ALEX BRUMMER: Why are we facing an energy crisis when we’re sitting on a gold mine?
By Paul Homewood
Fortunately there’s at least one journalist on the ball:
The crisis in the nation’s energy supplies has reached a level unseen for two generations. Nine firms have gone bust this year amid soaring wholesale gas prices, while companies supplying some six million homes are said to be at risk of imminent collapse.
Millions of pensioners and the most vulnerable households now face untold hardship this winter, while the ‘squeezed’ middle classes can expect their bills to soar far in excess of anything they are used to.
For years — as the run-up to the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow has amply shown — successive governments have focused on renewables and other non-polluting energy sources as a means of addressing climate change.
Drilling
The result is that Britain now faces a crisis in its energy security. And the worst part? This chaotic and alarming situation is wholly unnecessary.
More than 50 years since the first North Sea oil was struck, the British Isles remain surrounded by unexploited oil and gas reserves; while beneath the country’s surface lie layer upon layer of shale.
With careful and environmentally sensitive modern drilling techniques, these untapped gold mines of natural resources could keep our fleet of mothballed natural-gas generators fired up until long-lasting sources of greener energy have been secured.
More than 50 years since the first North Sea oil was struck, the British Isles remain surrounded by unexploited oil and gas reserves; while beneath the country’s surface lie layer upon layer of shale
In decades to come, Britain may well sustain carbon-free energy solutions at huge scale in solar, water and hydrogen. We could even, as the Prime Minister once colourfully put it, become ‘the Saudi Arabia of wind power’.
But until those technologies are properly invested in, many fear we now face the prospect of the lights going out just as they did in the 1970s.
Quite simply, Britain must look for alternatives. If we do not, the consequences will be grave.
British Steel is warning that prices are ‘spiralling out of control’ amid an unbelievable 50-fold increase in quoted rates for power.
Yet while the industrial fallout from the present crisis is obviously horrendous, the potential damage to households is even greater.
The current energy ‘price cap’ limits the average energy bill for UK households at £1,277.
As wholesale prices spiral out of control, the pressure on the regulator to raise the cap, or see the industry strewn with failures, is now almost overwhelming.
Without an eye-watering increase in the price cap of perhaps £400 (some 30 per cent or so), even the biggest players such as Centrica, owner of British Gas which has more than 12 million customers, could be under enormous pressure.
Fixated on ‘net zero’ as part of his political legacy, fresh from delivering his address on climate change to the United Nations this week and looking forward to strutting the global stage at Cop26, Boris Johnson has clearly failed to understand the risk to the country of relying excessively on energy purchased from abroad.
It ought to be obvious that surrendering our energy needs to the Moscow-controlled Gazprom (a huge gas supplier to Europe) and a ghastly collection of Middle-East potentates has been a grievous error.
Making matters worse, a serious fire on a key undersea electricity cable from France has further limited supplies and shown the value of a reliable domestic source.
So what are the alternative technologies that the Government should now urgently be exploring to prevent this crisis from worsening still further?
With careful and environmentally sensitive modern drilling techniques, these untapped gold mines of natural resources could keep our fleet of mothballed natural-gas generators fired up until long-lasting sources of greener energy have been secured
As someone sympathetic to the green objections to fracking, from despoiling of country roads to potential earth tremors in nearby urban areas, I would prefer we avoid that path if possible.
Nevertheless, we should not overstate its dangers, and we should certainly not fall victim to untruths about ‘earthquake’ risks and other lurid allegations.
In 2017, for example, the advertising watchdog rapped environmental charity Friends of the Earth for a ‘misleading’ leaflet that claimed fracking can cause cancer.
Meanwhile, one only has to look across the Atlantic to witness the vital strategic gains that can be reaped from regaining a measure of energy independence.
Having risen steadily for 30 years, American imports of oil are now negligible thanks to the fracking revolution, as the process releases oil as well as gas.
Washington, therefore, enjoys somewhat greater freedom in its relations with the dictatorships of the Middle East, and is no longer beholden to those who control the rivers of cheap oil that flow from Arabia’s desert sands.
Exploration
When the UK Government halted fracking in November 2019, it made it clear that this was a moratorium, not a permanent ban.
If ever there was a moment to rethink this pause, it should be now: especially given that the evidence suggests the ‘earth tremors’ from exploration were far less than originally measured and also confined to a much narrower area than was claimed.
But fracking is only one possibility. A less intrusive way of bringing oil and gas to these shores might be for Boris Johnson to license applications for development of the Cambo field situated some 75 miles to the west of Shetland.
This contains more than 800 million barrels of oil as well as considerable potential gas deposits.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer may come to regret his opposition to the drilling, which would have created a reported 1,000 jobs, on ‘carbon emission’ grounds.
