The Uk imports too much energy, making us reliant on the goodwill of foreigners. All parties to the election should renounce the mad carbon accounting which says if you use your own gas you are adding to world CO 2 but if you import the energy you are not. The import model increases world CO 2, costs us lost jobs, means we do not get the large tax revenues on extracting the gas and undermines our energy security.
Labour has come under fire from its own side for ruling out new oil and gas fields. I side with the Unions who say it makes sense to create the jobs and extract the energy at home.
The idea that setting up a Great British Energy nationalised company would solve our shortages and lower prices is wrong. If you wanted to do this there would need to be a huge expansion in grid capacity to accommodate the switch to electricity. There would need to be plenty of new back up gas fired power stations for when the wind did not blow, or plant for large scale production of hydrogen to fuel home boilers and vehicles. Our current nationalised industries send huge bills to the taxpayer to cover their losses, legal claims against them and their investment programmes.
The Conservatives now say they are net zero realists. They see a need for a rapid roll out of nuclear, a more reliable source of low carbon power. They want more home oil and gas. They need to adjust policies on roll out of EVs, heat pumps and smart meters to reflect consumer choices and realities.
Greens and Lib Dems live in a slogan world where a windmill is the answer to every problem and comes with lower bills. Dream on.
May 25, 2024
Good morning.
The current government and political party will, and can, only be judged by past results. How do people here think they have done ?
I see that many of Sir John’s colleagues have also decided to move on. Alas this ‘wind of change’ will not make those expensive to run wind turbines pay their way.
May 25, 2024
Indeed judge them by their actions. The Tories are almost as bonkers on net zero and energy as Labour, just a tiny touch on the brakes at best is the only difference. Both are deluded, scientifically ignorant and mad.
JR says “The Conservatives now say they are net zero realists” any net zero realist would abandon this insane policy completely and get out energy levels down to US prices (about 1/3 of ours). Cheap reliable energy is vital to be able to compete in nearly all areas.
So VAT on school fees and lets destroy the private lettings industry & Greta disciple, the daft socialist, english graduate Gove is stepping down. So too is let’s force NHS workers to take these net harm Covid vaccines (after their duff trials) even if they have had covid or are too young to be at any risk anyway and Leadsom who threw the towel in to make us suffer the dreadful let’s kill Brexit Theresa May. If you recall Andrea Leadsom apologised to Theresa May after suggesting being a mother made her a better candidate for prime minister. Why apologise for that a stuffed teddy bear would have been better than Net Zero loon & let’s kill Brexit Theresa May?
May 25, 2024
Massive problem where this “touchy feely” stuff trumps common sense every time. What a relief to see the KCs last week laying into the incompetence of Post Office management! How did the blob let these brilliant guys loose to eviscerate the management style of “manage-up” and”cover-up”? Such a shame similar forensic enquiries weren’t allowed for May’s Brexit, RBS debanking or Harding/Sunak-funded test and trace, as all of these had similar characteristics.
Reply Yes, 20 years late questions being asked about treatment of sub postmasters. I am still the only one also asking questions as how the PO management at the same time as taking money from sub postmasters lost taxpayers an astonishing £1400 million!Being nationalised they got bonuses for wiping out all the PO capital they inherited!
May 25, 2024
Come Thursday nobody in Parliament will ask.
We need to demand answers via a powerful lobby outside Parliament.
May 25, 2024
Hopefully people will realise Starmer is as useless, two faced and dishonest as Sunak so new voting forces change. We want Brexit delivered.
Reform for me.
May 25, 2024
Indeed & 40 years late for the contaminated blood scandal. So when will the scandal of the net harm covid vaccines come out? 2050 or so? A scandal far larger (circa 50 times larger) than the blood contamination one. These the vaccines the Sunak lied to us and the house that they are “unequivocally safe”. Yet he expects us to vote for him and his party.
May 25, 2024
How about the barristers, courts, m8 inters and MPs, like Ed Davey! The volume should have rung alarm bells that something was wrong.
Let us hope Vennels and co is prosecuted as robustly as post masters for Misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice. Let us also accept quota appointments do not work, scrap S.172 Company Act, DEI and ESG.
May 25, 2024
+1
May 25, 2024
Inheritance tax against Tory values, says Hunt
“Chancellor says death duties are ‘profoundly anti-Conservative’ and pledges tax breaks for middle-classes“
Osborne and Cameron promised £1 m IHT thresholds back in October 2007 (and net immigration below 100k now 7+ times this rate) it still has not remotely been delivered it is still increasing. The threshold now is still £325k which is only about £200k in real terms.
So Jeremy Hunt what sort of damn fool would trust a word you, Sunak and your “profoundly anti-Conservative Party say? You have done nothing but increase taxes hand over fist. This while you and Sunak both lie that you have actually cut taxes. Is blatant lying not profoundly anti-Conservative too?
May 25, 2024
Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if he had had the chance to abolish it?
He’s looking down the barrel of the electoral gun. We must pull the trigger.
May 25, 2024
Perhaps Labour will pass some laws to change the laws of physics? Maybe also for those of economics? Otherwise their and the Conservative policies are an insane and quick road to ruin.
May 25, 2024
Unfortunately Lifelogic, the Net Zero “enthusiasts” have already made it a religion – so reality no-longer applies.
May 25, 2024
Indeed. I was reading just yesterday how the UN was driving this about 30 years ago with some named individual I forgot, at the behest of…….. China and the poorer nations of the world to ensure wealth transfers from West to East. How could they achieve this???? Climate change was the scam they invented, oh, but it doesn’t apply to CHINA!!! Who’d have thunk it. Why isn’t Greta and all her useful idiots, Just stop Oil etc protesting outside their embassies around the world? Answers on a post card!!!
May 25, 2024
Indeed.
Claire Coutinho has (sort of) a half maths degree and who knows perhaps even a decent physics A level. She has no excuse for pushing this net zero insanity. She must surely understand it is complete lunacy a back of an envelope calculation show it is in 20 mins flat? She even has the job title “Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero” a complete contradiction rather like “Minister for Women and Equality”, or “Minister for ever higher taxes, vast bloated wasteful government and economic growth” it is one or the other – not both.
