Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): I welcome this opportunity for us to discuss one of the biggest issues facing the country. April could indeed be the cruellest month this year if more action is not taken to tackle the forthcoming problem, because we are likely to see an unfortunate coincidence of a big surge in electricity and gas bills as the cap is relaxed, an increase in council bills, general inflation that is a bit too high, and a national insurance increase hitting peopleâs work incomes. I urge the Government to think again about the possible severity of that squeeze on real incomes, as it would have a knock-on effect, reducing peopleâs ability to spend on other discretionary items as they struggle to pay energy bills. It would therefore slow the economy quite considerably, at the same time as creating this shock to living standards.
The Ministers sitting on the Front Bench are, I am sure, engaged in conversations more widely in Government, including with senior members of the Government who will make the ultimate decisions. Today is not really the day to debate more general taxation issues, although even at this late stage I would like the Government to cancel the national insurance increase, on the grounds that public finances generated a big surge in revenue compared with the Budget forecast last March, and our deficit is around ÂŁ60 billion lower than they thought it was going to be. I say to the Government that they can accommodate the ÂŁ12 billion they need to spendârightlyâon health improvements, without that money.
The proper subject of this debate is our energy markets. If we compare the two sides of the Atlantic, we see in Bidenâs America, where he inherited a period of successful exploration and development of domestic gas, a market that can more than supply its own needs and has kept prices considerably lower than the damaged European market. President Biden, while clearly putting his country on the road to net zero at COP26, returned home to authorise more exploration and development of both oil and gas wells, and to license more territory in the gulf of Mexico. He took the view that we will have a transition need for gas for this decade or more, and he needs to keep the American market properly supplied.
I urge my colleagues on the Front Bench to be sympathetic, as I think they are, to the case that while we still need to burn quite a lot of gas, and while we are awaiting plentiful supplies of renewable or nuclear power that will be affordable and reliable, we must accept that we will be burning somebodyâs gas, and it must make more sense to burn our own, rather than imports. Indeed, I would start that case from the green point of view. A while ago I had a useful answer to a parliamentary question, pointing out that the CO2Â generated by importing liquefied natural gas and burning it in whatever we wish to burn it in is more than double the amount of CO2Â generated from burning a comparable thermal equivalent of gas taken from the North sea. There is a very good green case for substituting domestic gas for imported LNG.
Clive Lewis (Lab): Over the past two years, the North sea oil and gas that was exported doubled. It is not our oil and gas. It belongs to the corporations that bring it out of the ground, and they sell it to the highest bidder. It does not increase our energy security. The right hon. Gentleman made a point about Biden inheriting fracked shale oil and gas in the US, but he failed to mention the ecological costs, which every year run into hundreds of millions of pounds of damage to the natural world. That is the price the United States is paying for its fracking, which I imagine the right hon. Gentleman would expect us to take up here as well.
Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): I was not talking about onshore gas at all; I was talking about North sea gas, which comes from under the sea. A variety of reservoir easing techniques have been used for many years and never caused political controversy. I was recommending that we review again the opportunity to explore for more, to develop more and to bring into production the fields that we know are out there. That would also help the SNP spokesman, the hon. Member for Aberdeen South (Stephen Flynn), who would rightly like more jobs or to sustain jobs in his successful oil and gas city, which faces the problems that he described. I was interested in his warning about how a windfall tax could, like last time, collapse investment and reduce the amount of extraction and future investment that we get.
The hon. Member for Norwich South (Clive Lewis) said that not all the gas produced in the North sea would be sold to us. That may be right, but the European market in general is chronically short of gas and the continental market is cruelly dependent on Russian gas, which today we can see is not a good idea. A North sea supply would therefore help when we are trying to ease supply pressures and bring prices down.
The second reason why it makes much more sense to use our own gasâor to extract more of itârather than rely on imports is that we collect much more tax on it, and we are losing all that tax revenue on imports. The hon. Gentleman should remember that we now import 53% of the gas that we need, and we do not get anything like the revenue that we could if we extracted more of our own. Preferably, we would sell it to ourselves, but even if we exported itâwe may well do thatâwe would still collect the extra revenue. There would also be a benefit in jobs and prosperity, because the industry tends to create quite a lot of well-paid jobs, which is good for the communities that sponsor those activities.
I hope that Ministers will look favourably on the idea that, during this transition, we will burn a lot of gasâas will everyone elseâso it makes a lot of sense for the UK to produce gas and offer it on long-term contracts, trying to smooth some of erratic prices that we see because of what is happening on the continent, and make our contribution to greater security of supply for ourselves andâindirectlyâfor Europe.
FinallyâI know that time is limitedâelectricity is much in demand, and it will be much more in demand if the electrical revolution that the Government wish to unleash comes true. One reason why we had a big spike in gas prices was that the wind did not blow, which added to the need to burn a lot more gas in power stations. That can happen again, because the wind clearly is an unreliable friend, and it is particularly difficult if it goes down at times of peak demand or when it is very cold. We therefore need to ensure that we are putting in enough reliable electricity capacity, because that has a direct relationship with the gas supply and demand issue as well as with gas prices, and I do not think that the current plans have nearly enough new capacity in them.
February 3, 2022
Windfall taxes are nearly always a bad idea deterring investment – a Mugabe tax – you owe what we say you owe after the event. Just theft really.
The levelling up agenda paper is daft misguided socialism and more government on top of high energy prices and vast tax hike and endless red tape. The opposite of what is needed.
February 3, 2022
John is wasting his breath. Net zero is the only game in town and until every vestige of economic activity is cancelled the government won’t be happy.