Similarly, a new modern and safer coal mine in Cumbria has been held up in spite of the willingness of investors to plough more than £150 million into the project.
Instead, coal imports to Britain have been soaring — up 45 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 on the same period last year, to a total of 1.5 million tonnes. Some 60 per cent of Britain’s imported coal comes from — where else? — Russia.
Alarming
In my view, one of the best ways of rapidly delivering a greener and more secure energy supply would be for the Government to commit far bigger sums of money — perhaps as much as £1 billion rather than the £215 million already earmarked — to speed up Rolls-Royce’s plans for ‘miniature nuclear plants’.
The engineering giant has announced plans to build up to 16 of these so-called ‘small modular reactors’.
Rather than spending decades building huge and inordinately expensive plants such as Sizewell and Hinkley Point, the smaller plants are assembled from ‘modules’ in factories, thanks to technology that is already used in the nuclear turbines that power the Royal Navy’s submarines.
Most sensible people want to see Britain and the world’s carbon emissions fall for the sake of generations to come.
But sacrificing our prosperity and the health and comfort of our people on the ‘green altar’ — when technology exists that renders this entirely unnecessary — would be unforgivable.
The nation is engaged in a monstrous act of self-harm. To avoid prolonging this crisis, we should consider urgently giving the fracking pioneers and North Sea drillers the only ‘green’ light that matters: the one that says ‘Go’.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
I do hope the futile pointlessness of the zero carbon campaign is being pressed? That is to say all this suffering will have not the slightest effect on global temperature. That it’s very dubious that CO2 has a measurable effect on climate. Our recent COVID driven thunbergian economic disaster has had no effect on Moana Loa sawtooth climb. I mean it’s really quite remarkable looking at the extreme detail graph how the COVID years have had not the slightest effect! The sawtooth shapes are identical! This needs looking into by ‘climate scientists’
Annual changes in emissions do not correlate with annual changes in atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa
Annual changes in temperature do not correlate with annual CO2 changes at Mauna Loa
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2997420
RESPONSIVENESS OF ATMOSPHERIC CO2 TO FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS: UPDATED
JAMAL MUNSHI
ABSTRACT: The IPCC carbon budget concludes that changes in atmospheric CO2 are driven by fossil fuel emissions on a year by year basis. A testable implication of the validity of this carbon budget is that changes in atmospheric CO2 should be correlated with fossil fuel emissions at an annual time scale net of long term trends.
A test of this relationship with in situ CO2 data from Mauna Loa 1958-2016 and flask CO2 data from twenty three stations around the world 1967-2015 is presented. The test fails to show that annual changes in atmospheric CO2 levels can be attributed to annual emissions.
The finding is consistent with prior studies that found no evidence to relate the rate of warming to emissions and they imply that the IPCC carbon budget is flawed possibly because of insufficient attention to uncertainty, excessive reliance on net flows, and the use of circular reasoning that subsumes a role for fossil fuel emissions in the observed increase in atmospheric CO2.
SOME METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN CLIMATE SCIENCE
JAMAL MUNSHI https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2873672
ABSTRACT: Although the science of the greenhouse effect of atmospheric CO2 is well established, all efforts to relate this phenomenon to fossil fuel emissions have failed because of deficiencies in the methodology used in the presentation of empirical evidence.
Circular reasoning is used in the IPCC carbon budget to relate atmospheric CO2 to fossil fuel emissions as a way of dealing with insurmountable measurement problems. No evidence exists to relate changes in atmospheric CO2 or the rate of warming to fossil fuel emissions because correlations presented for these relationships are spurious.
The UNFCCC holds annual COP meetings and calls for reductions in fossil fuel emissions to attenuate global warming without evidence that warming is related to emissions.
A country with vast reserves of readily accessible gas should never be subject to a short squeeze on gas supplies. Successive governments have absolutely failed the electorate, pursuing vanity projects and virtue-seeking rather than making sure we can heat and cook and have viable industries.
How anyone can continue to support these clowns – any of them – is beyond me.
To answer the headline question it is because of the PMs covert defection to the Green Party
Also, there are very few Tories in Parliament, however they call themselves.
They are Liberals and/or Green adherents.
There must be more exceptions than Sir John Redwood: can anyone think of more?
There’ll be plenty in the right-wing European Research Group. Other than that the party is a stew of dripping wet liberal-left ollocks.
That’s the ERG, that’s failed to research Europe, can’t differentiate between The Single Market, The Customs Union and a customs union, thought we could leave the first of these & nobody would notice the difference?
Then we had a Brexit Secretary who didn’t know how important Dover was to our trade?
You also appear to conflate Conservatism, with Crony Capitalism.
Yes Adam, they didn’t know anything like as much as you about the stuff they’ve spent years immersed in. But then Remainers claimed that EU membership didn’t keep low wages low and didn’t raise the price of food for the low paid. Both have been conclusively disproved now, not least by those trade deals the UK couldn’t possibly negotiate at all, let alone quickly.
