‘Power should cost more’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 18

‘Power should cost more’

Power charges to domestic users should be increased, the chairman of the Environmental Vanguard Organisation (Dr Helen Hervey) said last evening.

“There is a world energy crisis and no country should waste its energy resources. We should curb our greed for power,” she said. “This can be done both by voluntary savings and by an increase in the present low domestic tariffs for electricity. Industrial users, who pay considerably more for their electricity, are less wasteful of it than the domestic consumers,” she said [in a prepared statement. [ Although restrictions on [the use of electric power had [been lifted, many people ■had made successful efforts to save power and had realised that power was a com-! modity for . which un-|

restricted demand could not always be satisfied, she said. “Although the. costs of supplying electricity are rising, the Government has decided to hold the price of electricity. With a high level of inflation, this means that consumers are paying progressively less and less in real terms for their electricity,” she said.

“If domestic tariffs were increased to more realistic levels, supply authorities would be assisted in meeting their steeper costs and consumers would be encouraged not to waste electricity,” said Dr Hervey.