As war on gas pipelines escalates, Britain faces national security crisis
By Paul Homewood
London, 28 September – As Gazprom warned that the last remaining gas supply to western Europe is at risk of shutdown and gas pipelines are being blown up, Net Zero Watch has written to Liz Truss and Sir Keir Starmer, calling on both leaders to declare an energy emergency, on national security grounds.
In a letter to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, Net Zero Watch director Dr Benny Peiser has warned that the sabotage of three Nord Stream gas pipelines in the last 24 hours has brutally revealed how Britain’s energy system and its entire economic and societal stability is exposed to grave external threats.
Dr Peiser writes:
There is now a serious and growing risk to Britain’s national security due to the extreme vulnerability of the gas pipeline from Norway which provides a third of UK gas supplies.
It is vital that you understand that a similar attack on the Norwegian gas pipeline would, on its own, completely cripple the UK economy. This extreme vulnerability must be fixed as a matter of national priority, and must take precedence over all other considerations.
From a national security perspective, the urgent need is for immediate policy changes that significantly and swiftly increase reliable domestic sources of energy, which means gas and coal, without which the grid and the economy cannot function. I set out below key steps that must be taken.
It is also vital that you understand that no responsible government and opposition can accept this national security risk without taking swift and effect action.”
Emergency agenda
Unconventional gas
All obstacles to the development of unconventional fossil fuel resources in the UK must be removed. In particular:
* Replace the current traffic light system, based on seismicity, with BS5228-2, the ground-acceleration standard applied to other industries.
* Fossil fuel extraction to be categorised as Nationally Significant Infrastructure under the terms of the Planning Act. This should include projects in Scotland.
* Planning applications for shale wells must cover drilling pads rather than individual wells.
* Get coalbed methane and coal seam gasification projects going again, overruling Holyrood if necessary
Other
* Suspend the Climate Change Act
* Suspend pollution controls on thermal power, thus allowing dual-fuel use of gas-fired plant and the development of ultrasupercritical coal-fired power stations.
* Several coal and nuclear stations to close in next few years. Critical risk that these are not maintained in the meantime. Give them long-term agreements to ensure they remain on the grid and are maintained.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Steam Reforming!
As usual, all very sensible ideas from Net Zero Watch. But the green bureaucrats and advisers driving the UK’s insane energy policy will make sure that all the proposed solutions will never happen.
Philip
Was that you that I saw on Spotlight yeserday, I think in connection with a solar farm?
Yes it was, but it was on Sunday, and it was to do with the new government position on allowing onshore wind turbines, which we (Devon CPRE) have vehemently opposed for about 15 years.
Would have thought that Dr P’s appeal to the threat to National Security could not be better when writing such an address to political leaders.
All they hear is *net zero*. The rest is noise.
But, they will say, its so quick to build loads more on shore windmills if all restrictions were removed. And this is what they will do.
The amount of ambient energy in a temperate climate country like the UK, is greatly reduced in the winter. We have mid-Autumn, Winter and the first few weeks of Spring to get through, where renewables are pretty much useless.
The Illusory Truth that an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration from 0.03% to 0.042% can in any way affect the climate, needs to be disregarded, as does the fiction that it is created by man. The Covid19 Pandemic lockdown proved this was a falsehood when the rate at which CO2 was entering the atmosphere remained virtually unchanged during this period.
It is clear that Moscow is attempting to starve the UK of gas, we need fracking to start ASAP. Parliament needs to remove all legislation banning fracking as a matter of urgency!
…and give the police and army emergency powers to protect the fracking sites.
.. and adopt the Ireland Alternative Fuel Obligation and get our gas turbine gernerators switched to liqid fuels with appropriare storage ASAP.
While you are entirely correct, rapid action depends on the languid Rees-Mogg. Wrap up warm.
JF
The US has already cancelled the climate emergency? The strategic oil reserves have been depleted to make fossil fuels for transportation more available and that has lowered the cost of the CO2 emissions that Mr. Biden and John Kerry promised in Glasgow would be lowered. Dissenting views from the green new deal proponents have been few. Stay tuned?
Biden sold it to a Chinese company that Hunter has an interest in.
What happens when the SPR runs low? There is no new production to replace it.
This is off topic but I thought it might be of interest. I got fed up of listening adverts for 100% renewable electricity/energy. I found the Shell UK one most offensive, so complained to the ASA.
