Labour helping to destroy environment further

You'd think - what with all the doom-laden reports concerning the future of the environment, including Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and its upcoming sequel We Are All Definitely, Definitely Going To Die - that being eco-friendly would be the number one priority for the government.

According to those within the renewable energy industry, though, that wouldn't seem to be the case. While ambitious environmental targets have been set, ministers are generally turning a bit of a blind eye towards such concerns - and we don't mean forgetting to chuck the odd can in the recycling box. We mean destroying entire alternative energy sources.

Despite aiming for 15 percent of Britain's energy to be green-based by 2020, energy minister Malcolm Wicks has rejected ideas to increase grants which would make converting households to eco-power more affordable. Even though the number of homes installing solar panels and other such contraptions has fallen by three-quarters in England and Wales, with many suggesting that the hefty price tag may be a bit off-putting.

It isn't the case in Scotland. Ministers there have recently trebled the funding that goes towards such causes. A bit of a dichotomy, all in all, and one which has former Environment Minister Michael Meacher upset: he reckons that the government is going to embrace nuclear power, while simultaneously "going to wipe out the alternatives, while the rest of Europe is going in the other direction".

What would Captain Planet say?

Written by C J Davies on 9 Apr 2008 8:39 PM. Permalink