Green energy tycoon Dale Vince has blamed Ed Miliband for the “toxification of Net Zero” and branded him unfit to become Chancellor. The Telegraph has more.
The Labour donor accused the Energy Secretary of putting “ideology before the economy” and questioned whether he had a grasp of “even the basic notion of value for money”.
Miliband’s spending record in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) demonstrated his economic incompetence, Vince told the Telegraph.
In particular, the green energy entrepreneur criticised the decision to commit tens of billions of pounds to heat pumps and carbon capture technology, the latter of which remains largely unproven on a global scale.
“It’s about economic competence,” he said. “It’s about having an understanding of even the basic notion of value for money. I question whether he has that when you look at spending decisions like carbon capture and storage.
“It’s madly uneconomic so this makes me question whether he’s putting ideology in front of [the] economy. We need something else from a Chancellor and someone who is more business-like.”
Since his appointment as Energy Secretary in July 2024, Miliband has committed to spending billions of taxpayer cash on green energy technologies as part of his mission to achieve clean power by 2030.
Vince, who runs clean power firm Ecotricity, described these investments as a “terrible waste of money” and said he hoped Andy Burnham could “fix” things if the MP for Makerfield entered No. 10.
He said: “They’ve kind of led to the toxification, or enabled the toxification, of Net Zero, and the idea that it’s about spending vast sums of money subsidising technologies that only people with money can afford, like heat pumps and new electric cars, and being out of touch with reality.
“It adds to the feeling in the country that this green energy Net Zero stuff is driving bills up. It is a false narrative but the previous administration has enabled that and I hope Andy can fix it.”
Worth reading in full.
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“Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)”
what a farcical name; there is nothing remotely secure about the energy supply we get from wind and solar. We have no idea when and where and what maybe supplying some electricity.
have become almost totally reliant upon the wind speed and cloud cover and whether our European neighbours have any juice to spare albeit at astronomical cost.
We have a Department for supply failure, not fit for purpose.
Vince would do well to study the Bible, particularly Matthew 7:5
“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
The Net Zero SCAM is toxic. Not just Miliband …. he’s just using it to turbo-charge his post-parliamentary career in the global “climate change” quangocracy.
I have nothing to say about the character of Dale Vince – I can’t be bothered to look up his history and make a judgment – but isn’t the attitude in some of the comments counter-productive?
If someone – anyone with media access – calls out this Milliwatt-insanity, does it really matter who they are?
I’m busy drilling carbon capture wells in the UK at the moment – sadly it’s pretty much all that’s left of the “oil” industry in the UK at the moment.
I recently offered a wager with anyone for a large amount of money that not a single ounce of CO2 would ever be pumped into these wells.
No one took me up on it.
Got to laugh at the last sentence – a total lie, of course all this net zero focus is driving bills up, we are replacing large power sources with many, many smaller ones that work part time, and therefore need large scale backup – how could it ever be cheaper?
Alexa, give me an example of ‘Biting the hand that feeds me’…
https://gridmargin.co.uk
A cretin accusing a moron of being an idiot, oh how we laughed…..
Vince the opportunist; is his opinion worth listening to at all?
Things must be bad though for these types to turn on each other – they are alternate cheeks of the same arse…
Windmills and solar pannels, ‘value for money’?
From the UN:
But even if we were willing and able to achieve net zero is there any guarantee that the climate would notice or change? My suspicion is that man made carbon emissions have a negligeable impact and climate change is driven by far bigger processes such as solar cycles, orbital mechanics, and geology. When a scientist can put verifiable numbers on these processes, I will listen.
Leaving zero Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere would indeed be the end of all life on the planet. Fortunately it is increasing at the moment, improving crop yields across the world. 97% of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is produced naturally and suggesting that it should or could be eliminated is ridiculous.
Leaving zero Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere would indeed be the end of all life on the planet. Fortunately it is increasing at the moment, improving crop yields across the world. 97% of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is produced naturally and suggesting that it should or could be eliminated is ridiculous.
But Net Zero always meant that the majority have to live like medieval peasants whilst their ‘masters’ jet off to Davos, etc.
“subsidising technologies that only people with money can afford, like heat pumps and new electric cars” I thought was the point of net zero??
Dale Vance is toxic. It’s not a “feeling” that the Green/Net Zero scam is driving prices up, it the reality.
But Ed Minibrain hasn’t turned Net Zero toxic, just revealed how economically poisonous it is to the wider population.
For anyone interested. Matt Ridley.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ieainsider/p/the-most-important-thing-to-happen?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Logical thought, practicalities, and fiscal realism have made it ‘toxic’. We don’t need to do it, there is no advantage to us if we carry on, and even if it was doing something important, we can’t afford the bill anyway.
What is this twit proposing as an alternative?
Vince has profited enormously from the fiscal incontinence of mlliband and his department, so it seems a little ungrateful… perhaps he’s afraid the tap will be turned off and he’ll have to start earning his money properly instead of having it chucked at him by the wheelbarrow load by civil servants?