Yesterday we debated the Energy Bill. This piece of legislation has support from the main Opposition parties and is more to do with the road to net zero than how to have plentiful good value energy for homes and businesses. It proposes additional complex regulations to seek faster movement to a decarbonised future.
It raises a number of questions which I have been posing to Ministers and the wider public in my words on energy. They include
Why does it require a 140% increase in our interconnector capacity to be able to import more energy from the continent? If the aim is energy self sufficiency and more domestic production we should not need that extra spending on connectors.
How will a ÂŁ20 bn spend on carbon capture and storage be paid for? The Secretary of State says the Uk has storage for ÂŁ5 trillion of saved carbon costs, but as the saved carbon costs are presumably at least in part UK tax revenues foregone from emissions trading and carbon taxes, it is not obvious to see how the money is raised to purchase the facilities or how the costs of running them are defrayed, other than through other additional tax payments.
What impact will the higher standards for the energy performance of buildings have on the supply of rented accommodation? Isn’t there a danger more landlords will decide they cannot afford the extra costs of installation of energy saving measures and will withdraw their properties from the rented market? What will be the rent increase where they do put in the new measures?
The Bill talks about the need for more smart machines and more time switching to ration available electricity. People will not be able to come home from work, put an electric car on charge and turn on a series of home appliances all at the same time but will need persuading or requiring to run some machines and rechargers overnight when there is less electricity demand. What will the likely balance be between discounted night rates, penalty day rates and cut outs or bans on smart machine use and via smart meters?
The Bill perpetuates a complex system of managed prices, price controls, bidding competitions for rights to supply, windfall taxes, company subsidies and government interventions to try to ensure sufficient power. What impact does this wide ranging and frequently changing set of interventions have on private sector willingness to invest in future energy provision?
The government says it wants nuclear to play an important part of reliable domestic electricity supply, yet on current plans nuclear output reduces substantially this decade with various closures and only one opening of a new station. When will firm orders be placed for small nuclear installations?
Why is grid expansion proposed at only a doubling when if most people had electric cars and heat pumps and industry had gone largely electric we would need considerably more capacity than that?
May 10, 2023
Good morning.
A sentence that should send a shiver down everyone’s spine.
I predict a large increase in home generator purchases as the realisation that we will, deliberately, be forced into energy rationing all to save the planet.
Of course, those that are in power will not have to suffer from their own foolishness.
May 10, 2023
The Labour Party consists of a lot of very out of touch well heeled people reliving in the past and getting it badly wrong. This is very dangerous as we desperately need some serious discussions about the problems that face us. Global warming being one such.
We desperately need a decent opposition.
May 10, 2023
The way things are going, SJR will soon be part of the opposition, so at least that’s a good start. And Andrew Bridgen is there already.
May 10, 2023
We certainly do need an opposition to the LibLabCON Party. This Bill is just yet more proof that the Tories are EXACTLY THE SAME AS LABOUR. There is nothing to choose between them and that’s why I will NOT vote Conservative next time round. I simply don’t understand why Sir John can’t see that the Conservative party does not reflect his views in any way. He would be much more effective if he were to join Reform UK (not Reclaim, which is just Laurence Fox’s personal vanity plaything, not a serious polictical party).
May 10, 2023
Yesterday, Starmer failed to rule out a coalition with LibDems, who will demand a new EU referendum. Now Sir John tells us more interconnectors are going to be put in. Suddenly it all makes sense, the Labour and Tories are preparing for re-entry into the EU, which we suspected from the lack of will to make Brexit work after 7 years of doing nothing useful. Traitors, the lot of them. Too strong a word? Give me one which covers our political leaders intention and actions to make us poorer (even the BoE says we must get poorer) and more subservient to foreign interests. Rationing we have already had, mostly by price and a little bit by trying to bribe people to stop using at certain times. Anyone mad enough to get a smart meter installed will push this forward. We will get compulsory ones soon enough, but I will resist to the last.
May 11, 2023
More interconnectors are necessary to “follow” atmospheric low pressure systems and winds as they track from the Atlantic across Europe and the electricity generated from windfarms,
May 10, 2023
â Why does it require a 140% increase in our interconnector capacity to be able to import more energy from the continent?â
A cynical answer is that it may be sensible to have a backup plan when âenergy self sufficiencyâ and âmore domestic productionâ prove to be more aims that are never delivered.
May 10, 2023
It will ensure we will have to buy power from the EU, thus ensuring being a slave all over again.
May 11, 2023
It also means they buy power from us as the winds move across the UK and Europe.
May 10, 2023
I have been looking at what is happening with wind farms in the Moray Firth. There are 2 – Beatrice and Moray East – built not far from the Northern shore and Wick. They both have export cables that go South all the way across the Firth connecting to the major substation at Blackhilliock, near Keith. From there there us an HVDC station connecting to the 1.2GW Moraylink interconnector that comes ashore near Wick, skirting the edge of Moray East wind farm before landfall. The other end of the HVDC line is at Spittal, a few miles inland. From there power lines run to Dounreay, where the nuclear reactor has been shut for years, and onward to Beauly at the start of the line to Denny and the Scottish Lowlands. Another line, also reinforced, heads from Spittal to Loch Buidhe. Other lines run from Blackhillock towards Peterhead and South to Aberdeen and beyond.
Despite all that transmission capacity both wind farms have seen extensive curtailment. Beatrice saw about 25% of its output constrained off in the financial year to March 2022. It appears from its accounts that it was extremely well compensated for that, effectively at prices well above its generous CFD. So not only do we end up paying for all the extra transmission capacity, we are paying for it not to be used as well.
May 10, 2023
As I read this article, I was thinking . The globalists who are using the unity of a shared threat – a climate emergency/crisis are really clever. What is so clever is how on earth have they have managed to get sooo⊠many people to believe in it to the point whereby they are prepared to trash their own economies, destroy their lifestyles and replace it with poverty and hardship?
Although, governments themselves may not suffer the same as their population- aiming for a pointless net zero target, it will still have destroyed their countryâs culture and way of life. Itâs quite incredible how stupid they all are.
May 10, 2023
I think it is all about money, power and probably fear.
Goodness alone know what the politicians think will happen to THEM!
They should possibly start reading history before all the books are burned.
In Paris c 1789 the young M Tussaud had to check every wax figure each morning to make sure that the person portrayed had not been proscribed overnight. To display a non pc effigy meant execution!
The game of âRevolutionâ can never be won.
May 10, 2023
Actually I think I have a better answer.
See what is happening in the US now.
Who is ( and has been) arrested.
And then see what they support.
And what they donât.
Sorry to be so cryptic.
âAnd if you tell me this riddleâŠâ
May 10, 2023
@Sharon +1
You could say an anti UK Conservative Party, but in truth we have an anti UK Parliament that is maliciously trashing the UK. One would suspect they are all appealing to their Foreign masters not their electorate. We must never forget NO other Country in the World is seeking to punish their people and trash their economies.
