Only the Tories have a grip on energy

Reliant on generous subsidies financed by hidden charges on household energy bills, turbines do not produce enough energy to justify the expense. They are almost comically unreliable. As Christopher Booker notes in his column, during a period of low wind last Monday, all 4,300 of our turbines working together provided just 0.1 per cent of the nation?s electricity. Ironically, when wind fails to do its job, consumers have to fall back on the very fossil fuels that it was designed to replace.

Nor are wind farms as environmentally friendly as their supporters think. The turbines can be a blot on the landscape. Andrew Gilligan reports that thousands of turbines actually create more greenhouse gases than they save; when they are constructed in upland areas on peat soil, large amounts of carbon can be released into the atmosphere.

What Britain really needs to do is press ahead with building gas-fired power stations, encourage firms to start exploiting shale gas deposits ? potentially a rich source of cheap energy ? and support nuclear. Alas, not all the parties grasp this. During its time in power, Labour turned its back on coal and nuclear to allay understandable fears about environmental damage. Instead, it signed the country up to ambitious targets for cutting CO2 emissions and committed us to wind as a way to plug gaps in energy supply. As Mr Huhne?s predecessor at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband backed a Climate Change Bill that legally bound the UK to cut CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

As part of the Coalition, the Lib Dems have aped Labour?s approach and brought to it new levels of naivity. It is true that even Mr Huhne conceded that nuclear must play a significant role in Britain?s future, but he seemed far more excited by the promises of wind power. The Lib Dems pushed the Coalition into backing even higher EU emissions targets, which would be very difficult to achieve in today?s economic climate. This is why some European countries are ignoring those targets and returning to coal.

Fortunately, George Osborne seems to have a firmer grip on reality. The Chancellor has recently indicated that he would prefer to water down emissions targets in order to increase Britain?s exploitation of gas. After years of chasing the green vote the Conservatives are waking up to the full implications of the energy gap. To get his way within the Coalition, Mr Osborne needs and deserves the moral support of the voters.

Mr Huhne?s colourful record, the by-election in his former constituency and the troubling news about our growing energy gap, ought to clarify the politics for people as they make their choice: on one side we have Labour and the Lib Dems stuck in an outdated mindset, when bold emissions targets and wind power seemed feasible; on the other, the good news is that the Tories understand that while protecting the environment is important, so is getting the economy moving. The voters of Eastleigh have a splendid opportunity to send a message that green fundamentalism is unaffordable in an age of austerity.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568387/s/28e44777/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Ccomment0Ctelegraph0Eview0C98891480COnly0Ethe0ETories0Ehave0Ea0Egrip0Eon0Eenergy0Bhtml/story01.htm

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