Latest news with #EnergySecretary
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Raise taxes or gas bills to remove green levies, Miliband urged by climate quango
Ed Miliband must consider raising taxes or gas bills if the UK is to have any hope of hitting net zero, the Government's climate change quango has warned. To ensure his flagship policy succeeds, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said the Energy Secretary needs to remove green levies from household power costs. However, to pay for this, it said the levies should be shifted onto gas bills or covered by general taxation. The quango stopped short of saying which one it preferred. The recommendation was part of a new report demanding a rethink of power bills across the UK amid mounting scrutiny of Mr Miliband's bid to hit net zero by 2050. The quango said it was concerned that high electricity prices were preventing households from buying heat pumps and electric cars, which in turn was holding back the green energy transition. As a result, it said ministers 'should remove policy costs and levies from electricity bills' and shift the burden elsewhere. Green levies have proven increasingly controversial in recent years as they have been added to bills to help support wind, solar and other renewables projects. Independent estimates suggest there are around a dozen levies adding £18bn a year to power bills, with the CCC claiming they must be removed to help ease the financial burden on consumers. It said: 'Making electricity cheaper, through rebalancing prices to remove policy levies from electricity bills, is a key recommendation the committee have made to the UK Government.' The request forms part of a broader warning that the UK is making too little progress on meeting its carbon emission reduction targets. This is a particular problem in Scotland, which has set itself a target of hitting net zero by 2045 – five years before the rest of the UK. To achieve, the CCC said that 1m Scottish homeowners must be persuaded to replace their oil and gas boilers with heat pumps by 2035 Over the same period, it said 1.8m Scottish drivers also needed to replace their petrol and diesel cars or vans with electric vehicles. Similar adoption rates are also required in the rest of the UK, as the CCC said that by 2040, half of UK homes should have a heat pump, compared to around 1pc in 2023. 'This requires the annual rate of heat pump installations in existing residential properties to rise from 60,000 in 2023 to nearly 450,000 by 2030 and around 1.5m by 2035,' it said. However, the CCC said this transition will never happen unless levies are removed from power bills. The cost of those levies was totted up for the first time in two reports published this month, one by energy analyst Kathryn Porter and the other by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a charity. Ms Porter calculated that 10 subsidies were adding £18bn to bills, while REF reached a total of £12bn. Ms Porter said: 'Ed Miliband claims that renewables are cheap and will lead to lower bills. This sounds great, but unfortunately is not true. 'The UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in the world and the fourth highest domestic electricity prices, with many of the costs paid by consumers resulting from policy choices [levies] designed to support renewable generation.' The CCC said it had modelled two alternative ways of replacing the levies on power bills. One would be to move the charges solely on to gas bills, which would drive up the running costs for gas boilers and cookers. The second approach would see the cost of energy levies added to general taxation. However, a spokesman stressed that it did not have a preference on the best way of raising money: 'We aren't policy prescriptive about where these costs go – there are lots of different ways this could be done. 'The overall point we're making is that cheaper electricity will mean that using electric products – for both households and businesses – will become cheaper.' Critics say the better solution would be to cut subsidies overall. John Constable, director of REF, said: 'The CCC proposes to 'make electricity cheaper' by moving subsidy costs from energy bills to taxes. 'Of course, this does not actually make electricity cheaper, it just forces somebody else to pay, in this case taxpayers who are already at breaking point. The economically and morally correct solution is to cut the subsidies to renewable generators.' Richard Tice, Reform energy spokesman, added: 'The great renewable con is rapidly being exposed as more expensive.' A government spokesman said: 'Our clean power mission is the route to energy security, protecting families by bringing bills down for good and creating good jobs. 'We will continue to work together with all the devolved governments to deliver our clean energy superpower mission and accelerate to net zero in a way that treads lightly on people's lives.' Sign in to access your portfolio
E&E News
12-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
DOE clarifies position on staffing departures
The Department of Energy clarified its number of departing employees Friday after Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at a House appropriations hearing that fewer than 1,000 people have left DOE since Trump's inauguration. In a statement to POLITICO's E&E News, DOE said the number does not include employees who have chosen to leave voluntarily through its deferred resignation program, as those staffers 'are still employed by the department.' That suggests that eventual departures from DOE, which has about 16,000 employees, could be much greater once voluntary resignations and future staff cuts are included. According to two people familiar with internal operations, more than 3,500 employees opted to leave DOE voluntarily, although those resignations are subject to approval. DOE has not yet provided a final tally of employees who took the deferred resignation offer. Advertisement The 1,000 figure 'does not include staff who have opted into the DRP. … [T]he secretary was asked [at the hearing] how many people have left the department, and that number is fewer than 1,000. All enrollment requests to the DRP are subject to approval, and certain public safety, national security, law enforcement, or other essential employees may not be approved for participation,' the DOE statement said.