The department for Business Extinction and Import Substitution is doing a wonderful job, or so they think.
February 3, 2022
Seems so. If Boris and Javid think they can retain the 2×1.25% manifesto ratting NI increases on top of the vast other tax increases, huge inflation and allowance freezes and massive energy price rises they should watch last nights Question Time from Morecambe and get real.
The only way out is cut taxes, ditch net zero, cut government waste and have a bonfire of red tape.
February 3, 2022
Ian,
They only have two and a half years at best, but the opposition are even worse. Time for a political rethink.
February 3, 2022
As Clive Lewis saliently corrected Sir John, it is not “our” gas.
It is the private property of the global corporations who extract it, to do with as they will in the global market.
That, is everything.
Reply It is easiest to send it down a pipe that already exists to a UK landing and sell it into our network. Whatever they do with we tax them.
February 3, 2022
What if the pipe that already exists goes to the Netherlands, to Norway or to Denmark?
February 3, 2022
like the Russians preparing to sever internet cables, we could warn of severing gas pipelines if they don’t play ball?
February 3, 2022
Sorry, who are “we” and who are “they”?
February 3, 2022
Extra supply into a market will reduce prices.
February 4, 2022
In law oil and gas belongs to the Crown. It may only be disposed of in ways approved by the OGA, who must approve any pipeline and its use.
February 3, 2022
+1
February 3, 2022
The focus of recent articles seems to be specifically on energy policy .
This would be better placed in the context of Conservative values in general.
Reply I gave a statement of Conservative values and policies recently. Energy costs are the big issue at the moment.
February 3, 2022
I remember being told Brexit would slash energy costs. Howâs that going?
February 3, 2022
Who said that Len?
February 4, 2022
Boris in The Sun on 30 May 2016,
February 4, 2022
What’s the actual quote hef?
February 3, 2022
Good morning.
Thanks you, Sir John for keeping up the good fight.
A Windfall Tax is just another envy tax the Left, and now you own party, seem to enjoy. It is not the money itself that is needed, but an attack of private enterprise and capital.
As a commenter here mentioned yesterday, we may not be able to extract shale gas as it needs cleaning and there are major environmental decisions to be made. Maybe this is why there seems little apetit from the government ?
Our governments of past have made poor decisions and we now find that the government of today seems content to carry on the tradition. As mentioned in your piece, the people will face the triple whammy of increases in NIC, fuel and Council Tax, just in time for the local elections.
You government reminds me of a picture of someone holding a gun to his head and saying;
“Nobody move, or I’ll shoot !”
February 3, 2022
+1
As far as I know shale is regarded as a âfossilâ fuel by the far extreme Left and thus untouchable.
And govt. of course obeys the far extreme Leftâs bidding.
Does the Left not realise that child-slave-extracted minerals and metals used for their electric cars and mobile devices have been in the ground for some time?
CoalâŠlithiumâŠcobaltâŠshale.
Whereâs the difference?
Just the small matter of slave labour!
February 3, 2022
What is the difference between young coal (wood) imported from the US on diesel ships and old coal. The former produces more CO2 per KWH but they pretend not? What is the point in exporting energy intensive industries and jobs so more CO2 is just produced overseas? Interestingly importing natural gas on ships often means lots of Methane a greenhouse gas is boiled off and wasted to cool the liquid otherwise it is cooled using diesel energy. Imported by ship methane roughly doubles CO2 production per KWH of gas delivered compared to local supplies. All is total economic and scientific insanity from this government.
February 3, 2022
+1
They intend to go in for extremely ooky âcarbon accountingâ I imagine.
Utterly typical of their usual M.O.
February 3, 2022
There was a time pre Blair that the labour supported our coal fields & fossil fuels and disliked the EUâŠ.that was when their goal was clear â to support the British working class, there jobs and livelihood
Today no one knows what Labour or Tory stand for
February 3, 2022
I know. They stand for expecting the lower paid workers and families to suffer cold, economic disadvantages, misery and depression. Many pushed into mental health concerns.
They stand for expecting the middle income workers and families to suffer horrendous bills – mortgages, council tax rises, transport costs going up, paying for private family health cover because the NHS has gone missing and disillusion with their prospects in modern UK.
They also stand for expecting the higher paid workers, and wealthy families to not notice increases, in fact paying the 5% VAT on heating bills has never been a concern.
February 3, 2022
Yes – but you’re describing both Labour & Tory
February 3, 2022
+1
Pretty well interchangeable?
February 3, 2022
Those industries were heavily unionised and paid into the Labour Party. Today it is government and the NHS unions that pay in and so get the attention and demands for evermore money.
February 3, 2022
There is a large gas processing plant at Barrow which handles gas from the Irish sea, and others on the East Coast as well as St Fergus. On our small island they are not far away from likely new sources ashore or their likely landfalls in existing pipelines from offshore. They coped when we were not merely self sufficient, but had an export surplus, and somewhat larger industrial demand because the cheap supply supported industry. Gas processing capacity is not a problem.
February 3, 2022
Allister Heath today is spot on.
âBorisâs betrayal of his revolutionary Brexit mandate is now almost total
The radical promise embodied in leaving the EU has given way to failing establishment orthodoxyâ
This on top of net zero, expensive intermittent energy, the daft levelling up socialist big government agenda and his vast, manifesto ratting tax and NI increases.
February 3, 2022
Translation – Brexitist Allister Heath doesnât like Brexit
February 3, 2022
Yes, and they never will come out and say what this mythical, dreamed-of brexit would have been if it had not been “betrayed”, do they?