Today I got this reply:
ASA Enquiry Ref: A22-xxxxxxx Shell UK Ltd
Thank you for contacting the ASA with your complaint about Shell. We would like to sincerely apologise for the delay in providing you with an update.
The ASA has reviewed a number of ads that contain potential breaches of the environmental rules, and we have decided that the Shell TV ad should be formally investigated. For administrative reasons, we have decided to take up the complaint ourselves as an ASA challenge, and as such you won’t receive a direct update about the case. However, please feel welcome to check our website, http://www.asa.org.uk over the next few months for relevant rulings, or sign up for updates here.
Many thanks once again for taking the time to alert us to the matter.
Kind regards
Octopus should be next in line.
I agree. They make wild claims and expect their customers to support them.
Norwegian pipelines will be next, Putin is in it to win it, better get some coal in, pity we blew up our coal plants.
I dont know why you think Putin is responsible for the damage to nordstream 1 and 2 off the island of Bornholm . He can turn the gas off at source any time . damaging the pipeline means no income after the war. Furthermore the Poles are publicly thanking US for the sabotage , which happened the day after the Baltic pipeline was opened., and Biden is on public record saying ” nordstream 2 will be stopped ” – and now it is . Remember a few weeks ago US warships were active on “exercises” in that area .
Moscow has now demanded a meeting of the Security Council to discuss this.
mike
Have you a link to the Poles publicly thanking the US?
Even Biden isn’t stupid enough to say on camera that nordstream will be stopped if he meant it as a threatened military action. Listening to his speech I would take it as meaning diplomatic and economic pressure will be applied
There was a tweet from a Polish MEP thanking the US.
Putin, like all dictators, is mad, so reasoned arguments do not always apply, UK is supplying a lot of gas to Europe every day, from LNG deliveries and Norway, if the Norwegian pipe goes we are going to need all the LNG for ourselves, so no more gas to Europe. Mikewaite…. you may be right, that US blew them up, but the Norwegian pipelines must be a better bet than Nuclear for Putin. Next the electric interconnectors. War is never fair.
From abc news , Biden meeting with Scholz in Feb:
“If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the — the border of Ukraine again, then there will be — there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said during the press conference with Scholz, who did not go as far as Biden, but insisted the U.S. and Germany remain “absolutely united.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-meet-german-chancellor-urge-united-front-amid/story?id=82712888
And on other websites commenters have remarked on the Us article in the mag Seapoe about the trials of underwater drones in the area affected , and odd Sikorsky flights from US carriers in the area . Circumstantial, yes – but building up to a deep suspicion .
I can’t see why Putin would damage the pipelines. It simply reduces his leverage considerably. Putin is not “mad”, he is egotistical, nationalistic and like so many leaders, he refuses to recognise his errors.
Putin turned the gas off via Poland in May and on Nordstream a month ago following a long period of much reduced volumes. His attempts to apply a squeeze to Germany have resulted in the Germans buying replacement gas elsewhere and still managing to fill their storage ahead of winter. Germany remains publicly committed to eliminating Russia dependence in its energy supply (also including oil and coal). The Germans are not bleating. By indulging in for now repairable damage to the pipelines he is indicating that the Germans must decide soon to acquiesce or he will regard the pipeline as a write-off. The Germans act as if it is already written off. Their share is 31%. There is no real cost to Russia if the Germans are stopping Russian gas purchases: the pipeline becomes a redundant asset. It does throw a defence conundrum for the West into the kaleidoscope. There are plenty of potentially vulnerable offshore pipelines and cables. Not least in the US Gulf of Mexico.
Nordstream 2 has been stopped. The Germans were “persuaded” not to commission it. Perhaps the US has some interesting Kompromat. It was not necessary to blow it up.
The Russians certainly have the capability. Such evidence as is available suggests they had assets in the area that switched off AIS tracking and could easily have been used to deploy ROVs.
US Air Force helicopters
conducted a series of sorties in the area where the Nord Stream
explosion and the mysterious gas leak occurred just days ago, much ahead
of the accident that Europe claims may have been a ‘sabotage’, Oleg
Makarov, military and defence analyst and co-founder of Vatfor claimed
on Tuesday. The trajectory of the flight of the American helicopters
with the callsign ‘FFAB123’ coincided with the site in the Baltic Sea
where the major gas leaks subsequently took place on the Nord Stream
pipelines to Europe
Did the possibility that the helicopters were tracking suspicious vessel movements and operations occur to you?
