Yesterday the Business Secretary met the wrong people to solve the energy crisis. He met the companies caught up in a nightmare of controls which threaten their solvency but lead inexorably to large consumer price rises after a delay.
He needs to meet the primary energy producers, the companies that produce gas and generate electricity in the U.K. The basic problem we face is we produce too little  energy for our needs. This makes us dependent on very expensive imports, on the goodwill of Mr Putin and the ability of an energy short Western Europe to help us.
Many of the taxes, subsidies and controls on energy production have been imposed in pursuit of net zero. The policy is an abject failure in its own terms, because it forces us to import plenty of gas from abroad adding transport CO2 to the total, and to import electricity that makes the continent burn more coal for power to meet their overall needs.
The government needs to cut its interventions and to licence more U.K. base energy delivery. More electricity needs to be generated here with cost and availability having more of a role in allowing its use.Proper costing of wind needs to allow for the costs of back up or in due course the costs of storage in batteries or through green hydrogen.
In the short term the governmentâs only options are to transfer some of the extra  energy cost from consumers to taxpayers by yet more subsidy to companies, or to beef up benefits to people on lower incomes so they can afford the surge in bills. Every dayâs delay in producing and investing more in domestic energy is another increase in bills and in total costs to consumers/ taxpayers. A general subsidy to companies would be yet another undesirable increase in public spending to dodge sorting out the underlying problem.
December 28, 2021
But what can be done in the face of this UN declaration?
âRace To Zero is a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.â
This has been going on for a very long time and it has been presented in the most glowing of terms leading businesses to feel âempoweredâ(yuk) and in control rather than commercial entities delivering a service.
They think they are doing the ârightâ thing and own the moral high ground.
December 28, 2021
Ever watched a green zealot try to make a tinder box work?
Most illuminating lol. Many tantrums!
I suppose matches are verboten too in The Brave New World?
December 28, 2021
So is Johnson REALLY trying to bring in a CCP style ID/ social credit system?
Now? After all he has put us through?
Silently on NYâs Eve maybe?
Backed by Parliament no doubt.
December 28, 2021
Well, Sir John put his finger right on it.
Yes, the wrong people are people from companies.
Those responsible for a centrally vital aspect of the economic, social, industrial and strategic life of the nation should not be unelected, publicly-unaccountable, only-for-profit, here-today-gone-tomorrow lads.
They should be people like the head of the Gas Board and of the CEGB.
However, neither those posts nor the proper institutions that they represented exist any more, thanks to the political doctrines of people exactly like Sir John.
Reply What nonsense. He needs to talk to the suppliers of the wholesale gas market who were not nationalised.
December 28, 2021
I don’t know what generation you belong to, NLH, but if you think the Gas Board was a beacon of good service to the community, you were not a householder in the 1970’s and 80’s, or you have a very strong pair of retrospective rose-coloured spectacles.
Presumably you think all food production, distribution and provision to the customer should be nationalised too?
December 28, 2021
Your presumption is typically daft.
The private sector works very well for many things, where the quality of product and service are self-evident and there is plenty of competition e.g. in the provision of quality and varied food, drink, clothing, domestic goods, pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels and so on.
As we see with, say, sewage disposal and bought-in “consultancy” on building regs on the other hand, it can be literally disastrous.
The pitfalls are staring anyone half-awake in the face.
December 28, 2021
NLH
+1
December 28, 2021
The daft presumption is that central government regulation by quango is a solution.
December 28, 2021
We must resist somehow, this race to wind and water and ensure we are backed up with oil, gas and yes, coal. Security and affordability first. While weâre at it, levelling up n all, manufacturers need energy thatâs not massively more expensive than China. Everything under my tree was made in China, no alternative. The ruddy covid tests are made in China, like covid itself I suppose. Iâll be delighted to move move fully to non fossil but still waiting for the Hydrogen boiler to be invented.
December 28, 2021
Burning coal for another 10-20 years shouldnât be controversial, Germany are planning to do it and they are held up to be a country âwhere the adults are in chargeâ.
December 28, 2021
Good comments Mary.
December 28, 2021
The old coal gas boilers burnt hydrogen.
Coal gas is typically 45-60% H2.
December 28, 2021
Mary Lowrey : “Iâll be delighted to move fully to non fossil but still waiting for the Hydrogen boiler to be invented.”
Hydrogen boilers exist but note that burning hydrogen efficiently in air, whilst not producing CO2, does produce NOx emissions, six times more than when methane is burnt in air.
December 28, 2021
On food security, the Today Programme this am seemed to get the point, or tried to. But when it came to energy security, they wouldn’t even countenance such a concept. For the third day they discussed the gas price without mentioning supply or demand. They even had on Emma Pinchbeck again, and a man who said the answer was more investment in unreliables. Meanwhile, over on GB News, they lambasted the PM for Net Zero and not allowing us to use our own natural gas. All Today want to criticise him for are anonymous leaks about civil servants having drinks in their work bubbles, and a confection of theirs called “Tory sleaze”.
December 28, 2021
The BBC also didn’t mention population sustainability while they were wittering on about sustainable agriculture, which seemed a rather large omission , after all the driving force in maxing out agriculture is the never ending number of people they want to stuff into our country. We could have the bucolic Darling Buds of May agriculture if we had half the number of people in our country, as it is the BBC advocate bucolic agricultural practices , whilst agitating for unlimited numbers of people to come here, then telling us we have to ration food and to live on insect burgers.
December 29, 2021
Quite right, Iain, and this BBC contradiction applies across the board, to water as well as food, to sewage and housing, health and education, prisons and roads…
December 28, 2021
Ah, to Gazprom?
December 28, 2021
+1
I loved the nationalised utilities.
I very much resented them being sold off.
December 28, 2021
The replacement for the head of the Gas Board and the head of the CEGB is the head of OFGEM, the deeply unimpressive Brearley, who hasn’t the first clue about how to solve the problems, and simply watched as they got worse and worse.
December 28, 2021
You are short of a couple of Quango there Mark. The Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning, who killed the Jackdaw gas well on environmental terms, just before the COP 26 shindig; and, the Oil and Gas Authority that would have licenced the drilling of the Jackdaw gas/condensate well. All part of the Kwasi Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
December 28, 2021
One might characterise it as ‘a great leap forward’; and we know how that turned out…
December 28, 2021
And even in the Queenâs Speech , the Queen made a relieved sounding reference to the Cop 26 as if it was a life saving action!
December 28, 2021
Yes SHARON, and how my blood boils when I hear the Queen being dragged into this nonsense.
December 28, 2021
Sharon, BOF, +1, I switched off then, nauseous nonsense.
December 28, 2021
Wait until we get Prince Charles with his blatant do as I say not as I do gross hypocrisy on this issue, his ÂŁ1 million + PA personal transport bills, private jets, helicopters, huge houses and his Aston Martin converted to run on cheese and wine waste!
December 29, 2021
perhaps he gets the leftovers fron Downing St parties, ooops Business meetings?
December 28, 2021
We have total imbeciles in charge of our energy policy. Get fracking, extracting gas , oil and coal and then reduce our reliance over time when we have sustainable alternatives. Cart before horse to achieve their climate change religion. None of this is a shock except to the fools who now face the electoral fallout for their rush to windmills, solar power and importing foreign electricity! We are all now facing extreme rises in our power bills to pay for the climate change act stupidity. We are all desperately in need of a right of centre party to rid us of these fools.
