The UK is short of oil and gas from domestic sources. In recent years we have come to rely more and more on imports of gas and oil, despite having more reserves available at home. During this next decade when we still need plenty of gas for home heating and industrial processes, and plenty of oil for transport and petro chemical activity there is a good case to extract more of our own oil and gas. The understandable wish of the west to remove Russian oil and gas from supply chains adds more impetus to the need to reduce our use of imports.
Those who are most concerned about the output of CO2 need to accept that if we substitute domestic gas supplied by pipe from a UK field we will greatly reduce the CO2 output compared to importing LNG gas which requires energy to compress, transport and decompress it. The Treasury would be delighted as home produced gas means a big tax bonanza for UK state instead of passing huge sums of money over to foreign governments and companies for the imports. Anyone keen to promote more better paid jobs would also welcome it, as the oil industry does usually pay well and we would have more of these skilled ,jobs in the UK benefitting our citizens and tax collectors.
Ministers have announced that they do wish to see more UK gas produced as a transition fuel here at home. Today I ask will the Regulators and officials press on with a greater sense of urgency? Where are we with the potential of Cambo, Rosebank, Bentley, Finlaggan. Jackdaw, Lancaster fields and the others that could be speeded up? What scope is there to accelerate production from fields that are up and running already? Where have we got to on the possible reopening of the Rough storage facility?
At a time when the EU is facing rationing and a difficult future without Russian gas the UK could assist by producing and investing in more production in its own oil and gas fields.
August 8, 2022
Good morning.
This is all coming too late ! None of what our kind host suggest can be done in the time scale needed and, once again just like the PPE fiasco during the SCAMDEMIC, we are forcing ourselves into making hasty decisions. This leads mistakes, delays and cost overruns.
The oil and gas ship has sailed. The future is nuclear, and small modular at that. Where are we on that ? To answer my own question – nowhere as per usual.
We need people in places capable of forward thinking and action. Not dummies that only come to life when given a sharp prod.
August 8, 2022
You are correct .Add hydrogen as well but they will take some years to develop. What do we use in the meantime? Has to be our own oil.gas and coa;
August 8, 2022
Hydrogen is outside a few special applications a red herring. We have no hydrogen mines so you either use gas to make it which just wastes energy over just using the gas or you split water using “green” electricity. Hugely expensive and very energy wasteful. You are converting valuable electricity back to a far less valuable fuel. Only make any sense at all (and even then very rarely) if you are generating electricity when it is not needed due to wind and solar. Expensive storage issues too.
August 8, 2022
LL :
Correct. In fact when you take into account the wind turbine intermittency (capacity factor), the efficiencies of electrolysis, compression/storage and electricity generation then the wind turbine installed capacity needs to be 8 times the required electrical demand.
Hydrogen is expensive to distribute and cannot use existing natural gas pipes as it corrodes the large steel piping as well as needing 3/3.5 times the volume flow of natural gas for the same rate of energy flow. As a very small molecule far better leakage control is required.
August 8, 2022
The future may be nuclear SMR – but only for our electricity supply and that has a long lead time. Petro-chem and energy intensive industries need hydrocarbons,
Some current gas fields could be expanded mope rapidly if we really tried. I also note Sir J avoided the F word. Onshore fracking could also ease supply for UK and more widely.
Does anybody note the irony – in the 1980’s people protested as coal mines closed in the 2010’s people protested as gas facking sites wanted to open,
August 8, 2022
Great post and in particular your last paragraph Pete.
August 8, 2022
PeteB :
SMRs are also good for producing industrial heat.
August 8, 2022
Why are you surprised at the lack of foresight, planning, preparation, urgency and performance by government and civil service?
Why do you think they would ever act in our best interests.
“Business” as usual.
August 8, 2022
I agree nuclear is an important component of a hybrid energy solution but I think oil & gas is also an important transition for energy and non-energy aspects such as petochemicals, especially fertilizer and plastics production.
Even if we can establish an effective range of Power-to-X capabilities I suspect there will still be a place for hydrocarbons in transport albeit generated rather than dug out of the ground, necessitating the same storage and processing as natural gas etc.
August 8, 2022
I think I have proved my recent proposal that the UK now has a “Dominant Party Authoritarian Dictatorship”. We currently have Party members deciding who will be our next Head of Government. O.4% of the voting population. We are told we voted for a Party Manifesto, not individuals for PM or Cabinet office. Listening to the two party members selected by an even smaller clique of party members; the manifesto is going to be somewhat different from September. Alas, 46 million other voters seem perfectly happy with a system that is similar to the Chinese and several other authoritarian states.
August 8, 2022
You just have no understanding how the election system works acorn
You vote for a local MP
We dont have Presidents
August 9, 2022
Think of it as a cabinet government acorn, rather than an elected dictator, the prime minister (incorrectly in my opinion) has been ousted because the rest of the party do not believe he is keeping the promises in the manifesto they committed to putting in place when they were elected, and they believe that he has lost control in head office and the people there conspired against him (again in my opinion) to bring him down due to his laissez faire management style – a style lots of British people say they prefer – to be given instructions and left to get on with their tasks without too much oversight! It is ironic that Rishi one of the biggest roadblocks and designer of taxes that have upset the rest of the Country is running for the top job.
August 8, 2022
Fracking could have production in 10 months. Why isn’t that mentioned.
August 8, 2022
Agree…..we even export gas and perhaps save europe again
August 8, 2022
What is happening with Ukraine’s nuclear plants is yet one more reason why reliance upon them is clearly disastrously reckless.
I’m in general agreement with Sir John here.
Climate-preserving objectives will have to be compromised and or postponed.
The country and its allies are in most practical senses at war, and defeating the enemy is absolutely paramount.
August 8, 2022
So all of a sudden you want your lights kept on and your central heating kept on NHL
It only seems a short time you were telling us the world was going to end in a few years.
August 9, 2022
and how exactly do you want us to ‘defeat the enemy’?
August 8, 2022
The more interesting John Redwood article is on âConservative Homeâ today –
âSunak is struggling because Tory members are hungry for change, and Truss offers itâ.
The first few paragraphs in particular are sound.
âThe centre left is a very congested space in UK politics. Going for their theories and policies is unlikely to win many swing votes for Conservatives, but it can lose you plenty of votes to abstention or fringe parties, as May found with UKIP.â
The key issue is whether talk will translate to action with Truss in charge. I still have my doubts on that.
