Monday 1 February 2010

Completely Insane Scheme Of The Week

From The Metro:

Flat screen TVs, illuminated signs and brightly-lit window displays could all be switched off - instead of being left on overnight when shops and businesses are closed - as companies respond to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme.

The scheme will require businesses to record their energy use and from next year, pay by the tonne for the carbon they emit. Around 5,000 firms which use more than 6,000MWh of electricity a year - equivalent to bills of around £500,000 - must register for the energy efficiency scheme between April and September this year.

When the scheme is up and running, the Environment Agency will publish an annual league table of the best and worst performers under the CRC - with the top energy savers getting financial rewards and the worst companies being penalised...


Sometimes I don't know where to start, as I'm not even sure what level of reality these people are operating on. But at least it will boost the Environment Agency's headcount past its current level of 13,000, I suppose.

9 comments:

AntiCitizenOne said...

Any cost is irrelevant if it saves the Holy Carbon from going into the bad sky.

JuliaM said...

Whenever the ecofreaks run one of those 'light pollution' campaigns, there's always a nice shot of some big government building ablaze like Blackpool illuminations.

I wonder if this will work the same way?

Witterings from Witney said...

Thank you MW for shedding light on this stupid scheme! And the extra 'crats needed to run it and the cost????

And the extra 'costs' (tax) that these firms will be liable for, will of course be 'swallowed' by the firms??

As you say where to start!

Dick Puddlecote said...

It was a headshakin' goin' on here too when I saw that. I sometimes think they want us all to revert back to life in the 1940s ... but without the smoking, of course. ;-)

woman on a raft said...

The thing to do is make a note of it so you know immediately what to cut.

Having opened the list of fake charities, we need a list of fake ministries administering things that don't need administration in the first place.

I nominate the Regional Development Agencies as surplus to requirements.

AntiCitizenOne said...

The RDAs just try and correct for the economic distortions caused by the insane tax system in this country.

Governments cause problems then tax people even more to try and mask them.

Anonymous said...

More centralized control, more centralized planning - please.

We must have more, we must be dictated to.

Otherwise we cannot save the planet nor the children.

Vote Labour, or else vote Tory.

But save a life.

bayard said...

I don't understand this: Around 5,000 firms which use more than 6,000MWh of electricity a year - equivalent to bills of around £500,000 - must register for the energy efficiency scheme. Isn't electricity carbon-free? The generators produce carbon dioxide, but the users don't. Or is the gov't hitting both producer and user? What about the proportion of electricity produced by renewables? Is that decucted from the users "carbon use"?

It's just another scam, isn't it?

Mark Wadsworth said...

AC1, don't you mean Evil Carbon going into The Holy Sky?

JM, yes of course.

WFW, DP, my pleasure.

WOAR, we are way beyond the stage of writing down which ones we'll scrap. It's far quicker listing the ones we'll keep....

AC1, but RDA's aren't on the "keep" list, if you were wondering.

Bayard, methinks you are confusing "electric cars" which have no carbon emissions with "electric lights" which do. Off to re-education camp with you!

What pissed me off most was the idea that a company that decides it's good for business to spend £500,000 on electricity just ignores any potential cost-savings but all of a sudden it's going to change its ways because the EA go round handing out sweeties.