I suspect that it would have involved all manner of reprehensible things, which they hoped that others would implement without them having to have the courage to ask for them expressly, however.
February 3, 2022
No just does not like the way many opportunities are being wasted.
February 3, 2022
Please list them.
A few will do.
February 3, 2022
A bonfire of red tape, scrap net zero become, scrap the human right act, control our own borders, have selective (quality only) immigration, have sensible easy hire and fire employment laws, half the size of the state sector…
February 3, 2022
Which “red tape”????
Sewage in rivers?
Fire resistance standards for cladding?
The rest of that is NOTHING to do with the European Union and never has been.
February 4, 2022
Back on your regular challenge I see NHL
Why not go back and refer to the many answers you have had many times previously.
February 3, 2022
Andy.
Your translation is too literal as usual. Allister Heath does not like this government’s” interpretation “of Brexit. A Brexit that detatches NI from the UK with potential disasterous consequences. A Brexit that has betrayed our fishing industry, small with potential that it is. A political error. A Brexit that continues to worship the false green god that is causing irreperable damage to the financial social structure of the UK.
For someone who considers himself financially secure, free of social responsibilities, it is another pull up the ladder Jack time.
February 3, 2022
+many
I canât say I was happy with him..but after MayâŠI was a bit hopeful.
The betrayal has been huge,devastating.
I really didnât know that they were allowed to obfuscate and mislead like this.
Or maybe I didnât pay enough attention?
And now, whatever they come up with, I just assume the opposite.
Tragic.
February 3, 2022
There has been no betrayal. What has happened is simply that the Brexiters have met reality. Boris, Gove and all the rest of them can’t just pitch infantile claims about “we hold all the cards”, they have to live in the real world in which the EU is much stronger and bigger than the UK. And so the UK gets a bad bad deal, and will always have a bad bad deal. You were warned, but you voted for it. No one betrayed you, you fooled yourself
February 3, 2022
Let’s cut to the nub of it Gary.
For some, leaving the European Union was the major step necessary to preface withdrawal from ECHR, in turn which was needed for them to be able to the things that they wanted to do to those whom they dislike.
They don’t have the guts to come out and to say that though.
February 3, 2022
For some? How many, eh Lad?
February 3, 2022
I reckon you and Gary are the same blogger.
February 3, 2022
From The Guardian
Mon 9 Jul 2018 18.48 BST
Boris Johnson has quit as foreign secretary, claiming in his resignation letter that the UK was headed âfor the status of a colonyâ if Theresa Mayâs soft Brexit plans were adopted.
The leading Brexiter said that he tried to support the line agreed at Chequers on Friday but while the âgovernment now has a song to singâ he could not manage to support the plan agreed.
âThe trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and find that they stick in the throat,â Johnson wrote. âSince I cannot in all conscience champion these proposals, I have sadly concluded that I must go.â
A different Boris?
February 3, 2022
From Boris Johnsonâs diary/blog
28th Feb 2016
âThe agents of Project Fear â and they seem to be everywhere â have warned us that leaving the EU would jeopardise police, judicial and intelligence cooperation. We have even been told that the EU has been responsible, over the last 70 years, for âkeeping the peace in Europeâ. In every case the message is that Brexit is simply too scary; and the reality is that these threats are so wildly exaggerated as to be nonsense.
Indeed I am ever more convinced that the real risk is to sit back and do nothing, to remain inertly and complacently in an unreformed EU that is hell-bent on a federal project over which we have no control.â
Sounded pretty promising to me!
AnywayâŠwe won and we demand our prize!
February 3, 2022
Yes, a different Boris! That was the Boris who could spin any old fairy tale about Brexit because it wasn’t his job to deliver it. It’s differnet now, it is his job to deliver it. And it’s rubbish. That’s not his fault, any and every Brexit was always going to be rubbish. I’d take it up with the people who promised you Brexit would have no downside, only considerable upsides – the people who ignored reality but have now crashed into it
February 3, 2022
Indeed. The likelihood that this would happen was by far the best argument for voting remain. But of course the remain side didnât say that, they said the economy would collapse and peace would be threatened etc. all the project fear nonsense. leave were fortunate in the inanity of their opposition, but have now squandered the victory. I guess weâll end up with a half way house like Norway.
February 3, 2022
What the Remain campaigns actually said was that the probability of untoward events, economic or otherwise, would be increased rather than decreased by brexit.
As we see, Europe’s peace now looks increasingly fragile. Whether the protagonists would still have acted as they have done with the UK in a solidaire European Union is a worthy topic for discussion.
February 4, 2022
Did they actually say that NHL?
You making stuff up again?
February 3, 2022
You brexiters endlessly jaw that the project was about some – apparently absolutist – idea of “sovereignty”.
Well, the US has just sent thousands of troop into countries across Europe, which appears to be inflaming a deadly serious position still further. This would appear to have been a decision taken by the US, with little input from the relevant countries.
I wonder what you would have said, if a hypothecated European Union defence department had sent thousands of troops to its bases on this country’s soil, if it fancied ratcheting up tensions between the UK and some large power?
Then there’s extradition…
Reply I would have been strongly opposed to EU troops here. They could have done that when we were in the EU but cannot do it now we are out. The US only sent troops to NATO countries that asked for them!
February 3, 2022
What European Defence force? fantasising again, Martin?
Putin is a great actor, full of expression – he looks really concerned that EU is talking, well the brave tiddlers are, about a show of force.