May 25, 2024
It’s not the laws of physics or economics that are involved,it is about control.
Dostoevsky,as always,the greatest,most timeless of commentators:
“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us:make us your slaves but feed us.”
May 25, 2024
Mark, The Winds of Change are currently blowing stronger in Westminster than across our Isle. Due to low wind speed, wind power generation has been pitiful for the last month, requiring the UK to import up to 20% of electricity and power up more gas fired power stations.
Theoretical UK electricity generation supply is around 3 time higher than normal demand.This shows how little we can rely on renewables. For every gigawatt of new renewable supply we also need a gigawatt of gas or nuclear supply – madness,
May 25, 2024
But it’s never challenged by our media. WHY?
May 26, 2024
Because of their sources of income.
May 25, 2024
For almost 3 weeks the useless windmills have been generating 0
5 to 2.0gw out of an installed capacity of 40gw
Only one day did we have wind up to 10gw. Your government has got us into this position and your solution is to double the number of windmills and solar parks.
National grid want to install 2000 pylons to carry intermittent wind power and cover 0.5% of arable land with mirrors which give an 11% average output.
We all know if you get back in it will be full speed to net zero as you’ve junked every other promise. Why would anyone vote for such chancers.
It’s no good saying Starmergeddon will be worse, that’s probably what the country needs. Take a look at Europe.
May 25, 2024
+1
May 25, 2024
Agree Ian, If we keep adding renewables we need extra gas/nuclear as backup.
Who buys a new unreliable TV and gets a reliable second one as they know the first one will be on the blink a lot?
May 25, 2024
The Tory’s need to be annihilated to understand the foolishness of their ways but they will still have a “One Nation” liberal rump based on current arithmetic. So they’ll remain in denial and it may take longer for radical conservative reform.
May 25, 2024
11% of PV capacity for solar farms is optimistic with clouds, nights, winters, snow, frost, dirt on the panels, panel damage during hail and wind storms, vandalism, thefts, breakdowns, connection issue, the panels deterioration with aging, the energy needed to clean and maintain them… plus you get most of the power at around lunchtime in summer. In the UK, the power is mainly needed for cold winter evenings and it cannot, cost effectively, be stored.
May 25, 2024
@Mark B – i wonder if all those that no longer feel compelled to stand for this Government, actually stood as a new ‘free’ Conservative Party would they become the largest Party in Parliament?
Sunak/Hunt and CCHQ desire and actions to maliciously destroy conservativism for now seem to be working.
But, 5 Year terms in Parliament is far to long and we were not asked. Seeking confirmation/re-election after 4 years was already to long. All those that are pert of our Political setup need to be replaced, we need to get back to being a Democracy.
May 25, 2024
I suspect that a new Labour government would go to the country before its popularity declined too far to secure another term. They will blame failure on what they have inherited. Holding out for 5 years would make little sense.
The alternative might be that they try to use a landslide majority to install a dictatorship. Then we might be grateful for the residual power of the monarchy.
May 25, 2024
There is no residual power retained by the Monarch. They enact stuff as instructed by the PM. The Royal Prerogative is exercised by the PM.
May 25, 2024
The Danish crime figures show people from Middle Eastern, North African, Pakistan and Turkey (MENAPT) commit 4,5,6 times as many crimes as westerners, with the more serious crimes being higher multiples. Japanese, Chinese and Indian commit less. The prisons are full yet Rishi is gaslighting us saying crime has never been lower.
And has ONE politician stood up in Parliament and pointed this out. None.
Almost none of them are worthy of a seat in Parliament. Not one. A small handful who do speak out about other globalist problems are vilified by essentially villainous politicians and civil servants who bring shame and crime on the country.
Unbelievable.
May 25, 2024
+1 and the polices/criminal justice systems failure to take any seeious action on most crimes – shoplifting, burglary, theft, muggins, fraud, car crime, phone thefts, sex crimes… encourages ever more such crime. This even when very clear evidence exists and the offender is know.
Great plan Rishi.
May 25, 2024
The lights are dimmest in the Palace of Westminster. Almost brain-dead in fact.
May 25, 2024
@Lynn Atkinson +1 – for the most part worse the doctrine of malicious punishment and containment of those that don’t share their Socialist do as I say demands has gone to far. they have trashed Government. Parliament and Society
May 25, 2024
I agree with your analysis except for describing the Conservatives as “net zero realists”. If they were they would abandon all references to net zero policies. All the parties you identify are trapped in the net zero bubble. It is a political construct that is beggaring the nation. None will get my vote.
May 25, 2024
Indeed any “net zero realist” who understood physics, climate, economics & energy would ditch net zero immediately and say sorry for all the money wasted and harms inflicted so far.
May 25, 2024
Unfortunately, Lifelogic…. the petition asking for the Climate Change Act and net zero goals to be halted – has died, because of the election, and will not be picked up after the election.
The explanation about why the Act won’t be dropped was the usual drivel.
May 25, 2024
Agreed, but it would be too much humble pie and would take decades for credibility to be restored. That’s why we need REFORM!
May 25, 2024
Tories are not realists on net stupid, they called Miliband Red Ed and his energy policy Marxist! Treacherous May stated they would implement and build on it. Now they are forcing lockstep to EU energy policy based on environment level playing field! They are, once more, selling out the nation to the EU. Both exactly the same.
Reform is the only change on offer. Vote with your feet.
May 25, 2024
Reform means we can never sack a government agains and no party need even try to enact its manifesto.
They are seriously dangerous. Even Bridgen left them.
May 26, 2024
Bridgen was never in the Reform Party.
He briefly joined the Reclaim Party and then became an Independent.
May 25, 2024
See the excellent article “ The green energy net-zero plan will require a command economy
And several technological impossibilities, and a massive drop in living standards” by
MICHAEL KELLY in the Telegraph a while back.
Michael Kelly is Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, of the Royal Academy of Engineering, of the Royal Society of New Zealand, of the Institute of Physics and of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, as well as Senior Member of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the USA.
