Mr Miliband spent years in Opposition preparing for the day when he could unleash his decarbonising zeal on what is left of U.K. industry. Once in office he announced a firm target of all electricity generated here being clean or carbon free by 2030. Only after this extremely expensive revolutionary pledge was made did he write to National Grid asking for urgent site of the plan to do this,and an estimate of the costs. What a disaster to have to admit he had no plan and settled for a target with no idea how much it would cost to hit it, or even whether it could be hit.
Yesterday his embarrassment should have got bigger. National Grid published a reply saying they do not have a plan either, but they will work hard to produce one. They will consult everyone who would need to do so much to bring it about and presumably include in consultation all those who would be expected to stump up the cash. To plunge the friendly knife further into Milibandâs side they said they would need from the government a definition of the grand target Mr Miliband has set. Ouch!
So there we have it. An impossible target to hit unless you redefine it to allow the burning of fossil fuels in stand by generators when wind and sun let us down. A huge and unspecified budget to end all our current nuclear and gas power stations and to build enough replacement power taking account of the variability of wind and solar.
One final thought. As Mr Miliband has admitted he does not know the costs of putting in all that renewable power, how can he offer us ÂŁ300 off our bills were all the money to be found to build so many windfarms.
September 27, 2024
Good morning.
And the Tory’s spent 14 years in government doing nothing except doubling down on the previous governments decarbonizing plan, created by RedEd, blowing up perfectly good energy generating stations, increasing demand by increasing the population and carpeting the UK with wind turbines and solar farms.
I have no love for RedEd or any of the Ship of Fools that currently infect our political system, but a dose of reality has been much needed, both in politics and the general public. It will come when we can no longer charge our mobiles and heat our homes. Too expensive and too unreliable / intermitant.
No pain. No gain.
September 27, 2024
+1
September 27, 2024
Sir J is, as ever, seeking to show the technical impediments to achieving the plan. The problem is more fundamental, the plan is flawed. But this administration operates on superstition and entitlement, so don’t expect an enlightenment effect until they are swept away. Millipeed looks every bit the wild-eyed religious zealot these days.
See German and Italian car makers pressing to keep more ICE cars.
September 27, 2024
The source data is flawed, the research methodology is flawed, the associated funding is flawed âŠ.the UN IPCC reason for net-zero is flawed âŠ.the science is flawed
September 27, 2024
The Telegraph carries a report that the cost of electricity for UK businesses has gone up 124% over the past 5 years and is now 50%higher than in Germany or France. What will Reeves say to those international investors she wants to persuade to invest in the UK about the cost and reliability of UK energy supply? They can do their sums and will be demanding answers.
September 27, 2024
Meanwhile, Russian Energy Week(‘Energy Co-operation in a Multipolar World’)is underway in Moscow.At a meeting of BRICS Energy Ministers,the Iranian Energy Minister,Abbas Aliabadi,has put forward a proposal to link the energy networks of Russia with those of the UAE and Saudi Arabia via Iran.At a ceremony to mark 80 years of diplomatic relations with Iraq,Sergey Lavrov,announced that Russia has ,through Gazpromneft,LUKOIL and Rosneft,invested more than $19 bn in the Iraqi energy sector.Similar arrangements are connecting Russia,central asia and China.Next will be India and Pakistan connecting with Russia/Iran,running parallel with the development of the INSTC(International North South Trade Corridor).
Eurasia rocks!
September 27, 2024
The AFD has called for the reinstatement of Nordstream.
September 27, 2024
But do German and French consumers get ÂŁ300.00 off đđ€Ł
We are in the hands of madmen. They need to be sectioned.
September 27, 2024
+1
September 27, 2024
Agreed Mark. Neither party can manage to set out a long term energy plan that is costed and realistic. The Tories did at least make a start on one (excessively dear) nuclear station.
The electrical energy issue is more pressing than people realise. By 2030 it is predicted our gas powered generating capacity will drop from the current 28GW to around 14GW. Ove the last 7 days we have been using more than this amount of gas generated electricity at times. As things stand we will be seeing power rationing within 6 years – or will be sausages/hosteges to EDF and other European power generators.
September 27, 2024
Milipede is a dyed in the wool communist taking after his father.
He has no interest in reaching net zero, his aim is to thoroughly bankrupt Britain aided by free beer, no idea, two tier Starmer and his honcho Rachel Thieves.
We should be nurturing Rolls Royce SMRs but ideology trumps common sense and they would rather import the tech rather than champion British industry.
The liebour party has a clear 5 year run to destroy us and the tories sowed the seeds of our destruction .
Difficult times ahead.
September 27, 2024
I agree with all that Ian, the biggest need we have is to revive British Engineering and all industry should be supported by Us.
September 27, 2024
The Tories provide no opposition, they prefer playing games in the farce of electing a leader. They cannot seem to choose from a very small choice in under 3 months, just like the last time.
September 27, 2024
He doesn’t appear to be much of a ‘communist’ to me;Lenin,”Our Foreign and Domestic Position and Party Tasks”,21/11/1920:
“Communism is Soviet Power plus electrification of the whole country,since industry cannot be developed without electrification.
