The shortage of energy and the realisation of the need to keep the lights on has led to some crucial changes of U.K. policy recently.
The government does now see the need to keep the 3 olÂŁPd coal power stations open for when the wind does not blow. Let’s hope they are in time to save them. yesterday wind only delivered 4% of our electricity, requiring huge quantities of gas.
It now sees the need to get more gas and oil out from the North Sea given the world shortage and the wish to avoid Russian energy.
Let us hope its fracking review comes up with the answer that we should offer incentives to landowners and local communities to allow onshore production as well.
April 30, 2022
Amen to all of this but the time it has taken has wasted the benefits of an 80 seat majority
Only now is the government’s energy policy obtaining some coherence, unlike its economic one which is not a policy at all
April 30, 2022
Still very little coherence Boris and Kwasi still wittering on about wind and solar and falsely claiming that these will lower energy prices.
April 30, 2022
Exactly so. Last I heard Bunter wants to triple our wind farm capacity. At what cost? The man is not looking at or doesn’t understand the facts. This is a classic case of doctrine over logic and marks him as incompetent, hence unfit to run a nation.
May 1, 2022
+1 – but the alternatives alas are even worse!
April 30, 2022
JR,
how can your party and govt be so short sighted! It has always been known wind is unreliable our forebears chose water mills hundreds of years ago in preference to wind mills! 12 years of consistent energy policy failure, 12 years of economic policy failure, foreign policy failure, immigration failure- now giving away hundreds of thousands of visas to low skilled and students so we will not notice. Good grief is your party and govt capable of anything?
April 30, 2022
+ many, Hope
April 30, 2022
+1
April 30, 2022
Lifelogic,
Looks like Green Tech is going to become more important. Not because of the environment. But because of the need not to be over-dependant on hydrocarbon fuels and the unstable political regions of the Earth they come from / could come from. Instead, we’ll have to produce more nuclear power, franking and Green Tech and become 100% self-sufficient. Big ask. But possible thanks to science.
And whilst we do this, we also need to develop Laser Tech to protect the UK from sophisticated Drones, Hypersonic Missiles and Nuclear Warheads. Bigger ask. But I still think science can do it. And will help stimulate the economy long-term (we have no choice we have to do it).
So that the UK becomes a self-sufficient fortress (including migration) but open to business and everything that is good beyond our borders.
April 30, 2022
A policy of net-zero isnât coherent while China, India. Russia etc are building new coal fired power stations every monthâŠ.its shooting ones economy in the foot
April 30, 2022
I’m pleased your taking notice of my daily updates.
It’s a pity it’s taken a megalomaniac like Pootin to knock some sense into our energy policy.
We still don’t know about the Cumbrian coal mine which will save us ÂŁmillions on imports.
Let’s get fracking.
April 30, 2022
BTW gas and nuclear are today providing 80% of demand.
Makes you think.
April 30, 2022
80% of just the electrical energy demand that is. So wind, solar⊠is only about 4% of total UK energy needs including transport, heating and other energy demands – almost irrelevant in fact.
April 30, 2022
…and wind, solar – at what cost what subsidy
April 30, 2022
Yes, Fracking, and more Nuclear and more Green Tech (and become a leader in Green Tech and export abroad).
Green Tech isn’t now about the environment. But so that we no longer have to depend on rogue regimes providing the hydrocarbon fuels. We have to become 100% self-sufficient for the mid to long-term of our economy.
April 30, 2022
Good morning.
It is a cruel twist of fate that it has taken the invasion of Ukraine to make those in power to think of something like energy security and supply. Something that has been discussed numerous times on this and other sites. The sloth like movement of government on major issues such as this feels me with dread. Before we can see basic common sense decisions being made we first have to stand over the precipice, lean far forward and on our tip toes. Government by constant crisis management.
I get the feeling that there is a strong desire by the Civil Service and Secretaries of State not to do anything until the magnitude of a situation forces them too. Then it is half baked knee jerk reactions / policies that often fail and cost a fortune. Yes, Test and Trace, I am looking at you !
April 30, 2022
It comes from the top. We have a PM with a butterfly mind, no completer/finisher ability at all and as with so many poor managers I have seen over the years seeking to be liked, so avoids confrontation on difficult issues rather than being respected.
