Greens call on Chris Huhne to admit he got it wrong.

The UK Government has lost its appeal against a court decision which blocked its attempts to reduce solar subsidies.

Responding to the decision, the Green Party of England and Wales, issued the following statement.

“The High Court ruling is a victory for the solar industry and for renewable energy campaigners in holding the Government to account over its illegal attempt to make retrospective changes to the solar tariff.

“Having lost twice in the Court of Appeal and been roundly humiliated over the shambolic handling of solar policy, it is absolutely beggars belief that the Department for Energy and Climate Change is apparently planning to appeal to the Supreme Court.

“The very least that the Secretary of State can now do is to show some integrity, accept that his ministers got it wrong on solar, and pull the plug on this legal merry-go-round which is putting UK jobs and future investment at risk.”

Swansea Council should carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment before allowing motorcycle racing on Swansea Beach

(Letter to the South Wales Evening Post)

Sir,

When one of our elected representatives risks unpopularity in such a public way we should consider their comments carefully, not dismiss them out of hand (‘MP wants brakes on racing as city gears up for bonanza’; page 3, Saturday 21 January)

If Council Leader Chris Holley believes that local MP Geraint Davies is wrong to claim that the proposed motorcycle event on Swansea Beach will be “an environmental disaster”, he can prove his case quite easily.

Swansea Council should carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prior to the event, publish the results and explain how the event fits into the environmental strategies of both Swansea and the Welsh Government.

Swansea Council’s own ‘Pre-Application Advice’ for planning applications states, “Proposals which are likely to give rise to significant environmental effects must be accompanied by an environmental statement. … The preparation of an Environmental Statement ensures that the impacts of a development are fully understood and taken into account before the development is allowed to proceed.”  (My emphasis)

Surely the Council’s own rules apply to them equally as much as to anyone else?

Yours,

Keith M Ross, Swansea Green Party

Notes: In response to this article: http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/MP-wants-brakes-racing-city-gears-bonanza/story-14994663-detail/story.html

Community in crisis

(Letter to the South Wales Evening Post)

One can only respond to news that David Wilson is considering leaving his home of 63 years with regret. (1)

Unfortunately Mr Wilson is not alone in this.  I know of one family that has already left St Helen’s Avenue for virtually identical reasons, and two others who are considering moving from homes they have occupied for decades.

Poisoning link threatens future of Fracking

Report in today’s Independent -  US study casts doubt on controversial shale gas extraction process as Government considers allowing its widespread use here :
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/poisoning-link-threatens-future-of-fracking-6276590.html

This is relevant to Swansea area because there is a large site in Mawr included in the draft Local Development Plan which has been nominated for “Exploration and potential development site for coal methane and unconventional gas” (Candidate Site MA0011)

Green Party calls for sustainable economics that puts society, democracy and jobs first.

The Green Party has dismissed current solutions to the Euro-zone crisis as short-sighted, economically unsustainable and tantamount to an attack on European democracy.

Current solutions to the sovereign debt crisis all amount to the same thing: the poorest paying the bill.

Two solutions are currently being discussed; first, a €2trillion fund to bail out indebted countries so that they can pay their debts to banks; second, a multi billion euro project to recapitalise the banks so that indebted countries can be allowed to default without bankrupting banks.

The first solution asks European tax payers to underwrite a €2trillion fund. The second asks Europeans tax payers to underwrite banks. Essentially they are the same regressive solution, which hits the poorest hardest and does nothing to resolve a systemic crisis.

The current solution does nothing to prevent future unsustainable debt and subsequent future crisis. Instead, it undermines democracy by putting the survival of banks before the interests of society.

The Green Party has come forward with an ambitious alternative to the neo-liberal, pro-corporate ideology that is governing economic policy in Paris, Berlin and the European Central Bank.

No contradiction here

(Letter to the South Wales Evening Post)

Councillor May really ought to read my letters more carefully before rushing to score political points. (Have Your Say, Friday 9^th December)

Far from contradicting myself or accusing the council of “doing nothing”, my earlier letter makes specific mention of the work of the Swansea Council Recycling Team and Swansea University Student Union.

The main point of my letter was to call on those landlords, tenants and others who are not currently engaging with the process to play their part in making Uplands & Brynmill a clean, tidy and pleasant place to live.

The work that I am doing, in partnership with council departments and others is designed to complement and enhance what is already being done, not to compete with it.

If my letter did come across as a bit spiky that is simply an expression of the frustration that local residents, including myself, feel at still being plagued with these issues despite years of discussion at public meetings.

Yours,

Keith M Ross, Swansea Green Party

How clean is our city?

(Letter to the South Wales Evening Post)

There is something rather too neat and perfect about Paul McGarvie’s letter (‘I loved my first visit to city’, Have Your Say, Friday 2 December), not least his comment that “the city was very clean and tidy”.

It’s pleasing that Mr McGarvie so enjoyed his visit to the city, but he paints a very different picture to that seen by city dwellers, particularly those of us who live beyond the ambit of the Council’s city centre focus (some might say obsession).  “Clean and tidy” is not a phrase often associated with the streets of Brynmill. 

Greens support calls for stronger action on Air Quality

The Government is putting thousands of lives at risk by trying to water down EU air quality rules instead of prioritising action to cut pollution on UK roads – according to Parliament’s green watchdog (the Commons Environmental Audit Committee). (1)

A report published by the Environmental Audit Committee this week concludes, “The costs to society from poor air quality are on a par with those from smoking and obesity.

“It is estimated that around 4,000 people died as a result of the Great Smog of London in 1952. That led to the introduction of the Clean Air Act in 1956. In 2008, 4,000 people died in London from air pollution and 30,000 died across the whole of the UK. The Government needs to act now, as Government did in the 1950s, to save the health of the nation.”

Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas MP, a member of the committee, said, “Ministers must take urgent action to improve air quality across the UK – and step up efforts towards a greener transport policy to encourage people out of their cars and onto public transport”. (2)

Renewables vs Nuclear

(Letter to the South Wales Evening Post)

Gordon Trigg’s concern for the taxpayer (‘It’s us who’ll pay the price’, Have Your Say, Tuesday 8 November) is touching.

However, if he were to apply the same analysis to his favoured option of nuclear power he would find that the cost of subsidising wind power pales into insignificance alongside the costs involved in supporting the nuclear industry.  In this case the money will benefit a French company (EDF) rather than German – the Germans having taken the sensible decision to phase out nuclear power.

If just 10% of the money used to subsidise nuclear power had been devoted to research and development of renewables, the UK would now be a world leader in renwable energy technology rather than trailing in the wake of our European neighbours.

With just this small amount of money we could stimulate a growth industry and create tens of thousands of jobs across the UK.   Pound for pound, investment in renewables would create 15 times more jobs than nuclear, and four times more jobs than other conventional methods of electricity generation.

That looks like a good investment to me.

Yours,

Keith M Ross, Swansea Green Party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greens urge householders to install solar panels now to avoid Government cuts

The Green Party is urging householders to install solar panels as soon as they can, following the announcement that the Government has plans to halve the Feed In Tariff for solar photovoltaic panels (1).

Under the Feed in Tariff scheme householders and others can currently claim 43 pence for every kilowatt of electricity they generate off their roof.  The government now plans to cut this to around 21p from the beginning of December.

Keith M Ross of Swansea Green Party said, “If people install solar panels now, before the cut is due to take place in December, they will get the 43p rate for the next 25 years; if they were to install them after that they would get less than half the amount.