Still nearly a month more of talk too.
August 8, 2022
+1 and it’s a problem with all supplies.
Why not float millions of plastic balls over the reservoirs so that water doesn’t evaporate so fast ? Alas it would be a boon for China producing those things but the Tories cannot continue with their mass immigration program allied with crap privatisations that have gone rogue.
August 8, 2022
While I disagree with the glib claim that the “gas ship has sailed” (we have loads of gas both under the North Sea and under our land that can be extracted by fracking), but I DO agree that the government should be pushing forward on the RR SMRs. One of the biggest problems that we face is that even when the government have a good policy – such as freeports or liberalising gene editting – they take f***ing FOREVER to put these into effect! We have the most USELESS and INCOMPETENT government on earth. There is no urgency in anything they do. It would be so easy to speed things up, but they just don’t care. We have a governemt that simply can’t be bothered.
The government wastes months consulting when they should be ACTING. Why consult at all? I don’t get it – don’t ministers know what they want to do? Why do the government need to ask others to do their thinking for them? It’s contemptible. On the SMRs, for instance, why haven’t the government actually ordered these yet and got RR to start building them? The cretinous government is waiting for the outcome of the lengthy safety review before going ahead, but they should be doing this CONCURRENTLY. In other words, they should be building the SMRs now, IN ANTICIPATION of the successful safety review, so that as soon as the certification is complete the SMRs are ready and just need to be turned on. This would save YEARS. Instead ministers sit on their useless arses doing nothing. I want ACTION. And, just like Winston Churchill, I want it TODAY.
August 8, 2022
But they’ve only had 12 years to get to this conclusion when the rest of the Country have been saying this for years! We really have a bunch of left wing eco loons in charge, based on a religion, not science. Blackouts and disorder this winter based on THIS Governments energy and industrial strategy based on middle age power productions. The fact they stopped using this methodology is all we need to know. Villages have lost lots of idiots.
August 8, 2022
Nuclear is a long way away. The UK doesn’t have a sensible nuclear policy, but it has an obstructive regulator, and an incompetent energy department that has just authorised a kiss of death EPR that will damage the reputationof nuclear as a solutionfor the future.
We do have gas power stations, and we could build replacements for those due to close long before we will have a viable nuclear policy, and we have a gas grid that provides energy to heat our homes. We should use those assets, which means increasing the supply of gas, which takes investment both at home and abroad.
Nuclear is a great aspiration for the future, but we have to survive until we get there.
August 9, 2022
we must revisit the past. Open carefully selected coal mines for supply to steel making, other for preservation railways etc.
Plan, build sufficient nuclear to provide a part of a balanced electrical supply for the future, we must also invest in more alternative generation and storage methods.
August 8, 2022
Indeed but both Sunak and Truss are still idiotically wedded to the net zero insanity and pathetic & totally misguided virtue signalling. They are still dithering over the small Cumbrian coal mine and Port Talbot Steel is under threat from the CO2 devil gas religion.
August 8, 2022
same old same old
August 8, 2022
Everything is in abeyance. Current PM and Chancellor on holiday. Home office apparently closed as nothing being done about dinghy arrivals. No government, all due to the farcical glacial speed Tory method of electing a leader. If this is what they do in a real emergency, God help us all. By the time they get back to work, reward the hangers on with big jobs, have meetings about meetings it will be too late to do anything. Where is Cobra? What a shower.
August 8, 2022
“Rishi Sunak Attacks Liz Truss For ‘Starry-Eyed Boosterism’ On The Economy” I read. Yet Sunak wants us to trust him to bring inflation under control before taxes are lowered – who on earth would trust this manifesto ratter and the main causer of this inflation with his money printing to lower inflation or to then lower taxes or even to win an election with such a daft agenda?
He says Trussâs promised unfunded tax cuts would further drive up prices. How will lowering energy prices drive up inflation Rishi. The tax cuts can easily be funded by cutting out some of the vast waste in government that Sunak has presided over. Like HS2, test and trace, masks, rather ineffective and dangerous vaccines for the young, eat out to help out…
August 8, 2022
The Tories have screwed up on energy policy and they appear to be in denial about their utter incompetence.
August 8, 2022
Net zero has to be ditched.
The economic depression heading our way is an existential threat to our civilisation.
August 8, 2022
Indeed net zero make zero sense – not in economic terms & not environmental terms. Indeed the âsolutionsâ being pushed do not even work not even in CO2 terms. Generally they just export the carbon production. One idiotic government site claims cycling and walking produce CO2. The energy department count Drax burning imported wood (young coal) as low carbon electricity when in reality it is worse in CO2 terms than burning coal.
August 8, 2022
+1
It all does make sense if you realise that all the loons are concerned about is the planet ( OUR God given planetâŠnot theirs to save for themselves).
Humanity, to the globalists, is the problem. We are useless eaters and producers of CO2 and must therefore be starved, frozen, immobilised, impoverished and reduced to Zero!
Nothing the parasitic class says or does makes sense. It isnât meant to. It is just the MO of taking everything from us and keeping it for themselves.
Governments are their cowardly useful idiots.
And post Revolution the useful idiots are always the first to be cast aside.
August 8, 2022
Drax is the clearest example and indeed proof of the insane belief that by burning wood chips it is cleaner in CO2 terms than burning gas or oil to generate energy. The wood pellets are from trees that are felled, pelletised, moved and shipped to the UK using fossil fuels throughout the whole process. But that, in the minds of the greenies, means that the UK has reduced its CO2 output when, in reality, all we have done is moved it to the USA. What happens if the USA suddenly decides that it is no longer practical or possible to fell tens of thousands of trees to feed Drax? Has anyone thought of that? Thought notâŠ.
August 8, 2022
Perhaps our 67 million people should all stop breathing to save the other 8 billion in the world.
August 8, 2022
..and the million illegal Albanians who are laughing their heads off at our taxpayer expense
August 8, 2022
Lifelogic – The economic depression will be embedded and very obvious by 2024, election year.
Every single decision the Tories in power have made has left me astonished and despairing – it’s as though we elected Labour. I think particularly disastrous was the extended lockdown and the extended face mask mandates.
August 9, 2022
would Labour have been really that bad? A dose of them might actually reset politics and rediscover people who should be MPs the people want, not those arranged to be.
August 8, 2022
Are the Tories really running the country into the ground or are they being controlled by the WEF?
August 8, 2022
Claim they produce zero CO2 I meant!
