Petition That Parliament should establish an independent review of energy policy and regulation

The Government is proposing to alter energy policy and regulatory arrangements in the context of a huge demand for investment to replace ageing generation plants and of the EU's climate change objectives. It is concealing the real reason which is that long-standing dysfunction in policy, regulatory and market arrangements has not delivered the investment required. Its current proposals will layer further dysfunction on the existing dysfunction and impose unnecessary and excessive costs on consumers and the economy. It will create a paradise for the influential, but unelected, who exercise economic power and for rent-seekers, regulator-capturers and consumer-gougers. It is for Parliament, in the public interest, to establish an independent inquiry to investigate this dysfunction, to identify remedies and to recommend effective and efficient reforms.