Communism implies Soviet Power as a political organ,enabling the mass of the oppressed to run all state affairs-without that communism is unthinkable.”
September 27, 2024
Russia having huge problems with Brazil, Iâm also very angry that they attack Israel which is in the exact same position as is the Russian Federatikn: fending off an existential threat.
Israel has displays for the whole world to see that the deployment of intelligence, brains, thinking outside the box and targeting the enemy instead of a whole country is successful.
Israel and Russia deserve to survive. I support both.
September 28, 2024
You appear to be hallucinating.I have not detected any problems with Brazil-quite the opposite.Nor do you display any feel for geopolitics or Russian history.
Who will you support if Russia and Israel end up fighting over Syria?Russia has already warned Israel over it’s incursions.
September 27, 2024
Communism is unthinkable – look at Russia thriving under a monetarist. Last time they fought the old German politics it cost 26 million lives. Under communism they had nothing else. Now they have Kinzhals and deploy them instead of men.
Capitalism is unbeatable. Whoever deploys it wins.
September 27, 2024
15 years ago Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air by the late Prof MacKay was published and provided a simplified method to assess costs and effectiveness of wind, solar, tidal, nuclear, biomass, carbon capture, hydrogen, pumped storage, transport, insulation, heat pumps etc. He showed various alternatives and invited us to produce our own plans, with the requirement that they should add up. He did not reveal his own conclusions until just before he passed away. He said that although he admired wind turbines the solution was to build nuclear and run then all the time, presumably using storage heaters as before in the 60s. At the time he could not have forseen the development of franked gas.
Ed Milliband was in government then and was asked about SEWTHA. He said that he had a copy but his permanent secretary was urging him to finish it. Presumably he never got past the first chapters. Today his civil servants are as deluded as he is. There is not a single engineer who can add up in the department. Meanwhile National Grid is advertising on TV that it is spending a lot of our money on increasing its turnover. Smart meter companies are pressing their products onto customers despite many not working and Ed has decided to triple wind and solar while bills have tripled and even exceed the most expensive in Europe.
September 27, 2024
https://www.building.co.uk/miliband-dismisses-concerns-over-blackouts/3148757.article
Millipede also dismissed Prof Mackay”s concerns about blackouts by 2016. He seemed to think that there would be enough nuclear by then. In fact only one nuclear station will be operating without repairs by then and gas stations are wearing out.
September 27, 2024
In the Mail today there is talk of reaching the last three in the decision to choose an SMR constructor. As Rolls Royce, our very own manufacturer has been making these things for submarines for years, why do they need a competition?
For God’s sake just get on with it.
Reply Because the sub reactors are too small. Government is seeking a new design.
September 27, 2024
In early 2021 RR estimated that with a fair wind from the ONR the first reactor might be operational in 2028. Since then they gave been moving at a glacial pace, and at times in reverse gear. The design was essentially complete, having been a mere concept in 2016.
September 27, 2024
His real aim is ‘control & power’ ….than they can really start their social-engineering plans
September 27, 2024
Full marks to the National Grid spelling out they had no plan, they would need to consult widely, identify who might pay, and would need a Government target committment!
Sounds like a slap with a glove and a meeting at dawn with pistols.
September 27, 2024
I heard on Radio 4 the other day, a lady from National Grid saying that it has already been decided that huge pylons and sub stations are to be built over our countryside as they are ‘essential to 2030’ so it seems their left hand does not know what their right hand is doing either. The ‘consultations’ are a sham, just like the one on our local hospital whose fate was decided months ago, despite the expensive ‘consultations’ – to sell it for even more housing and all clinical sessions being moved out of the area to a minimum of 25 miles away. They promise to keep some locally, but cannot find anywhere to do it. Even our local council has refused the NHS permission to set up clinics in its offices, which, due to working from home are still largely empty.
September 27, 2024
Could easily take until 2030 to come up with a plan đ€Ż
We will have to invent more powerful computers to calculate the cost!
September 27, 2024
just leave it to AI.
September 27, 2024
How long the investigation and consultation period? At a guess…..6 years…
September 27, 2024
Ed Miliband is a mad deluded zealot. But yes the Tory policy from Cameron to Sunak was totally insane impractical, technically impossible and vastly expensive.
So abolition of Non Dom Status will raise no money officials suggest. Well what a surprise, nor will VAT on school fees. Gove pushed the former and Hunt pushed the latter. It seems Socialist and Greta Disciple Gove is now going to edit the Spectator it is far too deluded left wing already.
Perhaps Ed Miliband should seek advice from the brilliant Physics and Electrical Engineer St Greta. We are ruled by morons with PPE degrees.
September 27, 2024
the last three words were unnecessary.
September 28, 2024
Or religious nutters, mad socialists like Gove or Ed Miliband or school drops outs like St Gretta!
September 27, 2024
Indeed the Tories for 14 years have been almost as appalling.
