John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con):
The Secretary of State is right that, in order for this to work, green products need to be affordable and attractive. What study has her Department made of the attractions of synthetic and sustainable fuels as another option, compared with batteries? They may be easier for many of these users.
Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero:
I thank my right hon. Friend for that questionâwe have spoken about this issue before. We will be consulting on synthetic fuels, in particular for aviation, and we are looking at alternative fuels more widely, for example for rural homes. I would be happy to keep up the conversation with him about our progress.
October 18, 2023
Good morning.
Let us hope this gets posted after yesterday submission was deleted.
And
So let’s ban something and ‘then’ look for a replacement rather, let us have a replacement ready then slowly phase the old product out.
I truly dispare.
October 18, 2023
In other words, I don’t have a clue
October 18, 2023
Absolutely Mark, synthetic fuels are only one aspect of less polluting means of propulsion. This government of lawyers shows no serious interest in what the japanese, Toyota and germans, Porsche are doing in the developement of engines using hydrogen. For the UK it would avoid a vast increase in electricity production and distribution while avoiding all the operating problems of EVs. I too dispare of the UK government ever doing anything useful.
October 19, 2023
And using Hydrogen as a fuel would create harmless water vapour, which is, erm one of the most significant influencers in Climate balance effects. Not to mention the massive requirements in energy to create the gas in a pure form and the costs of containing it safely. One wonder why the planets natural response is to encapsulate this hazardous gas in water!
October 18, 2023
@ Mark B – indeed, the exact opposite of the Chinese approach (they of the considerable carbon emissions) as enunciated by President Xi that replacing the old ways would await always creation of new ways deemed good and suitable substitutes.
October 18, 2023
Agree – You only need to go down the synthetic fuels route if you believe the UN IPCC reports and that the world is boiling
October 18, 2023
There will be no conversation therefore because there certainly will be no progress.
Just another catastrophic and massively expensive failure for the Corporatists – politicians who told the corporations to ditch diesel and petrol car manufacture (the benefit to them being the forced replacement of all vehicles) and the corporations who unquestioningly and greedily believed them!
Letâs hope we see them tearing each others throats out in the not to distant future, as our own oil and gas pumps nod away.
October 18, 2023
Yes all very premature Lynn.
MotoGP motorcycle racing says
By 2024, fuel in all MotoGPâą classes will be of minimum 40% non-fossil origin
By 2027, fuel in all MotoGPâą classes will be of 100% non-fossil origin
And Formula 1 racing cars indicate
F1âs Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds is heading up the team focused on creating this revolutionary fuel (by 2030, the sport is pioneering a âdrop-inâ 100% sustainable fuel that can not only be used in F1 cars from 2026 but crucially can be utilised by most road cars across the world) and has spent months deep in research to create the best quality product for 2026.
The zealots, however, will say we are the equivalent of the boiling frog and do not have a minute to waste.
October 18, 2023
đđ€Łso Pat Symonds is going to save the day! Great, and good luck.
Reminds me of Doug Henderson who also also changed the course of U.K. history.
So why are they messing about with EVs then, if the miracle non-fossel fuel is within grasp?
October 19, 2023
Don’t be so scathing – Pat Symonds is indeed a very clever, resourceful, motivating man with significant ability to crystal ball gaze. You should prepare to eat your words written on tough old cardboard when it happens.
October 18, 2023
@Lynn Atkinson
The problem with pro-fossil fuel climate crisis deniers is that they are unable to understand the physics and the science. And if they lose the debate, it must be because the environmentalists are clever – and so must be lying
There is a direct, causal relationship between rising global temperatures and CO2 levels since the industrial revolution. And particularly with CH4 (thatâs methane for the uneducated) which leaks out from oil wells and especially fracking facilities
I suggest that you study the NASA data under the following link, which will educate you
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/
And lastly, big oil knew 50 years ago of this relationship, because their own scientists had reported on it. It’s the fossil fuel industry that has been lying to the world about it for decades. BBC2 produced a seminal documentary on it which is still available on iPlayer
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0cgql8f
Only useful idiots who just repeat fossil fuel lobby lies and disinformation ifrom the right wing press and who rely on dodgy scientists funded by big oil can ignore the overwhelming global scientific evidence that the world is rapidly heating up.
