The taxpayer is charged to reduce carbon dioxide and now to produce it
sir – The abuse of the British taxpayer continues in increasingly comic fashion. We pay huge green taxes to subsidise the renewable energy sector and, through a series of interlinked policy disasters, there is a shortage of carbon dioxide. The taxpayer now has to bail out a private American company to maintain vital supplies.
Andrew Holgate
Etwall, Derbyshire
sir – Since 2004 Britain has been a net importer of natural gas. In 2013 there was significant pressure on gas supplies, and industry members raised concern about reserves and future planning for increasing storage capacity. The Government declined to make any investment in new facilities, stating that there was “no requirement”.
The Energy Secretary at the time was one Ed Davey, now Sir Ed and the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Ian Robertson
Hook, Hampshire sir – Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, assures consumers that their energy bills will not rise as a result of the gas crisis, since the price cap remains in place.
This is only true for those already paying over the odds on variable tariffs. For anyone like me who took advantage of a cheaper fixed-term tariff, prices will rise considerably.
My current tariff, which ends in November, costs me £705 a year. The cheapest renewal rate I can find is £1,178 a year on a variable tariff (or £1,286 a year for a three-year fixed deal with a penalty fee should I exit early). Peter Harper
Lover, Wiltshire
sir – We seem near to a crisis on energy security and pricing. This largely self-inflicted wound was entirely foreseeable.
Successive governments have inflated energy prices with “green taxes” to subsidise intermittent energy from windmills and solar farms. Energy storage has been sold to off-shore buyers. Without reliable replacements, fossil fuel and nuclear plants have been decommissioned.
Opportunities for more selfsufficiency, such as fracking for gas, have been passed up as sops to the green lobby. We have become more and more reliant on European (and by extension, Russian) energy sources.
All this is for the unattainable goal of “zero carbon”. Even if we could achieve this, it might reduce the global carbon dioxide emitted by about 1 per cent.
Continuing blindly down this road can only lead to a shipwreck of the UK economy. It plays into the hands of totalitarian regimes pursuing policies contrary to our culture and ethic.
If the Government does not wake up, it will get a jolt from the ballot box when the lights go out and voters are huddled round lukewarm radiators that they cannot afford to turn up, while being prosecuted for buying fuel for their wood burners. Remember Edward Heath.
Peter Baker
Crediton, Devon