Thursday
May312012
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill That's telling him
May 31, 2012 Energy: costs Scotland This just in from the Telegraph:
Peter Atherton, Citigroup’s head of utilities research, said the SNP’s radical renewable power targets require up to £7 billion of investment a year but the figure at the moment is only £750 million.
The industry expert, who advises the bank's clients where to invest their money, said utility share prices are “dire” and green energy manufacturers have proved a “terrible, catastrophic investment” in recent years.
It is “borderline fantasy” that this difference can be made good because banks and international investors do not think green energy schemes provide reliable returns, he said.
Reader Comments (56)
May 31, 2012 at 2:18 PM | Keith Macdonald
You'll be able to get no problem, Just convert your currency at the border. £1 (English) = 5p (Scottish)
No wonder it used to take a spanner to get threepence out of a Scotsman's hand!
I also noticed the Telegraph report J4R refers to above, green cars too popular on account of lower Tax A, so government answer, increase Tax B. If government didn't work on auto-pilot, they might learn something here. Its a simple thing: people don't like paying tax, and if offered the opportunity, in return for changing behaviour (purchasing habits for example), to pay less tax, they will take the opportunity. So a thinking government might think, if we did a lot less pointless things and reduced taxes a lot, we would be liked a lot, and be a shoe-in for the next election. Sadly thats not how they think. They think, 'we have to raise £750bn so if source A dries up, we'll make it up from source B'. How about reflecting on the fact that public spending was £450bn 10 years ago, and that (apart from a third accounted for by inflation) nearly all the rest is down to G Browns cash-for-votes wheezes, most of which could be undone without the world ending. The Climate Change Act. Teaching Assistants. Tax credits. Loads and loads of others. Less tax = more votes. If they can grasp one Laffer curve, lower tax = more revenue, why can;t they grasp the other one?
I rarely comment on political matters but I have to say that Alastair Darling is the only poli in recent years for whom I could muster what on a good day could just about pass for respect.
If Scotland does become an independent green nirvana will they please take The Prince of Wales with them when they leave.
A rare moment of sanity from the banking sector. Let us hope there will be more before they completely run out of other peoples' money.
ConfusedPhoton - "Lets hope sanity returns soon before our economy implodes and we double the number of people in fuel poverty."
It is official Government policy throughout the UK that we should not use energy or water (although I think Scotland might be exempt on that one) in the future - if you don't use it you can't be in poverty. You could of course be dead.