18 December 2016
East Mendip Green Party (EMGP) have launched the Switch EDF Off campaign which will pay people to switch from EDF to renewable energy suppliers. For the first time in the UK customers will get a cash payment to switch their energy accounts away from EDF and nuclear in favour of green energy.
This campaign is driven by the decision to go ahead with Hinkley by EDF and the Conservative government and is part of our ongoing opposition to the Hinkley nuclear power plant and support for renewable energy. EMGP is concerned that in spite of current safety problems with the EPR design, security concerns over the Chinese partners and an ongoing EU subsidy court case, a decision has been made based on placatory politics rather than economic sense.
Via the SwitchEDFoff.org.uk website anyone currently using EDF (or other nuclear energy providers) will get £20 per fuel to switch to either Good Energy or Ecotricity who supply and support green energy. So people will get £40 for switching gas and electricity from nuclear to renewables. It pays to go green.
EMGP hope that this will dent EDF's 14% UK market share: for every 1000 people who switch, EDF will lose around £1m per year from their already shaky finances and hopefully persuade them to see economic sense over Hinkley.
Cllr Shane Collins, leader of the Green Party group on Mendip District Council and initiator of Switch EDF Off, said "EDF have a 38 billion Euro debt, and since Hinkley was agreed their credit rating has dropped. They own 58 ageing nuclear reactors in France, 20 of which are currently offline. EDF and their Hinkley partners, Chinese General Nuclear Corp, who also make nuclear weapons for the Chinese Army, are two of the most unsuitable partners for us to be subsidising at twice the current price of electricity for 35 years. This seems to be more about politics than economic sense. The plain fact is that nuclear is more expensive than renewables and we still don't know what to do with the radioactive waste for the next 150,000 years. We vote for future energy provision with our money every month, lets make sure it's cheaper and green."
Switch EDF Off has many supporters:
Jonathon Porrit, Forum for the Future.
"Huge numbers of people are still enraged by the decision to allow EDF to proceed with the construction of two new reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset – but at least you can do something about it on this occasion! The Switch campaign from the East Mendip Green Party is brilliant: simple, impactful and genuinely rage-relieving!"
Molly Scott Cato, Green Party MEP for the South West
"The smart money is in renewables and investing in Good Energy or Ecotricity is helping to bring about the energy transition we so desperately need to ensure climate stability."
Jeremy Leggett, CEO Solar Century
"It is increasingly unfathomable why EDF keep flogging the uneconomic, dying nuclear horse, and even more so why the UK government supports and them, at public expense."
Caroline Lucas MP, Green Party Co-leader
"Nuclear power is uneconomic, unsafe and unnecessary. It sucks resources away from building the green energy infrastructure we urgently need, and undermines our climate change targets because of the snail’s pace at which it will be built."
Jonathan Bartley, Green Party Co-leader
"We can waste £30bn on a centralised, job poor nuclear option which locks us in to an expensive deal for decades to come, and leaves us insecure and vulnerable. Or we can invest in a decentralised, job rich clean energy renewables revolution. The decision should be clear. It beggars belief that the Government is stubbornly taking us down entirely the wrong path."
Jenny Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
"Using consumer power to persuade EDF to pull the plug on the Hinkley dinosaur is a great idea and I hope that people will make the switch to energy suppliers who are trying to do their bit for our planet and the next generation's pockets."
Howard Johns, Author "Energy Revolution – Your Guide to Making it Happen"
"Switching from EDF and depriving them of customers in the UK will have a tangible effect on their business and send them a clear message that you – like most people in the UK – want more renewables and less nuclear."
Theo Simon, Stop Hinkley Spokesperson and Green Party candidate for Somerton and Frome.
"The local Stop Hinkley campaign believes that thousands of regional jobs could now be created by going for cheaper, renewable energy in the southwest. We welcome the Switch EDF Off initiative. It shows that even when government refuses to listen, we can still put on some real pressure to change this country's energy direction, and make EDF abandon Hinkley C."
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