He also cannot say âbooâ to his Ministers because he needs their support and they rely on his patronage getting it not because of ability but because of said, craven support. So a non virtuous circle for which we pay.
Ironically survey after survey shows that those who seek to be liked are in fact not, because it means the hard workers are constantly having to make up for the âslackersâ who are never held accountable.
Lack of accountability is endemic across government.
April 30, 2022
”Build HS2 for inter city travel, and build cycle lanes for local travelâŠ.add thousands of windfarms and the international community will love me, my green legacy is safe”- Boris (I was just doing what the UN & WEF told me)
April 30, 2022
glen cullen
Sadly mate he is just but a mere man doing what his wife tells him to keep the peace.
April 30, 2022
Pub-quiz question: which cost more, T&T or Sunak’s failure to prevent fraid in his COVID support schemes?
April 30, 2022
…and we didn’t learn anything from history ref the 1918 influenza virus pandemic, aka the Spanish flu
April 30, 2022
Did you read âPale Riderâ by Laura Spinney, 2018, Vintage Publ.?
So please tell us, what are her main conclusions?
Oh you cannot, you have not read anything about it, you are just another one on this blog generating the usual âwhite noiseâ to accompany Sir Johnâs one.
I should have guessed.
April 30, 2022
Why bother writing posts on here then hef?
It only makes you rude and cross.
April 30, 2022
Youâre a perfect example of âwhite noiseâ, P2.đ
May 1, 2022
And as usual no real response.
Just a perfect example of what I originally said about you
May 1, 2022
I love your new phrase “white noise” hef
In other words any opinion that you don’t like or agree with.
April 30, 2022
Track and Trace appears to have a definite spend. The Fraud cost is unknown so I suggest may well be higher!
April 30, 2022
Let’s hope it’s not all wind and bluster and that they get on with it. The danger is that Labour get in and change it all.
April 30, 2022
+1 FUS – the CONS have thrown away all trust, and they probably have driven people towards Labour. It is difficult to see any difference anyway and neither are trustworthy. People may vote Labour just to give the CONS a bloody nose and Boris and his sycophantic yes-men will be 100% responsible. The two party cartel has to be broken up else they will just carry on relying on the ‘other party being even worse’ and that cannot be good for our people or our country.
April 30, 2022
The DT today sums it up. The public pays for a defective public service. A total drift in policy ideas unable to deal with the challenges this country faces and now have ceded control to the Civil Service and appear helpless to do anything about it.
April 30, 2022
It’s all a tad farcical. Ideology driving government policy has become so widespread that I fear we are being governed by people with an intent that is bordering on dangerous. In this case, climate change ideology which as we all know is Collectivism by the backdoor does contain within it the seeds of our destruction.
We desperately need voices from within who are prepared to expose the insane and preposterous ideological extremism that is now driving government policy across many areas not just on energy and climate but on race, gender, sexuality, feminist bigotry and religion
Of course reality will intervene at some point when we withdraw our compliance and ultimately expose the collectivist, authoritarian poison that is driving all that we are seeing in our nation and indeed across the west
April 30, 2022
Another accurate and brilliant post Dom.
April 30, 2022
+1
April 30, 2022
When ordinary people in the street could foresee the energy problems we are facing, then why couldn’t the government? This irresponsible lack of planning ahead is a huge failure of the government. The ridiculous cost, and inefficiency, of wind farms has also to be admitted by the government, else we are on a further hiding to nothing. Wind turbines aren’t even environmentally friendly when you take everything into account instead of using ‘selective data’ to support their ‘climate religion’, as this government is so keen on doing.
April 30, 2022
+1. Shirley. I was actively campaigning in Scotland where wind turbines are prolific in 2011 and we all warned of this exact scenario. We had Dr John Constable speak of the utter folly and ex directors of the grid saying the same but nobody listened. One developer was overheard saying that it was a good job there were idiots in Parliament.
April 30, 2022
And in other news Chris Bryant says there are 744 Cross Parliamentary Groups covering a broad range of topics but with zero oversight, so as he points out a âChinese Spyâ can facilitate a group, in effect to promote Chinese propaganda. Equally PR firms can provide the secretariat to promote their own industries etc.
