Yesterday I met some experts on energy and supply chains. They told me that the official figures implying there would be twice as much CO 2 if we import LNG in place of domestic North Sea gas down a pipe was a big underestimate by the government. If you take into account the different levels of emissions in extracting the gas, in compressing it, in transporting it as a cold liquid and then converting it back it could as much as seven times as much CO 2 is produced by all these processes. Those who argue we must keep our own gas in the ground to speed net zero are wrong – it would delay our road as we would have to import the gas we did mot produce for the rest of this decade at least. There is no way we will have enough people with electric heating or electric cars by 2030 or nearly enough grid capacity to power them to do without much of the oil and gas we currently need to stay warm and to get about.
The investment task to replace all the current oil and gas based activities and put in enough reliable electrical power is colossal. People wanting to put in new windfarms areĀ being told there is a queue into the next decade to get access to grid to carry extra renewable power to users at the times when renewable would be available. The Grid is only just considering how to expand, which it would need to do by a factor of 5 or more by 2050 to take out our current dependence on gas heating, gas industrial processes, and petrol, diesel andĀ aviationĀ spirit for transport. It would also need much enhanced electrical cable capacity under every street to provide enough power to each electrically heated home with an electric car to recharge.
The UK needs to improve our energy security and self sufficiency. Being reliant on imports by pipe and wire from a continent short of energy and recovering from the need to end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels, we could run out of energy at crucial times. We always used to be self sufficient. We have a good mixture of natural resources to provideĀ more oil and gas, wind power, nuclear and the rest we will need. To have a successful economy with well paid ,jobs we need more reliable and affordable power. Letting the market work with less interruption would help bring this about mainly with private sector investment capital.
July 20, 2023
Good morning.
I would imagine it would take much the same energy to extract the gas with only drilling and transport being the two major differences.
Drilling in the North Sea due to its environment is difficult, dangerous and expensive. This increases cost.
Transporting gas is also difficult and expensive, not to mention environmentally unfriendly as the ships used to transport the gas use the most polluting of fuel to do so. And due to the limitations on carrying capacity there must be many such ships.
But when it comes to energy there is one criteria that, to me at least, comes first. And that is security of supply ! Only North Sea gas offers us that, with coal being second. Nuclear too has its place but we are talking about gas today.
I would not be in favour of extracting every last drop, but would be in favour of having a ready supply drip-drip-dripping into our network ready to but turned up should we have issues like that we have seen.
energy underpins everything even in a small less developed country. From cooking fires to large Nuclear Power Plants we need a supply of reliable and affordable heat, light and motive force.
These things are not difficult to understand and I and a growing number of people now very much believe that this is not about saving the planet and more about control and the theft of peoples wealth.
July 20, 2023
Clearly the government do not really believe in the CO2 devil gas religion. If they did they would ban private jets and only allow far more efficient economy flights or full aircraft. They would ban 6 litre cars being made at Goodwood, ban meat eating and the gyms (a terrible waste of human food energy).
No it is clearly all about government controlling the people, tax payer grant farming, vested interests and people on the make.
July 20, 2023
I cannot see why the greenies chose such a wonderful and useful gas to try and bully the world. We really could do with a slight rise in CO2 to help feed mankind !
I ignore their whinging! My life is the most important to me!
July 20, 2023
Indeed a vital gas for the food we eat, the trees, plamts, crops and the Oxygen well and most lifeforms have to breath.
July 20, 2023
Today I voted Reform in one of the by elections.
JR is lost in a sea of left wing extremism in his own party! Sunak acted like a dictator in getting rid of 5 Brexit supporting Tory MPs last week so they would not vote against giving away N.Ireland! Francois called his govt Bent, then rigged. Cash was also scathing.
Sunak promised to serve with integrity and implement the 2019 manifesto! The man he
As no morals, principles or political direction other than following the remain cabal of crap. We did not vote for this.
July 20, 2023
Agree ….
July 20, 2023
Well done. The treacherous Not-a-Conservative-Party deserves a massive boot up the bottom.
July 20, 2023
The availability of gas is calculated by the viability of recovery at the current price. Therefore as the price changes – so does the āavailable gasā.
There is plenty of gas and we will NEVER run out.
In any case, we are expert at drilling. Geothermal heating can be produced from one well to power a whole town. No unsightly, dangerous and expensive to maintain above ground cables/turbines etc.
July 20, 2023
Meanwhile, I imagine Team Sunak will have the more immediate concern of preparing responses/excuses for tomorrowās by election results.
They may include :-
It was not as bad as predicted ( if one seat is retained, or margins of defeat are less than pollsters forecast).
These are tough times and all governments do badly at by elections.
By elections results are not reflected at general elections. We will turn it around.
Trust me. There is no credible alternative. Things will get better.
Labour would be worse. Stick with us.
July 24, 2023
Do realise that the steady rise in CO2 measured at Moana Loa is simply not going to be checked, whether human caused or natural. And that this rise is harmless. So Net Zero is both impossible and pointless. Wake up.
July 20, 2023
Indeed stop the mad politicians from rigging the energy markets. It is surely driven by corruption, vested interest, people wanting to harvest grants and aided by deluded zealots. But nearly all the Conservative MPs (plus this dire Sunak and Hunt government) nearly all backed May’s moronic net zero lunacy (which was just nodded through) and they still do.
There is no sensible reason for the UK to save CO2 anyway. As I said yesterday:- “The co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Physics prize, Dr John Clauser, says the so-called climate emergencyā is a ādangerous corruption of science that threatens the worldās economy and the well-being of billions of people. He is exactly right.”
