Ed Miliband has vowed to take on the nimbys opposed to the government’s rollout of wind turbines, solar farms and pylons across the UK as a matter of “national security” and “economic justice”.
The energy secretary used his first big public address on Tuesday to argue in favour of speedy consent for new energy infrastructure to break the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels and avoid a repeat of “a crisis of the scale we have been through, with such devastating effects”.
Miliband promised to “take on the blockers, the delayers, the obstructionists” who have opposed the new government’s plans to speed up the UK’s progress towards a clean energy system by the end of the decade.
He told Energy UK’s annual conference in London on Tuesday that the government’s manifesto pledge was “the national security, energy security, economic justice fight of our time”.
In the nine weeks since the Labour party formed a new government it has removed an almost decade-long block on onshore windfarms, consented to four of the UK’s largest solar farms and established the government electricity generation company GB Energy to help invest up to £8bn in low-carbon power.
The plans have raised concerns in some parts of the UK, and among opposition parties, that the growing number of onshore energy projects will require a massive expansion of pylons and overhead lines to connect them to the grid and lead to the “industrialisation of the countryside”.
Miliband said: “The faster we go, the more secure we become. Every wind turbine we put up, every solar panel we install, every piece of grid we construct helps protect families from future energy shocks.”
He added: “This is an argument we need to have as a country because the converse is also true. Every wind turbine we block, every solar farm we reject, every piece of grid we fail to build makes us less secure and more exposed. That’s why our clean energy sprint is the national security, energy security, economic justice fight of our time.”
The Labour government is also taking on nimbys by promising to get new housebuilding developments going even if it means building on green belt land, which has attracted anger from senior Conservatives and concern among some in Labour about the impact on their support locally.
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Also speaking at the conference was Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power, one of UK’s largest grid operators alongside its business developing renewable energy. He said: “If we want more homes – they need electricity. If we want more low carbon heating and transport – it needs electricity. If we want more jobs, business and industry – they need electricity.”
“It’s not just renewables we need to build,” Anderson added. “We need to undertake the biggest rewiring this country has ever seen to facilitate the wider modernisation of our economy. Our grid needs a major overhaul to reconfigure the electricity motorways to better serve a modern, flexible, greener energy system.”
Miliband said: “I am determined that we do not go from an unequal, unfair, high carbon Britain to an unequal, unfair clean energy Britain. We must, in this transition, tackle fuel poverty, create good jobs, clean up our air, improve access to nature and quality of life. And I passionately believe we can.”