I am receiving several copies of a lobbying letter condemning fracking in particular and the new government’s approach to energy and the road to net zero. The general complaint is we should not extract any more fossil fuel at home, run down our oil and gas industry quickly and accelerate renewable electricity.
I disagree with these emails. Let me begin by explaining they are wrong in their own terms. Substituting imported gas for home produced gas increases the amount of CO 2 produced globally. LNG in particular requires substantial energy use to liquefy, transport and convert back the gas compared to pipeline gas from the North Sea. Importing energy intensive products similarly entails more global CO 2 whilst cutting U.K. output of energy intensive products. The net zero movement must look at global impact, not just national generation. Every extra amount of home produced gas eases the global shortage a little, and cuts the overall output of CO2 by saving on LNG volumes.
The pressure to go faster with expanding renewable electricity comes up against the inconvenient fact that most U.K. people heat their homes and water with gas or other fossil fuels, and most drive petrol or diesel vehicles. All the time this is true we need fossil fuels to live. If we accelerated the rate of converting our vehicle fleet to electric it would raise CO2 output from the scrappage processing and from the manufacture of new electric vehicles. You need to drive a lot more miles than most car owners to make the switch favourable on CO2 accounting instead of running your older vehicle for its full useful life. The CO 2 accounting for replacing good functioning gas boilers with electric heat pumps is also problematic. Anyway governments cannot make people rip out their gas boilers or replace their cars, especially at a time of income squeeze when most cannot afford to do so.
Meanwhile government has a duty to ensure there is sufficient energy at affordable prices to keep us warm, provide necessary supplies and buttress jobs at home. On any analysis the next few years will see the need for plenty of gas, whether from home or foreign sources and whether used to make things here or imported things from overseas. Indeed if we import more from places like China and Germany more will be made with coal based power, producing more emissions than using gas. The greens say there will be new jobs making wind turbines. There will not be enough to offset the big hit to jobs if we fail to keep enough sensibly priced hydrocarbons for the period of transition. The West is already too dependent on China and her satellites for raw materials and products required in wind farm and battery production. We also need to consider the environmental impact of mining the materials and handling the waste from battery and other electrical products.
September 28, 2022
Good morning.
It think it is time we started to look into who funds these pressure groups. Apart from our own government that is. đ
There also needs to be a detailed audit over each and every means of energy production, covering its extraction of raw materials to make and power it. Its manufacture, running and decommissioning. The audit should also cover reliability, security of supply, cost, and the environmental impact taking in all the aforementioned into consideration.
We need to be honest. For example, let us take wind turbines as a hypothetical case. We need to determine how much energy we will need for a given period and how many turbines that would take to meet said demand. The we need to look at how and where the raw materials are sourced from. The we need to look at the manufacture. All need energy in order to bring to market. The there is their use and decommissioning. As the wind turbines are only produce energy when the wind is blowing we need to consider what alternatives there are for producing energy and include all its environmental costs.
You can see even by what I hoped was going to be a short post that this is a deep, deep subject and, I believe that those pushing the green agenda have really not thought all this through and a largely going on emotion rather than science, engineering and good old fashioned common sense.
I think it is time the grown ups started to take back control before anymore harm is done.
September 28, 2022
Absolutely spot on.
Most of the pressure groups/charities who have so much sway and say are of the hard left persuasion.
As with most things always follow the money to find the source of the problem.
Much is dressed up as being for the common good, when in fact there is a hard line political goal behind it.
September 28, 2022
More reservoirs with hydro power generation included. Much better than HS2!
September 28, 2022
Huk needs to be sacked and investigated by the police for her racist remarks towards Kwertang- dislike his decisions, judgement, policies or politics not his heritage. They were not accidental. If a white person made the remark have no doubt the police would be involved. People from ethnic backgrounds can commit racist crimes.
Starmer needs to ask for a police investigation not token apology or administrative suspension. MPs should uphold the highest standards.
September 28, 2022
+1
September 28, 2022
Mark B,
I question the crazy push for electric vehicles! Has anyone built an electric HGV which will work? The diesel emissions from them as they carry heavy loads around the country will continue for decades, so why bother trying to impose electric cars for personal use.
September 28, 2022
DHL, DPS and Amazon now have some EV delivery vans in the Reading-Wokingham area. They are not properly speaking HGVs but they seem well adapted to the task.
September 28, 2022
Let’s hope they don’t need to travel more than 100 miles a day.
Nice for travelling around city centres I suppose.
September 28, 2022
Electric milk floats were also been around for a long time. Right for the job.
September 29, 2022
It will be interesting to see a milk float hauling 20 tons of freight up the M1.
September 28, 2022
@hefner; Those EV vans you mention are so far removed from being an HGV (12 to 40 tonnes fully loaded) they just cloud the debate with confusion…
Delivery vans are often less than 3.5 tonnes (gross) loaded, so for a EV with similar licensing I do wonder what their net carrying weight is, given their tare weight must be more than the equivalent petrol or diesel van. Probably not an issue for the average courier delivery company though, on that ‘final mile’, but for most others it will be a major issue as the next step up requires drivers with class C1 driving licenses and far stricter operators licensing (neither are likely to change post Brexit).
September 28, 2022
I also see Amazon EV vans round here.
“They seem well adapted to the task”
Yes for predictable, short range, stop-start work they make good sense. But just like the electric milk floats of years gone by, they are useless for the tradesman who has to go where the work is – he might have a job round the corner today, and then have to make a long motorway trek every day for two weeks, starting tomorrow. Even if an EV van could make the journey, it still has to be fully charged for the next day. When time is money you can’t afford to waste it trying to find a working “fast” charger, and a 7kW home wall box may not be sufficient if the van doesn’t arrive home until mid evening, and has to hit the road before 6am the next day. It will also weigh at least 25% more than the same van in diesel guise…
September 28, 2022
I’m hanging on to my diesel fuelled car (already 12 yrs old!). It’s beginning to look like diesel will be available for far longer than petrol, unless the stuid politicians get real.
September 28, 2022
@ Pominoz
Here in Wokingham our local Audi Garage owner is also big in trucks, according his web site he runs a fleet of some 95,000 which includes big(very big) EVâs such as Freightliner, Volvo VNR tractor, International along with some 750 electric ford transits vans. The thing is they just look like the regular vehicals.
September 30, 2022
8 mpg on average.
September 28, 2022
Mark, agree we need to understand who funds the Green pressure groups. There is strong evidence Russia has promoted Western European anti-fuel groups.
Ther is also a need to know your opponent. Sir J’s arguments are logical, valid and balanced. Sir J’s arguments will fail to change the views of a single green zealot.
I see scientists were rubbishing Rees-Mogg’s proposal to use green hydrogen for heating, saying energy conversion is inefficient (true) and it is more effective to use green electricity directly in heat pumps. Those same scientists skipped the problem of the energy storage required for those same heat pumps.
September 28, 2022
Most boiler manufacturers (Worcester/Bosch for instance) already offer ‘hydrogen ready’ new gas boilers that can use a hydrogen/conventional gas mix. New plastic cores required on some older pipes but can be pulled through existing piping. With boiler on an external wall and gas mix routed arounnd the outside of building, shouldn’t be a problem and a darned sight cheaper/easier than ripping out existing systems for heat pumps that won’t work for most existing homes.
September 28, 2022
Mark B: I could not agree more. There seems to be a determined blur between caring for the environment (good) and CO2 hysteria (bad).
Sir John: keep up the good fight!
September 28, 2022
+1 we all want a nice environment and sufficient CO2 is actually vital to that. It is vital tree, plant, seaweed and crop food, vital for plants to provide all the oxygen we and animals all need to breath. Historically we live in a period of a relative dearth of atmospheric CO2.
The other con trick is to refer to âcarbon pollutionâ – carbon being dirty & black, CO2 being a clear, odourless and beneficial gas.
September 28, 2022
Indeed SM. Where is the proof that CO2 is resposible for changes to the climate? Seems more like mythology to me.
September 28, 2022
I’ve been picking up on the environmental cost of mining raw materials for battery production. Someone said it means more mining in the next few years than has been taking place since the dawn on man.
If those mines were set up in the UK (not that we have deposits of rare earth elements, lithium or cobalt), I’m sure the environmentalists would be up in arms about it.
Has someone told Greta the battery for her electric car required mining that’s now polluting the Yellow River?
September 28, 2022
Plenty of lithium in Corwall, I gather.
September 29, 2022
Just need to recruit some Cornish children miners then. Oh and we will need lots of cheap fossil fuels to mine it too
September 28, 2022
Very good points Mark.
The Green Lobby much prefer us to focus on superfical & simplistic (so called) “Facts” – rather than the real “Inconvenient Truths” that underlie so much of their creative carbon accounting. If only more of our political class had the good sense (and courage) to stand up and state these things clearly (as Sir John is doing).
Kier Starmer had a good reception yesterday but there was not much detail in his speech and what there was doesn’t stand up to a few minutes careful thought – which most of the media frankly don’t seem capable of.
