The prime minister, who will announce his energy strategy later this week, will announce big targets for increasing nuclear and offshore wind power, as well as exploiting more North Sea oil and gas. But it has been hit by a cabinet split over land winds, with Kwasi Kwarteng, secretary of operations, and Michael Gove, secretary of leveling, in favor, and others, such as Grant Shapps, secretary of transport, characterizing the land. turbines as “eye rub”. . Nine other cabinet ministers – Steve Barclay, Nadine Dorries, Simon Hart, Chris Heaton-Harris, Brandon Lewis, Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mark Spencer and Nadhim Zahawi – have signed a letter calling for a cut in support. ashore. in 2012. The letter was orchestrated by Heaton-Harris, now in charge of party discipline, who co-organized a campaign called Together Against Wind and wrote a handbook that was a “step-by-step guide to opposition to a wind farm in your area “. A spokesman for Heaton Harris did not comment on the incident, saying it was a “windfall”. A cabinet source said that these cabinet ministers and Tory MPs who support the expansion in England said that “they should look at the polls in favor of the land wind. “They made a war 10 years ago.” The Prime Minister is expected to approve financial incentives to encourage communities to accept wind farms in exchange for lower energy bills, but changes to design legislation in England to facilitate licensing are less likely. A government source said: “If you remove the theatrical, everyone is talking about community consent. The prime minister talked about it, Quasi talked about it. “This is something that ministers would like to ensure that communities are paid to share community infrastructure directly.” He added: “The advantage of Britain’s future energy needs is and will be offshore wind energy. There will be more wind on land and it will be in windy areas of Scotland. “Let’s see what happens in England.” John Hayes, a Tory lawmaker and former energy minister who led the charge against offshore wind power in 2015, warned the government not to overturn the moratorium that had been in place at the time. “To reverse this would be extremely politically absurd, but also the argument is unfounded in terms of environmental efficiency and energy efficiency,” he said, arguing for the expansion of inland winds for cost, wildlife and aesthetic reasons. A Tory MP said there was a WhatsApp group with more than 140 Conservative MPs against dry wind power, which would make it very difficult to vote on any energy bill with extensive land-based wind targets. “It simply came to our notice then [Johnson’s] majority, “he said. Another Conservative MP put the number of rebels at more than 100, adding that the prime minister was not politically strong enough to receive such proposals through his party. But Chris Skidmore, a Tory MP who heads the Pure Zero Support Group, said: “We are at a crossroads here. We must either double, as Kwasi does, and say we need safe forms of clean domestic energy. You could say look at the North Sea – but it’s gone. We have taken out most of it. Fracking – we are not the States. So what you need is a tripartite wind, nuclear and energy efficiency plan. “There is public support for the land that did not exist 10 years ago.” The industry’s renewables were not disappointed with the government’s plans. “[Johnson] must reduce energy bills quickly, it is not going to exclude wind and solar energy on land. It’s a case in point how you do this in a way that goes beyond the nibs. “He was interested in local electricity discount schemes, where the closer you stay, the more you save on your bill,” the source said. It comes as energy scientists have criticized Shapp’s comments, claiming that the wind on land would be a “wound” and would ruin the view of beautiful areas. Dr David Toke, of the University of Aberdeen, said this was false and that there was plenty of land, for example next to train tracks, that was ripe for use. He told the Guardian: “Only a small percentage of England is classified as an area of outstanding natural beauty. However, for example, there are very few wind turbines near freeways, which can hardly be described as beautiful. As you travel from England to Scotland by road or rail, you will notice a clear increase in land use near wind farms. “The rules that effectively ban wind farms in England are unique to planning in the UK and are proof of the government’s policy of failing to mobilize this very cheap and clean source of renewable energy to reduce energy bills.”