How’s that FX rate falling to parity by the way?
Mr Gallon is quite correct and worse still, over 5 years later they still have no idea of the difference between ‘border controls’ and ‘customs’. And it is no use turning to our ‘pillars of industry’ as they seem to be just as thick about our relationship with the EU. While Redwood is correct on Global Warming, he was also clueless about the EU.
Perhaps Mr Phoenix44 could explain to us why the ERG were so ignorant about stuff ‘they’ve spent years immersed in’. They are no different to UKIP in knowing very little about what was – in theory – their prime subject but then they were hampered by a leader who doesn’t do detail.
Craig McKinley, Steve Baker, Esther McVey, Philip Davies. Although Labour, Graham Stringer has always understood the realities: he and Peter Lilley (now a Lord) used to work together on Select Committees producing minority reports.
Yes, there are a few. One that is almost always forgotten, is Graham Stringer (Labour), one of the tiny number of MPs who is actually scientifically qualified and experienced. He is one of the few named figures supporting the Global Warming Policy Foundation. Almost unique, now, as someone in today’s Labia Party that could find his way out of a wet paper bag. It wasn’t always like that.
How he can carry on under the likes of Miliband, Starmer and Corbyn, God knows.
Tha LibDems used to have Baroness Nicholson in the Lords. Also a GWPF member. She died. Now the LibDems don’t appear to have more than a dozen functional brain cells between the lot of them.
Sammy Wilson in the UDP is rational.
There are a handful of Tories.
After that, I really struggle…
As a person who lives in Ryedale, North Yorkshire where Third Energy has planning permission to hydraulically fracture the KM8 well, I am delight to read this article.
I and many others who supported the shale gas industry are now vindicated for our stance.
Living in an area under siege by Russian backed protesters was like living in war zone at times. They were guided into action by the very worst kind of green NGOs, the ones who financially benefit from scaring people into donating into their supposed ‘charity pot’.
Of course, FoE was caught red handed by the ASA spreading misinformation but they cunningly swapped to using their ltd company from their charity instead, so that they had free rein to deliver as much tosh re shale gas as they could. The general public would not have noticed this swap as FoE ltd & Trust use the same staff, premises & logo.
I have no time for those who caused such divisiveness in communities using what was false information.
Because of their propaganda & greed we are now being held to ransom by Putin, with the knock on effect of losing not only our energy security but food security too.
As a former farmer I am disgusted at the prospect of even more imports. Now we find that our area is under threat of being covered with a solar & battery installation covering hundreds of acres.
Alex Thornton is a director of Harmony Energy who are intent in ruining our prime agricultural land with their solar ‘factory’. He, his brother & parents campaigned against a tiny gas well site in our area, claiming it would cause the industrialisation of Ryedale. Now we realise he was only wanting to feather his own nest. He had a vested interest in shale gas failing.
Energy & food security should be the priority of any government & not prioritising the protestations of the Green cult of doomsayers, a Swedish child or people with vested interests in destroying our freedoms, countryside & democracy.
It’s time we stood up for what is right for our country & the 65 million citizens & ended politicians obsession of pandering to a minority group of protesters.
I was so disappointed at how the protesters are treated with kid gloves whilst they ruin other people lives i wrote a book about my experiences which can be found on my web site.
Given that FoE took Russian money to lie about UK interests I cannot see any material difference between what they did and treason.
Hiding behind legal semantics (Ltd or Charity) is a false smokescreen.
Their leaders should be in jail for that. They certainly would be if they pulled a similar stunt in Russia!
Well done Lorraine. I am with you 100%.
Well said, Lorraine.
Spot on Lorraine.
Ms Allison: I shall follow the progress of Third Energy with the closest possible interest. As I have posted on numerous occasions the problem with the production of shale gas is not protestors bu the variaibility in the permeability of shale and the ability of the gas to flow. Cuadrilla did not achieve viable flows from Bowland shale but by all means let’s have a go in different locations. But this time the government must give its full support fiancially and socially (i.e. keep the protestors away) and the disturbance levels must be set reasonably Cuadrilla did not achieve gas flow even at 2.9 which is dangerously high versus the 0.5 they had agreed to but let’s try,say, 3+. BUT DON’T BANK ON IT – many shales have not delivered gas.
The power shortages are as important as AGW is unimportant, yet look at the resources including our money being wasted on that near-negligible threat!
The power shortages is as big an actual and potential threat As AGW Is wrongly believed by many to be. It’s almost like a war in potential for perils.
Our politicians are as yet blind to many very serious problems. WHY?
Yes, but I still don’t like to be classed as ‘not sensible’. Why do all these writers have to pay lip service to the myth of the UK’s CO2 emissions and ‘threat to future generations’? Its this sort of thing decades ago that inevitably led to where we are now.