Where are the defenders of common sense and pragmatism? When are enough Tories going to have the guts to stand up and state that so many of the current eco-policies are just expensive and dangerous nonsense.
September 28, 2022
@Mark B; “it is time we started to look into who funds these pressure groups ..//.. I think it is time the grown ups started to take back control before anymore harm is done.”
Indeed, and some have been saying that since the early 1980s, when no doubt you and others on this site were championing the eco cause in pursuit of your own party political ideals, now you bleat others have used the same weapons against you and want them investigated. Be very careful of what you wish for…
September 28, 2022
What an odd claim Jerry.
Have you got any facts to support this
(as nbilly brown and others often demand)
September 28, 2022
Peter 2
And as you know you never provide anything neither sources nor valid arguments, but that is rather not surprising
September 29, 2022
And yet again Billy you do exactly the same.
Hilarious.
PS
I see you’ve added an N to your name. Is there an exciting reason behind the change?
September 28, 2022
@P2; You mean Mrs Thatcher govt did not cite Acid Rain as being an issue caused by sulphur dioxide emissions from burning coal in power stations? Nice to know that Peter2, you’ve just demolished the last genuine reason for abandoning cheap as chips coal…
September 29, 2022
The bit I was actually asking about Jerry was your odd claim that ” you and others on on this site were championing the eco cause in pursuit of party political ideals”
September 29, 2022
@P2; You’re the one making the odd claims! Are you seriously suggesting our host never supported the policies of the Thatcher govt, funny that, I though he headed Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit before becoming a PM and starting on his cabinet career, true he claims (and I’ll accept his word) to have opposed the Poll Tax so it is possible he might have also opposed her policies on Coal.
Also, just were is YOUR evidence to suggest the vast majority of commentators to this site, alive at the time, supported the NUM’s arguments back in the 1980s rather than those of the govt?…
September 29, 2022
I’m not making any claims Jerry
I just asked you a question.
Sadly another redherring response from you.
September 29, 2022
@P2; “Iâm not making any claims”
Yes you are, you keep claiming I don’t know what I’m talking about, but never post a counter argument!
Soundbite Peter2, he can’t do debate, can’t do facts -twisted or otherwise, just insults.
Whatever…
September 30, 2022
I have never said you don’t know what you are talking about Jerry.
Just insults?
You posted a claim and I asked if you had any further info.
Don’t be so defensive.
October 1, 2022
@P2; “I have never said you donât know what you are talking about Jerry.”
Ah right, so you must be admitting to trolling then… đ
Don’t your ever stop to think before clicking that send button!
“You posted a claim and I asked if you had any further info.”
And I gave more info, as anyone who has a clue or basic internet search skills know. Yet you still rant on, wasting more of our hosts time.
“Donât be so defensive.”
Pot, kettle.
September 28, 2022
I quite agree.
It’s normal that a few people treat climate change as a faith, and can’t be persuaded by any evidence that they may be mistaken. They can’t be helped.
For many others, it’s the Blob that’s clouded their judgement (MSM, NGOs, politicians, teachers etc) and they are open to dialogue. With energy prices sky high, now’s the time for the alternative narrative to be promoted. Of course, for this to happen we desperately need politicians who aren’t bewitched by, or beholden to, Climate alarmism.
September 28, 2022
I totally agree Mark.
Adding to your comment about the energy used to manufacture wind turbines , can the greens tell me where the blades are manufactured and the cost of bringing to site. What is the material used to make these blades and how long they last before failing inspection and needing changed.
I noticed a farmers wind turbine that was installed three years ago standing in the field bladeless. Failure of one blade , then the imbalance destroyed the other two,
An expensive job and talking to the farmer, he is not going to replace the expensive parts as he did not break even with the installation.
I ask you, why bother when we have years of coal and gas?
September 28, 2022
It seems the Bank of England has heard your message and is now buying bonds.
September 28, 2022
Why is the BoE so worried about liquidity in the Government Bond banking casino? The Treasury issued tradable savings bonds are still only repayable at face value; the interest they pay remains the same throughout the life of a bond. And, they play no part in financing government spending; they are just the equivalent of welfare benefits for corporations.
The BoE can state that it will buy in (actually swap for the “reserves” that bought them originally), unlimited quantities of a bond, if its yield in the market goes, say, above 5%. The market reaction will be that the market yield will drop back to 4.99%. The fastest way to drop the market yield on a government bond is to stop issuing them from the DMO and APF and watch the market price of those bonds go up and the yield come down.
A while back, Australia was running such a high current account surplus that its budget account was also in surplus. Its Treasury said it had no need to issue government bonds. The banking bond casino went bananas and insisted the government kept issuing bonds.
September 28, 2022
The founder of Cuadrilla himself has said that fracking is absolutely not the answer to the UK’s energy needs.
You can read what he said in the Guardian.
September 28, 2022
Have Cuadrilla pulled out of fracking in the UK? What do their current owners and leaders say?
September 28, 2022
Yes, that was 10 years ago and one of his stated reasons was Government interference and obstruction. He is now promoting the use of geo-thermal energy through his latest venture.
September 28, 2022
His interest in geo-thermal is precisely the point Ian. He is rubbishing a competitor – a bit like some politicians really.
September 28, 2022
There’s always one in every industry.
But if the tremor limit is kept at 0.5 then fracking won’t work.
We have enough gas under our feet for decades of use.
September 28, 2022
Just imagine if you could talk down the shares in the company which owns Cuadrilla. Would you do it for revenge, or is there a way to make mone
JF
September 28, 2022
@NLH; So you keep repeating, but said person appears to have been out of the industry for some years now, one has to wonder why that might be. As if the Guardian, hardly editorially neutral on the issue, that publication puts young Greta to shame with their pro AGW stance, probably more change reading a pro-Remain opt-ed in the Daily Express…
September 28, 2022
Well of course it’s not NLH. But every little helps!
September 28, 2022
“It think it is time we started to look into who funds these pressure groups.”
And that should include the inhabitants of 55 Tufton St.
September 28, 2022
Amongst a few others Peter.
September 28, 2022
+1 Mark,
Well done JR we all need to fight back against this expensive insanity.
We all want a cleaner world from rubbish,air pollution and house building but the aggressive green zealots, like Miliband, need to be stopped. Labour cannot be green by 2030 without us all being cold, hungry, broke and a return to the dark ages!! Make it known to all political parties, but especially Liblabcon. Reform is the way forward.
September 29, 2022
I can only agree.
September 30, 2022
Please John take a look at the science behind the CO2 scam. CO2 has very little effect on global temperature. There has been no âclimate changeâ. If the aim is to reduce temperature in 2100, forget it. We produce one percent of global. Net Zero is an impossible economic calamity. Guy Lisrdet
September 28, 2022
Good Morning,
This needs a few numbers to show the size of the problem. From your own government document dated March this yeae, there is the reality
Currently, fossil fuels make up three-quarters of the UKâs energy mix, with oil and gas being used to generate electricity, heat our homes and fuel our vehicles.
AND
there is the political stupidity:
As a result of international agreements and domestic legislation on meeting net zero, the UK has been pressing ahead with its renewable energy ambitions. In the light of Russiaâs ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the resulting surge in oil and gas prices, there is renewed focus on how the UK can improve its energy security and accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.
THREEQUARTERS of our energy needs comes from fossil fuels, it’s going to take a hell-of-a-lot of windfarms and solar panels to get that down to zero.
Meanwhile CO2, represents 0.04% of the atmosphere that we breath,
September 28, 2022
+many
Agree!
In the face of it all I was very pleased with some solar torches/lanterns I bought.
Sun willing, they give out light for a while.
BUT bl**dy H*ll!! What am I thinkingâŠ.I have WONDERFUL light ( albeit somewhat ruined by loony bulbs) and heat at the touch of a switch.
But our leaders seem to think they have the right to deny us the very basics of life.
Freedom. Food. Heat. Light.
September 28, 2022
Basically they are denying God and the dominion over the earth and all its wonders that he gave us.
September 28, 2022
And the UK contributes 1% of that 0.04% Perhaps the UK is the wrong target for the green fanatics??
September 28, 2022
“Perhaps the UK is the wrong target for the green fanatics??”
No, it’s an EASY target, unlike China and India, for example, where these nut-jobs wouldn’t dare to venture…
September 28, 2022
Not even three quarters of total human energy use. This especially if you include the energy used overseas to produce and ship goods to the UK.
Worldwide wind and solar are well under 2% of total human energy usage currently. Plus they need back up which make the fossil fuel production less efficient as they have to ramp up and down.
Three reasons to ditch Net Zero all three are true and any one is sufficient reason to ditch the mad policy;-
1. The “solutions” being pushed wind, solar, EV, public transport, walking, cycling, heat pumps, hydrogen, burning young coal (wood) at Drax… do not even save significant manmade CO2 many of these even increase it or just export it. The UK manmade CO2 is totally irrelevant in Worldwide terms anyway.
2. The climate has always changed and always will change, CO2 is just one of millions of factors that affect the climate and not even a major factor.