May 25, 2024
Well put, David.
May 25, 2024
Net Zero showed parliamentary law making at it’s worst. Not properly debated, not properly costed, no comprehension of the effects, or science. It was policy and then law by simple virtue signalling and dogma. Hand-wringing, pearl-clutching, TV appearance begging clap-trap.
At least Sir J. went to listen to Prof. Judith Curry. Did you see any other MP’s there Sir J.? Now you have time, why not be the Anti-NZ campaign leader?
May 25, 2024
JR had a really good almost rallying article in the Telegraph yesterday.
I did mention it but comment didn’t get published.
I also mentioned the fact that my window cleaner thinks that Sunak will win…which for sanity’s sake I see as a very good sign. A working man NOT supporting Starmer.
Anyway…tories are now up by 3 points.
People are maybe now recognising the terrifying prospect of a Labour govt.
You see…a window cleaner is a VERY important weather vane….he meets and talks to so many people.
May 25, 2024
@ Everhopeful
And post ladies! My one is very wise, astute and knowledgeable!
May 25, 2024
They bring the world to our doors…
And share their daily observations with us
My postman said that he thought it funny the Horizon scandal ran concurrently with massive post office debt and closures. I really don’t know what he could have meant.
Still…you know what they say about wise robins.
May 25, 2024
Where has this pragmatic realism about energy been this past ten years Sir John? It is a bit late now we are in a six week pre election period to tell us the Net Zero zealotry adopted by the Tory administration was wrong.
WE the actual consumers have been telling government that for the past anti fossil fuel driven era but you refused to listen What has changed….?
May 25, 2024
As far as I know nothing changed.
JR has always been sceptical.
He even wrote a book about it.
May 25, 2024
No more towing the party line when released from the purgatory of party collective responsibility. It should be interesting to see how John’s views and thoughts change from MP mindset to post-MP mindset.
And NZ? A flogged to death issue no doubt whose authoritarian prescriptions will be fully endorsed by rancid Labour. Climate change sceptics will be criminalised and imprisoned which will in itself reveal the true fascist face of the climate change movement.
IT IS NEVER ABOUT WHAT THEY SAY IT’S ABOUT
Let’s hope John uses his liberation from the purgatory and bedlam of Parliament to express his REAL THOUGHTS on many issues
May 25, 2024
I very much rely on this blog because it seems to me to be a voice of utter reason in a totally mad world. An anchor for the sane?
An MP would always have to work within certain constraints surely?
And any webmaster has to answer to (international/digital/whatever law??).
But as you imply…the best is yet to come.
A butterfly unfurling its wings?
May 25, 2024
From freedom cometh clarity untrameld by group think. We were pretty clear where you stood while you were in Parliament, but whip free you leave no doubt, it must be a great relief. Your first entry is bang on the money.
What I would like you to do would be to unravel the cats cradle of the energy bill to households and our industry, that results in us all paying three times as much as the USA pays for home extracted energy. If bought from a World source I can accept you pay the World going rate, but from home sources no. Up to that point after extraction, give or take, like for like, World cost are much the same. Was it as told to me, to placate the EU.
You could also expose who are the beneficiaries of the so called green levy. Who is being bribed with our money to grow windmills and solar farms.
If you accept Labours political statements at face value, they intend no extraction of home energy at all. Ergo, Great British Energy will buy energy created or extracted in other parts of the World, buy it at the going rate, but “Just like that”, UK consumers will get it at a much cheaper rate than at present. The magic dust can only be more taxation in reality if not in name, displaced from the energy bill. GBE will be the new retirement home for redundant Labour “jubilados”.
You have started well, keep at it. I sense a new book, exposee, coming on. I am sure you could find a welcome slot on GBNews. My kindest best wishes for the future.
May 25, 2024
Energy Debate. The motion is “This House Supports and will Impose Net Zero.”
Speaking in favour: The Labour Party
Speaking favour: The Not-a-Conservative-Party
Motion passed. No debate necessary or allowed.
May 25, 2024
Oh that’s good! Funny and scary at the same time.
How easily they embraced the madness.
Like that fable about the bloke helping a snake across a river.
Snake killed him of course.
Left wing like a “viper in the bosom”.
May 25, 2024
So now we understand they modelled this climate change/global warming on the flat earth society and those still searching for Unicorns, Dragons in Wales, want to meet Father Christmas and believe in the tooth fairy! I have a bridge for sale!!
May 25, 2024
Some interesting, positive, facts about renewable energy
In the 2023/24 winter heating season, power generated by wind, hydro and solar is estimated by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit power tracker to have reached 55TWh, 10TWh more than the 45TWh’s generated by gas power stations across the UK.
With or without new licenses, the North Sea will continue its inevitable decline, so we will need to import ever greater quantities of gas from abroad – unless we cut our demand by rolling out more renewables
Once you take out the Energy Generator Levy, UK renewable electricity is 60% cheaper than CCGT
National Grid has announced that it will accelerate 10GW of battery storage projects, with 20-30GW more storage capacity expected to connect by 2030
The current first-come-first-served queuing system where a renewable project must have all the appropriate financing before joining the queue has resulted in many ‘zombie’ projects which have been delaying renewable projects by up to ten years
In winter 2023/24 October – March the wind failed to blow on only 5 days. We do not need extra CCGT plant, the EU interconnectors have ample capacity to make up any shortfall. The lights stayed on.
Reply Usual wishful thinking and wonky costings. You do need to include the cost of subsidies and back up power in the cost of wind
May 25, 2024
Who funds the Energy and Climate Intelligence unit? Here’s what they say: ‘All of our funding comes from philanthropic foundations and donors. We gratefully acknowledge support from the European Climate Foundation , the Meliore Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation and the Environmental Funders Network . ECIU embraces equality, diversity and inclusion.’ They are reporting factoids that will keep their donors happy, and the public in the dark.
May 25, 2024
Well Sakara Gold, if you understood anything about energy your post might be worth the time it took to write.