August 8, 2022
Get fracking for shale gas TODAY
August 8, 2022
Makes perfect sense and additionally will help our appalling Balance of Trade defict which is currently running at over ÂŁ100 billion p/a of which I believe at least ÂŁ25billion is oil and gas
Sir John Redwood for Chancellor of the Exchequer
August 8, 2022
Indeed or at least someone who has sensible JR types of policies. At energy we need a Lord Ridley or Lilley type.
August 8, 2022
If they did get our own resources going, who says they will sell it to the UK on a cost plus profit basis, rather than putting it on the market and buying it back at ridiculous prices? Similar happens with small things like fish – we let he EU plunder our fisheries free of charge and buy it back at enormous cost. Who knew we were getting most white fish from Russia and now we are short and pay 10 pounds a lump at the chippy?
August 8, 2022
+1
August 9, 2022
We should all start buying the Scottish salmon and fisheries products apparently France is giving them am awful time delaying their refrigerated vehicles sometimes for 48 hours. We should have tv cooking programs dedicated to teaching people how to cook fish and a big push on buy British fish. I do anyway and it is delicious.
August 8, 2022
The decision to further develop NS oil and gas reserves SHOULD NOT be a political or ideological decision but one based on practical considerations. Nor should any development decision be influenced by bureaucratic opposition , Washington or the EU who it seems now has considerable leverage over how British governments act in such matters
For example, Lancaster still holds considerable reserves with other fractured basement discoveries able to be developed in time. Rosebank and Cambo must be developed. These two discoveries are simply too important to be left to the whims of green appeasement or pandering to Gore and Kerry’s political agenda
Hurricane’s Lancaster field and indeed the one’s they have relinquished like Lincoln (which flowed thousands of bopd) hold real promise and the company itself has already indicated it now has considerable capital to invest following the cleansing of their balance sheet
Equinor’s Rosebank also holds huge potential
Get the silly Quango that now runs NS sector out of the way
August 8, 2022
Of the six fields mentioned above only three of them are gas producers. The other 40 looking for licences are oil fields with little gas. Colleagues at our local refinery tell me new gas finds will replace about 4 to 7% of current imported gas for about eight to ten years.
Apparently, the UKCS oil left is not the grade UK refineries like to process and most of it is exported. Keep in mind that a UK licence to drill means the licence holder owns all the oil and gas it finds. The UK government does not own any of the oil or gas and it will be sold to the highest bidder by the licensee. The UK only gets the tax & duty and UK customers pay the market price for what they import. None of which will increase UK security of supply or the price paid. Currently, 40% of the gas supply to the Grid is being resold into Europe via the interconnectors marked up from âŹ146 /MWh to âŹ195 at the Dutch end.
August 8, 2022
They are asking for permission.
Why not give them permission?
I reckon they are more expert than you.
August 8, 2022
Government should set an annual quota for domestic supply and a fixed price with only excess oil & gas allowed onto the international markets
August 8, 2022
You are correct that we trade out our now mostly heavy oil for light oil to run in the refineries (the exact opposite of what we did during the miners’ strike in order to keep oil fired power stations supplied – trade that really launched the Brent market giving it a premium value). That is a good thing to maximise the refinery operation.
But all UK gas is landed in the UK, and the exports are largely re-exports of LNG imports and imported Norwegian gas. Don’t knock the price differential: our ability to land imports gives us cheaper gas and electricity. The profit is probably mainly going to whoever secured the export pipeline capacity before the differential ballooned.
August 8, 2022
If you were BP or Shell would you invest billionsÂŁÂŁÂŁ. Windfall taxes by the foolish. Corporation Taxes Rishi? That will attract foreign investors…..NOT.
August 8, 2022
You are right as always Sir John…. It makes no sense in the current situation for us not to use our own resources and extract our own oil and gas. I personally would go a step further and get our coal industry going again.
It is not, in my opinion, just oil and gas we need to be self sufficient on, we also need to produce more of our own food and goods rather than growing every other country’s economy.
We need to be proud of our country, including it’s history and proud and confident in our home produced goods. If we make things here and they’re good enough, people will buy them. Let’s back Britain again and believe in ourselves.
Saw you on TalkTV yesterday Sir John and as always, you spoke a great deal of sense. If Liz has any sense, one of her first decisions should be to make you oy chancellor.
August 8, 2022
3 cheers to your post Cliff.
August 8, 2022
There is an âoil rig graveyardâ in Scotland. If you search those words you will see many oil rigs ready to be recommissioned.
You need to ask the status of all of these oil rigs and find out how long it will take to get them back up and running. Perhaps the Government should be forcing oil companies to spend their billions in profits recommissioning these oil rigs.
August 8, 2022
Javelin how many oil rigs? They can house 200 people apparently perhaps a solution to house the male immigrants and get them to spruce them up ready on minimum wage for a few hours per day in order to pay for their keep.
August 8, 2022
Yes, we need more British gas and oil production.
However the massive short term problem is the hugely rising global cost of gas and oil which could cause huge inflation and become unaffordable for so many people. Gordon Brown is right that this is a problem that cannot be dodged.
I think Britain should take emergency control of the pricing of North Sea oil and gas and direct that production to the British market.
However what must be avoided is issuing people with extra money to (supposedly) pay for fuel. Rather fuel prices should be subsidised by the government. The overriding reasons why fuel prices should be subsidised in this crisis rather than extra money issued for people to pay for them are:
– subsidies would reduce inflation whereas issuing extra money would increase inflation, especially significant as inflation leads to industrial unrest and destroys the value of people’s savings
– if welfare payments are increased it could undermine financial incentives and thus willingness to work rather than live off benefits
– once given extra out of work benefits it will become politically impossible to end them when eventually fuel prices fall (because of increased supply) : remember the political difficulty with ending the ÂŁ20 per week Covid Universal Credit increase even when the General Election was far away
So even though price subsidies would reduce bills for the minority who are rich as well as the poor, price subsidies would directly address the fuel price problem (welfare payments would often be spent on other things by recipients) and are better in terms of inflation, reversibility and in preserving work incentives.
Reply The state needs to spend more to offer the subsidies. How do you pay for that?
August 8, 2022
Better to give tax cuts or the money to people. Some might want to use it for energy others might prefer to wear more clothes, heat only one room, bathe less and spend the saving elsewhere. Freedom and choice please. Similar with OAP bus passes. Tax cuts so people can spend their money as they wish on buses, energy, food, thermals or a flight to warmer Marbella.
