Another green debacle

AFTER the notorious £500million ‘Cash for Ash’ debacle, in which Northern Irish families were paid more in subsidies for using renewable fuel than the fuel was actually worth, you might think Stormont would have learned some caution.

Incredibly, an even more egregious ‘green’ scandal revealed in today’s Mail proves it is as cavalier with taxpayers’ money as ever.

This bungled scheme – incentivising landowners to erect small wind turbines – offered subsidies of up to seven times the market value of the energy produced. This led to wealthy investors cashing in.

Worse still, these subsidies are guaranteed for 20 years, potentially adding a staggering £1.4billion to utility bills across the UK.

At any time this would be an outrage. In the week Boris Johnson signalled a massive expansion of wind power, it’s terrifying.

The mistakes made in Northern Ireland show how vulnerable green projects are to error and exploitation, at vast public cost.

If the ‘green revolution’ is to have any credibility there can be no repeat. It must deliver value – not become a state-funded licence for speculators to print money.