I particularly like your belief that a big battery and an ever bigger battery will provide the security all uninterrupted electricity supply should be.
One point you need to understand about electricity. Stating only the GW power rating, tells us nothing the definition/measurement you have to use to be meaningful is GWh.
When you have got your head around that come back and try again.
May 25, 2024
Spot on Rod. I read somewhere that current UK battery storage capacity could power the UK for around a minute and a half. Batteries are not the answer.
May 25, 2024
Batteries consumer about 20-25% of their throughput which averages barely over 5% of capacity, and must be replaced roughly every decade. They generate nothing at all, but they have become a necessary cost and adjunct to wind and solar and tidal stream installations in order to smooth the flickery output caused by wind gusts, clouds, waves and wind and current shear and perhaps to join in on intra day storage in competition with pumped storage schemes. Trying to justify battery durations beyond two hours is economically hard. Battery revenues have collapsed as market prices have become less volatile and competition to provide ancillary services has increased. If we take 30GW/60GWh the added cost will be over £3bn a year that was never needed before, and it will probably end up having to be subsidised to maintain availability.
May 25, 2024
SK you write absolute nonesense and fail to mention the 20% energy we import from hostile states. Add that and your figures become bunkum.
You really should sign up to a physics course.
May 25, 2024
Whilst there is no means of storing electrical power from renewables, we will always need a 100% back up system. Relying on our enemies who have already blackmailed us more than once over electricity provision is total madness and a continuing act of stupidity against our national security priorities as is the provision of defence against invaders and food. We must vote Tory as Labour is worse…………….said no one, ever, except the Tory’s!!
May 25, 2024
SG :
Over the last 25 days since 01/05/2024 the 28 GW of installed wind power has generated an average of 3.7 GW (min 0.2 GW, max 12.5 GW) when the average demand has been 25.5 GW. Renewables simply cannot exist without dispatchable backup which is either hydrocarbon, or, according to the Royal Society’s ‘Large-Scale Electricity Storage Report’ (LSESR), hydrogen, which would double the price of electricity even accepting their guesses that electrolyser efficiency and wind turbine capacity factors will double by 2050.
The units for electricity storage are GWhrs not GWs which is a unit of power. Note that the Royal Society’s LSESR says that we need 50 TWhrs (e) storage so GWhrs is totally insufficient.
BTW, I say that renewables cannot exist without dispatchable backup but of course this assumes that reliable, always available at the flick of a switch (to coin a phrase) is required as opposed to meagre supplies of expensive and chaotically intermittent electricity as would be expected for a third world country
May 25, 2024
SK think about a typical lightning stike to try to understand the difference between energy and power. Total energy of a stike is about 1.2 Giga Joules, average power circa 40 Terawatts but only for circa 30 micro seconds. 1.2 GJoules of energy is about 330 KWH (circa £1000 of electricity in the UK or £300 in countries with more a sensible energy policies).
May 25, 2024
I agree with your analysis Sir John.
Present technology must push us towards nuclear but, the nieve political drive is towards unreliable windmills and solar.
As time passes, more and more of the population is taken in by the eco nutters. Children are taught climate change and some are now suffering anxiety through fear of being cooked by the warming planet. This is, in my opinion, child abuse.
Hardly a program on The BBC airs without some warning or mention of how much worse things will get because of climate change. The world has gone mad.
May 25, 2024
An academic and well reasoned approach as ever but it will not make a scintilla of difference to voting intentions.
When you have the likes of Gove et al moving on it is obvious they do not believe they can keep their seats or are not prepared to put up with the ‘drudge’ of opposition including working with Sunak.
Our host excepted because he has made earned his retirement through his contribution over decades, albeit I do not believe he would have moved on if he thought a Tory government possible, this highlights the total self serving and egotistical nature of politicians.
Leave before they are pushed so they can spin it was their choice or if re elected have to work without power.
Does anyone believe The arrogant Gove, wedded to the drug of politics would have walked if he thought he could sustain his ego with an important role.
Heaven forbid any of these should stay and fight proclaiming loudly their belief in the cause and the future so if they don’t believe in it, why should the public?
Instead, gutless they ran away. A metaphor for the Conservative administration over the decades starting with the jelly back boned entitled Cameron.
May 25, 2024
Nigl
Indeed if Gove had not knifed Boris in the back we would have not had to suffer Mrs May and a Brexit surrender Fiasco, things may have played out much better, and much sooner for the UK.
Was not a huge Boris fan, but at least he had some vision and drive.
May 25, 2024
Yes, had Johnson not been looking in the wrong direction and driving away from Brexit and toward Global power, he would have been very good. I like a lazy PM, the less they do the more I like it.
May 26, 2024
I expect to see Gove, Hunt, Damian Green and other treacherous pretend-conservatives elevated to the House of Frauds, where they’ll fit right in with the other leeches who have done so much to destroy the Not-a-Conservative-Party and the country.
May 25, 2024
Energy powers virtually everything that is produced, performs services and moves. Consequently its policy is one of the most important matters to set on the right path for national security, business, transport, economic prosperity, heating and comfort.
May 25, 2024
Exactly farming, industry, transport, communications, entertainment, construction, food, cooking, heat, hot water, manufacturing… not easy to compete with energy at three times the cost of what it is in many other countries. It should be in the UK too.
May 25, 2024
Sir JR, today’s post shows exactly why you will be missed in parliament. Talking obvious sense is not welcome in that place.
May 25, 2024
An interview with Maitlis and Starmer on Newsagent –
Maitlis: “So let us ask – you have to choose between Davos (WEF) & Westminster?”
Keir Starmer – “Davos”
You heard him – the future British Prime Minister would choose The World Economic Forum in Davos & the likes of Klaus Schwab, Tedros, Bill Gates & all the other Globalist Elites over his own country.
—
This is the true face of Marxist Starmer. Parliament is inconvenient to a politico like him. He desires to circumvent scrutiny and unleash Globalist imposition. The man is a DANGER
May 25, 2024
Correct. But then whoever is leading the Not-a-Conservative-Party is no different. They are Globalists who do not care about the UK or the British people.