Yes. Since the USA blew up Russia’s pipelines (and we haven’t even protested!) then all NATO country pipelines are in play and fair game. Well done USA in ratcheting up global terrorism.
Why would the US blow up NATO just when things are getting awkward with China/Taiwan? They will need every friend they can muster, not being alone.
These sabotaging actions have, IMHO, all the hallmarks of the worst and most extreme “green” ideologues!
Far too sophisticated for that. Given the Russian army’s utter incompetence in Ukraine and the huge losses they have sustained there in terms of elite troops, plus their obvious incompetence in the Salisbury poisonings and elsewhere, I struggle to believe it was them either. And how, when NATO ships were all over the area? Biden is simply vastly overconfident and his advisers/handlers vastly arrogant. They are a worrying combination that doesn’t really know what they are doing.
It has been the Donbass militia, with Russian support, that have been fighting since February 24th. Also, Russia wants to capture the Russian speaking part of Ukraine, not destroy it, so they have trodden lightly, trying to avoid civilians.
Now that their referenda have completed ‘successfully’, the Russian call up will allow the ‘Special Military Operations’ to be reinforced.
The Russian backed forces have had to deal with the fortifications that Ukraine has been building in the Donbass since 2014/5 and Maiden Coup but, after that, it’s mostly open country for some distance.
The US is willing to fight, and fight, until the last Ukrainian is standing, so the future isn’t very bright at all, quite apart from the deindustrialization ramping up in Continental Europe, particularly Germany, the EU’s supposed economic engine.
Would Greens pump large volumes of methane into the atmosphere? Seems more like that is done to taunt them. Especially on Greta’s doorstep.
Your call for immediate national coordinated action to defend the UK’s energy security is absolutely correct. Reckless undertakings have been made by many politicians to slash fossil fuel extraction in favour of unreliable renewable energy. However fast technology is taking us along the path towards efficient energy systems , it is nor ready to immediately deploy and you are correct in identifying a real and present danger to our entire economic and social fabric. The time for serious action to ensure that we can power our households and our industries is now and a green policy moratorium must now be put in place to prevent a catastrophe of horrific consequences.
Nicholas,
the inertia of government and it’s advisors, their very real lack of understanding of both climate science and electrical production means that action that should have been done years ago is unlikely to happen. Even the positive noise made by the current Prime Minister is offset by the noise to build more onshore wind generators which are particularly poor sources of power.
As many commentators on this subject have said, it is going to take a catastrophic grid failure to awake and remove the group think in Westminster.
Nicholas,
the inertia of government and it’s advisors, their very real lack of understanding of both climate science and electrical production means that action that should have been done years ago is unlikely to happen. Even the positive noise made by the current Prime Minister is offset by the noise to build more onshore wind generators which are particularly poor sources of power.
As many commentators on this subject have said, it is going to take a catastrophic grid failure to awake and remove the group think in Westminster.
I dread to think what gas shortages would do to the country. Unlike electricity, when gas supply is terminated you have to get an engineer to visit to get it restored.
Have recently bought a great piece of kit, a wood/charcoal burning rocket stove, not tried it yet, but all the videos suggest that it can cook a meal for two with just a few handfuls of wooden sticks/twigs. Its the Ecozoom Versa stove.
That stove sems to be for use strictly outside.
I have acquired a portable Butane heater for indoors and a camping type stove. I also have a jackery 1kw solar generator-essentially a sophisticated battery- which will power the microwave, perhaps the most efficient of all cooking units.
If I had the space I would have acquired a 2kw petrol generator and had an electrician put in suitable wiring into the house. Unfortunately, with neighbours it would be much too noisy
Note that microwave cookers consume a lot more electrical power than the “Cooking Power” stated on the front panel. A typical 700w cooker will draw between 1100 & 1300 watts of AC power (check the specification label on the back), and this supply must be able to cope with a start-up surge as well.
If it’s a newer “Inverter” model you may be lucky, as these actually vary the cooking power, rather than just cycle full power on and off for different periods, like older models do.
Honda or Yamaha 2kW units are quite quiet.
I have a one ring Camping Gaz type cooker and a light. Also camping LED lights and a stock of batteries. Also a battery pack for the phone.
But for cooking I’m planning retained heat/haybox cooking. Large capacity coolbag filled with old pillows and blankets wrapped in an old duvet. Lots of vegetable stews heated on one ring then into haybox, saving the planet while surviving, (root vegetables have a long life) with pasta and rice.
