You have been greenwashed and gaslit: the market con that keeps bills high is just as much in force now as it ever was.
Labour said it wants to cut your energy bills by £300 by 2030. But ask yourself: if more than half of Britain’s electricity now comes from renewables, why are bills still going up?
🧡 **Support Vox Political**
If you value independent political journalism that holds power to account — without corporate or party influence — please consider supporting this work. Even £1 helps keep it going.
👉 Support here via Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
For years now, governments have promised that moving to green energy would lead to cheaper power.
But that promise has been broken. Even as the UK hit a milestone last year with more than half of its electricity generated from renewable sources, bills remained painfully high – and they still are.
The truth is, while the energy system is being cleaned up on paper, it’s still being run in the interest of fossil fuel profits.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The biggest scam at the heart of Britain’s energy market is that, due to our marginal pricing system*, gas still sets the price of electricity nearly all the time.
This is no accident. The market is designed so that the most expensive generator in use on any given day determines the price for all electricity.
Because we still use gas power plants for backup, they end up setting the market price 98 per cent of the time in the UK—a far higher share than in Europe.
That means even the cheapest renewable energy gets priced like expensive gas.
The difference between what it costs to produce electricity and what you pay for it is being pocketed by private companies.
This isn’t a bug in the system—it’s the system working exactly as intended.
It’s a fossil fuel subsidy by stealth.
So when Labour ministers promise to cut bills without radically reshaping the market, it’s worth asking: do they not understand how the system works?
Or are they hoping you don’t?
What little attention the party gives to real reform has been timid.
The idea of nationalising the UK’s remaining gas plants, so they can be taken out of the market and used purely as emergency backup, was raised by a former government energy advisor—and promptly brushed aside.
Why? Because these plants are profitable for private investors. In the neoliberal consensus that still dominates Westminster, that makes them untouchable.
Instead, the government floats market tweaks: long-term contracts for gas plant owners, or dividing the market into zones with different prices.
But a multiple-tier pricing system risks turning electricity into yet another postcode lottery.
It would punish people who happen to live far from renewable infrastructure, just as the privatised health system punishes those who live far from large bases of treatment for their conditions.
Even the way we pay for the transition is rigged:
Many of the costs of building renewable infrastructure are loaded onto electricity bills, rather than gas, or paid for through progressive taxation.
That means households trying to do the right thing—by switching to electric heating or cars—get hit with higher costs, while gas bills remain artificially cheap. It’s a system that penalises change and protects the status quo.
In France, where nuclear energy dominates, gas only sets the electricity price seven per cent of the time. In Germany, it’s around 25 per cent. Both countries are reaping the benefits of market structures that are less dominated by fossil fuel pricing.
The UK’s goal is to get gas use down to five per cent by 2030. But even then, without reform, those few hours a week when gas is used will continue to determine prices for everyone.
🧡 **Support Vox Political**
If you value independent political journalism that holds power to account — without corporate or party influence — please consider supporting this work. Even £1 helps keep it going.
👉 Support here via Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
The idea that clean energy will bring lower bills is not wrong – it’s just not true in the system we currently have.
If you think the energy market should serve the public, not just private profit, start asking your MP what their party plans to do about marginal pricing and market reform.
Challenge the idea that the status quo is unchangeable.
Talk about it.
Write to your local paper.
Push for real accountability.
Until we change who the system serves, green energy will be another way to enrich the few while leaving the rest of us greenwashed and gaslit.
*Marginal pricing is the system used in the UK energy market where the price of electricity for everyone is set by the most expensive generator needed to meet demand at any given time. Because gas-fired plants are often the last (or “marginal”) source used, they set the market price—even though much cheaper renewable sources are providing a large share of the electricity. This keeps prices high, even when the actual cost of generating power is low.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Greenwashed and gaslit: the market con that keeps bills high
You have been greenwashed and gaslit: the market con that keeps bills high is just as much in force now as it ever was.