âMr Miliband has no plan for clean energy and now is told nor does anyone elseâ so what on earth is unclean about CO2 plant food?
September 27, 2024
Rasputin is a justifiable accolade for such a weaponised zealot as the Millipede. He is possibly the greatest danger to the Labour “plan” for the future of the UK and therefore must be kept in place to speed their departure. Combined with all their other announcements and fast eroding credibility we arrive at utter failure.
September 27, 2024
Miliband, a combination of arrogance and stupidity.
September 27, 2024
got it in one!
September 27, 2024
That man is now effectively in charge of our environment, transport, industry and social engineering via net-zero taxation and regulation âŠdear god help us
September 27, 2024
90% stupidity and 10% arrogance
September 27, 2024
Winston Churchill defined Labour perfectly in one sentence. ” The philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery”.
It was writ large at their Liverpool conferencen, and with the Millipede in charge of energy confirmed in spades.
September 27, 2024
Things are about to get even worse with the introduction of the new United Nations Pact of the Future. This is a roadmap for global socialism. It aims to improve the world for future generations and make it equitable and balanced by transferring funds from wealthier countries to poorer ones. It is asking for 100 billion dollars annually and Iâm sure our government will be first in the queue with cheque in hand.
It states that itâs important for them to have oversight of the social media platforms to control the information people can see. Elon is going to have a fight on his hands.
Everyone will be expected to have a biometric ID that marks them as a global citizen. Anyone found publishing disinformation, i.e. anything the government disagrees with, will be locked out of their bank accounts and banned from travelling from their home.
Welcome to 1984 folks.
September 27, 2024
Yep….40 years late but it is getting here. Our devices, tvs, Alexa, built in cameras, all on the path to obey Brother Starmer ( or perhaps Sister Reeves / Rayner with their personal photographers).
September 27, 2024
Globalism is dead-all the globalists will be left with is the G7 and their dwindling band of vassals.
September 27, 2024
@ Agricola
â The philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of miseryâ.
I’ve not heard that before, but it’s a brilliant summation!
September 27, 2024
A brilliant quote, reflecting enduring relevance today.
September 27, 2024
Miliband is a textbook example of serial political failure.
Failed Labour leader, attempted bacon sandwich consumee (stunt) and the last few years as his most dastardly incarnation yet..
State election campaign soundbites and then once in office send out a plea to backfill them for me..
The green deadline is 2030 with this lot is it not? Hopefully we’ll get a year to save ourselves. Dear me.
September 27, 2024
+++
âDear meââŠI know exactly how you feel!
But WHY do these people keep on getting the jobs?
I get the idea of a club that we ordinary folk have no access to but surely the cognoscenti would prefer success over failure?
If only so that some of their ideas might workâŠ
Oh but maybe the aim actually IS chaos?
September 27, 2024
The reason people like Milliband keep getting these jobs is that the PM is useless, lazy and cannot be bothered to look into anything complicated. He is doing the same with Rachel Reeves, giving her free rein to cock up the economy when it is clear she has no clue what she is doing and is the puppet of the Treasury. This is a re-run of Cameron giving the NHS re-organisation to Andrew Lansley who made a pigs ear of it and was never questioned by Cameron as he either did not have the intelligence or the interest in it. Under our system of government, too much power is given to low grade people to experiment with their dreams at our expense. It has been like this all my life.
September 27, 2024
It’s called the liblabcon party in which advancement id inversely proportional to ability.
September 27, 2024
Now you’re getting there. That’s the effect, that’s the aim. And let no one tell me it isn’t intended. Like the Tory leadership candidates bleating all of a sudden how they now realise they ‘made a mistake’ with lockdowns. Like hell. That government knew what it was doing, it had all the information it needed, and went ahead right the way through until it got too much pushback on vaccine mandates. The only ‘mistake’ they made was to underestimate the British spirit of resistance.
September 27, 2024
Words don’t have the necessary descriptive power to accurately describe this individual. We can only hope that his and his party’s policy actions do lead to power cuts and higher bills. People have to learn that voting for degenerates from the main parties comes with a cost to life and wallet.
September 27, 2024
The only problem with Milliband and the labour party, is that the tories would’ve been worst ….well both as bad as each other, both 100% net-zero
September 27, 2024
Agreed, sad though it may be if that is the outcome.
September 27, 2024
Just a reminder Dom that not many, 20%? voted Labour. The sad thing is that even fewer voted for Remain.
September 27, 2024
Ah but John, we are going to lead the World to net zero, and profit hugely from our knowledge !
That man is a fool, but then so was May, Boris, and Sir Kier, only Sunak eventually started to realise what a stupid and expensive target such a policy would be, and that was too little too late.
Itâs like most people wishing they could have ride in a Rolls Royce, only to find indeed they made it, but in a funeral hearse.
Bloody fools the lot of them !
September 27, 2024
Red Ed created the Climate Change Act, which virtually every MP voted in favour of despite having no costings, plans or practical means of delivering. And he is following in the footsteps of Sunak, Cameron, May and, in particular, Johnson who “promised” to make us the Saudi Arabia of wind and sent Sharma out to blow up perfectly viable coal-fired power stations.