May 25, 2024
Particularly the English who they have sought to annihilate through mass immigration and non Equality Laws to shut them up. Stop them gaining employment in the public sector in all its forms, particularly its leadership. So we wonder why nothing is working???? They only care about wokerati, climate change and all things mass immigration is wonderful for ……..no one!
May 25, 2024
+1
May 25, 2024
Right wing views on more fossil fuels and denying the obvious climate crisis are eccentric to say the least. Such views have obstructed more home-grown renewable energy projects and more EV chargers, actively prevented UK battery gigafactories and have prevented the upgrade of the electricity grid. And refusing to go for the obvious, stonking savings available to the public when net zero is fully implemented will be the major green issues at this election
Plus authorising drilling for oil in areas of the N Sea earmarked for windfarms – which the government quietly announced on the Friday after the local elections
May 25, 2024
SG
Thankfully people can still purchase what they like in this Country at the moment, they choose not to purchase EV’s in vast numbers as yet, even after the cost of ICE vehicles is rising due to even increasing taxation etc etc.
The time for EV’s may come eventually, but the range, charging times and facilities need to improve/change massively, as does grid capacity.
At the moment we are a longways off from that, hence why I purchased a new diesel car last year.
May 25, 2024
Ah, I see, SG. We have shocking increases in energy prices now, thanks to hugely subsidised renewables. But… Green jam tomorrow!
May 25, 2024
Are you following what’s happening in Holland and the rest of Europe.
May 25, 2024
If fossil fuels are a concern, there are a couple of ways that can be helped. Firstly, end immigration to reduce the number of people relying on burning gas for winter warmth. Secondly, get British people off their lardy backsides and riding bicycles instead of taking the car.
EVs as green products are a deceit, they require huge resources to manufacture, including extensive mining for minerals.
May 26, 2024
So what do you think powers cycling but human food which is produced using loads of fossil fuels? A hugely inefficient fuel though cycling is a bit better than walking.
May 25, 2024
What “the obvious climate crisis” would this be? The climate has always changed & always will do. The World has been through ice ages with atmospheric CO2 at 15+ times current levels!
May 25, 2024
D A
Add to that the Climate Change Act of which NZ is a derivative.
All of it an almighty scam to control and impoverish the people.
May 25, 2024
It certainly is.
So were covid vaccines a huge scam to enrich Big Pharma, that just accidentally happened to injure and kill millions (most of whom had zero need for Covid Vaccines even had they been safe and effective). Or was it even worse than this? At least Javid, who even wanted to force them onto NHS workers, is not standing again.
May 25, 2024
Ex-Eton, Ex-Goldmans, Globalist Rishi is like a locust with a suitcase.
He was uninvited, imported a couple of million (from overseas ed)into the uk without any invitation, and then moves on to California where he prefers the weather.
The strong point being globalism is not a society that can be enjoyed by the many but a society enjoyed by the few to the cost of the many.
May 25, 2024
As I have pointed out there are 5 types of society. Nomadic, Tribal, Feudalist, Nationalist, Globalist.
The western world is a nationalist society where a nation evolves in a bottom up manner using small increments Family (DNA), Markets (prices), Science (facts), Justice (crime&punishment), Government (votes).
The elite in the West are trying change the West into a Globalist society where a few rich and powerful people travel around the world enjoying its benefits, but also encouraging millions of others to do the same. In their own image.
This is not a democratic society enjoyed by the many, but a top down society enjoyed by the few.
It mixes the top down nature of feudalism, with the divisiveness of tribalism and the movement of the elite like nomadism.
May 26, 2024
He is an Old Wykehamist.
May 25, 2024
Maybe the thing to do is to play the green blob at its own game. We shouldn’t propose the abandonment of net zero, foolish and unattainable as that policy is, as there would be a left-driven media storm accusing the Conservatives of being ‘deniers’ which would – intentionally – drown out any debate and discussion of facts.
Instead let’s propose a ‘net zero realism adjustment’. This could be a one line bill which says that whilst net zero remains in place, any net zero policy would also be subject to a test for its effect on growth and prosperity and indeed its attainability. Since the left and the blob love quangos so much we could have a new one alongside the CCC – with the ability to overturn its rulings, just as the CCC, absurdly, now has the power to overturn policies of the elected government. Could be a vote winner.
May 25, 2024
We don’t necessarily get any oil or gas from our shores, it all goes to the market to be sold.
May 25, 2024
It’s sold to us.
May 25, 2024
Thanet councillors have approved the first new solar park for 8 years on sub-prime agricultural land near Margate used to grow potato
Councillors said the need for clean energy and biodiversity was more important than the appearance of the landscape for the scheme on the edge of Thanet. The project has an expected lifespan of 40 years and at the end, the land will revert to farmland
The plans include biodiversity gains of 255%. The fact that the plan includes more woodland and hedgerow and will not just benefit birds, it will also mean there will be more insect life. The existing population of Skylarks will mitigated with a new bespoke nesting area.
Green energy company Industria says the site would generate 30 MW (Megawatts) of renewable electricity annually on two parcels of land between Garlinge and Manston.
Reply More imported food and a problem when the wind does not blow. Never mind, let’s keep finding ways to import more of everything.
May 25, 2024
So where will the potatoes people need/want to eat be coming from?
The Netherlands, which is sensibly ditching the Net Zero war against farmers? Or further afield …. with all the associated costs of transporting them?
May 25, 2024
Don’t worry they’ll invent a transport machine that can “beam them over Scotty” like Star Trek with no additional carbon footprint. Like the 4 million unwanted guests the Tory’s invited in just the last two years who have no health, housing, education, transport needs or carbon footprint. That’s to add the 10 million over the last 20 years, mostly on the Tory watch. Vote for me we’ll reduce immigration…………………….of course you will!
May 26, 2024
@Donna
The UK is self-sufficient in potatatoes
In the season 2022/23 Scotland alone exported 91389.9 tonnes of seed potatoes, including 10757 tonnes to Morroco and 4881 tonnes to Thailand – involving 138 varieties
Exports of potatoes were valued at approximately £139.3 million in 2022 and imports £32.1 million. Source; Statista
The 140 acres of sub-prime land in Thanet which will be used for solar electricity generation would have produced roughly 280tonnes.
