Sep 19, 2023
House of Lords Pushes Government to Strengthen Support For Onshore Wind
Bloomberg News
,(Bloomberg) -- The UK’s House of Lords is pushing the government to strengthen its support for new onshore wind projects, after critics said the recent relaxation of rules won’t go far enough.
Earlier this month, the government announced that its Leveling Up and Regeneration Bill would end its eight-year sanction on turbines on land. But critics say the changes are superficial and would still place too many restrictions on the technology to drive any meaningful new investment in the industry.
On Monday evening, the bill was debated by the House of Lords, Parliament’s upper chamber. Members narrowly voted 138 to 130 to approve an amendment to the bill which aimed to put onshore wind on a level playing field with other forms of renewable energy, in order to meet the UK’s climate change targets.
The bill will return to the House of Commons for consideration before being put into law.
However, a spokesman for the trade association RenewableUK, said the amendment was likely to be stripped out of the bill at the next stage.
“This is well intentioned, but very unlikely to get anywhere alas,” Robert Norris, head of communications at RenewableUK said. “We’ve become rather disillusioned with Conservatives promising to move onshore wind in England forward, so not expecting anything till after the next election realistically.”
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