The Government could face a fresh clash with peers as proposals to scrap
subsidies for new onshore wind farms cleared the Commons.
Peers initially deleted the plan to remove the subsidies from April 2016 –
a year earlier than planned – when it was put before them last year.
But the Conservatives reinserted it into the proposed legislation in the
Commons, insisting it is one of their 2015 general election manifesto
pledges which must be implemented and could save between £20 million and
£200 million a year.
The idea to end the renewables obligation (RO) early is included within the
Energy Bill, which received an unopposed third reading from MPs and will
return to the Lords for further scrutiny.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd insisted the Government intends to “stand firm
on its commitments”.
Earlier, the Government agreed to make it legally-binding for the UK to
establish a zero emissions target.
Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom, responding to pressure from Labour former
leader Ed Miliband, said it was a case of “not whether but how we do it”
following the Paris climate change agreement in November.
Alongside changes to subsidies, the Bill also seeks to give people the
final say on new onshore wind development applications in their area.
It also formally establishes the Oil and Gas Authority as an independent
regulator and transfers regulatory powers and functions along with new
powers to the body.
Introducing the Bill’s third reading, Ms Rudd insisted the package of
measures supports the Government’s “long-term plan for secure, clean,
affordable” energy supplies by implementing manifesto pledges.
She said: “Let me be explicit – this Bill enacts a manifesto commitment.
Clause 79 helps to implement that commitment to end new public subsidies
for onshore wind.
“Onshore wind has deployed successfully to date but without control there
is a risk of over-deployment beyond the range we have set for 2020, the
range that we consider affordable.
“Over-deployment would potentially add extra costs to consumer bills or
reduce the amount of support available to less mature technologies, such as
offshore wind, that need help to bring their costs down – just as public
subsides have brought down the cost of onshore wind.”
Shadow energy secretary Lisa Nandy said the Bill has “absolutely nothing to
say” about the major energy challenges facing the UK.
She told MPs: “It is a missed opportunity to mend our broken energy market
and to make good on the promise that the Prime Minister gave four years ago
when he told this House he would legislate to put every household in
Britain onto the cheapest energy tariff.
“It’s extraordinary that during the passage of this Bill we have learnt
that this broken promise has cost Britain’s households an extra £1.7
billion every year and once again this Energy Bill led by this Government
lets the energy companies off the hook.
“Despite our best efforts, it is silent too on the growing risk of power
shortages, which is astonishing when official figures from National Grid
showed that this winter Britain could be forced to rely on back-up measures
and imports from abroad just to keep the lights on.”
SNP energy spokesman Callum McCaig welcomed the creation of the Oil and Gas
Authority to stop the “daft” practice of unnecessary completion in the
industry.
He said: “That is a large part of how this industry will survive, it’s by
working more constructively together, by stopping some of the needless
competition that adds unnecessarily to cost, merely for the sake of
differentiating themselves from their competitors.
“The industry was ripe with quite frankly daft practice, in terms of that
unnecessary duplication and by bringing people together, by facilitating
the exchange of ideas in a constructive way, the OGA has a major, major
part to play in that.”
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