UK energy security plan criticised as missed chance to reduce bills

theguardian.com:

Boris Johnson’s energy security plan has been dismissed as a missed opportunity to bring down bills rapidly, over its failure to fund energy efficiency upgrades or back onshore windfarms in the face of Tory backbench opposition.

While the government’s plans set targets for long-term expansion of nuclear, offshore wind and solar capacity, it stopped short of doing so for onshore wind. The proposals also lacked a major intervention to help households lower their gas usage by improving insulation standards.

The shadow business and energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said Johnson had been “held to ransom” by backbench opposition to windfarms.

Energy experts and environmental groups labelled the plan “inadequate”, warning it would do little to address the urgent need to tackle sky-high bills and reduce dependence on gas imports, including from Russia.

The strategy did set ambitious targets for offshore wind generation, with the government raising its target from 40 to 50 gigawatts by 2030.

But Johnson did not back a wind industry proposal to double onshore capacity to 30GW over the same period.

Executives are understood to have told the prime minister during a meeting last week that onshore turbines offered the cheapest and fastest way to wean the UK off gas, the price of which has rocketed further amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But the government backed away from setting targets for onshore, after fierce opposition from senior Tories including the chief whip, Chris Heaton-Harris, and the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, who called the turbines an “eyesore”.

Instead, the government promised to offer a “limited” number of communities guaranteed lower electricity bills in exchange for supporting local windfarms.

Miliband said this