The news that Iberdrola Renewables are to slash their investment in Britain by more than 40 per cent, or £300 million, is possibly a worrying sign that the financial mess we have got into may have more damaging effects to our world than merely in its pocket.
Iberdrola are one of the world's largest investors in wind farms, BP and Shell have also shelved of pulled out of projects in recent months including the Thames Estuary porject. But the economic downturn compounded with problems of access to the grid and planning delays is making the UK a place that the international leaders are shying away from investing in.
Xabier Viteri, chief of Iberdrola Renewables, whose Spanish parent owns ScottishPower, blamed the economic crisis for the move but added that problems in Britain could force his company to consider investing elsewhere.
However, fair play to Ed Milliband in part. The energy minister earlier this week equated opposition to wind farms as "socially unacceptable . . . like not wearing your seatbelt or driving past a zebra crossing". I say only in part as the Minister has picked up the Labour myopia when it comes to renewables and focuses only on wind and not on developing a balanced portfolio of renewable energy sources, both to cover outages and to spread the load. He also tends to look at large micro projects to the disregard or micro generation or small scale projects to assist the effort against climate change.
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