October 18, 2023
@SG; The only deigners are those who deign CO2 is a naturally occurring and necessary element to all life, that it has existed on planet earth in varying quantities for billions of years, and that climate has changes for even longer.
When descent, how ever well informed, is cast aside, alternate opinions ignored, people ostracized, it is no longer a science, or even politics, it has become a religion – or worse – but those who have invested in a scam are always the last to admit to having been had. If I may Sir John;
If I may Sir John; From the Radio Times archive listings.
Horizon, Mon 26th Jun 1989, 20:10 on BBC Two England
Programme synopsis:
From a time when the BBC made real investigative science programmes, I bet the BBC no longer has a copy of that programme in their archives!
October 18, 2023
After this election people will start to feel the serious consequences and costs of net zero. The legacies are signing their own death warrant, goodbye legacies, hello REFORM.
October 18, 2023
Oh, sooner than that.
October 18, 2023
Reminds me of the consultancy progress of HS2 ….more madness, this government/party aren’t learning from their mistakes
October 18, 2023
Much of the madness across the board makes me wonder whether they are not depending on AI for more than just Intelligence. I mean across the west from Sullivan and Blinken to our ex-Defence Minister whatever-he-was-called; they are as far off target as the Covid computer predictions produced by Imperial were. Not in the same ball-park.
They canât seem to align reality with what the Computer-Which-Knows-Best is telling them – thus they cling to the âAI predictionsâ hoping that reality is just lagging. I mean they stake everything, the whole country, on those âpredictionsâ.
Reminds me of a great film called Mooseport. Ex-President of the USA challenges someone to a game of golf. He is used to the CIA who line the fairway, chucking his wayward balls back in towards the green. So he hits out of bounds and says âwait wait – itâll come bouncing back in a minuteâŠ.â
Cheating can become endemic and mess up judgement big-time. We see many of our political class simply donât know which way is up.
October 18, 2023
So in fact the government and its bureaucrats has not yet sought to compare the cost of the policy they’re pursuing with that of alternatives. If I tried to run a company like that i’d soon be out of business.
October 18, 2023
So basically, our wonderful Government and marvellous “Opposition” decided to ban gas and oil in the very near future, with no viable alternative.
I wonder when they’re going to admit that electric vehicles aren’t viable either? When it’s recognised that every multi-storey car-park in the country will have to be rebuilt? When a RoRo ferry, or the channel tunnel has an EV fire? When there’s a multiple pile-up on a motorway involving several EVs which go up in flames?
October 18, 2023
It will âbe the drivers faultâ if they were self-drive cars everything would have been just fineâŠ
October 18, 2023
Apart from politicians who want chauffeur driving car âŠ.who really wants a self driving car ? whoâs asking for them ? the demand isnât consumer led ?
October 18, 2023
The answer? We shall consult… equals politic speak for I have no idea.
A trip to Brazil may reduce the ‘consult’ time.
October 18, 2023
Two days ago, Lord Lawson’s memorial service took place at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster. According to an article in the Daily Telegraph dated 17 October 2023, Lord Lawson had ‘confidence in the resilience of the climate’.
For those hell-bent on Net Zero by 2050, here is some uplifting news reported in ‘ScienceDaily’ on April 7 2023, four days after this independent thinker’s death:
‘Scientists discover a way Earth’s atmosphere cleans itself.’
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230407133443.htm
October 18, 2023
If the inventiveness of the British created vast quantities of hydrogen or produced viable fusion energy, there is one thing I can guarantee, any UK government of technical incompetents would sell it off at the first opportunity to any foreign company with better brain cells. Think radar, the computer, the www, the jet engine and many other firsts. All so our idiots could indulge in such as HS2 ,even if it is fifty years too late.
October 18, 2023
NOT better brain cells, more MONEY! We canât afford to keep the Commonwealth and medicate the world and host millions of criminals in the best hotels, AND keep our industries and have children.
October 18, 2023
I note ‘consulting’ and ‘looking at’. I would like to assure Ms Coutino that any entrepreneur or corporation that thought there was money to be made was already doing exactly that.
She doesn’t mention ‘encouraging’ could I suggest tax breaks to reduce the pump price for any consumers?