Another swamp that needs draining.
April 30, 2022
Those all party groups are MPs jollyâs (follies) and should be disbandedâŠhow about just doing your job we elect you to do
April 30, 2022
I’d prefer a lot of sunlight on them instead. Some may actually be useful. The ones that are harmful would soon get shut down. Make it a condition that their meetings are recorded and published as videos and transcripts, together with any slides used. It would also sharpen up the exterior contributions, who would have to take account of the wider audience and the possibility of investigative journalists questioning their presentations.
April 30, 2022
‘The government does now see the need to keep the 3 olÂŁPd [sic] coal power stations open for when the wind does not blow.’ Good – then the campaign here by some of your posters has born fruit. The stations must be kept until SMRs are available in good numbers – i.e. for a decade or more past 2025.
As for incentivising ‘local communities’ to allow fracking: no, just get on with it, otherwise those ‘local communities’ will just be selfish and extortionate. Fracking = lower-cost gas = benefits for ALL gas customers. Permits to frack must be made conditional on the gas being supplied at a discount to world prices.
April 30, 2022
Sea Warrior. I said as much this morning. Energy should be cheap for all. We already give far too much away with solar in the form of subsidies which the poor also pay for through their bills. We also pay land owners extortionate sums of money to host turbines and solar panels. Fracking is necessary for the country to achieve its goal of self sufficiency and lower prices. It doesn’t need bribes to give it the go ahead. It’s our national security and therefore non negotiable.
April 30, 2022
Very sound comments, I just wish this government had the same idea
April 30, 2022
The biggest thing Sea_Warrior, is that I just don’t believe this government
April 30, 2022
SW.
There should be no fracking until it is proved to be safe, and so far, this has not been done.
Yes, if fracking is to be allowed, then reduced energy bills must be given to the entire North West of England.
April 30, 2022
Fracking shale gas wasn’t unsafe, it was disbanded because of woke green lobbyists
April 30, 2022
Hundreds of thousands of wells have been fracked safely around the world. That’s as close to proof as you are going to get. If we tried imposing similar standards on say wind turbines we would never build one for fear that it might fall over, catch fire and kill a few people, never mind its toll in wildlife anyway.
May 1, 2022
Agree Mark about wildlife. A controlled investigation has found that the cables used by off shore turbines give out electric magnetic fields that are causing lobsters to be born with defects that make them unable to swim properly. Whst other marine life are we harming? Although not a protected species YET they are struggling to build up numbers. We know birds and bats are being slaughtered in their thousands with some birds in Spain almost wiped out. So much for safe clean energy.
April 30, 2022
Fracking is ld technology and is used extensively to extract other minerals. Fracking was demonised by Ootins money as ir would reduce reliance on his gas.
April 30, 2022
There has been a programme of dis-information regarding ‘fracking’ from the media, think-tanks and others
April 30, 2022
It is a fact that nuclear war would cause vastly more death and suffering than even quite severe climate change would, and that averting this and minimising its possibility is therefore paramount.
If ceasing to buy Russian fuel assists that aim then this must be done, and if that means a return to other fossil fuel sources for a time then so be it.
This is yet another example of the appalling effects of war and of tyranny.
April 30, 2022
We can agree on that.
How disappointing to see Germany and Austria finding a way to launder their gas-payments to Russia. The free world now needs to come together and make both Russia and China irrelevant.
April 30, 2022
Sea-Warrior
Are you surprised with the actions of Germany and Austria when National needs come before group needs.
I have always said that in an emergency National needs will always come first, that is why it was always pointless us gold plating EU rules which hurt our own people and economy when we were EU members, and paying a high price for it at the same time.
As usual our Government thought of others first, before those at home, indeed it still appears to be the case even though we are no longer members of that particular club.
April 30, 2022
The energy companies are privately-owned.
It is the decisions of these companies, not of governments.
Profits before people.
April 30, 2022
you want companies to have morals? Good luck with that!
April 30, 2022
NLH
I was deliberately generalising my comments because our actions over decades covered much more than just energy.
April 30, 2022
I would never bother wanting what reason reasonably suggests could never be expected.
