The chips are downEd Miliband. The chips are down and the game is on. We know that Labor is no closer to solving the energy trilemma than scientists are to explaining dark matter. [emphasis, links added]
At the moment, we are not on track to achieve net zero emissions, security of supply and affordability. We know that using public funds to import natural gas to create CO2 is more shameless hypocrisy than a show of moral leadership on climate change.
Perhaps most importantly, we Know Whatever the cost, the pursuit of net zero policies will impact our lives in ways that the gentlemen in Whitehall could not have foreseen.
Anyone who has driven into a clean air zone can attest to this.
Yet the ruling class insists on living in some alternative reality without trade-offs. Just cheap, abundant, safe, renewable energy.
So we should thank Bill Esterson, the Labor chair of the House of Commons energy security and net zero committee, for spilling the beans.
He just admitted that “we all have to change our lives” if we are to decarbonize the grid by 2030.
Keir Starmer offers no such candor. At COP29, many world leaders wisely snubbed the climate event, Not only did the Prime Minister set another target for us (81% reduction in emissions by 2035), but he also preached that he “won't tell people how to behave”.
This is certainly true only in the most literal sense. With congestion charges imposed in British cities, people may be forced to travel in other ways, or not travel at all.
Foist requires automakers to sell a certain number of electric vehicles or face hefty fines; They may be forced to sell fewer gasoline cars, driving up prices and luring consumers away.
By imposing a green tax on energy bills – which currently account for 16% of electricity bills – households will have to cut spending in other areas.
Is the government “telling” us to change our behavior? No, it just leaves us with no choice.
We are still in the foothills of transformation. Yes, the UK last year became the first country to halve emissions since 1990 – a milestone, but eco-fanatics have been surprisingly silent.
But this is done by accelerating existing trends, such as moving away from large amounts of domestic production so that we can rely on renewable energy because fossil fuels can provide baseload electricity.
The second half of the year will be more painful – although the climate cult may ignore these concerns, insisting that clean energy is cheap and will provide ample jobs.
When wind turbines are operating, the marginal cost of the energy produced is close to zero, whereas energy produced by natural gas has a positive marginal cost because we have to buy the fuel.
But gas-fired power stations are easy to build and connect to the grid. On the other hand, wind turbines are expensive to install and maintain, especially offshore wind turbines.
They don't last long, are located far from population centers, and are expensive to connect to the grid.
They also need backup when the wind isn't blowing or it's blowing too hard. But these problems are obscured by government subsidies and delusional ecological hype.
Yet the Conservatives have little power to challenge it—assuming they wanted to. The timetable they have set for the transition to clean energy is too ambitious.
The Conservatives have taken no action on the 2008 Climate Change Bill, failing to disband the so-called independent climate change commission and failing to enshrine the 2050 net zero target into law.
As a result, the country that spawned the industrial revolution and created the refineries and steel plants that changed people's lives now has the highest electricity prices in the world – and only the ghost of an industrial sector remains.
A break from reading The Telegraph
