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When will the energy transition bring down bills? Secretary of State Ed Miliband makes first select committee appearance on Wednesday

13 January 2025

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero states its mission as being “responsible for UK energy security, protecting bill payers and reaching net zero”. In this first appearance since he was appointed Secretary of State, Rt Hon Ed Miliband will face Committee questions on the UK’s clean energy transition and progress towards its legally binding target of a net zero economy by 2050.  

Recent evidence to the Committee from the minister for energy consumers, the National Energy System Operator and the Climate Change Committee, among others, have repeatedly thrown up the issues facing Britain as it navigates the transition.  

All have been clear that the key to the energy transition is cost to consumers: whether that’s upfront costs for the technology required, or energy prices and bills. All were clear that Government faces a balancing act to apportion the policy costs of the transition across industry levies, consumer bills and general taxation in a way that makes the transition possible.  

All are clear that the key benefit of the clean energy transition – aside from the wider environmental and economic benefits of tackling air pollution and the rapidly rising costs of climate change – is insulation from geopolitical shocks to energy supply and prices: decoupling energy prices from gas supply.  

But how and when will we really be able move away from gas as the basis of both our energy supply and its price? When will our electricity get cheaper?  

How will we scale up renewable energy sources and, crucially, overcome the planning barriers currently keeping viable renewable sources in a long queue to connect to the grid? Are there national security concerns about ownership of renewable technologies?  

How fast can we transition away from the UK’s own North Sea oil and gas, and how will that transition be financed as the significant tax receipts it provides dry up alongside the reduction in taxes on petrol for cars?  

Ahead of its first Budget, the Government announced massive investment in ‘carbon capture and storage’ technologies, but major questions remain about the effect of the unproven technologies as well as how they will be financed in the UK.  

Why are the UK public being asked to contribute to an unproven technology that may not significantly “move the dial” on carbon emissions in time to meet the UK’s clean energy targets, but does reduce available investment for scaling up renewables and improving the national grid?  

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