April 30, 2022
Germany and Austria didn’t ‘find a way’, SW, they took the only way open to them, via Gazprombank, if they wanted to keep their economies working. They also want to build up their gas reserves now so they can stop their voters from freezing later this year. (These things matter to them even if they don’t to you.) The EU’s lawyers decided this method of payment, in Euros but changed into Roubles by the bank, didn’t contravene the anti-Russia sanctions policy. And German industrialists are not going to let their country go down the pan any time soon. So whatever appeals to the ‘free world’ that outraged armchair warriors make are likely to fall on deaf ears, I’m afraid.
April 30, 2022
Must be a Pootin troll siding with Austria and Germany.
May 1, 2022
No, my friend, just helping S_W to catch up with the news reported in the FT, which he may not read. It’s a very reliable paper. It has to be accurate, as it tells the moneyed classes where they can safely put their investments. The intelligence service spin goes in the Times and the Guardian.
May 1, 2022
I agree with you about the FT, and it’s a pity that more did not heed what it said about brexit.
However, you are being predictably selective in what you cite here.
April 30, 2022
The only way to be able to ignore Russian gas is to impose heavy energy rationing until substitutes can be brought on stream. You can indulge in an expensive exercise of shuffling supplies around the world to some extent, but there are limitations on supplies that depend on pipeline delivery. If you prevent Russian supply outside Russia altogether (e.g. to China Korea and Japan, as well as parts of the EU now heavily dependent on Russian supply) you create even more of an energy crisis.
The first action is to get drilling and building alternative LNG and pipeline facilities, racking up use of and mining of coal, and not shutting down nuclear plant unless it has reached end of life. Then you can start grandstanding about buying less from Russia. Kill Western economies first, and you won’t even be able to build the tanks and ships and missiles you need for defence.
April 30, 2022
Well said NLH.
April 30, 2022
As Russia demonstrates yet again, the “ism” which has caused more death and suffering than any other throughout history is imperialism.
Global co-operation in reducing the difficulties faced by all on this planet has been wrecked by their outrageous and appalling war.
April 30, 2022
Russia isn’t the one with 800+ bases around the world to “police” it’s empire.
Still,the outcome of the restructuring of the global order that is underway might,with a little luck,be summed up in the words of Sherlock Holmes(from His Last Bow,1914):
“There’s an East wind coming all the same,such a wind as never blew on England yet.It will be cold and bitter,Watson,and a good many of us may wither before it’s blast.But it’s God’s own wind nonetheless,and a cleaner,better,stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.”
Provided the hurricane is powerful enough to sweep the British Establishment away.
April 30, 2022
I didn’t make any claim to contrary to your various assertions.
April 30, 2022
Surely, NLH, you meant Communism/Marxism has caused more death and suffering than any other…..
April 30, 2022
Are you seriously claiming that a transiently fashionable C19th philosophy has caused more deaths and destruction that has imperialism for thousands of years?
If so, then please support your claim with evidence and with reason.
May 1, 2022
Why go back thousands of years when standards of all kinds have been different. You cannot get a comparator like that. Not very scientific or even sensible. Why not compare like with like – i.e. C19th Century to date? Don’t like the outcome?
May 1, 2022
80 million in the 20th century NHL
A record that takes some beating.
May 1, 2022
The British Empire alone beat that hands down old chap.
May 1, 2022
Twaddle.
April 30, 2022
It is sad that it took Putin, and his people killing invasion of Ukraine, to do what a sledgehammer could not – crack open the nuts at the head of our Government and let some sense in!
April 30, 2022
What I said but more concise.
+1
April 30, 2022
Do you really think that has happened? There will be no sense with the present leadership arrangement. They know something should be said but it’s all a deceit as usual.
April 30, 2022
“Let us hope its fracking review ”
I suppose it depends on the people doing the review , we are more than aware Governments have reviews from people who they can guarantee to give them the answer they want.
April 30, 2022
A review is not necessary. An urgent release of the ban is needed to renew fracking. Boris is delaying, hoping somehow his problems will go away and his fanatical greenery can go on with his destruction of the UK .
April 30, 2022
Iain Moore
One could definitely argue a strong case that this country is through the incompetence of a large majority of our members of Parliament that the country is in a crisis situation.