July 20, 2023
Sunak speaking about the heavily subsidised Tata proposed battery plant:-
āBut what is crucial about an investment like this is itās not just going to be about that (the large subsidy), itās going to be about the quality of the workforce that we have here, the quality of our infrastructure, the road and rail connections, the approach to regulation, the competitiveness of our tax regime, which we have changed to make it more attractive for businesses to invest.ā
Well of the past 13 years of Con-socialism the tax regime is now far less attractive and is still getting worse due to Suankās and Baileyās money debasement. The workforce is poor as education is very poor and misdirected, houses expensive and so many get into large debts for useless degree. Road and rail connections are very poor and HS2 is a sick joke. Road blocking is a favourite government activity. As to regulation it is far worse too.
Is Rishi living in the real World? Does he think we are fooled by his black is white drivel speaches. Perhaps decimation in these by-elections will help him to get real but I doubt it.
Then we have May and Sunakās rip off intermittent, unreliable religious energy and the net zero insanity to deter investments too.
July 20, 2023
The prospect of a large Labour/SNP majority that Sunak is clearly leading us too deters investment hugely too.
July 20, 2023
He rigged the legislation committee last week getting rid of 5 of his own MPs because they might vote for the 2019 manifesto ie treat N.Ireland exactly the same as the the rest of the UK. Sunak proved beyond doubt he is Not a unionist or a Conservative. He has lied. He stated to serve with integrity and implement the 2019 manifesto! He is failing on his revised manifesto for his five pledges. Get rid of him and his remainer chancellor. We did not vote for him or his WEF UN manifesto.
Sunak has seriously bad memory problems or is a liar.
July 20, 2023
‘Perhaps decimation in these by-elections will help him to get real but I doubt it.’
Perhaps it will jar the CON party into ditching this WEF plant, but I doubt it!
July 20, 2023
LL
Not only Dr Clauser but Ian Plimer in his excellent book GREEN MURDER in which he completely and comprehensively debunks the whole man made climate change fallacy and calls it what it is, a fraud. I recommend this very readable book from a man with a lifetime of experience in the field and teaching.
I see that,once again, the dire predictions of world burning up have failed expectations and I bet the BBC and their unshaven climate catastrophist are not in the least embarrassed.
July 20, 2023
+1
July 20, 2023
+++
I really do think that the pro-lunacy MPs should go to work dressed in Net Zero outfits.**
Talk about āEmperorās New Clothesā ( as we often do on here).
They would probably have to pray for a hot day and a good supply of fig leaves.
** Such a jolly jape to support the āLatest Thingā.
July 20, 2023
Dr John Clauser is far from alone in his beliefs!
The net zero nonsense is being used alongside digital everything, ESG, wokery etc to usher in global one world governance, where the ‘elites’ are rich and everyone else is poor.
Which reminds me – Together Declaration want help from us by writing to MPs etc about the pay-by-mile that Khan is working on. See their website.
July 20, 2023
These are NOT beliefs! This is KnOWLEDGE!
The greenies ābelieveā and 2% support them in elections.
July 20, 2023
With the apparent presence of so many chumps and knuckleheads in all parties in the HoC, it is unsurprising they cannot do their sums. The result is the daft decisions inflicted on us all.
July 20, 2023
+1 LL
July 20, 2023
Indeed, it is normally wealthy speculators who manage to rig markets, but in this case it is politicians!
Now that the ‘dust’ has settled, my energy supplier OVO has written to us saying now that the energy prices are falling we can have one third reduction in our monthly Direct Debit and a Ā£500 refund due to their assessment being too high.
Of course we took steps to reduce our use, and kind weather recently has helped, but it was clear their estimate of the DD required to meet our annual bill was excessive.
July 20, 2023
I totally agree with that Lifelogic. I feel I MUST fight for the quality of life for my descendants. i now have three Great Grand Children whose lives I must defend! I will do anything to destroy the green lies!
July 20, 2023
You better ask them what they think as I am afraid they might not share their great-grandmotherās views on the future.
July 20, 2023
The Climate Change SCAM is designed to transfer wealth and power from the West to China – End of !
July 20, 2023
Agree – however I’d suggest not China but the United Nations controlled by China
July 20, 2023
Mark B
Yes, and what is this about Sunak increasing aid to India, that country of nuclear arms and a space program?
July 20, 2023
Family
July 20, 2023
Dr. Clauser and Ian Pilmer, as I understand it, give no credible plausibility to potentially
calamitous climate change. They may be wrong. The evidence is to be found in the ice core data.
The error may be the idea that CO2 concentrations are the culprit. I believe Professor Happer and Dr. Moore have demonstrated this.
It would be helpful if scientific endeavour was directed toward determining where exactly where we are on the graph, taking full account of the Younger Dryas cooling event.
July 20, 2023
The problems as set out seem glaringly obvious even to one such as myself, who has little interest in such technicalities and a brain that blocks out those things it finds a bore.
I really can only conclude that something else is going on here and it’s nothing to do with saving the planet from CO2.
July 20, 2023
Indeed Michelle, and everything to do with the iron control of every aspect of our lives.
July 20, 2023
Anyone who ignores the BBC and still has a few functioning brain cells can work this out for themselves. It is basic common-sense that if you use local resources it will be cheaper and less energy intensive than using foreign resources which have to go through several processes and be shipped across the Atlantic.
Isn’t it funny how the Eco Nutters go on about using local food produce to reduce air-miles, but don’t apply the same principle to Energy Products. It’s almost like they are ignoring FACTS (again) in order to push an Agenda.
Underpinning the lunacy is the LIE that CO2 is causing a so-called climate crisis which only exists on flawed and easily manipulated computer models. The current spell of heat in southern Europe is NOT “unique” or the first event of its kind in history …. or even since records started being officially kept.
Periods of global warming and even what might be classed as extreme heat occurred in centuries and millennia long before fossil fuels were used.
We are being fed LIES by the UN, WEF, Government and BBC ….. as part of a Globalist Agenda to restrict our lives; reduce our standard of living; control and impoverish us.