3. To reduce atmospheric CO2 you need very significant Worldwide cooperation and you ain’t going to get it from India, China, Russia, America, Africa… nor should they agree as it would do far more harm than good to their peoples.
Anyway on balance slightly warmer and slightly more atmospheric CO2 is probably a net benefit overall. Gives better crop yields and greens and irrigates the planet nicely.
Net Zero is total environmental, energy and economic insanity from Government, St Greta, David Attenborough, Theresa May the BBC, King Charles, Starmer, Truss. Kwasi, Ed Miliband…Group think lunacy rather like the ERM was.
September 28, 2022
Environmentalism, public health and racial issues. Three issues that are now being invoked as weapons of political, economic and social warfare. This weaponisation of reality is ripping apart this nation. Some Tory MPs recognise this trend, most couldn’t give a fig. It is a sinister development being pushed by Labour and its supporters who under the radar seek to divide and conquer (intersectionality, diversity agenda) as we saw with the utterly shameful and disgusting ‘vaccinated v unvaccinated’ political strategy no doubt dreamt up by the Tory appointed Marxist, Michie who excel at such unBritish tactics.
Under the guise of academia Labour try to justify its resentment and will invoke social studies to justify laws that actively discriminate against those Labour find contemptible. It is NOT equality Labour seek but supremacy and control over those they despise.
The Tory party is not doing enough borne from understandable fear to expose Labour’s sinister agenda. Labour’s free-lunch mantra could deceive them back into power. If they achieve power they will embed race into the British constitution as Labour are now doing in Australia
September 28, 2022
They will also change the means by which we elect MP’s so that that governments will be forever be coalitions. ir Labour and the LibDems. They will also reduce the voting age to 16 just for good measure.
September 28, 2022
There is nothing good about giving the vote at 16.
September 28, 2022
Fully agree. I think many in the Conservative party have either come from ‘the dark side’ or are more than willing to go over to it, it seems.
September 28, 2022
+many
Just imagine if Johnson, he of the wasted 80 seat majority, had opened factories and coal mines instead of âinvestingâ in bogus plague hospitals and ludicrous and dangerous quasi medical procedures.
September 28, 2022
I agree, Dom. So much is being used as a weapon.
I donât know that Tory MPs donât care, I think itâs more likely they havenât twigged as to whatâs being done or why. or are frankly too scared to speak out. The left are very forceful at discrediting people for having a view.
I hear that NASA took a recent photo from space showing the earth to be more green than ever. That nasty CO2!
September 28, 2022
It was just the lens used by the photographer to refute the eco-loons.
September 28, 2022
I fear you are correct Dom.
I have noticed that, in the media, anyone who is not staunchly modern socialist with a liking for the EU, support of net zero and all the other race, gender fashionable views etc. You will be attacked constantly.
Examples include President Trump, Nigel Farage, the New Italian PM and now Liz Truss. Although our host is featured on Sky News this morning, he too seems to be ignored by much of the media and even today they hark back to when he was Welsh Secretary in Mrs Thatcher’s government.
We do indeed need to talk about the reality of net zero. We also need to separate environmentalism and the climate change agenda because they are two different things. What’s the chance of getting that done? Almost zero in the current time.
September 28, 2022
+1 A big BBC segment on the Cost of Living Crisis today without mention of Greenism (which they supported) War in Ukraine (which they supported) and Covid lockdowns (which they supported.)
Mr Starmer would still have us in lockdown btw.
PS
The Labour party has failed to provide a single woman PM yet alone a major black minister and so Mr Kwarteng isn’t a real black man according to them. Just like Margaret Thatcher wasn’t a real woman to them.
WHY am I defending the Tories !!!
September 28, 2022
Because the Tories are two steps away from the Labour Party and only one step away from the Green Party
September 28, 2022
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) mandated by international investment management to maintain extrajudicial control of corporations and through them governments. JR as a professional investment manager will be aware of this. However bad UK government is, it has at least been elected albeit by a flawed electoral system; there is no system of control over these foreign investment management firms because it is they who own the shares in the companies that they order about and some have enormous funds under management. It is time for the government to realise that without strict investment laws to prevent investment managers using their positions to foist rules on economies which are well in excess of those enacted by government, they will lose total control of those they purport to govern.
September 28, 2022
Exactly. The policy is insane even if you do, quite wrongly, believe in the devil gas, plant food, climate emergcncy, exaggeration religion.
Keeping your old car, rather than causing s new EV to be built, saves more CO2 and cost about ÂŁ1 per mile less (in depreciation and financing costs). This is even if it is charged entirely on low carben electricity and it will not be as we have none spare and it is not on demand. Gas extraction in the UK is far preferable and cheaper and causes less greenhouse emissionsc than importing it liquified on ships. Far more environmental too.
Stop blocking the roads too, that would help both emissions and productivity.
September 28, 2022
Also note that most electric cars will cost you circa ÂŁ1 a mile more (unless it is a very cheap electric car and more if it is an upmarket one with a decent range – in financing and depreciation costs) and this is after (& despite) the fact that the ICE car driver pays far more in fuel, congestions and road taxes to the Gov..
Keeping your old ICE car save CO2 too. If you do go electric expect the range quoted to be “optimistic” much lower if icy and using lights, battery, wipers, hilly… and to decline sig. as the car ages. Plus then you need new batteries after 6-10 years. So will probably need replacing and recycling as it will prob. be more economic than changing the batteries. Perhaps keep some games, knitting and movies in the back of the car to watch or do while you wait for the car charge point and charging.
September 28, 2022
Had a fully electric courtesy car, ÂŁ30,000 new, with a range of 124 miles and could be fully charged with a three pin plug in as little as 14 hours! It also seems that car manufacturers are considering using the battery as a structural member of the car in a similar manner to the engine in F1 cars.
September 28, 2022
and you still can’t charge them from a apartment nor a terrace house
September 29, 2022
As little as 14 hrs eh? Remind me how long it takes to fill a petrol car. Oh yes, I remember …. about 2 minutes.
124 miles range would, just about, cover the distance between me and one of my sons. But I wouldn’t risk it because with the heater, wipers, radio and lights on it could well be a great deal less. And if the motorway seizes up there’d be a very good chance I’d be stuck on it with no power.
September 28, 2022
The main thing to remember is that âGREENâ was NEVER MEANT to work.
The proponents always knew it was a scam!
September 28, 2022
A few may have but many do actually believe they are saving the World.
September 28, 2022
+1
Yes.
But THEY are the useful idiots not the instigators/proponents/architects.
September 28, 2022
Labour Party âA Greener Fairer Futureâ. In other words âA Colder Poorer Futureâ.
September 28, 2022
The problem is, that half the Tory Party wish they had that strap-line
September 28, 2022
What you say Sir John makes good sense to me.
Is it a case of can’t see or won’t see something that is surely just plain common sense.
I don’t think anyone could ever really be against progress in energy to a more cleaner and sustainable form, but it can’t be done overnight and can’t be achieved for ordinary folk at such high costs.
I truly don’t think this is particularly about renewable/green energy but something else.
September 28, 2022
Also..
The very worst thing you can ever do with a green/lefty/Marxist is to come up with logical, rational arguments! Laugh at them. Ignore them.
All this utter nonsense should have been totally crushed years ago.
Tories had and have NO problem crushing utterly logical right wing arguments.
I can state without hesitation that the Frack Off movement is wholly about political entryism and that Permaculture ( total scam) is about colonisation and the destruction of the farming that up until now has fed us.
September 28, 2022
They still do not get it. You can have tens of tousans of wind turbines and solar panels, when the wind doesn’t blow or blows too hard or when the sun doesn’t shine no power can be generated. Battery storage is too cumbersome and expensive and the safe correct disposal of all these renewable components will only get worse. There are a number of new scientific reports out questioning the whole CO2 scam.
It will happen because all the money from banks, pension funds and investors is behind it big time and there will be a financial catastrophe if it went back to sensible, common sense thinking and application.
September 28, 2022
Dear Sir John, this post reads as if you are trying to persuade the eco-zealots to become rational. If so it’s a waste of effort, as they seek to gain power over our lives by political lobbying and institutional capture, not by rational argument. If the target audience is your party in government, I fear it’s again a waste of effort, as this government seems to be serving globalist 4th industrial revolution interests, not this country’s. If the intended audience is the wider BBC-watching or social media-enslaved public…, I wish you well.
September 28, 2022
+1
September 28, 2022
‘Anyway governments can’t make people…….’
Who are you trying to fool, including yourself. Of they can and will, just look at your leaders setting eco-loon targets to get rid of our freedoms to manufacture and buy what we wish.
September 28, 2022
I’ve found the ‘greenies’ always brush over the problem of intermittency of renewable power, eg. wind turbines and solar. This is because we have NO renewable solution to the problem of intermittency. In addition, the intermittency cannot be accurately predicted, so any long winded process (please excuse the pun) would be a huge gamble that the power would last long enough.