May 26, 2024
Then the land could be used to produce other food which we currently have to import.
May 25, 2024
No surprise there. Local councils are increasingly the way the globalist net zero agenda is being driven through. The ideology matters more than growing food for people to eat.
May 25, 2024
‘Industria’? What would this Polish company based in Kielce know about land use between Garlinge and Manston in North Kent. Have they been there, I wonder?
May 25, 2024
We are doing particularly well at importing people. They bring their CO2 footprint with them.
May 25, 2024
And the sun doesn’t shine.
May 25, 2024
until the source says ‘its ours and its staying ours!’
May 25, 2024
SG :
MWs is a measurement of power, not energy.
One hailstorm and the solar panels are gone. And given how big an area they must cover, how will they be protected from terrorist or criminal acts?
May 26, 2024
@Original Richard
What an idiotic comment. I have had solar panels on my roof for 8 years. They have saved me a small fortune in electricity costs and are not affected by hailstones. The only maintenance they need is that every couple of years I have to get my window cleaner to clean the diesel residues off them
May 26, 2024
SG :
One of the pernicious and unfair aspects of the whole CAGW/Net Zero cult is the way that the poorest in the country are paying through their energy bills and taxes to subsidise the wealthy’s evs, rooftop solar and heat pump toys.
May 25, 2024
30 MW (Megawatts) of renewable electricity annually make zero sense
An average output of 30MW or perhaps generate 30MWH or MJoules “annually”. Whatever you copied was written by another scientific illiterate!
May 25, 2024
If the solar park is so wonderful, why have the land revert to farming? One hailstorm destroyed a USD 40 million solar park in the US, God used it as a catapult range. Such a spoilsport! Does he not comprehend the importance of ‘climate change’?
May 26, 2024
+1
May 26, 2024
He/she perhaps wanted to demonstrate how mad humans can be.
May 26, 2024
The site is 41.55ha, 100 acres for 30MW. Not a very productive use of land. Not many miles away is Dungeness B, which produced over 1,100MW from just 30 acres of land. But the real difference is that the nuclear station could run continuously for 18 months and average over 90% capacity, whereas the solar park can expect no more than 11% based on the output of the nearby Manston Court solar farm – a paltry annual average of 3.3MW.
May 25, 2024
Sir John, 100 % agreement with your first paragraph, but as usual your need to put down the concept of the utilities being owned by the tax payer (and not manage by the political government circle of friends) is reflected in the third by attempting to link the net zero madness to nationalisation.
The big question is, apart from the UK taxpayer where is the other source of funding for the utilities which is not controlled by any foreign entity. Where is the British money coming from?
Mrs T did try this out but control moved into foreign hands in the long term.
May 25, 2024
The increasing tide of stepping away from Conservative seats is the litmus test of both fear of rejection – a very real possibility, and the inability to reconcile a possible 4 years or more of trying to show support for another loser heading the Party. A change of direction was needed now years ago, and the power in CCHQ will be shown for what it is – politically inept.
May 25, 2024
If a tory candidate knocked on my door I’d ask him/her/them/it
(1) Why didn’t you complete brexit in full
(2) Why haven’t you repealed any EU laws
(3) Why have you sold off NI, and
(4) Why are you continuing with net-zero
I don’t think that any candidate could anwser those questions
May 26, 2024
+1
May 25, 2024
Under this Conservative government we are now going ahead with floating windfarms, which cost twice as much as the already expensive seabed based offshore turbines, which last for 16-20 years.
Also an undersea connector to Germany is going ahead. Germany has no nuclear, lots of wind and solar and in a wind lull mid winter will be in the same position as us. But at least they are building coal stations of the dirtiest type, do we may be able to import some of this if they have some spare. While we are retiring our last coal station and all but one nuclear station over the next 3 years.
May 25, 2024
+1 We have morons in charge.
May 25, 2024
Toby Young tweets, what I have been pointing out for years. That if you actually look into the data, rather than jaw-jaw about it, you will find the historical records have been fiddled with, the current records have been fiddled with and the computer models have been fiddled with. Why are people so ridiculously stupid not to deep dive into the reality of climate change.
“Concerns mount as the Met Office is found to have fiddled with the historic U.K. temperature record in the exact way planned in the leaked ‘Climategate’ emails to exaggerate global warming.“
May 25, 2024
@Javelin – also it is a UK only punishment, the rest of the World clearly doesn’t have climate. It is a Conservative Government UK Parliament only thing
May 25, 2024
Javelin
I see the Global Climate Intelligence Group “CLINTEL” have released a recent Statement signed by over 1600 Scientists from many Countries, in which they disagree with the so called government experts reasoning.
Highlighted first on Guido site and worth a google.
As is usual, follow the money and the taxation income.
May 25, 2024
It all suits some fanatics because they see the chaos as a way to impose communism once all is destroyed.
Then there are those who are making ££££s out of it all.
And then of course there are the useful idiots….every revolution needs them.
Please God they wake up before it is too late!
May 25, 2024
it used to be garbage in, garbage out.
now its garbage in, required lies out.
May 25, 2024
Well said Toby, he does very well for a PPE chap.
May 25, 2024
Whoever is in government when the lights go out will be in trouble. If Starmer continues with his madcap scheme to make the grid carbon-free by 2030 it will be him. I think the problem is so few MPs have any scientific education themselves they believe activist scientists based only on their political stance.
May 25, 2024
I am surprised the Conservatives haven’t destroyed one of Keir Starmer’s 6 pledges, the creation of Great British Energy , by pointing out the disastrous Labour Council forays into the energy market , like Nottingham City Council’s Robin Hood Energy , that had to be closed down and as reported….
“Its turnover went from £4.6m in 2015-16 to nearly £100m in 2018-19.
But, in all but one year, that growth translated not into profits but bigger losses and by March 2019 it was in the red by more than £34m, external.”