May 10, 2023
As one chicken said to her mate
” the only one who knows what’s going on is that thieving egg collector”
May 10, 2023
Exactly. JR asks âWhy is grid expansion proposed at only a doubling when if most people had electric cars and heat pumps and industry had gone largely electric we would need considerably more capacity than that?â
Well clearly this government is planing for people to be cold, unable to travel much & hungry too as farming is hugely energy intensive.
May 10, 2023
Maybe they donât need to convince so many people. Just get the people in power to implement it.
That can often be achieved fairly easily by appealing to their self-interest with promises of future power and wealth.
May 10, 2023
Donât those generators use a lot of petrol or diesel? And we canât even get it for the lawn mowerâŠcanât fill a can on the forecourt any more and havenât they also interfered with actual petrol? Strokes or something?
Mind you that may all be a fabrication of the chief mower!
May 10, 2023
I still use an old style forecourt where an attendant comes out to fill the car and cans for the lawn mower. Petrol has been made 10 percent less efficient with the use of bio fuels additives and more expensive into the bargain. The stupidity of government knows no bounds.
May 10, 2023
Gosh! You are lucky to still have one of those.
A good number of our petrol stations were flattened for houses.
It was always customary to develop something new and better wasnât it? Rather than go for inferior performance and higher price.
May 10, 2023
E10 fuel will shorten the life of cars not built for it, with fuel pumps and fuel lines at risk from chemical attack.
May 10, 2023
It was chilling seeing Ed Miliband taking questions as if he were already in office.
May 10, 2023
and just as chilling not getting any answers?
May 10, 2023
Iâm still waiting for the tories to launch a massive scare anti Labour media campaign.
A tad difficult I know since they both offer the same dystopian future.
But they could at least TRY.
May 10, 2023
The Energy Bill in current form is totally wrong from almost every aspect. A realistic Energy Bill would be very short and simple:
– repeal the 2008 Climate Act and all subsequent acts, including requirements for EVs, heat pumps and bans on ICE transport and gas heating
– cancel all windfall taxes on fossil fuel extraction
– immediately issue fracking licences for onshore gas production
– immediately commission a fleet of SMRs
And get the government out of the way of providing reliable secure electricity.
May 10, 2023
Will, a sensible plan. You’ll never be a politician.
I’d like to know what the Bill says about our electricity source when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow?
I’d also like to know what it says about the fact that there are insufficient rare earth metals on the planet to supply enough batteries to power the planet?
Saw a stat a while ago, along the lines of: Total UK battery capacity provides under 2 minutes of UK energy requirements.
May 10, 2023
The answer seems to be confirmed by Sir John as more interconnectors and less cars for the masses. Donkeys and horses may well become fashionable again.
May 10, 2023
+1
May 10, 2023
@Will
What absolute idiocy. In 2022, UK renewables provided 38 per cent of the countryâs electricity generation, nearly as much as gas (at 40 per cent) and we became a NET ELECTRICITY EXPORTER for the first time since 2010. Of course we should support the proposed increase in interconnector capacity, this will allow even more renewable energy from the N Sea to be exported to the French.
After repeated geological surveys it has been determined that there are no onshore reserves of UK shale gas that can be viably fracked. We should level the playing field and stop paying ginormous subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and invest in British designed grid-scale energy storage systems
Reply Today like many spring days electricity demand is a quarter below winter levels yet we are importing around 7% of our needs. You need to look at all those days when there is little wind and see how import dependent we are becoming.
May 10, 2023
@Sir John
We need approval for RR’s SMR to improve baseline electricity provision. By it’s very nature renewables are variable and agreed, we will always need gas. The trick is to reduce gas imports by more onshore wind and solar. Octopus Energy are now offering heat pumps for less than ÂŁ3000 for example
May 10, 2023
Doesn’t matter how much the actual heat pump costs SG. They could be free and I still wouldn’t install one. My home just isn’t suitable for a heat pump without a huge amount of improvement.
It would almost be cheaper to pull it down and completely rebuild it – which may well happen one day but not just now. My neighbours are all in the same boat. My house is not even that old and I’m not sure many “new-builds” would be very suitable either. All these ‘Green’ things are so easy to extol, until you get to the practical part. Given we can’t even keep up with existing house building needs (let alone a major home upgrade programme) much of this Net Zero ‘thinking’ is just pure Pie-in-the-Sky.
May 10, 2023
Exactly and even if you rebuilt it conventional heating would still be better and far cheaper than a heat pump.
May 10, 2023
A heat pump may “only” cost ÂŁ3000 ….. but the remedial work necessary on a house which wasn’t constructed to be heated by one (ie about 80% of our housing stock) could cost anything up to another ÂŁ20,000.
They are completely impractical for most householders.
May 10, 2023
So why is our government forcing them on us ??
May 10, 2023
Sakara Gold
What about the never talked about side of the whole picture?
The environmentally safe disposal of all the the turbine blades, bases, nacelle and all the other micro components, solar panels, inverters.
The subsidies for renewables only come about because there was not a cat in hells chance of raising the money from the energy industry to get it moving. A lot of the fossil fuel subsidies come because the grid has to take renewable output first which equates to fossil fuel generators having to run on tick over to ensure no sudden drop in supply when the sun and wind is impacted by sudden weather change.
Balancing the grid is very difficult when using intermittent generation.
Turbines especially are not one can call a secure supply. Underse cables are an easy target to cripple a island like ours.
But then I suppose that has all been thought out in the overall big plan?
May 10, 2023
Yes Turbo and what about the destruction of marine life? Whales are beaching more often all around the globe. The scientists are pretty certain the noise and the effects of the electric underground cables are affecting their sonar systems. Not so green after all.
May 10, 2023
S G
‘What absolute idiocy’.
When we were exporting, was it at peak demand when prices were high? How often, on windless days and nights, sometimes for a week in the middle of winter, was wind down to 1% or2% ? Then it was down to gas, nuclear and coal. Yes, idiocy.
May 10, 2023
Interesting SG – but all that existing ‘renewable’ wind-power was built with cheap (e.g. effectively free) money. They have a working life of 20-25 years, so do indeed have to be ‘renewed’ relatively often. However, money isn’t quite so cheap these days and renewables need a lot of up-front money (they are capital intensive). Who is going to pay for this? Mmmnn – let me guess…..
May 10, 2023
‘Only 40 percent supplied by gas’ That is an enormous amount even if you say it quickly, and even that is only an average with times when virtually none at all is produced by renewables. How do you propose to replace that? Don’t say wind and sun, My sides won’t stand the strain of so much laughter. Gullible is not the word for it.
May 10, 2023
SG :
As I write the 27 GW of installed wind power is providing 3.17 GW, 10% of demand. Yesterday I noticed that it was providing just 0.9 GW.
Wind energy is parasitic energy. It cannot survive without gas as its host and consequently it is not only unreliable but also very, very expensive. It is also very profligate in its use of the earthâs resources. 1 kg of steel/concrete is needed for each watt of wind energy. For each 1 Kg of steel/concrete nuclear provides 1000 watts of power.
I find it difficult to believe weâre a net exporter of electricity as each time I look we are importing. As I write we are importing 4.9 GW or 15% of demand, so more than our total wind power.