December 28, 2021
+1
December 28, 2021
Actually we are in desperate need of of sensible people who are prepared to vote for parties which are not signed up to the economic and demographic distruction of our country. Try and keep up.
December 28, 2021
Open up our coal mines.
Dig for Victory.
There are people wanting to do it I believe in Cumbria, stopped by Johnson.
He likes being cold? Or can afford high fuel prices? Or (judging by partygate) has his own secret mine perhaps?
Or maybe nips orf to a villa in Greece when the temperature falls?
December 28, 2021
100% agree
December 28, 2021
As ever, you offer no suggestions at all for HOW we produce more energy here in the UK. Maybe you think there are new coalfields to be found in the Wokingham area?
Reply Plenty available. Start with Jackdaw field
December 28, 2021
Shale
December 28, 2021
Whilst Carrie is PM we will continue to freeze.
Johnson has to go. I hope Sunak refuses to put the subsidy on to general taxation. The public have to know what a horlicks you have made.
December 28, 2021
I see from the Worlometer graph that Dail deaths with Covid continues to drop. Latest weekly average 106. No wonder the Brussels Broadcasting Company has stopped giving the figures, the daily positive makes much more scary reading.
December 28, 2021
Nuclear today being run at 6.08gw that is 100,% as wind is only supplying 5% on the quiet bank holiday.
December 28, 2021
a bit gusty windy here in Wokingham today, but barely a glimmer in the sky to tell us the Sun is up there but about to dip below the horizon.
December 28, 2021
The Great Emergency – All Fake
December 28, 2021
Simple, just abandon the lunacy of net zero and get fracking, drilling and mining, tell Carrie to shut up and stop the government destroying power stations and rigging the energy markets.
Kwartang, Boris, Carrie and Hands are not engineers they are as ignorant about energy as I am about ancient Greek or Beowolf. They actually seem to think they can change the laws of physics and energy economics – they cannot. They need to stop talking drivel about the Saudi Arabia of wind and suchlike. It will end up even worse than pointlessly exploding teachers and astronauts on shuttle rockets and will certainly kill many more people.
As Richard Feynman put it – For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.
One of the daftest ideas is hydrogen (heat pumps in most retrofit cases too) as we have no hydrogen mines and it costs a fortune to produce, store and transport (perhaps 6 times the cost of methane). It also will produce much CO2 in its production.
This hydrogen agenda seems to be driven purely by the irrelevant fact that H2 unlike Methane has no Carbon in it (but uses loads in its production anyway so total insanity. Burning methane just produces harmless water and (harmless) CO2. Were CO2 a problem it can be captured but it is not, probably on balance net beneficial.
Natural gas in the US was about 1/3 of the cost here last time I looked. This making much energy intensive industry here totally uncompetitive industries such as food, pulp and paper, basic chemicals, refining, iron and steel, nonferrous metals (primarily aluminum), and nonmetallic minerals (primarily cement), bricks and building materials. Importing them just creates even more worldwide CO2 if that is (quite wrongly in fact) their concern anyway.
December 28, 2021
Zero understanding of the politics yet again so a wasted post
December 28, 2021
I understand perfectly well how idiots, group think, lack of physics & energy engineering knowledge and politics is driving the insane energy policies. I am just telling you what we should rationally be doing.
December 28, 2021
Plenty of shale gas too. Coal for over 200 years, nuclear power if they’d get on with it. The Consocialists/Lib/Lab coalition are the problem NOT the solution.
December 28, 2021
BTW, have a look at this chart. It shows the UK is the most profitable site for Oil prospectors. See how much Norway’s government takes out of a barrel compared to UK, at a similar breakeven price. I guess that’s how Norway has built its large sovereign wealth fund. If you take a capital asset out of the ground, best to invest the proceeds in other capital assets that yield a continuing income. The UK didn’t do that.
https://img.offshore-mag.com/files/base/ebm/os/image/2021/01/fiscal_regimes_pr.6005c182c38c4.png?auto=format&fit=clip&height=674.1&width=1440.9
December 28, 2021
Thatcher and subsequent PMs were told to set up a sovereign wealth fund, but they failed to do so. Instead, they gave in to the American oil companies.
This must be what people mean when they talk about the “special relationship”.
December 28, 2021
euphemism for ‘when I tell you to jump, you jump!
December 28, 2021
Gary you need to go back to school.
December 28, 2021
Under this PM the Business Secretary is not going to meet with the energy producers. Change of PM needed asap.
We need someone who understands that our rush to Net Zero is a pointless and ruinously expensive PR exercise, given we only produce 1% of the world’s man-made emissions. It would be more logical to bankrupt ourselves by giving free nuclear power stations to the big emitters (not that I’m advocating any such thing).
December 28, 2021
+1
December 28, 2021
wanderer,
âUnder this PMâ?
I think under this government is closer to the mark. They are all signed up to the same idea.
December 28, 2021
So did anyone who voted Tory. Net zero was in the manifesto you all voted for. It appears most of you didnât read it.
Reply Net zero by 2050 not by 2030. Need new nuclear and new technologies which will not happen this decade.
December 28, 2021
To reply – the best solution for the UK is fracking natural gas and some piles of coal in the short term and better nuclear and nuclear fusion in the medium term. Even Fusion will probably be practical or very close within in 20-25 years probably rendering wind power and solar largely redundant.
December 28, 2021
It was 30 years away in the y0s when I was at Dounraey and it’s still 30 years away.
December 28, 2021
Dear Lifelogic–I’ll believe Fusion when I see it. Even re Fission it was once believed that it would become so cheap that it would not be worth charging for it. Yes, I’ve seen Fusion’s propaganda but as usual that is all it is. Has to be three times hotter than the sun etc etc.
December 28, 2021
Dear Lifelogic–If anything probably impossible needs to be found it is a means of destroying water. You don’t say much about rising sea levels. If it cannot be destroyed on Earth we could send it in rockets to Mars or somewhere that needs it. At least this is conceptually correct as a thought experiment but as I say it may be impossible on any basis.
December 28, 2021
Fusion will not solve any problem in anyone alive today’s lifetime.
Most of the energy of a fusion reaction is liberated in the form of gamma rays and fast neutrons.
It’s a bit hard to get the energy out of a 100,000,000K plasma suspended in a magnetic field usefully and efficiently.
However, with the investment so far it would be a bit embarrassing just to give up.
December 28, 2021
@ Leslie S – sea levels have been rising slowly since the last ice age and eroding soft cliffs coasts all that time too. The UK was joined to Europe about half a million years back. When we get a new ice age they will recede again. Lots of people live perfectly happily below sea levels.
December 29, 2021
@ Leslie singleton – you see it every day on the sun. We have recently made some rather significant advances on controlled fusion too.
December 28, 2021
reply to reply ….Andy doesn’t read, he just imagines what he wants to be able to make infantile objections.
December 28, 2021
It’s just more Project Fear from the fact deniers.
You Will Die Of Hypothermia Because Of The Environmental Movement.
It’s tripe.
December 28, 2021
Just fair warning about the new domestic Ice age.
December 28, 2021
@ Andy – when you vote in the UK general election you usually only have only two candidate (at best) with any chance of winning and so most vote for the least bad option. The idea that anyone who votes Tory or Labour signs up to the whole manifesto is totally idiotic. Not that they keep to their manifesto as we have seen with the Tories on the pension triple lock and NI/tax increases ratting so far.
December 28, 2021
Not just this Government, the Lib/Lab CON pact are all in agreement.
December 28, 2021
+1
But isnât the actual intent of all the woke greensh*t actually to destroy the West?