Exactly right. “Most sensible people want to see Britain and the world’s carbon emissions fall for the sake of generations to come.”
This is accepting the false premise that CO2 controls the weather and also falls into the trap of talking about “carbon” emissions rather than CO2. Carbon is dirty, difficult to describe CO2 like that, so making the two synonymous is part of the propaganda. It’s quite likely that generations to come will be going back for the coal, oil and gas that we leave in the ground.
> Most sensible people want to see Britain carbon emissions
> fall for the sake of generations to come.
Sensible? More like brainwashed, ignorant or gullible.
All three!
Doing seriously costly stuff now because you think you know what the world will be like in 50-100 years is so stupid it hurts. Nobody has ever been right nor can ever been right on short time scales, let alone 50 years or more.
Solutions ARE available . . . Nobody wants to know . . . among environmentalists
Nature Versus Man – The Saga of Life on Earth . . .
Humanity is destroying everything in sight. We poison everything. Every creature we contact, into extinction. We believe in our superiority over everything. Since the Industrial Revolution, air, water and soil pollution have been the inescapable result of our progress. Logarithmic Increases in human consumption led to environmental degradation. Humans must be ever more vigilant in managing pollution, more and more forcefully every day.
• We must stop blaming CO2 for Climate Change and remove what is attached, to stop Global Pollution.
• We must install Scrubbers and Electrostatic Precipitators on all Industrial smokestacks.
• We must stop deforestation globally, and require re-forestation in western countries.
• We must stop overfishing in the world’s Oceans.
• We must spend billions on new explorational technology to replace fossil fuels, once and for all.
• We must ban Electric Cars from their ‘Clean’ credentials – 30% more energy is wasted versus gasoline.
• We must learn that Climate Change is natural and flows in 500 years cycles of warming and cooling.
• We must learn to fit into our planet as good stewards of what the Universe has bestowed upon us.
How to Clean up Pollution and Save Planet Earth
This power generating station at Beldune NB was the first in Canada to install scrubbers to help reduce Sulphur dioxide emissions. It has an electrostatic precipitator that removes over 99% of particles in the flue gases. It has special burners to limit Nitrogen Oxide emissions. An upgrade began in July 2004 which saw a Titan ProAsh facility that recaptures 75% of the fly ash produced by the generating station. Water from the Smoke Stack Scrubbers is recycled. This eliminates the use of a ‘Tailings Pond’. The effluent removed from the water has resulted in the production of a Synthetic Gypsum Byproduct (Drywall) which is then sold, all over North America.
Belldune Coal Fried Power Generating Station – A Poster Child for Clean Energy!!
It is mostly steam coming out that chimney . . . Like what we see at all Natural Gas Plants!!
Environmentalists are screaming to have this plant shut down . . . not because it is clean . . .
Because it burns COAL . . . Another Fossil Fuel . . . Clean Energy . . . somehow bad??
Please . . . Let’s find some common sense and bring it home to Environmentalism . . .
It is long overdue that humans visit the truth of Science in all of our Environmentalist Narratives. Clean-up the Planet of foul effluent first. Set CO2 on the back burner for now. Our obsession with CO2 is not helping the clean-up of the Environment. It is holding back the progress towards cleaning up of the pollution that is truly destroying the Environment on Planet Earth.
The by-products from burning fossil fuels:
1. Sulfur dioxide (SO2), which contributes to acid rain and respiratory illnesses
2. Nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contribute to smog and respiratory illnesses
3. Particulates, which contribute to smog, haze, and respiratory illnesses and lung disease
4. Mercury and other heavy metals linked to both neurological and developmental damage
5. Fly ash and bottom ash, that are residues created when power plants burn coal
All are significantly reduced when we invest $800,000 million. As we see above!
Let’s work smarter, Not Harder . . . Be Visionaries, with a Goal – Clean-up Now!
Flue gas treatment technologies
“Scrubbers is the generic term applied to flue gas treatment processes. There are both liquid, and solid-type gas treatment processes that are a function of the physical and chemical properties of the contaminant being removed. Among others, they include: wet scrubbers, dry scrubbers, adsorbents and mercury removal processes that chemically convert volatile elemental mercury in the hot flue gas into solid water-soluble salts that can be collected. There are also variants such as electrostatic precipitators and desulfurizing processes.
The Clean Air Act (USA) requirements have driven development and installation of many technologies to reduce hazardous air pollutants in many industries. Several common approaches for flue gas cleanup applications have been generally described here. Scrubbers of various types are widely used commercially and have been found to be feasible technologies for numerous combustion applications, particularly for coal and oil electric power generation and other heat-dependent applications. Emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, toxic stable organic chemicals, mercury and particulates can be managed to high degrees of removal.”
https://www.watertechonline.com/wastewater/article/15550703/smokestack-scrubbers-how-they-work-and-why-they-are-used
J le M:
What are you on about? I’ve been retired 18 years but long before that we were using products from fly ash recovered from coal-fired powerstations scrubbers in Australia. (in the fibreglass idustries). A lot went into concrete as well, indeed in 10 ton lots.