I do know, however, that often we are exporting at negative prices as to do so is cheaper than paying wind estates constraint payments.
May 10, 2023
Our electricity exports depended on running extra gas, not on surplus renewables, taking advantage of lower demand over the summer. In winter we had to maximise gas generation and bid for imports to keep the lights on when the wind failed in November and December.
May 10, 2023
Indeed except I suspect large nuclear plants would be better, cheaper and more efficient or at least they would be if organised properly which is rather unlikely given how the UK government works.
A totally deluded energy policy supported fully by the socialist nutters in the Tories and Labour/SNP/Libdims…
May 10, 2023
@Lifelogic
Where would the party and the nation be without your insight and frequently amusing comments đ
May 10, 2023
100%
Why I wonder is fracking considered any worse than cobalt and lithium mining? In some countries this involves child labour.
Apparently Canada is trumpeting the notion that it is âa global mining powerhouseâ and has earmarked vast tracts of land for digging up.
And terrible things re mining are being done to the seabeds which I believe have basically been requisitioned by global treaties.
And we canât frack!
Eventually Europe will not be a comfortable refuge for newcomers.
We will be put back to pre Roman times.
May 10, 2023
Isn’t it illegal to use the word ‘frack’, watch out the green police will be knocking at your door soon ….after all ‘frack’ is now considered a form of protest
May 10, 2023
It is a small path to the rather shorter word – the key letters are already there!
May 10, 2023
Oh yes! Youâre almost right.
It is apparently a fictional form of the bad f word. Used as such in sci fi films.
Iâve seen it used as â frack offâ in connection with anti fracking but thought it just a construct.
Not illegal yet.
But letâs face it âŠsoon every word and action will be illegal.
We will communicate in submissive grunts.
May 10, 2023
Why too is burning US imported wood Drax considered better than burning coal, or walking fuelled by human food considered better than cars or electric cars considered better than keeping you old ICU car. Non make any sense at all )not even in CO2 terms) the reverse in fact if properly accounted for.
May 10, 2023
I did see Ed Miliband promised to bring forward an amendment to ban fracking “permanently” and new oil, gas and coal development as well, along with many other crazy proposals. He is deluded enough to think that wind is now cheaper than gas. The latest figures I have for April show wind CFDs are costing an average of just under ÂŁ175/MWh – while wind from ROC supported windfarms is even more costly, and market prices mainly set by gas are under ÂŁ100/MWh – and we don’t have to pay for gas generators to be curtailed. He pressed for OFGEM to absolved of its vestigial role in protecting consumers, calling for it to make net zero its sole consideration. There is no-one with a responsibility for consumer interests left.
May 10, 2023
Well said Will, my vote goes to the party who proposes scrapping this load of nonsense.
People with intelligence do not buy this rubbish- we are insignificant in the scheme of things and dont have any effect on any world nature.
May 10, 2023
Yes. But you can’t apply logic to the new state religion.
May 10, 2023
It’s all very like being on the bridge at midnight.
What they are trying to do and the way they go about it is akin to throwing snowballs at the moon.
What it says, what it wants and what it actually does are world’s apart.
May 10, 2023
Just to start the day, for the past 24 hours, wind has been supplying less than 2gw.
Unless we build some sensible base load soon we are doomed to regular power cuts in winter.
If there is any conflict our undersea cables will be sabotaged immediately.
Your whole ethos will be exposed as a scam.
May 10, 2023
Ian+wragg
To support your post there is a really great article in the Telegraph today:-
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/10/wind-solar-renewables-pointless-waste/
Written by Bryan Leyland who has had 60 years in the energy supply industry.
Took me back to when I was a 15-year-old gas fitter apprentice and my old fitter used to tell me at the news our industry was dying on its feet by my friends and family. ” Boy, all the time the electricity boys cannot come up with their version of a gas holder you will get your gold watch and be gainfully employed till your 65″ He was right about storage but then we hadn’t even heard of MT or privatisation.
May 10, 2023
Its like they are all on something, happy smiling people until the hit fades and reality dawns.
May 10, 2023
Why doesn’t the Government admit that they are pursuing this lunacy because they are following the Orders of the UN, their “partner organisation” the WEF and because our deal with the EU requires it?
I will not be voting to be made colder, poorer, less mobile and to have my every action controlled by these 21st century communists.
May 10, 2023
What other voting choice will you have (that has any chance of power that is)?
Almost all the parties have collective group think insanity on energy and climate alarmism and much else – high taxes, endless government waste, a war on motorists, landlords and small businesses…
So King Charles is clearly not going to keep out of politics as we saw yesterday with more of his green crap, hypocritical energy and climate alarmist agenda. But they he does profit hansomely from the wind subsidies.
Typically unscientific and hypocritical nonsense from the man with two duff A levels.
To be fare to the man though he is consistently anti-science. He pushes climate alarmism and also talking to plants and homeopathy. A shame they did not use homeopath instead of these dire gene therepy “vaccines”. It would have surely have done no good but little harm too. Unlike the “vaccines”.
From the ONS – The number of deaths registered in the UK in the week ending 21 April 2023 (Week 16) was 14,024, which was 22.1% above the five-year average (2,540 excess deaths)
So 362 every day caused by vaccines harms, NHS delays, other? The government and NHS clearly have no interest in finding out. My money is on 90% vaccines 10% the rest. Easy to find out but they do not wish to as I suspect they know already. The vaccine roll out is the Tories only claim to competence is seems. I shame it did far more harm than good.
May 10, 2023
It really doesn’t matter whether my other voting choices have a chance of power or not.
If you vote for any of those who do stand a chance of gaining power under our rigged system, you will get exactly the same policy because they are operating a rigged CONsensus.
I refuse to endorse it.
May 10, 2023
He is right about talking to plants. They need carbon dioxide.
May 10, 2023
Indeed CO2 and moisture too plus his âhomeopathic remediesâ would have done far less harm than the Covid Vaccines it seems. Even if they did not do any good beyond the placebo effect. A bit more CO2 from current levels is on balance a net benefit so why do we have a vastly expensive war against it?
May 10, 2023
He is probably saying ‘don’t worry whatever they manage to do the carbon dioxide will always be there for you!’
May 10, 2023
An excellent article which reveals the State’s determination to take control over how we consume energy but more over its fervent commitment to increase European dependency for political effect. To encourage dependency has been the hallmark of Socialist parties since 1997 in Britain including the Tories. Dependency translates easily into control, hostage some would say . That a Tory government is using and promoting this sinister form of control should trigger alarm bells.
Since John’s party defenestrated MT, his repugnant party has embraced all that Labour has to offer and more. Both main parties are now singing from the same hymn sheet on every issue even mass immigration designed to build the Left’s political foundations that will become embedded in the next decade or so
At some point something will snap as the destructive political and bureaucratic class push the people in a direction they do not wish to go
May 10, 2023
+many
The brick on a piece of elastic theory?
May 10, 2023
@DOM +1
May 10, 2023
The complex systems for the right of supply.
Have any of them read up on the number of exposures on the pitfalls of the existing system of CfD doing the rounds on the Internet with people like Not a Lot of People Know That?