We âlevel upâ by impoverishing ourselves and handing over all we ever achieved to developing nations.
(Apparently the new immigrant care workers = âBuild Back Betterâ. Slap in the face or what?)
No jobs, no transport, no heating, no meat, probably no consumer goods, no healthcare.
The only hope is that the brainwashed wake up to reality.
They have not known poverty, hunger or coldâŠ..yet!
December 28, 2021
Everhopeful
+1
December 28, 2021
EH. That sounds just like the Soviet Union, that was!
December 28, 2021
+1
December 28, 2021
And only about 1% of world energy (not just electricity) comes from wind and solar anyway. Get a Peter Lilley, Matt Ridley type to advise. Create a group of real and honest scientists to opposes the group think climate alarmism agenda (do they same on Covid to oppose the mad lock down for ever enthusiasts too).
Lockdowns are ‘the single biggest public health mistake in history’, says top scientist
Speaking to The Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast, Prof Jay Bhattacharya warned of the ‘enormous collateral consequences’
The pointless war on CO2 will be even worse in lives lost, as probably were the viral (gain of function) experiments in the Wuhan Lab.
December 28, 2021
Fraser Nelson today – Johnsonâs rejection of lockdown could pay big dividends in 2022
The PM may yet be vindicated in avoiding Europeâs march towards ever-harsher measures.
Indeed – Boris also need to abandon net zero, stop wasting ÂŁbillions cut taxes and stop listening to leftie hypocrite Carrie – on net zero (and her hideous/rip off interior decor tastes and much else). We are tax fat too much already & it is killing the tax base.
December 28, 2021
If you look at the list of replacement MPs in say the betting odds they are all even worse than Boris! Who on earth would want tax to death and piss down the drain socialist, manifesto ratter Sunak or PPE, remainers & LibDims like Liz Truss or Jeremy Hunt?
December 28, 2021
+many
X3
December 28, 2021
This is true. There doesn’t seem to be any MP, in the running for PM, who has the guts to stop these crippling policies. We are being governed by globalists. Until voters stop voting for the main political parties we are doomed to continue down this destructive route.
December 28, 2021
+1 Maybe it would help if the Ministers and most of the MP’s used their brains and logic instead of being ‘yes men’ to the idiotic policies of this destructive PM. They have the power to change policies, so why don’t they use it?
December 28, 2021
The Business Secretary said the lights will never be turned off under his watch….what he didn’t tell you is that it would cost ÂŁ100 per day
December 28, 2021
They were all told many years ago it would end in tears if they continued down the renewables route and the ox of tissues ain’t going to be big enough but the subsidies are eye watering.
December 28, 2021
You confuse issues again – as usual. The first is power generation. Renewables work. They are reliable, they are cost effective, they can produce all the energy we need.
The second is Tory policy. Tory policy towards renewables is broken. Indeed Tory policy towards all emery is broken.
Your solution shouldnât be to moan about renewables. It should be to vote for somebody else.
December 28, 2021
âRenewables work. They are reliable, they are cost effective, they can produce all the energy we need.â
Dream on mate – Non of these claims are remotely true – so called ârenewablesâ are v. expensive, unreliable, not on demand, cannot be stored cost effectively and can never supply all the energy needed – especially if we mover to electric cars and heat pumps for heating. They also need to have fossil fuel back up and it produces lots of CO2 manufacturing, backing them up and maintaining them too anyway.
But yes the Tory energy and net zero policies are indeed totally insane.
December 28, 2021
reliable my arse. When the sun doesn’t shine?, and it doesn’t above the Midlands, reliable wind?- your windy diatribe is reliable but nature’s wind doth blow – but at the wrong times and too much or too little.
December 28, 2021
Andy
Renewables are heavily subsidised by the government and if you look into the green issue, windmills and solar panels arenât reliable being backed up by traditional power; and all will be at the cost to the environment. Tons and tons of concrete, removal of wild life to make room for solar panel fields etc etc . Itâs a con!
December 28, 2021
SHARON. Yes, and wind turbine blades are not re-cyclable, now piling up in huge dumps!
December 28, 2021
Andy. Oh dear you truly are ignorant. I’ve got tears of laughter now instead of despair after reading your post. My solar has produced virtually nothing since before Christmas. Wind power hasn’t been great either. Without reliable forms of backup we will all be in darkness. Is it me or do you just love to make things up just to have an opposing view?
December 28, 2021
Correct …first principle of trolling – make outrageous stuff up.
Write schock and dismay at commonsense policies.
Acquire victim complaining outlook.
Sit back and laugh at the outrage generated.
December 28, 2021
Bovine excrement. Renewable wind and solar are intermittent and unreliable. They require 100% fossil or nuclear backup and if you remove the subsidy none would ever be built.
December 28, 2021
Andy : âRenewables work. They are reliable, they are cost effective, they can produce all the energy we need.â
Renewables are only able to âworkâ because short-term grid stability and long-term backup is provided by fossil fuel.
Short-term grid back-up can be provided by very large Li-ion batteries but only at enormous expense and there is simply no non-fossil fuel long-term backup in existence anywhere in the world.
Further renewable energy would cease immediately if at the next auction the government requested that all new contracts were binding (at the moment theyâre not) and provided a guaranteed and steady quantity of electricity not backed up by fossil fuel generators.
But you know all this already of course.
December 28, 2021
CO2 is a naturally occurring trace gas essential for the continued well being for all life on Earth. It is an essential food for photosynthesis, otherwise all plants on Earth would die. If that occurred ALL LIFE on Earth would perish as well. It has been suggested that if levels go less than 0.015% of the atmosphere then that would lead to a tipping point and life would be extinguished. At the moment it is estimated that there are 0.04% of the atmosphere is CO2. Please explain with proven science how this effects the climate? 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and the rest are trace gases which include that little nasty CO2 plant food.
December 28, 2021
I have no faith in our ruling class whatsoever.
They sell everything that’s worth having and close down the rest.
This government is proving to be the worst with Net Zero. The looming cost of living crisis is actually a blessing. It hits us on Johnson’s watch.
December 28, 2021
We were doing quite well at changing who our ruling class were in this country, until you and your like-minded voted in Thatcher’s Tories.
December 28, 2021
Thank goodness we did, because it was all too obvious that certain TUC bosses were becoming the ruling class.
December 28, 2021
+1
And I read that a lot of the government u turns during the âpandemicâ have been due to threats from various unions. The mandatory mask wearing was introduced because of threats from the retail unions. And I canât remember where I read, or Iâd put in a link.
December 28, 2021
+1
I had suspicions about this too.
Am reliably informed that it is true.
December 28, 2021
Officially shutting down the schools in 2020 was in response to their already having been shut down by the teachers unions and the panic peddled by Big Media.
December 28, 2021
Whitty and Vallance both publicly counselled against shutting the schools.
December 28, 2021
No, not the TUC but We The People.
Stick with the ones that you have then, and stop moaning about them.
Tug away at those forelocks.
December 28, 2021
True the ignorant morons destroying the industries like coal, steel, docks and transport were taking over but winning awards like UK being the highest strikers in the world – recognise the ‘everybody out’ days Martin?
December 28, 2021
Marxist infiltration.
All part of a very long plan maybe?
And now we have NO energy!
December 29, 2021
but thats the outcome of the ruling class being so thick as to not realise what they are doing…but then that is generally true.
December 29, 2021
changing the ruling class from inherited to the destroying thick you mean?
‘Build back, but certainly not better’.
