Green lunacy

No not about their genocidal tendencies (for everyone except enviroloons) but about political parties cobbling together "environmentally friendly" policies that have unintended consequences, well I think they are unintended, but with Labour you can't be too sure, though with Chris Huhne of the Lib Dems in charge of energy you probably can.

Express.

LABOUR’S battle to stop climate change has left school chiefs facing a multi-million pound bill.

Councils are being forced to pay huge penalties because ageing school buildings fail new green regulations.

The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, to be imposed for the first time this year, is designed to ensure that public buildings do not waste energy.

A Government proposal to amend schools finance regulations will make it possible for local authorities to charge the schools’ budget for any losses. This will mean schools managing their heating costs well will be penalised with what amount to fines if a neighbouring school is less efficient.

Last year schools in Derby which were involved in a carbon reduction pilot scheme had to pay for meters to be fitted to measure the energy they use after having old electricity and gas bills scrutinised for past usage.

David Nichols, head of Little­over Community School in Derby, said: “We have been warned to install systems sooner rather than later to make savings. But our inefficient building is due to be knocked down in 18 months, so where is the sense in this?

Any fines will be go straight to the Treasury, according to a source from the Department of Energy, a move which will not prove popular with councils whose budgets are being slashed.

 Welcome to the wonderful wacky world of political envirolunacy, or rather a typical Labour cash grab, though you will note that the current crop of greedy barstewards haven't done anything about this either. I'm all for energy efficiency, as an engineer I would be but this obsession with carbon has nothing to do with energy efficiency. You want to see a major greenhouse gas? Go outside and look at a cloud and there you are. Carbon in all its forms is pretty much not going to warm up the planet, makes a good fertiliser, pretty jewels and a good heat source, but warm the planet, sorry you're kidding yourself. So instead of giving grants to help public buildings (and others) to become more energy efficient, or encouraging them to move into newer better quarters if they can't, Labour opted for the fine them till the pips squeak method and to add to the injustice made sure the fine was spread to all, including the energy efficient buildings, how terribly socialist of them. So, here we have in a time of economic slowdown, a useless scheme designed to combat a fake crisis, hitting both efficient and non efficient equally and picking our pockets via local councils having to raise council taxes to pay fines directly back to central government.

It's the perfect political solution, no? It even employs people to rob us.