They have not got a clue when it comes to dealing with this speculators, hard nosed investors and power generating personnel. The only game they know is the hard ball one.
If you don’t understand the whole process how can you even begin to manage and control it?
May 10, 2023
I think it’s time to man the lifeboats.
The aim of the establishment is crystal clear.
All that remains now is to push the plunger on the detonator.
May 10, 2023
Complex regulations do not allow smooth flows but create blockages causing failure. Regulations should block risk of danger not ease of use. Consumer access should be fit for purpose: simply easier.
May 10, 2023
Dear Sir John maybe I should stop reading your Diary, it has become a depressing start for the day. It shows that those governing the counrty have no practical understanding of how to do anything. This is not a party political problem, but a problem with most MPs in today’s Parliament. Notwithstanding that Parliament is now only the rubber stamp process of the non-elected Globalist Liberal elite institutions actually making the decisions on how we live our lives and what we can say. It looks good not to restrict imagration even if no infrastructure to support it, UK not generating CO2 but not too bovered if generated elsewhere. Good to have electric cars even if the roads, bridges, and car parks won’t support them. Not to mention the cost of pollution , distruction, and risk to health in Africa and elsewhere mining , on the cheap, the materials required for net-zero.
It could be that we are generating more CO2 in the process of getting to net-zero so fast that we are accelerating climate change and can never catch up.
There is a lot of people making a big profit out of this net-zero. A good example is carbon trading which dose sum up this big con. Surely the aim is to reduce CO2 not trade it.
May 10, 2023
I must admit some days I read the offering from Sir John, think for a moment and mentally turn over and go back to sleep.The last year has been a continuous stream of what the Government is failing to address, or is doing badly. Suggestions are made, generally what we would agree with, but the Government ignores. You could be forgiven for thinking Sir John writes to assert a claim to be a leader of a new Party, yet despite urging he hangs on to old principles his Party has long consigned to the overflowing bin.
Bailing out the rowboat with a bucket that leaks like a sieve.
May 10, 2023
Indeed many discussions here about what’s wrong with the direction of travel, and how the skipper should be persuaded to change course. At some stage, however, when the passengers and crew can all see what’s going wrong and that the skipper won’t do a thing about it and is heading onto the rocks there are 2 options-mutiny or jump overboard.
May 10, 2023
I’m afraid the waters are shark infested, the mermaid is beckoning and the RNLI are a long way away helping others.
May 10, 2023
The biggest fear is they have not structured in all the consequences and real financial costs of their actions.
Heavier vehicles damage on roads and multi storey parking units. The full implications of what a full all electric society will have on people’s lives when housing and industrial estates will need bigger supplies to meet the new loadings. The infrastructure shortfall is not just the main distribution pylon network.
May 10, 2023
@turboterrier Have they ever thought anything through other than personal self esteem, another proclamation, another speech and more taxes to pay for stupidity
May 10, 2023
The good old False Binary comes out yet again.
Either energy is cheap or it is green.
It can be both, and the best people in their fields are working ever more effectively towards this end.
May 10, 2023
It also needs to be reliable. Do the sums that say green energy is cheap factor in the cost of energy storage and losses in the conversion?
I remember a calculation done recently that says the degradation of an EV battery used to level the grid costs more than the energy supplied.
May 10, 2023
Well..it is a great shame that they arenât more effective!
May 10, 2023
But unfortunately, it isn’t both NLH – or my energy bills wouldn’t be so high. If the “Green” energy companies offered electricity at half the price of “non-Green” ones, do you think there would be any debate or resistance to this? No voters would be begging for more Windmills – but they aren’t, are they?
May 10, 2023
Its only governments, NGOs and the media that want green energy ….the people don’t – two decades of green propaganda and still no one votes for the green party…we don’t wont net-zero
May 10, 2023
Yeah, like in the 1950’s when nuclear power was going to be too cheap to meter. How did that work out? Same arguments, just different people profiting and always the paying public at the bottom of the heap.
May 10, 2023
The binary is that it can be plentiful or it can be green.
As was discussed here recently lack of supply increases prices.
May 10, 2023
define effectively for me? A little effective, quite good, total? and in what timeframe?
May 10, 2023
Indeed as with fossil fuels like coal and gas – cheap on demand, easily stored and gives off harmless beneficial CO2 to green the planet with extra tree, plant and crop food!
May 10, 2023
I live in a suburb in North Cambs where people have moved in to get away from the increasingly difficult life in towns. I have seen just one electric car. I have not seen any heat pumps. Every night during the winter the street lights provided the only light as the houses were more or less blacked out. Before covid, everyone had little strings of festive winter lights in their gardens. Smart meters are not unknown, however.
We have become poorer, colder and life has become much more difficult recently. I suspect our little suburb is a mirror of a lot of other little suburbs too.
When we were suffering a very cold winter when a lot of plants died off, I did not hear a lot about global warming, despite the fact that the winter conditions in the Northern hemisphere were equally severe. Now, of course, it has started up again with every forest fire being proof of the coming catastrophe. It is time to call out this madness.
May 10, 2023
@Anselm Ah, but, you have a Metro Left Government determined to apply their on size fits all on every community
May 10, 2023
The energy generation and supply industry should never have been privatised. Along with the railways and the water/sewage industry privatisation has been an unmitigated disaster both for the country and the people who work there.
The only people who have benefited have been the major Australian banks and other foreign shareholders who have taken ÂŁbillions and ÂŁbillions out in dividends after having loaded their companies with debt
May 10, 2023
It has been revealed that more than 70% of English water is in foreign ownership. It makes me wonder as it is so profitable why English workplace pensions aren’t invested heavily in it.
e.g. Thames Water:
Currently the largest shareholders are Canadian pensions group OMERS (23%),
the Universities Superannuation Scheme, (19.7%) This is UK Universities.
BT Pension Scheme (13%),
the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (9.9%),
the China Investment Corporation (8.7%) and the Kuwait Investment Authority (8.5%).
May 10, 2023
Pretty shrewd bunch – TW doesn’t spend on improving service, satisfying customers does it? It does however produce profits for shareholders.
May 10, 2023
How do you know that âEnglish workplace pensions arenât heavily invested inâ English water?
As you point out yourself, 70% are in foreign ownership, although it can be discussed that USS or BT is foreign. So there are still 30% that can/could/might be made by British workplace pensions.
Now tell me, how often have you asked your pension fund how it is invested? Is it part of NEST? Have you checked how it is run (is it accountable to Parliament via DWP)?
It is very likely to be part of NEST (National Employment Savings Trust)
nestpensions.org.uk âStatement of investment principlesâ 03/2023
From there, searching for âNest Quarterly Investment Reportâ (last available is for end of December 2022), one get the top ten shareholdings for the:
– Nest 2040 Retirement Fund (aka the default strategy)
– Nest Ethical Fund
– Nest Higher Risk Fund
– Nest Sharia Fund
– Nest Lower Growth Fund
and then the overall exposure to underlying funds, ie, made up of funds available on any platform providing SIPPs. Among those there are four infrastructure funds, likely (but I did not check) to include water companies.
May 11, 2023
No, it’s not part of NEST. It is a compulsory workplace pension which is obscure.
Most of us don’t have the time to do self-invested pensions Hefner; that’s why we have to trust others to work in our interests, which is why they take our fees. I don’t want to read reams of paper to discover investments as you didn’t, which is why these documents are set out that way. They mustn’t have a significant shareholding, or they’d be listed in top investors as the Canadian pension funds are. They like to invest in our big institutions like Thames Water, the National Lottery etc.
May 11, 2023
I am not talking of self-invested pension plans, but of compulsory workplace pensions, which since 2008 are very likely to be part of NEST.
I find rather curious this idea that people do not have time to check what pension they have, but have time to write sweet nothings on blogs.
May 11, 2023
I have a husband that is more a financial expert than I who concerns himself about pensions đ. Our workplace pension is not part of NEST quite a few of the auto enrolment pensions arenât part of NEST and to be honest I have been planning my personal pension since I was 16 and started work and my Dad advised me to put 10% in it, it turned out to be very good advice. Iâm not reliant on my workplace pension alone unlike a lot of poor people who will get such a low return for their 8% employer/employee contribution, they wonât realise that until they claim it. I will interest myself with whatever I choose and Iâm not a bit bothered with what you are curious about what I spend my time on lol. It amuses me that youâre so interested in what I write, please feel free not to bother yourself reading.
However, after Browns pension raid, and as we are coming to the end of our working life having had our pots that had built up nicely, how could we have anticipated covid and the war in the Ukraine decimating private pension pots without anything we can do about it with so short a time left. Unlike public sector pensions we donât have anyone topping up our losses. So weâre stuck with them. I would have preferred that my workplace pension had some nice safe water company shares, I have already asked for more information from them because their returns are so poor but you donât get much choice with compulsory schemes other than opting out all together!
May 10, 2023
Difficult argument to make SG, given that public services seem to be slowig going down the drain. I see no evidence that public ownership would make any difference at all. In fact, if you look at the (so called) ‘Energy Bill’ that Sir John is discussing – then having the lunatics behind that wooly thinking running generation and supply would not seem to be a very good idea, We have not had an ‘Energy Strategy’ (let alone even a bad energy strategy) in this country for many years. Just an ever shifting jumble of ill conceived ideas thrown together willy nilly as the Net Zero heresy gained ground.
May 10, 2023
Privatisation worked extremely well in the early years. Prices paid by consumers fell. Golden shares prevented foreign ownership of key utilities. It was Labour that changed all that, with the Utilities Act resulting in the major sell-off of utilities to Continental state backed companies in 2002. That was followed by the ever increasing micro management by regulation under OFGEM which replaced OFFER and OFGAS, and the push for renewables that has increased costs substantially. We continue to pay a very high premium for wind and solar at the behest of successive governments.
Net zero policies are pushing costs higher still, while restricting supply of otherwise cost competitive energy and taxing it ever more harshly. Taxes that consumers end up paying. Blame governments.
May 10, 2023
Goldman Sachs prediction a THREEFOLD gas hike this next winter.
So where are these wonderful renewables then?
May 10, 2023
I suspect GS are looking for gas buyers. There is more risk of electricity shortages than gas shortages.
May 10, 2023
It seems to me Sir John works hard, but labours under the belief that his questions will be addressed by rational diligent people planning for the future with the best interests of the country at heart. Of course that is not the case. Those he addresses have no responsibility for the long-term well-being of this country, only for the electoral chances of the political party that selected them to stand for election. Their chances at the ballot box depend in turn on being able to satisfy the agendas of a captured media promoting the green industrial complex, mass migration, and the erosion of the nation-state. It’s very telling that, even faced with electoral wipe-out, the Tories will not change what they are doing on net zero or mass migration, so as to regain votes they won in 2019. It tells us that they prefer a period in opposition to trying to challenge those in power over them.
May 10, 2023
Correct. They believe the choice is a short period in Opposition (where the policies they refuse to change will be progressed by the other branch/es of the Uni-Party).
Or permanent destruction at the hands of the Globalist Acronym Organisations because they dared to break the CONsensus and change their Agenda.
May 10, 2023
A great deal of truth in those statements HM – unfortunately, there’s no one listening up there….
May 10, 2023
You are just left with the impression that behind this Government there is another real Government/Organisation that has taken control
May 10, 2023
Thank you Sir John. The lunacy, the insanity, the pie in the sky and cloud thinking boggles the mind.
Meanwhile I have quite aggressive, hard sell phone calls from allegedly ‘green’ companies wanting to rip out all our heating system and replace it with a heat pump and solar panels.
I repeat. Man made CC is a fraud, CO2 is our friend not our enemy and NZ is unachievable and will bankrupt the country, even more than Sunak managed to do.
May 10, 2023
100% Agree BOF
May 10, 2023
I still get a text & telephone call once a fortnight with the hard sell to replace my electric meter with a smart-meter, and millions spent on TV advert âŠmany more millions have be spent convincing me to change my meter than have been spent to improve GP booing system âŠ.whereâs the govt priority
May 10, 2023
What is wrong with Western Elites? Nothing in their opinion. It is obvious they want to destroy us.
May 10, 2023
And talking of thrashing out the terms of Bills and TreatiesâŠ
The WHO has struck out/got rid of the words âwith full respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of personsâŠâ from Article 3 Principles ( in the Treaty or draft document).
Presumably that means we can be forced into anything?
Thanks so much dear govt. and the next will be marginally worse!
May 10, 2023
A form of economic collapse akin to Venezuela is now inevitable and has been forced on the people by a Conservative government. Ironically, net zero itself can be regarded as a fundamentally racist construct. Its proponents implicitly sneer at scientists and politicians in the non western world where governments continue to behave rationally by the use and further development of low cost fossil fuelled energy.
May 10, 2023
Meanwhile:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/governments-not-for-eu-label-plan-needs-clarity/1285380545.html
“Government plans for milk, butter, meat, fish and vegetables to be labelled ânot for EUâ across the whole of the UK, and not just in Northern Ireland need much more clarity, a leading trade body has said.”
“The new labelling rules, which are part of Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework deal with the EU, are due to come into force for Northern Ireland this October, and in the rest of the UK from October next year.”
From a recent letter published in the Maidenhead Advertiser:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/04/16/the-government-and-the-union-of-the-uk/#comment-1383223
“with a permanent foothold in Northern Ireland the EU is well placed to reconquer Great Britain.”
May 10, 2023
I saw Sainsburys selling multipack Baked Beans individually last weekend. “Not for EU” will be easy to ignore
May 11, 2023
Each bean will have to be labelled, the EU cannot afford to take any risks with the integrity of its Single Market.
May 10, 2023
The Conservative’s strategy on energy supply is so poor that, as in many other areas, Labour’s could hardly be worse.
If Sunak does not but clear blue water between the policies of the two main parties, voters will not feel it necessary to avoid voting for Labour. This was why Blair won three elections.
Starmer is no Blair, but the current government is hardly Conservative, is it ?