December 28, 2021
First step should be abolish Eton and similar ‘old school tie’ elitism establishments.
Force Oxbridge colleges to refuse private education applications.
Force Oxbridge colleges to only teach English/Welsh/NI applicants.
Was that a tremble in THE FORCE?
December 28, 2021
I think the problems for universities are much more about their own staff attitudes and sources of funding than the source of their UK students. I have been alarmed to see how China dependent Cambridge is becoming, and how increasingly narrow and extreme are lines of permitted thought. I hope that the students survive the experience, whatever their background.
December 29, 2021
Well the Chinese return home the better educated for governing! In the meantime they absorb useful information about UK and western culture, armed for undermining us.
December 28, 2021
Mr Redwood, at the 2019 general election you stood on a manifesto pledging net zero by 2050.
If you want to achieve your pledge you need to start working on it now. Gas isnât your answer.
Wind, solar, storage, wave, tidal, geothermal and interconnectors is what you need.
Your party has demonstrably done so much bad to our country over the last decade. With tackling man-made climate change perhaps the Conservative minority could all try to do one thing good for a change?
Reply My personal manifesto made clear I wanted affordable and reliable power and was critical of these price controls and dependence on wind
December 28, 2021
how does Interconnectors work towards net zero? Oh you mean take carbon produced energy from somebody else so that you can wear your Green badge?
December 28, 2021
Provided they supply it. The Dutch government announced just before Christmas that coal fired power stations will be limited to 35% of capacity from January 1st to comply with emissions limits. The MPP3 power station at the other end of the BritNed interconnector will be affected, so instead of producing 1GW to keep the lights on it will only provide 350MW. Whether other supply can be found to make up the balance is an interesting question, given the closures of nuclear power stations that are coming up.
December 28, 2021
No – interconnectors work by sharing electricity between places that have too much and those that donât have enough.
You are all bit obsessed with what happens here when the wind doesnât blow. Well, we import from Norway – which hydro electric in abundance. Or from Iceland which has geothermal in abundance. Or from the Med which has masses of sunshine. And we share our wind power with them when they need it.
This, combined with storage solutions for electricity and improved efficiency is how we power the world in future.
We donât care what you elderly miseries think anyway.
December 29, 2021
But you DO care Andy and I wonder who you call ‘we’ – are you a group of younger miseries?
December 29, 2021
Ah, import it. Brilliant! That is the whole point of why we are in our current situation – foreign suppliers jacking up prices and holding us to ransom. With our own home grown energy, of which we could be self sufficient with a decent government, prices would be stable, not increasing 400 percent. Still ‘decent’ rich people such as you don’t give a toss if the energy poor suffer.
December 28, 2021
As fast as the pigeons come home to roost , still all the years of warnings and concerns are being ignored.
Subsidies are now strangling to the points of killing any application of common sense from the government (if there was any there in the first place)
The country cannot keep paying out billion to energy producers to do nothing because the wind doesn’t blow or does too hard that the sun doesn’t shine or the grid cannot accept generated capacity.
Increase in population and all the problems it brings demands more energy and it is a never ending process.
The country needs politicians in charge that understand the whole energy process and that home supplies better than imported. Stuff net zero and get into place a energy policy that meets all the demands of the country in supply, generation, and distribution. Stop the subsidies now.
December 28, 2021
As someone once said; “Those the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad !”
It is insanity, greed and corruption that dives the so called Green Revolution.
December 28, 2021
Mark B
+1
December 28, 2021
Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, sometimes given in Latin as Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat (literally: Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason) or Quem Iuppiter vult perdere, dementat prius (literally: Those whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason) has been used in English literature since at least the 17th century. Although falsely attributed to Euripides, the phrase has classical Greek antecedents.
December 29, 2021
No one likes a smartarse LL
December 29, 2021
I just looked it up out of interest!
December 28, 2021
Met an MD of a large heating company yesterday when out shooting and listening to him saying he put in a air source heat pump into his own property and replaced it within 2 years as the running costs were too high. Says it all really. His company is working flat out replacing fossil fuel boilers for high efficiency condensing ones and up grading systems.
December 28, 2021
And I’ll be doing the same in my house – while it’s still legal.
December 28, 2021
Indeed they give out a bit more heat than energy they use (perhaps two+ times on average) but they use electricity that costs about ~ 3 times more than gas anyway. Air source ones are particularly inefficient as when you need the most heating is when the air outside is freezing or rather cold so more pumping of heat is needed. The ground temperature (a few feet down) is more stable at perhaps 10C or so. Not good for hot water either than needs to be circa ~ 60-65C. Most efficient if you have huge (tepid) rads. Also inefficient as often it needs to be left on even when you are out (as usually very slow to warm up a cold house).
An extra jumper, thermals, electric blanket/hot water bottle and just one warm room is much cheaper and saves far more CO2. So they should encourage this if they really wanted less CO2 but as they have not even banned helicopters, Range Rovers, empty planes or private jets we can safely assume they do not really want to save CO2 at all.
December 28, 2021
Just ordered my new gas boiler with 10 year warranty. ÂŁ2500 +vat installed.
December 28, 2021
Let us hope the natural gas keeps flowing then and is not banned or taxed out of use!
December 28, 2021
Good morning.
Let us wait until the lights start to go out and the Tories nose dive in the polls. Then get your Dear Leader to speak to us about the benefits of Net Zero etc.
I cannot say that this government created this mess, it was started as far back as John Major’s time, but it cannot say that its hands are entirely clean.
Go back to your constituency, Sir John, and prepare for opposition. You tried your best.
December 28, 2021
and Wokingham is in second place for the ‘ most Londoners relocated to ‘ League Table (Dartford winning the title). Sir John will have to hope the invaders living on our ex-farmland will understand about grid-locked roads, shops, schools, health services and vote for him, not some daft metropolitan pipe-dream politics.
December 28, 2021
MT
If they have relocated from London to Wokingham they will think the traffic management here is wonderful, and I guess it certainly is when compared to the grid lock that is now London.
December 28, 2021
I have a son living in S.London. When we visit I endure miles of 20 mph, cameras, zebra crossings, jay-walking and buses with a nano-second indicator before pulling out.
I have watched traffic grow and the so-called planning spoil what was a quaint market town, yes Londoners might still think us a countryside village by comparison.
December 29, 2021
I meant 20mph zones of course, not often reaching those dizzy speeds.
December 29, 2021
MT
Indeed the South Circular from Richmond to Putney now 20mph limit, then there is the new ULEZ on one side of it, as well as controlled parking Zones.
Visited that old haunt before the new ULEZ was introduced a couple of months ago.
Chaos. !
December 28, 2021
+1 net zero is the poll tax on steroids.
December 28, 2021
And what has the pitiful Kwasi Karteng achieved? Zero apart from more meetings at some time in the future.
And in other news it is reported the head of Leo Dochertyâs local Conservative association has resigned over his support for Plan B.
They didnât want him at the outset, he was imposed by Central Office and their fears were correct. He has cravenly supported the government to keep his job on the payroll despite the usual promises to get elected.
I hope that leads to a wider backlash. Frankly no difference between him and Labour/Lib Dem.
December 28, 2021
Mr Kwarteng stopped fracking. If he were to eat his words that would be a real achievement.
December 28, 2021
He was on a Spectator podcast on climate he showed himself to be almost totally ignorant on energy systems and energy economics and sadly he is actually one of the brighter and more sound MPs overall! But another innumerate arts grad.