Government keep pushing insulation but if you cannot afford to keep the heating on what is the point of insulation? Other than perhaps one room.
August 8, 2022
Yes, insulation is a two edged sword. If you can’t afford to heat, it keeps in cold and prevents ambient heat coming in just as effectively. That such considerations are even a thing in the world’s 6th biggest economy is a disgrace and politicians have allowed it to happen.
August 8, 2022
+1
August 8, 2022
Subsidies would cost less than direct payments Sir John.
If the subsidy is give off the cost of production / purchase by the supplier than you can remove the profit margin/ green levy / VAT element of the retail price. Same amount of money goes much further.
August 8, 2022
Reply The state needs to spend more to offer the subsidies. How do you pay for that?
There’s a hole in my bucket dear Liza.
And it starts with the ethos that the NHS is free. It isn’t, it’s the main expense that’s breaking us. We need to change the mindset. Richy is right for the wrong reasons. We need to charge for missed appointments; not from the financial aspect but to instill a little thought, a little responsibility, dare I say “duty”. We, as a country, have little respect for anything, we litter our environment – amongst other things with our old. Care in the Community is just a slogan.
Our tax system needs a rethink of its principles. It’s based on the individual – it needs to value the family, to start ditch Inheritance Tax. Another “wrong” tax is Fuel Duty. I don’t mind an element but as the prices have gone up the tax take has doubled and must take 50% of the blame for inflation.
August 9, 2022
Fishknife, I always find this missed appointment malarkey a bit of a red herring. How many times have you ever walked in a doctors or hospital and got your appointment within 5-10 minutes of your appointment time? It is rare, some people over-run their slot, time the doctor needs to update notes and book hospital appointments at the end of a visible appointment takes longer than expected. It is often a relief when someone doesnât show, other people come in with quite urgent problems that can then be slot into that hour.
I also suspect it is the same patients who mess the doctors around, they should be the ones getting warning letters about charges and being asked to leave their doctors list if they keep wasting the clinics time.
My dental plan surgery not only confirm your appointment over the phone, as appointments are usually a month or so in advance they send you a reminder to fill in their form ready for your appointment the day before, if you donât fill it in you get an automated text reminding you, if you donât answer that you get a phone call.
August 8, 2022
To John Redwood:
I agree the state needs to spend more (much more) to offer the subsidies just like it would in giving extra money to people individually to supposedly help them pay for fuel (though the administrative cost of subsidising fuel suppliers would be much less than offering individual people various cash payments).
Speaking personally I would drastically reduce public spending. Here are some ideas:
-making all Councils in local government spend no more than what the lowest spending Council in their region (i.e. London or rest of U.K.)spends per capita on any particular service, be that service education, leisure, social services, planning etc.,-that may be rough justice but it is better justice than the present system
-ending not only HS2 but also quickly phasing out rail subsidies and selling off the rail track to operators
-abolishing many quangos and regulatory bodies
-substantially reducing the size of the civil service
-I agree with your view of reducing the very swollen budget of the NHS. Education is something else that has grown like Topsy over the years. I’d like to see the number of years most people spend in formal education reduced substantially as it is not a good use of public money nor of most people’s limited lifetime.
I could go on, such as stopping foreign aid to unfriendly or incompetent regimes, reducing, capping or preferably ending ‘legal aid’.
In essence a temporary subsidising of fuel prices is needed to enable some people and many businesses to survive and so hold society together and I admit that is expensive but the aim should still be a much smaller state and a low tax society.
August 8, 2022
How long gas prices stay high depends in how long governments dither over promoting more gas production and the use of coal as a substitute, at least until normality is restored. For example it is not good news that the newly installed President of Colombia (a former M-19 guerilla) has announced there will be no more oil exploration or fracking there. So we have to wait four years for the chance of some sense there. Once markets can see that more supply will be forthcoming they no longer have to plan for extended rationing. It takes a global effort, and we don’t want to end up with China and Russia controlling it. What is clear is that the problem will not be solved by renewables.
What the government should do is park all the tens of billions of subsides to renewables, in many cases paid out on top of parity with gas costs, that are completely unnecessary, yet add to bills. Then its welfare bill would be lower. It needs to completely reappraisal its future energy plans in favour of low cost, diversity of supply from competitive markets, as well as increasing domestic production.
August 9, 2022
I’m sure the usual suspects will be working on regime change in Colombia-unfortunately(for them) they aren’t very good at the art anymore.
August 8, 2022
The next prime minister needs to undo the damage unleashed on landlords
The Government has damaged the rental sector â here’s what they should change
BEN BEADLE in the Telegraph.
Indeed these endless attacks on landlords help no one – not tenants, not landlords, not the economy, not housing provision, not job mobility and also increase inflation and parasitic activity in compliance. It started with the economic illiterate and IHT threshold ratter one George Osborne. The IHT threshold is still just ÂŁ325k not the ÂŁ1m he promised ~ 10 years back.
August 8, 2022
+1
August 8, 2022
Once again Sur John you ask all the right questions and make the right challenges. But weâve been talking of energy security and extracting more of our own oil and gas for years and with even more urgency since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Are you going to formally ask the Energy Minister about those oil and gas fields and storage areas? We all want a timeline for action.
August 8, 2022
“our own oil and gas”. No we don’t have that, it’s all been sold to the energy companies, for them to sell at the best price they can. We have to compete for “our own oil and gas” at the global price.
August 8, 2022
By law all oil and gas produced in the UK sector must be landed here, unless granted a special export licence (in the case of shuttle tankers for each cargo exported). The only export routes we have for gas are by pipeline to Ireland Belgium and the Netherlands, and are limited by pipeline capacity. We can’t export gas to just anywhere that will pay more for it, but those countries must pay a premium to import from us.
When we increase production we reduce our need for expensive imports. We would have no need of imports in summer months, perhaps only needing to cover a winter peak. We don’t have to import from as far away either, reducing the cost of imports. Improvements in the balance of payments would likely be reflected in better exchange rates, again lowering costs.
There is no world market for gas. There are many local ones, some of them quite isolated, and others only loosely coupled because of logistic constraints and costs of transporting gas.
August 8, 2022
Ministers say, ministers say. We keep hearing that phrase and nothing happens so it is a meaningless political ploy to pretend to do something and buy time, just like âseeking more informationâ to put off making a decision.
I see George Eustace now wants all water companies to ban hosepipes. What a shame it took this to get him off his backside rather instead of being pro active years ago recognising the obvious that water storage is out of sync with demand and insist that more investment is put into new reservoirs.
And in two more examples of incompetence, Bulb failed energy company costing us billions would have been less expensive if the Regulator had acted more quickly, where have I heard that before and it is alleged a Chinese company was allowed to buy a strategic semi conductor business because of buck passing between the Welsh and U.K. government and even worse the lack of a semiconductor strategy.
Meantime friends of Boris are spinning that a standards committee investigation will be a stitch up. With a Tory majority 4 – 3 of course it will be.
August 8, 2022
Quite obviously the only solution (as with all things) is bans on little people, nudge taxes on little people, fines on little people, restrictions on little people and high prices on little people and profits -for big people – going out of the country.
No New Reservoirs. Not even with the Tory Mass Immigration Program.
Wages and conditions for the little people must be depressed. They are inflationary. The price of water simply MUST rise ! It’s basic economics, you know. *sarc*
We’ll make the UK a high skill/high pay society by giving them, errr, coffee shop apprenticeships whilst flogging off organisations such as Arm.
August 8, 2022
It’s ok, the 1000,000 every year Visa immigrants and all the illegals dont drink water or need housing on Greenfield sites, or produce CO2 or health or education, cause congestion. So they are really welcomed by the English as it doesn’t impact their health or other public service provisions……but wait*???? Vote Tory again…..fool me once etc.
August 8, 2022
But Greta, she say no !!
August 8, 2022
When people start freezing this winter, there will be a drastic drop in membership of the Greta cult.
August 8, 2022
The Government’s Energy policy for the last decade or so has been reckless irresponsible and completely unjustifiable. They have DELIBERATELY destroyed our energy security and made us vulnerable to foreign blackmail in order to virtue signal to the world.
The people in the Governing Class who have orchestrated this fiasco have no consideration whatsoever for their responsibility to protect the interests of the UK, let alone the needs of the British people. I despise them ….. as well as the MPs who have meekly accepted the doctrine of Climate Change and its twin lunacy Net Zero without, it seems, doing any research or questioning the Eco Zealots’ narrative.
The proposals Sir John makes in today’s missive of Common Sense to Power are all essential but far, far too late. Nothing is going to stop the catastrophe this winter; they have left it far too late to take any meaningful action to increase our own energy production.
And I’m afraid I believe it is deliberate. The IMF gave us an insight into Establishment thinking the other day: keep energy prices high and they will be forced to reduce consumption.
We might have voted Conservative ….. but the Eco Zealots rule. And neither Truss nor (God forbid) Sunak will change that.
August 8, 2022
+1
By govt you mean Tory party for 12 years starting with husky Dave. We might have voted Tory. Not since Thatcher left office. You voted for a socialist new Labour Party with a name from the past. How many times do you need to be deceived or lied to before voting elsewhere?
I will never vote for JRs party. Look at his blogs and ask what influence he has had since 1990? His view might keep hope or aspiration his party might return to be conservative. But as Mark says above that boat sailed a long time ago.
Corbyn nearly beat May! That is how close the Lib lab on is.
August 8, 2022
Let’s say there is a resurgence in UK production of oil and gas, this will be done by commercial companies for commercial purposes.
Or, do you propose the Shell’s and BP’s will be restricted in who they can sell their output to and for how much?
Why won’t UK customers have to pay world prices for their energy fuels?
Or are the only beneficiaries to be the energy company executives and the treasury?
August 8, 2022
Last time I was in Bahrain it cost me about ÂŁ5 to fill the tank of an MPV. Having to pay ‘world prices’ isn’t a given. Licences for fracking could be made conditional on supplying the gas, for domestic consumption, at a not-to-exceed price.
August 8, 2022
I think it should fall to government to consider welfare payments that are made necessary by their poor energy policy, rather than penalising or subsidising energy companies. Meantime, they need to sort out that policy to provide energy as cheaply as reasonably possible, with a diversity of sourcing from competitive markets that are the next best thing while domestic supply is inadequate.
It is precisely because they have been in such a hurry to phase out coal that we can no longer switch to it from gas in the way we did a decade ago when gas was expensive after Fukushima. In the same way, their haste to phase out gas has seen them block gas exploration and development, yet we have no alternative in place, and nothing that would be cheaper than a proper adequate gas supply.
August 9, 2022
incompetence alone does not explain this behavior, maliciousness must also be a factor.
August 9, 2022
I am not saying it is … for some countries … probably most countries with their own energy assets … except the UK.
August 8, 2022
Direct production to the UK with subsidies (instead of helicopter money) to the production companies to keep the retail price lower.
August 8, 2022
Subsidising wind hasn’t lowered prices. In fact it has raised them. Subsidy is no substitute for sensible policy based on proper competition.
August 8, 2022
wholeheartedly agree Sir J. I have written to Kwasi on this very topic again as little progress reporting is coming out of BEIS. Why so secretive? Should we suspect the blob is continuing down the old wrong path, in the name of net zero?
We need to keep their feet to the fire đ„ on this one! Incompetent administration is likely to be Maladministration and perhaps legal action should be taken?
August 8, 2022
As far as I can detect they have decided the path they wish to follow without checking whether it is even feasible (it isn’t), and are now trying to work out how to plaster more market rigging onto the edifice to try to promote it. Look out for REMA (I think of it as reamer of our pockets), where they will tear up all the unprofitable CFD contracts and replace them with much more lucrative arrangements, while constructing massive subsidies for hydrogen. They want bills to stay high in the hope that their new arrangements can be presented as marginally cheaper initially. They are not the consumer’s friend.
August 8, 2022
Perhaps that’s the real reason it’s not being pushed for. It’s the same with any commodity you look at. Some of the poorest populations on the planet live in countries with the greatest export markets but don’t get to enjoy the benefits.
That is why we have elected politicians.
August 8, 2022
More simple common-sense from JR in today’s post.
Why do others simply not get it ?
Did they not see it coming, lessons of history forgotten again.
The Planet they are told is warming, the population is growing, yet no more water storage planned.
We do not have enough food production at home, so they want to plant more flowers and weeds instead.
We do not have enough electric power, but they want everyone to have an electric car.
ICE cars are getting more and more efficient, but they want them banned.
The economy is failing, so they tax people more, so we all have less to spend on goods and services.
The list of crass incompetence is almost endless for those who work in the big ivory tower called the Palace of Westminster..