On energy policy, Sunak should ignore Hunt and award a contract to Rolls-Royce for SMRs immediately to ensure that we retain the lead in this field that Hunt and his Civil Servants seem determined to throw away by putting in a tender process that introduces a 2 year delay and opens up to international competition.
He should also announce that the demands for EV sales will be tailored to the spread of charging points and the capacity of the grid, rather than a random number picked out of the air.
Ditto heat pumps and the banning of gas boilers.
May 10, 2023
âThe lead in this fieldâ?
09/01/2023 âFive of the Worldâs leading Small Modular Reactor Companiesâ, c3newsmag.com
04/05/2023 âWestinghouse unveils AP300 smallmodular reactorâ, world-nuclear-news.org
05/05/2023 âDoosan starts forging components for NuScale SMRâ, world-nuclear-news.org
world-nuclear-news.org Please have a look at âRelated topics: Small Modular Reactorsâ
When will people on this site stop stupidly repeating RR SMRs gnan gnan gnan and actually look at the state of development of SMRs in various countries?
Anybody curious enough to look at Rolls Royce SMRâs series of announcements over the last year would have learnt:
– a SMR is not the same thing as a submarine embarked nuclear reactor. There is quite a bit of steps to go from one to the other. RR SMR is working on it but there is nothing available now. RR has just started Phase 2 of a three phase program to get the agreement for its SMRs (the agreement on the design, not an order).
– Although RR is participant in the race to develop SMRs, it is just that, a participant, and numerous companies in various countries are also at it, some more advanced than RR.
May 10, 2023
If we want nuclear sooner rather than later we should be buying off the shelf proven designs that have been built successfully in short (for nuclear) timescales. That means no more EPRs and looking at Japanese and Korean designs to tide us over until SMRs start getting type approvals and demonstrate cost effectiveness. A reminder that Korea built 5.6GW at Barakah, UAE for about $25bn – about $5m/MW of output, compared with wind with a short asset life costing effectively at least twice that.
May 10, 2023
13 years in charge and responsible for UK Energy self-reliance and resilience and what do we get. More imports, more UK wealth being exported to support taxpayers in foreign lands, more redundancies and cut backs in UK Industry, while all the time the same equal resource sits dormant in the UK.
If there was ever an illustration of the malicious destruction of UK Enterprise and Wealth the Conservative Governments policy to its indigenous people and industry is writ Large when it comes to Energy.
It is clear it is punishment of the UK Peoples by this Conservative Government. No other Country in the World has resorted to the destruction of its means to exist in the way this Conservative Party has towards the UK. This Conservative Government tries in vain to hide behind some vanity project called NetZero (other than punishment of a population do they know what it means?), while all the time doing everything to increase World CO2 output, remove UK Wealth to Foreign Lands
No wonder the UK is the laughing stock of the World, as every other Country gets to march on grow their economies get richer knowing that the depleted UK under this Conservative Government will not compete with them but will throw money their way so they can prosper.
May 10, 2023
It’s only four days since Charles was crowned and he’s already broken his “promise” to stay out of politics. 50+ adult years watching his mother’s wonderful example of Constitutional Monarchy, trashed in a few days. He’s going to be a disastrous King.
The Climate Change policy, underpinned by UN/WEF catastrophising propaganda and dodgy modelling IS political.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/05/09/king-charles-whittle-laboratory-engineers-save-planet/
May 10, 2023
The Government’s mass immigration policy shows the Government’s Climate Change policy is a lie .
May 10, 2023
So essentially Parliament hasn’t got a bloody clue about energy, but continues to rattle on about ‘net zero. (removing our 1%-2% contribution to 0.045% of the earths atmosphere.
You couldn’t make it up …………………….
May 10, 2023
How jingoistic are we (and the US and the EU)?
China, India, Russia and the other BRICs have well educated scientists that are at least the equal of our own scientists.
These countries are not rushing to impoverish themselves through the net-zero doctrine, indeed at the various COPS they resist these measures asking only for reparations, which as we have seen elsewhere is an easy income demand. If they are looking at the same data as the West why aren’t they scared of the impending catastrophe?
Our elite who flagellate themselves over our imperial past surely don’t think our scientist and predictions are better than theirs do they? So somewhere someone has made a decision. Why?
May 10, 2023
The way our energy future supply is described it sounds shambolic and I am sure it will be. To me, simple soul that I am, the answer has been staring us in the face for a very long time.
1. Use the mass of natural gas oil and coal beneath our seas and feet for the next five to ten years.
2. Contract with Rolls Royce today to build the first SMR and subsequent models until we have about 15 to cover the countries needs. Tell the political and civil service opposition to put up or shut up
3. End financial subsidy from our energy bills for windmills and use the erratic but claimed to be cheap power for the electrolysis of Water to produce Hydrogen. Gradually introduce Hydrogen into the domestic and industrial gas grid. Many current Combi Boilers are designed for a low percentage of Hydrogen in the fas mix.
4. Use the windblown cheap electricity to power Desalination Plants around our coasts to produce the drinking water that many existing water companies regularly fail to produce. Israel can supply already proven design. Tell the failing water companies that national takeover will ensue if they fail to act in the people’s and country’s interests.
5. Retain UK coal production to support an expanding steel industry based on strategic need. We cannot allow ourselves to be dependent on outside sources for either coal or steel.
The above should clear the air in the face of a government bill designed principally to pay homage to a false religion, nett zero.
May 10, 2023
Electrolysis of water by intermittent wind is a very expensive way of making hydrogen. It would only serve to push our energy costs sharply higher. We should avoid it.
May 10, 2023
Very expensive and wastes most of the energy in the process too.
May 10, 2023
I have often written that this is the worst government and parliament in my lifetime, having lived through many bad ones. What makes this crew so much worse is the fact that they no longer pretend to care about those they purport to represent. Instead they show, every day, utter contempt for the majority of the population as they drive ahead with their various scams designed to further impoverish and control the majority for the benefit of the already wealthy and powerful minority. Presumably most MPs support this because they expect to be amongst the beneficiaries even though they may in fact just be ‘useful idiots’ of the globalists? To describe these people and their puppet masters as evil is no exaggeration.
May 11, 2023
+1
May 10, 2023
SirJ please propose the renaming of the bill from âEnergy Billâ to âNet-Zero Billâ âŠits more honest
May 10, 2023
Or the Anti-Energy Bill, consistent with the fact that we have an Oxymoron Department headed by the Energy Insecurity Secretary.
May 10, 2023
glen cullen
It doesn’t matter what it is called it will be well and truly stuffed in the HoL
If it does it may as well be the time to completely restructure the HoL or just get rid of them. The country is financially in the sticky and smelly stuff so that would more than save a few million over the length of a parliament. The religious Lords should keep to the day job as their congregations are walking out the door or staying away. With some of the speeches they make in the lords is it any wonder.
May 10, 2023
I despair at the utter stupidity of both the Government & Opposition. We urgently need a referendum on Net- Zero so people are forced to confront the facts.
May 10, 2023
Who runs our country?
It does not seem to be our government, which has adopted EU and global control with, as we all know well, great emphasis and priority on climate control policies.
Sir John will remain fully loyal to his party however no matter how much it allows or encourages our destruction, and he abandoned England long ago.