July 20, 2023
The fossil fuel cartel is preparing to inflict another wave of inflation on the world this winter. The welcome fall in prices since late 2022 is set to reduce output in the second half of 2023; this will tighten markets for both oil and gas later this year and into 2024. Coupled with the recent OPEC decision to reduce output, this means high energy prices again for the coming winter. Once again, the fossil fuel lobby will be holding us to ransom
Increasing our reliance on fossil fuels will not improve our energy security; we are at the mercy of a co-ordinated cartel that is only interested in profit. The only way to improve energy security for this country is to rapidly install onshore wind and solar as you are well aware – kowtowing to the fossil fuel lobby is shamefull.
July 20, 2023
SG
From all of your previous posts I thought you were all in favour of using less fossil fuel, have you now realised that to ban it without any sensible and reliable alternative in place is a bit silly.
The owners of wind farms get paid when they switch them off due to high winds, or when the energy cannot be stored or is not needed, so what is the difference ?
July 20, 2023
The key point you don’t mention, SG, is that reduced output and falling prices linked to falling demand for fossil fuels, according to the Institute of Economic Affairs. This, they say, is due to the challenging economic environment. In part that has arisen because of the sharp tightening of monetary policyover the last year in many advanced and developing countries. It seems fossil fuel prices are reacting to the worsening economic outlook. The fossil fuel industries aren’t really holding anyone to ransom.
July 20, 2023
Change can never happen if you continue to endorse this collectivist political scam and you do rather clumsily continue to endorse this attack on our way of life
Please condemn it. Please reject it before it destroys our economy and our freedoms
July 20, 2023
DOM, ++++++
July 20, 2023
Agree +many
July 20, 2023
We wouldn’t necessarily get the extra oil and gas produced from our waters . The oil and gas would go to the markets to the highest bidder.
Oil and gas producers would go elsewhere is they only could sell to us below market price.
July 20, 2023
They would sell at market price. Market price is quite low. Itās just that the west is excluded from the āmarketā because of āsanctionsā.
So we have to buy at inflated prices dictated by the middlemen – Turkey and India.
July 20, 2023
Oil and gas producers can’t ‘go elsewhere’ because the oil and gas are here. As long as there is a reasonable profit in selling to us there is a business case. What is more likely is that our idiot politicians will ALLOW it to be sold on the international market to maximise their tax take while ordinary people here freeze.
July 20, 2023
Stephen, Thanks for your comment. Although it should be obvious to any āfree marketeersā, it seems most of people here have a rather confused vision of what the implications of such a āfree marketā would be.
So very likely the oil and gas extractive companies will make sure theyāll get sizeable government subsidies before moving. A bit like the Ā£500m that the UK government is going to give Tata for building a EV gigafactory in Somerset.
July 20, 2023
Hefner there is no market but a free market. And the people ARE the Market. It cannot be ābuckedā because together we wield massive financial power and when we make millions of decisions in our own interest – the movements in the market are always right.
Donāt presume to tell a capitalist what the market is. As I have said above, the commodity would be sold at market value to the U.K. because we are happy to pay the market price.
What we are stuck with at the moment is the lie that āwe are not buying Russian oilā – and we are paying Turkey and India to keep that lie going.
The āmarket in liesā are the exclusive prerogative of the anti-capitalists – the Corporatists – you!
July 27, 2023
What a myopic (and I would suggest ideological) view. As if the movements of the worldās stock exchanges or the exchange rates between currencies around the world were not dependent on actors very detached from āthe peopleā. Did you not learn anything from the impact of Covid on the economies of the world? Or from the impact of the Ukraine invasion? Or now from the impact of high temperatures in Southern Europe?
Please tell me how the millions of consumer decisions have impacted these.
July 20, 2023
Yes, Hefner, and a bit like the c. Ā£23 bn the British taxpayer is reportedly going to be paying, at a minimum, to subsidise the Renewable Heat Incentive until 2042. All part of the Big Green Boondoggle.
July 27, 2023
Could you please provide the source of the Ā£23 bn you quote for the Renewable Heat Incentive program?
July 20, 2023
By law oil and gas produced in UK waters must be landed in the UK unless there is a particular export dispensation. I think only the tiny Markham gasfield ever had a dispensation to export directly via pipeline (to the Netherlands, since there was already a nearby pipeline, and no justification for building a pipeline to shore in the UK), and offshore loading tankers have to secure export permission for each load for non-UK destination. The consequence is that 99% of our gas production is fed into our onshore pipeline network, along with the pipeline imports from Norway. The only means of gas export we have is via pipelines to Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands, but they must pay a premium to secure supply, which was at times quite substantial last year – their prices were much higher than ours, as there is no world market in gas, only local markets. In practice, export volumes for the Netherlands and Belgium are in fact derived from additional LNG imports , using the UK as an offshore LNG terminal or added imports from Norway (with Equinor becoming the exporter as well) when we are not exercising our contractual options to gas in summer months. Once the pipelines are full (as they were much of last year) there cannot be any further export. UKCS gas tends to be contracted for continuous UK supply, rather than the seasonal supply that applies to imports from Norway and LNG.
Oil is an international market, which is just as well, since the character of North Sea oil has changed over time, and our refineries are not able to process most of it cost effectively given the EU regulation they work to, so we need to trade our production for oil suited to our refineries. But the trade leaves us much better off than if we had to import: taxes on production rise when market prices are higher, and we don’t incur a trade deficit by exchanging one type of oil for another.
July 20, 2023
The flaw in your argument, Sir John, comes when you say private sector investment capital will, if left to do the job itself, provide us with reliable and affordable power. This overlooks the fact that the banks and other finance institutions are now directing investment capital towards ESG (environmental and social governance) goals. They are following the globalist agenda of the UN’s Environment Programme Finance Initiative. It would be good to see a recognition on your part of how this country’s freedom of action is limited by adherence to UN-inspired supranational governance policies such as the ESG.
July 20, 2023
Sir John,
I too think we need to be self sufficient in much more than just energy.
During ww2, our nation came close to being starved due to the U Boats blockade of our island. That was with a population of just under fifty million, we now have a population of around seventy million, which is a lot of extra mouths to feed. We as a people have forgotten how to grow our own food.
