Cheaper energy! In these days of rising costs and already crippling prices, what's not to like? The problem is, the target date for Ed’s lower energy costs has been booted so far down the line it's practically meaningless. Jam “tomorrow!” - we've all heard that one before?

The “cost of living crisis” that followed the COVID pandemic claimed many a political scalp. The governments who were unfortunate enough to have been at their respective countries’ helm when the post-COVID/Ukraine energy crisis unfolded quite simply had to face the music. Eventually the wrath of the electorate hit and it hit hard. Rishi Sunak - out. Biden and his Deputy, Kamala Harris - both gone.

The same happened if we take a look around Continental Europe too. Olaf Scholz barely feels the warmth from the dying embers of his leadership nowadays. Even Emmanuel Macron clings on to office by the thinnest of threads; in office but effectively not in any sort of meaningful power.

Rishi Sunak’s strange undoing was Keir Starmer’s making. But now the Labour party are actually in office, they find themselves grappling with exactly the same can of worms as the previous lot had to deal with. Whilst it's true that the spikes in commodity prices which reached a peak when compounded by the energy price shock brought to bear by the horrendous conflict in Ukraine have now subsided, voters continue to feel the squeeze.

Economic correspondents frequently appear on our TV screens with their plethora of graphs and pie charts, showing peaks and troughs which they hope will demonstrate just how significantly inflation figures have indeed subsided. But, I'd like to see them telling an average pensioner that inflation is now a thing of the past, especially now that they’re facing the winter without the benefit of their fuel allowance. That’s either £200 or £300 a year gone, depending on their age.

Ed Milliband’s promise of lower energy bills in the distant future has been quite a wily political move. Let's be honest, this pledge is unlikely to be fulfilled simply by the implementation of Labour’s green agenda alone. The target date has been set so far into the future that it’s almost completely untenable. A week is a long time in politics, which kind of makes 2030 seem light-years away. No government can realistically be held to account for pledges made beyond the term of a single parliament. I know that, you know that and Ed Milliband knows it too.

What's most annoying is how political figures try to pull the wool over our eyes. They clearly think that anyone who resides outside Westminster’s political bubble is completely stupid.

We all know, only too well, that the energy market is volatile. Today's prices aren't necessarily what we might be paying this time next year. Sure, prices can go either way but there is an unfortunate tendency for the general trajectory to veer upwards. So, quite frankly, the figures that Miliband has been working with are already chronically out-of-date.

And it's not as if there isn't an agenda here. The claim of lower green energy prices was originally made in October 2023 by a green energy think-tank funded by various climate change charities. The claim has since been repeated on numerous occasions by Mr Miliband, including at the recent Cop29 global gathering in Azerbaijan. Whilst such a claim might have been credible some 12-months ago, when energy prices remained at historical highs, it's not the case today. The energy price cap has since dropped quite significantly, reducing the price advantage that renewables briefly enjoyed over hydrocarbons.

I'm not suggesting for a single moment that there doesn't need to be a gradual transition to renewable energy; not just because of the environmental damage brought about by harmful emissions, but because fossil fuels are obviously finite resources.

My key point here is that the facts & figures bandied about by the current Labour leadership aren't exactly showing that they're being wholly upfront about the humongous investment that’s going to be necessary to decarbonise the grid. Both Sir Keir as well as Ed Milliband appear to be suggesting that such a gargantuan transition can be achieved in an almost cost-free manner? The notion that all the extra investment required to decarbonise the grid is somehow going to magically appear from thin air at no cost to already economically squeezed end users is, quite frankly, for the birds?

But they were never going to tell us this, were they? Any more than they warned anyone about their looming taxation bombshells. These tax hike policies were “many-festering” rather than being flagged up in their actual manifesto!

Of course, it’s true that investment would have been needed to maintain our existing energy infrastructure in any case. Ongoing maintenance is factored into what we all have to pay. But what’s being proposed is a huge, groundbreaking step-change.

On top of a new largely renewable generating capacity, much of the old system will also have to be maintained alongside the new. The old system will need to be retained in order to deal with the problem of intermittent provision of solar and wind sourced energy. There will always be days when the wind won't be blowing or the sun might be in short supply. Even though back-up systems won't be required for much of the time, they will nevertheless remain an integral component of the power supply grid simply because of the complicated way it works. This means there are going to be two systems that will require maintenance opposed to just the one.

Delivering a net-zero commitment in a manner which allows the Government to honour a promise of lower electricity bills is quite an ask. Sadly, it's very likely to be nigh-on impossible to fulfill.

Across the House, opposition MPs are sensing weaknesses in arguments being made regarding the sheer pace of the government green agenda. As a result, clear dividing lines are beginning to open up regarding net-zero objectives. This is no-doubt being buoyed up by Donald Trump's victory over the pond and how the American view of net-zero might force significant attitude changes elsewhere in the world.

If the fate of this Labour government is to be decided on false promises, I fear that their epitaph might already be in the process of being chiseled out. Another “Ed Stone” beckons. In any case, Ed Miliband has already made himself a hostage to fortune by openly promising lower electricity prices.

Who knows, he may get lucky? As I cited earlier, wholesale gas and energy prices may return to former levels? No one can predict what's around the corner, otherwise investing would be far too easy.

If he does succeed, it won’t be thanks to those demanding net-zero targets, that's for sure. And should he fail to deliver, he’ll go the same way as so many other politicians before him, who succumbed because market forces squeezed the nation’s living standards. In politics, praise is all too rare whereas the ground is all too often littered with scalps.

Author

Douglas Hughes is a UK-based writer producing general interest articles ranging from travel pieces to classic motoring. 

Douglas Hughes