As part of the ongoing cabinet reshuffle, Charles Hendry has lost his position as the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Energy Minister. Hendry will be replaced by John Hayes, a notorious anti-wind lobbyist.
On his new position, Energy Minister, John Hayes MP said: “I am proud to answer the Prime Minister’s call to assume the role of Energy Minister at such a crucial time both for our energy security and for tackling climate change.
“We face a major challenge to keep the lights on in the most cost-effective way. In achieving this, we must not be over-reliant on any one technology, but build a balanced low carbon mix and make the best use of Britain’s domestic energy resources and skilled workforce.
“I am keen to get on and work with businesses to secure the investment we need over the coming decade. And I look forward to working with Parliamentary colleagues to put the Coalition’s forthcoming Energy Bill into law.”
The sacking of Charles Hendry has generally been viewed as a great loss to the green economy in the UK. Commenting on John Hayes’ new role, Gaynor Hartnell, Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association (REA) said: “Given John Hayes’ reported stance on energy subsidies, he might want to take a good hard look at energy policy in the round. We would be happy to meet with him to discuss the latest information on falling costs of renewables and increasing costs of other energy forms. We are about to embark on Electricity Market Reform, which will see just about every form of power generation subsidised.”
Hartnell added: “Under pressure from Treasury to scrutinise the cost of renewables policies, DECC is becoming increasingly interventionist. More and more DECC is attempting to dictate how much of each technology should be deployed. This should be left to the market, and the cheapest technologies should be encouraged to make the maximum contribution. Instead we have increasing complexity, and investors becoming more wary.”