August 8, 2022
âThe threat of environmental crisis will be the international disaster key to unlock the New World Orderâ
1996 Mikhail Gorbachev
August 8, 2022
It amuses me how the very people who were complaining about global warming on the radio and tv a year ago (Remember Greta Thunberg?) and putting forward wind and solar power as the new Saudi Arabia are now whingeing about the cost of their electricity – or poorer people’s energy bills to be exact.
This winter, like California and Germany who went even further than us, we will face shortages and maybe outages too. Thank you Greenpeace and the other lobbyists – please stand up and take a bow.
August 8, 2022
These are things that should have been done years ago, as others have commented. Plus fracking. Plus not overthrowing a regime in Ukraine, or having any confidence in our European “partners”.
Meanwhile the man or woman in the street faces an average power bill of perhaps ÂŁ4,000 by this winter and all the other rising prices. I hope the anger this causes will be directed squarely at those in charge and their destructive policies.
I fear instead that it will be craftily channelled by government psyops towards scapegoats (evil Mr Putin, illegals etc) and diffused by concocted crises (monkeypox, climate alarmism etc), all leading to a willingness to accept more authoritarian government.
August 8, 2022
The case for action is clear, further debate cannot and must not be justified. Opening of domestic production in new places and increase in output of existing sources must go ahead now.
However much Liz Truss may be preferred she cannot be excused for not taking these decisions immediately. If she doesn’t she is just another trickster.
August 8, 2022
We are told we have to go electric to save the planet. Various government indicatives are being foisted on us to that end. The current grid capacity is 45 GW. That is predicted to almost double as people instal electrical cooking and heating systems and move to electric cars. There is no plan to double our reliable generating capacity. The person in charge of the national grid tells us we will have to get used to times when there is no power available; in other words they are planning for power rationing not how to meet the increased demand that there will be. When the power stops, we will not be able to cook or heat our homes or charge our cars. Our smart meters and computers will stop working. This is the brave new âgreenâ world that awaits us.
August 8, 2022
Good morning
Many contributors to this blog rail against their perception of a Net Zero religion, however climate scientists are overwhelmimgly advising us that Anthropogenic Global Warming is real and no-one can deny the increase in atmospheric CO2. To be frank, I’m not a climate scientist and don’t know whether AGW causes global warming, but the risks are enormous and I believe that most people in our democracy favour minimising CO2 emissions.
As our host has repeatedly pointed out, the runes are aligned for our economy, energy security and minimising CO2 pollution by utilising domestic production rather than the ludicrous importation of wood pellets across the Atlantic ocean and importation of gas and oil. Kemi Badenoch hit the nail on the head by highlighting the UK’s Unilateral Net Zero, foisted on us by virtue signalling politicians, and I do wonder whether some proponents of UNZ have the same anti western motivation as CND.
As ever, actions speak louder than words, and we will soon know whether conservative politicians are prepared to U-turn on virtue signalling and take the obvious measures to minimise CO2 pollution, starting with fracking and mining coal in Cumbria.
Don’t hold your breath.
August 8, 2022
I’ve already got my thermals in for the coming winter.
As millions like me bear the brunt of political virtue signalling, both in their pockets and in their icy homes, it feels like there may be a change of government coming, maybe even the emergence of a sane political party more representtative of the views of voters.
August 8, 2022
Well after yesterdays announcement from the Bank of England , there is something very very very wrong in the system…
So… let me get this straight:
* British Gas made a profit of ÂŁ1.3bn between January & June
* BP announced profits of ÂŁ6.95 billion between April and June alone
* Shell has profited by ÂŁ9.4bn in a year
The MEN at the top:
* John Pettigrew, boss of National Grid received ÂŁ6.5m bonus on top of his salary
* Chris OâShea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica was paid almost ÂŁ2m last year in salary and benefits
* Centrica’s non-executive directors were paid almost ÂŁ1m
* Scottish Power’s CEO Keith Anderson is on ÂŁ1.15m.
* E.On boss Michael Lewis is on ÂŁ1m
* EDF’s Simone Rossi is also on ÂŁ1m
* And their top execs enjoyed a share of ÂŁ4.65m
* Peter Simpson of Anglian Water earned a ÂŁ1.3m pay package
* Welsh Water bosses awarded themselves bonuses of over ÂŁ930,000
* Severn Trent bosses awarded themselves bonuses of ÂŁ5.56m
* Thames Water’s Sarah Bentley, received a ÂŁ727,000 bonus on top of her ÂŁ2m annual salary
Meanwhile there are…
* People who haven’t had breakfast and/or lunch TODAY, because they can’t afford it.
* People using FoodBanks because food is becoming more of a luxury than a necessity.
* Children celebrating a birthday without presents.
* Parents worrying about new school uniforms – and some schools enforcing rules which are not cost-effective.
* People who can’t get to work because they can’t afford to put petrol in their cars/pay for public transport anymore.
* People who are working so much they’re making themselves ill, and they STILL CAN’T AFFORD to pay their bills.
* People who have been given fines by these same energy/water companies because they couldn’t afford to pay their bills in the first place – increasing their debt.
* Customers being told to do STAR JUMPS TO KEEP WARM for crying out loud!
* Hose pipe bans when gallons of water leak away everyday.
* Elderly people NOT DRINKING because they’re worried about running out of water!!!
All this and energy prices are set to rise up to 75% in October…
THIS IS MADNESS!.. I’m all for supporting profits ..I’m not for supporting greed at the cost of lives of others..
Something needs to change..
Why are customers’ money being used to make life more comfortable for those who are making life more intolerable for the rest of us?
I actually don’t understand how the energy companies are allowed to get away with this and why the government aren’t stopping them instead of handing out money…..
August 8, 2022
John. This post is doing the rounds on Facebook. Its very relevant to today’s post and clearly shows the publics disgust at the situation regarding energy in the UK.
August 8, 2022
F U S
Brilliant post just about shows it all up for what it really is. Extracting the urine comes to mind.
August 9, 2022
You forget all the above people, and more, have friends….who return favours.
August 8, 2022
Inflation isnât high due to energy supply â currently energy supply is relatively constantâŠ
Our increase in inflation its due to the policy and consequences of net-zero and the effects upon energy âfuturesâ marketsâŠ.between 2030 and 2050 all western countries have indicated stopping fossil fuels; so the energy markets/providers are just factoring in the new paradigm today
August 8, 2022
Hey Folks
You can read PPâs posts on TCW
and I bet that this doesnât make it past moderation
August 8, 2022
I don’t think your be needing any extra supply of gas or electric this winter, when looking at price by Jan 2023, most small businesses will shut along with some bigger businesses who use alot of these energy’s and household cut back big time, tax take will be hit Jan 2023 as well. Best to get the graveyards ready to receive more plebs. Anyone for jetting off to warmer climate this winter, oh i forgot, no money for the plebs.
August 8, 2022
Hello Sir John,
As always what you say is plain common sense except for one point. Your concern about CO2! CO2 is currently at 0.004% of the atmosphere, so at what level does CO2 become a problem? Believe it or not at 10% of the atmosphere so we are miles away from the slightest problem. How fast has it increased in the last 120 years? From 0.0028% to 0.004% which just shows what rubbish the blind rush to net zero is. Does no one in Government or the Civil Service ask simple questions & check facts?
August 8, 2022
P33 of the BEIS âUK Energy in Brief 2022â showed that wind turbines produced 64.7 TWhrs of electricity in 2021. This is equivalent to an average of 7.4 GW from an installed wind capacity of around 24GW. Total demand was 308 TWhrs or an average of 35 GW.
If hydrogen is to be selected as a store of energy for when the wind doesnât blow, then to supply an average of 35GW, it will be necessary to install 300 GW of wind turbine capacity, over 12 times current capacity. Not likely to happen.
So, unless the plan is for energy to be rationed, intermittent and expensive, weâre going to need lots of gas.
Particularly as there are no orders for nuclear energy â only an aim for just 24 GW to be online between 2043 and 2050 â and with just 3 GW until then if Hinkley Point C is complete and working.
Fortunately the EU has declared gas to be green.
August 8, 2022
On present plans we will have a shortfall of about 30GW of firm capacity by 2035, as this chart from industy consultant Timera shows.
https://timera-energy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Capacity-deficit.jpg
There are no plans to replace the capacity that is due to retire with anything that can do the job.
August 8, 2022
Politicians will spend hours making up laws and rules trying to micro-manage our lives from giving pedestrians the right of way to cross a road at a corner without looking over their shoulder, to 20mph outside of school hours on more and more of our roads. Sunak wants to interfere with the education subjects people currently choose for themselves from 16-18 with a maths curriculum that isnât fit for purpose anyway (even Math students that major in maths would tell you that it doesnât even prepare them for their degree) and an English curriculum that doesnât teach people verb conjugations, the tenses and the grammar rules that separate out the privately schooled from the bog standard comp in one easy application essay. One year weâre told [body positivity is great], [fat shaming is banned], the next [obesity is rising], [obesity is putting a strain on the NHS], [costs of band surgery is going through he roof]. STOP MICRO-MANAGING and start getting the big things right.
The people canât control where we get our water, energy and healthcare from, we have to take what governments plan for and spend our money on. When you all collectively get it wrong we pay, you pay yourselves and public sector workers much more (or youâll cut off our monopoly services) to get around the worst of it, MPs get cheap meals at work, low cost drink by all accounts, bigger allowances to pay for second home needs and rising costs, insulated if you like from poor decision making. It is about time the people in charge start listening to you John, it must be very frustrating to be at this stage of your career and see young upstarts promoted into jobs theyâre not ready for. Itâs not a popularity contest running for high office and it is being turned into this by the media. Borisâ problem wasnât popularity!
August 8, 2022
You donât mention fracking. I assume because, as with housebuilding, Conservative policy is to allow NIMBY locals to block it.
August 8, 2022
I have raised this before but received no answer. Just how much tax are we losing on imported oil and gas compared with the tax levied on UK fuels sourced from the North Sea and elsewhere ?
Since the policy of no longer exploiting our own resources and turning to imports, I suspect it may be that we have lost billions just to superficially be seen to be more green !
August 8, 2022
If a recession is inevitable, there’s one sure thing that the BoE shouldn’t do, which is to turn on the money printing machines.
We are paying today for the mis management of QE and ultra low emergency interest rates which went on for far too long.
August 8, 2022
“Those who are most concerned about the output of CO2”
Should be told to button it! Until this obsession, with a trace gas essential for life on earth, is put into proper perspective, there is NO hope for the country (or the planet, come to that).
August 8, 2022
Plainly it doesn’t worry the Chinese who have effectively just walked away from all their half promises on climate over Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
August 8, 2022
Sir John, your Tweet today rightly criticises Sunak for not understanding that “removing green taxes from energy bills cuts inflation and eases the bills for everyone”. BUT, Truss is not saying this either!! She is NOT proposing to cut the carbon taxes, only the very minor ‘social and environmental obligations’ (the so-called ‘green levies’), which are merely scratching at the fuel bills. It is the carbon taxes that need cutting if the government wants to solve the problem, and she has not said a single word about this. Liz Truss is just as useless as Rishi Sunak. Why didn’t YOU stand for leader? You are the only one competent enough to lead Britain out of the growing crisis we are facing.
August 8, 2022
Sir John,
I do not believe it is the UK’s responsibility to assist the EU, any more than the EU has assisted the UK. If at some point however, the UK happens to have a surplus of gas and oil then it may consider mutually beneficial arrangements with those countries in the EU with whom we have always had good relations. Mostly northern nations with smaller economies where English is often spoken as a second language.
August 8, 2022
Sir John,
I suggest you lobby the next PM to set up a UK Energy Taskforce chaired by a commercially minded leader from outside of the energy ecosystem (a person like Kate Bingham) with the remit to rapidly increase domestic energy production in the short, medium and long term.
The UK Vaccine Taskforce provides the blueprint for a national effort to successfully address an acute challenge involving science, advanced technologies, numerous governments and their departments, a host of regulatory and planning bodies, businesses with skilled resources and a public waiting for protection.
August 8, 2022
Kate Bingham ‘s strength was that she knew her industry intimately, both in terms of who to call to get things done, and what the critical path factors would be that needed the earliest and extra attention, and to draw up a plan to ensure adequate resources were sourced and activated.
You really need someone with expertise and knowledge, not an outsider. They just have to be entirely motivated by the need to get things done for the sake of the people, and prepared to ride roughshod over climate obstructionists. There are still probably a few of us left.
