Sir – It is a galling paradox that despite using less energy than in the swinging sixties, hard-pressed consumers are now paying higher utility bills. Clearly in some ways this paying more for less must be a regressive policy. Investing in new nuclear power stations is projected to further exacerbate price rises. The huge nuclear investment start-up costs will be added to consumers’ bills causing meteoric rises in the next decade. A lot of policy errors are contributing to high energy bills and really Government should get a grip on its energy policy. I am not convinced that biomass has been such a great idea either. This is because using trees for power stations has caused catastrophic deforestation in many parts of the world. The editor of the Ecologist agreed with me that the trend for biomass is causing harm to the planet as trees have leaves that reduce pollution. People like the trendy sound of biomass but caution is needed. Coal is not a great fuel, but at least it has no green leaves. Share article In my opinion, it is better to use cheap coal than burning trees which our planet desperately needs. Great Britain is a very windy country so wind power should in theory be an asset. However the turbine design needs to be improved so as not to drain the national grid of energy when they are forced to shut down in high winds. More innovation is needed, but I am sure that our inventive country will eventually get to a solution for cheap and clean long-term energy. Susan Thomas Oxford