This week, Ed Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced a plank in its 'clean power' by 2030 agenda. “Clean energy will bring 400,000 extra jobs by 2030, with high demand for roles including plumbers, electricians and welders,” proclaimed the DESNZ press release. The fanfare, however, was soon drowned out by the sound of a great deal of well-deserved derision.
The chaps at Climate Scepticism were the first to the scene, with JIT pointing out that, if DESNZ’s claim that “jobs in the clean energy sector command average salaries of more than £50,000” is correct, then the 400,000 new roles will cost at least a combined £20 billion. That’s a bill that will one way or another land on households’ doormats (or email inboxes) to the tune of nearly £1,000 each if we factor in the cost of employment taxes and other expenses, JIT points out.
And that brings back into focus the fact of the Labour Party’s and Ed Miliband’s major election pledge to 'lower bills'. Miliband and the Government seem to be hoping that we have forgotten his promises and that we will not notice the costs of 400,000 more 'green jobs' on bills and other prices.
Miliband was briefly reminded of that promise on Sunday, when the BBC’s Sophie Ridge brought up energy company CEO’s, who last week told MPs that domestic energy bills will rise by 2030 even if wholesale energy prices are halved. “This is characteristically nerdy,
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Jobs are a cost, not a benefit.
I’ll add only two words to the comments. Money and Politics. These are the only driving forces for the policies and events over which DS subscribers comment.
If I had money and political connection then why would I not use it to benefit myself if the result was to benefit the whole world. Delusions of grandeur are within most of us, but particularly the politicians.
I don’t doubt that the author is correct – because I take it that anyone criticizing Miliband must be correct – but. I’m having trouble with this rather awkward sentence:
“Electricity from renewables is more expensive than electricity from gas because the contracts between renewable power generators and the Government give those generators higher prices than the price of power from gas typically achieves.”
Can someone rewrite that for me (from “…the Government…”)?
Green Jobs? A Communist Fantasy
Back last century, Labour politicians were claiming that the “white heat of technology” would improve efficiency by giving more output from fewer workers. Now the Greens and their puppets want to load 400,000 more mouths to feed from our electricity bills, while output is dropping. Reverse ferret doesn’t begin to describe it. The only way I can understand this is “Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens“ Against stupidity the gods themselves prevail in vain.
They literally have no concept these green jobs add zero additional value to the economy, in fact, they actually add cost as described… totally opposite of what is being said by Millitwat
“with high demand for roles including plumbers, electricians and welders,”
And whence will they all magically come? More skilled, culture enrichers from the World’s shitholes?
And whilst these will be diverted to “green” jobs, who will be doing the sort of work they currently are doing, fixing leaks, rewording houses, etc?
The economic illiteracy is strong – but then Socialist, “nuff said.
Ben, you really need to be careful writing so many articles about the nutter, because he will classify you as a green energy job – after all, without the false religion that is climate change, your job would not be needed. Add to that the thousands of civil servants and consultants that are needed to answer the questions posed by you and your colleagues and suddenly we have a whole new sector of green jobs. The whole thing’s a farce and we have recognised the nutter’s lies since our binmen were reclassified as green jobs and the plumber who services or boiler each year was also reclassified, because she does a gas boiler in the morning and a solar heated system in the afternoon. It’s so Orwellian, it is beyond belief