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@K_Niemietz @an0n_Nic Also telling why Miliband isn’t curious enough to ask the question, wait why are Britain going first, alone, if a clean power mission means lower bills and growth?

"Hey, look, the Brits are impoverishing themselves! That's so cool - let's do this too!", said no one ever.

@PeterSmartpower @LoftusSteve @louderry How does a higher carbon tax help ordinary people?

@LoftusSteve @louderry It discourages fossil fuel use so it does do something

Man who makes lots of money from fossils fuels which keep consumers poorer. Of course he supports fossil fuel lobbyists.

@huwjordan @Sam_Dumitriu If we impoverish ourselves with self-harming policy like choosing not to drill our own resources when other countries do it, who will follow us in this example?

@Sam_Dumitriu This was the Director of the International Energy Agency in 2021. We can’t drill for new oil and gas if we want to limit climate change. And how do we convince other countries to stop drilling for fossil fuels, if we are drilling for fossil fuels? We need to lead by example!

If it's true that "oil and gas prices are set on the global market" and "we're too small to affect the global price", then what is the climate case for restricting domestic fossil fuel production?

@DrSimEvans @energygovuk Why is the official DESNZ account retweeting this propaganda? How much did it cost in subsidy top-ups, curtailment payments, grid balancing costs and grid upgrades to even have this record wind and solar?

NEW ANALYSIS: Record wind and solar generation saved UK from gas imports worth £1bn in March 2026 📈Wind+solar were up 22% year-on-year in March to a record high for the month ⛴️This avoided the need for gas imports worth £1bn at current high prices carbonbrief.org/analysis-recor…

@meadwaj Commercially viable jobs that don’t need subsidies, tax revenues, improved balance of payments and secure domestic supply of gas. Great stuff

A stupid decision that will do nothing for household bills

@mayerandrew Now it’s introduced, the energy price cap will very difficult politically to remove. Hard to explain to the public that thinks energy retailers are profiteering that govt is going to remove its protections. We’re stuck in a price cap / govt redistribution doom loop now

The advantage of the energy price cap is that it delays the impact of price rises. The disadvantage is the same. When prices shoot up as they have since Februrary, you want people to adjust their behaviour, relieving then some of the pressures on supply. Instead we will have an energy bills delusion until July, whereupon there will be over-correction. Possibly with added costs from failing businesses that didn't hedge the risk correctly, and had to absorb the higher real costs of providing their energy services. Without a price cap suppliers and customers can react more quickly. It doesn't prevent people enjoying fixed price deals, that's was a common option prior to the policy's introduction. It doesn't prevent the government helping those who can't adjust their demand easily through the welfare system. Etc. Long-term it would be better removed.

@watt_direction This is key - NESO just blanket assumes sectors will meet centrally determined decarbonisation plans, irrespective of power prices and supply

NESO forecast 11% electricity consumption growth by 2030 But that forecast isn't based on prices or growth - it's driven by our carbon budgets 🤔

I know it’s April Fool’s, but a more serious point: Britain’s electrical system risks an INVERSE ‘tragedy of the commons’ One of falling electricity consumption 📉 and rising rewards to grid defection ⚠️

@AaronBastani Capacity isn’t the same as generation. Capacity factors on some of those solar plants could be as low as 10% while the fossil plants could operate at 95%. Solar is weather dependent and unreliable, gas and coal can run baseload, on demand

"The growth was led by a leap in solar capacity. which grew by 511 GW in 2025 to 2,392 GW, confirming its position as the world's largest renewable source. The figures are far greater than the 116 GW growth in fossil fuel power capacity". reuters.com/business/energ…

@rcolvile @TheEconomist This is just performative. The RPC has no power in govt and civil servants navigate it at the end of the process rather than when designing regulation. You can’t even say its existence makes better regulation because there no repercussions for ignoring its advice

Glad to see @TheEconomist has jumped on board the 'save the Regulatory Policy Committee' campaign. (Joining all of Britain's largest business groups...) economist.com/britain/2026/0…

@timleunig @PJTheEconomist Any policies to pursue prosperity are explicitly political. There are always trade-offs and the most pro-growth policies often need strong political arguments to offset simple income distribution arguments

The most exciting thing for me this week is the launch of the 2030 Prosperity Alliance. Run by my Public First colleague and old friend, @PJTheEconomist, it is a non-political group that aims to get Britain going again.

@ejwwest @iainmartin1 @adamboultonTABB Which country is further advanced than the UK at domestic emissions reductions? What is their carbon tax regime and heavy industry output?

@iainmartin1 @adamboultonTABB Every other country in Europe is committed to net zero by on or before 2050. Many are further advanced than the UK. Blaming net zero for high electricity prices and saying Britain is alone in committing net zero is clearly a bogus argument.

UK net zero latest. Killing off the chemicals industry, and next up salt. Britain has plentiful supplies of salt, but with sky high net zero energy policies it seems we may soon have to import it instead. Brilliant.