The Parliament should vote in Emergency powers as they would in any other major crisis as the present situation puts our national security at risk and apply the power to drive through all the solutions as discussed on this blog
April 30, 2022
I too have observed the feeble contribution of wind power in recent days. If wind power is to be a part of the UK’s energy demands, there needs to be infrastructure to store the energy harvested when the wind does blow. Might I suggest further research into catalysts to synthesize liquid fuels?
April 30, 2022
You only need to look for alternative forms of energy if you believe that the oceans are rising….otherwise its all a con
April 30, 2022
Storage is no panacea for wind intermittency. The amount of energy you would need to store is quite impractical, and the cost would be simply be unaffordable. Using wind requires dispatchable backup, which in practical terms largely confines you to gas in countries like the UK that do not have a substantial (potential) hydro resource. The more wind you have, the less space for baseload generation and the greater the need for gas backup. You can go towards massive overinvestment in wind to reduce the gas consumption a little, but much of it will be wasted as unusable surplus that is uneconomic to store.
April 30, 2022
Overpopulation of the UK and the rest of the world causes scarcity, over-demand and high prices.
It adds congestion, pollution and many other fast-increasing problems that become beyond solution.
Energy efficiency helps, yet more people need increasingly more.
April 30, 2022
Underproduction and underinvestment also causes scarcity and high prices. It is what we are currently suffering from: we had reasonable prices and no shortages just a very few years ago. But we are suffering the combined effects of the pandemic and failed green policies.
April 30, 2022
In other words, Boris the Traitor ignored all your wise warnings and advice and has only acted – belatedly – when forced to do so by world events. What a useless moron. And still the party refuses to kick him out …
April 30, 2022
What a strange idea of democracy you on the Right so often have.
It would be to dupe the electorate into voting for a popular celebrity of generally moderate political leanings, but then to use the serious failings of UK democracy to enable his replacement by someone completely different, who just happened to be what the vehement but tiny minority of extremists wanted all along, even though they would have failed utterly in a General Election with such a leader.
It would appear that even among the brexitories there aren’t quite enough as fanatical as you apparently are, however.
April 30, 2022
Who are these tiny minority of extremists NHL?
And yet again you think anyone who votes differently to you has been duped.
What a strange idea of democracy you on the Left so often have
April 30, 2022
Well, about half of them – single figures – seem to post here.
May 1, 2022
Who are they in political life?
Stop your diversionary tactics and wild smears and answer the question.
April 30, 2022
Not just Boris – this goes back to Blair and all governments since. I remember this being discussed when Blair first got in, yet nothing has been done. Entirely a dereliction of duty by politicians of all stripes more intent on self aggrandisement than doing the hard yards.
April 30, 2022
I see the Australian State intend to legislate exclude those who refuse the gene therapy that is rather deceitfully labelled a ‘Vaccine’. Such an action is worthy of a totalitarian State and is so disturbing that even a sceptic such as I am utterly speechless at the rank temerity and shamelessness of such a blatant of an individual’s democratic rights.
I have no doubt that the above and many other areas of our private and public life will be subject to fascist laws intended to assert TOTAL CONTROL over our very existence
Western peoples are now under DIRECT attack from those we elect to govern on our behalf and with OUR CONSENT. I believe the democratic model is now broken beyond repair
I also note that the Obama administration in Washington has declared that online and public mockery of VP Harris will now be treated as an THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY BY THE BOARD OF DISINFORMATION. 1930’s Germany all over again
All of this is coming to the UK. When I say those who vote for the incumbents are slowly without their knowledge being dragged deeper into the depths of the surveillance State
I despair of what we are witnessing. It is truly, truly deflating for all true Thatcherites and libertarians
April 30, 2022
Let’s not expect too much from this net-zero government — They led us, knowingly, into this disastrous situation so we shouldn’t expect a massive U-turn on any of their futile policies. Instead they will do as little as they need to do, to make it look like they are doing something.
The whole argument about energy is to get us used to shortages or doing without – Exactly the same as is beginning to happen with food and other supplies.
April 30, 2022
Amen to your first paragraph.
+1 To your second.
April 30, 2022
Agree
April 30, 2022
B H.
