Sunday, December 14, 2008
Outrage is justified
Today's Observer reports that more than 100 Labour MPs are to demand a one-off tax on energy companies for refusing to pass on recent sharp cuts in oil prices to millions of customers:
Compass, the centre-left pressure group co-ordinating the campaign, expresses 'grave concern' at how the companies are continuing to charge higher rates imposed earlier this year, 'in spite of sharp falls in the world price of crude oil'.
'Since 2000, gas prices have risen 100 per cent and electricity 61 per cent. Correspondingly, energy providers' profits have risen from £557m in 2003 to over £5bn today,' it says.
Compass is lining up Labour rebels behind a Commons motion laid in parliament on Friday that decries the 'massive unearned windfall profits' of the energy firms and demands immediate action to help hard-up customers.
They are quite right to be outraged. The way that the energy companies have profited whilst people have struggled to pay their energy bills is quite wrong. The government needs to act to curb their excesses.
Compass, the centre-left pressure group co-ordinating the campaign, expresses 'grave concern' at how the companies are continuing to charge higher rates imposed earlier this year, 'in spite of sharp falls in the world price of crude oil'.
'Since 2000, gas prices have risen 100 per cent and electricity 61 per cent. Correspondingly, energy providers' profits have risen from £557m in 2003 to over £5bn today,' it says.
Compass is lining up Labour rebels behind a Commons motion laid in parliament on Friday that decries the 'massive unearned windfall profits' of the energy firms and demands immediate action to help hard-up customers.
They are quite right to be outraged. The way that the energy companies have profited whilst people have struggled to pay their energy bills is quite wrong. The government needs to act to curb their excesses.
Comments:
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The biggest rip off is Wind Energy. Yet nearly all politicians are besotted with it! Can anyone explain the reason for that?
[1] I agree that with oil now at 40 dollars a barrel ,from a summer peak of over 125 dollars, that petrol prices and oil heating prices should be dropped far more. I urge consumers to act on this by writing to the Press and politicians.
[2] However, I also agree with Green Man that wind energy is one of the biggest cons being perpetrated in the energy field. Wind turbines could not exist without the hidden payments to subsidise wind energy that we all make through our electricity bills.
These wind turbines will not close a single power station, so we are wasting our money by subsidising wind energy. If there is so much global warming, why do we have snow in England and why does the USA have severe ice storms? See www.iceagenow.com
[2] However, I also agree with Green Man that wind energy is one of the biggest cons being perpetrated in the energy field. Wind turbines could not exist without the hidden payments to subsidise wind energy that we all make through our electricity bills.
These wind turbines will not close a single power station, so we are wasting our money by subsidising wind energy. If there is so much global warming, why do we have snow in England and why does the USA have severe ice storms? See www.iceagenow.com
# posted by 
: 11:42 PM
: 11:42 PM
As regards electricity prices, with this blind stampede to pay foreign speculators over the odds for windmills - you ain't seen nothing yet!
We are being ripped off by ill-informed politicians mesmerised by the blandishmentss of the wind industry.
Dynllechi
We are being ripped off by ill-informed politicians mesmerised by the blandishmentss of the wind industry.
Dynllechi
# posted by : 7:22 AM
: 7:22 AM
If politicians were sincere in deploring high energy prices they would stop pressing for more and more windmills that (at consumers' expense) generate profits for speculators but very little else
# posted by : 7:59 AM
: 7:59 AM
To add to what I said some days ago, check www.iceagenow.com again. The USA is having record cold weather and snow all over. Even Louisiana and Alabama in the far south had snow recently.The ice storms in New England are horrendous. We in the UK have had the COLDEST START to winter in 30 years...OFFICIALLY!! Austria has had huge snow-falls ! So WHERE is all this global warming that we are meant to be having? On "Extreme Weather" on TV tonight, it showed SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODS in Usa and Canada , DECADES ago !! The east coast of England had HUGE floods in the 1950s. So what is NEW with this "climate change"? The climate is FOREVER CHANGING!! Hurricanes were severe in the 1930s. The Earth was WARM in the Mediaeval warm period from AD800 to AD 1400. SUNSPOTS , are the main cause!! SOLAR ACTIVITY , or lack of it is the main regulator of Earth's climate!!
BUT THIS "CLIMATE CHANGE" IS FOREVER THE EXCUSE.....YES EXCUSE....FOR WIND TURBINES!! Even if there is anthropogenic [man made] global warming....which I doubt , based on cooling for last 10 years.....then WIND TURBINES WOULD MAKE NO DIFFERENCE BECAUSE THEY ARE PUNY, TRIVIAL AND WILL NOT CLOSE A SINGLE FOSSIL FUEL POWER STATION.....BECAUSE THE WIND NEEDS CONSTANT BACK-UP!!
So WHY destroy the beauty of Wales....and its VITAL TOURIST ECONOMY...with UGLY, PART-TIME, TRIVIAL FOLLIES ON OUR HILLS?
GET REAL !!!! WELSH POLITICIANS ARE DESTROYING OUR ECONOMY WHILST THEY GET INDEX-LINKED SALARIES AND PENSIONS!!
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BUT THIS "CLIMATE CHANGE" IS FOREVER THE EXCUSE.....YES EXCUSE....FOR WIND TURBINES!! Even if there is anthropogenic [man made] global warming....which I doubt , based on cooling for last 10 years.....then WIND TURBINES WOULD MAKE NO DIFFERENCE BECAUSE THEY ARE PUNY, TRIVIAL AND WILL NOT CLOSE A SINGLE FOSSIL FUEL POWER STATION.....BECAUSE THE WIND NEEDS CONSTANT BACK-UP!!
So WHY destroy the beauty of Wales....and its VITAL TOURIST ECONOMY...with UGLY, PART-TIME, TRIVIAL FOLLIES ON OUR HILLS?
GET REAL !!!! WELSH POLITICIANS ARE DESTROYING OUR ECONOMY WHILST THEY GET INDEX-LINKED SALARIES AND PENSIONS!!
# posted by : 2:50 AM
: 2:50 AM<< Home
