by Alex Wild on 5 July 2013 10:30

We’re constantly led to believe that our energy bills are increasing because of the actions of unscrupulous, greedy energy companies, rising wholesale gas prices and just about everything that the SW1 gang couldn’t possibly be responsible for.

It’s true that gas prices have increased and fed into higher bills for consumers, but Ed Davey and his posse are determined to pile the pressure on households at what are already difficult times. The government typically pockets £191 of your energy bill every year through various green charges and taxes, but by 2020 their ludicrous policies will see this number soar to £620.

The reason they need to get their hands on more of your money is to subsidise inefficient renewables like the offshore wind farm David Cameron was enthusing about this morning. Simply put, the government’s energy policy is to subsidise inefficient renewables until they become competitive and then hand the bill to consumers. By making you use energy that costs twice as much (onshore wind) or three times as much (offshore wind), your energy bills will obviously go up.

The government says that Chris Huhne’s “Green Deal” will make bills £166 lower than they otherwise would be by 2020. The program was estimated by the Department for Energy and Climate Change to reap up to £27.8 billion worth of benefits but has proved shockingly unpopular with just 4 households signing up since the scheme’s launch in January. People less profligate than politicians have been deterred by the catalogue of hidden charges and sky-high interest rates.

There seems to be little opposition to huge energy bill hikes in Parliament: just 5 MPs voted against the £18 billion a year Climate Change Act in 2008 and one of them has retired. It seems that MPs don’t mind pricing poorer people out of heating their homes so rich people in London can feel good about saving the planet. But they’re not. Exporting out CO2 emissions (which account for less than 2 per cent of the global total) from Runcorn to Guangdong does nothing to stop climate change.

But today the TaxPayers’ Alliance has launched a campaign to Stop the Energy Swindle. To expose the rip-off for what it is. Go on www.energyswindle.org where an online tool will show you exactly how much the government will increase your bill by and you can send a message to your MP to demand an end to the scam.