Ed Miliband has pushed through Britain’s biggest solar farm on green land despite the objections of officials, prompting fears he is endangering the nation’s food security. The Telegraph has more.
The Energy Secretary’s decision to overturn the planning inspectorate and give the green light to the controversial project in rural eastern England has sparked fury from MPs and campaigners.
The scheme will see Sunnica, an energy firm, building a 2,792-acre solar farm and energy storage infrastructure around several villages in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, providing power for 100,000 homes. Mr. Miliband has also given the go-ahead along to two solar farms in Lincolnshire.
It is feared this will be the first of many further decisions that will sacrifice vast amounts of farmland to Net Zero energy projects.
The danger is that the fall in domestic agricultural production will compromise the nation’s food security, meaning it will face the prospect of greater dependence on food imports and increasing vulnerability to price rises on international markets.
The decision suggests it is likely that Mr. Miliband will make meeting Net Zero targets a priority over preserving agricultural land in the dozens of other solar farm decisions making their way through the planning system.
On Saturday night, he defended the move, saying: “Some of these cases had been held up for months before I arrived in the department. They were put on my desk on Monday, and I’ve made a decision in three days.
“This is the speed we’re working at to achieve energy independence, cut bills for families and kick-start green economic growth. We will make tough decisions with ambition and urgency – all part of our plan to make the U.K. a clean energy superpower.”
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