UK green energy researchers seek exemption from green energy taxes

The Guardian reports that “world-class research into future sources of green energy is under threat in Britain from an environmental tax designed to boost energy efficiency and drive down carbon emissions.”  Researchers at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy complained to The Guardian that, “considering our research is aimed at producing zero-carbon energy, it seems ironic and perverse to clobber us with an extra bill…  We have to use electricity to run the machine and there is no way of getting around that.”

We sympathize.  The power of taxation and control to thwart human  progress is no surprise to CFACT.  However, unlike The Guardian we do not restrict our sympathy to those on the receiving end of carbon funding.  We’re sure that there are still some hardy UK folks making useful products (their jobs as yet, not outsourced to China) who also need “electricity to run the machine” and can find “no way of getting around that.”

The carbon reduction commitment scheme is a prosperity destroying mistake and should be abandoned.  Only those seeking a direct handout or competitive advantage over British industry have reason to love the perverse CRC.