­A TEN Minute Rule Bill to outlaw public subsidies for wind farms has just been voted through the House of Commons. It squeezed through with 59 MPs in favour, and 57 against. What's this got to do with Okehampton? Well, it was a defeat for the subsidised scam otherwise known as the wind energy industry, and affects all who live in our area. Generating electricity from wind is an inherently costly thing to do. Unlike solar energy, which thanks to technology is becoming vastly more efficient, wind is — and will remain — a far more costly way of producing power than the alternatives. Nor is it reliable. The other day, as UK electricity demand hit 52.54 gigawatts (GW), wind contributed just 0.573GW. That's about 1 percent of the total needed. It was left to good old gas and coal to contribute the lion's share of 71 percent. The wind farm here at Spreyton (nine turbines 450 feet high — just think about that — 137 metres above ground), at least one within falling distance of the rail track at Bow. It hasn't been built yet, after a ten year battle in the courts and planning conditions that the developers don't like (to protect the public) and they aren't going to build it until after the election. This is because they are worried the generous public subsidies (paid by you and me) are probably going to disappear if a certain complexion of government is returned. If they still get the subsidies, they will build it. Simple. Highly profitable. If wind is not an effective way to generate electricity, why have so many wind turbines been built? Because of the subsidy, paid by you and me in our taxes and electricity bills. Billions of pounds have been deliberately diverted away from more efficient ways of generating energy into wind farms. Why did politicians and experts decide to plough so much into such a duff way of generating power? Partly it is because they failed to foresee technological change. Policy makers plumped for wind because they assumed that oil and gas would become more expensive. It hasn't happened because the shale gas revolution is coming on line. At the same time, UK policy makers subscribed to the whole renewable energy bandwagon. Wind, they persuaded each other, had to be the answer in order for us to meet our renewable energy targets. This has been a disastrous way of deciding energy policy. We need to scrap the renewable targets. Allow capital and technology to find innovative ways to generate energy. And scrap those subsidies. Bob Rush, Okehampton