Ecotricity statement on Amber Rudd allegedly ‘misleading public’ on renewables targets

The Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has been accused of misleading the public, after a leaked letter seen by the Ecologist revealed that her own department has predicted we’ll fall short of our target to get 15% of its energy from renewables by 2020, contrary to government claims that we remain on target.

Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, said: “The leaked letter shows that Amber Rudd’s public position that we are meeting our legally binding renewables target is quite simply not the truth.

“The government clearly believes we will miss the target and none of the options that Rudd mentions for making up the shortfall are viable, even by her own assessment.

“One option Rudd discusses is to pay other countries to build renewables for us, but there’s no indication at all that this would be cheaper than supporting them in the UK, which has Europe’s best and most economic wind resource. And given the reason for Rudd’s cuts to renewable energy support was cost, you’d think that cost ought to be a prominent feature of any discussion. Not only would paying other countries to build renewables for us cost more, but we’d also be exporting jobs and industry… it all seems a little un-thought through.

“Rudd acknowledges the need to meet the target and that we will fail. This has clearly been caused by the recent cuts, which are driven by the false claim that we can’t afford more renewables – the cheapest energy available to us.

“It rather looks like DECC are panicking, faced with the inevitable consequences of the ideologically driven renewables cull – their Plan A. Plan B appears to be either to pay the fines or to pay another country to do the job for us. Both options are short sighted and economically illiterate.”