ENERGY and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne recently said that our gas and electricity bills will, in total, be £13 a year higher by 2020 as a result of his overall energy proposals.

Electricity bills will have risen by £6 a year and £7 for gas.

Nationally, we will be paying £160m a year more for our electricity.

But this modest increase in electricity bills can only be achieved by wrongly taking into account substantial electricity usage reductions in our homes as a result of hoped-for improved energy efficiency.

However, efficiency savings can be achieved whether we install wind turbines or not, so it is a mistake to include them when assessing beneficial effects of wind turbines on our electricity bills.

Huge sums will have to be invested in national grid modifications to make it possible for the unpredictably variable output from thousands of remotely-located wind turbines to be utilised. Not forgetting that 15 costly gas-fired power stations will have to be built to provide stand-by electricity when the wind isn’t blowing – effectively 70 to 75 per cent of the time.

A rational cost-benefit analysis is needed to pin down the actual financial ramifications of the Government’s wind turbine programme.

Manipulating public opinion on wind energy by “cooking the books” is unacceptable.

James Allan, Hartlepool.