19/04/10…Conservative candidate attacks Governments ‘green’ targets

CONSERVATIVE election candidate, John Howell, has attacked the Government for its handling of renewable energy, questioning its ability to hit its target for the UK of 15% by 2020. So far the Government has achieved a cut of half the target, 6.6%.

Brushing aside Government assurances that the target would be met, John Howell pointed to industry warnings that not enough was being done by way of encouraging technology and skills in this field.

In a statement released yesterday (18/04/10), he said: “Ministers refused to be honest about by how much they will miss the 15% target. That is a shame since the UK gets more of its energy from fossil fuels now than it did in 1997.

?I have set out in our policy document ? Open Source Planning ? how we can develop broad public support for renewable energy by making local communities active participants in as well as beneficiaries of renewable energy. We have to go with the local grain in this and not stick to Labour?s central targets and regulation. On-shore wind farms, for example, are not going to be appropriate in all settings.

?Ultimately we are not going to be successful in getting more energy from renewable sources unless we develop broad public support. That?s why it is important to look at the possibility of community ownership of renewable sources, to allow local communities that host renewable projects to keep the additional business rates which arise for six years and to see whether local residents can benefit from discounted energy prices as a result.

?Here in the constituency we have excellent examples of imaginative projects such as the hydro-electric power project at Goring a concept to which the River and Rowing Museum in Henley was able to devote a seminar recently. I am a longstanding supporter of this and was pleased to be invited to be a patron of the Goring and Streatley Sustainability Group.?

NOTE: The parliamentary exchange can be found in Hansard at 8 Apr 2010: Column 1173

ED. It is VERY hard to find on the Hansard website so here is the exchange as printed in Hansard:

12. John Howell (Henley) (Con): What his most
recent estimate is of the proportion of electricity
generated from renewable sources. [325619]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy
and Climate Change (Mr. David Kidney): Provisional
2009 data on electricity generation were published in
the March 2010 edition of Energy Trends. This showed
that, after excluding an estimate for non-bio degradable waste use, 6.6 per cent. of electricity was generated from renewable sources in 2009. In 1997, the equivalent figure was 2 per cent.

John Howell: From the answers earlier on renewables,
it seems that the Government do not share the pessimism
of a number of independent commentators who have
said that not enough has been done byway of technology,
and particularly by way of developing skills, to achieve the 2020 target. Will the Minister say by how much he estimates we will miss the 2020 target?

Mr. Kidney: I certainly will not, because we will not
miss the target for 2020. The hon. Gentleman should
watch and learn as all the new renewable capacity,
including the immense amounts of offshore wind generation that are already planned in this country, takes effect. On skills, I had the great pleasure last week of launching, on behalf of the Government, a consultation on the subject of skills for a low carbon economy, with the opportunity there to transform the economy of this country and create millions of new jobs in a clean, green and prosperous UK.