How Liz Truss is fuelling the energy crisis, with Dale Vince
The New Statesman | UK politics and culture
The New Statesman
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2022
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Dale Vince, a green energy industrialist and founder of Ecotricity, a renewable energy company. Vince’s book Manifesto: How a Maverick Entrepreneur Took On British Energy and Won was published in 2020, charting his journey from leaving school aged 15, to becoming a New Age traveller, and finally into the weird world that is Britain’s energy market.
They discuss the government’s response to Britain’s energy and cost-of-living crises versus Labour’s pledge to create a publicly owned renewable power company, Great British Energy, the sense of frustration even among energy companies, and some solutions.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Anouche, and on today's episode of The New Statesman Podcast, I speak to |
| 0:12.7 | Dale Vince, the green industrialist and founder of Ecotricity, a renewable energy company |
| 0:17.5 | in the UK. His book Manifesto, How a Maverick Entrepreneur, took on British energy in one, |
| 0:23.4 | came out in 2020, charting his journey after leaving school age 15 and becoming a new age |
| 0:28.4 | traveler into the weird world that is Britain's energy market. |
| 0:36.5 | Thanks so much for joining us, Dale. Now, really, it's a really good time to have you on because |
| 0:40.7 | actually the world of energy can't be extricated from politics, really, can it? And you've just |
| 0:45.9 | been at both of the major parties, political party conferences. Yeah, you're right. I mean, |
| 0:51.3 | you talk about the weird world of the energy industry there in your intro. I think it's never |
| 0:55.5 | been weirder. It's never been more front and central in our lives, as well as in our politics. |
| 1:00.6 | It's affecting everything. And so it's in some ways a great time to be the boss of an energy |
| 1:06.0 | company with a quarter of a century of background in energy markets and the renewable energy. |
| 1:11.5 | It's given me a great platform to talk about what it is that we need to do. And the contrast |
| 1:15.6 | between the two conferences on that front couldn't be more stark. You had Kia Stammer on the |
| 1:20.4 | one hand, announcing plans for public ownership of all the renewable energy that we need to build next. |
| 1:25.4 | About 50% of our needs. And you have the conservatives not even mentioning energy or climate or net |
| 1:32.0 | zero. Oh, yes, that it was a notable emission wasn't it in the main speeches at that conference. |
| 1:38.0 | I did want to ask you what you made of both of the party's major energy policies. So first of all, |
| 1:43.3 | should we start with that great British energy announcement by Kia Stammer. What do you make of his |
| 1:48.0 | plan for a clean energy? I think it's an energy producer rather than an energy supplier, isn't it? |
| 1:52.8 | I believe that it is and that that makes the most sense. I think it's a sensible plan and we've |
| 1:57.4 | been calling for a long time for there to be public ownership of the renewable energy assets that we |
... |
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