Fresh Start Project

This group, founded by Andrea Leadsom, has an energy policy which features ‘keeping bills down’ and ‘cost efficiency’. It' environment briefing states: “we have deliberately not challenged the science of anthropomorphic [sic] climate change”. Among the manifesto’s proposals includes ditching current and post-2020 targets for renewable energy and instead investing in shale gas, new nuclear, and carbon capture and storage, in order to ensure the UK can meet its climate goals at a lower cost. As Leadsom said in a speech in May 2016: “Leaving the EU will give us freedom to keep bills down, to meet our climate change targets in the cheapest way possible, and of course, keep the lights on.” As the Fresh Start environment strategy concludes, “in order to tackle the risk of increased fuel poverty, while simultaneously tackling the challenge of building a low-carbon economy for the 21st Century, the UK should explore any possible short-term scope for re-negotiation of the 2020 renewable energy targets. If such moves prove unfruitful, the key battle will centre on what targets will be set post-2020.” “Whilst the business case for government support for learning and innovation in a range of promising low carbon energy technologies is clear,” it continues, “the need to meet the EU2020 renewable targets constitutes a burdensome and most unnecessarily expensive policy.”