Plans to build new pylon routes in Norfolk are part of an "eco agenda" holding Britain's economy back, former prime minister Liz Truss has said.
The South West Norfolk Tory parliamentary candidate weighed in on controversial plans to build new power lines across miles of the county's countryside during an exclusive interview with this newspaper.
The major projects seek to boost the region's energy supplies by improving capabilities to transmit more offshore wind to power homes and businesses elsewhere in the UK.
However, Ms Truss claimed the push for improving infrastructure to facilitate a change to greener energy supplies is "hampering our economy".
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“Why are these pylons being built?" she said.
"The answer is to facilitate a net zero agenda. Britain’s record has been very good on reducing emissions but the fact is we are reducing ours but China isn’t, India isn’t... but we are hampering our economy.
“Climate change is a global issue and if just Britain is pushing up energy prices and reducing emissions, I feel we are making ourselves less competitive.
"We should be in line with other countries. We’ve already done a very good job. We’ve already reduced our emissions significantly.”
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Conversely, a 'green energy revolution' is one of Labour's key policies, who say they will invest millions in homegrown energy sources and create a new publicly owned company, Great British Energy.
Ms Truss' comments follow her criticising National Grid's plans for new high-voltage electricity lines from Lincolnshire to Norfolk.
It is one of several new routes proposed for Norfolk.
Pylons up to 50 metres high could stretch from Grimsby to the village of Walpole in west Norfolk.
She has formally objected to the plans along with neighbouring Conservative MP for North West Norfolk James Wild, stating farmland would be put at risk by the new power lines.
Separate plans would see a line of pylons run from Dunston, south of Norwich, through south Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex to the Thames estuary.
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