Or Bristol Energy , that got £37 million from Bristol Council , was sold on for £1.3 million, and is reportedly going to cost Warrington Council £52 million, and with debts at OFGEM of £12million .
It just seems the Conservatives are too lazy to dig into the detail and give the electorate worked examples of why Labour would be such a disaster .
May 25, 2024
Sir John
No energy security, no energy reliance, equals 14 years of malicious Conservative Government neglect. It is the Conservative Government saying we want to destroy the UK – nothing else.
The evidence – none of the UK’s compensator Nations, the ones that want our industry and replace the UK’s enterprise, has punished their people with punitive laws, with high prices. This damage is an exclusive UK Conservative Government diktat
May 25, 2024
‘Competitor Nations’ !
May 25, 2024
It’s the governments intervention and party policies of net-zero which has disrupted the energy markets and increased the energy cost of living ….leave the sector alone, it was better and cheaper before net-zero
May 25, 2024
You don’t mention Fracking
May 25, 2024
Sunak did when he became leader – yes no yes no yes no yes no
May 25, 2024
From the MsM
Interview: Chancellor vows tax breaks for middle classes as he declares: ‘We are the underdogs in this election’
What a ‘Walley’ vote for me and you will get tax cuts! Can you believe this Guy, he caused inflation by imposing unnecessary costs on us all and industry. His so-called tax reductions to date have been shuffling the pack with a massive rise in the tax take from now until 2028 promised. He calls National Insurance a double taxation when no individual paid it twice it was a simple method to define contributions to future pension payouts. He is also the guy that as Health Secretary set out to damage the NHS, which hasn’t yet recovered.
This is the Guy in charge of all the UK’s tax giveaways, its expenditure but refuses to even bother caring where it goes as long as it is given away that is his breaking ball attitude. He has forcibly made the UK the underdog
May 25, 2024
Ian
Also reported as him (Mr Hunt) saying inheritance tax is a pernicious tax and not Conservative at all as it hinders saving and investment.
So why did he not do something to recognise that thought whilst in power and change or modify it !
As usual another George Osbourne promise made 15 years ago resurrected for campaigning purposes.
May 25, 2024
@Berkshire Alan – promises, promises. manifesto pledges and more promises all reneged on and replaced with punitive punishment.
May 25, 2024
If you wanted to end all manufacture what would be the best way to do it?
The best way would be to kid people that there were viable alternatives to every last thing that made up their lives.
Without actually coming up with anything.
May 25, 2024
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph
“Neither party has an economic plan to escape stagnation, and neither has my vote.
For a change I agree with him.”
As @Lynn Atkinson earlier
“The lights are dimmest in the Palace of Westminster. Almost brain-dead in fact.”
Everyone gets it but those that have cornered and corralled our democracy for their own personal needs
May 25, 2024
It only occurred to me this morning…doh! …
That those who have sought to destroy this country would naturally make Westminster the primary target.
“Cradle of democracy” reinterpreted as “Occupying power” or even Monbiot’s “Captive state”( which actually seems pretty reasonable …)
I think that at other times large numbers of MPs have stood down? Or is this a VERY bad sign?
May 25, 2024
4 big lies :
1) Increasing CO2 is an imminent and existential threat : Wrong. Doubling CO2 produces a negligible increase in GHG effect because the quantity of CO2 already in the atmosphere absorbs all the IR radiation available to it as defined by its IR band and the Earth’s IR Planck distribution curve. The IPCC WG1 (P95) says doubling CO2 produces a 1.2 degree C temperature rise, Happer & Wijngaarden calculate 0.7 degrees C. All the additional warming is suggested to be water vapour feedback for which there is no evidence and why the IPCC’s models are not matching the data.
2) Global warming causes more frequent and extreme weather. Wrong. Certainly not shown by the weather data and illogical as warming the poles/upper latitudes reduces the temperature difference between them and the equator and hence reduces the energy available for bad weather.
3) Renewable energy is the cheapest. Wrong. It is the most expensive, not even taking into account that it is totally unreliable (28 GW of wind is producing just 2.6 GW as I write with a demand of 26 GW and this is about the average since the beginning of the month) and hence requires a completely parallel backup system. Lord Callanan, a DESNZ minister, may say in the HoL (16/05) that fixed offshore wind is £44/MWhr but we will be paying over £100/MWhr for fixed offshore wind at the next renewables auction (and £242/MWhr for floating offshore wind). A price which is double nuclear for anywhere in the world but the UK (even for the same EDF EPR technology as the Hinkley Point C plant) and for gas when the carbon tax has been removed.
4) We can electrify our heating and transport : Wrong. The local grid is only designed to take 1 – 2 KW per household continuously. Higher demands are feasible for any household but only when it is random amounts at random times. So running continuously 5KW heat pumps in winter and 7 KW ev chargers overnight is impossible without £ trillions spent in upgrading the electrical supply to every single property in the country.
May 25, 2024
Well said. However, you are presenting facts when the other side is issuing propaganda based almost entirely on emotion ….. fear-mongering, virtue-signalling and guilt.
In the past, we might have been able to rely on MPs to deal with facts. But these days they appear to be selected for their inability to think, their ability to emote and the need to “protect” their long-term financial interests by knowing which policies will deliver for them personally.
May 25, 2024
Donna :
CAGW and Net Zero is a cult as evidenced by the activists lack of any wish to learn anything about climate and hence their lack of knowledge on the subject and lack of wish to debate calling non-believers the perjorative term “deniers”, all features exhibited by the BBC who, without knowing the facts, can only, as you correctly say, play on our emotions with constant fear mongering. One well known activist has been calling for non-believers to be jailed
May 25, 2024
+1
May 25, 2024
And all the heat pumps will want most of their electricity for the few cold weeks of the winter. The grid and generating capacity will not be three time more but 10 times more. If you are generating using “renewables” you will also need 100% back up so 20 times more. This only needed for a few winter weeks so this expensive capacity wasted for most of the year.
