Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-28-Speech-3-406-000"
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"en.20110928.23.3-406-000"2
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"Mr President, we must take great care that we adopt a strategy for greening of the economy that supports policies that in fact achieve those objectives, and not policies that achieve the exact opposite.
In Scotland right now we have set targets of 100% energy from renewables by 2020. The Scottish Government has stated that it will not allow new nuclear power stations to be built, but rather it will race ahead with a mad dash for renewables based mainly around onshore and offshore wind, tidal and wave energy. But these projects are being funded by a sea of subsidies paid by the poor beleaguered consumers. What we are witnessing is a dramatic transfer of money from the poor to the rich and from the consumers to the wealthy estate owners and power companies. Scotland’s consumers have recently seen their bills go up by between 10% and 20%. In July the Department of Energy in Whitehall revealed that rising bills have pushed 5.5 million households into fuel poverty. That is one-fifth of British homes. The most vulnerable people in society will be forced to make the choice between food or fuel.
This is a scandal of unparalleled proportions, but it is one of the unintended consequences of pursuing a policy of greening the economy, which is in fact driving people into poverty rather than eradicating it. Nor can such a policy be described as sustainable when wind turbines only provide energy for around 22% of their working life. They do not work when there is no wind and they have to be switched off when there is too much wind. So every megawatt of installed wind capacity has to be backed up with a megawatt of installed baseload which, in the case of Scotland where no nuclear power will be allowed in the future, means a heavy reliance on high CO
emitting gas or coal plants. A green economy is worth striving for, but not at any cost."@en1
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"2"1
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