Will Miliband deliver higher energy prices but still not hit net zero?

Telegraph

2 days ago

Ed Miliband is at odds with the Chancellor over how much money his department will receive in the rest of this parliament. Rachel Reeves is finalising her spending plans for the next four years, to be announced next week, and has told her colleagues that they will not all get what they want.
Indeed, apart from protected budgets like the NHS and an increase in defence spending, paid for out of the overseas aid budget, all Whitehall ministries face a hit if the Chancellor is to avoid putting up taxes.
But Mr Miliband is in a quandary because he has pledged to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030.
His difficulty is that this timetable lacks any credibility. A report from the House of Lords industry committee says it will require 'building more energy generation and network infrastructure at a faster pace than Great Britain has managed in recent years'.
The committee suggests Mr Miliband could make his sums work through so-called 'zonal pricing'. Peers say this would enable better use of existing capacity and reduce the amount of grid – ie pylons and other connectors – thereby circumventing planning battles in the countryside.
This would involve splitting the single energy market into regions with the price determined by supply and demand within each area. It would mean increasing bills in London, the South East and the Midlands, where renewables are in short supply, while they would fall in Scotland because of its plentiful wind farms.
The likelihood, therefore, is that Mr Miliband will miss his targets while putting up the electricity bills of millions. That should go down well at the next election