They always quote batteries as the solution, but can you imagine the number of batteries (and natural resources needed) just to keep one street going, never mind an industrial unit. Also, a massive bank of batteries could be highly dangerous.
I agree we need to look for alternatives to fossil fuels, as they are a finite natural resource, but the natural resources to create batteries are also a finite natural resource. Meanwhile, somebody gets very VERY rich, and our country gets very VERY poor. Bankrupt even! For sale to the highest bidder who probably got rich selling us renewables!
All to avoid the sinful action of harvesting our own fossil fuels and not paying another country ridiculous prices for THEIR fossil fuels. There is no viable alternative at the current time. Get fracking.
September 28, 2022
It was your government (Boris) with the supine acquiescence of his MPs because electorally he was gold dust including some now making the panic changes we are now seeing, that was a major cause of the strength of the green lobby.
Yet another narrative lost with Starmer pouncing on your failures announcing the setting up of a state owned green energy company. It is so riddled with holes as to make it not believable but the absence of the Minister responsible to be all over the media to instantly rebut/shred his proposal indicates how weak you are.
September 28, 2022
Unfortunately, Sir John, your Parliamentary Party is stuffed with Eco Nutters, many of whom (like Lord Deben) have very close business links to the Renewable energy industry.
During her leadership campaign, Liz Truss promised to carry out a review of the Net Zero Policy. She’s now authorised the “review”, appointing Chris Skidmore MP, to carry it out. Mr Skidmore is a former Minister for Climate Change and is responsible for current the Net Zero policy which has destroyed our energy security and has led directly to massive energy inflation in the UK.
This was Mr Skidmore’s response to his appointment:
“I’m delighted to have been invited by the PM to conduct a review into meeting our Net Zero commitments in the most economically-efficient way. I’m committed to ensuring we continue to lead the world in our Net Zero plans in a way that is pro-business and pro-growth 1/2.”
In other words, the Net Zero policy (which has no mandate since the electorate wasn’t offered a choice at a General Election due to Elite CONsensus) stays regardless of the damage it is doing to our economy and the lives of the British people.
As The Who sang
“Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Won’t get fooled again.”
September 29, 2022
they were proved wrong!
September 28, 2022
With ref to articles of the last few days I was amazed to see that a former rate setter had actually told his Twitter followers to short the poundâŠbecause he disagreed with Trussâs âgagaâ policies!
September 28, 2022
Rupa Huq it seems was a university lecturer for several years doubtless pushing her fairly evil lefty agenda to indoctrinate hundreds of young minds – another good reason to ditch the many duff degrees that government foolishly fund with tax payers money soft âloansâ that so often end up as grants. About 75% surely are almost worthless or actually damaging and also result in three years+ loss of earnings.
September 28, 2022
Ken Livingstone said on GB News tonight that she probably didn’t realise what she said was racist. What???? And she was a uni lecturer? No wonder the country’s in a state.
September 28, 2022
Afraid the Zero/Green Zealots only have a one track mind, the real problem is that so many MP’s have also the same problem, and have not only bought into it, but swallowed the argument hook, line, and sinker.
Time for some simple facts, physics, science, and mathematics to be put forward to counter these claims.
September 28, 2022
+1 but how many MPs even have a decent physics A level? Or even any science beyond GCSE level? Kwarteng is bright but when energy minister he clearly knew almost nothing about energy. He regularly demonstrated this in Spectator and other podcasts on the topic.
Alok Sharma actually does have a BSc in Applied Physics with Electronics albeit from Salford. So I assume he did actually just about pass his A level physics? But even he is clearly rather deluded by the CO2 devil gas religion.
September 28, 2022
I would prefer you to preface all mentions of net zero with “If you believe that carbon reduction rather than general pollution is the priority then…..”.
Your piece today skewers the dogmatic idealism of the “Net-zero for UK” brigade. I hope they feel good about themselves while their actions have negative impact on global CO2 production.
It is also worth highlighting that our existing renewable capacity is not fully utilised, so how is increasing that capacity going to improve matters? Renewables are not consistent so can never be the full answer to our electricity generating needs nor that of hearing our homes.
September 28, 2022
The virtue signalling delegates who flew into Glasgow in private jets for the Cop 26 climate nonsense were helpful in telling everyone else to be careful about their âcarbon footprintsâ. It served to remind us that our freedoms need to be protected, and that the rights we take for granted shouldnât be taken for granted.
September 28, 2022
They even shipped up loads of large diesel generators & EV car chargers so they could charge up their Tesla’s to drive them to and from their private jets!
September 28, 2022
It is more green pie in the sky that there will be many ‘green’ jobs generated from the massive expansion of wind and solar as most of the components are made in countries where there is availailable, cheap abundant energy generated mostly by coal fired power stations.
This is why most current installations are foreign owned. Why are our MP’s taken in by the green lobby and why do they not act in the interest of their own country?
September 28, 2022
Chris Skidmore. I’ll say no more about the two faced deceit of this Tory party and its embrace of all things progressive
Maybe honourable politicians like Mr Redwood and other MPs whose beliefs are grounded in reality should condemn the trendy, left metropolitan bullshit that has infected their party’s soul.
What hope is there for the UK when the final bulwark (the tory party) against the left has also been consumed by the left and now controls it output using threats and denunciation with the usual accusations of ‘Climate change denier’ etc etc etc?
September 28, 2022
Interesting that Skidmore was also one of the first Tory MPs to be chosen by a primary, i.e. local Conservative party members were involved in the selection. At that point, in 2010, however, he seems to have had no profile as a Green Tory, so he may well have been co-opted subsequently.
September 28, 2022
Sir John,
Natural gas is a wonderful fuel. It is low carbon, and when used as a vehicle fuel is astonishingly low in NOX and particulate emissions. We’ve trillions of cubic metres beneath our feet.
Mr Rees-Mogg has claimed that the anti-shale gas lobby has been aided by foreign subsidy for obvious reasons. There’s a surprise. We need an emergency programme to produce our own gas in the quickest possible way which is onshore fracking. Reward the communities that encourage the first ten acre frack pad that goes into production with a thousand pounds for every resident, organise days out to Wych Farm to show journalists what a fracking site looks like… etc, etc, etc. Where’s the sense of urgency?
We, the UK, are still making the same errors that have plagued our industry for twenty years, expensive energy while e. g. Germany sold out to Russian suppliers. We have the means to correct that. Has our political class the will?
If we get a hard winter there will be an unholy scrabble for warmth – the current languid response will then be exposed as the betrayal it is.
JF
September 28, 2022
Methane is a far better fuel than Hydrogen in general. Easier and safer to store and transport and anyway we have no hydrogen mines and it cost a fortune to manufacture in wasted energy and plant.
September 28, 2022
Wytch Farm has some 200 conventional drilled wells, it is not a fracking site.
September 28, 2022
Will politicians ever stop pandering to the man-made climate change scam? Are they all complicit in the deceit?Carbon, the element on which human life is based, has been demonised to transfer wealth from the many to the few. CO2 with out which there would be no life on earth comprises 0-04% of the atmosphere but we are told will destroy the planet on which we live if we don’t stop using fossil fuels. The main advocates swan around the world in their many different vehicles burning the very fuels they condemn others for using. They have multiple homes, some built on coastlines which they try to tell people will be eroded if we don’t do as they say (not as they do!). They are trying to destroy agriculture and food production by now demonising Nitrogen the most abundant gas in the atmosphere and like Carbon an essential element of human life. When are our so-called representatives going to stand up for our interests against these people who are enriching themselves at our expense or are they also small time players in the wealth and power transfer game?
September 28, 2022
Sir JR
I disagree with your approach of interference with how high the BoE should set interest rates. Your assumption that inflation will be much lower next year with a weak pound and high fiscal spending is guess work and not certain in any shape or form.
Reply I am supporting the Bank of England inflation forecast!
September 28, 2022
Unfortunately Bill, we are heading into a global recession.
Governments have been printing money and surpressing interest rates for far too long, with the resultant bubbles in property, bonds and equities. The Fed is now hiking rates at a very agressive rate (as are other countries) and the markets have finally twigged that Powell is not going to pivot until he’s beaten out a great deal of inflation. The only way this can happen is with a recession. The BoE have been woefully slow in dealing with this and frankly (if it were politically possible) the present Governor should be given the bullet (why was he ever appointed in the first place?).
It’s very politically convenient for Labour, the Media and parts of the Conservative party to blame the mini-budget but this isn’t really the case. Hedge funds have been building short positions on the pound for some time. Most of what the Chanceller did was perfectly reasonable, if you view it within the light of knowing a recession is coming (and want it to be a shallow one). I do not believe that any informed person really thought that interest rates could be kept low but the Pound could certainly have received far better support from the BoE that it’s had.
Kwarteng & Trusses real mistake was to cut the 45% rate, something which actually could make sense but which should have been held back for later (hindsight being a wonderful thing). The really expensive items such as a ceiling on energy bills and cancellation of NI and Corp taxes were entirely correct. Sunak knew inflation was on the rise but still increased these taxes (a pretty dumb thing to do at this time) and Kwarteng was just correcting his mistake.
