Household bills soar and factories move offshore while Ed Miliband chases rainbows and unicorns.
Economic self-harm disguised as climate virtue is how I would characterise the UK’s energy policy. It is now well established that we have the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world and the fourth highest domestic prices. [emphasis, links added]
This hurts households with crippling bills. It damages the industry by driving factories offshore. And it harms the planet, because deindustrialization pushes production to countries with dirtier energy, and we incur additional emissions when they ship goods to Britain that were previously made here.
And for what? The UK accounts for less than one percent of global emissions. Exporting jobs and importing emissions helps no one.
In fact, it makes everything worse – the huge sacrifices we are making in the name of net zero actually increase global emissions, even if domestic emissions appear lower.
So why are our energy costs so high? Energy Secretary Ed Miliband blames everything on “high international gas prices” and “dictators”. He says we must move faster to renewables to lower bills. But does this stack up?
Firstly, on oil and gas, the United States, which leans on its abundant fossil fuels, has consistently cheaper energy than Europe.
Its industrial electricity prices are four times cheaper than in the UK, and its industrial gas prices are more than four and a half times cheaper. Domestic electricity prices in the US are almost three times cheaper than in the UK, and its domestic gas prices are two and a half times cheaper.
Then, on renewables, countries with high levels of wind and solar generation typically have the highest electricity prices. Those with little or no wind and solar have low electricity prices.
None of this supports Miliband’s arguments that the UK’s energy is expensive because of gas or that bills will come down with more renewables.
In fact, the opposite appears to be true, which is worrying since Miliband wants to commit to new 20-year subsidies for wind that are expected to be much higher than last year’s subsidies, which were themselves higher than the cost of generating electricity with gas (and that’s after adding carbon taxes onto gas prices).
So why does Ed Miliband refuse to act? Why does he insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that we must stop producing our own oil and gas and rely instead on wind and sun for our energy?
Even Dale Vince, the eco-tycoon who built his fortune on subsidies for “green” power (although he likes to claim they are not subsidies because they are paid by consumers and not the state), now admits it’s madness not to exploit the North Sea.
The claim that renewables are “cheap” is one of the biggest lies in modern politics…
These views are echoed by Greg Jackson, chief executive of Octopus Energy and now a government adviser, who has said that using gas from the North Sea is cleaner than relying on imported liquefied natural gas from places like the USA or Qatar.
He acknowledges that global prices set the cost, so UK gas might not be much cheaper, but there are environmental gains and less backlash from climate policy.
In fact, maximizing production from the North Sea would bring much-needed revenues to the Treasury, at a time when there is a large black hole to fill in the Budget.
The claim that renewables are “cheap” is one of the biggest lies in modern politics: yes, the wind and sun are free, but the machines to capture them are not.
Nor are the backup systems, the land, or the vast new grid infrastructure required to cope with their intermittency and low energy density.
The result has been an enormous wealth transfer, as subsidies flow from the poorest households to the richest landowners and developers.
Read rest at The Telegraph
See Related Article Below
Ed Miliband Costs Britain One Billion Barrels of North Sea Oil
Ed Miliband will cost Britain one billion barrels of North Sea oil and gas, official data confirm, as a sharp drop in output up to 2050 emerges – a result of Labour imposing 78% taxes and a ban on new drilling. The Telegraph has more.
For Ed Miliband, it’s a truly awkward moment.
His own statisticians have released data showing that Britain’s North Sea will produce a billion barrels of oil and gas fewer than expected between now and 2050 – with analysts linking the downgrade to Labour’s imposition of 78% taxes and a ban on new drilling.
The assessment, by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the Government regulator that reports to Mr Miliband, suggests the UK will have to import a far higher proportion of its oil and gas over the next 25 years.
According to a separate analysis, the accelerated decline of the North Sea could see half the 200,000 jobs it supports destroyed by 2030.
Many of those will be in Scotland, where elections due next year make such potential losses seriously risky for Labour’s prospects.
“We have already seen a 10% reduction in output – equating to 100,000 barrels of oil a day, replaced by imports,” said Chris Wheaton, an energy analyst with investment bank Stifel. “This will increase the longer the windfall tax stays in place – reaching 20% below previous forecasts by 2030.”
The downgrade in North Sea output emerges from comparing the production projections published by the NSTA in 2023 – before the election – with the latest versions, just published.
In autumn 2023, the NSTA predicted the UK would produce oil and gas equivalent to 681 million tonnes of oil between 2025 and 2050.
In the latest equivalent data, this has now been slashed to 557 million tonnes. The ‘lost’ 124 million tonnes equates to a billion barrels of oil.
Splitting oil and gas, the NSTA data suggests the UK has lost 31 billion cubic metres of gas, enough for six months of UK consumption, and 70 million tonnes of oil – enough to supply the UK for a year.
Mr Wheaton said: “Investment is being curtailed, and companies are voting with their feet. Chevron and Repsol are already exiting the UK North Sea, and [last week] TotalEnergies also announced plans to sell up.” …
Claire Coutinho, Shadow Energy Secretary, said: “This is complete insanity. Ed Miliband is costing the UK a billion barrels of oil. He is driving British production of oil and gas into the ground, all so we can import more from abroad.
“He needs to get a grip, scrap the energy price levy, end the ban on new oil and gas licences and back the North Sea.”
Richard Tice, Reform’s Energy Spokesman, said: “This is self-induced financial suicide. The UK will lose tens of billions of pounds in lost growth and jobs in pursuit of a vanity target, Net stupid Zero. Our competitors will be laughing at our naïve foolishness as they take our jobs and money.”
Worth reading in full.
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