The famous author and scholar C.S. Lewis once famously said, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
He was right, and for proof of just how right he was, we need look (again) no further than the nation that was once America, Original Recipe: The United Kingdom. I'm in the habit of watching what goes on in that country, because it's what the American left would do here, given the chance. They bear study, and now that study reveals that the UK's Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, is still pushing his green energy plans, no matter the cost. The Telegraph, being what it is, largely supports the move to mandate "green" heating and so forth in every British home - but even their coverage gives away a few things.
Solar panels will be fitted on all new houses and heat pumps installed in nearly half a million homes every year under sweeping plans unveiled by Ed Miliband.
The Energy Secretary on Wednesday launched a £15bn green energy plan to fit solar panels, heat pumps, insulation and double glazing to five million homes for people on low incomes – all at taxpayers’ expense.
Housebuilders will also be blocked from installing boilers and gas fires in new homes under building regulations to be announced later this year.
Mr Miliband’s “Warm Homes Plan” is one of the Government’s flagship green energy policies, with the budget around four times the size of the BBC’s annual licence income.
A new body, the Warm Homes Agency, will also oversee spending from the fund, making it one of Britain’s biggest quangos.
OK, while I take great pride in my vocabulary, I admit, I had to look up "quango," and it turns out that this refers to a "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization," or an organization to which the government has only partially devolved funding and control; it derives from "quasi-NGO." That's a useful word to have in one's vocabulary; you're welcome.
Whether it be managed directly by the government, through a quango, or through a straight-up NGO, this is still a waste of the British taxpayer's money.
Here's the onion:
Some of that will come from £2.7bn set aside for Boiler Upgrade Scheme grants, available to all irrespective of income, between now and 2030.
However, this is only enough for 360,000 installations in total – a fraction of the 450,000 per year by 2030 sought by Mr Miliband.
Justifying the plan, Mr Miliband said: “It is a scandal that millions of people in our country do not have the security of a home that is warm, affordable and safe. We are embarking on a national project to turn the tide – waging war on fuel poverty.”
According to the Warm Homes Plan, there will be no overt “boiler ban” but new rules from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government later this year will set emission standards too tough for most gas appliances.
Feature, not bug.
Read More: 'Green' Heat Pumps and Unintended Consequences
The BBC Makes Some Perfectly Ridiculous Suggestions for Climate Lifestyle Changes - No, Thanks
Here's where Economics 101, with which Ed Miliband has not even a nodding acquaintance, comes into play. Every one of these things needs to be paid for, and note that the mandate is done by the old fraud, "regulation" - they may not completely ban gas appliances, they'll just make them too expensive to operate, and make the British people depend on (subsidized) electric heat pumps and so forth, instead. Oh, and those subsidies? They'll be from money taken from the British taxpayers, and filtered through several layers of British bureaucracy, before being filtered back out to the British people. In other words, they'll be getting their own money back; well, part of it, anyway. And there will be strings attached to how they spend it.
Miliband's claims that the green energy boondoggles will lower rates for electricity are the purest of horse squeeze, as well.
A new report promoted by conservative New England think tanks warns that the region’s decarbonization plans could add as much as $815 billion in electricity costs by 2050.
The analysis, produced by Always On Energy Research and backed by groups including the Fiscal Alliance Foundation and Americans for Prosperity, contends that current clean energy mandates — focused heavily on solar, onshore and offshore wind, and battery storage — would be far more expensive than alternatives centered on nuclear and natural gas.
This whole thing, this entire British green energy scheme, is a gigantic house of cards, and it's only a matter of time before it all comes tumbling down.
So, why should we, as Americans, worry about what feckless British politicians and bureaucrats are up to? Because, sure as I'm sitting here, the American left is watching all this and planning to do it here next. We've all heard the arguments, on every policy from economics to energy to gun control: "But in Europe, they do it this way." Well, a good look at British and European policies in general provides a great object lesson on why we shouldn't want to do it that way. Not by a long shot. So we keep spreading the word, and we vote. And this year, every one of us had better get out and vote, or we'll be seeing mandated electric heat pumps here, too.
C.S. Lewis would surely have something to say about all this, and I suspect it wouldn't be complimentary.
