Subsidies for new wind farms and solar power plants are set to be cut as ministers move to protect millions of families from rising energy bills. The government is expected to announce the decision this week, after official figures revealed that so-called “green” energy schemes will require ¬£1.5 billion more in subsidies ‚Äì paid for by customers ‚Äì than originally planned. Whitehall sources said the subsidies ‚Äì under the so-called Levy Control Framework ‚Äì could be reduced, or the scheme closed early. Details of the how the subsidies will be curbed are still being finalised. –Tim Ross, The Sunday Telegraph, 19 July 2015
Green taxes which push up energy bills are to be slashed by the government, MailOnline has learned. A ‘big reset’ of the support given to the renewable industry is expected to be announced within weeks, including cuts to funding for the solar industry. Cabinet insiders say the view on tackling subsidies has ‘hardened’ over fears recent price cuts announced by power firms will be wiped out by rising environmental taxes. The Tories have already announced that taxpayer subsidies for wind farms are to be axed a year early. But the government is expected to go much further and review all support given to green energy which is funded by levies on bills worth ¬£4.3billion-a-year. –Matt Chorley, Daily Mail, 17 July 2015
Another woefully one-sided piece of propaganda from the BBC. It appears that some Scottish councils have been investing in wind farm projects, hoping to profiteer from electricity bill payers in the rest of the UK. Now they are up in arms that the subsidy tap might be switched off. Nothing, of course, is stopping the said councils from carrying on with the projects, without any subsidy, and letting their council tax payers foot the bill. But don’t expect the BBC to point this out! –Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 19 July 2015
Fracking could begin in the UK sooner than previously expected, following the government’s decision to award onshore oil and gas exploration licences in two stages, fast tracking the applicants whose proposals do not require extensive environmental assessment. The government is aiming to drive the development of the UK’s shale sector, which will help to create jobs and grow local economies, and has projected investment in the industry reaching ¬£33bn. –Caitlin Morrison, City A.M., 20 July 2015
In an interview in Thursday’s Financial Times, the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy stepped out of line. It was a brave thing to do: Cardinal Pell’s wholesale reform of the Vatican’s finances is making him plenty of enemies as it is, and now he’s even more vulnerable to attack. Why take the risk? Because, I suspect, Cardinal Pell considers Laudato Si’ to be the most ill-judged encyclical of modern times. –Damian Thompson, The Spectator, 18 July 2015
So, where’s the warming? Robin Pittwood at the New Zealand Kiwi Thinker has posted an update on the climate bet for charity that NoTricksZone and its readers entered with a gaggle of global warmists, among them Dana Nuccitelli and Rob Honeycutt. So far we are 4.5 years into the current decade and Robin tells us that it is running cooler using RSS and UAH satellite data, which Messieurs Honeycutt and Nuccitelli agreed to use. Awhile back in comic fashion devout anthropogenic global warming believer William Connelly even demanded the terms of the bet be changed. So clearly we see panic setting in. –Pierre Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, 19 July 2015
