The effects of fossil fuel-driven climate change are writ large daily, often with deadly consequences. But while the climate plunges us further towards disaster, fossil fuel bosses’ profits boom.
In just a three-hour period during Britain’s cold snap at the start of January, two private gas power station operators charged £12 million for the electricity they generated – at up to 50 times the market rate. And you know who will be asked to pay more in their bills to cover it!
With little wind, high demand, and Britain’s lack of a greener alternative, gas power stations power up to fill the gap. Bosses rub their hands with glee, the energy price system is rigged in their interests, in theory to ensure the power plants stay profitable.
We say nationalise without a penny going to the fat-cat polluting bosses, with compensation only where there is proven need. A fully public energy system, democratically planned by the working class in our interests and those of the environment, could manage the blend of energy to meet need, without shelling out millions in profits to shareholders. It could plan immediate investment in green energy, to remove all fossil fuels from electricity generation, whatever the weather.
