Fair deal for eco energy entrepreneurs

The government recently announced the terms of its Feed-in-Tariff scheme starting on April 1st 2010 which will pay those who produce electricity more than they have to pay to take power out of the grid. But there's a major flaw in the scheme. For the pioneers who installed their microgenerator before July 15th 2009 the government is offering much lower payments - just 9p a unit - than those available to new generators, who will get up to 41.3p a unit.

This is plain wrong. The UK microgeneration industry owes its existence to the early adopters who installed their own generation equipment because they wanted to make a difference to climate change. Many invested their life savings in such schemes because they believed it was the right thing to do - and they deserve to be recognised and rewarded for their entrepreneurial attitude, not penalised.

Green energy entrepreneurs should not be made worse off under the new scheme. Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael has tabled an Early Day Motion on this issue. As he says, "If the government is serious about wanting people to develop small scale renewable energy projects then they will have to treat everyone fairly instead of punishing those who demonstrate initiative and commitment."

Please sign the petition about this on the Number 10 website.