Who is to blame for energy price rises? “Yes, there are upward pressures on energy bills, and that makes life difficult for people, including those in fuel poverty, but it is right that we go down the low-carbon energy route.”

Despite what Ed Miliband said in his BBC Watchdog interview last night, when Mrs NotaSheep and I were mesmerised by his over white teeth and goofy expression more than his words, the 'green taxes' are to blame for at least part of price rises and Ed Miliband knew that they would be.

Guido Fawkes has been right on top of this story

Ed Miliband admitted in 2009 that his green taxes would have a direct negative effect on the cost of living.
When pushed by Andrew Marr about the impact of green measures “on the price of energy” and “the price of basic living necessities”, the then Energy Secretary replied: “there are upward pressures on prices, yes”:

Andrew Marr Show, July 13th 2009

AM: A very simple question  when it comes to the price of energy, when it comes to the price of basic living necessities, it may not be £230-a-year as the Sunday Mirror says, but are we or are we not going to have to pay more.

EM: There are upward pressures on prices, yes.
AM: Yes, the answer’s yes.

Later that year at a speech in Poland, Miliband called for the world to “lose three months or six months of economic growth” to act on climate change immediately:

Demos Europa talk at Warsaw School of Economics, October 7th 2009

“The costs of acting on climate change are something like 1% of national income, 1%-2% of national income, by 2050. So we can either lose three months or six months of economic growth, for the world, and act, or we face this huge risk in relation to the cost of adapting to climate change.”

The speech came at the height of the economic crisis, yet as a government minister Miliband was advocating hitting growth in order to pursue climate change policies. In government Ed was happy to raise the cost of living for ideological reasons. This is Green Ed’s cost of living crisis.

Like all warmists, Ed Miliband is a believer in Man Made Climate Change or he's just in favour of the redistribution of wealth from richer to poorer countries.

Back when he was Energy Secretary, the Labour leader gave the LSE Ralph Miliband lecture. On November 19th 2009, he explicitly confirmed that his policies would see energy bills rise:

“It needs a willingness to take the argument to people about the tough choices involved in tackling climate change. This is the starting point: a willingness to engage with people on, for example, the fact that to deal with the problem of climate change, energy bills are likely to rise.”

That same month Miliband told parliament:

“We need to be candid about the issue because it is a very big challenge. The pressures on energy prices will be upwards in the coming decade’”

Most damning of all, in January 2010:

“Yes, there are upward pressures on energy bills, and that makes life difficult for people, including those in fuel poverty, but it is right that we go down the low-carbon energy route.”

In his own words, Miliband says his policies would cause energy price rises. What was that about a cost of living crisis?

 That sentence should be put to Ed Miliband and every Labour spokesman when they make their fatuous claims to be in favour of cutting energy costs:

“Yes, there are upward pressures on energy bills, and that makes life difficult for people, including those in fuel poverty, but it is right that we go down the low-carbon energy route.”