December 28, 2021
This is the worst government and Parliament in my lifetime. We are living under an elective dictatorship clearly directed by their puppet masters. I would like to know if those complicit MPs have been threatened, bribed or truly believe in these actions against the people they were elected to represent.
December 28, 2021
Subsidies never work. If that is this governments idea of a solution it is doomed to failure.
December 28, 2021
Indeed. They seem to think we wonât notice that subsidies are giving us our own money back. Increased production is the answer but politically that skewers their green credentials.
December 28, 2021
Usually about 50% of our own money back after admin. costs and then only given back with absurd strings attached that make it worth far less than even this 50%.
Rather like the fees we paid over to the EU!
December 28, 2021
You’ve hit the nail squarely on the head today Sir John. I hope the Minister’s meeting was online, to save all that CO2 from their cars. They wasted their breath and their time. Attacking the problem from the wrong end entirely.
Net Zero, it seems, is the new religion and we will have to get used to South African style outages unless our neighbours (enemies?) Keep the lights on for for us, at sky rocketing prices of course.
December 28, 2021
Sir John you should send this to every MP regardless of party. Rather late for a Eureka moment but one can always hope!
December 28, 2021
Any industry that government sticks it’s nose in starts to fail. When we have an authoritarian and very left wing government the process speeds up and more industries are interfered with and wrecked.
This government is breaking all records. Our petrol has been turned into a toxic much that ruins fuel systems, our electricity is going to soar in price and become very unreliable, our supply chains are looking more fragile every week, the NHS is now the sales department for Big Pharma pushing poisonous injections and every tin pot little dictator in in central and local government is conjuring up ludicrous rules to combat a virus that is actually the common cold.
December 28, 2021
I absolutely despair at the tortoise like speed at which government are thinking/working with regards to our future energy chaos ( I refuse to call it a policy).
It would seem to me that JR is one but a few Mp’s who have even been concerned about our Country’s future energy needs at all.
The majority in Parliament appear to not even recognise that the Country was facing a potential crisis when they agreed to close existing power generation plants, when no suitable replacements were even being discussed, let alone being built.
I have no problem with trying to go green if it is sensible, practical, and cost effective, at the moment the Governments plans are none of those things.
It will eventually all end in chaos if the present dream and projected timescale continues.
ICE vehicles have never been more efficient, reliable, less polluting, and with the fuel source readily available throughout the World, to want to ban their sale in 8 years time is absolute madness.
As for expensive and inefficient heat pumps, replacing gas boilers with their instant switch on effectiveness, dream on.
December 28, 2021
Alan Jutson
As always Alan bang on the money.
You are obviously blessed with common sense and reasoning bit like our host.
Seen as having “Two left feet and out of step with the world”
December 28, 2021
Turboterrier
Indeed, two left feet ok as long as they are going the right direction.
The clowns in charge appear to be running full tilt at a cliff edge, it’s no problem they say, we have the safety net of water below to protect our plunge, so it’s no problem.
After hitting the water (vision can be deceptive) they then find out it’s only 2 feet deep before you hit the rocks with catastrophic results.
The error, they did not complete due diligence before the leap, which would have been to view the water level at low tide, when the dangerous rocks would have been exposed for all to see !
The Government are in effect tomb stoning !.
December 28, 2021
ICE vehicles won’t be banned anywhere but here. Africa certainly is one continent where electric vehicles cannot work. They mostly use 30 year old Mercedes saloons etc. I guess India is the same. It is only us with morons in charge who think electricity which we cannot produce enough of can be the future. All eggs in one basket springs to mind apart from all the other problems with it. We’ve seen already in this mild winter what happens when the electricity system collapses in the North when people were cold and no hot water for 2 weeks or more, relying on open fires and log burners to stay alive which the morons also want to ban.
December 28, 2021
+1
December 28, 2021
Alan
The noise from the heat pump of a neighbour is most intrusive night and day. And that is just one pump, just imagine when others are singing away together especially when the bearings need replacing if at all possible.
December 28, 2021
More scaremongering from the extreme far-right of the party. Once again, let me point out here that there is in fact NO shortage of energy in the UK. The lights have NOT gone out and there is NO prospect whatsoever that they will. Demonising renewable energy production is pointless, its here to stay
Domestic production of gas provides 50% of our UK needs. Today our wind turbines are producing 5GW of electricity, ~20% of demand. Nuclear is generating 6.8GW or ~25% of demand. CCGT is 8GW or 30% of demand. Where i’m sitting the lights are definately still on. Where is the energy shortage?
The real problem is that the fossil fuel industry has arbitrarily imposed a 400% price increase on us. This has given the treasury a ÂŁ3.5billion windfall in extra VAT. Use it to cut the nation’s energy bills this winter and in all probability Labour’s 8 point lead in the polls will evaporate.
Reply Big power cut in my area yesterday
December 28, 2021
Keep on spouting the best figures, whilst ignoring what happens when supply drops to 2 o 3 percent as has happened in recent calm days. You may be clever, but clearly deluded.
December 28, 2021
@Graham1946
You are obsessed with the variability of wind energy. Do you suffer from flatulence? If so maybe you could spend some time in front of one of our onshore windfarms, where the gas expended could be used for the benefit of the nation.
December 28, 2021
No answer, so an insult. Typical of the type. Variability is major. What do you do when the system provides only 2 per cent? A big battery seems to be your dream. Any respect for your information I now discount.
December 28, 2021
That is not a proper response SG is it?
December 29, 2021
SG
We are informed that cows flatulence is part of the World wide emissions problem, hence the new drive for all of us to go vegetarian.
It would seem that putting the cows on a new diet mix may help with emissions !!!
December 29, 2021
Alan,
Cows are vegetarians. If their flatulence endangers the planet, think what human flatulence will do. As usual half baked theories from the oh so clever, who can’t answer a simple question when their theories are challenged. They just fit facts to their argument, not the other way around.
December 29, 2021
well if cows can’t (with 4 parts) stomach the veg – we certainly will not.
December 28, 2021
Sir John, I have a rural retreat which has had power cuts roughly monthly for some time.
That is not down to energy shortage but to poor infrastructure maintenance by the Only-For-Profit Boys.
December 28, 2021
If it has no internet signal, please go and live there.
December 28, 2021
It has passable internet except during power cuts.
I enjoyed that though.
December 28, 2021
So did we.
December 29, 2021
I didn’t notice a drop in output, however welcome that would be. Are you admitting making unnecessary journeys, using up supply of petrol/diesel or are you hooked up to the grid like Andy in your ‘rural retreat’?
December 28, 2021
It will be lights out for those that can’t afford the bills once the energy price cap has been lifted next April.
December 28, 2021
Sakara Gold :
âDemonising renewable energy production is pointless, its here to stay.â
Who knows?
Iâm certain it wonât be wind though as its operational costs are becoming more expensive not less. Not surprising given it is daft to try to obtain low entropy energy (electricity) from a high entropy, low energy density source (wind).
Solar and batteries, with some big technological improvements, may be a better long-term bet with the advantage it can be domestically produced.
Non-renewable, but not emitting CO2, is nuclear fission with its low entropy and high energy density weather independent power is still our best alternative to fossil fuels.
Nuclear fusion is the holy grail of power. It should be so cheap that it will put all other forms of power out of business, including renewables. But who knows if and when this will ever exist.
Until sufficient power from nuclear energy, fission or fusion, exists, closing down fossil fuel generators and relying on renewables would be the energy disaster the Marxist Britphobes dream every night of happening.
