ACCORDING to Scotland on Sunday, the public now trust energy companies even
less than estate agents and car salesmen (News, 3 November). Well, why
should they trust privatised multinational corporations whose primary
purpose is to increase profits by any means available within the law?
This is surely a case of misplaced mistrust. The real target should be the
governments that have served their electors so badly by failing to
establish adequate legal and policy frameworks to prevent such rampant
exploitation. The fully lawful use of tax havens to minimise contributions
to national exchequers while consumers face ever rising bills is but one
example.
The present Scottish Government is particularly culpable in this respect.
They have traded on public acceptance of the mantra that “we need to do
something about climate change” without demonstrating that they are doing
anything other than fostering an illusion.
On figures released last February by National Grid and the industry lobby
Scottish Renewables, carbon savings by all British wind farms amounted to
one 5,000th part of global carbon emissions a year. That was far less than
1 per cent of the global increase in carbon emissions for the same period.
Yet the costs of this political-correctness-on-stilts are heaped onto
people’s energy bills, and the scramble by multinationals for ever more
wind farms is actively encouraged by government.
We urgently need an independent, expert commission on all aspects of energy
policy, ring-fenced against manipulation by politicians and the corporate
sector for political and financial advantage.
Ken Brown (Dr), Glenmoriston, Inverness
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