Labour said it wants to cut your energy bills by £300 by 2030. But ask yourself: if more than half of Britain’s electricity now comes from renewables, why are bills still going up?
🧡 **Support Vox Political**
If you value independent political journalism that holds power to account — without corporate or party influence — please consider supporting this work. Even £1 helps keep it going.
👉 Support here via Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
For years now, governments have promised that moving to green energy would lead to cheaper power.
But that promise has been broken. Even as the UK hit a milestone last year with more than half of its electricity generated from renewable sources, bills remained painfully high – and they still are.
The truth is, while the energy system is being cleaned up on paper, it’s still being run in the interest of fossil fuel profits.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The biggest scam at the heart of Britain’s energy market is that, due to our marginal pricing system*, gas still sets the price of electricity nearly all the time.
This is no accident. The market is designed so that the most expensive generator in use on any given day determines the price for all electricity.
Because we still use gas power plants for backup, they end up setting the market price 98 per cent of the time in the UK—a far higher share than in Europe.
That means even the cheapest renewable energy gets priced like expensive gas.
The difference between what it costs to produce electricity and what you pay for it is being pocketed by private companies.
This isn’t a bug in the system—it’s the system working exactly as intended.
It’s a fossil fuel subsidy by stealth.
So when Labour ministers promise to cut bills without radically reshaping the market, it’s worth asking: do they not understand how the system works?
Or are they hoping you don’t?
What little attention the party gives to real reform has been timid.
The idea of nationalising the UK’s remaining gas plants, so they can be taken out of the market and used purely as emergency backup, was raised by a former government energy advisor—and promptly brushed aside.
Why? Because these plants are profitable for private investors. In the neoliberal consensus that still dominates Westminster, that makes them untouchable.
Instead, the government floats market tweaks: long-term contracts for gas plant owners, or dividing the market into zones with different prices.
But a multiple-tier pricing system risks turning electricity into yet another postcode lottery.
It would punish people who happen to live far from renewable infrastructure, just as the privatised health system punishes those who live far from large bases of treatment for their conditions.
Even the way we pay for the transition is rigged:
Many of the costs of building renewable infrastructure are loaded onto electricity bills, rather than gas, or paid for through progressive taxation.
That means households trying to do the right thing—by switching to electric heating or cars—get hit with higher costs, while gas bills remain artificially cheap. It’s a system that penalises change and protects the status quo.
In France, where nuclear energy dominates, gas only sets the electricity price seven per cent of the time. In Germany, it’s around 25 per cent. Both countries are reaping the benefits of market structures that are less dominated by fossil fuel pricing.
The UK’s goal is to get gas use down to five per cent by 2030. But even then, without reform, those few hours a week when gas is used will continue to determine prices for everyone.
🧡 **Support Vox Political**
If you value independent political journalism that holds power to account — without corporate or party influence — please consider supporting this work. Even £1 helps keep it going.
👉 Support here via Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
The idea that clean energy will bring lower bills is not wrong – it’s just not true in the system we currently have.
If you think the energy market should serve the public, not just private profit, start asking your MP what their party plans to do about marginal pricing and market reform.
Challenge the idea that the status quo is unchangeable.
Talk about it.
Write to your local paper.
Push for real accountability.
Until we change who the system serves, green energy will be another way to enrich the few while leaving the rest of us greenwashed and gaslit.
*Marginal pricing is the system used in the UK energy market where the price of electricity for everyone is set by the most expensive generator needed to meet demand at any given time. Because gas-fired plants are often the last (or “marginal”) source used, they set the market price—even though much cheaper renewable sources are providing a large share of the electricity. This keeps prices high, even when the actual cost of generating power is low.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
you might also like
Labour wins price battle as E.On cuts tariffs; the war continues
Now British Gas has cut its standard tariff – by much less than it should
Another energy firm cuts prices – but it’s too little, too late