It's insane that we're fleeced by the energy giants AND help them avoid tax!

Daily Mail
"The energy companies are as avaricious, selfish and remote as were the big banks before the crash. Arguably, they are even worse. Without any apparent restraint from the Government — or are they encouraged? — they have continued to increase their prices during an economic downturn. According to the industry regulator Ofgem, the profits of the big six energy suppliers will reach £100 per household over the next 12 months. While much of the rest of the country is mired in recession, it’s boom-time for the energy giants. They have increased their profit margins from 3.3 per cent in 2011 to 7 per cent a mere two years later. During this time of falling incomes, an average dual-fuel domestic bill — for gas and electricity — has risen from £1,095 to £1,352. .......With 90 per cent of wind farms in foreign ownership, this means companies based abroad could receive in the region of £100 billion in subsidies over the 20-year lifespan of a turbine, according to the Renewable Energy Foundation. By the way, these turbines are only just beginning to make their mark. Nine huge wind farms are being built in the seas around Britain. This year, 763 turbines are planned to be built onshore, an increase of 60 per cent over last year. Thousands more have been approved. They are being partly paid for by you and me, as taxpayers and consumers. ........And I haven’t even mentioned the other insanity — of closing down perfectly serviceable coal-fired power stations as a result of absurd European Union diktats on climate change. It is possible that we may not be left with enough capacity to stop the lights going out in the next few years. Nor has this Government or its predecessor shown any urgency in adopting a plan to replace our ageing nuclear power stations. It finds itself with a single remaining potential partner in French government-controlled EDF, with which it may well be unable to strike a satisfactory deal. ...........Moreover, it has proved a great mistake to hand over four of our six big energy suppliers into foreign hands. They have become even more high-handed and detached than they would have otherwise been. A further problem has been a Department of Energy and Climate Change (led first by one Lib Dem, Chris Huhne, and now another, Ed Davey) obsessed with renewable energy, despite its high cost and very marginal usefulness, and happy to pile extra green taxes on already hard-pressed consumers. I wonder whether David Cameron fully grasps the growing resentment of people who watch the energy companies lining their pockets while those consumers have to pay more and more. All of us know that our ever-growing bills reflect far more than the rising costs of energy. If Labour were not itself even more blindly in love with renewable energy, and more than a little responsible for our existing predicament, it might have the gumption to mount a compelling case against the Coalition over its disastrous policies."