I fear you are too close to the mark for comfort.
April 30, 2022
When the full unexpurgated report from the senior civil servant Sue Gray is finally made public, there have been predictions that it could finish off Boris Johnson as prime minister. His allies believe it will do no such thing.
But his position feels more precarious than at any time since the start of the Ukraine conflict.
Some Conservative MPs who’ve been critical of the PM have said they would await Ms Gray’s findings before deciding to submit a letter of no confidence in him.
So there is little doubt that the report is anxiously awaited at Westminster.
It won’t be released until the Metropolitan Police complete their investigations.
(in other words the 12th of never!)
But the hope amongst her inquiry team is that it will be published by the end of May. (which year?)
April 30, 2022
Who made the decision that the grey report canât be published until the police investigation is finished ? Its an internal government report…I want names
April 30, 2022
G c Boris Johnson?
April 30, 2022
It’s very good of the MET police to support the Conservative party vote, by not publishing the partygate guilty and hence continue to block the Gray report, till after the local elections.
April 30, 2022
Yes, isn’t it?
The BBC do their bit with their very selective silences too.
May 1, 2022
and when not silent, run a very selected set of pro-minority ‘headlines’ …it is difficult to think of a more political organisation.
April 30, 2022
It will all be Whitewashed MT, not worth the paper its written on!
April 30, 2022
every word redacted!
April 30, 2022
Agreed Sir John – along with virtually all of the sentiments expressed by your other contributors to this post.
April 30, 2022
I see that Russian state TV is again proposing its own nuclear-power plans for London. May I suggest that the government bans all Russians from coming here until the country is a functioning-democracy. I wouldn’t want the poor things to risk being victims of nuclear-weapons. When the Russian middle-class is no longer able to travel then support for the One Russia Party will crumble.
April 30, 2022
Both Labour and Tory alike, welcomed the russian money into London
May 1, 2022
A beautiful book but tough to read because of its numerous characters ant the intricacy of the âactionâ: in a way so much better (and frightening) than any James Bond movie.
âPutinâs Peopleâ, Catherine Bolton, W.Collins Publ., 2020.
I am only at page 305 (of 624). It appears crazy to imagine that the UK âservicesâ were not (at least partly) aware of what was actually happening in and around Russia over the period 1988 to 2017 and that all UK governments (Con, Lab, Coalition, Con) went on welcoming all types of Russian âfriendsâ into the UK, some using âthe golden visa routeâ.
How much of the present situation in Ukraine is linked to how blind our successive governments have been?
May 1, 2022
Red Notice – by Bill Browder.
April 30, 2022
There are various theories as to Putin’s motives for this horrible war.
Here’s one of mine.
He senses that he is being rumbled, particularly by Russia’s young, for the utter monster that he is.
He fears what happened to Gaddafi happening to him – he watches footage of that episode of brutality often, we read.
So he sends those who would rise against him to die in their scores of thousands in a completely trumped-up war.
Plenty of historians say that this was exactly what WWI was about, incidentally.
April 30, 2022
SirJ your opening sentence is incorrect, we havenât got a shortage of energy â weâve got a government that has changed the energy mix and signalled its desire for net-zero and a drive away from fossil fuels (unless theyâre imported).
All the energy we need is within our reach by fracking shale gas, drilling north-sea oil and building small modular nuclear reactorsâŠ.and its cheap
April 30, 2022
Hold the phone, a conservative MP is about to resign for doing something that wasnât against the law or parliamentary rules……the PM should take note
April 30, 2022
“Wasn’t against the law or parliamentary rules”
Its hard, even for me, to put into words what’s wrong with the above sentence.
The reason the “PM ” is still there is that there is no one else remotely prepared
or capable at present.
Also local Mayors will rule in accordance with global mandates,
the upcoming health/pandemic one being the first.
April 30, 2022
The point I was making is that others have done much worst and have actually broken the law or rules and ”haven’t resigned”
April 30, 2022
Yes Glen and it was all organised by the slime on the left!
April 30, 2022
Does the fracking review have any timescale attached to it?
That would be a good question to ask BEIS. At present the energy crisis will not be solved by policies that delver in 8-10 years’ time so something new has to happen quickly.
