The UK Budget 2102: here are some comments and links to web-sites and blogs.
Friends of the Earth’s executive director, Andy Atkins: “This budget sticks two fingers up at David Cameron’s promise to build a clean future – and gives a massive thumbs down to new jobs and cutting our reliance on expensive gas and oil. Safeguarding our environment and growing a strong economy go hand-in-hand – but the chancellor has fired the starting pistol for more roads, airports and gas power that will keep the UK hooked on costly fossil fuels for decades to come.” See Click Green http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/opinion/opinion/123338-black-wednesday-for-environment-and-rest-of-the-reaction-to-today%5Cs-budget.html
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace: “This was a bad day for the environment. Support for British manufacturing, green jobs and greening the economy should have been the cornerstone of Osborne’s budget. Instead we got a polluters’ charter. The chancellor performed a carbon-belching U-turn by supporting airport expansion in the south-east, before handing tax breaks to an oil industry that’s already making billions in profits and a cash bung to the very same oil industry to drill in our fragile seas.” See The BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12832192
Philip Pearson, Senior Policy Officer in the TUC’s Economic & Social Affairs Department: “Budget 2012 witnessed the vanishing green economy. First, the Chancellor did not stint his support for fossil fuels, they receive over £3bn in new tax breaks. Second, he was “alert to the costs of renewables”, so no new support there to speak of. Third, a promise to lift the burden of the carbon tax for the largest service sector employers. Finally, green taxes will raise over £4.6bn, but we won’t see much of that spent on tackling fuel poverty or investing in green jobs and skills.” See http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2012/03/a-budget-for-oil-gas/
Damian Carrington, environment writer, the Guardian: “The chancellor said ‘environmentally sustainable has to be fiscally sustainable too’. But the reverse is the greater truth, from countryside protection to oil exploration to aviation.
George Osborne said gas would be the UK’s largest source of electricity for this decade and beyond Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
To get UK plc motoring, George Osborne vowed in the 2011 budget to ‘put fuel into the tank of the British economy’. What he revealed on Wednesday is that the nation’s tank is to be filled with fossil fuels.
The chancellor took £2bn pounds from the oil and gas industry last year – to cut petrol duty – but now he has handed back at least £3bn to the fossil fuel giants. That’s the size of the tax breaks for exploration of the deep water fields to the west of Shetland and to squeeze the last drops from the North Sea. He will also lock-in up to 75% tax breaks for decommissioning oil rigs in the North Sea – that’s a £30 billion pound liability.” See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/mar/21/environment-budget-2012-osborne-planning
Caroline Lucas from the Green Party: “Ed Davey’s dash for gas will not help UK meet carbon targets
As one of his first major announcements, climate secretary’s plans for investment in gas are disappointing news Last Saturday, the new energy and climate secretary slipped out plans for encouraging investment in gas. Unsurprisingly, his statement – just a few days before today’s budget – raised more than a few eyebrows.
The last time I checked, gas was still a polluting fossil fuel. So if we’re still hoping to meet our legally binding climate change targets, it’s pretty disappointing news. It’s also bad news for households facing ever increasing energy bills, and for all the green jobs that could be created if only the government were to redirect this enthusiasm towards the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors.” See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/mar/21/ed-davey-gas
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