We are in a period of time where there is a great deal of uncertainty in the world and on the edge of a major military conflict.
It is folly to rely on others for our essentials.
We need our own plentiful and reliable source of energy, including nuclear.
I am not sure how easily we could defend off shore windfarms and under water interconnects in the event of a major war.
We need our own steel making industry, our own ship building facilities, our own manufacturing industries and our own weapons, not American nor European but British made in our own country.
The government needs to get it’s finger out and prepare for a conflict, otherwise we may be caught with our pants down.
I just hope we still have the skilled people to do these jobs, given we make so little now.
July 20, 2023
Cliffords
Then we ploughed up parks to grow vegetables, turned gardens into allotments, now with half as many people again, we pay farmers to grow flowers instead of food.
Difficult to make it up really
July 20, 2023
B. A.
Exactly, and we’ve made our old heavy industries uncompetitive so they shut down and all those skills and all that know how is lost.
If someone wanted to destroy a country and impoverish it’s population, then I suspect they would copy our country’s government over the last couple of decades. Madness.
July 20, 2023
Well no suprise there. The Government not telling the truth about something to suit a political agenda rarther than reality. And of cause, as always, with no thought for the cost to the ordinary citizen and tax payer.
Still waiting for the government report to justify net-zero based on how an increase in plant food generated by us is the reason for climate change. I am sure chopping all the trees down since the start of the industiral reveloution, increased population, increased demand for energy and resulting waste heat,
Concreating over the ground inceasing reflected heat, general polution and waste desposal into the sea, etc. might have some effect on nature’s ability to recycle CO2 each day. We are still only generating a very small fraction of total CO2 recycled each day by nature.
July 20, 2023
Tomorrow morning your party might just have got the message that it needs to change some key policies. Might!
July 20, 2023
Not a chance. They’re past redemption. They are believers… in Net Stupid.
July 20, 2023
And why would govt. be happy to settle for twice the amount of CO2?
I thought the idea was to reduce it? To ZERO it!
Oh noā¦whatās that? The idea is to what? Make a few more billionaires? Freeze us all more thoroughly? Finish off our industries?
July 20, 2023
I see that they are selling outdoor noise barriers for heat pumps because they are noisy!
(I was looking for something to blot out neighbours noise).
What FUN we have ahead of us!
All stuck in our areas, deafening music, kids not at school, no law enforcement, trudging off to the 15 minute hub to get our post etc., hoping we will be allowed to buy a plant-based pie or two and trying, through all the din and electricity outages, to earn a remote living. And the relentless buzz, buzz, buzz of thousands of heat pumps ( electricity supply allowing).
Lucky, lucky us!
July 20, 2023
Indeed noisy, ugly, needs larger tepid rads and expensive fit and maintain. Not even very efficient when you need most heat in the depths of winter either. Plus they use electricity that cost three times the price of gas. Likely you need expensive grid upgrades and new rads too.
July 20, 2023
Governments plan to reduce co2 by stealth with policies of net-zero ā a new housing development close to me with 100 detached houses, built with no off road parking, no garages and so close that you couldnāt drive a car between them ā¦āwatch out the tories are aboutā
July 20, 2023
Are they selling?
July 20, 2023
3/4s built
July 20, 2023
only half built
July 20, 2023
C02 is .045% of Earths atmosphere. The UK produces 1% – 2% of that 0.045% In other words an amount so small it can barely be measured. Yet our useless Gov. continues to follow the green zealots and their nonsense. Even if you believe CO2 is causing climate change (I don’t) our contribution isn’t.
July 20, 2023
Old Albion
Itās even less than that.
97% of CO2 is naturally-occurring; only 3% of the total 0.045% is supposedly man-made. So the UK contributes 1% of 3% of 0.045%.
July 20, 2023
Exactly. Water vapour and the Sun and its intensity have more effect than any trace gas, essential to all plant life on the planet.
July 20, 2023
Can someone direct me to the gold plated scientific and mathematical proof proving that CO2 at .045% of earthās atmosphere is a problem?
July 20, 2023
You won’t find any, as it doesn’t exist. Let us pray.
July 23, 2023
Oh I see that Sir John does not consider the Royal Society has a good reference. Am I surprised?
July 27, 2023
You could try
royalsociety.org āClimate change: Science and solutionsā, 19/05/2021
royalsociety.org āThe basics of climate changeā, 04/03/2020
July 20, 2023
Disagreeing with the net zero insanity. Careful! You will lose your bank account.
July 20, 2023
John,
It is self-evident that consuming energy (i.e. burning gas) to liquify and transport gas long distances, and maintain the refrigeration in transit emits a lot more CO2 than local extraction. It also means, often in the absence of long-term supply contracts, that we are at the mercy of global supply/demand variability and price shocks. However we need to get away from the notion that there is a transition to a renewable all electric Net Zero or Total Zero future. There is no engineering nor economic route to doing this. The only viable fuels that permit the economic levels of activity, abundant food, energy, goods and services are energy dense sources of primarily petrochemicals, supplemented with nuclear and a small amount of hydro-power. Wind and Solar with or without batteries is nonsense causing huge environmental damage, net negative energy and financial return on investment and greater emissions of CO2 from the system. Further the resulting grid produces unreliable, intermittent and costly electricity. Too much money is now floating around in the climate research, CO2 trading, āgreenā energy businesses which is funnelled back into politically controlling and corrupting accadamic research and publication, NGOs, media and business lobbying by those with aligned interests to profit from the misfortune of the poor as we destroy the west and deindustrialise and those that wish to bring about a geopolitical revolution and end the western hegimony of power over global trade. CO2 does not control the planetās weather and climate, human emissions are a tiny fraction of the annual cycling of CO2 between various sources and sinks only having an impact for about 10 years (ie half-life of human CO2) and overall increases and decreases are driven by thermal processes in-turn driven by mainly the solar output, volcanic heat and particulates and natural variability in ocean overturning and meridional circulations of heat transport and storage. What we need is to drop all consideration of CO2 emissions from economic/energy/food-production/industry calculations, taxation, regulation and subsidies and do stuff which helps the economy, the plight of the poor, the environment and our future. End the CO2 driven brain virus infecting all of industry, academia, media and government and do stuff that benefits society instead rather than crippling and destroying it at an ever faster pace.
