Gone With The Wind

The leader of the Scottish ­Government review of landownership yesterday pledged to examine ways of redistributing the cash wealthy lairds make from wind farms to benefit the less-advantaged. Alison Elliot, chair of the Land Reform Review Group (LRRG), said the issue would be investigated amid concerns that aristo­crats are benefiting from the renewables revolution while the poor grapple with fuel ­poverty. --Tom Peterkin, The Scotsman, 16 May 2013

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Critics point out that landowners rent their land to renewable generators, whose wind farms are subsidised by extra levies on ordinary electricity consumers. Tory MEP Struan Stevenson’s estimates suggest that the Duke of Roxburghe could net £1.5 million a year from a wind farm on the Lammermuir Hills. The Earl of Moray is estimated to receive £2 million a year from a wind farm near Stirling. The Earl of Glasgow could be earning upwards of £300,000 a year from turbines on his Kelburn estate. --Tom Peterkin, The Scotsman, 16 May 2013 Wind farm operators in Scotland have been paid nearly £6 million over the past 33 days not to generate electricity, more than was paid out for the whole of last year. Campaigners claim there has never been a longer period of consecutive payments and are continuing to call for the energy regulator to investigate. From April 13 to May 13 this year, some £5.994m was paid out to operators by the National Grid, with all but £2000 going to developments in Scotland. The total for the whole of 2012 was £5.924m. The latest payments bring the total paid since January 1 to £7.8m and this week alone 20 wind farms have shared a total payout of £2.12m. --David Ross, The Glasgow Herald, 16 May 2013

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Green energy subsidies will cost every British household £600 a year by 2020, a leading industry analyst warns in a Civitas paper published today. The cost to consumers of pursuing EU renewables targets is set to rise above £16 billion per annum, when VAT is taken into account, Dr John Constable writes in Are Green Times Just Around the Corner? Moreover, these huge costs are making it more, not less, likely that green energy production remains inefficient and a burden on the taxpayer in the years to come, he says. And he warns that the shift to renewables is likely to herald the first long-term decline in living standards since the start of the industrial revolution. --Civitas, 17 May 2013 Viscount Matt Ridley used his maiden speech in the House of Lords to say that jobs lost at a Northumberland aluminium smelter this year would be among many to go abroad if the Government does not bring down energy costs. Lord Ridley, of Blagdon Hall near Cramlington, was elected to the House of Lords in February in a by-election for a hereditary seat. Speaking in the Lords, he made clear the UK economy was at risk if energy costs continued to rise. “Household energy costs have doubled in the past 15 years. In the US, where gas prices used to be the same as they are here, they are now one-quarter or one-fifth of the level here. That is an enormous competitive advantage to the US and a disadvantage to us. A nation can compete on the basis of cheap labour or cheap energy, but if it has neither then it is likely to be in trouble.” --Adrian Pearson,The Journal, 16 May 2013 Business leaders from across Europe met here Thursday to discuss—among other things—a proposal from the European Commission to “reindustrialize Europe.” Some executives at the annual European Business Summit, however, viewed the target as not much more than a vain hope. The real challenge they say is to prevent further deindustrialization of the continent. European companies face among the highest energy prices in the world. Worse still, energy prices in Europe have increased 27% between 2005 and early 2012, more than in most other industrialized economies. --Stephen Fidler, The Wall Street Journal, 16 May 2013 Instead of the blooming green economy promised by political leaders and activists, Europe is facing a competitiveness crisis and an economic nightmare, with almost 27 million people out of work and many countries facing bankruptcy. According to Austria’s energy regulator, European consumers have subsidized renewable energy investors by a staggering 600 billion euros since 2004. In most EU members states, energy prices have skyrocketed while millions of families have been forced into energy poverty. Public protest against the growing cost of going green are forcing lawmakers to renounce support for costly policies that are hurting ordinary families. --Benny Peiser, Calgary Herald, 16 May 2013

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