Later he probably falls about laughing at your ‘most significant market force’ in the World.
February 3, 2022
Of course you would, Sir John, in the name of sovereignty, and as you very well know the European Union has no defence department nor military anyway, so what you say is false, it could never have done that while the UK was a member.
However, what sovereignty do NATO countries have then? Isn’t their sovereignty compromised FAR more by that, than by membership of the European Union, which could never do to them what the US has just done as it stands?
Reply. No. NATO countries volunteer to join NATO missions, and can refuse NATO deployments. There is no superior NATO court enforcing NATO policy on them
February 4, 2022
There are the terms of the NATO treaties.
Then again there are the arrangements between the US and the member nations, but outside of the NATO treaties, aren’t there?
February 3, 2022
Clive Lewis MP’s intervention highlights the hopelessness of the net zero doga and the abhorrence of rational discussion. Endless false statements joined up with frightening costs, aimed at terrifying the voters. In this case his response is UK energy security would cost the environment hundreds of billions.
When is the UK Government going to explain to voters the critical need for a transitonary energy policy. The current Russian crisis will ensure that voters at least ” Stop, Look and Listen” or is the Johnson role that of the Mussolini type ie a policy of blind observance to globalist dogma leasing to subserviance.
It’s now or never!
February 3, 2022
I agree. I would like to ask Mr Lewis to give us chapter and verse on the ‘…ecological costs , which every year run into hundreds of millions of pounds of damage to the natural world’.
February 3, 2022
The other point that Clive Lewis is too stupid to understand is that the UK government could very easily impose requirements on the licences to drill for oil and gas – such as giving the UK first refusal on what is extracted. Our waters, our rules.
February 3, 2022
X Tory
Far far too Simple a Solution for a politician to contemplate.
February 3, 2022
Sir
What you say is common sense.
Why does no one in Government take the necessary action ?
It would be easy for me to say they must be deaf or stupid (or both).
The mainstream media seems to be largely silent on the issues you mention. What are they afraid of ?
February 3, 2022
Oldwulf, you seem to think that the media are there to report reality and inform the public. Could it have escaped your notice over the last two years that they see their role rather as being to promote agendas? As long as they do that, the media don’t need to be afraid. They gave us the Covid lockdown agenda, which is segueing into the net zero agenda, now building up to the point where serious public resistance could occur. The worry is that Ofcom could be used to suppress dissent on the latter agenda as it was on the former one.
February 3, 2022
I think rather that the media reports what the public wants to hear Philip. It is a market after all.
February 3, 2022
So there’ll never be any discrepancies between public opinion and what the media are pumping out? I don’t believe that. For a start, I don’t get a sense there’s much public interest here in the Russia-Ukraine ‘crisis’, which the media have been full of. Also, the media had been full of global warming horror stories for years before opinion surveys started to show a high level of interest. Of course some media output must be demand-led, but surely only a pious believer in lemon-stand Economics 101 thinks that’s the whole story.
February 3, 2022
There will be a discrepancy as you say Philip as one side catches up with the other but the public will switch off or not buy if force fed articles and information it disagrees with. For instance in March 2020 I stopped listening to all forms of talk radio because of the endless speculation about Covid with expert after expert invited to repeat themselves.
But the British public are not fools and dwindling sales, viewing and listening figures suggests that pious lemon stand economics 101 has some traction.
February 3, 2022
+1
Possibly the fact that they have woken up toâŠ
âThe rush to âgo electricâ comes with a hidden cost: destructive lithium miningâ A Guardian article from 2021.
Why anyone thought there was a âfree lunchâ where industry/energy is concerned is beyond me.
This realisation, if pushed by the right people, just might put a spoke in the relentless and damaging wheels of âgreeneryâ.
February 3, 2022
Yesterday I was forced by a large corporation customer to fill in a sustainability event (in reality a questionnaire). I answered “No” to too many of the questions, none of which would have added any value to our organisation and I suspect that we will not be permitted to supply said customer as we have not passed compliance (we have to do similar with diversity and data security quotas too).
Said customer can not get our services elsewhere. so I am increasingly hopeful that if enough small suppliers also answer “no” then This realisation, if pushed by the right people, just might put a spoke in the relentless and damaging wheels of âgreeneryâ.
From small acorns…..
February 3, 2022
+10000
LOVELY!!
February 3, 2022
+1
February 3, 2022
In the Middle, Far East and Russian companies just put any old QA logo on their stationeryâŠits only the UK, Europe and the North America thatâs actually compliant
I wonder if the companies in central Africa that use children to mine for rare earth minerals are compliant in Investors in People, Equal Opportunities, Health & Safety, Quality Assurance and complete annual surveys in recruitment patterns, diversity in the workplace, provide awareness days for BLM, report equality of pay & promotion etc
February 3, 2022
So while Labour MPs and many Tory MPs sit on their fat arses moaning, North Sea workers are out there in the dark and rain miles offshore pumping up the gas and oil we need to keep our homes warm and run our way of life. Slime and to think a voter walks into a booth and puts a cross next a person who belongs to these two parties that are running our nation into the dirt. I feel sick at the travesty, the betrayal and the lies that we now see on an almost daily basis. It stinks
February 3, 2022
And even worse than that, Dom, a substantial part of what those workers extract is then exported. Welcome to Absurdistan.
As I keep saying, put a cross on the Reform UK candidate on the ballot, every chance you get. That is the only language the Tory party understands.
February 3, 2022
Yes gas exports have doubled in the last year. Government needs to decide who the gas belongs to in UK Territorial Waters.
