon