Dear Grant
I am glad you have decided that it makes sense to grant licences to get more oil and gas out of the North Sea instead of importing more. As you say, that means more tax revenue collected here, more better paid UKÂ jobs, less transport costs and less CO 2 for the world as whole. LNG is particularly CO 2 intensive compared to domestic piped gas given the amount of energy needed to compress, cool, transport and convert back to gas.
The same logic should apply to other areas where some want to stop the UK making materials and products that entail substantial fossil fuel energy use. If instead of making them here we just import them, world CO 2 production will increase by at least the amount created by transporting them longer distances and in some cases by the less fuel efficient processes in overseas factories.
The imposition of high carbon taxes in the UK is closing factories here to transfer the jobs and energy consumption elsewhere. It would be a good idea to reduce our taxes on industry using energy to stem our losses of plant and activity. To get inflation down we need to produce more, not less.
The UK also needs to cut down on public spending and borrowing, whilst ensuring enough money well spent to provide better quality public services. The energy money go round is a good area to look into. Subsidies chase windfall and carbon taxes, as government tries to offset the damage done by high taxes leading to uncompetitive energy harming business. We need to disarm both the excessive taxes and the consequential subsidies.
I understand the government and Opposition wish to lead in green transition technologies. We are still in the early stages of a world debate about whether transport and industry should shift all electric, or go to hydrogen, or to fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage. We are still seeking the affordable popular electric vehicles that more people want to buy and can buy. We are in the early phases of trying to find non fossil fuel heating systems for homes that are affordable and good. There are still big debates to be resolved about how you store wind and solar energy for times when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine. What combination of pump storage, hydrogen and battery storage or other methods will be needed?
These are world issues. The answers have to work in the big CO2 producing areas, China, the USA, India and the EU as well as in the UK, otherwise your efforts will be of no avail. The UK government should not be trying to fund all these technologies itself before it has a clear idea of the winners and the industries are closer to commercial roll out. The UK should avoid spending so much on say carbon capture and storage before the world commercial interests have got further. The UK is good at raising capital and can incubate many starts up and ventures that might be able to come up with the right answers to these energy issues. The UK government is unlikely to pioneer commercial successes on the back of large financial commitments to projects with no current stream of underlying customer revenue.
Yours
John
June 27, 2023
A good area to look into? Could you not look into it and provide some figures? As well as listing the direct cost to consumers of the various subsidies, why not state how much a UK steel producer pays per megawatt compared to producers elseâs where.
What qualifications or knowledge has Grant got? Does he know the figures I suggest you provide? I bet he does not.
June 27, 2023
What qualifications or knowledge has Grant got? An HND in business and finance Manchester Poly so I assume very poor O and A levels too. He has also demonstrated in his recent article that he really does not even understand the difference between Energy and Power. Let alone much about entropy, CO2 production, energy economics or realities.
As I have said before the war on CO2 plant food only makes sense if “ALL” three of the below statements were true. Not one is.
1. The world including China, India, Latin America, Russia, Africa will cooperate to reduce world CO2. They clearly will not.
2. The methods pushed – wind, solar, heat pumps, EV, walking, cycling, public transport, green hydrogen, buring imported wood at Drax… did actually reduce CO2 significantly – they do not when fully accounted for.
3. A little more CO2 will cause a climate thermal runaway emergency. There is no evidence at all that it will.
Even if the World were over heating then reducing CO2 would not even be a practical way to deal with this. Far better methods and adaptations exist.
June 28, 2023
There is no proof that CO2 is a climate driver. The gentle rise in global temperature since the LIA is entirely beneficial and its vagaries do not correlate with the steady rise in CO2. Net Zero is a drivelling fantasy attempted by the USA, UK and EU to their immense economic damage
June 27, 2023
Yhe UK doesn’t have any steel producers of their own. We have UK taxpayer funded foreigned owned entities that move surplus money elsewhere – wealth extraction, not contributors
June 27, 2023
Government are not singing from the same hymn sheet as Sir John Redwood.
They can probably see the merit in Sir John Redwood’s arguments but will choose to ignore them and simply go along with the globalist policies.
They will keep going until they are turfed out. Labour will be no different.
June 28, 2023
They’re not even in the same church
June 27, 2023
Good morning.
Dear Grant
How are those ‘Smart Motorways’ you created getting on ?
Yours,
Mark B
——
Sir John
What green technologies is the UK a world leader in ?
June 27, 2023
Grant Schapps transferred ÂŁ450 million to local authorities to restrict road-width and create LTNs – but when a main road in his own constituency was restricted to deter traffic it caused chaos and his constituents kicked-off so it was swiftly removed.
He has the foresight of a goldfish and is considerably less useful than a chocolate fireguard.
June 27, 2023
The road blocking and congestion agenda is economic vandalism a war against the people and is clearly driven by central government not just local.
June 27, 2023
See Brighton where the Green Party have driven visitor numbers down so much that they lost ÂŁ1.2 million in parking fees having put the price up! No tourists means lots of Brighton businesses in trouble.
June 28, 2023
“See Brighton where the Green Party have driven visitor numbers down so much that they lost ÂŁ1.2 million in parking fees having put the price up!”- Lynn
Or Central London, where the congestion charge and now the ULEZ fee combined with the rise in TFL prices just means people go to out-of-town centres.
(True story from a computer firm I work with, who has a supplier in Central London: when the prices for a train ticket were ÂŁ7 (with discount) they’d have someone go in once or twice a week, pick up their order, discuss trade, get lunch, etc. Now it is ÂŁ15 or higher, they just get it posted to them for ÂŁ5 and when they come in for a meeting they hire a cab because it is cheaper than several train tickets.
So, less business in London, fewer people in London to spend money, less use of TFL services, no income for TFL at all, more cars on the road, and more CO2. Aren’t these all the opposite of what the government says it wants to achieve?)
June 28, 2023
+1
June 28, 2023
Lynn
Yes went to Brighton about 4 years ago will never go again they just want to fleece motorists in every way possible
Thus I visit other places to spend my money, Ely the second smallest City in the has free parking all day every day, no vacant shops there.
June 27, 2023
John Boyd Dunlop fitted a pneumatic tyre to his son’s bicycle front wheel in 1888, thereby making this green machine more practical and comfortable.
June 27, 2023
Grant, would you obtain the detail of motorway deaths and also injuries taken place on the ones that have ‘smart motorways’ in place? Perhaps listing annually for the last 10 years would be helpful in assessing impact.
June 27, 2023
A world leader in pissing money down the drain on subsidies for intermittent wind, solar, green hydrogen and other rather foolish agendas and in rigging the energy markets so as to give the UK some of the highest energy prices in the world. A World leader in talking complete and utter B/S about being the Saudi Arabia of Wind Energy.
June 27, 2023
Talking of government waste I see from the ONS today.
“The number of deaths registered in the UK in the week ending 16 June 2023 (Week 24) was 12,198, which was 10.6% above the five-year average (1,169 excess deaths); of these deaths, 173 (1.4%) involved COVID-19”. Two+ Grenfell Towers death toll a day yet not even a discussion in parliament.
So still running at 169 a day when (after a few years of much higher deaths) it should be running at well below average. I see that the sick joke multi-million Covid enquiry continues avoid the real issues it looks totally absurd.
Let me help them the lockdowns did massive net harm and the “vaccines” did even more net harm (unsafe and largely ineffective). The latter damage continues and still they are jabbing people!
June 27, 2023
Currently circa 20% of electricity (under 4% of total energy) in the UK is coming from wind but it is summer & daytime so very little electricity is even being used. If you take account of the inefficiencies (in gas/coal/biofuel generation) caused by the intermittency of the wind etc. this 20% is hardly worth having at all.
June 27, 2023
Pothole damage from electric cars is double that of petrol/diesel as far heavier. In the Telegraph today.
So they cost more, cause more CO2 than keeping your old car, have much higher tyre wear, are hard to recycle, far worse depreciation, slow to charge, shorter lived, far more expensive overall (despite paying far less tax), more to insure, easier to right off, limited range, more dangerous for other road users…
June 27, 2023
The doling out of green subsidies in ever more innovative ways. DESNZ is in the process of analysing a consultation how to do more of that.
June 27, 2023
âNet Zeroâ overstates Grant Shappsâ value: Nothing is gained from his uselessness. His ineptitude incurs wasteful losses at our expense.
June 27, 2023
By accepting climate change theory John accepts Net Zero collectivism. Cake and eat it by Tory MPs is becoming vomit inducing
Your job Mr Redwood is to oppose the Left on all things. Thatcher did this and so should ALL TORY MPS. Endorsing the Left is killing our country
As an aside. I see the bigots are now targeting English cricket using the usual strategy of Stalinist tricks ie racism, sexism and class war politics. This shameless, public purging of our culture by political forces is soul destroying. They appear to have unlimited powers and zero opposition to their war against all things of value
June 27, 2023
+many
Dom I do think that the tactics you suggest were the ones which should have been employed way, way back!
But it is too late.
They have all been warned and warned but the Left is so strong now.
Subtlety is the order of the day.
June 27, 2023
@Cuibono 13 years of destruction of the UK, the ideals of Democracy and the creating as said elsewhere of the WEF lead Socialist Universal Party, has been the task. There is no party in Parliament worse than any other they all follow the Diktats of their Leaders elsewhere. The people might vote, pay and seemingly empower those that get to go into Parliament, but as soon as they are their the majority drop all their brave, honest, convictions and turn into obedient slaves of the Left
June 27, 2023
Net-Zero is undemocratic, a policy imposed by outside international bodies and adopted by all UK political parties without the consent nor meaningful debate & vote of the people
June 27, 2023
Just check out Clintel, 1500 scientist who debunk IPCC data, but of course they will not be listened too as they disagree with Net Zero. Neil Oliver on GBNews has is worth watching as his views on Net Zero are very prescience.
June 27, 2023
We have had a chance to vote on Green policies, the Green Party presents them at each election. I believe they attract 2% of the vote.
I see electric vehicles are churning up our roads at more than twice the rate of proper cars, because they are so heavy. Already multi-storied car parks are out of bounds for them and Iâm now wondering about âweak bridgesâ.
June 27, 2023
The Tories are in government, not in opposition. It is the left’s (Labour’s) job to oppose the Government. It is the Tory government’s job to govern competently with policies and actions based on a conservative philosophy. It is not competent because as a Party there is no agreement on a conservative philosophy of government. The result is that it does not know what to do to further the interests of the country, it is weak, it lacks purpose, it is incompetent and, as Sir John points out, it lacks coherence across policy areas. It is not joined up.
June 27, 2023
Mrs Thatcher, a trained scientist, fully understood the reality of man-made climate change and would without doubt be a leader in the push to achieve net zero
June 27, 2023
On the contrary. She recanted her support for it in her memoirs.
âBy the end of my time as Prime Minister I was also becoming seriously concerned about the anti-capitalist arguments which the campaigners against global warming were deployingâ, she wrote, âso in a speech to scientists in 1990 I observed: whatever international action we agree upon to deal with environmental problems, we must enable all our economies to grow and develop because without growth you cannot generate the wealth required to pay for the protection of the environment.â Later, she added âThe doomstersâ favourite subject today is climate change. Clearly no plan to alter climate could be considered on anything but a global scale, it provides a marvellous excuse for worldwide, supra-national socialismâ, arguing against Al Gore that âKyoto was an anti-growth, anti-capitalist, anti-American project which no American leader alert to his countryâs national interests could have supported.â
June 27, 2023
Thatcher was a chemist who later specialised in the design of sweet comestibles. A scientific understanding of climate science begins with a Physics degree.
June 27, 2023
Mrs Thatcher worked at BXL in Manningtree, a junior to my husbands uncle who was two years her senior and a Physicist, Edward Atkinson. There was an accident in the lab and some plastic adhered to metal. Mrs T was asked to derive the formula for that useful outcome, which she did successfully.
She would have seen through the Climate Change scam just as Uncle Ted did.
June 27, 2023
What nonsense , Another person who can’t learn anything in life without a few years degree course . We have them here harping on about degrees as a kid and then putting this premise forward suggesting that nothing is learned from this point . So sad that these folks cannot learn except in the confines of academia as a youth.
June 27, 2023
Ah but she twigged what the plan was.
And performed a huge U turn.
âThe doomstersâ favorite subject today is climate change. This has a number of attractions for them. First, the science is extremely obscure so they cannot easily be proved wrong. Second, we all have ideas about the weather: traditionally, the English on first acquaintance talk of little else.
Third, since clearly no plan to alter climate could be considered on anything but a global scale, it provides a marvelous excuse for worldwide, supra-national socialism. All this suggests a degree of calculation. Yet perhaps that is to miss half the point. Rather, as it was said of Hamlet that there was method in his madness, so one feels that in the case of some of the gloomier alarmists there is a large amount of madness in their methodâ
âBy the end of my time as Prime Minister I was also becoming seriously concerned about the anti-capitalist arguments which the campaigners against global warming were deploying.â
From Mrs Tâs autobiography âStatecraftâ 2002
June 27, 2023
The fact that such a book is in existence makes the behaviour of the tories even more egregious.( If that is possible).
June 27, 2023
Thatcher did indeed fall for the mad âplant food is a devil gas religionâ at one stage. She also appointed the fool John Major as Chancellor and let him take us into the ERM and did not realise that the âpollâ tax was politically a disaster. She even kept the dire NHS system in place and buried us further into the EU – so far from perfect!
June 27, 2023
Now list her achievements – far from imperfect I suggest!
June 27, 2023
yes we’ll be encouraged to adopt Stalin tactics – tell on your associates, friends even family.
June 27, 2023
DOM, ++++++++++. My usual respects to your good sense and to your being unwilling to make any pretence of respecting or according validity to leftist cultures which will never ever grant the same respect in return.
The transparent attempt to wreck cricket in England is blatant class war. It is not news (despite the salivations of the BBC and msm), leftist intolerance is decades old, only their targets vary.
The useless Tory party is utterly spineless in defending country and culture.
June 27, 2023
A letter full of sound common sense and one that seems to put this country and its people first, as long as that is the case and these better paid jobs we hear much of are not being touted to the world.
Of course it would have been better for all here had so many of our industries not been allowed to fall into decline in the first place by whatever means, aiding self-sufficiency and of course employment.
I have an overall impression of the letter being one of a very patient teacher, who sees the need to spell out what is obvious in simple and gentle terms to his pupil.
How you must throw up your hands in despair at times!!
June 27, 2023
âPatient teacherâ my take exactly!!
June 27, 2023
but with a whole class asleep?
June 27, 2023
At least this JR patient teacher is talking sense.
So many MPs – Theresa May, Sunak, Hancock, John Major, Osborne…) tend to sound like rather dim primary school teachers patronisingly trying tell convince voters that back is white and white is black – when everyone knows it is not. Sunak is even claims he is “stopping” the boat people! Most MPs are still trying to convince us the vaccine rollout was a great triumph and “saved millions of lives” and that Net Zero makes sense economic/scientific or environmental. Surely they are not all so thick as to actually believe this drivel they come out with are they?
June 27, 2023
+1
Oh yes!
I mean teachers like we USED to have when things were sane.
They would come straight down from Oxford or Cambridge and TEACH their subject.
Discipline no problem.
No teacher training brainwashing.
June 27, 2023
Yes Michelle, a letter of sound common sense. So one is left to wonder why our Government is blindly following a different path to that suggested.
Of course, If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck – then it’s probably a duck! Having watched, listened and observed Mr Shapps for some time, he does quack quite a lot but I’ve decided he’s probably not a duck (ducks have more common sense). But he doesn’t look like anyone who should be in charge of anything important either….
June 27, 2023
Letter from the Minister:
Dear Sir John
Thank you for your letter and your very interesting suggestions, but Klaus Schwab says NO and the Government can’t possibly do anything to upset the WEF or Ministers may find themselves out of a job and cancelled (before the electorate does it for them).
However, I’ve passed your letter to my Permanent Secretary for review – and to give him/her/they/it a good laugh.
It’s been filed in the usual place.
Kind regards
The Minister for destroying the UK’s Energy Security and Independence
June 27, 2023
@Donna + 1 yes puppets of others and not the people that elected them – they never intended to be Conservative
June 27, 2023
Could we have the financial arrangements explained for an MP who retires or creates a by-election, and the MPs who lose their seat in a GE? I imagine a number of Tory MPs have already ascertained which they should choose?
08.53
June 27, 2023
The info had already been made available after the last GE, eg, express.co.uk 13/12/2019 âHow much do sacked MPs get in âredundancyââ or birminghammail.co.uk âMPs who lost seats in General Election will get âŠâ, 13/12/2019.
As for MPs retiring it is governed by the IPSA: see parliament.uk âMPsâ Pensionsâ.
June 27, 2023
WEF annual self aggrandizing fest underway in Beijing, with China’s PM top of the bill yesterday. What more evidence is needed of the superiority of it’s adherents.
June 27, 2023
I guess the WEF delegates need more instruction from the Chinese Communist Party’s in how to control the peasants through a digital/Digital Currency Social Credit system. Klaus Schwab announced he considers China a role model for many nations.
June 27, 2023
I’m sure the Chinese are very willing to help save the planet by increasing their output of windmills and solar panels for export.
June 27, 2023
Got it in ONE Forthurst, itâs money not saving any world!
June 27, 2023
+1
June 27, 2023
Thank you john you have the answer to some of our problems why are you not in a better job in government?
instead of some of those MP’S that are
In Promalant job’s determined to drag the country down .
we give TAX payers money away like confetti , while the tax payers struggle day to day keep up the good work
June 27, 2023
âïžWell said George!
June 27, 2023
More and more policy seems to be determined by the net zero algorithm, without any rational and rigorous scrutiny and public debate. Is it really right the Govt are contemplating a ÂŁ170 pa poll tax on everyoneâs energy bills for yet more green subsidies? Interesting political ideaâŠ.I wonder what could possibly go wrong?
June 27, 2023
Please keep (the British company) Harbour Energy on your radar-screen. When it starts investing again in the North Sea, policy will be in the right place. For now, it won’t be, having cancelled plans and sacked hundreds. The availability of licences isn’t the issue for it; the windfall tax is.
P.S. I see that the latest polling results show that Sunak isn’t closing the gap with Labour. He seems bereft of ideas, lacking in some grand vision, and navigating from one crisis to another rather than seizing the initiative. He would benefit from sitting down and writing a 2-3 page directive to each of his secretaries of state, telling them what they are to achieve. They don’t seem to know – because he doesn’t.
June 27, 2023
Since our esteemed host publicly endorses the Socialist NZ agenda does he also endorse carbon tracking of each British citizen ie surveillance and control on a second by second basis?
Just wondering like as the NZ cancer like racial and gender woke is tearing our country apart and will no doubt conclude with the State becoming both omnipresent and utterly oppressive
It is time the party that died when they crushed Thatcher publicly decided with whom they stand, the freedom loving public or the Marxist parasites
Reply You deliberately twist what I write. Try reading it. I am criticising the NZ agenda not endorsing it.
June 27, 2023
Reply to reply:
Come on DOM!! You must be reading a different diary!
It is very astute to oppose the proponents of illogical and destructive green policies by constructing infallibly logical arguments in their own terms.
June 27, 2023
My grandmother used to raise her eyes to Heaven and say..
âGrant me patienceâ.
And actually JR does show HUGE patience. Always having to spell out the bl**ding obvious.
This is all so utterly ludicrous.
But then the fragrant-smoke-enveloped youth next door believes that he owns our fence!
June 27, 2023
Mine would say ‘The âpatience of Jobâ which means to have a great deal of patience and faith during times of trouble and difficulty. The phrase âpatience of Jobâ originated from the Bible.
June 27, 2023
I’ll tell you whats obvious – Just how wealthy the UK would be without ‘net-zero’
June 27, 2023
Some dreadful online NGO-type set up purporting to be a nice cosy local network,
Trumpeted a new govt. initiative to combat antisocial behaviour.
All excited I looked it up on the govt. website.
Well! I have never seen such utter rubbish.
June 27, 2023
Brilliant letter
But does he understand its contents?
More importantly does he recognise the consequences of his non actions?
It’s enough to make grown men weep.
June 27, 2023
Extract from ‘Don’t cry for me Great Britain (Argentina)’
It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange
When I try to explain how I feel
That I still need your love after all that I’ve done
You won’t believe me, all you will see is people (a girl) you once knew
Although we’re (she’s) dressed up to the nines
At sixes and sevens with you
I had to let it happen, I had to change
Couldn’t stay all my life down at heel
Looking out of the window, staying out of the sun
So I chose freedom, running around trying everything new
But nothing impressed me at all
I never expected it to
Don’t cry for me, Great Britain (Argentina)
The truth is, I never left you
All through my wild days, my mad existence
I kept my promise
Don’t keep your distance
And as for fortune, and as for fame
I never invited them in
Though it seemed to the world they were all I desired
They are illusions, they’re not the solutions they promised to be
The answer was here all the time.
Fits quite well to be British politics, doesn’t it?
09.00
June 27, 2023
Turboterrier
Will the letter reach the recipient?
Will it be summarised first?
Letter received.
Supportive
Critical
Neither Y
June 27, 2023
You make rational decisions relating to Nett Zero. Government following its dictates are religious bigots impervious to logical argument. In pursuit of balance, GBNews invite the other side of the argument, which I find informative. In the area of NZ their response is largely emotional.
Silly thing is the aim is laudable in terms of personal health alone, but the means of getting there are unrealistic and harmful to the economy, or in micro terms peoples financial health.
As of now we need our own coal, gas,and oil. It needs to be supplied to end users in the UK at cost plus a reasonable profit, not beset with concocted formulae that make it the most expensive energy in the World.
Next step we need SMRs from RR as soon as is practical. Not delayed by scribes who would wish to run a lottery. They cannot do value analysis, witness any project they toutch, so do not involve them. That is the answer to mid term stable electricity needs.
Open up a coal mine to serve our steel industry.
Develope industrial levels of Hydrogen using windmill electricity to gradually introduce it into the domestic and industrial grid. Use it to de-toxify heavy transport and private transport at a later stage, so eliminating the numerous downsides to EVs.
Work flat out on developing Fusion Energy.
I appreciate your efforts, but I am not holding my breath. I will when fracking commences.
June 27, 2023
âgreen transition technologies.â are only remotely possible when there is a vibrant, resilient, and self reliant economy to fund it. This Conservative Government and the leadership of the alternative but the same WEF Socialists parties all see punishment of the people, the electorate of the UK as there preferred and malicious option. The âGreat Resetâ they are the disciples of.
The UK is just about 1% of the Worldâs situation, if there is a proven problem at all. China, India etc. undo all the good the UK could possibly achieve in a year each and every month.
A Government focused on creating the economy therefore money to cope with these over hyped scenarios makes more sense than all the costly punishment they are using to weaponise their control over people.
June 27, 2023
The Green transition needs to be made by private investment and not public money, otherwise the cost is passed on to those who can least afford it and who’s carbon footprint is the smallest.
An example could be the royal family, who wouldn’t feel any impact from green levies, but have the biggest family carbon footprint this country has. The same goes for Rishi Sunak, maybe we should tax peoples carbon footprint
June 27, 2023
[…] My letter to the Net Zero Secretary â John Redwood […]
June 27, 2023
A very good letter, Sir John, but it will have zero effect on the 4 distinct (but with some cross-over) groups pushing our unilateral economy destroying Net Zero Strategy :
– Corporates making vast sums from the never-ending and ever growing subsidies in pursuit of the impossible.
– Wealthy elites who see the opportunity to grab immense wealth and power by destroying middle class wealth and âbuilding back greenerâ â a feudal system where âyou will own nothingâ.
– Marxists who see the impossibility of the Net Zero project as a means to destroy the Westâs economies and democracies in order to gain control for themselves.
– Religious Malthusian zealots who want to bring us back to pre Industrial Revolution levels of poverty and population size.
All will use the argument that even though the UK contributes just 1% of global CO2 emissions, the UK needs to set an example to the World and that the destruction of our economy is a price worth paying to save the planet.
June 27, 2023
âThe same logic should apply to other areas where some want to stop the UK making materials and products that entail substantial fossil fuel energy use.â
There is no logic to be unilaterally destroying our economy in the impossible pursuit of net zeroing our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions. The correct response is to refute the false CAGW religious extremism for which there is no current, historical, experimental or theoretical evidence and repeal the CCA, cancel the Net Zero Strategy â Build Back Greener and revert to a sensible energy policy as followed by those countries not heading for economic disaster.
The proof that increasing levels of CO2 are not going to affect our climate are ;
1) âClimate actionâ is only number 13 in the UNâs list of âSustainable Development Goalsâ
2) Activists have no issue with China, India etc. burning 8 billion tons of coal each year and thus increasing the levels of atmospheric CO2.
3) Activists only propose a transition of our energy from cheap, abundant, reliable fossil fuels to expensive, meagre, intermittent and unreliable renewables with no economic means for grid stability and long-term backup and continue to block nuclear power, the only low CO2 emission source of power which is affordable, abundant and reliable.
June 27, 2023
Apparently there are a high percentage of maintenance faults, technology difficulties and poor quality components issues with both wind-turbines and smart-meters âŠ.again the No10 disinformation unit is kicking in saying that net-zero will save the planet with UK leadership
June 27, 2023
Glen,
Your built in perceived obsolecense should do for Nett Zero as envisaged in Westminster.
June 27, 2023
Surely the time is long gone for sending letters. Mr. Redwood must now how it goes. An underling opens it, sighs and rolls eyes to heaven. At some point says to the âministerâ – âthereâs a letter from that dinosaur Redwood, do you want to read it? – itâs the usual we should burn our own carbon etc. – shall I burn it, file it or give the standard âthanks for youâre letter but we know better than youâ reply?â
The time for polite letters is over. Itâs time for a version of the ERG to speak up. Are you the only sane MO in Parliament?
June 27, 2023
We don’t need a debate on how to transition to low carbon energy or to net zero. We need a team of engineers to develop feasible options, do some experiments and prototyping to find the best solution and then establish a business to implement it in stages.
June 27, 2023
Peter
Much of what you want will come from Japan where they seem to lack the political guidance we suffer.
June 27, 2023
There are plenty of engineers engaged in this task. The problem is it is clear that there is no present technology, with the possible exception of nuclear (& hydroelectricity where itâs feasible), which comes close to being able to substitute fossil fuels, given the level of global energy requirements. This being the case all businesses in the renewable sector require subsidies from taxpayers and legal and regulatory privileges in order to be viable. But even with those subsidies and privileges, given energy densities and problems of intermittency, they cannot conceivably replace fossil fuels.
June 27, 2023
Richard1 :
Correct.
It would seem unbelievable that we are destroying a cheap, abundant, high energy dense and reliable fossil fuel system for a low energy density, unreliabel and intermittent system with absolutely no means or plan for an economic non-fossil fuel method for grid stability and backup/storage when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
Other than CCUS which uses GAS and has yet to work. And despite this being the only plan the intention is close down our North Sea gas extraction and block fracking!
June 27, 2023
Well the best and cheapest options are for now fracking, gas, coal and more R&D into better and cheaper nuclear then nuclear fusion will eventually become practical.
June 27, 2023
OFF TOPIC.
The House of Lords has finally caved in and ended its stand-off with the Government over its plans to scrap swathes of EU laws. The Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill had been in a state of parliamentary ‘ping pong’ for weeks, with the bill going back and forth between the Commons and the Lords with neither side backing down.
The Lords had been focussing on pushing for ‘non-regression’ of EU environmental rules, and to give Parliament greater say in deciding which EU laws can be revoked or amended, in a challenge to the power of the Government. Last night the upper chamber, which has often been accused of attempting to frustrate or block Brexit in the past, finally caved in and passed the bill.
Government minister Lord Callanan had to remind the Lords that given they are unelected they couldn’t afford to frustrate the bill much more. He said: “The reality is the Commons has considered this bill once more and have come to the same conclusions as they did previously, again with significant majorities”.
“This is now the third time that they have made their will clear. They are the elected House and they have been firm in their position. “We have to take that into account, along with their democratic legitimacy.”
10.04
June 27, 2023
Sir John – on reading through your tweets today you get to see the logic and purpose of Government is lacking and I would suggest the greater majority of those that sit in the HoC. Maybe that’s just it they âsitâ in the Hoc, keep quiet, get paid until the next GE.
This Conservative Government along with the leadership in other parties that have found themselves at the helm of power in the UK, they all try to shove the idea down everyone’s throat they are the righteous ones. They are not, each and everyone basically saying it is not âmeâ it is them, the them being the general population. The result they see punishment, then more punishment and more control of those that granted them power. Its their defence mechanism for abject failure. What they donât see is the bigger picture, its their prolific spending aims without a requirement of responsibility accountability and production of a result or even an economy to fund these ideals as the real problem.
This Conservative Government has awarded the UK with the highest tax in 70+ years, high inflation, high bank rates, high energy cost, higher food costs and as you say greater imports causing greater CO2 emissions. Payment for re-wilding while people cant get food unless its high priced imports â the list is endless and these failures are 100% down to this Conservative Government. The wishy washy idea that it was Covid, Putin or the Ukraine is just buck passing. There has always been something, but generally the idea of Government is to be prepared â this Conservative Government it about their personal self and the rest can go to hell in a handcart once they have taxed some more.
They are wound up in self importance, self gratification and all the other things that place ego above just doing their jobs.
June 27, 2023
We are told to follow the science but we can now see how that turned out with Covid
so why should we be listening to one side on the climate. Clintel a group of 1500
scientists have reviewed the IPCC data and found it to be flawed and the the race to
Net Zero is unneccessary as Co2 is the life blood of crop production.
The Chinese are the only winners from Net Zero as they are the biggest producers of most
batteries and electric cars, solar panels and minerals for turbines all produced using COAL.
As OIl is used in plastics, medicins, pharmacuticals, transport so without it what would the
alternative be. JSO & XR shout a lot but never give solutions.
I still cannot understand how Hunt became chancellor with his poor record, if had been John we would have had real Conservative policies and the Tory’s would not be in the sorry state it is today.
June 27, 2023
Meanwhile last Tuesday, 20th. in Sweden saw abandonment of the 100 per cent. renewable energy target for electricity generation in favour of 100 per cent. fossil free. This will enable nuclear power plants to be built once again.
Sweden is also cutting the bio-fuel mix in petrol and diesel, jeopardizing its 2030 CO2 emissions goals.
Perhaps Mr. Shapps would do well to point out this news to his civil servants, reminding them Sweden is in the E.U. pro tem.
June 27, 2023
Here is a story that ought to be brought to the attention of Grant Schapps.
‘London, 26 June – Policymakers must get to grips with the implications of the crash in Siemens Energyâ share price. Thatâs the message from energy economist Professor Gordon Hughes.’
Professor Hughes says:
âPolicymakers need to understand that windfarms are going to deliver less power than expected, for a shorter time, and at much higher cost. The focus on renewables, and in particular on wind power, must now be seen as a disastrous mistake. We must row back, and quickly.â
Professor Hughes will no doubt be dismissed as a spreader of misinformation and disinformation, as was Andrew Bridgen!
June 27, 2023
Siemens Energy share price (LN:ENR) was lower in September 2022 than it is right now. I am not an expert on those things but I would think there is nothing special about the present drop of ENR. If you look at the price of other similar renewable energy companies (all available on the London market: BERI, DORE, NESF, ORIT, TRIG) they all show patterns similar to those of ENR, some even more marked.
So I am a bit surprised why Prof.Hughes (or BOF) singles out Siemens Energy.
June 29, 2023
Siemens was singled out because they held a press briefing admitting some of the problems they face, with a promise of more information when they announce their results in August. Since these are generic design issues that come with increasing turbine size (primarily hub bearing wear as blades get longer and more stressed by differences in wind at the top and bottom of their travel) and are expensive to fix other wind farm manufacturer shares fell because their designs are also liable to be affected.
June 29, 2023
Mark, thanks.
June 27, 2023
Letter to anyone out there.
Has it ever occured to you that the United Kingdom and the society within it is being steered to destruction.
First you are encouraged to see everything in terms of race. Everything should be assessed in terms of critical race theory, a divider of society not the cement of society.
Tben how about a bit of self guilt, particularly over an historical past, over which you had no influence whatever. To achieve this you need a bit of ommission and distortion within history itself, helped by personal ignorance of our past.
See everything, especially comedy, in political terms, and then indulge in a bit of cancellation of anyone whose humour or opinions offend you. Let this movement grow until everyone is only allowed to see things your way.
Follow your sporting heros, rather than politicians you despise, but beware, they may have kicked a football rather well and gained wealth, but their intelligence and political acumen has its limits.
Beware the lie dressed as irrefutable truth, climate change causes come to mind.
Fail to control the bad aspects of capitalism and you will fertilize socialism. Socialism promoted by consocialists, gjving us the stagnation we suffer today. The greatest instrument for this being a punative tax regime that employs more accountants while encouraging dependance among the masses, rather than the enterprise that would be good for them and the nation.
Promote division between the sexes and then cause further confusion by sub dividing the two sexes. Foster it in schools to give it roots. Do everything you can tk destroy the family unit and enjoy the chaos in society that ensues.
Destroy law and order by not policing it. Allow this apprentiship in crime unchallenged to produce graduates in even more profitable crime to succeed.
Encourage mass immigration beyond those in need of assylum. People of different nationality and religion in integratable numbers are no problem, but mass invasive immigration is destructive of society. If that is your aim sit back and watch it happen.
Be a useful idiot, hand our enemies the means of destroying us, be it the atomic bomb of the past or any high end current research. Our political blob contains too many who profit from it.
Watch this stew of self destruction simmer and applaud the victors who, if history is anything to go by, will probably (harm Ed)you.
June 27, 2023
The granting of licences.
That would be good but have companies jumped at the statement given the general anti-fossil fuel and fanatical green policies of your party and government Sir John? How many will apply and how soon.
Please don’t hold your breath anyone, but Sir John, please let us know as these are applied for and granted.
June 27, 2023
Sir John I think you will agree that serious crimes committed against the person even decades ago should not be allowed to be forgotten and ignored but should be followed up by the police and the courts no matter what. Therefore this legacy bill now going through the Lords at the moment should be discarded – surely every family has the right to pursue terrorists whoever they may be, terrorists who killed their relations and friends and maimed their loved ones even into the grave – otherwise there is no justice – certainly no british justice – don’t you agree
June 27, 2023
To send immigrant to Rwanda = ÂŁ169,000
To return immigrant back to France = ÂŁ0
June 28, 2023
Precisely. Even taking back those rescued in French waters would be appropriate. There is no requirement to bring them to the UK.
So why don’t they?
I think, as part of the Brino negotiations, there was a quiet agreement that “the UK will take its fair share of the criminal migrants flooding into the EU.”
The British PM pretends he wants to stop the invasion; and Macron pretends he’s trying to stop it …… pantomime for their respective electorates.
June 28, 2023
Fully agree ….a backroom deal has been done
June 28, 2023
We could return every immigrant back to France by one simply, no cost, policy âŠ.tell the French that they can no longer fish in our waters until they accept back âtheirâ immigrants
June 27, 2023
Net Zero timetable is unrealistic we seem to be exporting well paid jobs to other countries along with emissions is it any wonder that China has high emissions when they are producing goods for most of the Western World, how long will it be before this government finally has some common sense and realise that their group thinking is just going to make this country poorer or are they intent on Bankrupting us as they are Globalists.
June 27, 2023
Iâd welcome and support a big push to improve our environment; planting trees, planting flowers, cleaning our rivers and coastline, cleaning the streets of litter, fixing pot-holes, washing or painting civic building, public fences and pavements, create reinstate public toilets, secure parks with free parking âŠ.but please stop the madness of net-zero
June 27, 2023
My council canât even pickup litter, but theyâve employed a team and department to develop a net-zero plan
June 28, 2023
Agreed. I support protection and improvement of the environment: clearing litter; prosecuting polluters; planting trees; leaving roadside verges uncut (where safe) to provide habitats for wildlife and encourage wildflowers etc.
But the Net Zero has nothing to do with improving the environment – and everything to do with control; reducing living standards; abolishing private car ownership for the majority ….. and, due course, tax. When they have their Central Digital Currency and surveillance of your every move, you will be taxed according to your carbon footprint.
June 28, 2023
Not a fan of rewilding, then?
June 27, 2023
Might be of interest ⊠04/01/2023 technologyreview.com âMIT Technology Review: Whatâs next for batteriesâ, Casey Crownhart.
This being from a US university environment, there is no mention of any UK effort in similar directions, but they have been around for some time, from
faraday.ac.uk âSolid-state batteries: The technology of the 2030s but the research challenge of the 2020sâ, Feb.â20, 8 pp
to ox.ac.uk âUK-based consortium established to develop prototype solid-state batteriesâ, 18/08/2021
to ukri.org âDelivering the future of battery technologyâ, 26/01/2023.
Could it be that Mr Schapps is not so daft after all?
June 27, 2023
Has any of the UN IPCC climate change predictions came true ? NO
Has any of the UK climate change committee CCC predictions came true ? NO
Have any scientific /academic forecast modelling came true ? NO
Is China, Russia, India, Africa, South America, Middle East adopting âNet-Zeroâ ? NO
Where the people of the UK given a meaning debate or vote on âNet-Zeroâ ? NO
See link for 50 years of climate predictions thatâs havenât happened – https://extinctionclock.org/
June 28, 2023
climate.copernicus.eu âEuropean State of the Climate 2022â.
Interestingly this is essentially based on observations âŠ
June 27, 2023
If there isnât any climate emergency, as agreed by Global Climate Intelligence Groups supported by over 1,500 scientists https://clintel.org/world-climate-declaration/ why are we introducing ânet-zeroâ destroying our economy & society
June 27, 2023
Poland will simplify immigration for citizens of Ukraine, Saudi, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, UAE, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Nigeria and Moldova to accept âat least 400k immigrants a yearâ.
Why does the British Govt not divert our illegal immigrants to Poland rather than Rwanda. Apart from the flight, it would cost nothing.
That would help achieve the net zero target.
June 28, 2023
Fascinating. Poles came here in hundreds of thousands, but they now encourage all those others to make their future in Poland.
June 28, 2023
Or divert them back to France, our good neighbour
June 28, 2023
If you can allow a link, this article reports Sweden’s recent reversal of green energy policies:
https://slaynews.com/news/sweden-dumps-climate-agenda-scraps
June 28, 2023
Good
June 29, 2023
I see that the AR5 CFD auction is now on the slowest possible timeline to try to give Mr Shapps and DESNZ more thinking time to work out what to do given the likelihood of very few bids (and even no bids at all for ordinary offshore wind that is meant to be the mainstay of the new Saudi Arabia of wind). Meanwhile Drax and EdF have said they are unable to offer any coal reserve capacity for the winter. NGESO’s early Winter Outlook is looking more and more as if it is in new emperor’s clothes. Perhaps we should ask Shapps when he plans to authorise the purchase of emergency diesel generators.