Much turmoil today, apparently even from within the ranks of the Tory MPs. What a useless bunch they are!
An 80 seat majority with a popular (but not very good policy maker) PM – they allowed to be driven out by a piece of cake.
September 28, 2022
Sir JR
I understand but a falling pound means more inflation and you argue for no BoE intervention
reply The B of E is not asked to control the sterling market and would not be able to do so. The yen intervention didnât do. Jca good by Japan
September 28, 2022
Sir JR
I understand but the fact that the fiscal policy is contradictory to the monetary policy and this means falling value in pounds
September 28, 2022
Sir JR
Your criticism of both the BoE and IMF of this fiscal policy is arrogant and badly timed unnecessary
Reply I criticised monetary policy for which the B ofE is responsible
September 28, 2022
Sir JR
And the IMF
September 28, 2022
You say we need our home produced gas for our needs, but if Europe is offering a higher price for it, then it gets shipped across in the pipelines and the UK goes without.
We also need restrictions on UK mined gas to say UK needs are to be met before it can be exported.
September 28, 2022
Doesn’t really work like that Dave.
Markets are a balance between supply and demand, with price varying as that balance changes. High prices naturally cause demand destruction – which results in falling prices. Extra supply also tends to lower price. I’m pretty sure everyone will be more careful with thier energy use this winter (I am already) and that will lower demand and hopefully therefore prices.
But anything produced in this country is also taxed in this country, so not only helps with supply but also in enabling the government to afford its help. Fracking won’t help this winter but let’s pretend we had started five years ago – things would be very much easier now (even if we were sending some to Europe)
September 28, 2022
That problem can be sorted by what the government licences require energy companies to do with their outputs.
September 28, 2022
Energy pipelines are not 100% secure , recent reported Baltic explosions show they are vulnerable.
September 28, 2022
No new wind generated supply should be approved except if it includes the construction of battery backup for a weeks supply at the projects nameplate capacity.
September 28, 2022
How about building, manufacturing and constructing wind-turbines in the UK….using only UK materials, componets and labour
September 28, 2022
Sir John,
Your Diary highlights a big flaw in UK Democracy, Lobby Groups get to speak and try to influence MPâs ahead of those that elected them.
Then given these Lobby Groups are in the main created or controlled by Foreign BIG Business whom also have their own Embassies lobbying on their behalf. Thier access to Government is out of step with Democracy.
September 28, 2022
The selection of economy destroying, low energy density, expensive, intermittent wind energy coupled with the impractical electrification of heating and transport, rather than nuclear and green methane is proof that CAGW is a scam.
September 28, 2022
The Net Zero Strategy is such nonsense that there is no way it âcould save the planetâ, not that it needs saving anyway.
The only logical reason for the Net Zero Strategy is to impoverish us with expensive and intermittent energy and control us using smart meters and the electrification of heating and transport.
Cheap, storable fossil fuels provide far fewer opportunities for control.
September 28, 2022
The government needs to spell it out that fossil fuels are essential for the foreseeable future. The Tories need to back Labour into a corner over this so that there is clear water between them before the next election if Labour insist that electricity is the only way to go. If you are not careful Labour will steal your clothes after you have put in the hard work of getting more home-produced fossil fuels. By the end of the next election cycle the cars we currently run will be virtually banned resulting in people unable to get to work and cycle will be the operative word and for most homes electric heating is a joke.
September 28, 2022
Heat pumps are expensive, it can mean changing your internal radiators to underfloor heating, if new homes had this from the start then prices would come down for everyone. They are also rather large units and can be noisy on the outside of your home, have ugly connecting pipes, and they do look an eye sore.
Solar panels take ten years just to cover the installation people over 60 need to think carefully because around the time they’re being paid off you’d need to upgrade. The energy used isn’t for your home its for the grid, you have no more control of your own energy than you do now.
Battery cars, we’ve been trialling a couple; just yesterday, one guy called in; he’d plugged his vehicle in yesterday evening; there was a fault on the home charging point (it’s only six months old) it not only didn’t refuel his car, it drained the 40 miles of electricity he had so he couldn’t move. It took four hours for the RAC to come out and a further hour to give it sufficient fuel for that half days requirement. Finding refuel points that are available when you’re out and about is hard, queuing, broken stations, restrictions on how long you can use them, and several require pre-booking. Great for local, not so great for business use or long trips.
September 28, 2022
It is an iron law of modern mainstream media that no-one advocating âgreenâ policies is actually interviewed properly and challenged on basic assumptions. So we will not hear eg a BBC interviewer ask sir keir Starmer what his jolly green energy company will do that isnât now being done. We wonât hear him challenged as to how it is that after ÂŁ10 billions of subsidies we still only have 4% of our primary energy needs supplied by renewables, how he is to increase that by 25x in the next 8 years so as to get to ânet zeroâ by 2030 and what the plan is for when it isnât windy or sunny.
We just have to keep focusing on the numbers. When the wind doesnât blow (solar is pretty much irrelevant in the U.K.) there needs to be backup power if we want to eat cooked food, heat our homes or find hospitals open when needed. If we want long haul trucks, aeroplanes and 95%+ cars to be able to run we still need fossil fuels. Etc. if Labour want 25x the number of windmills – taking us I suppose to about 250,000 across the U.K., – where are they all going to go, and what happens when it isnât windy? Simple questions but they must be repeated as long as needed for the message to sink home.
September 28, 2022
Good point, Richard; what is the green energy company going to do exactly?
If there is a nationalised energy company, how will the competitors in the market now react to that?
Will they be given preferential contracts and rates from government buildings? Will they be given preferential contracts on high energy use monopoly industries like TFL?
As you say where are they going to put their proposed windmills in land, in the sea, on hills? They are as welcome as fracking sites.
September 28, 2022
Correct any BBC debate start with “how to we get to net zero by X” (as we have to by law). Not “why on earth have we passed these bonkers, totally irrational net zero and climate change laws?”
September 28, 2022
But maybe they are the people you mentioned earlierâŠthe ones who really believe they are saving the world?
September 28, 2022
+1
September 28, 2022
Well said Richard.
September 28, 2022
Richard. All those extra wind turbines will blight the English countryside just like they have in Scotland. Even the organisations charged with protecting nature and landscapes are ignored. Great swathes of ancient peat bogs have been dug up and destroyed to be replaced with concrete which in turn has disturbed the flow of water from the hills and caused many problems for local people. Local councils get overturned when the planning depts say a windfarm is not in a suitable area. Foreign workforces are used with only a few jobs necessary once up and running. There are vacancies for people to pick up carcasses. I don’t understand why tge green loons think a windfarms is more acceptable or easy on the eye than a fracking site. I know which one will give us a constant supply of energy and give us good jobs though.
September 28, 2022
Sir John
All the spin if put in place requires greater imports, we(the UK) has been raped as an industrial manufacturer. Yet most of the ideas being put forward not only increase this trend but also increase World CO2, whilst being very short term.
The problem for the UK is that the whole direction of Government fights small and emerging business. Government awards Foreign Industry by ensuring UK Industry carries the whole industry sector weight of funding the infrastructure, welfare, sustainability, therefore security of the UK. That then allows Foreign Industry in the UK to gain a commercial advantage and hold indigenous industry back. Causing the long term decline.
As such the Government is fighting new and emerging technologies from getting going in the UK.
To much is made of old not so good ideas to take us forward. In the meantime the US has a little device âMOXIEâ trundling around turning pure CO2 into pure Oxygen. I am not saying that is the answer to everything but it is a better solution than old redundant limited life ideas so far being generated. The UK Government as it stands would never permit a UK owned enterprise to evolve, but we live in hope.
We need a low tax equitable UK, that is not influenced by WeF, the Remain, World Government lobbyist, group think. We need a UK Government that sees an emergency in achieving our security and sustainability
September 28, 2022
The Labour Party put it on record yesterday at conference that their green energy plan would cost ÂŁ28bn of barrowing every yearâŠ.thatâs jobs and buying wind-turbines from Demark and Germany ,,,get fracking today
September 28, 2022
Like the united nations WEF and united nations net-zero, weâre now being told what to do by the united nations IMFâŠ.good policy is to always do the opposite of what the UN agencies suggest
September 28, 2022
Yet again eco zealots call for measures which clearly increase global CO2 emissions, while destroying british industry.
They need to be challenged at every opportunity along with their propagandists in the media. Why aren’t the media challenging this nonsense?
September 28, 2022
Why aren’t the media challenging it, Pat? Fear sells newspapers. Surely we haven’t forgotten Covid.
September 28, 2022
well said john
over priced power here just forces companies to move their work to India & China, where they use cheaper power, made with less expensive anti pollution kit than equivalent power stations here, and increases net world pollution as we inevitably import their output
that is not “green”
September 28, 2022
Historically CO2 in the atmosphere has been higher than now with no long term detrimental effect. I therefore question the obsession some have with it’s 0.04% presence in the Earths atmosphere. It is essential plant food.
