The great renewable energy swiz

Are you, like me, one of many people in the UK who would like to generate electricity in your own home? We now have the technology to generate energy locally by means of solar panels and wind turbines and the technology is improving all the time. The government is committed to having 15% of the UK's energy needs fulfilled by renewables by 2020 - so you would think that they'd be working hard to help people like you and me move into renewable energy. Not so. The New Labour government seems to be trying to do its best to strangle the UK renewables industry.

Why is this happening? New Labour is tied firmly to its friends in big business and that includes the energy companies. In addition, New Labour has fallen hook, line and sinker for the mythology of nuclear power. BERR (the Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) is pretty much owned by the nuclear lobby, just as the old MAFF was controlled by the pesticide companies and agribusinesses.

The last thing these people want is for you and I to be able to generate our own power when we could be paying exorbitant bills to them so that they can generate big profits. So now we find ourselves in the absurd position that, while countries like Germany are pressing ahead with relatively massive development in renewables, we are just scratching the surface. This is another one of the growing list of reasons why New labour are going to lose the next general election.