One thing you don’t hear Amber Rudd or the big DC broadcasting is their incredible knowledge and ability in the field of Physics. It’s a little known fact but the whole Conservative team who concern themselves with UK energy policy are in fact expert physicists. “Nonsense!” I hear you cry .
Not so. How else could our current government have created an energy policy black hole in a mere 6 months of being office? Just so you’re clear, and thank you to Wikipedia,
‘A black hole is a geometrically defined region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing can escape from inside it.’
The energy policy black hole created by the conservatives clearly has an insatiable appetite, consuming all manner of energy related policies – FiTS, Green Deal, Roc’s, Zero Carbon homes, chunks of ECO (the remainder of which is perilously close to the edge). The key thing about a black hole is that nothing gets out – all of these policies have gone for good.
“Not True” I can hear ardent Tory supporters shout, “FiTs are still here!”. In spirit perhaps, though you show me a solar scheme that’s viable based on FiTs and I’ll show you the greenest government ever……
I’m a firm believer in changing things that don’t work, but you can’t just stop something as critical as reducing CO2 emissions, or insulating homes occupied by the fuel poor, without replacing it with something better. We’ve had nothing other than a verbal rhetoric from our most esteemed physicists – a rhetoric that suggests ‘the Energy Company Obligation is concentrated on those in greatest need’.
Need in Amber Rudd’s eyes is defined as ‘the ones who live in damp and draughty homes’ – I’m not aware of any energy company who chose to meet their ECO obligation by installing draught proofing. The government also promises that 1 million homes will receive help over the next 5 years. To put that in context there are 4.5 million homes suffering the effects of fuel poverty in the UK right now – you can make up your own mind as to whether the Conservative’s target is ambitious enough.
We can not afford to plod on with what little existing energy policy we have. Globally climate change is there for all to see – locally people are dying because they can not afford to heat their home. So come on Amber, come on Dave, black holes are so 2015 – give all us community focussed do gooders something to get our teeth into this year.
Energy Matters blog 
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As a supporter of Community Renewables it’s no good expecting Amber or David to come good, that’s a waste of breath & energy. They are totally for centralised power at any cost & any risk to you & I. They are part of the Establishment with elitism breeding running right through them like a thread going back many generations. Community Renewables is about decentralising power in every sense of the words & the Establishment do not want that at any cost. We have to be clever ourselves & support Renewables by concentrating our energy on educating the public, through social media, etc., of the wider benefits of Renewables.There is a new film coming out this spring by fechnerMedia called ‘The Power of Change’. A very useful tool to share with the wider public to win hearts & minds of the need to join the unstoppable Renewables Revolution now.
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I agree Peter – I like to think that I’m a realistic optimist, consequently I’m not expecting a sudden u-turn in government policy. I completely agree that waiting around for action to be handed to us on plate would be a foolish waste of time and not be conducive to progress. However, we do need Dave and Amber to wake up and provide us with the tools so that we can make progress, whether that’s changes to planning policy, ECO, Fits or whatever. Community energy can do so much on its own, as can government – combine the two in a joined up approach ( un-realistic optimism…) and you have a genuine force for good.
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