Climate change is a fact in both temperature directions, and has been for millions of years, as has volcanic activity, asteroid hits, and continental mass shifts. All can have an impact on climate. The World is a very volatile place, get used to it, and learn to live with it.
The World is also a filthy and ravaged place thanks to man. Our efforts should be directed at cleaning up our act by applying scientific and engineering solutions, while ending the disgusting and thoughtless habits of some individuals and large organisations. The protestor leaving his/her detritous is every bit as guilty as the water company fouling our rivers and sea.
Government should limit itself to offering well thought out direction and incentive to achieve an end. Consider which is likely to work best. Removing VAT from insulation and offering grants or just changing the law on it’s installation, at a time when people are under undue financial pressure. Solutions should be incentivised but largely left to the market to decide.
Your criticisms today are valid, we should not be guided by the present woke protest culture which largely on interogation becomes inarticulate in proportion to the noise generated.
September 28, 2022
Greens don’t live in the real world. Labour don’t live in the real world. Greens don’t understand their own world that they’ve constructed in their own heads. Similarly, Labour come crashing upon the rocks in their own realities when human nature rears its ugly head, like the despicable Huq, with her racist slurs. The Left, basking in their own righteousness occasionally let the mask slip and their bitterness and envy are on display.
The Tories are the nations’ only hope and I’m glad Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have exhibited some realism in their excellent budget which has annoyed all the right people,
Excellent start!
September 28, 2022
SJR. Are you disappointed that the first thing Liz Truss has done with respect to decarbonisation and it’s costs and practicality is to appoint a 40 year old innumerable green zealot to review the policy that he helped create and is now a total disaster?
September 28, 2022
I can see sense in her decision, Stred. But that’s only if the intention was to get Skidmore to take a close look at the horrible mess he and his like have created, which he now has to ‘review’ – and then make him rub his nose in it.
September 28, 2022
He doesn’t seem to realise this so far and has been talking to green lobbies and giving speeches about how he is right and going ahead full pelt.
September 28, 2022
Chris Skidmore is a history graduate 1st Oxon a remainer and initially a Sunak supporter. Not encouraging – well lets see what he comes up with. I wonder if he has any science A levels?
Some advice for him. It is very common for scientifically illiterate politicians and journalist to confuse power and energy when they come out with their usual climate alarmist drivel. So for their information power is measured in Watts, Kilo Watt, Mega Watts…and energy is measured Joules, Mega Joules, KW Hours, MW Hours, Calories… best not to show yourself to be an ignorant dope when talking about new power stations and the like by getting confused.
Saying things like it will generate 1000 Mega Watts per year show compete scientific illiteracy. As does stating wind power capacity without taking into account what it will actually end up generating perhaps 20% of this. Also bear in mind storing electricity wastes load of energy and cost a fortune! So intermittent wind and solar energy is worth far less than on demand coal or gas energy. Oh and burning imported wood at Drax cost far more than coal and produces far more CO2 not less. Pretending this is green is idiotic.
September 28, 2022
To initially have supported Sunak the serial manifesto ratter who debased the currency, made huge tax increases & caused all this inflation was clearly rather an error Mr Skidmore. What value would anyone put on his next manifesto had he won? And clearly he was never going to win.
September 28, 2022
Yes, first the PM says she is âfully committed to Net Zeroâ and then insults our intelligence by requesting a review to be conducted by a green Remainer who has a degree in modern history.
The economy destroying crazy nonsense that is the Net Zero Strategy will eventually be reversed. It is just a question of when and how much damage is caused in the meantime.
September 29, 2022
+1
September 28, 2022
Basically agree with you Sir John, but do wonder how many of these lobbying letters are sent to others besides yourself from Tory voting NIMBYs. If the Tory party pats the sleeping dog don’t be surprised if it wakes up and bites! Time that the Tory party nailed both the net zero and AGW lie, not pander to it, if you actually want to take the economy forward.
Nothing to do with CO2, but I do wonder given the UK has likely reached peak with regards our own natural gas production, should we not be moving towards electric boilers/heating (not heat pumps), it might be easier to upgrade household power supplies (from single to 3phase) than say move towards distributed Hydrogen? Of course if we were to revive our coal industry and make coal gas… đ
September 28, 2022
“It might be easier to upgrade household power supplies (from single to 3phase) than say move towards distributed Hydrogen?”
Both options are as bad as one another: while 3 phase supply cables run along most household streets, few (if any) would have been specified to handle 3 times their present loading. Every property would need re-cabling from the meter to those 3 phase supply cables, and if you’re going to remake each joint you might as well replace the entire supply cable. In addition, every substation transformer & switchgear (plus the grid which supplies it) would need upgrading as well.
Hydrogen has only a third the energy density of methane, but also has excellent leak finding abilities, so the entire gas network would need replacing to go down that route.
Both would mean massive expense and disruption, not to mention endless road closures (which is probably the intention anyway), and neither would make a scrap of difference to global CO2 levels. And that’s if you think CO2 is the villain, which it isn’t. The only sensible and practical answer is to scrap “Net Zero” – as pointed out by virtually every commenter on here…
September 29, 2022
@Dave Ward; Not sure your figures stack up (especially regarding 3ph supplies), given the vast majority of our electricity network was designed and installed when the loading from industrial plant was far higher and home appliances were vastly less economical (don’t be misslead by household consumer units having increased in size, that’s due to more rigid rules on circuit protection, not over-all energy use), even street lights now use a fraction of the power they used to. But should any under street utility network need renewal/upgrading then electricity cables must be one of the easiest to implement besides telecoms.
Scrapping net-zero, whilst necessary, will not in its self improve UK gas supplies nor our energy security, if neither an increase in the use of electric heating nor Hydrogen are the way forward then we need some other gas to replace natural gas, coal gas is a known-known and 99% compatible with the existing distribution network, so back to the future!
September 28, 2022
The basic problem is the false paradigm that CO2 controls the temperature of the planet. It cannot and does not do so, any more than politicians can. Chasing this false paradigm over many decades has cost and is costing trillions of dollars for no effect. The IPCC started with a conclusion and has used modelling ever since to try and support that conclusion.
In 1981, NASA’s James Hansen, the initiator of the CO2 warming scare in the late 80’s, put out a paper showing a lack of correlation between CO2 and temperature, although that was not his intent: “Climate Impact of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ”
“The most sophisticated models suggest a mean warming of 2° to 3 .5°C for doubling of the C02 concentration from 300 to 600 ppm . The major difficulty in accepting the theory has been the absence of observed warming coincident with the historic C02 increase. In fact, the temperature in the Northern Hemisphere decreased by about 0.5°C between 1940 and 1970, a time of rapid C02 build up. In addition, recent claims that climate models over-estimate the impact of radiative perturbations by an order of magnitude, have raised the issue of whether the greenhouse effect is well understood. ”
Thirty years of cooling, at a time of significant CO2 build up, destroys the warming theory, at least it would do so in traditional science, but contrary facts, even from their own research, does not deter the AGW zealots.
We are frequently told that “the science is settled”, yet as recently as May this year, 2022, a group of IPCC scientists had a paper in Nature entitled – “Climate simulations: recognize the âhot modelâ problem”.
They were NASA scientists and they said:
“Computer models that project future climates are widely used for adaptation, mitigation and resilience planning. More than 50 such models were assessed and compared in the latest round of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, phase 6 (CMIP6), run by the World Climate Research Programme. It is crucial that researchers know the best way to use those outputs to provide consistent information for climate science and policy.
Users beware: a subset of the newest generation of models are âtoo hotâ and project climate warming in response to carbon dioxide emissions that might be larger than that supported by other evidence. Some suggest that doubling atmospheric CO2 concentrations from pre-industrial levels will result in warming above 5â°C, for example. This was not the case in previous generations of simpler models. Findings that show projected climate change will be âworse than we thoughtâ are often attributable to the hot models in CMIP6.”
The authors make the comment, “There are many aspects of climate change we do not yet understand, (May 2022) hence the continued necessity of climate science.” So much for the science is settled.
Forty years on, climate models are still running “too hot”, yet their conclusions are driving disastrous energy policies around the world, not least in the UK. To misquote Star Trek, “it’s science Jim, but not as we know it”.
September 28, 2022
All these green initiatives and nobody on their side ever considers the natural environment with sustainable habitat.
Not a short term solution but with all the money wasted on renewables why the government’s from years ago push for the panacea for the problems they have caused for themselves, Nuclear Fusion?
September 28, 2022
Agree – I like to think of myself as an environmentalist, and consider those that use the term âclimate changeâ as opposed to âglobal warningâ scam artists
The green lobbyists realised that global warning wasnât happening and needed another lineâŠ.one the media and politicians love
September 28, 2022
Sir John,
I see the lesser Miliband is once again loudly insisting that renewables are cheaper. I suspect there is a lot of virtue-signalling in the anti-fracking/anti-fossil fuel campaign by vociferous and emotional people. There was a time when Labour party conferences were all about supporting the miners. How times have changed.
