Jim Pickard in the FT carries details of a leaked letter from Gerge Osborne to Ed Davey laying down the law on crucial green energy issues. The letter includes the demand that Davey sends a “strong signal” that the government is in favour of “unabated gas”:
…I have been handed a letter from the chancellor to Ed Davey, energy secretary, which suggests that the wind subsidies are only a microcosm of a wider battle over the green agenda raging in Whitehall.
Last week the review of Rocs was put on hold; Davey and Osborne were clearly unable to reach an agreement over how far to cut the subsidies.
The letter from the chancellor suggests that Osborne was in fact open to the smaller cut in onshore wind Rocs: but only in return for some much larger concessions from Davey.
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6 Comments
Jim Pickard of the FT has done the LibDems a great favour by reporting this letter from Osborne. It shows that Osborne is anti-renewables. There is a great opportunity for the LibDems to campaign on this. The Executive, back bench MPs and party members should get stuck into the campaign and force Cameron to stick to the Coalition agreement. Go for it!
By what right does the Treasury seek to call the shots in other departments? In doing so it seeks to exercise power without responsibility. It would do much better if it confined itself to seeing that investment decisions were properly evaluated and that public sector accounting rules were fit for purpose and observed. If it did that we would not have nearly so much government waste (e.g. PFIs).
One thinks immediately, I don’t know why, of the price of a dinner at No,10. But seriously, does the Chancellor know more about energy than the Energy Secretary whose job it is to be an expert? Or is the latter taking an opportunity to do some non-Coalition thing without taking notice of the financial impact? Is this whole government just falling apart? More info please!
Why do you have to use’ pressurising’? We have a perfectly good word already ‘pressuring’. Pressurising is just an unnecessary American elongation of a perfectly good word.
Surely a chance for LibDem conference to pass a robust motion that shows Osborne this is something the party will not give way on. Otherwise the LibDems green reputation will be sullied by a Chancellor who has lost the plot.
Osborne actually suggests his plans will lead to consumers reaping the benefits of cheap gas. Hardly any analysts think there will be cheaper gas – and it is plain it is gas price increases that are responsible for rising bills at the moment.
The story is in the Independent today. Get writing letters!