Here’s how the UK with Truss will freeze energy bills
What's in British Prime Minister Liz Truss's plan to block the cost of utility bills and ensure energy security. All the details
New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss unveiled a plan on Thursday to freeze energy bills at an average cost of £ 2,500 per year for two years. The measure is part of an aid package for British households and businesses that the Guardian described as "one of the largest government interventions since the financial crisis" of 2007.
USE OF CREDIT AND SUPPORT TO ENERGY SUPPLIERS
Truss explained that the government will finance the reduction in the cost of utility bills with greater use of credit. The measure will provide for the transfer of £ 150 billion from taxpayers' funds to energy supply companies, which will offset the difference between the price these companies pay to buy wholesale energy and the maximum consumer price set by the government. .
REMOVAL OF "GREEN TAXES" FROM BILLS
In addition, the so-called green levies (i.e. taxes to incentivize environmentally sustainable energy solutions) will be eliminated, for a temporary period, from household bills, for a value of around 150 pounds per year.
NATIONAL COVERAGE
Truss's scheme will cover England, Scotland and Wales, but something similar is expected to be defined for Northern Ireland as well.
MORE OIL & GAS EXTRACTIONS, AND MORE
In addition to containing bills, the prime minister also announced a series of measures to strengthen energy resilience: the launch of a new round of licenses (around a hundred) for the extraction of oil and gas, for example; the lifting of the moratorium on fracking (an unconventional technology to fracture rocks and release hydrocarbon deposits, widely used in the United States) imposed for seismic fears; the installation of new energy capacity from nuclear, wind and solar.
ESTIMATED SAVINGS FOR FAMILIES
Truss said that as of October, thanks to the reduction in the price of bills, the average British family will save 1000 pounds, in addition to the 400 pounds for the measures announced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
SUPPORT TO BUSINESSES
For businesses and public institutions such as schools and charities, the UK government has announced a six-monthly “equivalent support” scheme to that provided to families, which will be reviewed every three months for adjustments. It will likely consist of a subsidy to the wholesale gas price, but no details have been provided.
NO REDUCTIONS IN CONSUMPTION NOR TAXES ON EXTRA PROFITS
However, Truss did not ask consumers and entrepreneurs to reduce energy consumption to limit the risk of blackouts in the winter months. And he ruled out to finance the ceiling on bills through a tax on the so-called " extra profits " of energy companies.
– Read also: Draghi, Eni and extra-profits: what is happening
THE CRITICISM OF THE LABURISTS
Labor Party leader Keir Starmer criticized the government's decision to finance the measure through increased public debt rather than tax increases. "The prime minister is opposed to taxes on extra profits," she said. "He wants to leave these huge proceeds on the table with a clear and obvious consequence: the bill will be paid by the workers."
Starmer also attacked the government focus on fuels, stating that “the fracking and gas rush in the North Sea will not reduce bills. Nor will they strengthen our energy security. But they will destroy our efforts to fight the looming climate crisis ”.
WHAT ABOUT CARBON NEUTRALITY?
The United Kingdom has set itself the goal of achieving carbon neutrality, ie the net zeroing of greenhouse gas emissions, by 2050. But Truss anticipated a revision of the net zero strategy based on the "changed economic context" .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/regno-unito-contenimento-bollette-energetiche/ on Fri, 09 Sep 2022 09:11:29 +0000.