Wind power: video reveals Tory MP's contradictory views
Undercover footage shows Chris Heaton-Harris admitting to having seen no research to support his anti-wind criticisms
Heaton-Harris states in a public video that turbines harm birds, despite having admitted in private to seeing no research on this. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris suffered fresh embarrassment on Thursday as undercover footage revealed stark differences between his public and private criticisms of wind power.
Heaton-Harris, who in February organised a letter signed by 101 Tory MPs calling on David Cameron to end onshore wind subsidies, states in a public video that turbines harm birds, despite having admitted in private to seeing no research on this.
Heaton-Harris was the campaign manager for the Conservative candidate in the Corby byelection but the Guardian and Greenpeace exposed him on Wednesday as apparently backing a rival, anti-wind candidate. The MP will meet the party's whips next week for a dressing down over his "professionalism".
The ensuing row has exposed the feud between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats over energy and environment policy, described by one senior participant as "unholy war".
In the newly released film, Heaton-Harris told the undercover reporter, who posed as a campaigner from a fictitious anti-windfarm group called Windefensible: "The 'bird blending' phrase really hurts [the RSPB]. How true or not, I've got no idea because I've not seen any half-decent research about this." But when talking in an anti-wind video that would be shown to the public, Heaton-Harris said: "Certainly [wind turbines] have a very bad interaction with bats and a number of species of birds … there really is the evidence out there and there are now international studies pointing at this." He also described as "crap" the windfarm policy of the RSPB, a group with 1 million members.
Heaton-Harris told the Guardian in response to the video: "My views on wind turbines are well-known."
The RSPB's conservation director, Martin Harper, said: "Heaton-Harris is clearly in a spin over windfarms. If only he'd done some 'half-decent research' before he started calling us names, he might not have got it so wrong. He accuses us of being 'timid' on the issue, but we're very strong. He admits he has 'no idea' of the research of the wildlife impacts of wind turbines, but the electorate have a generally good understanding of environmental issues."
Greenpeace UK executive director, John Sauven, said: "Heaton-Harris has demonstrated that his views on renewable energy are rooted in ideology rather than fact. This seriously undermines the credibility of the Tory anti-wind lobbyists. The public deserves more truth and less spin from the likes of Heaton-Harris."
Sauven said it was astonishing Heaton-Harris had not been sacked and called on David Cameron to step in and sort out the government's energy policy problems.
Heaton-Harris had told the undercover activist that he and the rival Corby candidate, climate change sceptic James Delingpole, would meet energy minister John Hayes, a fellow opponent of windfarms. Hayes denied meeting either but refused to say whether he had communicated with them. The minister has also pulled out of a joint appearance with the climate and energy secretary, Ed Davey, before a Commons select committee on 20 November. Hayes has twice contradicted Davey on windfarm policy.
Separately, in the film released on Thursday, it was revealed that Tory MP Peter Lilley – a climate sceptic recently appointed to the House of Commons energy and climate change select committee – told the undercover campaigner: "As it happens I like windmills as a visual objects, but I just think they're a huge waste of money. They surround my house in France, I quite like them. My wife thinks they're horrible. However I keep quiet about this: my constituents would not particularly like it."
On Wednesday, it emerged Lilley that told an undercover Greenpeace campaigner that the chancellor, George Osborne, "regrets" the government's commitment to renewable energy and placed renewable energy sceptics as ministers in September's cabinet reshuffle.
A Conservative party spokeswoman declined to comment and Lilley did not respond.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario