IÂ now have a letter following my question to the Minister. This confirms that taxpayers will put up ÂŁ20bn, there will be a new tax added, and levies on customer bills. Will all our competitors do the same? The problem with this “investment” is it entails doing something no-one wants to pay for. It needs more taxes to deliver. It will help make the UK less competitive, speeding the transfer of jobs in energy intensive areas to other countries.
Dear John,
Thank you for your question in the House of Commons on 30 March, and for your written
questions tabled on 14 April, regarding the source of the recently announced ÂŁ20 billion
in Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) funding.
In the Spring Budget the Chancellor announced ÂŁ20 billion in funding to store carbon and
create jobs through Track-1 CCUS clusters and beyond. This is an unprecedented
investment in the early development of CCUS to help meet the Governmentâs climate
commitments.
The announced funding will come from levy and Exchequer sources. We expect it to
crowd-in billions of pounds of additional private capital, creating jobs and bringing
investment to our industrial heartlands.
The Government will use Exchequer funding to support industrial carbon capture business
models and the Carbon Capture and Storage Infrastructure Fund (CIF). A dispatchable power
agreement for power generation with CCUS will be funded through consumer levies. Support
for CCUS-enabled hydrogen projects will be funded by a new hydrogen levy on energy bills,
subject to consultation and legislation. As currently proposed, the Revenue Support
Agreement (RSA) for transport and storage will use both taxpayer and consumer funding.
Thank you again for your questions.
May 16, 2023
Good morning,
Could you ask the minister to explain HOW he plans to capture a gas that makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere?
I think growing trees and food we consume might be best….
May 16, 2023
@Peter Wood – to sensible, that doesn’t damage the UK economy or the UK Citizen. Tax on the other hand causes dissenters to leave the Country, punishes those that remain and makes them subservient to this new Left we have in Government
May 16, 2023
+1
Butterfly netting?
Oh no! How about fly paper?
Treacle mines and bluebirds over the White Cliffs?
La..laâŠlaaaaaaâŠ
And we are meant to believe all this?
May 16, 2023
You can’t grow a forest when the land has been cleared for housing, for the 600,000+ immigrants per year.
May 16, 2023
If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck âŠ9 times out of 10 were in a period of labour government âŠ.our Tory MPs are just ignorant to whatâs obvious to everyone else
Iâll say it again, high taxes and banning competition isnât conservative
Carbon capture isnât just a tax on the people it will cost industry billions in structural modifications, increasing consumer costs, making business in the UK uncompetitive and increase cheaper imports from China
May 16, 2023
CCAS a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
More staffing of taxpayers money chasing unicorns
A spell in opposition to reflect on your nonsense iscalked for.
May 16, 2023
Today we’re Importing 22% of our electricity
Absolutely nothing has been learned from WW2 or Russia invading Ukraine
Deeper and deeper we slide into the abyss with no one taking charge
May 16, 2023
I can’t remember, is it this week that our government is ‘for’ or ‘against’ fracing shale gas ?
May 16, 2023
I hope you are making the above comment as a joke.
Carbon Capture projects are related to major waste facilities, cement making plants, oil and gas production sites, ⊠where the CO2 concentration in whatever gaseous effluents they produce is a âteeny weenyâ higher than the 0.042% in the free atmosphere.
For example every tonne of Ordinary Portland Cement comes with 622 kg of CO2 (imperial.ac.uk, 20/05/2021 âBest way to cut carbon emissions from the cement industry exploredâ).
May 16, 2023
Hefner :
Except that we need more CO2 in the atmosphere not less in order to grow more food and make plants more resistant to drought.
The historical record over the last 500 million years since the start of the Cambrian explosion shows both temperature and CO2 levels to be both higher and lower than today (mainly higher with no polar ice) with no correlation between the two. Over the last 450,000 years when both have been historically very low, the Antarctic Vostok Ice Core samples have shown CO2 to be following temperature and not vice versa and for the last 800,000 years CO2 has dropped 9 times to 180 ppm (currently around 400 ppm) only 30 ppm above the level below which plants, and hence all life on earth cannot survive.
The work of Happer & Wijngaarden has shown that at current CO2 levels increasing CO2 does not increase temperature because of IR saturation. Published in 2019 the IPCC has never refuted their results, just ignored it.
There is no CAGW caused by anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
May 17, 2023
Please tell me; Does the work of Happer and Wijngaarden includes the adjustment of the temperature profiles resulting to the distribution of radiative fluxes (radiative- convective adjustment)?
May 17, 2023
You seem to contradict yourself, in some older posts I remember you saying that CO2 concentration follows temperature (based on a study of Vostok ice core samples), now you say there is no correlation. Is there one? Delta T => Delta CO2, or the other way around: Delta CO2 => Delta T or are the behaviours of these two parameters completely disconnected (no correlation)?
The world is awaiting with bated breath to know which is which.
May 16, 2023
You might also ask him if he know the first thing about climate, energy, physics, electronics, engineering, energy storage… answer almost certainly no! Does he even have a physics A level?
May 16, 2023
Good morning.
You party is really trying hard to throw the next GE and let Labour in so that they can finish what, Blair started back in 1997 – The abolition of the United Kingdom.
Question for Richard1 – How do you feel now about your love child, Rishi and his sidekick in Number 11 ? Just watch that points margin between the CONservative Party and Labour widen once this gets out.
Oh, and one last thing. How many here think that such a ‘levy’ (tax) will ever be repealed ?
No, me neither.
May 16, 2023
Sorry, off topic.
On this day in history, eighty years ago, young brave men took off in the aircraft not knowing what fate had in store for them. The embarked on a mission unlike that ever before undertaken to deal a blow in the industrial heartlands to an evil enemy. Some never returned.
Today we remember them and their legendary Squadren
https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/squadrons/617-squadron/
May 16, 2023
The Government is on a mission to trash their legacy by turning RAF Scampton into accommodation for 500 criminal migrants they haven’t got the guts to deport.
Somehow I doubt if Sunak (or any other Minister) will be paying tribute today to the Dambusters.
May 16, 2023
Fast forward to now, Mark, and the RAF isn’t going anywhere, but we are sending depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, where dangerous amounts of radioactivity will be released into the atmosphere as they explode. I don’t think anyone will want to commemorate that in 80 years’ time.
May 16, 2023
A worthwhile topic to stray off to.
May 16, 2023
@Mark B and this Conservative Government has ensured that the UK can never defend itself again
May 16, 2023
Makes me cry.
And look how the powers-that-be have squandered that bravery, belief and true love of country.
May 16, 2023
â€ïžâđ„
May 16, 2023
Yes Mark B. And now we’re putting 2000 asylum seekers in the air base the Dambusters set off from. How times change!
May 16, 2023
Hear,hear to that Mark. Thank you.
May 16, 2023
We Will Remember Them.
May 16, 2023
Silly language, our host is tolerant for allowing it.
I do not say this govt is a success only that Labour – the only alternative – would be much worse. Also that this govt would be much better if we hadn’t had the error of Truss’s leadership. Although I recognise Truss was also unlucky.
May 16, 2023
Labour would be worse but would not a disappointment as have the Tories. Liz Truss MP was not unlucky. Her only mistake was to give the most important job to someone who proved to be unsuitable. The rest was contrived and now we have a usurper who created the mess we are in and his appointment as Chancellor who is making it only worse.
The real tragedy is, many here, including our kind host, can see it. But blind sycophants and fanboys cannot. But as you say, our kind host is indeed most tolerant.
May 16, 2023
Toriy think-tanks know that Labour will be in government following the next GE however they don’t want Tories to be out for too long – out for maybe one or two terms. Hence the present strategy for damage limitation control to Tory chances in the medium term and max chance of damage to Labour in the long term. Typical political scamming – from which we see more daily – but not very good for the country.
Brexit is lost – we heard it from the horses mouth last night – and all blamed on the Tories but Labour under Corbyn should stand up and take its share for sitting on the fence –
Brexit was a pipedream, a spectacular pipedream, but now comes the daytime, time to pick up the pieces –
May 16, 2023
Labour will, gerrymander the election system so that the Tories never see power again.
May 16, 2023
A complete utter waste of time effort and money another ball and chain added to our ankles.
When are these people going to stop wasting our money?
It’s yet another costly solution that does not address the real problem.
The problem is their total obsession with NZ…….PATHETIC
May 16, 2023
Turbo
Just when you think there surely cannot be even more stupid ideas in the pipeline, another is announced and arrives.
I despair, I really do despair, another day, another tax in all but name.
They will not be happy until they take 100% of all earnings and investment, and perhaps give us pocket money in return.
What is the point of working, saving, investing, when it nearly all goes to the Government to waste on these farcical projects.
Thanks for exposing it JR.
May 16, 2023
One wonders what proportion of voters would support such expenditure at their expense, or whether anyone saw it in a Conservative manifesto.
Even consumers cannot avoid paying for what they donât want if the wasteful cost adds before the production process and hides within unknown product price increases. Absence of competition deprives choice.
May 16, 2023
Carbon captured wasnât mentioned in the last manifesto
May 16, 2023
Exactly.
We certainly will have to pay in even higher tax bills, a poorer economy, jobs exported, less productivity, lower pay and even higher energy bills – all this for zero benefits to the climate.
May 16, 2023
Infuriating. Well-exposed.
I wonder how much this sort of thing is driven by corruption, rather than stupidity? It can’t all be down to the latter.
May 16, 2023
I wonder how many in Westminster and Whitehall (as well as Buck Palace) expect to make a great deal of money from this lunacy and the levies/taxes they are loading onto “the little people.”
May 16, 2023
I wonder if this policy is driven from the civil service or government
May 17, 2023
Government funded Green activist groups and companies lobbying corrupt MPs.
May 16, 2023
According to environmentalists ( without a word of a lie) this carbon capture is one big scam.
They say it is a form of âgreenwashâ to put money into various pockets and does not address the perceived âproblemâ.
What they want is absolute abandonment of fossil fuel. No fake compromise!
Whereas most normal people want to be warm and have borders.
May 16, 2023
This country needs NetZero ⊠immigration
The major political parties are in an extremely volatile position. They just donât realise it yet.
All the Conservative Newspapers have to do is publish the FACTS on tax and mass immigration and the major political parties will vanish within one week.
May 16, 2023
+1
May 16, 2023
Words fail me. The stupidity of this government knows no bounds. If this is what our universities are churning out then they should be shut down. The public have been receiving hand outs to manage their energy Bill’s and now this will be added to them. I wonder what goes on in their brains. How many more pointless taxes are we to endure and even more worrying how many more with Labour? It’s all out of hand John and I ask again respectfully what the hell you and a few other sensible MPs are doing in this party?
May 16, 2023
Exactly, Fus.
May 16, 2023
They should all do an Andrew Bridgen if they are as aghast at their party and its trajectory as they say.
It’s called integrity, honour and standing up for what you believe to be right against what you believe to be wrong.