July 20, 2023
1/2Ā£bn in grants and subsidies to a foreign company to set up a battery plant in this country.
Meanwhile UK companies have to pay full whack in tax.
July 20, 2023
If they need half a billion, then there’s no consumer profit ….just further subsidy
The people don’t want EVs, only governents & politcians do, but the taxpayer has to fund them ….I can remember a time when the conservative party wouldn’t support any industry or business saying that they had to stand by market forces and customer demand …whatever happened to that party ?
July 20, 2023
Itās time for politicians to stop playing politics and cuddling up to the green money gravy train cartel that control the climate narrative, energy and food policy and more. The west is falling because of this. We need to drop every and any policy around green house emissions and focus on reliable, effective, cheap energy sources to power industry, agriculture and heat and light our homes. We need to extract fossil fuels locally where possible to reduce our dependance on global supply chains, and manufacture at home to make jobs and boost our economy. No more Net Zero nonsense. Gas, Coal, Oil and Nuclear are the ONLY way forwards for the foreseeable future. Wind and Solar will ruin us and depending on foreign gas/oil suppliers is a dangerous game which we must end now.
July 20, 2023
D. B, , ++++. Absolutely! This neurotic nonsensical pursuit of the unachievable (a look at those who promoted and champion it should tell us everything, . . . . and those who voted for it in the house . . . ) is ruining the country and utterly perverting the once good sense of the populace.
Polite debate achieves NOTHING.
Firm and confident rebuttal from now on, please
July 20, 2023
We need a gathering of information minus zealots on the subject of energy to put before government a coherent plan. A plan based on what we are trying to achieve. The plan must be within our scientific and engineering capability, commercially viable and acceptable to the buying public as they are the ones who ultimately pay. Each fuel element should be judged in the raw, free of tax, free of subsidy. It is only then that we can make realistic comparisons and ultimately choices.
Then when you have got the choices ask the people what they are prepared to pay for via a referendum. Look upon it as a menu from which the diner makes choices and pays the bill. Politics has nothing to do with this it is a dietary choice based on fact. It leaves the JSO anarchists glued to the floor eating quinoa.
.
July 20, 2023
“The investment task to replace all the current oil and gas based activities and put in enough reliable electrical power is colossal.”
Indeed, especially when it may not comprise “investment” at all, only the squanderous subsidy of products and services that may not be wanted at all, particularly when it appears to be government policy that electricity should remain indefinitely dear.
July 20, 2023
āIf you take into account the different levels of emissions in extracting the gas, in compressing it, in transporting it as a cold liquid and then converting it back it could as much as seven times as much CO 2 is produced by all these processes.ā
The rejection of the argument that using our own North Sea gas reduces overall CO2 emissions is yet another proof that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are not the real reason for our unilateral implementation of Net Zero.
Two other examples are that the activists have no issue with China and India burning 8 billion tonnes of coal each year and they advocate closing down nuclear, the only low CO2 emission power that is affordable, reliable and abundant.
There is no climate emergency and Net Zero is a scam.
July 20, 2023
+1
July 20, 2023
The world population has increased to about 8 billion consumers of energy.
Why doesnāt energy saving in reproduction come first?
July 20, 2023
Ask that Net Zero Zealot, Boris Johnson!
July 20, 2023
āThere is no way we will have enough people with electric heating or electric cars by 2030 or nearly enough grid capacity to power them to do without much of the oil and gas we currently need to stay warm and to get about.ā
They know this.
The plan is to introduce communism through de-industrialisation, impoverishment and restrictions.
Pol Pot were the last to try this and we all know how that ended.
July 20, 2023
āThe UK needs to improve our energy security and self sufficiency.ā
We will have no energy security when we are relying on wind turbines, solar panels and the minerals, if not the actual devices themselves, for motors, generators, batteries and cabling all supplied by China, a country described by our security services as āhostileā.
If it was considered strategically unsafe to allow Huawei to supply all our telecommunications equipment, why is it considered not unsafe for all our energy infrastructure?
July 20, 2023
Renewables are not only the most expensive form of energy but because of unreliability require an alternative, parallel power system running for grid stability and long-term back-up when the wind isnāt blowing and the sun isnāt shining.
Batteries and hydrogen to store energy are far too expensive, so we are left with CCUS which uses gas very inefficiently.
Hence the closing down of our North Sea gas is designed to not only make CCUS even more expensive, it is also to make our energy even more insecure.
Note that nuclear, the only affordable, reliable and abundant source of low CO2 emission power is being phased out. In 1997 nuclear provided 26% of our electricity. By the decarbonisation date of 2035 (2030 is the Labour plan) the percentage will be in the low single figures.
July 20, 2023
John, your analysis that importing LNG rather than usi g local resources is wasteful, more costly and creates higher emissions is correct. As someone working at the heart of the energy transformation and qualified in both climate, energy and regulation however, I remain frustraited that CO2 and GHGs feature at all in our taxation, subsidies and business regulations at all. The more we restrict fossil fuels and impose inferior technologies the more the costs of their deficiencies come through the system to the consumer until unafordability, unreliability and ineffectiveness for the needs cases starts to deny our businesses, households and industry of critical capabilities and impoverish us all. End Net Zero and promote a Fossil Fuel and nuclear based future. To save us, save our economy,save our way of life and the planet. Net Zero will destroy the West and harms the planet.