February 3, 2022
That’s privatisation, and libertarian private property law for you.
You can’t have it both ways.
February 3, 2022
I think you can, lad. The government issues licences for North sea oil and gas exploitation. It could make them dependent on requiring private companies to accept a quota system giving the home market something like first refusal. As long as we have competent politicians and civil servants dedicated to the national interest…. Ah, yes, I see the problem now…
February 4, 2022
That would not be libertarian private property law.
February 5, 2022
We live in a mixed economy of government and private enterprises NHL
Depends on how you define and describe libertarian private property law
February 4, 2022
Really? I checked out the latest Energy Trends data, which shows that exports of gas (never particularly large) are now small, and have been falling because of lower production due to post pandemic maintenance, while imports have been rising. This chart shows the physical flows in the context of the longer term history as moving annual totals to damp down the spiky seasonality.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Sss9R/1/
Of course, the value of exports may well have doubled despite the declining volumes, because prices not only recovered from their 2020 lockdown lows, but also soared to reflect the shortages of supply globally.
All UKCS gas has to be landed in the UK by law, unless granted a specific licence otherwise: that only applies to a couple of small fields that happen to be close to Dutch pipeline infrastructure. Our ability to export is limited by the small pipeline capacity ex Bacton to the Netherlands and Belgium, and otherwise to some small re-export of LNG via Grain, either effectively ship to ship transfer of Russian LNG for Asian destination when the Arctic route is closed, or for loading of LNG bunkering vessels.
February 3, 2022
+1
February 3, 2022
It is the voters betrayal of themselves I find the most baffling, and yes it makes my stomach churn also.
What is equally as baffling (and in truth terrifying) is that many actually know now that the political establishment here is dishonest and not working for them as is their duty.
Yet off they will trot to put a cross on a piece of paper keeping the charade of a democracy going.
February 3, 2022
The lights are on but nobody is at home.
The government are just not listening so wedded to Net Zero but not a clue what impact its going to have and how
to implement it.
Your ideas like that of Lord Frosts cast aside as it impacts on the lemming charge to the cliff edge of Net Zero.
All the while our competitors abroad sit back and watch this country slowly implode as they stay focused to the really important stuff.
February 3, 2022
The lights will be switched off come April….when the bills start to arrive (the tories can’t blame covid)
February 3, 2022
the country will pray the weather improves and turn off heating, apart from the comfortably off friends of Johnson who will be in the sunshine around the world on long holidays.
February 3, 2022
I gather that you, Sir John, and other MPs, should now be switching your attention to a looming fertiliser shortage in Europe. Or is Johnson’s plan to rely on Ukrainian wheat exports? We are now at the point where this private citizen is confident that he could do a better job of PM than Johnson.
February 3, 2022
@Sea_warrior
What absolute rubbish, complete scaremongering nonsense. There is no fertilizer shortage in Europe at all. And certainly not here, where we have so much human fertilizer in the form of raw sewage that it is being dumped in our rivers and on our beaches.
February 3, 2022
Indeed.News from S&P Platts yesterday that Russia is banning exports of ammonium nitrate for two months-to prioritise it’s domestic market.
“Russia represents two-thirds of the world’s annual 20m mt ammonium nitrate production,most of which is used in fertilisers to improve yields in crops such as corn,cotton and wheat.”
Russia would also be a big winner from EU plans,announced last year,to move to Green(ie low cadmium-a toxic metal-content)fertiliser.”EU farmers are overwhelmingly dependent on North and West Africa for phosphate where,because of the natural conditions,there is usually a cadmium level far higher than the 20mg/kg(max limit to qualify for Green status).At the same time,phosphate coming from Russia has lower natural levels of the metal.”
Good luck with the sanctions!
“
February 3, 2022
And just to pile even more insults onto the many injuries, the Chancellor wants to get people into even more debt in order that they should keep warm!
And believe meâŠno rich uncle comes along to solve financial problems with a postal order.
People just learn to juggle.
And feed their kids as best they can!
Until the incredibly cruel system sends round the bailiffs.
February 3, 2022
I assume that an increase in energy prices in some way feeds through to an increase in GDP (as the rises will outstrip inflation) . So no doubt while many shiver and starve we will be able to report an improved economic outlook.
Jolly good
February 3, 2022
+1
Tried to discombobulate a couple of economic articles.
And you are right about GDP and energy prices ( as far as I could make out).
I think immigration does the same? Very cheap tricks to play on us.
February 3, 2022
Why would any society want to unlearn 1000 years of learning?
Unless of course there was the glint of untold wealth on the secret horizonâŠ
For some!!
February 3, 2022
Correct – The era of Boris will be recorded as a disasterâŠ.just how much of a disaster is down to the honest men of the parliamentary party
February 3, 2022
+many
Indeed..our fate is in their hands!
February 3, 2022
All very sensible but nothing will change while a green zealot remains PM and the majority of MPs appear to be brainwashed nodding donkeys.
February 3, 2022
Spot on Oldtimer….and its no good replacing a green with a green, a woke with a woke or a remainer with a remainer
February 3, 2022
Sir John makes a case fot domestic production but as usual dodges a difficult issue – he deliberately avoids land production of gas.
Reply Another issue for another day. let’s do the easy things first.
February 3, 2022
Reply to Reply.
Fracking is only difficult for Nimbys. The practicalities just need the go ahead.
February 3, 2022
Fracking is a huge problem for the woke Left.
It is viewed as a fossil fuel and thus verboten.