December 28, 2021
The Net Zero policy is not the British Government’s, it’s the UN’s. It is a general rule that any policy which has CONsensus in the UK’s supposedly Oppositional form of democracy and which we therefore can’t vote against, comes from a Globalist organisation.
The British Government can easily amend the Globalist policy, by bringing the timeline for implementation down from 2050 to 2030 for example (as May did as her spiteful parting shot to wreck the UK), but won’t amend it to bring some sanity back into the issue …. not least because assorted Charity-Quangos (BBC, Greenpeace, WWF etc) will scream blue murder (as would Highgrove).
We know what the objective is: we are to be poorer, colder, less mobile, eat no/less meat and live more restricted lives. We are to own nothing …. and they really don’t care if we’re happy or not …… because none of that will apply to them.
Of course the Business Secretary met the wrong people. I’m amazed he didn’t get out on Parliament Green and pray to Gaia, because it would have been just as productive.
December 28, 2021
Spot On Donna
This government, the Tory Party, the media and the people have missed the whole point of ânet zeroâ due to a well organised programme of propaganda
Net zero is the strategy of the UN to stop the predicted rise in ocean level as suggested by a couple of scientists, Elon Musk and Al Gore
December 28, 2021
Shell and Cuadrilla have already more or less rejected the UK as a location for new gas extraction because of Government. When there is a next energy blackout ministers will start managing expectations down, accepting that this âmay be repeated in the short term before low cost renewables are embeddedâ or some such nonsense. Net Zero is a quasi religion. How many committed religious believers have ever renounced their beliefs in the light of contradictory evidence? Very few indeed, and Boris Johnson is not one of them. Our only hope is that Mr Redwood and his colleagues will have some success in helping devise a way whereby the PM and ministers can agree to some change and feel itâs been their decision with their virtue still intact. A big ask.
December 28, 2021
I get the impression that government are running about wondering about where to put their finger in the dam. My instinct is that we should get back to basics in terms of what we have in terms of potential energy here in the UK.
We have considerable gas reserves both at sea and in land located shale. We also have large coal reserves. None of which, due to political dogma, are being used. We hypercritically prefer to import all from wherever at enormous ultimate cost to the taxpayer. Result, the so called green cost is even greater than it would be using our own resourses.
Ask yourselves who benefits from subjecting ourselves to world prices that are manipulated by Putin and other rogue states for political and financial gain.
Yet another area where government needs to get a grip. Mine coal for steel production and power generation in the three power stations we have plus any in a mothballed state that can be quickly reactivated. Create six month storage facilities for gas from the sea fields and from fracked fields inland. Then we can control our own energy prices. The energy companies could then supply at UK extraction cost plus operating cost and a sensible profit, divorced from what is happening in the rest of the World, just as the USA does.
Finally put modular atomic energy power production on a war footing and when they are up and running make sure they stay in UK control. The ultimate goal should be the removal of all foreign generated power and power ownership.
December 28, 2021
Agricola
Your suggestions are far too sensible for the Government to contemplate.
They would much rather subsidise (taxpayers expense) the expensive and imported Market Price supply, and pay in two ways.
They love complication, as it helps hide the facts, and they love subsidy because it looks like they care.
I believe that they actually think they can hide the true cost to the taxpayer/customer.
December 28, 2021
I’ll vote for you! đ
December 28, 2021
Agreed , Johnson needs to start by U turning on his view that the coal mine development shouldn’t go ahead , made when he was trying to curry favour with Greta , he also needs to get behind the Campo oil field development. Not significant things in overall supply and demand equation , but it will send a clear message to the markets that they cannot bet the house on ever higher energy prices, something the green lunacy has instilled in them. Instead the Government has to sow some doubt in the sentiment in the market.
December 28, 2021
@Iain Moore
The UKâs low carbon economy is now worth ÂŁ200.8bn – four times the size of the countryâs manufacturing sector – with growth expected to accelerate even faster in the coming years. More than 75,000 businesses employ in excess of 1.2 million people in the green economy. Compared to the manufacturing sector worth only ÂŁ55.6bn and the construction sector worth ÂŁ132.9bn.
From communal food gardens, regional home retrofit programmes, regenerative farmers, biogas producers, private recycling companies, net zero flower growers, hydrogen jet fuel, net zero whisky, district heating systems using hot water extracted from ex coal mines, solar parks, heat pump installers, windfarm blade manufacturers, turbines and renewable energy storage systems, British entrepreneurs are involved in thousands of new company start-ups in the green economy.
At the Port of Tyne, acres and acres of brownfield land on either side of the river have been cleared to make room for the hundreds of green energy companies which will shortly be involved in building the worldâs largest offshore windfarm (Dogger III). Which will be built completely free of subsidy, the output will allow us to export vast amounts of surplus renewable electricity to the EU via the interconnectors
Post Brexit, this is the way forward for the deprived ex-coal mining and steelmaking communities of the N East, who recently voted Conservative for the first time in their history. I suppose you would prefer to sack the 1.2 million lunatics who work in the insane green industries and liquidate the idiot 75,000 firms involved? Like Cameron did when he destroyed our solar panel industry and 12,000 installation jobs with it?
Reply You always fail to take into account the high cost of providing back up power and the concealed subsidy of giving wind priority over other generating methods when the wind does blow.
December 28, 2021
Would be interesting to find out the real maintenance costs of off shore wind farms, their true life expectancy, and possible de commissioning costs when they are eventually life expired.
Salt water, big seas/waves, high winds and deep water make for a very hostile environment for any equipment.
December 28, 2021
Alan jutson :
If not already viewed you may like to watch John Constableâs evidence to the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee on Tuesday 14 September 2021 where research on windfarm companiesâ accounts are showing that costs are not falling as claimed :
https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/132b6724-c396-4b61-aad4-bad9dd936d53?in=09:59:51
December 28, 2021
A somewhat ludicrous comparison , you selectively choose a narrow sample then chuck in everything ,including the kitchen sink , to compare against it. E.g. If you are using communal gardeners as part of the benefits of the low carbon economy, then you have to weigh against it all those people who work in manufacturing , like metal bashing, then go home to their gardens and allotments to grow their veg. After all they wouldn’t be able to afford a home with a garden if they didn’t have a job made possible by fossil fuels.
PS Wind turbine blade manufacturing is not low carbon, they are made out of carbon fibre/fibre glass which require a lot of resins etc, they are almost indestructible , at end of life they currently burry them, estimated to be about 50,000 tons of wind turbine blade waste now , rising to 250k tons in 15 years time . A nice little present we will be leaving our children as the toxins from the resins start leaching out into the water table.
December 28, 2021
Sakara Gold : âWhich [the worldâs largest offshore windfarm, Dogger III) will be built completely free of subsidy, the output will allow us to export vast amounts of surplus renewable electricity to the EU via the interconnectors.
This is the windfarm which the Norwegian government research for its own company, Equinor, who have invested in the project, has declared to be unprofitable.
The plan is for hundreds of wind turbines over hundreds of square kilometres to produce over 4 phases just 4.8 GW of installed capacity (so 2.4 GW average when intermittency is taken into account).
2.4 GW is not large compared to the 40 GW we currently use/need and can hardly be described as providing âvast amounts of surplus renewable electricity for export to the EU via the interconnectorsâ.
December 30, 2021
In any case surplus wind exports to the continent attract very low or negative prices, which are liable to be subsidised by UK consumers for the full value of the CFD or Renewables Obligations.
