Wind power good for multinationals, bad for the rest of us

THE shocking facts of wind energy (or lack of it), so cogently presented by the Rev. Philip Foster (Letters, November 2), receive timely support from the accountancy firm KPMG.

According to The Sunday Times (November 6) KPMG says the Government, currently planning to throw �108billion at the wind industry, could save �34bn by scrapping plans for hectares of hideous giant wind turbines in favour or gas-fired and nuclear power plants. And it would still meet its EU carbon reduction commitments on time.

As a UK taxpayer, I am horrified by our politicians’ profligacy with the hard-earned cash of people already struggling with rising fuel costs: KPMG claims that 5.5 million households are already in ‘fuel poverty’, that is, spending more than 10 per cent of net income on fuel.

It seems that our rulers are so desperate to look ‘green’ that they ignore proven, efficient fuel sources in favour of an industry that is simply not viable as a provider of secure, reliable and cheap energy for mass consumption.

As Mr Foster points out, the only beneficiaries of wind farming at present and in the foreseeable future are the multinational firms that build and install the turbines and the landowners who get paid handsomely for allowing turbines on their turf. The money going into their pockets, of course, is coming largely from you and me.

It is morally wrong that the taxpaying poor should be propping up this industry from which they stand little or no chance of benefiting.

Speculative business investment of this type is best left to professional investors who understand and accept the risk to their wealth, not self-regarding politicians who risk not their money but ours.

K LINLEY

Malthouse Lane

Ramsey