Plans for dramatic cuts in government subsidies for onshore wind farms are being drawn up by the Treasury in a move that seriously undermines a country's claim to be running the greenest government ever.
The Observer has learned that cuts of 25% in subsidies are being demanded, a reduction the industry says would kill the development of wind power sites. The Treasury's stance has put the chancellor at loggerheads with the Liberal Democrat energy secretary, whose party strongly supports more renewable energy.
Whose reputation has taken a dive following his widely criticized budget and a subsequent string of U-turns, has been under heavy pressure from Tory MPs to reduce the billions spent on green commitments.
In February more than 100 Conservative backbenchers wrote to the prime minister demanding cuts to the £400m a year public subsidies for wind farms which they see as evidence of too much Lib Dem influence over coalition policy. A prominent opponent of onshore wind power is the Duke of Edinburgh, who is said to have described turbines as useless and to believe they will never work.
A Tory chairman of the all-party energy and climate change select committee, said the Treasury and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) were following different agendas. This is an example of where Decc's attempts to stimulate renewable energy are being hampered by Treasury intervention. The way to deal with this – and realize the savings the Treasury wants to achieve – is to have more onshore renewable energy, which requires lower levels of subsidy, and less offshore, which requires more. We need to change the balance.
Critics accuse the chancellor of pandering to Conservative backbenchers who do not want turbines built in their constituencies, believing they will damage their prospects of re-election. They argue the cuts make no economic sense, because alternatives, such as siting the turbines in the sea, would be much more expensive. This is a reckless act of political opportunism by a chancellor keen to boost his popularity among his backbench MPs.
However, a Tory MP who led the backbench campaign for cuts, said he was greatly encouraged. And argued that onshore wind power was expensive compared with gas and that it would drive up fuel poverty.
However, proponents of wind power point to rocketing gas prices and the air pollution and climate change benefits of renewable energy technologies, of which onshore wind is the cheapest.
In 2005, the new party leader adopted the slogan "vote blue, go green" as he made the environment the centrepiece of his drive to modernize the Conservatives. Shortly after entering a coalition with the Lib Dems he promised to lead the "greenest government ever", adding that "nowhere are long-term decisions more needed than actually in the fields of energy and climate change and environment".
But it has been made clear that he does not believe the green agenda can remain a priority when cash is short and the deficit needs to be reduced. With his own political fortunes on the slide, Tory MPs believe he can be persuaded to back their anti-green campaigns. This year the government angered green campaigners by announcing plans to slash subsidies for solar energy, a move the industry roundly condemned.
There are more than 3,000 wind turbines in the UK countryside and the debate has become more polarized in the past two years, with a tripling of local opposition. However, a large majority of the public remains in favour of wind power, even if it is placed within a few miles of their home.
The Treasury declined to comment, but a spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which runs the subsidy scheme, said that it is vital that our support for renewable electricity both encourages investment and represents value for money for consumers. The government will publish the new support levels shortly.
According to sources, the decision has been delayed by the Treasury crawling all over the new rates put forward.
Decc's initial proposal in October, delayed by wrangling, was for a 10% cut in the support for onshore wind under a scheme called the "renewables obligation". But the Observer was told the Treasury has demanded a 25% cut.
The delay means the whole of the UK's renewables investment portfolio is being jeopardized by pandering to Tory backbenchers. It is total prioritization of politics over the economic interests of the country.
The 10% proposal was the product of independently commissioned analysis by Decc. If the Treasury swoops in at the last minute and shortcuts that process, the credibility of the government's renewables policy will be in tatters, along with the prime minister's claim to be the greenest government ever. Of course, some might argue that is precisely what the chancellor wants to achieve.
The setting of subsidy levels is a negotiation between industry and government, according to the chief executive of analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance, who made an influential presentation to the world's leading energy ministers in May.
The presentation showed the global average cost of onshore wind was falling, but he said using that to justify cuts in the UK was wrong: Just because the best wind farms in the world are competitive [with gas] does not mean the average ones are yet. He added that large scales, fast planning and good grid connections made US wind farms much cheaper than those in the UK.
There are 320 onshore wind farms in UK, a third of them in England. Many more are awaiting construction or planning permission.
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