Bishop Hill Energy gloom
Oct 10, 2013 Climate: Parliament Energy: coal Energy: wind 
David Cameron had a vision of a greener life, lived closer to natureIt's hard not to lose heart sometimes. Looking around the news on the energy front this morning, the bad news is overwhelming.
It's not online, but the FT has apparently reported that the coalition is considering accelerating the retreat from fossil fuels, with coal-fired power stations only operating as load-balancing capacity. This is because the coalition is frightened that Lord Oxburgh's Energy Bill amendment in the House of Lords will win through and that a ruinous decarbonisation target will be put in place.
Given that coal-fired power stations are not designed to operate in this way, the move strikes me as being counterproductive in terms of emissions reductions. Presumably operators of coal-fired stations will also demand a very high price in order to keep their plant operational on a part-time basis, so consumers will, once again, be forced to foot the bill.
Meanwhile, Scottish and Southern Energy have just announced an 8% price rise for its customers, starting from the middle of November, and the outgoing head of Ofgem has said that we should expect power cuts to begin in the next couple of years.
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Guido has dug up an old speech by Ed Miliband in which he argued that rising energy prices was the object of his policy, since this would save the planet from climate change. The economy took second place.
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Former Irish President Mary Robinson is clearly under the impression that old folk are not being killed off quickly enough.
She told the Guardian there was an "urgent" need for faster, tougher action by western, oil-rich governments to agree far stricter limits on carbon emissions after the latest report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published "unequivocal" evidence linking human activity to global warming.
Robinson said developing countries needed to take a clear lead, cutting carbon emissions and investing in low carbon technologies, when she spoke later in a keynote address to a conference on climate change in Edinburgh.
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Meanwhile, the EU bureaucracy is doing its level best to ensure that any escape route via shale gas is well and truly shut down.
The European Parliament on Wednesday voted for new EU laws requiring that exploration for potential deposits of shale gas to face the same environmental regulation as a full-scale oil drilling.
Struan Stevenson, a Conservative MEP who sits on the European Parliament's environment committee, warned that the plan could strangle the nascent fracking industry in Britain.
Reader Comments (61)
Capell: I suspect the blackouts are being planned now so as to force the green lunatics like Miliband and Davey to accept their actions have consequences and those actions increase fossil fuel use and emissions,
Brilliant! Next thing they will be suggesting that they will only fire up coal plants at times of peak load. Oh, they already have. The words 'running, asylum, the, lunatics' spring to mind for some reason.
Yep - lapogus - that Philip Bratby piece encapsulates the situation beatifully...!
JOSH - what chance a cartoon..?
Dr North calculates that blackouts are unlikely:-
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=84383
Further to my earlier post, although Sky saw fit this am to give Fallon such a robust inquisition that he was left floundering at the exposure of his lies on national tv , the BBC was more circumspect and gave as weak a reference to the SSE spokesman's comprehensive and detailed response in it's coverage as it could get away with.
Obviously the BBC had instructions on damage limitation; what will Sky with Geof Randall produce at 7pm I wonder?
This is an interesting report on winter/summer deaths from ONS.
The graphic on page 10 is revealing. It shows deaths per day decreasing from a January high of 1800 to an August low of 1300 as the temperature increases from 5C to 17C and then increasing again as the temperature drops back down.
Julian Flood
Just exactly how long is it going to be before you guys realise that on all psephological indications a vote for UKIP is in effect a vote for a Labour government headed by Miliband and on the evidence of his latest re-shuffle a government that would be so far to the left that it just might not be possible to avoid falling off the edge without action of the sort last seen in the 1640s.
(Or where I live, in 1789)
Waking up to the sight of Milband in Downing Street in May 2015 will be too late.
Since I no longer live in the UK it shouldn't worry me but I happen to have family there including a grand-daughter who, I hope, will live a productive and satisfying life but for whose future I fear daily.
Hold your nose, by all means. Grit your teeth and close you eyes when you cast you vote if you must, but on current form the only party with any chance of taking the UK down the route that the silent majority really want to go down is the Conservative party.
I'm not a member and I'm not an apologist for the Tories but no-one else is going to give you a referendum on EU membership; no-one else is even going to think about moving away from the crazy energy policies that are impoverishing the whole of the UK; no-one else has the wit or the gumption to change course in time when they see disaster staring them in the face.
I'm not saying the Tories will. What I am saying is that the Lib-Dems won't, Miliband's Labour won't, and UKIP can't because they are never going to be in power. All they can do is screw things up.
Dear Mr. Cameron
I'm just a sick old man on sickness benefit and a £29.48/week pension but as things are a bit tight in government this year I thought I could help out by giving you all my money. Yes I know it's not much but every little helps*. Then I thought you could get that nice Mr Gummer, er sorry his excellency Lord Debend to take any money he needs for these impressive looking windmills and give me back the change.
Yours
Mr. FreezingmyAOffAlready.
*P.S. Sorry I haven't got any real property to sell for you but I selfishly sold everything two years ago and paid off the outstanding council tax bill.
jferguson at 11.08 Agreed.
Take a look at the Harrogate Agenda at Richard North's EU Referendum site.
As I keep on saying, when the consequences of this and the previous government's energy policies become plain beyond any doubt, those responsible should be put on trial and sentenced to terms in prison.
Oct 10, 2013 at 2:17 PM | Mike Jackson
Whilst we remain in the EU neither Cameron, Clegg, nor Miliband have any power over the majority of policies which affect most peoples lives, nor can they effect any meaningful renegotiation, thus whichever is returmed will make little difference except at the margins.
For reasons best known to themselves they are content with that state of affairs and to a man have no intention of leaving the EU,
As long as we remain in the EU we will be subjected to the political and antidemocratic whims of an assortment of nations which throughout history we have, with good reason, held at arms length, intervening only when their worst excesses impinged on our interests.
UKIP are the only party to offer us the certain opportunity to throw off the shackles of a failing continent at the May elections in 2014. A long cold winter at the higher tariffs announced today may do wonders for the outcome.
Let us see how that goes before deciding that a vote for UKIP will let in Miliband.