It was obvious nonsense from the outset, but the deluded (incentivised) dross in the Westminster Uni- Parliament didn’t bother to ask even the most basic questions.
I doubt if Red Ed is any more embarrassed than Johnson is, or the rest of the WEF’s puppeticians who have been/are delivering the UN/WEF’s plan to destroy the UK.
Roll on the blackouts …. and the next Winter of Discontent.
September 27, 2024
Any normal person would suffer such mortification that they would crawl into a hole forever. The real wonder is the sheer brass neck of the cabal – Johnson etc.
They have no ability to comprehend reality. For instance the progress of the Russian Army across Ukraine is dictated only by their ability to form logistical supply lines. The Ukrainians are telling us that they are defeated. Even Zelensky is saying this – his victory plan consisting of NATO replacing the dead Ukrainian army asap.
But Johnson wants to send a further USD 1 TRILLION and NATO forces!
He will not understand until a nuclear bomb goes off in his garden.
đ±
September 27, 2024
The Independent reported on the latest top up to the May retirement fund:
Theresa May denounces Trump, Farage and Le Pen over climate change âhoaxâ claims
Far-right leaders in Europe and the US are trying to wreck measures to save the planet, Theresa May warns. They want to âstir up a culture warâ to win votes, says the former PM, who criticises Trump for calling climate change âa hoaxâ â and accuses Nigel Farage of âpoliticisingâ the issue.
The lack of self-awareness is amazing.
September 27, 2024
+1 Self-delusion beyond repair.
September 28, 2024
What do you expect if you read The Independent? Surely you already knew the one-world UN globalist line on these issues. Theresa May-Tony Blair-Al Gore-Frans Timmerman: it hardly matters who signed the article, you know what they’ll say and what they want.
September 27, 2024
I very much doubt that EV sales will be increasing when there has been a 46% increase in them exploding in the past year.
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/09/26/electric-vehicle-explosions-rise-46-in-a-year/
September 27, 2024
I have noticed that houses hosting an air source heat pump are âlingeringâ on the market.
September 27, 2024
The trick is to arrange a viewing on a bloody cold day. That will test how well they work.
September 27, 2024
Not many reported on the main news channels
September 27, 2024
Have I read that 1997 was similar?
Labour had no idea how to actually be a government ( hadnât expected victory?) so they just decided to âwing itâ.
Maybe this govt. got in on the backing of powerful eco zealots.
But had no idea how to work a windmill?
AnywayâŠwe can tell the way the wind blows because why are we being forced down cold energy saving routes when a plethora of cheap, clean ( bleat) energy is soon to arrive? Sneaky introduction of cold washing products. Cool tumble dryers, tepid electric blankets etc etc.
September 27, 2024
slow kettles, low energy bulbs we can’t properly recycle…
September 28, 2024
but we’re saving the planet ….in a thousand years they’ll thank us
September 27, 2024
The Greens in Germany have been decimated in recent elections there. Why? They were too zealous and callous. They are still part of the coalition government because in the western part of the country they have not faced the polls. The coalition is hanging on by a thread, simply to keep the right wing AfD from holding power; not through any love for the Greens. They are electoral poison in the east and increasingly an embarrassment in the west.
If this can happen in Germany, it can happen here. So, red Ed is doing a great job, let’s hope Starmer allows him full reign! At some point before 2030 voters will wake up and get nasty.
September 27, 2024
And perhaos you could remind us which party and government was carrying on with all this destruction of an efficient power generation system while you were a loyal MP of it.
On tv just now we had a joyful news presentation about the forthcoming closure and blowing up of Radcliffe on Soar coal power station. The BBC reporter could not control his joy.
Reply I continuously urged them to keep the coal stations on stand by and to build new gas power stations. This site mainly deals with the government in power as they are to blame and they can change things.
September 27, 2024
reply to reply..but this regime, sorry government, has been given wonderful low hanging fruit to exploit by the previous.
September 27, 2024
The coal stations should have been run as baseload during the energy crisis. It would have saved considerable sums over importing extra LNG.
September 27, 2024
While in opposition the present Government had 10 years in which to prepare well developed costed plans which the they could commit to upon entering Government. What value did Labour bring to the economy while they were in opposition to offset their costs, a Shadow minister is of no value to the country unless their is also a shadow plan capable of being implemented when it is needed. Of course the same argument now applies to the current Conservative opposition. I observe that our current parliamentary system is both expensive and ineffective. Lets start by cancelling Prime Ministers question time whose only value is to provide international entertainment free of charge.
September 27, 2024
Letâs stop televising it. The right to Question the PM is critical!
Parliament is cheap to run, shadow ministers have no extra pay.
September 27, 2024
The UK rejected Ed Miliband as a leader in the 2015 General Election. Calling him an Energy Minister adds nothing to his worthlessness. He is not renewable. His greatest achievement was the EdStone. Whatever he touches risks turning to dust.
September 27, 2024
The Emperor himself exposing the fact he is wearing no clothes!!
