Vote Green and Get An Energy Supply Crisis – Tóibín
Aontú leader and Meath West candidate Peadar Tóibín TD has called on the government to create an Emergency Task Force to ensure “the lights are kept on”. Tóibín stated;
“This energy crisis was not created overnight and its true to say that there are significant external factors but many of the problems creating pinch points are as a result of government inaction. The government closed Landsborough and Shannonbridge without ensuring adequate replacement power generation. We have been talking about Ireland being the Saudi Arabia of Off Shore Wind Energy for over 20 years yet in that time has one operational offshore wind project has ever been created at the Arklow Bank”.
“The Irish government is the last in Europe to provide a functional electricity microgeneration feed in tariff. Framers and communities could be earning money from small scale wind, solar and bio digestion projects but for continued Government failure. The Irish government scrapped the original large scale energy procurement process and replaced it with an auction process that has led to many of the auction winners failing to deliver. Many of the renewable energy projects who won contracts in the Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) will not come on stream this year. Grid improvement delays plus inflation in technology and bids that were too low have shown the RESS process to be a mess”.
“The government has no provision for Gas Storage. Ireland is "the least prepared for a gas crisis this winter" according to the former managing director of ESB International Don Moore. Profiteering by energy companies has been allowed to continue with even the semi state energy company ESB peaking at €679 at a time of energy cost misery for families. Ireland is one of the few countries that has not seen a fall in emissions in the last year. Shockingly there has been a tripling of coal and oil use in electricity generation. yET the focus of the Greens have been farmers and domestic turf harvesting”.
“Unless the government start to get their act together there will be real hardship for hundreds of thousands of families and small businesses. A wind fall tax is necessary to prevent exploitation of those who can least afford it. We need an Emergency Energy Task Force to keep the lights on. Its clear that if you vote Green you get a Energy Supply Crisis”.
CRÍOCH