If it took his views seriously we would not have got here in the first place. Why Sir John, can you not resign? After all the list of objections to its beliefs and practices are as long as many arms.
May 10, 2023
Prangwizard,
Well SJR if the above does not sow doubts in your mind, how about this one, snuck in after PMQs.
The 4000 or so residual EU laws due for instant shredding , see the advert, are now to be discused individually in Parliament to decide upon their desirability5 to remain on the UK statute book. I ask you SJR,
1. How long do you think this will take, especially as a pro EU House of Lords will demand to be involved.
2. To what extent has Big Business lobbied for this, as many of these laws favour their position against that of competetive SMEs.
3. Are you not finally convinced that this is an act of a consocialist party intent on keeping the door open to a return to EU vassaldom, with the added bonus of energy dependency on the EU via ever increasing umbelicals. If government block energy self sufficiency and at the same time increase the interconnectors, what is it but delendency on the EU. The argument that we can sell surplus energy to the EU is dishonest when we lack sufficient of our own.
Time to reassess your loyalties and position. It affirms my voting intentions.
May 10, 2023
Department of Energy Security and Net Zero
Hahahahahaha (we are doomed)
How about:
Home and Away Office
Ministry of Defence and Capitulation
Department of Health and Euthanasia
Foreign Commonwealth and Little Englander Office
Ministry of Food Rural Affairs, Famine and Countryside Monogamy
Ministry of Transport and Agoraphobia
May 11, 2023
+1
Very good, Ed.
May 10, 2023
Who will fund all this energy storage, cabling etc. Is it nationalised energy storage investment giving a return on all the lovely exports of excess energy or not?
May 10, 2023
Questions for green religion zealots: –
1. If the UK achieves Net Zero by 2050, by how much will this reduce world temperatures?
2. Your answer appears to be âdonât knowâ. If I told you that manmade greenhouse gas output is 4% of the total, and that the UKâs share of the 4% is 1%, in other words 0.04% of the grand total, how will that affect your answer?
3. Your answer now appears to be âprobably not much, but we need to set an exampleâ. If other nations do not follow in the UKâs footsteps, and choose instead to laugh at us behind our backs, what is the point of setting an example that materially damages quality of life in the UK as we know it?
4. Your answer is now âbut youâll be cooler, healthier and saferâ. When we compare this instance of wishful thinking to the near certainty that scarce and expensive fuel and electricity will make us cold, poor, hungry, dirty, immobile, bored and controlled, where is the net benefit to quality of life?
5. You have answered âbut Iâm a fully fledged member of the globalist elite, or one of their fellow travellers. Iâll still be warm, wealthy, well fed, clean, mobile, stimulated and controlling.â How do you sleep at night?
May 10, 2023
Exactly right – and, even worse, the âgrand totalâ of which you speak is, itself, 0.04% of the atmosphere.
So Britainâs âcontributionâ to total atmospheric CO2 is 0.04% of 0.04%.
May 11, 2023
They will sleep very well, David. For the cold, dark and hunger planned is not for them as they fly away on their private jets to sunnier climbs.
May 10, 2023
Tucker Carlson posted a tweet about his new News Show on Twitter. Within half an hour it has more views than his show. Within an hour more views than the entire cable news during his show. Within 24 hours more views than an entire days cable news.
Tuckerâs show concentrates on telling the whole truth and not manipulating the news on behalf of corporate interests.
There is a strong trend to eliminate mainstream news and the trend is getting stronger and stronger. I can see MSM going the same way as video cassettes and vinyl records.
The question for politicians is where do voters now get their news. Where is the source of truth and can politicians rely on the mainstream nedia narrative to support their messages any more.
I would see the structural shift in the source of news as moving in your favour John.
May 10, 2023
Oh my goodness, I wonder what witchhunt they’ll start on him.
May 11, 2023
This is why they must control the internet. Can’t have the TRUTH running around spoiling all their plans.
May 10, 2023
All of these questions will be dodged or bodged in the HoC, of course.
I would like the Minister, better still, the PM to tell us, the electorate, why we are have to sacrifice our economy and our disposal incomes chasing their pet vanity project when this country is responsible for less than 1% of the total GLOBAL output of carbon emissions.
Even if one believes that Carbon and CO2 are the reason we have “dangerous” climate change, chasing a net-zero output from a base that is one of the lowest in the developed world, the huge spending can never be justified.
Why do we not allow the big emitters such as China, India and the USA to dramatically reduce their output BEFORE we worry about our insignificant amount?
British Net zero is beyond logic and must be the new definition of insanity.
May 10, 2023
Why is your government not buying Rolls-Royce SMRs, instead of buying from foriegners ?
May 10, 2023
It doesn’t seem to be buying anything from anyone. A group of MPs recently tried to push for action on repowering the Wylfa site on Anglesey. Answer from DESNZ came there none. It still hasn’t made its mind up about Sizewell C, preferring to push the new Lionlink interconnector instead, although it doesn’t even know where it will connect in the Netherlands that could supply dispatchable power, and the plans for a Dutch windfarm part way along are hazy at best.
May 10, 2023
Your party is destroying this country. Please tell me one policy that has been beneficial to the British people that you have introduced during your reign.
What makes me sad is that people either donât bother voting or they vote for other parties that have the same policies.
How bad does it have to get before people vote for change?
May 10, 2023
Completely agree.
Whoever is ruling us is importing a second electorate.
May 10, 2023
and this government, this tory party have today decided not to repeal any eu retained law ….no change here, nor will there be from the tories …didn’t we the people vote to leave the eu
May 10, 2023
‘Why does it require a 140% increase in our interconnector capacity to be able to import more energy from the continent?’
To allow for increased dependency on the EU.
‘cut outs or bans on smart machine use and via smart meters?’
Many of us are avoiding smart meters to retain control.âI understand we have no say if the old meter needs replacing due to age or fault.âI expect new rules will ensnare more meters which are ‘too old’ or ‘potentially’ faulty.
‘Why is grid expansion proposed at only a doubling when if most people had electric cars and heat pumps and industry had gone largely electric we would need considerably more capacity than that?’
Because the true grid expansion required is infeasible in several axes.âEven more impractical and expensive is the amount of copper required for the electrical of all things.âCopper which does not yet exist above ground.âBut pricing these would show Net Zero is just a method of more control for when failing money causes more dissent.
May 10, 2023
The history of planet earth is of constant change. Earth has had several ice ages. It has experienced two extinction periods of living creatures and fauna brought on by collisions with debris in the universe. We can marvel at tsunamis, volcanos and violent weather or lack of it’
Human beings are hanging on but an extinction period will end them.
So the actions of our masters will prove to be futile what every crazy scheme they force on us.
So relax and enjoy the time we have left.