July 20, 2023
Sorry for the multiple posts. Your blog site kept saying that my post had been blocked – but they have now all appeared
July 20, 2023
Perhaps the āāfarage factorāā
July 20, 2023
D.B., and your posts are worth the read, no need to apologise
July 20, 2023
Family member just upgraded their central heating system replacing the old 35 year old gas boiler with a new gas condensing boiler that will also work with a hydrogen mix (if the supply system is ever developed fully) all other elements of the system upgraded too, with a new water cylinder, pumps, valves, control system, etc etc
Will it save them money and be more efficient, yes over time, but the VAT element of the bill Ā£705.16 rather hurts !
I wonder will the new boiler and system run for 35 years like the old one ?,
No chance !
July 20, 2023
Indeed newer means more complex and usually less reliable but perhaps up to 10% more in energy. But then if they have to repair and service it in a diesel van much more often does it really save money or even energy?
July 20, 2023
Thereās a sprightly old dame who lives under a windmill
No land left for houses so thatās where she lives still
She scrimps and she saves to pay for her heating
But she has to choose..is it heating or eating?.
Thereās not enough wind to keep us all warm
And the sails blow up when thereās a storm.
Delightful prospect!
July 20, 2023
Perhaps she can eat all the dead raptors, insects and other bats & birds that fall down after being killed the the wind turbine blades and their pressure waves.
July 20, 2023
+++
Yes!
Brilliant idea.
Is that Green or Circular I wonder?
Very neat anywayā¦sort of Manna from Heaven!
July 20, 2023
What you are stating here is self evident Sir John. You do not have to think very long to realise that much of the Net-Zero theology is actually doing more damage than good – both to CO2 levels and to our economy. So why don’t our current crop of Politicians stand up and say so? They clearly don’t think it would pay them to do so or perhaps it would offend some other powerful vested interests.
As we used to say in the Army, Bulls**t Baffles Brains – and it seems they prefer to just BS us….
July 20, 2023
+many
July 20, 2023
Do you grow your own vegetables in your garden, refuse to pick them, let them rot in the ground, and then go to the supermarket and buy the same goods.
No of course not, but that is in effect exactly what the Government is doing .
Clueless, absolutely clueless, all because someone wants to tick a box somewhere !
July 20, 2023
Then you add in the push for BEVās, what was the first question that should have been asked ā where does the electricity come from? Then in the case of car batteries were does the lithium and cobalt come from? There is not enough to go around in the World, repeat there is not enough.
The acute shortage of affordable electricity was known about 13 years ago when the Conservatives got power. It goes back further when Gordon Brown to support his banking buddies sold off the UK Nuclear Industry saying there was no future for it in the UK.
UK Governments have been deluding themselves for years, they make their virtue signal speech but are never hones about the consequences.
The first order of Government is to keep those that voted and pay them safe, in order to do that their has to be a vibrant, self reliant and resilient economy. Not suggesting its not hard work but it is that simple.
July 20, 2023
From the Media(The Telegraph)
āthe bankās managing director and head of private and commercial clients, described herself as a āRemainerā and said she believed Brexit had damaged the economy. ā
āThe 50-year-old, who sits on Couttsā executive committee, has embraced its pivot towards saving the planet and putting diversity at the heart of the business.ā
What ever way you dress up today’s phrases, inclusion, diversity and so on, they are nothing more than pure out out Discrimination. By there very definition they have to be.
This Conservative Government should not permit these bodies anywhere there is Taxpayer money floating around. It is not to far removed to suggest this Conservative Government is promoting discrimination, promoting it big time. Where next? Who next? Who gets to define freedoms and thoughts? And why is it up to petty self opinionated individuals.
It starts with the elected house and its Government, is it a UniParty cabal of discrimination and persecution, or a bastion of freedoms and democracy? It cant be both. The HoC defines our on going constitution.
In the US, this form of discrimination has been declared by their highest Courts as illegal and unconstitutional. There is something to be said about those English Guys that fled oppression over here and insured it wouldnāt happen over there in their new US.
July 20, 2023
Ian B,
A belated apology from Coutts with a suggestion Farage could open an account at Nat West ( not even reinstatement of his original accounts with Coutts!)
Itās not over until the fat lady resigns.
July 20, 2023
I don’t understand why the board has not resigned en-masse.
Perhaps the majority shareholder needs to intervene and metaphorically demand heads must roll.
Maybe they are waiting for a boycott, to gather pace.
The policies are only being implemented this way as cover for a global marxist totalitarian state enforced order. Who might be behind the puppets, being nothing more than controlled foreign assets.
July 20, 2023
@anon. The largest shareholder UK government, policy comes from PM Rishi. You could say the WEF Socialist therefore have things sewn up
July 20, 2023
Its your government and party policy to stop fracking for shale gas !
July 20, 2023
The Net Zero aims by 2030 are both mad and unachievable so why has this government pushed for them? This wasn’t in their election manifesto. There must be another reason and I can only think the WEF Agenda 2030 is part of it.
July 20, 2023
We should now seriously invest in fusion, because the technology will be ready for grid inclusion by 2032.
Water vapour is 200 times more effective as a greenhouse gas compared to CO2, there is no climate emergency or prospect of human extinction due to climate.
We should be extracting our own oil and gas by fracking, drilling and mining coal, we must be energy independent and supply our industry and citizens with affordable plentiful energy.
Our aim should be human flourishing not the sterile, infantile untouchable virgin āmother earthā
July 20, 2023
Would you have any reference that fusion technology will be ready for grid inclusion by 2032. Thanks in advance.
July 20, 2023
Geothermal power is ready now.
July 20, 2023
Install a few giant hamster wheels attached to national grid into migrant hotels.
July 20, 2023
But economic geothermal is very limited in extent. The Eden Project recently renewed their geothermal operation, drilling a new deep well over 3 miles. Fracking produced some seismicity detected at the surface. The cost was Ā£24m for about 5GWh a year, most of it in subsidies including Ā£15.7m from the EU. At a price of Ā£100/MWh (very expensive for a gas supply of that size) you are looking at a 48 year payback.