@ChisieWeirdo @Sam_Dumitriu Higher food prices are the result of higher input costs. Energy, commodities, materials, transport - the cost of doing these things have gone up, in part because of government policy. These have to be passed on in food prices

@Sam_Dumitriu I wonder who makes all the profit of the hugely increased food prices? Is it just the energy providers which go into fertiliser & feed manufacturing? Seems unlikely

There are no serious, workable proposals for price controls on food. Supermarkets make small profit margins. Farmers don't either. If we try to cap food prices, the end result will be shortages.

@jo3hill The RPC is toothless because of government process. Ministers agree the policy, civil servants implement it and then produce an optimistic Impact Assessment that underestimates regulatory impacts and submit this to the RPC late in the process. Becomes a box ticking exercise

Independent economic scrutiny is vital to better policymaking. Great to see our research on the importance of the RPC's role covered in The Economist.

@AndyatAuto What was the average price consumers had to pay, after adjusting for RO and CfD subsidies, for every MWh of wind, solar and biomass generated today? Not the wholesale price but the actual price we all have to pay

For the sake of balance and because my timeline is always full of people proclaiming that renewables are flawed - today at noon, electricity in U.K. was generated •🌬️ Wind: 55% •☀️ Solar: 20% •🌿 Other renewables (biomass + hydro): ~3–5% •☢️ Nuclear: ~12–13% •🔥 Gas: ~6% •🌍 Imports: ~5–7% 91–92% low-carbon (renewable + nuclear). The grid didn’t fall over and won’t because that is a myth. This statistic is also, honestly meaningless. The big picture (latest full-year data) •Renewables: ~42–50% •Fossil fuels (mostly gas): ~30–36% •Nuclear: ~15–16% •Other/imports: small remainder Or simplified: ~2/3 low-carbon vs ~1/3 fossil fuels Clearly as we look to the future; and at the risk of being controversial! 1) The more sources of energy the better - wind, solar, nuclear and gas. Being at the mercy of one commodity is “rule 101 stupid”. 2) We need to break the business model where electricity prices are set by the most expensive commodity ie usually gas 3) We need to encourage the robustness of the grid in energy storage of all kinds and the robustness of the same (sometimes called inertia) 4) Decentralisation and democratisation of energy generation is enabled by technology such as solar and battery and will ultimate challenge monopolistic practices For those of us that believe in a free market, we must embrace a multitude of competing technologies; for competition will result in keener pricing For those of us who care about the planet, the use of a greater proportion coming from renewables must be welcome. So ultimately I struggle with the idea that anyone would object to a more diverse mix of energy supply or the idea that we would block the emergence of any new technology; ultimately the market will decide and I’m pretty sure the market will demand the best solutions……. emphasis on plurality!

@TrisOsborneMP How many times does it need to be explained to you, the wholesale price isn’t what households pay. When the sun is shining and abundant solar has been built, wholesale prices crash to near zero. This is below the solar cost of production, meaning they need extra subsidies

And Spain… Earlier this month the price per megawatt-hour of electricity in Spain was €14, while in Italy, Germany and France, consumers were paying over €100. There is a solution. Its not rocket science 🚀

@jamesd_graham Big wind still can’t explain why, decades on, windfarms need growing CfD subsidies to be built. Ask Tara to explain why developers won’t build any grid scale windfarms without a CfD. Also what the capture price would be for a new windfarm with and without a CfD

Big wind doesn’t give up. Amazing that this made it past the fact checkers. Not having to pay for the costs of LNG shipping would significantly reduce the domestic price of gas. Same with oil. It’s true that “technologies aren’t ideologies.” But if the technology has to be heavily subsidised to exist it is being pursued for ideological reasons. If the North Sea is a declining basin as some claim, why not grant licences? If there is no commercially viable prospect it will make no difference either way. Ditto with fracking.

@ecurrnomics @7Kiwi So renewables generate a saving for households, if you hide on all the subsidies, backup, grid buildout and balancing costs needed to actually build and integrate them onto the grid. And you have energy sector people and Ministers quoting this junk?

Oxford Smith School: "if all UK households switched to renewable energy, bills could be reduced by £105-£441 per household per year on average" But read on: "We do not explicitly include the costs of intermittency from the switch to renewables" Ie, those numbers are misleading

@Madz_Grant @lara_e_brown Amazing patience to the nonsensical argument which basically boils down to ‘I want to culture signal my tolerance, even if it disregards the girl guides legal right to have single sex spaces’. Insane that something so basic needs to be explained

Brilliant as always @lara_e_brown

@sjarichards Curtailment is a feature not a bug of offshore wind. There’s no such thing as cheap wind - for every unit generated, even if the wholesale price is 0, billpayers have to pay the CfD price, without which the windfarm wouldn’t be built.

Over the last week we've spent £40 million to switch wind farms off when it's been windy. This is because you can't just get cheap wind if you live near a wind farm; instead the market is rigged against you

@tomwarren Why does the government need to invest in renewables if they’re supposedly already cheaper than gas - why won’t the market just build them? Perhaps renewables are not cheaper and need hefty billpayer subsidies and government de-risking?

as gas and oil prices surge, I managed to charge up two EVs yesterday for far less than 1 litre of petrol (gasoline) 🙃 I hope the UK government follows Portugal and Spain and invests heavily in renewable energy