“The onshore wind ban has been in place for nine years,” explained the new Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero, Ed Miliband on Monday. “We’ve been in Government for 72 hours, we’ve lifted it,” he boasted. Miliband’s hope is that the lifting of the “ban” is an essential step to the U.K. becoming “a clean energy superpower”, an aspiration which Miliband claims will lower bills. But this stands up to no scrutiny and tragically for Miliband was dashed within moments of his announcement by the very industry his agenda depends on.
The truth is that there never was a ban on onshore wind in England. The detail that reveal’s Miliband’s persistent lie was published by a Government Policy Statement, which refers instead to a “de facto ban” in the form of two caveats on development, one of which requires that “the proposal has proved community support”. This restriction on onshore wind farm developments was created by the Conservative Government after the issue of rural communities being blighted by wind turbines looming over them started to turn into an electoral liability.
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