Climanrecon says he hasn’t even tried it yet, but says it is a good piece of kit. This sounds like an advertising plug and should not be allowed on Paul’s site.
Dave
Ours is a fairly old microwave and the Jackery had no problem powering it. I reckon I could cook 6 to ten meals that each required 5/6 minutes cooking. Obviously from ambient temperature and not frozen.
Gas pipeline sabotage?
The govt endorses a huge solar array in Morocco with a massive 2500 mile long undersea cable between that country and North Devon. What could possibly go wrong?
SNIP.
What could possibly go wrong with the United Kingdoms proposed energy reliance on solar arrays in Morocco ? ….. An Iranian style Islamist revolution ; a foreign adversary not just sabotaging the connecting cables but bombing the solar grids in the event of war-time ..Or the use of economic coercion to to compel the Morrocan government to cut the power supply . …What an incredibly foolish arrangement. If Britains intelligence services and the UK Ministry of Defence have not vetoed this idea they are not acting responsibly to ensure the UK’s national security
Would it be free as reparations for slavery? Barbary Pirates raided SW England for 300 years and were much feared in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. Pirates from Republic of Salé had a base on Lundy destroyed by Cromwell which didn’t stop the raids. Captives were sold to the Ottoman Empire so Turkiye probably owes us too.
Ben,
not to mention the very large losses over such a length, D.C. may be less than A.C. but there are still losses.
Still the sun is free I suppose, is the thinking behind such an electrically inane project?
Morrocco connector, Is the technology really ready?; the US project was a disaster. “But problems at Crescent Dunes were nothing new. Commissioned in 2015, the plant never managed to achieve its average expected monthly output, according to a late-2019 market outlook from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. And last August, S&P Global Platts said the plant had only achieved a 0.3 percent capacity factor in the second quarter of 2019, delivering a paltry 765 megawatt-hours of power to the grid.” The 0.3% of nameplate output is underwhelming.
I would think that were it to happen it would be a declaration of war?
Morocco solar array. I don’t see how it can be viable to send power to Britain. The power loss on that cable must be enormous, it’s I x l x R. Anybody know the resistivity of the cable ? I assume it will have inverters at either end and be a HVDC link ? This crazy conservative government thinks we can import everything!
The Problem with Solar Energy in Africa
Very much centred on Morocco.
So the USA blowing up Russias pipelines is a declaration of war? That’s scarey!
My guess, you are extremely naive or a ruski troll.
Carlson even believes in man made global warming, say no more.
Putin would blow up his own pipeline because he figures if he just turned it off World public opinion would be annoyed but if he sabotages it himself and repairs would take ‘forever, Europe is deprived of Russian gas for the foreseeable future, not me guv. Keep up, don’t just believe it because Carlson said so.
An attack by one country on another’s energy assets is an act of war. Blowing up your own assets is being green if you are Nicola Sturgeon or Alok Sharma. Why should it be different for Putin?
I hope there are Royal Navy and Norwegian Navy patrols on alert in the North sea. I doubt we will hear much about it
What Navy ? British Armed forces have been decimated, and are now woke !
They’re too busy providing a taxi service in the Channel to be involved in a real navy operation in the North sea.
Come on, why would Russia blow up its own pipelines when it can simply turn them off? Now it has no leverage. And who thinks the Russians could do this successfully? This is the same Russia that is floundering in Ukraine remember.
Apparently they have considerable expertise in underwater operations and could easily mount such an operation.
But USA has more expertise and opportunity and said publically they would end the pipelines. Hmm, the yanks are holding the smoking gun.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-what-happened-nord-stream-pipeline
The pipelines were already shut down a month ago. Putin is almost certainly disappointed that although the market produced fear pricing back in August when it was just a possibility, the market reaction faced with the reality has been much more sanguine. It has not returned to the August highs which were almost twice current levels, even with the sabotage now in place. The market has already priced in no Nordstream with rationing as necessary.
The Russians have all the expertise they need and more.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/russian-spy-ship-yantar-in-english-channel/
Suggest you examine analysis by Joe Blogs on YouTube. Essentially he postulates that Gazprom may now claim ‘force majeure’ on its’ German contracts thereby avoiding legal financial penalties. It is simple to damage pipelines from Russian end by ‘pigs’used for internal inspection and maintenance.
Germany has not ceased buying Russian gas (and thereby breaching contract) but has merely stated that it intends to cease buying at some indeterminate future time.