As for heavy metal pollution from coal I remember the BS report by a (then) well known environmentalist (and BSc) about the enormous amount of cadmium and mercury polluting the surrounding areas. As someone pointed out “if it was that bad we would know by the mass deaths already”. It turned out to be sloppy analytical technique and a withdrawal.
I’m sorry JLM,
You have been misinformed about the “pollution” problems of burning fossil fuels.
Yes, if you multiply very large numbers, you can pretend there is a problem.
Here in the UK, all the coal fired power stations were either provided with all the flue gas scrubbers etc you mention, or were closed down, well before the coal industry was privatised in 1995.
It is actually a moot point whether the enormous cost of this (and throwing gypsum miners out of work), produced any genuine health benefits anyway.
And now almost all the remaining coal power stations have been demolished.
Yes, if you produce millions of tonnes of coal, you will also produce millions of tonnes of minestone waste. That is a problem, but one that could (and was) solved in a responsible way.
After the 1966 Aberfan disaster (for which no-one was really punished), I was one of many Chartered Civil Engineers recruited to put things right and before retiring in 2012 was personally technically responsible for the safe and environmental management of all the then surviving coal mine waste tips in the country (including scores of old, closed tips.)
If you multiply many millions by tiny percentages, you can produce what seem to be significant numbers of pollutants, cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury and so on. The reality is that tiny amounts of all these are quite naturally present in almost everything- including the food we all happily eat. Rather like the significant amount of radiation you chow down in bananas and Brazil nuts.
Yes there are problems in treating the water that leaches out from old mine waste tips, or that comes from old flooded mine workings. These problems (virtually all from very old mines, abandoned over 50 years ago) can be resolved at a modest cost, by comparison with what it will cost to get rid of useless wind turbines and solar farms.
And in a week or so, I could take you round a hundred old mine waste tips and challenge you to identify ANY that weren’t apparently natural mounds.
Yes, there are pollution problems, some very well documented problems (Minimata, Bhopal, Chernobyl) but mankind has mostly learned lessons and technology is available to prevent of control it.
But GangGreen will always make a melodrama out of any alleged problem whilst absolutely ignoring the enormous benefits (fracking being perhaps the most obvious example) and also ignoring the disbenefits of the ludicrous “solutions” they advocate to “problems” that don’t really exist.
Don’t worry, they are more than happy to trouser their rewards from Russia and China.
Sadly to stop all this nonsense from ‘Gang-Green’ we need a bad winter (like 1947 & 1963) plus a few 1,000s deaths from cold. (though they’ll probably be attributed to covid ) !!
Gas stocks that at this time of the year should be ramping up for winter are at an all time low; BP are starting to ration petrol & diesel; they quickly demolished the coal stations instead of mothballing; food production is slowing, prices are increasing, & energy companies are dropping like flies. A lot of people are going to have to chose heat or eat.
The champagne Eco-warriors have a lot to answer for.
This is our current energy situation https://grid.iamkate.com/ … & it’s a warmish 16°C autumnal evening.
Woke BP are also at fault. Their attempts at appeasement of Big Green ideologues has put them in a position in which they can’t push back – everything they have said can be used against them. That aside, I have designed, fracced and completed more wells than I can remember – the ones I have managed to get back to after several years show no evidence of harm – zippo – because we just did the right thing and fixed up the locations. And we did not frac wells with shonky cement jobs. The trouble is, petroleum companies have been asleep at the wheel and have let the pathological oil and gas haters get away with their deliberately misleading environment and CAGW propaganda. And since the C in CAGW is simply not happening the shrill screaming has got louder to divert attention. Boris is nuts.
. (though they’ll probably be attributed to covid ) !!
Stop this nonsense.
The UK excess deaths data by month/week mirrors the covid death peaks. There is no reason the co-morbidities suddenly ie sharply increase in certain months and drop in others.
This already accounts for normal deaths which increase in winter , and of course reduce in summer as heatwaves dont have much effect
Sanity! I’ve come over all faint and am going for a lie down.
AGW is a moron’s charter to impoverish the planet!
I remember power cuts in the 1970’s, revising for my O’ Levels by candlelight. The very worst thing that could happen was that the TV would go off. Meals could be cooked, because everyone was cooking with North Sea Gas.
Nowadays most cooking is done by Ceramic Hobs and Microwave Ovens, so everyone had better get used to the idea of not eating and tepid gin and tonics.