8.39
October 18, 2023
Distributing reports in the morning press about the govts Net-zero advisor wanting the entire gas network shut down by 2050, expecting retrofit heat-pumps to be the norm, otherwise electric heating. But still no one questions the lie about CO2…
October 18, 2023
Consulting? The new phrase for doing nothing. So on your way and stop asking questions
October 18, 2023
Stop on ….and they’re using the results (problematic) of those consultancies to pursue their objectives with so called justification ….my councils consults via a facebook questionaire with (normally) less than 10-20 respondants ….that isn’t a democractic consultancy
October 18, 2023
The ancient definition of a Consultant? A person when asked what is the time, reaches for the questioners’ wrist, looks at the watch and announces what it says.
October 18, 2023
Consulting? We will ask the vested interest lobbyist on what would be acceptable to them. As for the electorate the people that got me this lofty position and pay my wages â get back in your box
October 18, 2023
@Ian B; Indeed, and the vested interest lobbyist get forewarning of any Consultation, thus their highly detailed reports are ready to be submitted on day one, the rest of us get 10 – 20 days to organize, compile and submit…
October 18, 2023
The question asked what has been done and the reply was âwe are lookingâ.
Why do these people wander for years in the wrong direction before accepting they should have assessed and enacted better options at the outset?
October 18, 2023
So the tory plan continues …..EV cars rule and petrol is out ….please get your party to be honest about that policy
October 18, 2023
Whether you intervene or send in one of your letters, can you ask the numpties in the department of energy if they have noticed that;
There is an escalating war in the Middle East likely to affect oil shipments via the Straits of Hormuz.
The opec cartel and Russia are restricting oil supplies to boost prices and do whatever damage they can to the West.
In the light of what the media has been telling them, when do they intend fully utilising UK energy to shield UK citizens and businesses against this obvious economic warfare. A simple yes or no will surfice.
October 18, 2023
Russia is storing fuel for its massive impending invasion of Ukraine. So fuel is even in short supply in Russia itself atm.
Didnât we tell them to sod off with their commodities anyway?
Anyone who depends on supplies from the Middle East at all is nuts.
October 18, 2023
From the MsM
‘North Sea decline leaves Britain âsubservient to foreign regimesâ, says Energy Secretary
Claire Coutinho argues production will fall faster than demand without new drilling
âThe real-world consequence of this would be that this country would be forced to import up to 80pc of our oil and gas by 2030.
âThe UK will not only be subservient to foreign regimes, but we risk decimating the same people and communities that we need to come with us on this green transition journey.â’
Most sane people have been reporting that here and elsewhere for years. The refusal of the Conservative Government in the last 14 years (that is at least how long the problem has been known about) to keep the UK secure shouts volumes on their capabilities. This Conservative Government in all that time has neglected to answer the question, good at talk and reviews complacent at action and management.
All the while they are ensuring the UK economy will be decimated by this Conservative Governments attitude, no money, no wealth equals no way to respond
October 18, 2023
@IanB
She has said North Sea waters still hold enough oil and gas to support the UK for up to three decades. – that is against the Boris Johnson Cabinet (lets not forget they are still all there, the thinking hasnât been removed) wishes and attitude of import only to save the world
October 18, 2023
Due to your policy of net-zero
Iâve just had to spend two hours on the phone to british gas, as I got an email from them saying my bill was overdue
I said âwhat bill and that I havenât received a bill yetâ, they told me theyâve gone paper-less, unless I directly requested a posted bill âŠ.the future is bleak, all in the name of net-zero
October 19, 2023
GC: I have had recent billing & account change issues ( nothing to do with anything I had requested, prompted or changed ) with electricity supplier going on since July & spoken with five individuals & had long phone conversations. I think this is finally sorted out as of yesterday. Also, since July / Aug when issues arose I am being plagued every few days with emails re an electricity smart meter.
I am just about to have to also now contact my gas supplier with unexplained issues to do with billing / account, again, nothing to do with any actions I have taken. Up to now I have happily & efficiently dealt with these suppliers for many years so not sure what is going on.
October 19, 2023
We didn’t have these issues pre-netzero nor this tory government
October 18, 2023
You are right. If we spend money on green technology needing subsidies, they will only reduce CO2 emissions from the UK. It will have a negligible impact as we only contribute 1% of world emissions. Unfortunately, only a few other countries can afford the subsidies as well.
But if we produce affordable and attractive green products, they can be taken up worldwide with up to 100 times the impact.
October 19, 2023
yes please, I’d like to be kept up to date too.