December 28, 2021
@Sir John – reply
True. I agree that balancing the grid is an additional cost. To study the UK energy market is difficult because it is so complex and the market itself is subject to unpredictable fluctuations and turbulence. Several sources quote a figure of ÂŁ27billion of gross added value to the UK economy. Other sources quote ÂŁ97billion generated in intermediary consumption. Yet other sources quote an average annual supplier profit of ÂŁ47 per customer – at 2015 prices. My estimate of the value of wholesale energy prices last year (2020) is 36% of the average energy bill in the UK. The rest (64%) is VAT, the modest green levy, servicing debt – and profits.
The fossil fuel lobby is fond of quoting the figure of ÂŁ5-7 billion annually to balance the grid. My view is that its nowhere near this and I estimate ~ÂŁ1.5billion
Currently we produce more wind energy that any other country in Europe. We should maximise this advantage and develop one of the utility scale energy storage systems. Unfortunately, Kwarteng prefers to subsidise BP/Shell “blue” hydrogen and “carbon capture” scams. What a waste of my taxes.
December 28, 2021
Recently you wanted government investment into things like grid sized energy storage, hydrogen development and carbon capture and storage.
Now SG you tell us that the last two are scam.
Gosh what a statement.
December 29, 2021
@Peter2
I have always opposed wasting taxpayers money on blue hydrogen and carbon capture, and have repeatedy posted so. Do try and keep up with the plot.
December 29, 2021
I’m just reminding you of your previous comments where you said you supported government investing millions in various R and D projects to develop clean energy.
There are indeed various projects and hydrogen and CCS are two of them.
It is you that needs to keep up with the plot SG
December 28, 2021
France has announced tighter Covid restrictions amid concerns over the Omicron variant.
From 3 January, remote working will become compulsory for those who can and public gatherings will be limited to 2,000 people for indoor events. The news comes as France recorded more than 100,000 new infections on Saturday – the highest number reported in the country since the pandemic began.
But France’s prime minister did not bring in a New Year’s Eve curfew.
Oh dear, Macron following Johnson’s lead…..
December 28, 2021
Gosh, the situation must be really critical in France. That’s no doubt why the measures don’t take effect for, er… nearly a week!
December 28, 2021
Well we know what the answer will be when the energy cap is raised.
Subsidies for the poor and vulnerable (feckless) whilst the rich (people who work for a living) pay full whack. Subsidies paid for by more borrowing, unless the government can siphon the NI tax increases for the purpose (now there’s an idea). Greece here we come (but not in the sense of a warmer climate).
December 28, 2021
We are lucky and the citizens of the USA are currently the unluckiest people on the planet.
We can look at a country in the grip of socialism and see our future in the hands of Johnson. Trump may have been an unpleasant person, but he was a far better president than whoever is running the USA now.
December 28, 2021
John Miller
Totally correct.
He is being vindicated in so many areas of American life.
December 28, 2021
Yes, I suppose that as diseases go, ebola is a “better” one than chicken pox.
December 28, 2021
forgotten about N.Korea? Do 90% of the population in America look for grass to eat?
December 28, 2021
It takes an awful lot of endurance and fortitude to persist in correcting something so obvious to most people, but out of scope for those that are ignoring the message. I would trust our host’s economic sense any day over the new boys in charge of the UK’s economy, absolutely any day. But it must be very frustrating that history and lessons learned the hard way are utterly disregarded.
In so many things this government has set a path for various subjects, and resists any persuasion that they might be going in the wrong direction, or should consider other things, preferring instead to shut down any alternative views.That’s certainly NOT how government should work.
Too many UK governments have wasted years and put us in peril by not handling the ‘energy supply’ situation. Certainly, if they are worth their salt – very questionable these days – the current one should already be planning to take a different approach, without dithering around or pursuing dogmatic policies that will ruin us.
December 28, 2021
Surely those claiming wind energy to be the cheapest form of energy while ignoring the cost of its necessary supporting 24/7 back-up, are guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation.
In all fairness as a consequence, all subsidies including âconstraint paymentsâ supporting the industryâs existence should be immediately withdrawn.
December 28, 2021
The problem with the public sector, including government, is that it is unable to accept that it is ever wrong and the various institutions fight tooth and nail before bowing to the obvious where mistakes have been made.
Our current net zero policy is a mistake.
December 28, 2021
Excellent stuff but the problem goes much deeper than even our kind host can ever imagine or as a party MP state in public.
I believe the political aim is to generate dependency with the aim to hand control over our future to the EU political state
Concerned MPs must stand in Parliament and condemn this deliberate destruction of our nation. Anti-Brexit forces are trying to scupper this nation using energy dependency, uncontrolled immigration from selected nations and attacks on person, freedom and voice
December 28, 2021
+1, DOM
All too obvious, but I would say the picture is broader than that of the EU.
December 29, 2021
‘concerned MPs ‘ are way outnumbered by the mass of carefully selected sheep who got a place in the H of C. We can’t have elected MPs thinking and acting independently of the boss in No 10.
December 29, 2021
No, when some of them didn’t want to pursue the crazy version of brexit that we now have you were delighted when they were removed.
December 29, 2021
He (she?) had some ministerial types removed, the great mass of MPs are no problem they sit on hands, and say ‘yes Boris’.
December 28, 2021
The Business Secretary met yesterday with a bunch of City traders not energy providers, and yes, more will go bust in the near future. They, as traders, knew the risks they taking and have benefitted from low priced worldwide energy market which has come to an end. Not surprising that they pushed for a meeting in the hope of getting taxes reduced and subsidies increased so they could go bust in an orderly fashion without damaging their own pockets.
From the government standpoint, no more than a publicity stunt in the hope the public will think they are doing something. The BS’s answer to your recent question in the House clearly indicates that he intends to do nothing practical to alleviate the problem which is nothing short of criminal. A typical Remainer trick to hinder Brexit and weaken this country
December 28, 2021
Oh so true, but how do you get the energy secretary and business secretary to realise the error of successive administrations in misdirected energy policies and change course
December 28, 2021
Replace them with those who understand.
December 29, 2021
that could be tricky….
December 28, 2021
Forcing people to work from home will increase the consumption of gas and electricity as both offices and houses will need to be lit and heated. Plus it will be tax-deductible so putting an extra strain on the countries finances. Yet again we see no cost analysis being done for these stupid government policies.
December 28, 2021
This is an energy pandemic, almost on the same scale as Covid, if folk cannot to heat their homes, they will die of hypothermia. Of course the benefit recipients will be protected, but what about everyone else? Massive hit to inflation and reduction in other normal spending affecting GDP.
The brunt will be the dear voters of this splendid country and all energy intensive businesses making products or supplying services … it’s the incumbent government who will get the blame if prices rocket… and rightfully so.
This is also an existential threat to your Party’s power and yes it needs urgent addressing… aka Cobra, weekly public briefings, another critical focus for this government…. as it will be for our friends and neighbours in Europe. We need graphs of KWH costs for electrickery and gas, domestic and commercial, with Energy Expert Team/s to determine both tactical (short-term) and strategic policies, to manage future prices and controls. Tactically we will need to burn coal/oil/gas until nuclear is expanded. French already have 70% nuclear, clever people, never under-estimate them imho.
We need our own energy resources and avoid HAVING to buy on the volatile SPOT energy market.
Europe and UK have royally screwed up on this by not managing the risks.
Here’s to 2022 another year of pandemia and legacy cock-ups… ministerial greenie wokey answers will only put lipstick on the pig… think we’re on the same page….
December 29, 2021
Well, if you vote to hit Sterling with brexit, then expect to pay more for energy in the international market.