However the reality of how our infrastructure is controlled by computers, we simply cannot allow power cuts to be normalised because the wind is not blowing or the Sun is hidden by clouds!
I accept that coal gas and oil are finite reserves and will eventually be exhausted. However the energy policy of this government is pathetic at best dangerous at worst. I have been a Conservative Party voter all my life, not anymore if politicians are stupid enough to accept what they are told without question, they need to be removed from office.
If they insist on believing the drivel that they are being fed, what is the matter with Nuclear and/or Thorium fuelled reactors?
The problem is that the other parties are all just as bad!
Petrol generator on the way. This is good : another part of ‘society’ we need to replace. We simply cannot trust HMG with anything vital anymore. Next up – food supply chains.
If you can get hold of petrol. I prefer bottles of LPG.
Phillip, will patio gas (BBC bottle) work?
BBQ! (Though getting BBC bottle would be good!)
Interesting that some of the 800 Texans who died due to the cold and power outages in Feb 21were suffocated by using gas bbqs indoors to keep warm. Texas Feb 21 was a warning to all the idiots who think wind power can be a mainstay of energy needs.
Bobn, I was thinking more in terms of using patio gas to fuel the generator.
“using patio gas to fuel the generator.”
Harry, that’s a very expensive fuel source !!!
13kg = £38.50 propane or £45.50 ‘Patio gas’.
‘Patio gas’ is a Calor marketing ploy, It’s just ordinary propane but in a special more expensive canister (so the man in the shop knows you’re middle class with a patio).
Use 47kg propane gas bottles £59.95 https://portablegas.co.uk/cylinder-prices/
(13kg = £3.5/kg – 47kg = £1.2/kg)
There, in black and white, is his application to keep his job! He talks a good game but chickens out so that he has plausible deniability when he gas to face XR.
He needs to understand that when it comes to despoiling country roads it’s nothing compared to what windmills have done to our landscape, (I would post a pic but have not succeeded so far).
“when he gas to face XR.”
Harry, old son, you need a new keyboard!
Gassing an XR to its face could appeal…
Stu…I just need a new spew chucked. ☺
10-4, Harry. Brummer’s declaration of orthodoxy limits his credibility.
GET FRACKING!
Ive sent off to get it printed on a Tee shirt
How about FRACK IT! FRACK THE UK! FRACK FOR LIFE! FRACK THE PLANET!
This Government has walked open-eyed into an entirely predictable, potentially catastrophic situation. Human-caused emissions represent a tiny fraction of total planetary naturally occurring CO2, a wholly beneficial trace gas which is vital to the survival of all life on earth. The whole scam has been an expensive fool’s crusade from day one. As a 75 year-old scraping along on a fairly meagre income, I can see a tough winter looming. The main political parties, which have all been making the same noises about this farcical non-problem can go hang! If I were a younger man, I’d be grabbing my pichfork and marching on Londonistan!
There is also plenty of coal under the North Sea, and a plan to extract gas from it, sadly the plan was shelved, no doubt with a backdrop of intimidation from the Green Mob thugs.
Maybe us “South of the border” should support Scottish independence, no more fossil fuels will get developed there until that happens, the SNP will need it to fund their habits.
It’s ironic that those companies that specialize in technologies for capturing and storing CO2 under pressure need the vacant geological spaces left after fossil-fuels were extracted. They might vote to approve the removal of those 800 million barrels leaving space for them to put back the CO2 we have subsidized them to do. Fat chance.
As I just posted the BBC are big campaigners against sensible oil.
The first story on BBC local news tonight
‘Council planning dept find company’s planning application complies with planning law, so as normal, they won’t object”
They didn’t phrase it like that
They opened by playing Boris’s climate speech
then “OMG during a Climate Crisis the council planning dept will not object to the oil field”
Raithlin Energy say .are 285 million barrels in the field
That is a lot of money for the area and a lot of mining tax.
Basically today’s item is just PR to help the objectors next week at the councillors vote
The presenter said ‘look at this windfarm next door”
At last the Net Zero is causing the problems that just about every contributor to Paul’s site have been predicting. It is not good that the nation has now to go through all this upset because of the ineptitude of our political leaders and the MSM accepting the arguments of greenpeace, friends of the earth etc etc about the pollutant carbon dioxide. Will common sense prevail.. Probably not!!!
This is the truth . . . Why are we not told?
M. Ragheb in Global Climate Variation, Change and Energy Use, 2019 on pages 16 and 17, he spells out clearly the Natural Sources of CO2 and Man’s contribution. Of the 186 billion tons of CO2 entering the atmosphere annually, 180 billion tones come from nature and 6 billion tones are man’s contribution. My simple math says 6 divided by 186 is 3%. He did not do this calculation in his text. Furthermore, The IPCC in its own research produces a similar finding in a published graph “Global Natural and Anthropogenic Sources and Absorption of Greenhouse Gasses in the 1990’s”, finding, CO2 from natural causes is 793 billion tones, Man-Made sources is 23 billion tones. 23 divided by 793 is 2.9 %. Again, no calculations are presented for summary or review in either publication.
