Ecotricity urges Chancellor to turn windfalls into wind turbines

No windfall at Ecotricity but plenty of wind turbines

While companies like Shell and Centrica hope they are still holding onto their record profits after the Chancellor’s first budget later today, Ecotricity is one energy company sharing the sentiments of green groups, in hoping that Alistair Darling will tax these windfalls.

Dale Vince, MD of Ecotricity, said: ‘Taxing the windfall profits of energy companies is plain common sense.’

Vince believes that companies saying they need to hold onto to their windfall in order to invest in more pricey renewables is at odds with the amounts being spent. ‘In fact the average spent per customer from all the Big Six power companies in 2007 was just £5.85.’ This is significantly less than the average £14 charge customers are paying for the Renewables Obligation cost, which as the expenditure reflects, is being under delivered.

‘It's about time the government stuck its neck out on climate change with some brave policies that will actually change things. This Budget is a missed opportunity. Banning the plastic bag will get headlines but it certainly won’t save the world,’ says Vince.

Vince’s Budget wish-list also includes airlines taxed to the max, and for airlines to be included in emissions trading, an end to all subsidies for bio-fuels, ‘and abandon the idea that bio fuels have a role to play’ and he’d also like to see Darling ‘tax the hell out of incandescent light bulbs.’

Well, not long to wait now to see just how switched on to green issues the Chancellor is.