Those who have their eyes wide open suggest ÂŁ trillions to achieve net zero…. which will totally take us back to pre-industrial days!
September 27, 2024
In parallel with all of this, Mr Drillingbanned is presiding over an inexplicable episode of departmental foot dragging over the SMR solution. We read in yesterday’s Telegraph that one competitor within the process has dropped out, leaving a contest between 5 remaining contractors, some being foreign. A patriotic Energy Secretary would by now have awarded this contract to British bidder Rolls-Royce with some considerable alacrity, citing the energy emergency that is upon us, even if this was not described fully as an energy emergency inflicted by successive governments.
September 27, 2024
Too late David, Rolls Royce are reported to be in advanced discussions with Sweden, Finland, and Poland. The indecisive and wrecking crews of government and the Civil Service can only have a marginal affect on a company of great enterprise like RR, who are justifiably on the World stage.
September 27, 2024
No doubt Starmer will find a ‘rule’ to prevent a UK minister from giving a strategic nationally essential contract to a UK company. He’s got a meeting coming up with AVd’L, so wait for a reason to give it to a German/Franco/Italian joint venture.
September 27, 2024
And the Conservatives passed a LAW to achieve net zero for the entire country by 2050 also with no idea if it was achievable, how it might be achieved, and what the cost would be. Compared with that Miliband’s target which only relates to electricity production (not transportation or industry etc.) and is not legally binding looks almost sensible. So why single him out ?
Milliband’s problem is he has not one iota of scientific training so is incapable of realising his target is impossible to meet. He has relied for “the science” on green lobbyists who also have no scientific training and the green industry who know it is unachievable but see plenty of scope to make big profits building windmills and so on. Reality will bite soon enough.
Reply The Conservatives got things wrong. I and others here criticised them at the time. thatâs all over as they were badly defeated in the election. People wanting to be posted here need to move on and concentrate on the government we now have. Why Miliband? Because he is rolling out a very bad policy and is the Minister!
September 27, 2024
All of that is true, Sir John, but as soon as we “concentrate on the government” that we now have, I’m afraid the question quickly becomes:- who would do better? I would like to believe the Conservatives would take advantage of the party conference to draw a clear line under their past mistakes, and offer the public an alternative. Especially an alternative to UN policies on Net Zero and public health. As you say, it hardly matters much now what Tories like Theresa May and Boris Johnson did in the past. What matters is the present and future pollcy alternatives that another party can offer the public, to the disastrous route Starmer’s lot are trying to take us down. I’m waiting to hear.
Reply All in good time we will see how the Conservative/ Reform options work out. There is not going to be an election anytime soon so we need to deal with the government we have got.
September 27, 2024
An ill-educated zealot chasing a dopey dream of a net zero future for the UK. Whilst the rest of the world carries on using Fossil fuel and producing reasonably affordable energy. All in pursuit of a fantasy known as climate change.
September 27, 2024
I second all that , But then I am an old man too.
We need Britain to return to heavy engineering again as that is where we excel !
September 27, 2024
That is the problem with our politicians. They are mostly ill-educated, coming from schools like Eton, Harrow, Oxford etc. People like Cameron, Osborne, Johnson, Milliband and Starmer with hardly any scientific knowledge, all intent on destroying British industry and well paid jobs.
September 27, 2024
Let us also remember that even if Milliband does manage to get to zero carbon in generating electricity – which as pointed out he clearly wonât and has no idea how to – there will still be the other 80% of U.K. primary energy consumption which comes almost entirely from fossil fuels.
These morons really are much much worse than the rather inadequate Sunak government.
September 27, 2024
Climate change, the biggest ‘con’ in history ….all to save the planet from increasing millimeter in sea levels around the world in a hundred years ….and every western government fell for it
September 27, 2024
Yet again Sir John, your comments are spot on and itâs been clear to most people who follow these important issues closely that Miliband, Stark and those left leaning ideologues at the CCC and Civil Service have no idea how to achieve Net Zero by 2050 let alone 2030! Engineers and Scientists who design and innovate will determine the technology to achieve carbon free electrical energy not politicians. Indeed, if only Cameron had decided to go for a gas supported energy transition to nuclear 14 years ago we would not be in this dreadful mess now! Your decision to vote against Miliband’s insane CCA 2008 is fully vindicated Sir John
September 27, 2024
I am not a huge consumer of news but I have not seen this reported elsewhere. The main stream media is totally in thrall to net zero – even more so than their desire for a gotcha moment.
September 27, 2024
It would be comical if it wasn’t so depressing!
I am developing a new business in home generators if anybody is interested?…
September 27, 2024
How typical this is of the green windmill lobby – the CCC in particular. They give us figures that underestimate the realistic cost of their plans then we find out that they have never done an honest nor complete assessment because they don’t know what they are aiming for exactly.
Any plans that exist for netzero simply give time-goals – no consideration of the implications, nor is any agreement sought from those that have to pay for this madness. Imposition is the name of the game.