August 8, 2022
So much to do before winter but we need engineers and STEM achievers to make it happen. We always think that there is a solid ground in front with no obstacles whereas from experience we can count on the naysayers, lobbyists, lawyers and most definitely the pro-life EU Civil Service to use it against the government with all manner of plausible objections.
This is a historic time unlike any other post war situation where greater social upheaval will materialise if nothing is done. A stitch in time saves the country from our enemies determination to wreck our way of life permanently.
The govt need to get real, get a grip and get everyone to wise up for a change.
Whilst Sri Lanka is an extreme example we need to be proactive and determined to outsmart the energy crisis which will only get worse.
We need you in government Sir John urgently please.
August 8, 2022
Pro EU Civil Service -( this tablet changes words of its own )
August 8, 2022
Why are minsters referring to natural gas as a ‘transition fuel’? Is that because the EU uses this terminology? Since it is not a transition fuel but vital to many industrial processes, is it a coincidence that the Tory Party is talking the same bilge as the EU?
There are great economic dangers for our country when know nothing Arts graduates in government and the civil service ape those who are trying to destroy Western civilisation with their CO2 warming hoax, now being augmented by the fertiliser (fixated Nitrogen) hoax. Measures need to taken against foreign investment managers who are using their positions to act against their clients”s and this country’s interests.
Neither the USA, Russia nor China has any intention of sacrificing their economy on the altar of green lunacy, so why we should we when it wouldn’t make a ha’p’orth of difference.
August 8, 2022
O/T: Sometimes fate is harsh.
This morning I got an email from Thames Water âBe a hot spell heroâ encouraging me to save water âHaving a Can Do attitudeâ, âLove a brown lawnâ, âSqeeze that showerâ, plus five other advices.
At lunchtime, on the news, we are told of the burst of a major Thames Water water main in North London that happened around 7 oâclock and was finally stopped around 11 am.
How much will the bonuses for the CEO and her board of top executives be reduced this year?
August 8, 2022
And your point is?…
August 9, 2022
point is water should never have been privatised – like fresh air it is the necessity of life.
reply We had less of it when nationalised as it needs money to collect and clean it
August 9, 2022
There were hose pipe bans and severe water shortages in the 1970s Gary under state ownership of water.
1976 was a very bad year.
August 9, 2022
I expect people flooded to the location to bathe?
August 8, 2022
Relying on the EU for any energy, especially now Russian gas is curtailed, how terribly naive or do we remainers in the loop? I suspect so…
Relying on Norway when they have near empty reservoirs for their hydro-electric, also pretty naive. Ditto their gas will be held back.
What will happen… they will claim Force Majeure on their contracts and not deliver for UK, as they will look after their domestic customers first, then fellow EU neighbours and …. UK last.
Drill baby drill and frack baby frack đ
For sure once we get to 2030+ and some SMRs on stream, then we can markedly reduce the gas/oil/coal and save it for the essential components in the petro-chemical industry.
Until then it’s an intermax for UK sourced oil/gas/coal/requirements, rather than the extra CO2 miles from importing them.
As Sir J says, far more revenue for the depleted Exchequer!
August 8, 2022
Yes Sir John, as usual you have talked obvious common sense as tactfully as possible !
Boris needed to be toppled for his ludicrous carbon neutral crusade.
You mention ‘the regulators’, which I believe were the same bodies you said should be reviewed.
Well I would say, at the very least, ‘They need a kick up the backside’.
August 8, 2022
Nigel Farage has pointed out that 40% of illegal immigrants coming over the channel are from Albania. What a flipping joke John. They ARE NOT refugees. There is no war there, they are a Nato member and we actually have to pay for a hotel there when we go on holiday. The Met are concerned about the serious crime involving Albanians and fear that the numerous car washes and barbers are ways of laundering drug money. This is totally unacceptable. Why aren’t they being sent straight back? We as voters are sick of this. One of your MP’S were interviewed and said that if the Conservatives won the next election they would have exit from the ECHR on the manifesto and would then leave if elected. That’s not good enough. They could act now so why don’t they? People will be sick and tired of your inaction by then. 18000 already this year. This time last year it was only 11000. It’s all a nonsense and a disgusting lack of action from your party John. There is no excuse.
August 8, 2022
People say hydrocarbons have no future and only speak about North Sea production as it was for domestic consumption. But all round the world refineries are being built. There is an export market out there as well as at home.
August 8, 2022
We need lower taxes especially those which will help to reduce inflation.
A 5% reduction in State spending..not front line.
A higher rate of interest to reduce inflation.
A reduction in money supply
August 8, 2022
The 5% VAT on fuel should be stopped
The 25% surcharge on bills caused by the costs of renewables subsidies should go too.
August 9, 2022
The reason fossil fuels are expensive is because of depletion. We need more renewables not less. This is the only way we can be energy independent.
August 9, 2022
No. It’s because maintenance and exploration and development have been curtailed for two and a half years or more in some countries. That is Net Zero policy is causing the shortage.
August 9, 2022
75% of the cost of diesel and petroleum products is tax.
That’s why they are expensive not depletion.
August 9, 2022
Lower taxes: which ones, direct or indirect? decreasing VAT on gas, electricity, petrol, bus and train tickets? Or income tax, CGT, IHT? Talking about âlower taxesâ without being more specific is politiciansâ talk.
Reduction in state spending: where? Army, police, education, health, quangos? Again, without being more precise you are just repeating tabloidsâ frontpages without making much sense.
Higher rate of interest to âreduce inflationâ: so to increase the cost of mortgages, credit cards and other loans? Hilarious.
A reduction in money supply: why? To cut the annual deficit? To start cutting the debt? Assuming such a reduction to happen, what benefits do you think it will have on various quintiles of the population.
August 9, 2022
You require a very long essay heffy.
And then you would still try to pick holes if I wrote one.
You are on the left so its what you do.
Anti everything on here.
August 9, 2022
0/10 pupil Peter, as usual you find a trick not to show how weak you are.
August 10, 2022
You usual personal abuse heffy when you don’t get what you want.
Very sad.
August 9, 2022
We need to be doing more with our ample tidal resources.
August 9, 2022
If tidal made sense in the UK we would have developed it 50-60 years ago when La Rance was developed in Brittany. There has been no fundamental change in the technology since, nor will there be: it is already close to the theoretical optimum. The reality is that the cost of the barrages we would need render it uneconomic, and the possible projects all pose significant problems with grid integration. La Rance worked because it only required a small 1km barrage that also functions as an important bridge between St Malo and Dinard, and it is not a big output.