May 10, 2023
These proposals are nonsense, they are not supported by the majority of working people. BEVâs are too expensive and impractical unless used as a second short journey car supported by home charging. The charging infrastructure is rubbish and range is poor. People are not buying BEVâs unless theyâre wealthy. Itâs the same story with heat pumps. Are there plans to upgrade the grid to enable the system to cope with two or three times more capacity? Why waste money on inter connectors? Surely this exposes present and future energy policies because they are based on wind and solar? As for the huge expenditure on carbon capture how can the taxpayer know how these costs are being managed along with the perceived benefits? As for small nuclear reactors why is the government still hesitating? Surely itâs obvious, we urgently need to develop RR SNRâs.
May 10, 2023
In the business section today, US inflation falls below 5%. In the UK following the Conservative Government increasing taxes exponentially they have kept inflation high 10%.
The PMâs and this Conservatives Governments maths have proudly announced that high taxes cause inflation to fall. – yet cant prove it. As with NetZero this Conservative Government is marching to a different drum to the rest of the World
In Ireland with the Governmentâs has a budget surplus that needs to be spent. So they are investing in everyone’s future with a multi-billion euro sovereign wealth fund. Their low taxes have created wealth for every one.
May 10, 2023
Some years ago on these pages, more than once I suggested, using Brexit as an opportunity, we started a UK wealth fund with the ÂŁ13bn no longer being sent to the EU. Not taken seriously, not important.
Seems to me Ireland is a country to move to. England is a wreck now under Sir John’s party which has his unswerving loyalty and which we now hear is to keep the 4000+ EU laws it said it would get rid of. Deceit is in its heart and Sir John will always remain with it.
May 10, 2023
@johnredwood âThe governmentâs energy bill was supported by the Opposition parties. It does not tackle the reluctance of people to buy expensive electric cars or heat pumps or even to accept smart meters paid for out of taxes.â
Logic says that was to be expected, this Conservative Government is this Countries Opposition. They certainly donât support those that voted for them.
May 10, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
This is the latest in a series of articles in which you pose questions about major aspects of government policy. As a senior backbench MP that supports this administration, are you not privy to the government’s plans? It would appear not because I recall you asking questions about energy policy on a previous occasion and receiving a reply from a minister which you described as ‘a non-answer’. What hope is there for the rest of us if the government treats its own MP’s with such casual disregard?
Your last question ‘why is grid expansion proposed at only a doubling when if most people had electric cars and heat pumps and industry had gone largely electric we would need considerably more capacity than that’ is of such fundamental importance that one can only infer that it is the government’s intention that a great many of us, mostly the least well-off, will have to use Shanks’s pony and wear lots of woollies in winter.
It is not just energy policy where government ministers refuse to provide clear, logical and convincing arguments for what they are doing. Take migration. Why has the government allowed over 500,000 people into the country in the last year followed by a predicted 675,000 the next, having already absorbed several million over the last few years, and pretend that it can still make cogent plans for housing, health care or indeed energy provision? Is it any wonder there is a housing shortage, we cannot get to see a doctor and electricity-rationing is on the cards?
One gets the distinct impression that there IS a hidden agenda here. Many readers of your blog are convinced that the government is in hoc to the WEF or other supranational body because it is impossible to rationalise the actions of this administration.
This government deserves to be obliterated. Perhaps in 5 or 10 years time a future conservative administration might rediscover its raison d’etre and that its ministers are servants of the people and not the other way round. In the meantime and unfortunately for us the alternatives are no better.
May 10, 2023
Javelin âWhy has the government allowed over 500,000 people into the country in the last yearâ.
I take it you didnât read what the Archbishop said today and tweeted âJesus calls us to welcome the stranger. I urge the Government to reconsider much of the Illegal Migration Bill which fails to live up to our history, our moral responsibility and our political & international interests.â
It will never be enough for these people! People like the Archbishop lead a failing organisation who are losing more of their faithful as each year passes, without importing in believers from foreign shores they are becoming more and more insignificant, yet whatâs bizarre is arenât most of the people he wants to give free movement to faithful to another religion?
May 10, 2023
This Government, indeed the last three, is set on making a very high percentage of its citizens poor, possibly cold, at risk of malnutrition, unable to access formerly available medicare, only using personally owned transport outside big cities, taxed to the point of indifference regarding striving for better incomes, unable to influence political decisions, jealous of those who cultivated wealthy friends, and fearful of Police, Justice systems and removal of free speech. And yet amazing numbers of people appear to support it. Never mind, the sands of time are running out.
May 10, 2023
Mr Shapps said There could be enough capacity to store up to 78 billion tonnes of carbon. … if we are able to fill the UKâs theoretical potential carbon dioxide storage capacity with CO2, the avoided costs at todayâs emission trading prices could be in the region of ÂŁ5 trillion. We have the potential for a geological gold mine under the sea, and the Bill helps us to access it.
I am not sure that China would want to store 20 years of coal supply under the North Sea. It seems evident that he is unaware of the difference between a gold mine and a money pit. At least he seems to be admitting that the sums of money to be poured down a hole are ÂŁ5trillion, which is a ballpark estimate of the capital costs of net zero. The ongoing costs and economic consequences will add massively to that bill.
May 10, 2023
To my surprise there were a number of useful comments from Alan Brown of the SNP.
Turning to carbon capture and storage, I welcome the legislation for the licensing and funding models, which is long overdue. This is enabling legislation, and it is clear that there are no definitive models proposed yet. There are also no clear funding pathways. We have the ÂŁ20 billion a year pledge from 2028,
So it is an annual cost – not a one-off. He also noted the problems with the forthcoming AR5 CFD auction and the building of AR4 wind farms, commenting that the recent Spanish auction failed to attract a bid: the same fate could await the UK, but ministers will already have an idea about how little interest there was in pre-qualification which closed April 24th. He failed to note that the implied higher cost of wind should question government policy to rely on it, or to consider the implications of the shortage of generating capacity that is now being built in by DESNZ policy failures. He also queried policy reliant on hydrogen as being far too expensive, and pointed up the repeated failure of policy on insulation but without drawing the conclusion that plans should recognise it will never succeed. HIs comments about the absurdity of the extent of constraint payments and the preferential treatment given to interconnectors over grid investment within the UK also were grounded in sense. However, he does not yet understand that more wind will mean a lot more curtailment.
May 10, 2023
How come every Tory PM since Thatcher have implements policies and laws that are beyond the scope and spirit of the election manifesto, against the wishes of the MPs, the party membership and the Tory voters
May 11, 2023
One would think that we’re voting in a ‘President’
May 10, 2023
Sakara Gold
What about the never talked about side of the whole picture?
The environmentally safe disposal of all the the turbine blades, bases, nacelle and all the other micro components, solar panels, inverters.
The subsidies for renewables only come about because there was not a cat in hells chance of raising the money from the energy industry to get it moving. A lot of the fossil fuel subsidies come because the grid has to take renewable output first which equates to fossil fuel generators having to run on tick over to ensure no sudden drop in supply when the sun and wind is impacted by sudden weather change.
Balancing the grid is very difficult when using intermittent generation.
Turbines especially are not one can call a secure supply. Underse cables are an easy target to cripple a island like ours.
But then I suppose that has all been thought out in the overall big plan?
May 11, 2023
Thankfully John, you are not a WEF disciple. Sadly most of our key politicians are devotees. Democracy has been replaced by totalitarian control. God help the future generations!