“Anyway governments cannot make people rip out their gas boilers…” Two years ago I had a new combi boiler installed to replace the old one that I’d had since 1991. Compared to the old the new one is very quiet, efficient and economical. I have it set on eco mode meaning a maximum of 50 degrees, which I find hot enough. The real benefit is that my gas bills dropped to about a third of what they had been.
September 28, 2022
I’m not sure where you think you are going to get all this home grown gas from. The UKCS will be bone dry by 2030. It will be a brave, or retiring MP, that supports Fracking in his Constituency; plus, I have never heard of a charity oil company to bribe the local voters. I bet we will still be importing some LNG in 2050, The UK is twice as dependent on gas as the rest of Europe.
Meanwhile, the future is battery electric, particularly vehicle to grid (V2G) and vehicle to house (V2H). Ofgem and others are trialling systems for two way charging. Octopus Energy have carried out a successful test of using V2G in the Grid Balancing market. “Octopus Energy and National Grid ESO hail âline in the sandâ moment for V2G tech”. Also “Don’t buy a Tesla Powerwall buy a Truck”. (US Ford F150)
September 28, 2022
I would not be so arrogant as to rubbish all green agendas.The antisupport here is striking, however opinions from mere bloggers is not the way forward.
September 28, 2022
It seems bad planning for the IMF and the Labour Party to have attacked the Chancellor on the same day. Surely they will combine to produce a sympathy effect?
September 28, 2022
Also at the same time as critiques from the German and US Treasuries: globalist fearmongering rehashed from the remainer bullying in 2016 before the June referendum.
I expect BMW, Obama, Macron and Lagarde will be issuing their own tuppence worth any moment now.
September 28, 2022
Gov needs send task force to protect oil & gas rigs in the north sea after attack on gas pipeline.
September 28, 2022
Dear Sir John,
Please shine a light on the new Cumbira coal mine (coking coal for the steel industry). A decision has been delayed until November by the civil service who say they ‘won’t be able to give their advice until then’. As far as I can see, the information to make the decision is all in the public domain, and this should be a straightforward Ministerial decision.
The decision to break ground should be bundled up in a package of decisions, alongside various green initiatives, because if it isn’t, it’s going to attract too many howls of protest, not just domestically, but from meddlesome overseas powers. But make it we must. We need to start making real money in this country and the project is ready to go.
Keep up the great work – you’re doing an amazing job and it is appreciated.
SR
September 28, 2022
When will it be recognized, generally, that the GREENS have nothing to offer but misery and a destruction of our way of life – and all for a myth. In normal times they would have been offered white coats that tie the arms at the back.
It’s a symptom of a liberal society that has forgotten everything we ever knew about how a rational society should function.
There is nothing to be gained by green lemmings telling us to ‘leave it in the ground’ – It’s a shared world, and yes we can make it cleaner, but to dictate to the rest of us how we should surrender to their biased judgement borders on tyranny and irrationality.
September 28, 2022
The former PM appears to have made the mistake of believing it was a race at the expense of the economy and now everyone else has to pay the price.
Rather than agree on keeping pace with our economic competition on the World stage on CO2 reduction the idea was to go further and faster. At less than 1% of the Worlds problem that aspiration was never going to achieve anything to save the World – just damage the UK beyond all recognition.
Then considering most other economic power house are still ignoring the previous agreements in the Paris Accord on CO2 reductions, for the UK citizen it has been punishment, then more punishment.
September 28, 2022
From todays Daily Telegraph – Dr Tim Stone CBE is chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association
It sums up the situation and highlights the ongoing neglect
We should have kept British nuclear
<eMFrom 1956 to 1967, we built 27 nuclear reactors in 11 years and had more nuclear on the bars than either the United States or France.Â
But are we a great nuclear nation? Through decades of neglect, the answer today must sadly be no. We have less nuclear capacity than Sweden, Spain, Belgium and the US State of South Carolina.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/27/britain-should-have-nuclear-reactor-fleet-rival-france/
September 28, 2022
We must get on with fracking on land here in England now, urgently. It is of national importance so why are local people give the right of veto. This gives eco-fanatics the opportunity to intimidate those in support, demanding they they change and vote it down. They will not behave fairly, they don’t care about that. That’s just cowardice again by those in gov. who claim to be determined – but it seems only when things are easy. It’s not much encouragement to developers to get on with it.
Leaders must speak for England but that is a problem in itself because no-one at government leadership level dare. The nation of England does not exist in their minds or beliefs, although it can of course be attacked by Scotland or Wales and that is allowed and encouraged. No-one defends us and criticises them for their anti-English nationalist and racist views.
September 28, 2022
Sir JR
The BoE forecast will have to change with the fiscal changes implemented
September 28, 2022
Stating the obvious there Billy.
PS
Why have you added an “N” to your name?
September 29, 2022
was ‘Bill Brown’ banned?
September 29, 2022
sample N
September 28, 2022
Back on QE already john while putting up rates at the same time, LOL.
September 28, 2022
We need to encourage more of the young men who get jobs in the City in London to go into the high tech industry instead to create the great British High tech companies / brands of the future: British versions of Apple and IBM and BMW and satellites and electric cars and space travel and so on.
September 28, 2022
We’ve had lot’s of British hi-tech companies (and still do) but they don’t tend to stay in British ownership for very long. FANG companies have deep pockets so can buy-out potential rivals with vast sums – and frankly others just get purchased by speculators for sale elsewhere – ARM comes to mind.
September 29, 2022
I agree.
How do we encourage people to keep things in the family?! (in the country / under British ownership). We used to once upon a time. They still do to a relative degree in Germany.
September 28, 2022
Sounds fine but the businesses will soon be sold off to foreign buyers – government policy – it’s called inward investment.
In example,a US company which owns a lot of petrol distribution here has just sent around ÂŁ450million home to the US in dividends from the profits made here. That’s how government policy works.
They’ll probably give in to what the International Socialist Monetary Fund is demanding as we have no national strength since almost all our economy is foreign owned thanks to past government policy.
September 29, 2022
It’s sad.
How can we change things (without being authoritarian)?
Imagine the satisfaction of being the entrepreneurial owner of a British high tech brand that employs around 100+ people with quality, productive jobs and that exports high quality brands (products and services) abroad. You’re going to earn a pile of money (no need to sell the company). You’ll be able to afford house in London and the country, school fees, wonderful holidays abroad, great social life etc … The real thrill isn’t how much money you have stashed away but expanding the company / the game of. And the satisfaction of providing jobs for British workers etc … (Again, the money is great but it’s the thrill of the game that is the real satisfaction).
September 29, 2022
(I had a go myself … going to have another go! Not for the money – although the money is great … but because setting up and running a high tech company is E X H I L I R A T I N G !)
September 28, 2022
The Institution of Engineering and Technology magazine for October 2022 has some well thought through stuff relating to clean energy.
Here is one from page 31.
An E&T analysis has revealed a potentially huge investment gap in this endeavour.
An investment of ÂŁ330 bn into the grid is required by 2050 .
Worth having the magazine to hand as an aid to rational debate .
September 28, 2022
Why are we so afraid of CO2? Its effect on our temperature and climate is negligible and without it, all plant life on the planet would die. During the day, our plants release O2 into our atmosphere and plant respiration around the globe has increased in recent years thus aiding all animals on Earth.
If CO2 did cause a such a frightening rise in temperature on the planet, Mars, with an atmosphere of 95% CO2, would be boiling hot. It is not, but it too gets hotter during the summer and that is because the sun is higher in the sky, of course and not because of the ultra high levels of CO2.
September 30, 2022
Surface pressure on Mars is less than 1% of that on Earth (0.006 Earth atm). And it so happens that pressure (aka the total number of molecules of gas) is also a parameter in defining the prevalent temperature (remember your A-level physics, PV=RT or here T=PV/R). Then to complicate things a bit more, R on Earth is not the same as R on Mars, as R = R*f(mm) where R* is the universal constant 8.314 J mole-1 K-1 and mm is the average molecular mass, 28.96 g/mole for the mix of gases on Earth, 43.34 g/mole for the one on Mars.
Both factors, pressure and mm, are responsible for Mars not âboiling hotâ.
If you had considered Venus with a surface pressure about 90 times the surface pressure of the Earth, 96.5% of CO2 and a surface temperature of 480C, you might have been able to waffle a seemingly correct argument, but choosing Mars as a basis for your comment was the wrong planet to choose as it simply displays your incompetence at least concerning broad features of planetary atmospheres.
September 28, 2022
Well has the reduction to higher Income Tax from 45% to 40% become another GE destroying step?
In PAYE – the ÂŁ200k salary formerly paying the tax at that upper bracket incurred ÂŁ22.5k now pays ÂŁ2.5k less.
So the support for energy bill is rather more than for the under ÂŁ50k salary. The high energy homes are capped at the same kWh rate – high or low earners. Both will need to restrict use, some more urgently than others!
September 28, 2022
too painful to publish?
September 28, 2022
Importing more and more ‘skilled labour’ to boost the economy, according to recent announcements.