July 20, 2023
The BBC weather reporter this morning begrudgingly stated that the temperature was āābelowāā the norms for this time of year ā¦.he really didnāt look well saying it, they need high temperatures to justify their attacks on co2 and the world policy of net-zero
July 20, 2023
A big government, with all decisions centralised by the unaccountable is the style of governance now being imposed on us. They don’t take into account other-views, but persist with their intentions.
HMG has already published what their intentions are, which includes closing down airports, reducing power consumption and stopping shipping.
If no ships can be allowed into the UK, then those imports we currently get will become scarce, like oil and coal.… but still they will refuse us using the energy sources we have.
By now, it should be clear to everyone, that these intentions are destructive and not even close to being justifiable by the alleged changes in weather.
While HMG impose ever tighter restrictions on the UK, our world shrinks, the unelected and the powerful become more powerful, while we suffer oppressive governance by those that have no morals and no love of planet Earth.
July 20, 2023
Only one conclusion that I can see – they are doing it on purpose because they don’t want the UK to be successful outside the EU and offend their masters at the WEF. What other conclusion can one sensibly come up with?
July 20, 2023
Certainly all the Sunakās bonkers policies of over tax, over spend, over regulate, NetZero, renewables, currency debase, block the roads, a war on landlords and small businesses are all hugely anti-growth.
July 20, 2023
difficult to argue with that conclusion!
July 20, 2023
Westminster has never changed course even when it knows its wrong.
July 20, 2023
major frustration :
Correct, which is why those who do not want Net Zero undemocratically and ruthlessly imposed upon them absolutely must not vote Con/Lab/Lib Dem/Green at any election ever again.
Destroy your ballot paper with a suitable message instead if no suitable candidate offered.
July 20, 2023
@majorfrustration. – they are not allowed too, you might get to vote for them, but they don’t serve or work for you or the country
July 20, 2023
The basic problem is our over-population and the knock on effect . We cannot sustain all of the requirements that are needed in a land mass that is far too small for its people . There are thousands of illegals here who should be exported – that would be just a start ; the attraction of our education system is another blot . Our economic state is not going to change soon enough to cater for the costs of maintaining a reasonable standard of life for several years and having to deal with any level of unnecessary population is beyond comprehension .
July 20, 2023
Bert
Not just this Country but worldwide too.
But at least we could do something in our own Country, but so far the politicians are happy for hundreds of thousands of extra people a year to arrive here, some without any form of identity, others because they will work for less than those already here.
They have No will, so no way will it change.
We will eventually have shortages of everything but people.
July 20, 2023
As I write (10:30 hrs) the 28 GW of installed wind power is producing just 1.5 GW.
So thereās no point in quadrupling wind to give us a totally inadequate 6 GW.
There is no plan for storage because it is too expensive.
So either we use gas very inefficiently and expensively using CCUS or live with intermittent power and ādemand managementā controlled by whoever controls the smart meters.
Which option can we expect to be selected by the communists in control of our energy policy?
July 20, 2023
With Vattenfall having announced today that they are suspending work on the Boreas wind project (current strike price value $45.37/MWh) because their costs have escalated 40% and it is no longer economic, the whole wind policy is now thrown into disarray. This is an AR4 wind farm, entitled to ignore its CFD in just the same way as Hornsea 2 and Moray East have done, not thinking it can compete on a market price basis. The delivery pipeline for new capacity is extending.
There is an urgent need for fast build gas capacity. Indeed, British Gas has already opined that there may be a shortage of gas fuelled generation capacity this winter, which is no surprise in the light of coal closures and risks of early nuclear closures for end of life power stations. If wind is much more expensive than the government’s policy assumptions the policy needs revisiting, especially since it also appears to entail a Ā£200bn investment programme by National Grid on the transmission network – TWO HS2s! – plus a similar or greater spend on the distribution network at lower voltages.
July 20, 2023
Agreed Sir John.
It is a pity that there is no effective questioning in the HoC on these matters.
July 20, 2023
I wonder Sir John, whether you have prepared a suitable discussion for tomorrow, in your usual manner inviting comment ? Possibly not easy to hide a ‘bad news day’.
As always your readers will be keen to learn of your reaction, assuming results are known.
11.25
July 20, 2023
I think the comments in recent weeks and the topics and policy suggestions at this site already reveal the truth that the government is seriously off course. The election results will merely serve to confirm that. Today’s article and discussion is a case in point.
July 20, 2023
So you are having meetings & discussions with these experts, but why are the PM & Chancellor not meeting them as well?
Why are a majority of Conservative MPs not informing themselves as well, & meeting the same experts?
It seems our current government & MPs on both sides of the house refuse to face facts. Even a nasty war going on in Ukraine does not seem to wake them from their slumbers. Why build two energy systems because one is unreliable? Put all the money into the safe, reliable system which guarantees cheap, reliable energy. Maybe today’s results will wake them up, but nothing else has!
July 20, 2023
Governments plan to reduce co2 by stealth with policies of net-zero ā a new housing development close to me with 100 detached houses, built with no off road parking, no garages and so close that you couldnāt drive a car between them, they don’t want you to own a car ā¦āwatch out the tories are aboutā
July 20, 2023
@gen cullen. Personal transport is reserved for the WEF elite
July 20, 2023
Ps. The EU knew exactly what they were doing when they referred to the Falkland Islands as the Malvinas in an official document !
July 20, 2023
Glen yes everybody knows they were called Malvinas by the Spanish long before being taken by the British in 1833 ‘ if the Europeans EU now decide to revert back to the earlier name nothing much we can do – it’s all about EU getting good trade relations with the region.
July 20, 2023
Given that this came out of a report between the EU and the 33 CELAC countries (Comunidad de Estados Latinamericanos y Caribenos, eg Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, ie, mainly Spanish-speaking countries), where the Falkland Islands are the only bit in Central and South America one not participating, is it so surprising that the Spanish acronym had been used?