Reuters
12-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US House budget bill seeks more than $1.5 billion for Strategic Petroleum Reserve
WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. House committee released a budget proposal that includes more than $1.5 billion to replenish and maintain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and cancels a congressionally mandated sale, following huge sales from the facility in 2022. The measure from the House Energy and Commerce Committee released late on Sunday contains $1.32 billion to purchase oil to help replenish the SPR, the world's largest emergency stockpile of crude, and $218 million for maintenance of the facility. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright had estimated in March that it would take $20 billion and years to accomplish U.S. President Donald Trump's goal of filling the SPR, a move that would help domestic energy producers amid relatively low oil prices. The facility has the capacity to store about 727 million barrels and currently holds about 399 million barrels. The House committee is controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans and this move is part of a wider proposal to cut grants and loan financing in former President Joe Biden's landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Biden, a Democrat, sold a record 180 million barrels from the SPR in 2022 after Russia, a leading oil producer, invaded Ukraine, bringing the reserve down to its lowest level in 40 years. The House measure, which faces a committee vote on Tuesday, also repeals a congressionally mandated sale of 7 million barrels from the SPR through fiscal year 2027. The Biden administration had worked with Congress to cancel congressionally mandated sales to help keep levels in the SPR from falling.
Telegraph
07-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Australian billionaire plots green energy revolution with power link to North Africa
An Australian mining billionaire is seeking support from Ed Miliband for a new multibillion-pound power link between Europe and North Africa. Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, the founder and boss of iron ore giant Fortescue, has held discussions with the Energy Secretary in recent weeks about the project, which would aim to pipe clean energy generated from African solar farms to the European Continent. Fortescue wants to develop up to 100 gigawatts (GW) of clean power capacity in North Africa, with talks ongoing with various European governments about running multiple subsea cables alongside one another to bring over electricity. These would be able to transport up to 500 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year, roughly equivalent to Germany's entire annual consumption or 17 Hinkley Point C-sized nuclear power stations operating round the clock. It would be backed up by battery storage and potentially hydrogen-fired power plants, ensuring the proposed interconnector could provide round-the-clock supplies and potentially support for system stability as well. Fortescue has yet to confirm the interconnector's route but it is understood that power for Britain would be transported via other intermediary Western European countries. The mining company last year signed a deal with Belgium-based offshore cable maker Jan de Nul to look at potential manufacturing facilities in Morocco. It is the latest business to look at tapping the vast solar power of North Africa, with a £25bn project proposed by rival Xlinks also vying for support from the Government. In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Forrest said: 'You've got the most impossible amount of energy being wasted every single day in North Africa right now, so we're developing a proposal to send the equivalent of 500TW to Europe. 'And I really want to stress, this is not intermittent. It would be 24/7, baseload power, just like what I need to run my company. 'It can't run on wind and solar going up and down, it can't stop for Christmas, it can't stop for Easter. It has to go every second of every day. 'That's when we need power, and that's when Britain and Europe do as well.' Mr Forrest founded Fortescue in 2003 and built it into one of the world's biggest iron ore producers. But following a near-death experience in 2016, he became involved in environmentalism and vowed to transform his company into a green energy champion. He has argued his interconnector scheme can help to cut the power bills of European households and businesses while improving grid stability. The billionaire insisted he was not seeking subsidies from the Government but wanted a deal that would commit the UK to buying electricity at market prices over a set period of time. 