Daily Mail drops GWPF green tax claim
- 11 Jul 2011, 15:00
- Christian
Is the Daily Mail rolling back on its "green taxes"
claims?
Since the paper
launched their campaign last month against "hidden green
charges on soaring fuel bills", they've used as the basis of their
attack the figure of £200 per year added onto the average domestic
bill. That figure, as we reported
here , was based on unsourced
claims made by Dr Benny Peiser from Lord Lawson's climate
skeptic thinktank, the GWPF.
But, in an
article on Friday , the Mail dropped that £200 claim in favour
of Ofgem's estimate of £100, or 10% per year on energy bills.
Peiser, when challenged by the
Full Fact website, referred to figures from the Department of
Energy and Climate Change, which in 2010 published detailed
information on the impact of
green policies on energy bills (PDF).
After accounting for savings to households from reduced
consumption, DECC calculates the gross increase to household bills
from green measures in 2010 is around four percent. That is clearly
much lower than the 15-20 percent used by Peiser to reach his £200
claim, and lower than the 10% calculated by Ofgem on which the
Mail's new £100 claim is based.
But whilst the Mail appear to have switched from a GWPF inspired
figure to citing Ofgem, Peiser, Lawson and Lord Turnbull from the
GWPF are all quoted
in the latest article:
"Benny Peiser, director of the sceptical
Global Warming Policy Foundation, called for hidden climate change
levies to be slashed. He said: 'If Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has
his way, Britons will be forced to subsidise renewable energy by
approximately £100billion in the next 20 years."
The piece even includes a rag out image of a previous Mail
headline claiming "Green targets to cost every household £500 a
year."
Whilst the Mail may have quietly acknowledged the fiction of the
£200 figure they had previously splashed across their front page,
it doesn't seem to be distancing itself from the source.