Reply Sterling has risen against the Euro and yen in the first year after Brexit.
December 29, 2021
Oh dear Martin – do keep yourself informed or butt out of it!.
December 29, 2021
Its the aim for a daily 30 posts target from NHL that leads to his numerous errors.
December 29, 2021
The big fall was in June 2016.
It has not recovered.
December 29, 2021
You claim all negative changes in currency relative values are only due to brexit.
Yet currency values have also risen.
So did brexit also cause positive changes?
December 28, 2021
Boris and his government are just not prepared to listen to voices of reason like our host.
Unfortunately they are not alone : all other political parties are signed up to the same pointless Greencrap agenda and all this will do is render our industry uncompetitive and impoverish us through every kind of green tax they can think of introducing and more urgently, rocketing energy bills.
What is wrong with them ?
December 28, 2021
ChrisS
“What is wrong with them”
Unlike our host they are not using their own minds to think things through properly, they are being lazy, and are swallowing hook, line, and sinker the outpourings of the various Party leaders, who are relying upon their own chosen so called experts.
They will wake up eventually as to what is going on, so let us hope it will happen soon, before it’s too late !
December 28, 2021
Sir John, while I completely agree with your desire to see a greater level of UK energy production, your comments today seem to be solely focused on the needs of domestic consumers. I believe that the consequences of energy shortages, and even more so expensive energy, are most damaging to INDUSTRY. That is why simply subsidising individuals for the cost of their energy is no use at all.
We need a CHEAP ENERGY policy to boost the competitiveness of British industry. Unfortunately, you and I both know that no matter how many articles and Tweets you write asking for this, the current government is determined to ignore you. Only a change at the very top, and an emphasis on increased energy supply rather than the cretinous ‘net zero’ policy, will result in any improvement. And there seems to be no desire among Conservative MPs to effect such a change. More fools them …
December 28, 2021
I see that OFGEM are tinkering again by supporting a proposal to cap balancing costs charged to supplier bills at ÂŁ10/MWh until the end of March, with the balance to be collected later. This provides a small cash cushion to suppliers at the expense of National Grid but does nothing for consumers.
December 28, 2021
As I understand it the intention of the England-Norway interconnector is to allow surplus energy generated by offshore wind here on wind days to be consumed in Norway, thus preserving their high-altitude water resources for use in hydro plants to generate power for both countries on no-wind days. I like this elegant solution. I’d be interested to hear from people with expertise in this field as to whether there are opportunities to create more high-altitude water storage in Norway; what capacity constraints the Interconnector has to work within that might limit the scope of this partnership unless a second Interconnector is constructed; and whether grid transmission losses might limit the efficacy of this scheme.
December 28, 2021
Short term actions that would lower costs for consumers
1) Maximise coal burn. Coal is much cheaper than gas. Ensuring it operates at baseload would mean it was not being kept to screw maximum prices in the Balancing Mechanism, ensuring greater competition and lower costs of operation for peaking use from gas fired assets. Save ÂŁ2bn.
2) Reduce or eliminate UKA carbon taxes until the crisis is over. The price has now reached ÂŁ80/tonne CO2, and at that level auctioned allowances provide ÂŁ6.4bn to Treasury coffers, while the cost to consumers in terms of higher electricity bills is probably over ÂŁ8bn, since it is the impact on costs for CCGT generators that sets most electricity market prices.
3) Halt green programmes that do not have a rapid investment payback yet are charged to customer bills. Ecohomes and smart meters are obvious candidates.
4) Put most Renewables Obligations into cold storage (those getting up to 2ROCs/MWh). Generators who get these are benefitting from unexpectedly high market prices, and most do not need the subsidy (only the highest cost operations like tidal stream need higher than current market prices). The notional sums earned can be accounted for, and charged and paid progressively when either the wholesale prices average less than say ÂŁ100/MWh in a quarter, or the installation is closed and dismantled. Another ÂŁ6bn of relief to bills.
December 28, 2021
Immediate actions that would hold out a prospect of less high bills longer term
1) Promote development of UK fossil fuel resources and make clear that they will not be shut down until at least 80% of global energy is carbon free.
2) Support the development of fossil fuel projects in other friendly countries, reversing the recent change of policy. We need diversified supply, and competition for Russia as supplier and China as investor.
3) Announce a fast track nuclear programme for 6-8GW, to be built with minimum interference from the ONR where the technology is already proven and low cost. Aim to award 50-100% to one supplier to benefit from scale and learning curve cost reductions. No EPRs.
4) Announce an intention to develop SMRs on a fast track
4) Announce a fast track CCGT programme aimed at maintaining 100% coverage of demand by dispatchable supply (nuclear plus coal plus gas plus non pumped hydro)
5) Cancel the renewables CFD auction and the bids for new interconnectors in a clear signal of intent to provide reliable power from our own resources.
6) Announce Net Zero will be put on hold until wholesale electricity remains below ÂŁ75/MWh for at least a rolling year average.
7) Start headhunting to replace Lord Deben at CCC, putting Lord Monckton in charge of recruitment
8) Break up OFGEM, giving oversight of financial fitness to the FCA, sacking Brearley, and ensuring its remit is confined to consumer interest issues.
December 28, 2021
So JR, how come you are not enthusing over the coming of the miracle Hydrogen Economy? I have been doing the numbers on the Australian project of turning its brown coal/lignite, into liquid hydrogen and shipping it in an LH2 tanker to Japan; and then, turning the liquid hydrogen back into electricity. Naturally, the CO2 emitted from the messy process of separating the H2 from brown coal, will be fully sequestered in an old abandoned oil well, we are told. At the point where the electricity gets to a consumer in Japan, over 70% of the energy in the brown coal, will have been lost to the environment. This project is sponsored by the Australian brown coal miners; there’s a surprise.
reply I only enthuse over proven technologies that offer affordable and popular goods, energy, services etc
December 28, 2021
Its Globalists creating a dependency and then leveraging it. A permanent import imbalance must be planned. Interconnectors should be used for export purposes only when we have surplus power. No reason we should gift this leverage to the EU?
There is no energy shortage , just the contract terms offered and cost push are unwelcome. Guess what happens if you are a regular importer of energy at spot rates, if markets tighten.
This then appears to give leverage to xyz to appears to pressure “weak” BRINO’s into other smelly or fishy decisions.
Importing EU energy. say 4 Gwh (approx say 4 coal/oil/gas plants)
The UK only exports when wind electricity production is high and local demand low, usually at night.
Why are we retiring UK plant when we are importing fossil fuel electricity from the EU? France is burning fossil to meet demand as its nuclear fleet have had a number of unexpected outages , at least several plants. Germany are closing nuclear plant and burning coal and the same in Belgium i understand.
Why not using prudently reserved mothballed fossil fuel plant in the winter. Why not burn UK produced gas if we do not have acceptable renewables alternatives in place.
Mabye remainer EU politics.
Can we get rid of the EU energy policy particularly the Large Combustion Plant directives and replace it with our own to match other policy deliverables.
December 28, 2021
Care Minister Gillian Keegan MP said people should enjoy themselves but be cautious when celebrating the New YearâŠ.how patronising
worldometers.info reporting 18 UK deaths today
December 29, 2021
Well at least I know where my allocation of patience and fortitude went – you got it Sir John.
December 29, 2021
Yes well Sir John, either talk some sense into your stupid net zero leader, or get rid of him.
I’m sure many voters think much the same way. Or they will do when they are hit in the pocket.