MoS Comment: Green zealots and a sinister power grab

Mail on Sunday
"Since the days when coal was delivered in sacks, the arrangement has been simple. The householder pays for the fuel he needs and can afford. That is how things work in free societies. But now, thanks to the Establishment’s wholesale embrace of Green dogma, this is no longer so. The authorities are seriously considering plans which will allow them to reach into our houses and reduce the flow of power to our appliances. We will pay for these complex and faintly sinister arrangements, as we already pay for forests of grossly subsidised and unreliable wind turbines, so forcing up the price of energy once more. These increased costs are all driven by the ever-more questionable belief that reducing carbon emissions will save the planet. Even if this is so, the rising economies of the East are paying no attention, and are blithely continuing to open coal-fired power stations, as we shut ours. This mess could be avoided if we reintroduced rationality into our energy policy, cancelling the closure of perfectly serviceable power plants, building new gas and nuclear generators, and exploiting the shale gas which lies beneath our feet. All that is needed is a return to sanity in the political class, which – if it understands nothing else – must see the cost and intrusion of the ‘energy-saving’ scheme will be deeply unpopular with voters."