‘Skilled’ is being able to serve coffee in a coffee shop, apparently these days. There are apprenticeships for it.
If not tackling the welfare class head-on now then when ? Otherwise wages WILL be chasing benefits.
Just how the hell is importing more and more people into the country when there are shortages of everything going to help. Why is the Tory solution always MORE IMMIGRATION.
WHEN are there going to be real cuts in immigration ? I expect Ms Truss is hoping for real winter weather to stem the flow of Channel migrants but with that comes the fuel poverty crisis.
September 28, 2022
‘âSkilledâ is being able to serve coffee in a coffee shop, apparently these days.’
Go back a bit and they pulled a few levers in a factory on piece rates….returned almost full circle.
September 28, 2022
Your advice on car purchase is entirely right. I run a 2011 car that has done 80,000 miles and the bodywork is in good nick. I have reduced my mileage to the minimum and have every intention of running it into the ground. Then, in view of my advanced age and bank balance, I may choose to LEASE an electric car. The electric car and car charging markets are advancing fitfully and it doesn’t pay to take decisions too far in advance. A friend of mine was an only child, limited himself to two children and had a good career. He is a very intelligent man (Cambridge mathematics wrangler) and a member of the Green Party and researched the environmental issues around car travel carefully. He ran an old Citroen 2CV for over 20 years, then bought an electric car.
Meanwhile another friend of mine runs a second hand car dealership and has decided not to enter the electric car market. He is going to stick with Mercedes diesels and one or two other types. Apparently, his market has picked up a bit, at least temporarily, because hybrid and electric cars are so expensive.
I don’t suppose I can sell the idea of not treating car transport as the environmental whipping boy. Empty trains are not environmentally friendly. And burning raw coal at power stations does far more damage than anything else. We should get to WTO to change its rules so that countries running a dirty economy (burning raw coal and /or using LNG) have a supplementary tariff slapped on their exports.
Meanwhile
September 28, 2022
‘He ran an old Citroen 2CV for over 20 years, then bought an electric car.’
Weird, just weird.
September 29, 2022
Not if your sole focus is to minimise energy consumption and your carbon footprint. It’s weird if the Green Party is weird.
September 28, 2022
I am very glad you are finally speaking out, load and clear, against your previous leader’s crazy net zero religion.
What are these ‘lobbying letters’? Which lobby is writing them? How do they get past the edict that only your own constituents can email you?
Those are the questions that puzzle me.
YES yes. Please press to use all our own fossil fuels ASAP.
In particular START FRACKING FAST.
I am certain that is not possible in your own constituency! A very elementary knowledge of geology tells me so.
September 28, 2022
Me again. Also press forward with nuclear energy a.s.a.p..
September 28, 2022
Nothing little old we can do. it is a worldwide phenomenon that has grown into a religious cult that has been latched onto by all the high priests in government.
âGreenâ Energy Fantasy Unravels As Reality Grips Wind & Solar Obsessed Europe
Hot tip: if it looks like a cult and sounds like a cult, itâs a cult.
A very good article:- Some Ohm Truths About the Great Green Fantasy. Quadrant. Peter Smith
6 September 2022
http://stopthesethings.com/2022/09/28/green-energy-fantasy-unravels-as-reality-grips-wind-solar-obsessed-europe/
September 28, 2022
Another great hard-hitting entry from Not a Lot of People Know That.
Climate Scientists Want To Ban Dissenting Views
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-scientists-urge-publisher-faulty-climate.html
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/09/22/no-positive-trends-in-extreme-weather-found/
September 28, 2022
quelle surprise.
September 28, 2022
Whatâs worrying is that itâs led by academia, politics, non-governmental organisations âŠand not the people or through consumer demand âŠ.its just not democratic
September 28, 2022
In a letter to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, Net Zero Watch director Dr Benny Peiser has warned that the sabotage of three Nord Stream gas pipelines in the last 24 hours has brutally revealed how Britainâs energy system and its entire economic and societal stability is exposed to grave external threats. Tells more than a few home truths
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/09/28/as-war-on-gas-pipelines-escalates-britain-faces-national-security-crisis/
September 28, 2022
Dear Sir John, Thank you for this concise and sensible argument. Sadly, the ill thought through actions of the past fortnight make it odds-on that 2024 will bring a Labour Government. Is it 1992 all over again?.
Labour has just rededicated itself to a discredited 20 year old energy policy that will bring all the ills you illustrate. The additional new aim is to make the UK the first significant country to reach “net zero”, advancing the date to 2030. Who this green gold medal is supposed to benefit is unclear. The target is unrealistic. But the attempt will bring misery and a big fall in UK living standards without any measurable gain to people here or on the rest of the planet.
September 28, 2022
One day a new form of power will be discovered. Creativity is beyond one personâs imagination alone in a garden shed. Why just wait in hope for a new Einstein to solve the problem?
Conservatives should spur millions of our citizens to engage in an ongoing brainstorm. Properly-organised, the collective ideas and intelligence of our people can achieve powerful effects.
September 28, 2022
I have not voted Conservative for 20 years.
I have listened to the new PM and CotheE.
I have put more monies into my share account and will now rejoin the Conservative Party.
Brexit will get done.
Happy days.
September 28, 2022
It is a very strange economic crisis when in 2 days the Pound versus the Dollar rate goes from 1.03 to 1.09
September 28, 2022
Peter 2
It underlines the weak state of our balance of payments and our weak productivity and unqualified government, which acts with no understanding of fundamental economics for a medium sized economy
September 29, 2022
It went up though Billy.
September 29, 2022
Yes indeed and when the day before it went from 1.10 to 1.03… so strange you’d have to wonder
September 29, 2022
Look over a longer period and compare Euro decline and Pound decline against the Dollar Gary
You will find over 5 years, for example, the Euro dropped more in percentage terms.
Decline also recently by Yen Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar against the strong USA Dollar.
September 28, 2022
The Green Party only returned one MP so why is the green lobby so big and why is our government bothered by it âŠ..could it be that the biggest green lobby is the EU and UN
September 28, 2022
‘Fossil fuel companies have been banned from recruiting students through university career services at Birkbeck University of London. This sort of demonisation of fossil fuel companies is what got us into this energy crisis’ net-zero-watch
September 28, 2022
Dear Sir John, I cannot help feeling that we may see some embarrassing revelations about some types of pension fund. Who knew that several tens of billions of pounds from the remaining defined benefit funds was invested in leveraged derivatives that were intended to reduce risk but turned out to be vulnerable to a rapid steepening of the yield curve? Or that combining an otherwise welcome fiscal dash for growth with inflation-friendly low money interest rates might deliver such an outcome? Clearly not the Governor or the Chancellor.
September 28, 2022
Got to be said Dido Harding being given another senior role in the NHS is a disgrace.
And the poor response to todays financial events is shambolic.
We need a new political party to emerge, the current ones are useless.
September 28, 2022
John listening to you this evening on Ch4 was thinking – they are all out of step except your good self.
September 28, 2022
Not surprising that the country is in such a mess. I just read the hilariousâąïž Lord Hannan of Kingsclere on ConservativeHome explaining to the world that the countryâs present problems are all due to Labour. The Brain of Brexit is losing it, is he not? What a bunch of clowns all these Brexiteers and their cult followers.
September 29, 2022
Dont fret heffy you might have all the huge talents on the
Labour front bench in charge of our finances after the next election.
Then you will be able to calm down
Hilarious indeed.
September 29, 2022
the problems are with labour, people don’t want to, or won’t work anymore.
September 29, 2022
In this headlong drive to ‘net zero’ no one seems to wonder whether trying to minimise CO2 production is actually good for the planet. We all know, or should know, that all living things depend on CO2 and the lengths to which we in the West (but not, of course, countries like China and India) are going to to eliminate CO2 could well be causing irreparable damage to the planet. The sad thing is that no one wants to look at that side of the issue. We are all expected to believe that it’s dangerous and has to be eliminated. Debate is not allowed because it doesn’t fit the current narrative. How naive and ignorant that is.
September 29, 2022
“the inconvenient fact that most U.K. people heat their homes and water with gas or other fossil fuels,” – JR
Sadly die to the fact that wood-burning and coal fires are now outlawed, and the prior PM’s dislike for fossil fuels, a number of estates of several hundred homes have been built recently which are all-electric with no alternative power. Increasing the electric supply to the grid would do a great deal to improve the cost of electricity, not to mention reduce the supply pressures caused by adding such homes in the first place.
We are facing energy supply problems across the board. Could we please have the infrastructure investment needed to correct this? Perhaps the reason we have not is that despite the governments drive to go green, the UK’s wind generation systems are more owned by the Danish and Norweigian governments than the UK’s. The UK is currently the twelth largest governmental owner of our own renewables systems – report by Common Wealth and the TUC. This should surely be considered a security issue, (and causes a financial drain of ÂŁ2.5bn a year).
September 29, 2022
Why can’t the irrelevant net zero be put to one side and change the purpose f the argument to self reliance without digging into the earth’s depths. Talk about taking a parallel argument to substitute for the real problem .