General Elections are the time when the major political parties publish their vision of how they would govern Britain. The theory being that if a government is voted in on the basis of manifesto commitments which they then fail to keep, we – the people – can throw them out at the next election. Coalitions and leadership elections and referendums have so disrupted this normal flow of things that nobody is being held to account for failing to meet their manifesto commitments – which is how democracy is supposed to work. Let’s take a look at the energy commitments in the Labour and Conservative manifestos.

Conservative Energy Commitments

• Keep Costs Low: The Conservative Party are committed to keeping the costs of energy low. They want the UK to have the lowest energy costs in Europe. They want household energy bills to drop (don’t we all?) but they have given no specifics for how they will make this happen. However, they do have a plan to help big businesses reduce their bills.
  
• Diverse Energy Mix: Once we have left the EU, the Conservatives state they will be free to make policy based on supply not generation. There is no mention of the fact that we can currently purchase energy tariff-free from EU countries or whether this issue will feature in the exit negotiations. They want to focus on outcomes (reliable and affordable energy for homes and businesses) rather than means (methods of generation/cheap imports). They say they will stick to global commitments on climate change. 
  
• Gas from Shale: The Conservatives want to extract gas from shale deposits and are bribing communities with a proposed Shale Wealth Fund that has provisions to pay individuals (read: landowners) and communities to allow fracking in their village. The contradiction between shale gas extraction and global climate change commitments is not noted.

Labour Energy Commitments

• Three Principles: The three principles that form the backbone of Labour’s energy policy are: ensuring the security of energy supply, reducing costs for consumers and transitioning to a low carbon economy.
  
• Keep Costs Low: Like the Tories, the Labour Party are committed to keeping energy costs low for homes and businesses. They will introduce an emergency cap on the price energy companies can charge consumers. Publicly-owned locally-accountable rivals to the energy companies will be set up in each region. Infrastructure will be put in place to help four million households improve their insulation. 
  
• Innovation Nation: Labour have made a commitment to investing in training people for high skilled jobs. Spending on Research and development is to increase to 3% of GDP by 2030 (this may actually be a decrease depending on how the economy fares post-Brexit).
  
• Ban Fracking: The Labour Party are committed to reducing the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels in line with Committee on Climate Change Recommendations. Fracking is opposed as part of this commitment. However, they have prepared a strategy for defending North Sea assets and protecting the jobs that depend on them.

There we are. Both parties have presented their energy policies. Whichever of them wins this General Election will then have five years to enact these commitments, before we can hold them to account again.

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