February 3, 2022
Agricola, are you telling us that from âEspaña soleada?â
February 3, 2022
Is there a supply of untapped resources under the North Sea? And who owns it? Where are we with wave power? How long to build new nuclear power station? Can rubbish be a fuel? We can no longer export it? Can we build new Dinorwigs? Where I live wind is almost constant . There is wind farm offshore with more planned. Problem is housing is being rammed in where there is a water shortage flood plains ,and no jobs schools, docs etc Nothing will ever keep up if someone doesnât grasp that nettle. Instead of tinkering just declare asylum is to be stopped for 10 years.
February 3, 2022
A good point reference the housing being jammed in. It is something which I can never get my head around when people object to other things on the grounds of ecology/green/environment etc. etc.
I suppose slapping the label ‘sustainable’ on quietens the masses. It’s a word used on the telly all the time by those allegedly in the know (or the only one’s allowed an opinion) so it must carry some weight!!
February 3, 2022
Cartimandua
It will never happen regarding asylum this would be oh so not British. People pride themselves and get decorated for looking after immigrants and asylum seekers and all the time our homeless , ex-military personnel and abandon children numbers grow on our streets as does the food banks. Is this ever right I ask myself?
February 3, 2022
+1000 turbo – likewise the people who decide that the non-UK violent criminals get to remain in the UK, as they have greater rights than their UK victims
February 3, 2022
Thanks you Sir John.
Please keep plugging away for us.
February 3, 2022
An interesting speech. However, BEIS has aleady introduced a stealth 75% windfall profits tax on the UK energy supply companies, after BP unwound a large gas hedge held by it’s Pure Planet subsidiary before pulling the plug on the challenger brand last October. It is understood to have sold the energy it bought in advance, using the profit to pay back loans to BP.
Clearly, this is to deter energy firm owners from gas profiteering. The new 75% windfall tax aims to dissuade owners with lucrative advance gas contracts from cashing out and abandoning customers. The money should be used to help reduce the nation’s energy bills this winter, along with scrapping the 5% VAT on heating
February 3, 2022
As ever politicians discussing the wrong subject.
Let’s tax something they say – not let’s abandon our misguided approach – how many MPs got up and said abandon net zero? None, I will wager.
Thank you Sir John for highlighting that we generate double the CO2 by importing gas but please can you just start the call to abandon the plan?
February 3, 2022
Well it gives you a hint of where Labour would be. Frankly we have no choice- Green or green or green. Unless Reform comes to the fore.
February 3, 2022
May be worth mentioning EU moves to deem gas and nuclear âgreenâ during your next such speech?
February 3, 2022
The points Sir John makes to his less than honourable friends in the house, seem almost ‘other worldly’ in their plain old common sense form, so rare is it to hear such from the allegedly learned folk of the house.
So what’s really going on here?
Is it all conspiracy theory that there is a globalist agenda, or that our nation was designated to be managed into decline after WW2?
Looks a bit like it, certainly smells like it.
Then there is the money aspect, which I’m sure will be a big pull for some who stand to gain heftily in the net zero industry/business
Perhaps there are promises of large salaried directorships or consultancy positions for some when they tire of
political life.
February 3, 2022
Sir John …. you’re talking to the hand. The face ain’t listening …. or not to you, anyway. It’s listening to the UN, the WEF and the Green Extremists.
Allister Heath in the DT today hits the nail firmly on the head. Johnson has betrayed the millions who voted for him to deliver Brexit; for less immigration and control of our borders and for major reform.
Instead we’ve had socialist and green extremist policies, which he has no mandate to implement, leading to tax rises he promised not to implement, inflation and a cost of living crisis.
You could be forgiven for thinking that Johnson WANTS to destroy the Conservative Party ….. and the country.
February 3, 2022
Donna,
Agreed. Little point discussing energy if Johnson has a completely different agenda.
Johnson has not got Brexit done. He has signed up to BRINO and never wants Brexit mentioned again.
I donât think Johnson wants to destroy the Conservative Party or the country but they may be collateral damage in his push for personal glory and wealth.
February 3, 2022
So double previous years UK oil and gas is being exported because higher prices are available on the world market but USA oil and gas remains at a low price for their domestic use. That doesn’t make sense unless there’s an embargo on USA exports. Surely the reason must be the high fuel duty tax we pay here in the UK compared with the USA? That’s down to our Government.
February 4, 2022
Actually less is being exported, but its value has increased as prices rebounded from lockdown lows. Musleading statistics from Mr Lewis.
February 3, 2022
DOM , +1, I share your heartfelt revulsion at the utter uselessness of current politicians.
February 3, 2022
Rather than a windfall tax, how about actually taxing these industries, located as they are in tax havens with whom the UK has tax treaties. They can pull out all their profits using a suite of creative accounting, paying no tax either in the UK or where they are based.
Yes, they pay employment taxes – so does everyone else.
Meanwhile, UK business does the heavy lifting.
February 3, 2022
Sir John, have you written before on the subject of ‘Green levies’? About how they’re charged and where the money goes to? And whether they should suspended until gas prices fall to where they were last year? Judging by this morning’s coverage of what the government is about to announce, they seem to be sacrosanct.
February 3, 2022
While all that you say may well be true I wish to see a much more radical approach by government.
Around 25% of the domestic fuel bill is the Green Levy and 5% is VAT. Get rid of both. If green electricity cannot stand on its own financial merits, then let it die.
We have gas of our own if we drill for it and store it as a buffer. Instruct the extraction industry that their first responsibility is to supply all UK gas needs at cost plus a reasonable profit. No gas to be exported without government approval. No gas to be produced in excess of UK needs for specific needs on the World market.
