Green Taxes Are Increasing Our Energy Bills Say Critics
Energy bills are increasingly expensive because a fifth of gas and electricity bills are made up by green taxes according to campaigners.
The green taxes included in energy bills are adding around £200 to bills each year as a way of providing subsidies to build wind farms and solar arrays in Britain. Critics have said the UK is wrongly committed to renewable energy.
The director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Dr Benny Peiser, said “So called green stealth taxes are already adding 15 to 20% to the average domestic power bill and even more to business users”.
The argument is that as domestic and business electricity prices increase it needs to be made much clearer how much green taxes contribute to higher energy bills.
Dr Peiser says green taxes are not shown on energy bills which he says “suits the Government down to the ground. If it raised the huge sums required to encourage renewable energy and limit carbon emission through general taxation it would make the Government itself very unpopular”.
He added “by doing it through electricity and gas bills, the Government has cleverly ensured that it’s the power companies that take the blame”.
The government is keen to increase the number of wind farms and solar arrays because as part of the Climate Change Act they have to cut CO2 emissions by 3% by 2020 and 50% by 2025. Wind turbines are therefore the government’s favoured method of reducing emissions and the green tax on energy bills will help to pay for them.
Smart meters are another way the government hopes to reduce energy consumption. Smart meters show exactly how much gas and electricity is being used by households and businesses and it’s therefore hoped that they will help to reduce energy bills. Estimated bills would become a thing of the past as smart meters send information back to energy companies to tell them exactly how much energy has been used. Bills will therefore become more accurate.
The Renewable Obligation helps to fund wind farms by forcing energy companies to buy a certain proportion of their power from sources of renewable energy. Fossil fuels such as coal and gas become more expensive as a result of the scheme and the cost is added on to gas and electricity bills say campaigners.
Energy providers also have to subsidise home insulation and new boilers as part of the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target and this also is added to energy bills along with Feed-In Tariffs which provides subsidies to help small businesses and households to install green power such as solar panels and wind turbines. The Feed-In Tariff guarantees a fixed price for electricity generated through these sources of renewable energy and sold to the National Grid.
Utility Exchange reported that Tim Yeo has suggested energy companies should be forced to open their books to see whether they were raising prices fairly. Dr Peiser said that until energy bills became transparent it won’t be possible to see if prices have been increased fairly. He said “Only then will it be possible to see if a power company has been raising its prices unfairly and change supplier. And only then will the true cost of the Government’s mad rush towards renewable energy become clear”.