'I want Ed [Miliband] to say, 'we'll buy X at market [prices],'' he said. By comparison, the rival scheme proposed by Xlinks, which is backed by former Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis, is seeking a so-called contract for difference which would guarantee the project a fixed 'strike price' for the power it supplies. The Xlinks cable would transport solar and wind power generated in Morocco's Saharan Tan-Tan region to the Devon coast, via 4,000km of underwater cables. Mr Miliband has pledged to cut household energy bills by £300 a year and make Britain's electricity system 95pc 'clean' by 2030. His target includes increasing the capacity of interconnectors linked to the UK from 10GW currently to up to 14GW. Iberian blackouts The Fortescue proposal has emerged just weeks after Spain and Portugal suffered unprecedented national blackouts, with electricity grid stability now high on the agenda. Some experts have raised concerns that cascading failures in the Spanish system, the cause of which are still unknown, may have been worsened by a reliance on renewable energy sources. This is because many solar and wind farms do not tend to provide so-called system inertia – the spinning momentum that turbines generate as a by-product – which can add to grid instability when there are sudden changes in supply and demand. Supply and demand must be kept balanced at all times on electricity systems for the lights to stay on. In the wake of the Spanish crisis, experts have also highlighted the relatively low number of interconnectors between the Iberian peninsula and the rest of the Continent. A key link with France went offline as the blackouts spread and automatic systems kicked in to protect vital infrastructure from being damaged.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Giant floating wind farms to be moored off south-west coast
Giant floating wind farms are set to be moored off Britain's south-west coast as Ed Miliband ramps up his green energy blitz. Under proposals being drawn up by the Crown Estate and the Energy Department, large parts of the UK's seabed are to be rented out to offshore wind companies building 300m turbines as tall as London's Shard skyscraper. A tender for three sites in the Celtic Sea has now been launched to host the wind farms, which are to be mounted on individual floating platforms as big as a football pitch. Once built, the wind farms are expected to generate enough renewable energy to power more than 4m homes, with lease agreements for the sites poised to be signed this summer after the bidding process is concluded. A total of seven ports have been put forward to build the turbines, including Plymouth, Bristol and Swansea. The plans form part of Mr Miliband's net zero drive, as he attempts to unleash wind and solar farms across swathes of Britain's land and sea. Just last week, the Energy Secretary also approved a separate proposal for new turbines in the English Channel despite hundreds of complaints from local households. Mr Miliband said: 'The UK is a world leader when it comes to floating offshore wind, and by unlocking the untapped potential of the Celtic Sea, we will reap the benefits of economic growth and thousands of jobs in Wales and the South West. 'More floating turbines in our waters means more clean, home-grown power that we control, delivering energy security for families and businesses.' The Crown Estate is the King's property group, managing the seabed and much of the coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It also counts Ascot racecourse and swathes of central London, such as Regent Street and St James's, in its £16bn portfolio. The estate in recent years has landed huge profits from renting out Britain's seabed to offshore wind farms. It has since unveiled plans to lease seabed space for up to 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, which will require thousands of new turbines. The estate also owns some 200,000 acres of prime farmland, some of which it also intends to make available for renewable energy projects. Gus Jaspert, of the Crown Estate, said: 'The advent of floating offshore wind offers a generational opportunity for the UK to be at the forefront of an exciting new global industry. 'With government backing to secure the long-term success of the UK as a global leader in floating wind, we can lay the foundations for future generations to reap the rewards of a decarbonised, energy-secure and prosperous future.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