Party loyalty is of little use to us, but obviously serves others well.
I mean no offence to Sir John but to keep telling us how much more the Conservatives will be kicking us in the teeth while we are already down, and then feigning horror, seems almost like rubbing our noses in it.
May 16, 2023
FUS
It is beyond our kind hosts abilities to change things. This is not a criticism, just an observation.
Things will change when ‘WE’ change.
May 16, 2023
@Fedupsouthener +1
Its easy free logical thinkers, people like you and me and the greater majority that posts comment here are just creating a Conspiracy theory.
What we now term WEF, Blob thinking has to be obeyed, your/my PM is their greatest advocate. He(the PM) recently lectured the Media on how High Tax was needed to reduce inflation. Obviously that not yet working so taxes need to be higher. They need to destroy the very thought of being a conservative(big and small ‘c’)
May 16, 2023
You only need to carbon capture if you believe the hype from the UN IPCC, and their forecast modelling
May 16, 2023
I have to agree with you Fedupsouthener – this Sunak administration is proving to be more left wing than even the Labour Party of a few years ago. Some MPs are pinning their survival hopes on Sunak – but what he says and then delivers are poles apart. A collective, Lemming-like, madness has descended on virtually all of the Conservative MPs when it comes to many topics, as our host here has patiently listed over the months.
May 16, 2023
The party has indeed gone mad. But the voting system we have plus the power of the brand of the old parties (with their always have always will vote X voters) means the only other realistic alternative choices are even worse. The few sound Tories need to capture the conservative party back from the tax to death socialists, EUphiles and climate alarmist loons – but alas this now looks extremely unlikely.
May 17, 2023
It is not just the party. It is most of Parliament. If you read the Hansard for the Energy Bill debate you would have seen members from all corners of the House supporting these measures and asking to make them tougher on ordinary people. There was a big push for the reintroduction of lavish feed in tariffs as promoted by Powerforpeople.org on top of enthusiastic support for green hydrogen, carbon capture ans all the other way of making energy expensive and pouring money down a hole – but never an oil or gas well for production.
May 16, 2023
Surely at least 70% of UK university degrees are worth virtually nothing and certainly nothing like the three years loss of earning plus ÂŁ27K+ they cost. Many are not even in subject of any real value.
May 17, 2023
We retrained a graduate with a degree in âLatin American Dancingâ as a computer engineer. The university was funded for 3 years and we got funding for 3 months from the Manpower Services Commission, which was then disbanded because all funding went to the universities âwho could do a better jobâ.
We gained subsequent funding for courses based on our placement rate having screened raw recruits, trained them to basic standard (to display talent; thatâs all you can do in 3 months) and placing them in the big IT companies. Should universities not be funded on the same basis?
May 16, 2023
Yes, spending money on Carbon Capture and Storage is indeed the stupidest idea ever. It is literally burrying money. It is insane. My contempt for this government of lunatics and traitors just grows daily. And still no investment in the RR SMRs. Another great British company stabbed in the back. Another lost manufacturing and export opportunity. Another betrayal of Britain. And still no fracking. Another lost opportunity for more energy independence, resilience and lower bills. Another betrayal of the British people.
May 16, 2023
British Patriot :
Agreed
May 16, 2023
Last time I looked the taxpayers and consumers are virtually one and the same. These people beg belief they have totally lost the plot.
Not surprising they never had one in the first place. We are being herded down the road to hell that will totally destroy this country. They will not have the where wit all to be build back better, they will be nothing left. To even begin to try you need the people openly on your side who trust and believe in you.
You cannot keep kicking the man when he is down, he eventually drags himself up and walks away and never looks back.
May 16, 2023
Eamonn Holmes (GB News) when talking about fiscal drag and highest taxes since WW2, just referred to the Treasury as the Department for Thievery.
It’s far worse than that. We have a Parliament of Thieves: they are effectively stealing from the British people in order to transfer wealth to themselves and the Global “Elite” who are pushing the Net Zero lunacy and using their propagandised “climate crisis” to justify it.
There IS no climate crisis. A brief period of so-called global warming petered out 25 years ago, which is why it is no longer referred to. The whole thing is a scam.
May 17, 2023
Yes, like the COVID-19 ‘pandemic.’ Sunak and Johnson crashed our economy for a seasonal flu virus.
May 16, 2023
So ‘Joe public’ gets taxed a bit more in the never ending chase for Nut zero (deliberate spelling)
Another attempt by fools in parliament to promote their own self-righteousness by following the nonsense of trying to remove the UK’s 1%-2% of 0.045% of the Earths atmosphere.
When will this madness stop ??
May 16, 2023
And the Thunderer reports that Sunak has imposed the biggest tax rise since the 1970s with millions moving into the 40% tax bracket.
Obviously at the same time hosing the public sector with petrol. Come back Guy Fawkes please. (Obviously figuratively)
May 16, 2023
If they won’t accept it WE WILL IMPOSE IT UPON THEM AND FORCE THEM TO PAY FOR IT
This is the new Marxist Tory party grovelling to protect their filth party and their careers at the expense of doing the correct and moral thing ie ditching the authoritarianism of Net Zero
Your party stinks and to think you Sir still belong to it stinks even further
PS. don’t investigate supermarkets and farmers, investigate the public sector unions who daily make our lives a misery with their Neo-Marxist poison or is that simply too much hassle for the Socialist Mr Redwood and his new progressive party?
May 16, 2023
Only ÂŁ20B? Surely it should be more to encompass the atmosphere up to 20 miles high, and are they going to capture only British CO2 or for RoW as well?
Oh well, only a bit more than half of the ÂŁ37B wasted on T&T, a fraction of half a trillion on Covid and however much being blown up in Ukraine.
Sorry for being so cynical but I am being turned into a cynic by a government, and MP’s in general that cannot be trusted on anything at all.
May 16, 2023
Dear Sir John, It is all well and good asking these questions in Paliment but what steps are you taking to oppose this and other measures which feature in your Daily Diary. I appreciate you are just one MP representing a minority view point amongst your fellow MPs but a report on your actions to oppose such spending would give some cheer even if Parliament and the Conservative Party ignores you. Whilst we are spending ÂŁ billions on the Carbon religion the MOD is running down our defence capability. The Airbus variant to replace the old Hercules has operational issues so we are now a bit restricted in supporting Aid work or War(defence). The MOD is also reducing the size of the army which is a great idea at this time.
The Military like the Police is directly tied to the security of the individual UK citizen but dose not directly benefit the image of MPs ,and Government in particular , on the international circuit. So OK to cut funding on our direct defence but not the ÂŁ billions on virtue signalling on Climate Change and who can supply the most weapons to Ukraine to keep the War going.
May 16, 2023
Carbon capture by the UK is a curious activity in that it produces absolutely nothing of any measurable value at all, it has only costs and no income, as such obviously it has to be paid for 100% by the taxpayer. It is like the old Soviet era make-work scheme to achieve full employment, paying people to do entirely worthless activities.
I’m quite attracted to the idea of PR as a voting system – the Conservative party, which is currently a coalition between in itself between (mostly) Social Democrats and Conservatives, could split to form a party I might actually vote for which would be guaranteed to return MPs who would have leverage when formal coalitions are formed. As it stands at the moment the views of MPs like John are simply ignored by Sunak, Hunt and crew.
May 16, 2023
This can’t be true surely, more money being extracted from us!!!
I’m told by those well informed super intellectual types of the Guardian/Independent mode, that Green and Net Zero will see us all rolling in clover.
Surely this will just be a temporary tax and once up and running we will have cheaper energy, given to us by not for profit renewable/green energy companies as all those net zero cult followers say will be so (tongue firmly wedged in cheek)
As for more jobs, well who for?
Patel and Johnson removed the Resident Labour Market Test and reduced salary and qualification threshold, so companies will be at liberty to bring in as many as they wish no doubt (see Migration Watch)
So it looks like we’ll pay more, with more mass immigration and big business will be the ones in clover.
As someone else has asked already, I wonder how many championing this in high places will do all right out of it.
Always follow the money.
May 16, 2023
The net zero scam marches on. Is this the most corrupt government and parliament in our history? They certainly make no pretence of the contempt they have for those whom they are meant to serve.
May 16, 2023
Carbon capture and storage is a scam imposed upon the world by a desperate fossil fuel cartel, so that it can continue to extract value from its oil, gas and coal assets. There is nowhere in the world where CCS systems have worked, $billions have been invested by governments in attempts to prove the technology – without success.
This government is overly influenced by the fossil fuel lobby. We would do far better to invest the ÂŁ20 billion in onshore wind and solar harvesting free energy – giving us more energy security – and the most efficient of the world-leading gridscale energy storage systems developed by British universities.
May 16, 2023
SG :
We will not have energy security relying upon China, a state described by our security services as âhostileâ, for the supply of all our wind turbines and solar panels, plus depending upon China for the extraction and refining of 60% or more of the metals and minerals we need for motors, generators, batteries and cabling. This in addition to intermittent renewable generated power being far more expensive than either fossil fuels or nuclear and a disaster when there is no economic means to store electricity at grid scale.
May 16, 2023
SG :
BTW, twice recently youâve made the claim that the UK is a net exporter of electricity as a result of our renewables.
Checking this claim I find :
From BEIS/DES&NZ :
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1130451/UK_Energy_in_Brief_2022.pdf
âTotal electricity generated decreased by 1.4 per cent between 2020 and 2021, in contrast
to a 1.1 per cent increase in demand. High net imports accounted for the difference,
reducing the need for UK-based generation.â
From Statista :
https://www.statista.com/statistics/550304/electricity-imports-uk/
UK 2021 : Imported 28.7 TWhrs (equivalent to an average of 3.2 GW over a year)
May 16, 2023
SG :
The reason for CCUS is not for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry. It is for the benefit of the renewables as a CO2 free system is needed to balance the grid against unreliable, asynchronous and intermittent renewables and provide a long-term store of energy (gas) when the wind doesnât blow.
Although CCUS is horrendously expensive and a waste of money, using hydrogen or batteries is even more expensive.
May 16, 2023
The sheer level of pig headedness and lack of logic being displayed by government cannot be put down to ignorance or incompetence. This is a deliberate attack on our way of life and on the people of this country. The ruling class is at war with us.
May 16, 2023
Should be like every other private sector start-up looking for co-funding. If they have evidence of private companies with genuine enormous export or other business opportunities coming to them just needing some kick-start money, fair enough. If not, go to the back of the queue.
May 16, 2023
If there was any realistic prospect of carbon capture and storage technology actually working, the fossil fuel industry would have invested in it themselves. That they have not done so shows that they know the technology doesn’t work. Even if it did it would dramaticaly increase the cost of fossil fuel products
Over the last decade global governments have given the fossil fuel industry over $7 TRILLION in subsidy. It’s time this stopped and we started investing in renewable energy and grid-scale energy storage systems.
May 16, 2023
Define subsidy SG
That very dodgy figure of seven trillion in a decade f adds a notional estimate for pollution and climate effect…reparations effectively.
And adds into the figure that we don’t add 20% VAT onto energy bills.
And that like any other business energy firms can offset costs against revenue.
So not a subsidy at all.
Had you said energy firms create seven trillion in tax revenues for governments across the globe then you would been closer to the truth.
PS Windfall taxes on UK energy firms profits now stand at 75%
May 16, 2023
Levy and treasury sources – as the treasury’s only source of money is borrowing (to be paid later by taxpayers) or taxpayers this initiative is and commercial as HS2 and likely to have the same ballooning costs.
Follow the money, who is getting rich. Net zero or net wealth transfer?
May 16, 2023
Good morning Sir John
You have got it in âoneâ, your party, your Conservative Government, is a Tax and Spend Party.
A 70 year high Tax take isn’t enough, so they, Your Conservative Government want to inflict more pain, more suffering and more damage to the UK.
May 16, 2023
@ian B
Anyone, that is absolutely anyone, with half a brain and that valued the UK and its People, would say we need to do âthis or thatâ, that will cost money â so how do we earn the money needed?
âIts the economy stupidâ
May 16, 2023
Sir John, you use the word âinvestmentâ. Your Conservative Government doesnât invest, there is no reinvestable return. It is just âgiveâ the money away, no accountability, responsibility or return required or expected.
Or in simple terms how can your Conservative Government pile on more damage of the Peoples of this Nation so as to ensure it can never be self-reliant or resilient?
May 16, 2023
Itâs now worse than when we were in the EU. Attending a National Grid seminar in 2015 it was stated as a benefit that the EU was to allow some ÂŁ150m to be spent by the UK on carbon capture and storage from our gross ÂŁ19bn annual gross contribution for EU membership. My comment at the time to the seminar leaders was that this technology will never be commercially viable and would you want your pension fund to invest in this technology – to which there was no response. Now itâs to be ÂŁ20 bn. Still, as Sunak says, he is a low tax Conservative with a picture of Nigel Lawson in his office, so itâs all just fine.
May 16, 2023
Another example of the zealot-driven madness that passes for governing these days. Cancel it! And either spend the money on SMRs, or tackle the fiscal drag that means than 20% are now paying a marginal tax rate of 40%, or do both. I now see no hope for the Conservatives in 2024. They have a death-wish. They are political kamikazes.
May 16, 2023
Well, what a surprise! Who would have thought it?
And all this to reduce our % of World carbon emissions from its present c. 1% to less.
Do those dunderheads in Government not realise that this will have zero impact on Climate Change?
May 16, 2023
From today’s Telegraph
Sunak pulls off biggest tax raid in 44 years as one in five pay higher rate
Then to add in some irony, it goes on to say the poor badly paid Teachers and Nurses will be hit hard by raid in that their ultra low wages puts them in a higher tax bracket.
This is this WEF lead Conservative Government in Action
May 16, 2023
Follow up questions: –
1. In percentage terms, how much CO2 does this scheme anticipate removing from the Earth’s atmosphere?
2. What is the cost per litre of the removal?
3. What difference will this make to global temperatures?
4. By reference to the answers to those three questions, what’s the point?
May 16, 2023
As far as I can tell there is no marketable end product, unless someone knows how to turn it into diamonds. Consequently any private funding will be available solely to carry out a government project, much like HS2 in fact.
There is I believe an experimental project for the gasification of coal from which the end products are hydrogen and electricity with the byproduct of CO2 which can then be captured for storage beneath the sea, (CCUS). This could be commercially viable in that you have a reliable source of electricity and hydrogen to power all forms of road transport plus domestic and industrial heating. If the end products are financially viable no need for subsidy. I believe we still have vast coal resources beneath us. I believe in government taxation support for experimental projects, but not in ongoing subsidy via a tax for the end product, witness wind generated intermittent electricity.
If as I believe CO2 is plant food, the clever trick would be to turn it into a bagable form for sale rather than CCUS.
May 16, 2023
This seems like a half thought out plan.
Why not say government funding based on tax will only be released after a working demonstration of the technology is assessed to be viable at scale. And rather than a grant, loan the money for an expected return for the tax payer, with a bond held by a reputable bank to ensure the org taking the money doesnât do a runner. (See, we can learn from the covid loan debacle too!)
I would be happy to vote for a party that said we are investing xx billion now, with a guaranteed return of 2xx in 10 years. And if the guarantee is broken, financial and civil penalties for the signatories who took the money in the first place.
Conservatives are supposed to be fiscally prudent. There is nothing prudent about throwing taxpayers money at vapourware and magic technologies. Either get the minister to explain properly how this is going to work, or ask the minister to stand up someone who can.
May 16, 2023
Words almost fail me at the stupidity of this! Does no one in Government listen to sensible people who know net zero will never be achieved? I am sorry, Sir John, but you have to research & disprove net zero in the hope the PM will listen to you. It may be your greatest service to the UK. It is not difficult, and there are plenty of well written books by scientists that prove that humanity has very little effect on the climate. CO2 is a beneficial trace gas responsible for our planet’s greening. Without it nothing would grow! Net Zero is a classic example of groupthink which seems to have gripped our Government & MPs.
May 16, 2023
Have any of these âgreen â net-zero initiatives achieved anything over the last couple of decades, anything measurable, anything where our green taxes and levies have reduced global co2 âŠwhatâs the success criteria when the tax payers money is no longer needed !
May 16, 2023
in 2022 we spent ÂŁ45.9 billion on defence during the annexation of the Ukraine.
Now we are spending half that on buying unicorns!
May 16, 2023
They must have a calculation somewhere of how they got to ÂŁ20 billion. So what is the breakdown in costs between the levy and exchequer funding? How long will the levies be in place, or will they last forever? What is the cost of the levy for households and industrial customers? How is this split between the dispatchable power, hydrogen levy, and revenue support agreements? What assumptions have they made in creating these estimates? How much electricity will it generate?
May 16, 2023
Brexit was always a bit of a tragic joke (not in theory but in practise). A bit like doing D-Day without the Americans. With Johnson who helped tip the balance in the Referendum and for purely his own political purposes and when he isn’t a politician but a journalist. And the Referendum would never have been won without Farage in the first place. A Referendum that will cost this country dearly as we try to get the economy back on track and that has almost ruined the possibility of a good Brexit (which I certainly still support in theory / ideally) but timing completely wrong because no leader, no plan, and country can’t afford transition to Brexit at moment.
The writing was all on the wall for the failure Farage describes.
May 16, 2023
And that Richard Tice Brexit guy is a pretty-boy charlatan. Got like zero time for him (I do for other Brexiters but not him).
May 16, 2023
(And that includes me having time for John Redwood and Jacob Rees-Mogg, in particular I think John Redwood on Energy and Transport – and more. But not most of the other Brexiters. And Nigel Farage and Richard Tice just the final straw).
May 17, 2023
Redwood excels in economics. You seem to have missed that elephant as well.
May 16, 2023
Could someone tell our government that we donât need to capture co2 if the science on co2, global warming/cooling and climate change isnât settled âŠespecially if you cancel half of the scientists who question that model
May 16, 2023
What is the name of the minister, concerned, John?
May 16, 2023
Coco the Clown MP
May 16, 2023
I note in the letter, it is to ‘help meet the government’s climate commitments’, note its not for not the people’s interest, but the government’s hare brained NZ scheme which won’t do anything anyway but make us even poorer. They really are out to sabotage this country in any way they can. I conclude that they know the game is up and they will be out at the next election and are getting their retaliation in first. Seems like they are intent on laying land mines and time bombs to try to make life as difficult as possible for any future government, which they won’t be part of for probably 3 terms at least, especially if Labour and LibDims get their hands on the electoral system. Then of course there is the added advantage of making big money for their friends. Very patriotic. Expect more such in the months to come.
May 16, 2023
+1
May 16, 2023
2024: 1984 on steroids…
May 16, 2023
+1
May 16, 2023
When the Just Stop Oil people say, this government is doing nothing, you never defend what you have actually spent and done because you know your own supporters would be annoyed. All of this spending should be added up since 2010 and thrown back in their faces. Perhaps it would be a wake-up to the British public of just how much is being spent. It is a lot.
May 17, 2023
Yes, we could do with the gross cost of Green energy. And the real price per kWh. Nothing like shining the light on truth.
May 16, 2023
This policy isnât sensible so look for the real reason. 1) Destroy the UK by making us uncompetitive or 2) Monetary incentives from lobbying groups.
âsubject to consultationâ â who is being consulted? Will their views just be ignored like the many other consultations carried out?
Net Zero and climate change are the biggest con since the pandemic.
Your party has a death wish. It would have been so easy to remain in power for decades but you have betrayed the British people. This wasn’t in your manifesto and isn’t wanted by the people.
Why people think that voting for Labour will give a different outcome is a mystery to me.
May 16, 2023
Climate Change and Net Zero predated the Scamdemic. All the Scamdeminc did was to show just how gullible the populace is and how easily bribed they are, even with their own money.
May 16, 2023
Why is it every time one of these “bright ideas” is thought of, the public are expected to fork out even more of their hard earned (and hard pressed) cash?
If the Government want to do such things, why can’t they do so without resorting to stealing ever more from peoples wallets.
I for one am sick and tired of all these ‘stealth taxes”.
May 16, 2023
Mark J
They do it because they can.
I believe in Direct Democracy where, we the people decide to tax and spend on how much and what on.
May 16, 2023
“Crowd-in economics” is a current fashion with Lefties like the current government.
It is childish rubbish of course.
I seems that the civil service has been coaching ministers in this kind of thing and the kiddie ministers are being hand-held all the way.
May 16, 2023
It’s an idiotic scheme and they justify stealing more of our money to pay for it with more fake science.
Laying Co2 into the ground is dangerous for future generations, but who knows how long it can be sealed for. The chances are that the gas could seep out at any time, and that would be deadly for people living nearby.
Aside from the absurdity of the scheme and inadequate safety about doing it, it is not something we need to do – With an increasing population we need all the co2 we can get to grow food.
Without doubt they will continue to come up with expensive nonsense projects to further aid depopulation.
May 16, 2023
Another example of “there is nothing so bad that a government cannot make it worse”. The UK is already taxed into oblivion and these lunatics in 10/11 Downing Street want to pile on even more misery.
May 16, 2023
Whatâs the point of democracy, elections, party manifesto, 650 MPs and debates in the HoCs âŠif any new policy is made on the hoof by just two people ie the PM & Chancellor
May 16, 2023
Pretty soon even Tory MPs will not be able to vote for Sunakâs Party.
May 16, 2023
+1 brilliant comment
May 16, 2023
Make no mistake, CCUS only exists to impoverish the UK and its citizens and to make our energy less secure.
Further questions to ask the Minister :
1) CCUS will require gas (methane), lots of it. So why is the Government intending to close down our gas extraction from the North Sea (let alone banning fracking)?
2) What percentage of global anthropological CO2 emissions will this remove from the atmosphere?
3) What will be the percentage difference to the 850 billion tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere and the 40,000 billion tonnes in the oceans and hence the IPCCâs predicted lowering of average global temperature?
May 16, 2023
OR, can you explain how CCUS requires methane? Thanks.
Everything I was able to find related to CCUS appears to take CO2 and after some chemical reactions to transform it into CH4 (methane).
So what is required is not methane but whatever form of energy and/or catalyst (NiO) is needed to go from CO2 to CH4, something like CO2 + 4H2 -> CH4 + 2H2O
There is obviously the problem of getting H2 (hydrogen gas) to start with but certainly not of getting methane as methane and water vapour are the results of the process.
May 17, 2023
The idea is to trap CO2 from processes that make it and then pressurise it and store it in underground reservoirs.
The CO2 they have eyes on comes from burning methane gas in a power station, or from making hydrogen in a steam methane reformer (that again uses methane and water as feedstocks – the reverse of the reaction you cite), and from the use of coking coal in cement manufacture.
May 17, 2023
Mark, thanks
May 16, 2023
And can the Minister remind us exactly what benefits are foreseen from this unwanted scheme? Just how many new Chinese coal-burning power stations is it expected to offset?
May 16, 2023
Did you hear Farage on Newsnight last night – he say’s brexit has failed – what he doesn’t say is that he himself is OK and that he has his EU pension secured – meaning he hasn’t handed it back yet – WoW what a Pro!
May 16, 2023
Eugyppius has pointed out that the same Green expensive nonsense is being enforced in Germany. There a few Green activists in the ministries have waited for years until the old practical ministers retired and slipped the legislation through the ecoloons in the new parliament. These are the ones who were so impressed when KC3 recently lectured them about his urgent agenda to save the world. Just like us they have decided that every house shall fit a heat pump that doesn’t work when it’s cold and costs 10k to install while running on electricity costing 4x as much as gas. The car industry has to keep going with much higher energy costs than China and unable to source the materials for electric cars.
It’s almost as though some international agency is running the UK and Europe.
At least the natural gas business will be happy with the carbon capture tax and new industrial hubs, just as we’re planned in the last CCC report under Lord Gummer. These will reform methane to hydrogen and separate the carbon dioxide relatively easily before pumping it under the North Sea, provided by the oil and gas companies. The only problem is that half the energy is wasted and twice as much methane will have to be supplied.
May 16, 2023
Test and trace, Control a virus, Carbon capture, Save the planet, Nailing jelly to the ceiling, etc., etc.
My goodness, how much of this preposterous bilge are we expected to believe in?
May 16, 2023
+1 every day its something new, something ludicrous
May 16, 2023
Nigel Farage seems to suggest, recently, that Brexit has failed (and under a Tory government).
Whatever the situation, as I’ve always argued, Brexit is a great idea in theory but in practise you have to have a strong leader, plan and a strong economy to pay for the transition, as well as get opponents on board with a strong and positive message instead of berating them.
It’s simply unicorn stuff to believe that things can happen any other way.
And now Farage it appears doesn’t rule out we could end up back in the EU.
So essentially we’ve wasted many years of time, energy and focus on Brexit that could have been spent on much more productive projects – including building up our economy – the irony of which is that we then would have been in a much stronger position to leave the EU properly, once and for all.
Lessons need to be learned. Big time.
(And the anger of leading Brexiters all along was partly a sure sign that all of this was already written on the wall ’cause they knew there was no strong leader or plan in the place and our economy couldn’t afford this transition either).
May 16, 2023
‘Our economy could be strong enough one day to pay for Brexit – the transition of’ – but it’s circular and infallible thinking to think you have to be outside the EU to have a strong economy. You can have a strong economy either in or out of the EU – all depends on the individuals running business and government and the type of economy we have – and in order to improve our economy we’ve got to focus even more on High Tech and not so much – although still vital – on The City. In other words, we need to diversify our economy and help the High Tech entrepreneurs of the future, who create strong brands we can export abroad, as well as help develop the North of England, and more – then we’re in a stronger and more realistic position to leave the EU but that opportunity was squandered by the poor arguments and preparation for trying to leave the EU when we did. It was too early. Lessons need to be learned if to recover from this and recover fast).
May 16, 2023
@johnredwood âWhen the PM meets farmers he should tell them how he will redirect money and support to promote more food growing. We should not pay to turn land wild in the UK and have to import much more food.â
Rishi looking for reflective glory
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/16/clarksons-kaleb-cooper-charlie-ireland-downing-street/
The recent Clarksonâs Farm series, when it kicked of it highlighted the fact that promises were by this Conservative Government to continue to support UK Framerâs after Brexit. UK Farming has its back against the wall in that the that heavily subsidised EU Farmers are able to under cut UK producers in the UK market place. It just isnât possible to compete against a stacked deck handed out by the EU with its protectionist racket. Why are any foreign taxpayer subsidised goods being allowed into the UK?
As it stands the promises made to Farmers have turned out to be a pack of lies. This conservative Government promised the reneged. That said UK Farmers get money to rewild, stop production, leave the land fallow, but nothing to help the UK become more resilient in the supply of food. Under this PM like the previous one the only mantra is import, import, import. On present form Carbon Capture will be the UK taxpayer funding a Foreign State owned entity with UK taxpayer money to capture carbon that will never happen â the priority is to destroy the economy by export UK wealth
Clearly its this Conservative Governments plan to destroy the UK at every level.
May 16, 2023
âThereâs a chilling new punishment for those who question certain â facts â â
Fraser Nelson writes in DT on fri 12th May . He says – if you step outside the
â opinion corridor â you can expect investigation , harassment or to be flattened .
The book by Henrik Svensmark & Nigel Calder – The Chilling Stars – A Cosmic View of Climate Change in the last chapter headed – Carbon Dioxide is Feeble –
â If people wanted to economise with oil , gas and coal , in the belief that man-made carbon dioxide was driving current climate change that was a benign consequence of a faulty idea â and quoting T. S. Eliot –
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
May 16, 2023
This so called Conservative Government cannot stop spending money that it hasn’t got. Total public expenditure is now 47% of GDP according to Jacob Rees-Mogg on GB news. That’s ridiculously high and is the sort of number to be expected for dirigiste economies like France and Italy. Asian countries that spend a lot less on welfare have public expenditure as a % of GDP in the low thirties.
Let’s get fiscal and monetary policy right. Taking 2022 and 2023 together, total inflation will be north of 15%. This means that to get back to an average of 2% inflation will require 8 years of zero inflation. Fiscal and monetary policy can diverge in the short term but in the long term they must be compatible. Current GDP is ÂŁ2,500 billion. Assuming real GDP of 2% per annum (that’s generous), narrow money needs to increase by ÂŁ50 billion per annum to achieve zero inflation. The easiest way to do this is to keep annual public sector borrowing constant at ÂŁ50 billion. That’s less than half the current annual borrowing and the implication is that cuts in public expenditure must exceed tax cuts considerably, although it is perfectly legitimate to take Laffer curve effects into account.
May 16, 2023
Whatever next will come from this wretched Government? They are currently destroying the buy-to-let industry forcing landlords to leave the market thus reducing the available property to let and therefore increasing their rental prices.
Now we taxpayers will have to cough up another ÂŁ20 B to satisfy another of their crazy pipedreams. All this leads to the conclusion of our global competitors that we are a spent force open to their manipulation and their scams. We are seen as weak and vulnerable now thanks to the blind incompetence of the Nation’s management.
This is no Conservative Government, this is a disaster for OUR country. A disaster which will be exacerbated by another neo-socialist Party taking over Number 10.
God save the country, please, for this lot cannot and its now clear, they will not.. And despite JRM’s suggestion, the country desperately needs new leadership, for the incumbent is way out of his depth.
May 16, 2023
CO2 comprises 0.04% of the atmosphere.
If the level falls below .025% there will be massive plant death which will not bode well for us.
Who or what are we trying to save by reducing CO2?
May 16, 2023
The PMs political career and image to the UN
May 16, 2023
Seems to me yet more evidence that they are deliberately destroying our way of life, and that this net zero absurdity is just one of the means they employ to do it. Asking, “Can they really be so stupid?” is missing the point. The question should be, “Can’t they think of a more subtle way of ruining the nation than this?”
May 16, 2023
Feduosouthener, it is not stupidity, it is downright dishonesty. We all know the so-called climate change is a scam pushed by the scum of WEF.
I have started ignoring it all and go about my own life as I want>
May 16, 2023
I’m still wondering how we are going to build the gaint dome over UK that will contain our ‘low carbon’ atmosphere, whilst keepimg out the rest of the worlds emmissions? Didn’t they read about the Turkmenistan methane emmissions that are equal to all of the UK’s carbon ones?
May 16, 2023
And methane is a far, far worse climate warming gas than CO2.
May 17, 2023
Just the increase in Chinese emissions in the first quarter exceed the UK’s total emissions.
May 16, 2023
Home Office â 15 May 2023
Illegal Immigrants â 40
Boats â 1
âŠ.
May 16, 2023
‘Britainâs immigration is out of control, and could spell the end of the Tories’ – Telegraph
(Brexit was meant to greatly reduce immigration).
As I said here years ago after Referendum, the lack of leadership and lack of plan and lack of strong economy over Brexit could lead us back into the EU and under LABOUR – whilst diminishing our economy – and missing the opportunity at some point in the future where we could have left the EU / Single Market but in the right circumstances.
Brexit leaders need to apologise so we can begin to clean up the current mess we’re in (including lots of bad blood in the country which this daft Referendum caused – ‘daft’ not because Brexit in theory is daft – it is NOT – but because the circumstances in which people tried to introduce it was daft. So build up our economy first and foremost. And only when we have a strong economy with a strong leader and plan talk about Brexit again.
May 17, 2023
I’m guessing that none of that excess CO2 will be either piped into our commercial greenhouses or squeezed into the bottles that propel our draught ale. Prediction: we’ll have CO2 shortages within the next 5 years.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Liddell coal-fired power station was recently closed. Climate-change was part of the reason why, but commercial pressures were very much to the fore. No sooner than it closed than the wholesale price of electricity spiked, predictably, by about 100%.
It’s tempting to single out the Conservative government here as being unusually stupid – but the sad fact is that, across the West (and in the southern hemisphere bits of it), the political class is failing us plebs. We need governments that are rational; instead we get low-grade ministers whose ideologies are mental straight-jackets rather than the guides that they should be.
May 17, 2023
So select them! By leaving the political establishment to dictate who sits in Parliament you have abandoned democracy.
In Monmouthshire we deselected a sitting Tory MP. We selected a real Conservative. We returned him to Parliament – then he was âboughtâ by the political establishment.
Itâs pointless feeding good men into this machine. We MUST change the machine.