Friends of the Earth couldn’t have chosen a better day to launch their Final Demand campaign, which is calling on David Cameron to set up a public enquiry into the behaviour of the Big Six energy companies which dominate 99% of the energy market. Following news from Ofgem last week that their profits per dual-fuel customer have risen by 733%, we woke up this morning to hear that Chris Huhne and David Cameron have called an energy summit in an attempt to reduce household bills.

But, says Juliet Davenport, our founder and CEO, “while this is one way to start looking at the issue, sadly, it is only a very small step towards solving the problem. The real story here is that our whole energy market is broken and needs fixing, and that only radical reform can do that.

“The UK is far too reliant on importing energy from abroad, which is the biggest reason for people’s bills going through the roof, and we need to break our dependency on fossil fuels. Innovative suppliers like Good Energy are leading the way, and we need to encourage more competition in order to keep prices down as we decarbonise the energy market. To do that, the Government needs to put just as much emphasis on talking with the smaller suppliers as it does with the larger ones.”

Friends of the Earth agree. Bills have already rocketed to average £1,300 a year, mostly because of the price of gas rather than the cost of green policies, which are designed to get Britain off the hook of fossil fuels, the campaigning charity says. That’s why they’re also asking the Prime Minister to take urgent action to increase government support for smaller British companies supplying clean, renewable energy – like Good Energy.

“We haven’t raised our electricity prices for over three years,” Juliet continues, “and we intend to hold them until at least 2012 – proving that our model of encouraging people to generate energy in their homes and in their communities is an effective way of mitigating energy price rises caused by external factors we have no control over.”

If you’re concerned about the power the big energy companies wield, sign the Friends of the Earth petition for a public inquiry.