Is there any plan to reverse the decommissioning of older nuclear power stations until the new ones come online?
Is there any plan to look at emerging nuclear technology such as molten salt, thorium etc? The US and Canada have commissioned projects to build these even though the technology is not yet fully bottomed out.
April 30, 2022
You crazy “frackers”. Have you any idea how many “horizontal” (fracked) wells the UK is going to need? A “vertical” well in the big fields in the North Sea, can produce oil and gas economically for thirty years. A fracked well’s production can drop by 60% after one year of operation. Frackers are like druggies, they have to keep fracking new wells to get the output fix they promised the investors.
If you plan to go drilling in the North Sea in the little spots left by the big oil boys that they can’t be bothered with; what are you going to do when some vote catcher politician decides “net-zero” should be brought forward ten years. You could be stuck with a stranded asset in the North Sea that ain’t ever going to pay back its investment or its dismantling costs.
April 30, 2022
I guessed you would be opposed to fracking acorn
No nuclear too I expect.
No gas and no oil too.
Just windmills and solar.
A green disastrous energy policy
April 30, 2022
By chance I found this:
bylinetimes.com âWho owns the fracking giant Cuadrilla?â 23/03/2022.
Enjoy.
April 30, 2022
Oh boy…
April 30, 2022
More Greenpeace and Guardian stuff.
You get more left wing with every post heffy.
May 3, 2022
Give me the same level of info from the Spectator or the Telegraph. I have access to both and have never seen anything equivalent. There is something rather entertaining in people refusing even to read information because it does not come from a blue-rinse source.
As you would say: hilarious.
PS: That was not from Greenpeace nor the Guardian, and it also appeared on bywire.news and others. But I guess that (âagent provocateurâ statement) small minds would say that all of these are lefty eco-loons.
April 30, 2022
So the insane policy of destroying perfectly good plant has ended. It probably took so…oo long because the EU would not let them, until now.
There is less need to subsidize renewables and more reason to claw back any already given.
As this is a national emergency. Then all land associated with energy production which is subsidized should be compulsory purchased at valuation excluding subsidy pre-crisis. All UK based plant should be nationalised if they have been actively considered for closure. Consider removing EDF as it is a foreign state actor. After all we are sovereign arent we?
Then reduce taxes on the lower- middle class and raise interest rates.
Use VAT in reverse ie negative, to encourage insulation. Along with carbon pricing of imports based on origin.
Lets have a supply response, and not allow effective monopolies to capture the market.
April 30, 2022
John Redwood gets a mention on tonight’s Pointless!
Well done John…
You were named as a choice for John Major’s Fifth Cabinet and you scored, 1, so you’re not entirely pointless!
May 1, 2022
Apart from the announcement for another licensing round for North Sea oil and gas in the Autumn the recently published BEISâ British Energy Security Strategy is neither British nor secure, let alone affordable.
The wind turbine manufacturersâ at their Wind Europe conference last month admitted they were going bust because of their ridiculously low bid prices and that 85% to 95% of their turbines are made in China. And since 100% of solar panels are made in China this does not make our energy secure.
Since wind and solar is intermittent and requires a fossil fuel backup of equal capacity, hydrogen is expensive to produce, store and distribute, the BEIS plan means we will either be using fossil fuel to keep the lights on and subsidising useless wind turbines, solar arrays and hydrogen plants or we will be living like the third world with intermittent power supplies.
The only technology which can produce sufficient low carbon, reliable, weather independent power is nuclear and here BEIS have promised just 8 reactors, totalling a miserable 24GW to be built from 2043 to 2050 and none for the 2030s when we are supposed to have decarbonised our electricity by 2035.
May 1, 2022
PS : Nuclear power is also affordable – far cheaper than renewables when renewables’ intermittency is properly costed and not hidden as it is now.
May 1, 2022
Anyone with some commonsense, who isn’t obsessed with the Eco Lunacy, could have told the Government that it was madness to destroy all our coal, gas and oil-fired power stations and to rely on so-called renewable energy to power a 21st century country.
But we don’t have an Establishment or Government which displays any common sense whatsoever. They really are a danger to the British people. The sooner we can get rid of the Eco Loons, starting with the two in Number 10, the better.