Much of this vagueness is deliberate because if we had received full details of costs and implications then we’d all have shouted that the solutions proposed for alleged climate change were far worse than the issue itself, and the cost that we know is astronomical, is beyond our means.
Deception and technology that is unfit for purpose defines netzero.
September 27, 2024
A company in the Thames Valley runs Servers for several global IT systems. This one company (and there are many others) has a current MONTHLY electricity bill of ÂŁ750,000. Their power comes from an off-grid power station. Hence, what we are told is the nation’s need for electricity is a gross under estimate. How is this amount of electricity to be delivered from renewables? On a cold, still, winter’s evening, when people get home from work and plug in their TVs, turn up their heat pumps, cook their food and switch on all manner of electricity demanding devices there’ll be misery for many.
September 27, 2024
Sir
I am no scientist.
I do not “know” whether the climate emergency is real …. or not.
I only “know” what I read, written by scientific people who are far cleverer than me.
I suspect that 99.9% of the UK population and a similar % of politicians, civil servants and the media are in the same position.
So …. which scientists do we plebs believe and trust … and why ?
Over the years the media has told us that, according to scientists, the climate emergency is real, that it is “our” fault and that “we” must do something about it. However, in recent years, an increasing number of scientists are expressing a different view.
For example:
https://thefederalnewswire.com/stories/649656011-over-1-600-scientists-claim-that-the-climate-emergency-is-a-myth
When I meet other customers in my favourite coffee shop, we try to solve the problems of the World. If a fellow customer expresses a point of view, my natural reaction is to express counter arguments, whatever my true beliefs. I feel that I am able to learn more about a friend when I argue with them than when I agree with them. Hopefully, we will remain friends whatever our differences. What has surprised me is the number of times there is an entrenched point of view without putting forward a factual explanation. I am probably as guilty of this as anyone.
I suppose the point I am trying to make is that, for example on the subject of the climate emergency, it seems the majority the UK electorate does not “know”:
1. Whether the climate emergency is a myth … or not.
2. If the climate emergency is real …
a) … whether or not any of it is “our” fault.
b) … if it is our fault, how do we quantify the beneficial effects of each remedial
action we are told is “necessary”
c) … if it is our fault, what will be the cost (both financial and lifestyle), of each remedial
action we are told is necessary.
The answers to b) and c) might help us to form a view as to which remedial action we are prepared to accept and to pay for … and to which we are not.
Nobody seems to know.
So how and why have the politicians got us to where we are, without anyone doing the maths.
September 28, 2024
Have any of your previous friends stopped frequenting that coffee shop?
September 28, 2024
@Micky Taking
Not yet đ
September 27, 2024
Not thinking it through, ideology and religion over common sense and logic. Elsewhere in the media they are reporting more climb downs after OBR reports, plans to attack NonDoms will deliver zilch, but actually loose revenue. Similar with Private Equity.
Attaching transient positions because you refuse to manage expenditure can only lead to failure and lead you to attach more TAX to those like pensioners that have scrimped and saved to be self resilient that are the easy target. Or in other words you get to attack the very that should be applauded and encourage because it removes burden from the State.
NetZero as it applies in the UK attacks everyone as it applies punitive punishment where there is no viable alternative. The BIG NetZero punishment is the UK having to pay up to 10 times the price for its energy that the whole of industry and commerce as well as ourselves needs to be cost effective move forward. While the comfortable cost effective response lays in the ground. A lead weight around every part of the UK’s neck while the Whole World, our competition part, is taking our jobs and our livelihoods.
As 2TK has said at conference it is ‘Labour taking back Control of Peoples lives’ What life? he is removing life..
September 27, 2024
âAn impossible target to hit unless you redefine it to allow the burning of fossil fuels in stand by generators when wind and sun let us down.â
Er..noâŠRed Ed and his UN/WEF led comrades in Parliament, the Civil Service, the CCC, the environmental âcharitiesâ, judiciary etc. are intending to accomplish their âGreat Leap Forwardâ for decarbonised electricity by 2030 by simply ending the supply of hydrocarbon generated electricity so we rely entirely on expensive and chaotically intermittent renewables and some interconnector power if available. Not that any interconnector power can be sure to be âgreenâ or sufficient to eliminate the inevitable rolling blackouts. There is no plan for any grid-scale storage of course.
To ensure compliance they may even explosively demolish the hydrocarbon fuelled plants as did the COP26 President, a Conservative MP, for the coal-fired Ferrybridge Power Station.
Unfortunately there will be no opposition from the Conservative Party, the official “Opposition”, as they are all fully on board the Net Zero Titanic.
September 27, 2024
PS :
There is no climate crisis. The UN Sec Gen may say we are in an era of âglobal boilingâ but the UNâs own IPCC WG1 Table 12.12 (âThe Scienceâ) can find no signals for climate change (precipitation, droughts, storms) other than some mild warming leading to the loss of some ice and snow. Recent research published in the Science journal (science.org) shows that the planet is in a very cold period compared to the last 485m years of temperature history. We also know that we have had warmer periods since the most recent ice age ended. In Roman times vines were grown up by Hadrianâs Wall and Icelandic Norsemen colonised Greenland for several hundred years prior to the Little Ice Age which required temperatures to be 5 degrees C higher than today.
