Welcome to the inquiry with me, Tania Beckett.

One question for expert witnesses and an answer.

Wholesale electricity prices in the UK have been shooting up dramatically in the last few weeks.

At times, when the demand is especially high,

the price peaks are multiple times those seen in fellow European countries, Germany and France.

Smaller UK energy providers have collapsed and many businesses and householders are facing higher energy bills

and asking the government for help.

This week on the inquiry, we're asking is Britain paying the price for its green energy push?

Green energy. The UK is an interesting case where it's done more than almost any other country

in the world to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions.

Our first expert witness, Seek House Father, is the director of climate and energy

at the Breakthrough Institute, which is an academic research group in Berkeley, California.

For experts like him, the UK is an example of how a country can move towards renewable energy.

You're in the United States. Why have you been following the UK energy market so closely?

In many ways, the UK is a glimpse into the future that the rest of us hope to experience

with some changes possibly as we reduce our emissions as well.

And so a lot of us are very focused on how the UK can push through the harder parts of reducing

its emissions now that a lot of the easier work has been done.

Britain's move away from fossil fuels began almost by accident several decades ago.

The UK is where the industrial revolution started and a lot of its economic growth

and prosperity was built off the burning of coal. But the UK started moving away from coal

before almost any other country, starting with the dash for gas in the late 80s, early 90s,

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