The Telegraph is very clear: electricity prices are going to to rise £500 a year because of the government’s lunatic “clean” energy obsession. For the BBC it’s a different equation (written in matter-of-fact business need terms and a cue for pictures of useless windfarms):
Government to guarantee electricity prices
Yes, there’s mention of a possible price hike, but it’s well down in the story in the BBC’s version. The main thrust is to justify how necessary this price-rigging mechanism is. And of course, no BBC climate change story would be complete without a smug, patronising comment from Friends of the Earth that we are now on course for saving the planet, but it’s not enough.
Update: The BBC reporting of Huhne the loon’s crazy policies has become more and more obfuscatory as the day has progressed. They note the claims of a £500 increase mentioned in the Telegraph, but give by far the most weight to Huhne’s own preposterous assertion that the figure will be far less, and the headline is now that firms are being given ***new low-carbon incentives***. Me, I think today’s lunatic measures will go down as the longest suicide note in history, as James Delingpole brilliantly outlines. Margaret Thatcher bequeathed us arguably the most competitive power industry in Europe; the nutjob Cleggerons are busy dismantling it. And they have today condemned countless thousands of old people to die miserable, cold deaths. It’s unspeakable.