It is also clear that CO2 does not determine the temperature. There is no correlation between temperature and CO2 over the last 500m years when both have been at levels much higher than today and wildly fluctuating. The Antarctic Vostok ice core data shows CO2 following temperature for the last 450,000 years when both have been exceptionally low. There is no anthropogenic CO2 emissions explanation for the warming which brought us out of the most recent ice age.
The truth can only be recognised when freedom of speech exists. If it were not for the BBC acting like a 17th Century Pope by not allowing any discussion on CO2 and climate change then this delusion that CO2 determines global temperature would have ended by now.
September 27, 2024
Quite so, Sir John.
It seems to be a failing of democracies that such ‘gents’ get into power (or the lack of it when the wind does not blow at night).
September 27, 2024
The British public had the measure of Mr. Miliband and now it seems the energy indusrty and the ESO in particular do too.
One wonders if Mr. Starmer does and why he is willing for his government to be set-up for failure and ridicule on energy matters.
September 27, 2024
To death & taxes one can add debt interest, the finite availability of fossil fuels and the failings of the Civil Service when responsibility has been transferred to unaccountable Quangos.
Value of UK housing stock ÂŁ7.7 tn, debt ÂŁ2.7 tn, UK pension liability ÂŁ8.7 tn
Nett Zero by 2030, interesting corner Labour have knowingly backed themselves into.
You can almost understand the Treasury imperative for immigration and the voting British denial of a political incumbent solution.
When things get politically difficult there is always the easy answer of WAR.
September 27, 2024
Regarding the UK pension liability, are you suggesting a few million of us might do the decent thing?
September 28, 2024
Why do you think Two-Tier-Free-Gear-No-Idea-Keir is so enthusiastic about legislating for voluntary euthanasia?
Frail pensioner arrives in NHS hospital.
NHS Doctor “We could treat you but you’ve had a long life … do you really think it’s fair to take more from our beloved NHS? And think about your family …. if you go back home you’ll need care and that will be very expensive. It’ll certainly reduce any inheritance they may get – along with the chances of your grandchildren getting on the housing ladder. How about this nice morphine and midazolam cocktail instead. You won’t be in any pain and you can shuffle off knowing that you haven’t been selfish and you’ve helped save our beloved NHS.”
September 28, 2024
….but take a taxi home with this little bottle. Get into bed and just swallow the contents, relax and go to sleep.
September 27, 2024
Todayâs Media reports
British companies are paying the highest electricity prices of anywhere in the developed world, official data has shown.
The electricity price paid by UK industrial users per kilowatt hour rose to 25.85p in 2023, the data show.
The equivalent price was 17.84p in France, 17.71p in Germany and 6.48p in the US.
Bodes well to the theory of cancelling proper Steel Making and then take on the World with cheap electrical fired recycled Steel. No wonder India and China are laughing, the get UK taxpayer money to stop work and export jobs and then they are the main recipients to serve up cheap steel under-cutting UK production. Didnât the Unions grasp that as paymasters of Labour( I know the fault line was the Conservatives for real this time) at the election what they were doing? Inviting ultra Zealot Ed Milliband to remove their members jobs!
September 27, 2024
Logic and Common Sense seems to have passed all those elected to the HoC by â all 650. If there is a climate emergency and itâs a BIG IF as those with the theories have refused to be peer reviewed. It can only be called science with a full open peer review. Letâs pretend there is something in it, that f that is derived from âfossil fuelâ usage, and a change of direction in the way the World does things is needed.
It throws up 2 very big things. The first being is it the whole World, that climate change affects or just the UK? Can the UK on its own redress the so-called imbalance created by the other 98% inhabitants of the Planet? That is what our Legislators, the HoC are suggesting, so are demanding punitive punishment that does not figure amongst the Nations we compete with. Changes where available alternatives donât exist. Ony the UK has to pay! It shows the HoC is not allowing rational human beings, grown-ups, into the Chamber. The HoC all 650 members refuse to support the UK and their electorate seemingly on personal ideological grounds.
Second big element. To change a complete infrastructure takes a âwallâ of money, an amount we have never seen the likes of before. You still have to have an end product, its services etc. that can match the most completive price, be resilient and consistent in the World. If you have exported your jobs, use the taxpayer money to subsidies foreign state-owned industries, you are just banishing the Countries wealth, the wealth needed to change and support structures to move forward. The UK Legislators all 650 have out of ego have taken it on themselves to ensure that the UK canât build, canât respond canât have a future. Why should that be?
Logical and common-sense people start by ensuring wealth generation by all means is at the fore front of creating the options needed for a future. Wealth is not a dirty word, itâs a commodity that facilitates everything we live and breathe, Tax and Punishment fights that
September 27, 2024
Electricity rose to rose to 25.85p per kilowatt hour in 2023.