May 25, 2024
Correct
May 25, 2024
Superb stuff. Facts expose the criminal lies and sinister propaganda that’s used to underpin the NZ and CC narrative.
Net Zero and CC is indeed a toxic ideology
May 25, 2024
Having an effective energy policy based in reality is not the only issue for this coming election, but that rules out the big 3.
This Tory government has nothing to gloat about, in any area of life over the last 10 years. Their policies have been a disaster, no matter how much a sheen is put on things. We know the other socialist parties will be no better from their own admittance, and we don’t want them in power either.
Immigration will also feature highly in this coming election, but for most the memory of the deceit associated with the Covid years will be the deciding factor. Labour were a hopeless opposition during this time, so will be tarred with the same brush as the Tories. The crashing of the economy will also feature loudly.
Some rule changes for elections are badly needed. There should be a vote figure, which if not surpassed will mean the election for that ward is invalid, so should it be 25% then if only 23% voted that would mean a new election for that area. We’ve already discussed the need for a “NONE OF THE ABOVE” option.
I’m hoping people will come out in droves to vote, because this is a great opportunity to reduce the big 3 to insignificant minor parties. There are independents to vote for and a host of right of centre parties, but whatever we do we cannot allow the current situation to continue. It’s not just about punishing wayward political parties that have failed us, it is about restoring Democracy for the people of this country.
May 25, 2024
Debating “Energy” won’t change the fact that climate change has happened . The world is a different place and increasing populations everywhere have been exposed to its effects . Utilising science to maintain lifetime standards has not kept up with change ; limitations now exist and we must all adapt .
May 25, 2024
The Climate has always changed. There is no evidence for a climate emergency caused by man made CO2. The world has had had ice ages when CO2 was over 15 times the current levels.
May 25, 2024
The election is almost lost for the Conservative Party but not quite. There is no point in coming second. The aim must be to win.
Suppose that the Conservative Party were to produce an economic policy document that, if enacted, would result in increased wealth across all sections of society along with subdued inflation. No matter how well it was promoted, no one will believe it coming from a Party that has always claimed to be a Party in favour of low tax, which in recent years it has failed to deliver.
Suppose also that the Party comes up with well thought out plans to substantially reduce legal immigration. Once again no one will believe it coming from a Party that, for as long as one can remember, has always promised on this but failed to deliver.
The Party lacks credibility on the two policy areas that would normally be at the forefront of their campaign. So what is to be done?
The topic which the Party should prioritise should be one where the Party’s policy is clearly different from that of the other major parties: one which the overwhelming majority of normal supporters would happily accept: and one which the general public would believe would be implemented.
I would like to see NetZero abandoned and the Climate Change Act repealed. I accept that there is zero chance of Sunak announcing that as Conservative policy. There are far to many Conservative MP’s on the other side. Bearing in mind that all of the major parties support the aim of NetZero, I would like to ask those in authority in the Party, where they think someone who opposes that aim should put their cross on the ballot paper.
The obvious answer is for Sunak to promise a referendum. The Party won the 2015 and 2019 elections on making promises that were both believable and deliverable. The highest hurdle to overcome in this election is in convincing the ‘Greenies’ in the Party hierarchy that a referendum is in their best interests. Do they accept that by opposing a referendum they are pushing conservatives who are opposed to NetZero towards Reform? If the ‘Greenies’ have confidence in their case they should not fear a referendum.
As I wrote at the beginning, there is no point in coming second in a general election and I can think of no other policy area that could produced such an unexpected and positive win.
Reply I agree a referendum on net zero would be good but they refused that when it was put to them. I made some progress with getting them to moderate zealotry and go for a realism based on public willingness. Still much more to change.
May 25, 2024
The problem that the Conservatives have, is that while all the things you are suggesting are things that one would think would be right for any Conservative to support, they are mostly things that they have opposed or ignored while in office, so sudden conversion to them can only look like blatant opportunism for the purposes of the election. Hunt’s sudden dislike for IHT is a case in point.
May 25, 2024
They forget that they serve the voter
May 25, 2024
Flavour of the month policies being spouted by flavour of the month politicians may be a source of income and fun for the media but does very little for the poor bloody citizen. Even if they got more tax revenue from allowing extraction of our energy resources the money would be frittered away by whatever government was around and we still wouldn’t have the benefits of that energy.
If you have a gas centric supply then we cannot operate without imported gas, increasingly as our reserves are depleted, and so we will always be dependent on the kindness of foreigners and subject to expensive electricity.
Solve that problem now while we have those reserves to fall back on.
May 25, 2024
“The Uk imports too much energy, making us reliant on the goodwill of foreigners….. The import model increases world CO 2, costs us lost jobs, means we do not get the large tax revenues on extracting the gas and undermines our energy security.”
De-industrialisation, energy, economic and military insecurity is the purpose of Net Zero not an unintended consequence.
The Conservative’s winning ideology was to support order and basically whatever worked best and this has been thrown away with the nonsense that is CAGW and Net Zero. The Left’s M.O. is control and impoverishment which makes Net Zero such a perfect policy for them. With the likelihood that the Left will dominate Parliament as well as the Civil Service, the judiciary and our institutions we will find in the next Parliamentary term that either Net Zero continues with an authoritarian state imposing the necessary unpopular policies of the rationing of energy, food, heating and transport or completely ditched as a result of French style ‘yellow vest’ protests.
May 25, 2024
Vote for the uniparty , said none of the voters.
The appeal to all the parties to renounce net zero insanity is interesting.
Does not Reform offer a different path?
May 25, 2024
Absolutely right; we need energy realism. Importing energy makes no sense when we can produce our own. We will be able to reduce reliance on oil and gas when we roll out our own nuclear system based on UK made SMRs.
May 25, 2024
288 illegal aliens /boat people arrived yesterday from the safe country of France
May 26, 2024
YES! Tories to re-introduce National Service.
It will save country billions long-term as young men learn about discipline, being masculine and responsible, how to get on with others and patriotism.
For thousands of years men from sophisticated civilisations to more primitive tribes have done some form of military service as a rite of passage to develop joys into real men.