Another global warming rort, more expensive than warming itself
We're told global warming could ruin us. In fact, schemes to "stop" global warming could ruin us more. Latest example: taxpayers in Northern Ireland will lose hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to rorting of another green scheme.
The Renewable Heat Incentive is likely to cost Northern Ireland taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds.
Failure to regulate it was described on Wednesday as "one of the biggest scandals" politicians had encountered since devolution.
The scheme was supposed to encourage firms to switch from using oil and gas.
They were encouraged to use renewable biomass boilers burning woodchip instead, but an overgenerous subsidy payment meant businesses piled in.
With 20 years of guaranteed payments and the bulk of the money to be paid out of the Stormont budget, it has left taxpayers with a huge bill.
This is public money - we can hardly afford a health service and now we are having to fork out for this. Utterly ridiculous. At which point did you realise this was going to blow up in everybody's faces, that this was going to cost an unprecedented amount of money and is probably one of the biggest scandals that we will face here since the powers were devolved?
Almost makes our desalination plants look like a brilliant investment.
(Thanks to reader Mary.)