Push ahead with SMRs as rapidly as possible, they are home grown and could be a new profitable industry. If located in a levelling up area so much the better.
All the talk of juggling subsidies/loans to help the impoverished is political nonesense. Better the measures I suggest as they leave nobody out and help industry too.
The developing situation in NI is down to our governments lassitude. Get a grip, invoke Art 16 and let the EU decide what they wish to do about the border on Souther Irish territory. Otherwise it will be a cancer spreading in all directions as factions line up to take selfish advantage for their own political ends.
Parties apart, government is giving every impression it has lost the plot.
February 3, 2022
Never understand how taxing somebody more, will help reduce a price of a product or service, surely if you take money out of a company, they need to put up prices to get that sum of money back to try and keep the company profitable, the alternative is they do not invest as much as normal back in the business, and so reduce the chance of future growth.
February 3, 2022
The price of something is generally made up of two major parts. The cost of the item and the willingness of the consumer to pay said price. Supply and demand.
The price of the item is itself composed of cost of the item to make (labour, materials etc) plus profit on top of that.
If you reduce demand the seller has a number of options. He can reduce the amount of profit he puts on top or reduce costs. Usually this comes in the form of labour / wages.
If you tax people more and give them less to spend then they will not consume, so the market, and therefore inflation falls. Troubles is, if you do it too much you get high unemployment and a recession.
February 3, 2022
Excellent speech, once more from our host who really understands the issues – unlike the socialist who went off at a tangent, as they are apt to do.
would surely punish and help to destroy these industries we need so badly, especially at this time.
What about a windfall tax on those prospering from the wind and sun technologies that work sometimes. That would be more appropriate given the vast sums they make. At least we should reduce subsidies to them!
As I’ve mentioned before, HMG is in such a hurry to go net-zero, they have no clear way to reach that point without making the consumer suffer badly — The technology to create and use new forms of energy is far from adequate and will not be available any time soon!
Never mind punishing those that help to keep the lights on — IT IS TIME FOR A MAJOR RETHINK ON THE WHOLE SUBJECT.
February 3, 2022
Question to host — I posted a comment yesterday, which disappeared as soon as I hit ‘Post Comment’.
Is there some automatic censorship going on from the site.
There was nothing abusive about the post, so I am surprised and saddened to see this happen.
It was about a report on BREXIT.
Reply No auto delete. May have been too long or unchecked references etc as per statement of how I do it.
February 3, 2022
Thanks for reply — I did it with and without a link, but it never showed up as comments do normally awaiting your acceptance., and it wasn’t too long…
I’ll try again…
February 3, 2022
It seems to have been something in the quote it didn’t like.
February 3, 2022
I see little point in any of us commenting on this subject because, despite your sound and logical arguments, this Prime Minister is just not listening and his current cabinet are too spineless to tell him that the current direction of travel must be changed.
All he is going to achieve with his relentless push towards Net Zero by 2050 is to impoverish everyone living in the UK and make it difficult to keep the lights on and the people warm.
This is a far more serious problem than a few social gatherings in Downing Street and if Johnson refuses to change course, he will have to be replaced by someone who is listening to what is so obviously plain common sense.
Reply They approved a small new field this week!
February 3, 2022
ChrisS,
It seems as if far from changing direction Johnson will attempt to tough it out.
How long he lasts is anybodyâs guess.
February 3, 2022
He will last right up to the point where :
a) they do not need him because they have someone else who can win elections.
b) realise that he has become an electoral liability and it is no more riskier to have someone else than maintain the damned fool.
Tory MP’s are weighing up the risk and rewards. To some who are in safe seats, it is a no brainer. For others, less so. So far I would guess the odds are in Johnson’s favour. But for how much longer ?
February 3, 2022
The Abigail field, which is owned by by Ithaca Energy, is supposed to contain only the equivalent of 5.5m barrels of oil, which will be split equally between oil and gas.
Campaigners are claiming that this âtinyâ new field will only produce enough gas to meet UK demand for roughly a day and a half. It might be a welcomed step but it is nowhere near enough.
February 3, 2022
The reason why the Government does not wish to use North Sea gas is because the Net Zero Strategy calls for gas prices to increase so as to make the running of sub-optimal heat pumps no more expensive than gas boilers. See P143.
Unfortunately increasing gas prices also increase electricity prices.
Also, making us dependent upon foreign gas also gives the Government a reason to give us for increasing windmill power.
February 3, 2022
Now that the EU has decreed that gas and nuclear are green, you would think that our pro-EU Government, civil service and Parliament would be happy to help out our EU friends (âour biggest trading partnersâ) by supplying them with our North Sea gas to prevent them becoming totally dependent upon gas from Russia, even if their Net Zero Strategy prevents us from using it for ourselves?
February 3, 2022
Original Richard
EU friends?
Behave. You know as well as the rest of us there ain’t no such animal.
February 3, 2022
At some point the idea that we can power our whole country on âthe breezes that blow around these islandsâ (PM – Conservative Party conference speech October 2020) without the technology existing to provide grid stability and long-term backup at commercially acceptable prices will hit the buffers. Unfortunately this may only be when we already are experiencing rolling blackouts and soaring energy prices.
At this point I can see the Conservative Party â at least those of the Party who still believe in pragmatism â will see the sense and U-turn on the Net Zero Strategy, particularly as the EU has shown the way by accepting that gas is green and is an acceptable transition fuel.