Could this be the usual storm in a UK tea cup from the usual suspects to please their ādumb as multiple postā supporters? No, they wouldnāt be so daft? Oh yes, they are.
July 20, 2023
So the EU gets to make all the decisions and two fingers to a sovereign nation
July 20, 2023
As I reported on July 17th, Dr John Clauser, Physics Nobel Laureate, has made a vital contribution to the climate debate by establishing that any effects of heat transfer associated with changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide are nearly two orders of magnitude smaller than those associated with light’s interactions with cumulus cloud. This in effect pulls the rug completely from under the manufactured debate over carbon dioxide, manufactured deliberately to exclude the paramount role of atmospheric water vapour.
https://co2coalition.org/publications/nobel-laureate-john-clauser-elected-to-co2-coalition-board-of-directors/
July 20, 2023
I betcha that when the tories lose the three bi elections today, and theyāll still plough forward with net-zero, killing off the car, allowing ULEZ, 15 minute cities, and high taxation & high immigration
July 20, 2023
YES – All part of the Globalist UK Establishment NWO plan
July 20, 2023
+1
July 20, 2023
@glen – would it change anything, one Socialist Party is the same as the others
July 20, 2023
Is Sunak going to resign if he losers the 3 bi-elections
July 20, 2023
no, no and no.
July 20, 2023
Of course not. But he’ll tell us he’s stopping the boats …… when over 1000 criminal migrants have entered the country in the last 2 days.
July 20, 2023
OddsChecker
Uxbridge and South Ruislip – 1/6 Labour favourite
Selby and Ainsty – 2/9 Labour favourite
Somerton and Frome – 1/50 LibDem favourite
July 20, 2023
economist.com, 19/07/2023, āAre the current heatwaves evidence that climate change is speeding up?ā
July 20, 2023
No, weāre just seeing weather with some areas cooler than average (eg Northern Europe/U.K.) and some parts warmer than average (southern Europe) as a result of the position of the jet stream holding the heat energy to the south that would normally be spreading further north.
The satellite data of the whole planet shows global temperature increasing at just 0.13 degrees C per decade and using the IPCCās own methodology there has been no warming for the last 8 years.
There is no climate emergency and itās a scam.
For a start, perhaps those who believe in anthropogenic global warming may like to explain the warming of the planet 20,000 years ago which brought us out of the last ice age.
July 20, 2023
Oh yes. That little forgotten fact of repeated ice ages over millions of years and in between …… climate change. Who’d thunk it.
July 23, 2023
OR, nature.com, āGlobal warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during the last deglaciationā, J.D.Shakun et al., doi:10.1038/nature10915, 05/04/2012, vol.484, p.49-54.
Hope you have a good reading.
July 20, 2023
Hefner – HAARP
July 20, 2023
According to the BBC weather it doesnāt matter if itās a heat-wave, normal conditions or a cold spell ā¦.its all climate change
July 20, 2023
No it is just summer in the northern hemisphere.
July 20, 2023
Measuring the temperature of the ground surface instead of the temperature inside a properly sited Stevenson screen seems to be the latest wheeze designed to try to convince us that things are warming up rapidly. Since there is only a very limited historical record of such temperatures, new records can be expected regularly. Moreover, on sunny days there can be a huge difference between the temperature of the ground and the temperature of the air. The ground is directly absorbing energetic UV and visible solar radiation which is passing through the air unhindered. This attempt to scam the public has been unearthed. The heat in the Med is really only a bit warmer than normal rather than being at record levels.
July 21, 2023
Satellites can only measure radiances coming out of the surface from which surface temperature is inferred. UV radiation at the surface is only UV-A ( between 0.315 and 0.400 micrometer). UV-A at the surface represents roughly 5% of the total solar radiation reaching the surface (typically 164 W/m^2 annually globally averaged total solar radiation at the surface, and about 8 W/m^2 for this UV-A).
UV-B (0.28-0.315 Ī¼m) and UV-A (0.10-0.28 Ī¼m) are absorbed in the stratosphere and upper troposphere by oxygen O2 and ozone O3.
BTW, surface is also heated by the near-infrared part of the solar radiation (between 0.7 and 2.5 Ī¼m) for about 50% of the total solar radiation reaching the surface.
Operational meteorological satellites have been doing that for more than 40 years starting in 1978. Is that a very limited historical record?
July 21, 2023
Yes. We know it was hot in the 1930s. In Death Valley there was record heat in 1913. The CET record shows four warmer years for June than 2023 in the pre satellite era. Satellite coverage has in any case been variable and not always able to record the lower layers. Your radiation data are hardly relevant for spot temperature measures. In a clear sky some 1,000W/sq m reach the ground with the sun high in the sky. It’s what solar PV relies on.
July 22, 2023
UAH satellite data measures the temperature of the troposphere not ground temperature.
July 23, 2023
UAH is the University of Alabama in Huntsville, they do not run satellites. You must be referring to the Microwave Sounding Unit data from radiometers embarked on various NOAA and NASA satellites as analysed by Prof. Christy and Spencer.
The latest report for June 2023 is available at nsstc.uah.edu āGlobal temperature reportā, which indeed relates to āthe temperature of the troposphere not ground temperatureā.
July 20, 2023
There’s been a plethora of “We need…” articles on the subject of energy policy.
They all say much the same. The overall feeling is of backbench MP impotence – so it would be really good to see something said about how to achieve this politically, instead of being purely in terms of economics and technology.
If a backbench MP of the party of government feels constrained to pull his punches on the politics… then perhaps we’re all wasting our time. Would he be expelled from the party for criticising CCHQ’s selection of wet Lib Dem remoaners? Perhaps… Bridgen seemed to be booted for less.
July 20, 2023
The first line sums it up – Yesterday i met with some experts……
July 20, 2023
297 in 6 small boats yesterday
July 20, 2023
The cricket ended on 384 for 4…
July 20, 2023
committees.parliament.uk 21/06/2021 āThe Global Warming Policy Forum – Written evidence (ONZ0030)ā