Compared to 8.89p before the other ultraâZealot Theresa May induced the UK Parliament to punish the UK.
Our competitor Nations are paying as little as 6.48p without subsidies
September 27, 2024
Fintan Slye’s response can be found in full here
https://www.nationalgrideso.com/document/324641/download
It’s full of flights of fancy. Shocking to think that the NESO, due to commence on October 1st will have the same head and the same people doing the planning as have led politicians and quangos up the garden path with their Future Energy Scenarios whose defining characteristic is that all possible solutions entail lots more grid investment.
Meanwhile some 10GW of renewables projects are being told they are making too slow progress, and will be denied their place in the queue for grid connections. It seems that there is no realistic planning taking place at all. This rushed botched initiative will achieve nothing. They need a realistic plan B, with a schedule for replacing dispatchable plant due for decommissioning, and adding to it if they really think that electricity demand will increase due to EVs and heat pumps.
Even more delusional is Miliband’s idea to try to force all rental property to be EPC C by 2930. How many millions does he want to force onto the streets, where they will be even colder?
September 27, 2024
I am no fan of Ed Miliband, however, let us set that aside and ask if the goal of carbon-free energy supply in the UK is achievable while remaining a competitive and improving G7 economy? I think it is and it deserves government commitment.
I donât know the overall cost equation, does anyone, and doubt there is any authoritative source that is able to provide a realistic estimate of the full costs involved. But maintaining adequate nuclear power station supply of electricity must remain critical to a transition to guaranteed energy supply whatever the weather, which seems to be understood by the government and remains part of the plan. So I am reasonably content with the way things are going. Have I got it wrong?
Reply Totally wrong. All but one of our nuclear stations close by 2028. Hinckley may not be on stream before 2030 and does not replace all the losses, so nuclear falls. You have to say what we rely on when there is no sun or wind
September 27, 2024
You would be right about one thing: no branch of government or quango has ever properly evaluated the costs of attempting net zero, which is effectively impossible due to resource constraints. Parliament has never called for an impact study, and legislated entirely blind for net zero.
The work done for the Future Energy Scenarios and for the CCC Carbon budgets is extremely shoddy and easily shown to be inadequate. When the Royal Society did show that the CCC was grossly underestimating the need for storage (by an order of magnitude or more), Chris Stark as CCC CEO refused to acknowledge their error.
Many studies show that a renewables based grid requires extensive backup of essentially 100% of peak demand, and results in large volumes of curtailment because it is uneconomicto try to store all the surpluses. If you have some modest spreadsheet skills, you can prove this to yourself using readily available data. If you have Ed Miliband’s mindset you treat such analysis as if it were a visitation by vampires. The cost of the required system, much of which has a short service life is unaffordable.
Work by Prof Michaux shows that the resource requirements for net zero are simply not achievable. Others have reached similar conclusions.
First order cost estimates include the Prof Mike Kelly (former Chief Scientific Advisor at DCLG) that insulating the housing stock to net zero standards is a multi decade ÂŁ2trillion item on its own: he actually sponsored proper experiments while he was involved.
September 27, 2024
Miliband was challenged by a plain-speaking Yorkshire lass in 2015 and became his defining moment, especially after tripping off stage left exit.
“The woman who shredded Red Ed: How marketing company boss used laser-like precision to lead audience attack on Labour leader”.
Ever since he has laid low profile and gradually emerged as the Labour expert superhero on Energy, having discovered the Holy Grail of this precious perpetual energy:
Spin
September 28, 2024
+1
September 27, 2024
The question I would like an answer (from those who support our Net Zero drive) is by how much will the UK’s expensive efforts to reduce global temperatures and reduce the numbers of extreme global weather events.
Does anyone know?
September 27, 2024
Have a look at what Gary Smith who runs the GMB union has to say about the net zero stuff .
Fraser Nelson hosted a discussion at the
Labour conference last week .
To put it mildly Smith injects a strong dose of reality .
Good News !
September 28, 2024
I understand Autralia, which has banned nuclear energy for years, is reconsidering. It has rich uranium deposits and exports uranium ore but has only one small nuclear reactor in Canberra (20MW) for research and production of radioisotpes. It would make sense to do this alongside the nuclear submarine programme within the AUKUS treaty. On the other hand Australia is one of the few countries that could produce a high proportion of its electricity reasonably reliably from solar and wind. If it got its act together. That is a very big if as South Australia’s statewide blackouts demonstrated in 2016. It was all about the grid, as it is in the UK.
September 29, 2024
Even in Australia trying to make a grid work off renewables without diesel/gas/coal/hydro backup is very difficult and requires fairly extensive storage. There are times when the same no wind high pressure system covers the entire populated eastern part of the country for extended periods. Output varies significantly at seasonal and inter year scales, with El Niño/La Niña weather cycles influencing patterns significantly. Reduction in the high inertia spinning generators from coal poses significant risks from grid instability, and there have been a number of blackouts already (if not quite as widespread as the one in 2016 so far).
The interest in nuclear arises because these problems are now out in the open and being discussed. They are largely being ignored in the UK.