But if the Left – Labour/Lib Dems/Greens/SNP – are in power then their Marxist âthe ends justifies the meansâ ideology will mean that the Net Zero Strategy will continue regardless of the pain.
February 3, 2022
I am disappointed to see the government resorting to the use of hand-outs, fuelled by borrowed money, to counter a problem caused by its unwillingness to tackle the energy-sourcing problem. It takes a special kind of stupid to not exploit our surfeit of natural resources.
February 3, 2022
Not only that. It could easily have deferred payment of Renewables Obligations subsidies to generators who are making massive windfall profits. It could substantially reduce or even eliminate the impact of carbon taxes on electricity prices that are a further backdoor subsidy to renewables with very little loss of tax revenue compared with the lower bills it would create. It could remove other green subsidies from bills, and it could lower real costs by suspending activities with very poor financial returns, including the smart meter programme where new meters will have to be replaced again very soon, and most of the ecohome insulation efforts that are poor value for money. It could maximise coal burn and save compared with burning gas. All very real ways of cutting bills that don’t even have to wait for a new gas field to come onstream.
February 3, 2022
“an increase in council bills” These councils have been on massive house-building programs, increasing rates intake by around 1500 private houses per year. Our Council boast of 9000 new homes in 6 years 2013-18 and in the past 3 years this seems to have exploded more than this, the costs of picking up rubbish have gone down for the Council as they have stopped the garden waste collection for several months and charged households extra when this service is operating. So this is all extra remuneration each year for little extra service provision should make running the library or the local pool, filling potholes, social services etc. spread over more people less costly.
February 3, 2022
Clive Lewis does not understand that North Sea production arrives by pipeline and must necessarily be sold in our own market. Our exposure to international prices is through LNG import requirements. Were we to eliminate those by becoming self sufficient we would be in the same situation as the US with prices insulated from world markets entirely. When we were self sufficient we had some of the cheapest gas anywhere in the world.
February 3, 2022
A bleak midwinter. At least by April, we have daylight from 7 am to 8 pm and it’s getting warmer then. This gives this government six months to come up with some real solutions.
February 3, 2022
Who knew that MPs along with many others on wages above average need an interest free loan of ÂŁ200 to be repaid over 5 years to help them cope with increased energy bills?
February 3, 2022
It’s the green tree logo John, now if you can get consent from your party to change it to a GAS PLATFORM in the north sea for next 25 years, that would be a start. I remenber something about, when the wind blow low, shut down INDUSTRY and just keep homes and transport going, there your answer, start a campaign on this bases.
February 3, 2022
On the subject of energy, yesterday I posted the comment below on your topic of electricity. It is not contentious in any way so I am puzzled that it was not published. In case this was merely an oversight, here it is again:
It is said that, when it comes to adopting new technology, people (and businesses, since these are run by people) fall into one of five categories: (i) innovators (2.5%); (ii) early adopters (13.5%); (iii) early majority (34%); (iv) late majority (34%); and (v) laggards (16%). Clearly the percentages are very much rounded estimates, but I think the categorisation makes sense and is useful for predicting the take-up of new technology. I also think people can shift category, depending on the cost of the new technology and the use they would have of it.
When it comes to electric cars, I would say we are now moving from innovators to early adopters, as the issue of limited range is diminishing (though it definitely still exists). Given the cost, however, and the fact that improvements are being made very rapidly, it doesnât make sense to me to buy one now and then see much better models appear in a couple of yearsâ time. That is why, last month, I bought myself a brand new petrol car. I intend to keep this until late in the decade, when I am sure that electric cars will be far better in terms both of performance and value.
If most people think like me then I suspect we will have a slow but increasing take-up of electric cars until around 2027/28 and then sales will boom. The other consideration is *when* these will be charged up. Most people will want to charge them overnight, but of course this will not be easy for those living in flats or without their own drive or garage. Given that the government will want to encourage this night-time charging, in order to even out the demand on electricity, ministers need to force councils to install lamp post chargers on a massive scale. Only by doing this can we avoid a huge increase in daytime electricity demand for which their simply will not be sufficient supply. That, in any case, would be my advice to the government.
February 3, 2022
Thank you for a very fair assessment of the position in relation to the opportunities available right now to lessen prices and dependence upon overseas energy. You mention the relative amounts of CO2 but here we are again accepting CO2 is evil. When are MPs going to understand that we could double, treble or even quadruple World CO2 and the increase in temperature would be negligible. The truth about CO2 seems to have passed Conservative MPs by – except my MP who knows the facts.
February 3, 2022
If the electrical revolution comes true. Of course it will not. I do not think that Carrie, Alexander and all the green zealots have thought it through and understand the scale of metals, minerals and concrete that will have to be mined and excavated to manufacture and service such a hair brained idea. On top of that there are shortages of many of these rare minerals now, never mind when most of the Western world find themselves in competition for them, together with many other unfriendly countries.
A recipe for conflict, I fear. Our govt will simply bid higher and higher prices for gas, oil and coal or pay extortionate prices for finished products until they become unafordable, like heat pumps.
February 3, 2022
Thats an interesting point, what happens to the Green Revolution after Boris & Carrie are gone
February 4, 2022
You’d think that the Honourable Member for Norwich Clive Lewis (Lab) would be keen to help out our continental friends and allies reduce their dependence on Russia for their energy needs and for Britain to increase production of North Sea oil and gas, so that we can export our excess stocks to them. Indeed I’d think that our continental friend and allies would rather buy gas from Britain than Russia, and I quite like the idea of them being dependent on us for their energy needs!