Should fostering renewable energy sources be a major priority for the UK government?
YES
Juliet Davenport
The government is right with its overarching principle that we’ll need more low-carbon generation to keep the lights on in the future. However, its draft energy bill gets the details wrong on how to achieve it. By focusing on contracts for difference, the proposals risk skewing the market towards nuclear and the “Big Six”, at the expense of renewable energy and smaller suppliers. These overly complex instruments, similar to derivatives, will restrict competition in the market rather than attract the new investment the industry needs, and the result is that consumers will be the losers and will end up having to pay higher prices. Renewable energy sourced in the UK is better for our energy security and will lead to lower and more stable prices in the long run. It will mean that money spent on our energy bills is re-invested here in Britain.
Juliet Davenport is chief executive and founder of Good Energy, Britain’s only 100 per cent renewable electricity supplier.
NO
David Merlin-Jones
British energy policy has been woefully managed for years. These new propositions are a compromise by the government that satisfies no one – they are not green enough for environmentalists and are too costly for consumers. At a time when increasing economic growth is key, the last thing the manufacturing sector needs is higher energy bills. The government should ensure competitive industrial energy prices to revitalise the economy and only after that should it worry about not subsidising nuclear power and promoting more expensive low-tech energy sources. Without a strong, rebalanced economy, Britain will not be able to afford greener energy investments anyway. At best, increasing prices for already hard-up consumers will alienate many from the green agenda and at worst, it will drive hundreds of thousands of households into the fuel poverty that already affects 4m UK households.
Davin Merlin-Jones is a research fellow at Civitas.