Your energy bill
Posted: 3rd August 2021
Did you see this, Planet&Health? The government wants us all to pay for EDF’s new nuclear power plant in Suffolk, through a surcharge on our energy bills— no matter who we buy our electricity from.
Already nearly 70,000 SumOfUs members have signed the petition, and bosses of green energy companies have spoken out in opposition to the plans. Will you add your name too?
Tell the government to scrap plans to make us all pay for EDF’s nuclear power station.
We made the government shelve these plans two years ago—let’s do it again.
Sondhya and the team at SumOfUs
Energy giant EDF wants you to pay extra on your electricity bill so it can build a new nuclear power plant on the Suffolk coast.
The government is planning legislation to allow this scheme now. We can put a stop to it if enough of us object.
Planet&Health,
The government wants to add an extra charge onto all our electricity bills to pay for EDF’s proposed giant new nuclear power plant in Suffolk.
We’d all be forced to pay this ‘Sizewell surcharge’ on our electricity bills, to help finance a company’s building project. There’ll be no way to opt-out— even if you choose to buy electricity from a renewable supplier.
The government is planning legislation to allow this way of financing new nuclear power stations now. Last time they tried it, SumOfUs members helped push their plans on the back burner.
Together with local activists, we forced the government to listen before, and we can do it again.
French state-owned company EDF Energy is pushing to build Sizewell C nuclear power plant, with new nuclear power stations backed by the government.
But it’s an industry - and energy strategy - bedevilled with problems. There were plans for five new nuclear power stations in the UK, but three have been shelved. Nuclear’s so ridiculously expensive that it can’t be paid for without vast state support. And that’s why the government is considering forcing all of us to pay extra on our bills.
We’ve already been dealt a bad hand by the government over EDF’s Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset. That project has seen delays and soaring costs. You and I could end up paying £50bn to support it—more than eight times what was estimated when the government signed its dodgy subsidy contract with EDF.
We’ll already pay £10-£15 more on every bill to finance Hinkley C, and EDF wants at least another £6 for its proposed new reactor in Suffolk. We can’t let the government and EDF put a plan in place that leaves taxpayers to pick up the tab if construction costs turn out to be much greater than predicted.
Tell the government that you don’t want to be forced to pay a corporate subsidy for new nuclear.
New nuclear is just not a good deal. We know that there are more cost-effective alternatives in renewable energy that can be delivered at a fraction of the cost. If the government gave them the same kind of public support it’s proposing for new nuclear, we’d see an energy revolution that’d be better for all of us, and our planet.
Our community has stood at the forefront of taking on the over-priced electricity industry before. Two years ago SumOfUs members delivered a 35,000-strong petition and over 5,000 of you wrote personal emails objecting to these plans.
When the government saw how unpopular their plans were, they kicked them into the long grass. Let’s show them they’ll face even more opposition this time.