This ratio of Natural CO2 versus Man-Made CO2 is never brought forward mathematically, in context, in any discussions of the causes for Climate Change. This is not any kind of conspiracy; it is quite simply strong assumptions. If you track the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere it follows exactly with the burning of fossil fuels since the beginning of the Industrial revolution and the selling of coal fired Steam Engines. Also, it corresponds directly with proven increases in Global temperatures. You put 2 and 2 together you get 4 . . . a no brainer. UNLESS . . . you go back in time and compare previous cycles of Climate Change on planet Earth. You find NO correlation between Global Warming and CO2 going back at least 10,000. 17 periods of warming and cooling . . . No correlation at all !
A little while ago someone on this site (I’m sorry but I cannot remember who) commented “the UN IPCC acknowledges that 98.45% of atmospheric CO2 is produced by nature. Using their own figures it is possible to calculate the UK’s share of global man made CO2 is 0.00000845%”. I have been quoting these figures ever since to everyone I meet and everywhere I go, ad nauseam!
And may I add a plea to Paul and all the intelligent and knowledgeable commentators on this site to keep going in spite of everything! Thank you.
One significant fact that the Cimate Taliban ignore, is how all that nasty coal stuff got there. CO2 levels at the start of the carboniferous period were 8 times those today and fell steadily as the huge forests necessary to leave the extensive coal measures covered most of the planet. Average global temperature was circa 20deg C – not much sign of the extremes proposed by the modellers and the level of oxygen, O2 rose to circa 35% which set off a a massive spike in insect growth to giant sizes! Relative humidity would have been very high, due to the huge amount of plant transpiration into the atmosphere. The period lasted about 54 million years but interestingly, was puntuated by a period of collapse of the rain forest which kicked off a cool, dry, arid period. This corresponded to a deep minimum in atmospheric CO2, so it appears we had a classic example of Volterra’s equations, ‘foxes and rabbits’. All those plants reduced the level of CO2 to such an extent that the plant life went into severe decline as their essential food supply decreased.
With lowered CO2, temperatures rapidly fell and the conditions necessary for such an extensive biosphere vanished. With the decline in oxygen levels, animal and insect life took on a more impoverished aspect as well and temperatures globally fell back to about 12degC. It is proposed that the decline in temperature was due to the onset of glaciation, but it is far more likely that the changing atmosphere, still with high levels of humidity but lower CO2, set off an exchange with the polar regions which led to increased ice cover and more longwave solar radiation reflected back into space – ideal conditions to set off an ice age. This period ended some 300 million years ago. Life continued as even these conditions could not destroy its hold on the planet and neither did the following cycles of heat and cold or the movement of the continents into their current position. So the idea that a small change in the total level of CO2 in the atmosphere can set off a planet wide catastrophe from which there is no recovery, is ludicrous.
November can be calm. Any chance of s snowstorm and blackout during COP26? COP26 is it? Forget where we’ve got to with COPs
Mr Nut Nut PM’s insanity is showing.
I believe I’ve developed a nut allergy.
“…the U.K.’s share of global man made CO2 is 0.00000845%…”
One ten-millionth? Decimal point gone a bit rogue here I think.
According to the Government, emissions of the U.K. in 2020 were 326 million tons and, from other data, the emissions of the whole world economy were 36 thousand million tons. So the U.K.’s share is clearly more like 0.845%. A little under a hundredth.
If we accept that human emissions are indeed 1.55% of total emissions including natural sources, the U.K.’s share of total emissions is 0.0013%. A little over one ten-thousandth.
If we are comparing our annual 326 million tons FLOW into the atmosphere to the 1.3 million million tons STOCK of aerial carbon dioxide there, that is 0.00003%.. About three millionths.
So getting a little closer to making sense of that one ten-millionth.
Ah! Thank you Dave
It really has little to do with climate. Christiana Figueres is the former UNFCCC Executive Secretary, responsible in large part for the Paris “Agreement”.
In 2015, she said “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.”
This is the stuff of Agenda 21 of course and now Agenda 30:
Gro Harlem Brundtland, responsible for the Brundtland report which led to Agenda 21, spoke in 1992 at the XIX Congress of the Socialist International “Social Democracy in a Changing World”:
15 -17 September 1992
“At the Rio Conference on Environment and Development (1992) it was made clear that we are heading towards a crisis of uncontrollable dimensions unless we change course.
Today we are faced with global challenges that can be addressed only through international cooperation. Securing peace, sustainable development and democracy requires that nations, in their common interest, establish an effective system of global governance and security.
In an increasingly interdependent world, we must find new ways to live – both within our own countries and on a global level – that are socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable.
