Really, this is a terrible surprise:

Government officials have secretly briefed ministers that Britain
has no hope of getting remotely near the new European Union renewable
energy target that Tony Blair signed up to in the spring – and have
suggested that they find ways of wriggling out of it.

In contrast
to the government’s claims to be leading the world on climate change,
officials within the former Department of Trade and Industry have
admitted that under current policies Britain would miss the EU’s 2020
target of 20% energy from renewables by a long way. And their
suggestion that "statistical interpretations of the target" be used
rather than new ways to reach it has infuriated environmentalists.

Aren’t you shocked? I mean truly shocked? Politicians sign us up to something that they have no idea how to achieve, then try to think up ways to lie about how they’re not going to achieve it?

So unlike how things normally work, isn’t it?

Jeremy Leggett, of solar energy company Solarcentury, said: "It would
not surprise me if this delay in renewables deployment was the tactical
objective all along for some senior officials in DTI. Serving on the
government’s Renewables Advisory Board from 2003 to 2006, I witnessed
what cynics could easily have mistaken for a deliberate campaign of
delay, obfuscation, and the parking, if not torpedoing, of good ideas
coming from industry members of the board."

Fortunately some things are still as normal. Leggett’s normal contribution to any conversation, even one as mundane as "What would you like to drink?", is to call for greater subsidy to those selling solar cell installations. Did you know that he sells solar cell installations?