Labour’s clean energy plan needs a revamp: get real on costs and ignore the artificial deadline | Nils Pratley

Would long-term strategy be imperilled if, say, only 80% of UK electricity generation was low carbon by 2032? Hardly“I know my job is to get bills down by £300,” said Ed Miliband, the energy security secretary, in his BBC interview at the weekend, acknowledging that the government is on the hook for its pre-election promise to reduce energy bills by 2030.The problem, though, is that the bill-cutting task also seems to be falling by default to Rachel Reeves, the chancellor. It is beginning to look as if the only sure way to make energy bills fall by £300 by 2030 is to shuffle a chunk of the expense into general taxation. Miliband hinted the 5% VAT charge on bills could be removed in next month’s budget, which would cost the government £2.5bn. Continue reading...Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei TheGuardian Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei TheGuardian