Wednesday
Apr022014
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Dealing with DECC
Apr 2, 2014 Energy: wind Alex Henney sends me a 2012 article from the journal New Power, in which he and Fred Udo examine electricity grids in several countries around the world and assess how the use of wind turbines has affected the carbon intensity of the power generated. Suffice it to say that it's not quite what the environmentalists intended.
What is particularly interesting is that the article prompted a response from DECC, whose ability to misunderstand the arguments presented is something to behold, and the resulting correspondence is appended to the end of the file.
Reader Comments (11)
I may have mentioned this before and I risk falling foul of 'ideation conspiracy syndrome' at best, but having read the PDF at the link and the comments from DECC I am struck with an uncomfortable feeling that there is a lot of sub-conscious racism going on in Government.
If a lay person were to be asked to define a colour for CO^2 (which we know is colourless), my feeling is they would say 'white'; and if they were asked to define a colour for carbon they would undoubtedly say 'black'.
In the PDF the comments from DECC invariably talk of carbon, whereas the responses from the paper's authors tend to talk about CO^2. To DECC, it is carbon, it is black, it is evil..... (/rant)
From the DECC paper trail at the end it is obvious that a great deal v careful work is being done to 'misinterpret and obfuscate' the responses to that report. The fact that DECC get the wrong end of the stick so much in these exchanges is suspicious in itself, bearing in mind there are a lot of bright folk there (I know one who says that there has been a great deal of kool-aid drunk there). But they simply can't all be that dense or prepared to put their names to such obviously stupid statements.
I'm going to ask how they organise these responses internally. It must be quite complex; meetings and such. But how do they avoid the FOI-able paper trail?? Can't use email or minuted meetings.
If it has made it worse then that is exactly what they want. Remember the ultimate aim is to prevent power generation at all.
My experience with dealing with the DECC is mind-numbing...
'Wind is free...'
Er - yes - so are coal, oil and gas - its just converting them into useable energy that costs the money...
'We have an excellent wind resource in the UK...'
Except when we don't, that is...
They are masters at industrial-grade point-missing. It seems to be a recruitment requirement. Also: 'Work is under way to research so-and-so...' Yes - but when will it be made to WORK...? (CCS is of course the poster-child for this approach...)
@sherlock1
" industrial-grade point-missing " is being rather generous. It is deliberate denseness.
When that fails it's likely some officials will run true to form and just lie. I'm wading through some reports from DECC's siblings at the EA at present and just wondering at the integrity of an official who can lie so shamelessly in pursuit of a biased, arbitrary outcome they desire for their own purpose.
"Thre are none so blind as those who will not see".
DECC 2014.
Bottom left, front page of The Daily Telegraph.
-Ridding countryside of windfarms 'high on PM's list of election policies'-
I am certain all replies from DECC are written by computers. They are presumably programmed with some form of AI, but I suspect the programming was done in North Korea.
In the PDF at the link, DECC uses the phrase: "Law of Unintended Consequences"
Unintended,perhaps, but NOT unpredictable
This increasingly frequent phrase is used as a sleazy, greasy, easy means of avoiding responsibility, accountability ... and now it's a LAW
Vomitous
Whenever I read DECC emissions I come over all Biblical.
"There are none so blind as those who will not see"
tomo - I try to be 'reasonable' about the DECC's collective denseness. I'm just hoping that eventually - EVENTUALLY, they will, in the manner of Steve Macdonald in Corrie, mutter a 'sotto voce' apology into their collective pints and admit that we've been right all along...