The plan
for ‘smart meters’ is one such mistake. Even those who now promote them
do not fully understand them. Experience in other countries shows they
will not fulfil their optimistic official targets and that they are
fraught with risks.
They do not work properly in several types of building. Their complex technology could take years to bed down. Yet
the policy is to be implemented anyway, publicised at great expense
with a launch event starring Bob Geldof. And we, the actual consumers,
will pay for it for many years ahead in higher charges, even if we opt
not to have the new equipment in our homes. This
is a classic example of starting with a theory and trying to force
reality to fit. Similar attitudes led to the sclerosis and ultimate
collapse of the old Communist systems, which promised utopia and
produced poverty, concrete-headed official obduracy and rust. The Green fashion has gone unchallenged long enough. It
is time for Ministers, MPs and the media to re-examine the claims of a
belief system which has so far brought nothing but higher prices,
diminished efficiency and ugly blights on the landscape.
No comments:
Post a Comment