Date published: 2012/04/24
Richard Black in the BBC says:
More Britons than not regard subsidies for wind power development as a good deal, an opinion poll suggests.
Commissioned by trade body RenewableUK, the Ipsos-Mori poll found that 43% see the UK subsidy as good value for money against 18% who do not.
Another survey has also found a big majority in favour of renewable energy.
What a surprise, a survey carried out by a special interest pressure group with a direct financial interest in the outcome just happens to support the views of the special interest. It is unbelievable that the BBC could report this with a straight face.
And if that was not bad enough, Richard Black had a second article the very same day, again blindly promoting a related special interest pressure group:
The renewable energy industry supports 110,000 jobs in the UK and could support 400,000 by 2020, a report says.
The Renewable Energy Association (REA) and consultants Innovas conclude that the industry is worth £12.5bn per year to the UK economy.
So-called renewable energy gets a fairly large subsidy in the UK (especially the ridiculously large subsidies that private households get for pretending to generate electricity in a sensible way). There could well be a large number of people working in this industry, courtesy of these large subsidies. That does not mean it is a good idea. The question is whether it is good value for money, and sufficiently productive in competition with alternatives. Very non-productive industries tend to use large amounts of labour. This is not a victory for the British economy.
It is unfortunate that the BBC continually publishes what in effect amounts to press releases for organisations that it happens to deem worthy, for whatever obscure reason, without any worthwhile analysis.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").