What we need is a new social contract. Monetary stability will not suffice. And just as democracy originated in Europe some 2500 years ago, just as social democracy developed in Europe over the past 100 years, so must we again take the lead.
A new social contract must be based on our overriding principles – freedom, solidarity and justice. To pursue social justice, freedom and democracy will require that we pool our collective experiences and national sovereignties.
There is no alternative to obligatory coordination of financial and monetary policies.”
This is the Green New Deal, Global Socialism via the UN. Nothing new about it, it has been there for decades and they now sense victory is within reach.
Drip, drip, drip, day by day, week by week, year on year, the global agenda has been pushed by politicians of all parties, aided by a compliant media and now finding new voice via the World Economic Forum. We are getting to an end point, hopefully the whole thing will implode, as a real energy crisis, caused by a faux climate crisis, brings reality to bear. If not we are heading for a dystopian nightmare.
What a shame Brummer still thinks there is a ‘climate crisis’ driving the need for us to have ever turned away from coal powered generation. Perhaps I am being unkind and that for many they can only advance one small step at a time, but then he has produced some utter drivel on Brexit, but then what journalist hasn’t.
I hear that Insult Britain have now brought the port of Dover to a standstill. That being the case I hope the police stand aside and leave it to a load of beefy lorry drivers to clear the roads…..(one can but dream).
An excellent article which sadly will get little traction in the current Boris thinking. Hopefully some conservative MPs will take note and action to return to the basic pragmatic policies which get support from from sensible voters and upon which the Conservative Party depends.
Since the number of Tory Mps doubting the received opinions would fit into Ford Transt van with room to spare, I trust that the remainder have not divulged their views on climate changes to “sensible” voters, if there are, indeed, many of these.
How to Clean up Pollution and Save Planet Earth
This power generating station was the first in Canada to install scrubbers to help reduce Sulphur dioxide emissions. It has an electrostatic precipitator that removes over 99% of particles in the flue gases. It has special burners to limit Nitrogen Oxide emissions. An upgrade began in July 2004 which saw a Titan ProAsh facility that recaptures 75% of the fly ash produced by the generating station. Water from the Smoke Stack Scrubbers is recycled. This eliminates the use of a ‘Tailings Pond’. The effluent removed from the water has resulted in the production of a Synthetic Gypsum Byproduct (Drywall) which is then sold, all over North America.
Belldune Coal Fried Power Generating Station – A Poster Child for Clean Energy!!
PICTURE NOT PERMITTED
That is mostly steam coming out that chimney . . . Like what we see at all Natural Gas Plants!!
Environmentalists are screaming to have this plant shut down . . . not because it is clean . . .
Because it burns coal . . . Another Fossil Fuel . . . Clean Energy . . . somehow bad??
Please . . . Let’s find some common sense and bring it home to Environmentalism . . .
It is long overdue that humans visit the truth of Science in all of our Environmentalist Narratives. Clean-up the Planet of foul effluent first. Set CO2 on the back burner for now. Our obsession with CO2 is not helping the clean-up of the Environment. It is holding back the progress towards cleaning up of the pollution that is truly destroying the Environment on Planet Earth.
The by-products from burning fossil fuels:
1. Sulfur dioxide (SO2), which contributes to acid rain and respiratory illnesses
2. Nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contribute to smog and respiratory illnesses
3. Particulates, which contribute to smog, haze, and respiratory illnesses and lung disease
4. Mercury and other heavy metals linked to both neurological and developmental damage
5. Fly ash and bottom ash, that are residues created when power plants burn coal
All are significantly reduced when we invest $800,000 million. As we see above!
Let’s work smarter, Not Harder . . . Be Visionaries, with a Goal – Clean-up Now!
Flue gas treatment technologies
“Scrubbers is the generic term applied to flue gas treatment processes. There are both liquid, and solid-type gas treatment processes that are a function of the physical and chemical properties of the contaminant being removed. Among others, they include: wet scrubbers, dry scrubbers, adsorbents and mercury removal processes that chemically convert volatile elemental mercury in the hot flue gas into solid water-soluble salts that can be collected. There are also variants such as electrostatic precipitators and desulfurizing processes.
The Clean Air Act (USA) requirements have driven development and installation of many technologies to reduce hazardous air pollutants in many industries. Several common approaches for flue gas cleanup applications have been generally described here. Scrubbers of various types are widely used commercially and have been found to be feasible technologies for numerous combustion applications, particularly for coal and oil electric power generation and other heat-dependent applications. Emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, toxic stable organic chemicals, mercury and particulates can be managed to high degrees of removal.”
https://www.watertechonline.com/wastewater/article/15550703/smokestack-scrubbers-how-they-work-and-why-they-are-used
Solutions . . . Not just finger pointing at the obvious problems . . .