The force majeure idea perhaps works. But it relies on Russia not itself being responsible, which at least explains a desire not to be blamed.
Pigs are not the way this was done. They rely on pipeline flow to move. There has been no flow for a month on Nordstream 1 and none at all on Nordstream 2. Flow would have to have ceased at precisely the right time to halt the pig transits at the explosion locations.
There are separate contracts for Nordstream and there have been no purchases since the flow halted. The Russians have already been providing force majeure excuses, citing compressor problems.
We should always have an alternative energy source/supply. We need to have the ability to source coal and gas. “Renewables” will NEVER keep this country functioning and keep us all warm and well fed – to shut down reliable energy is “for the birds” and should never happen.
Starmer plans to have 100% renewables and nuclear by 2030. I don’t think we’ll get anymore nuclear by then so it looks like massive windmill builds. It’ almost physically impossible to achieve but if it was we would be looking at thousands of deaths from hypothermia in 2030 or before. These people are dangerous idiots
Starmer plans….. hmmmmm, won’t happen, then.
Wind energy = 1/2 m v^2.
m= v(πr^2ρ)
Where ρ=density of air.
For any wind turbine ρ,π, and r are constant. ρ does vary but not enough to make any impact.
So wind energy = K v^3 where K is a constant derived from ρ,π, and r
So the cube of windspeed is all that matters for wind turbine output. As optimum output is at ~28mph, but 12mph seems more like the max most days. Say 50% of optimum, output is 12.5% of optimum.
By my calculation for 40GW demand, 10% nuclear (nothing new available before 2030) and the rest wind at 14mph you need at least 288GW of turbines. So an additional 36GW of windturbines every year until and including 2030. With some kind of massive storage which is as yet unspecified. Then a miracle happens
36GW is 10GW more than is already online
Ben,
I would say that your figures are far too low, given that 25 Gwatts (Approx)of installed wind generation occasionally gives just 1 Gwatt or less occasionally, then that needs over 600 Gwatts of installed capacity.
That is ignoring that a grid with 90% asynchronous generation cannot function.
@ climatereason September 28, 2022 4:56 pm
Here’s that Polish tweet:
It’s in this thread from Michael Shellenberger:
Sorry – this thread: https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1574826293677285376
Dave
Thanks. Interesting. I have a lot of time for Shellenberger and the Polish MEP is no troll
I speculate that the Poles are more likely to wreck the pipelines than the US. The Poles have unfinished business with the Russians from 1939 to 1993; wrecking the pipelines could force western Europe to escalate the conflict in Ukr to defeat Russia militarily. I speculate that the Poles can’t wait to cross swords / guns / missiles with the Russians.
A British coal industry would be quite useful at the moment.
@Micky R
Poland’s history of conflict with Russia is very much like Scotland and England, a smaller country with a much more powerful neighbour intent of “unification”. The first official conflict was in the 10th century. The powerful country won most conflicts often resulting in the partition and occupation. So the feelings of hostility are almost part of the DNA.
The UK was created from economic “conflict” not military which is interesting in the current context. The Jacobite rebellions of the 17th and 18th centuries were not Scotland v England but about who should be king
So we have US intelligence picking up on an intended attack, but without sufficient info to pinpoint exactly how and where it would happen. And one Pole misinterprets. They send out a helicopter based in Poland to investigate suspicious shipping that switched off its AIS.
They’d rather people freeze, a few dead elderly is a price the zealots are willing to pay. Only if it’s not a mild winter it will be a far more than a few. If we have a cold winter it will of course be because of climate change.
I don’t know what all the fuss is about:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1674849/energy-crisis-lifeline-latest-liz-truss-handed-masterplan-bills-cheap-electricity-gas
It contains gems such as “[T]he UK could end imports of electricity and save £93billion by the end of 2030, by completely phasing out gas and generating all of its energy through renewables. …”
and: ”They found that within just the next four years, Britain has enough wind and solar projects planned and being built to put it on track to generate all of its energy by 2030, providing all the planned projects are approved and constructed.”
Commenters aren’t convinced, though.
Generating the energy isn’t the only issue. Generating it when required is the main one and renewables are no good at that, and never will be.
Starmer and Boris are equally delusional about renewables. The plan is 8nfeasible, horrendously costly and would destroy the UK economy.
I still don’t like Benny Peiser.
‘It is also vital that you understand that no responsible government and opposition can accept this national security risk without taking swift and effect action.’
This is a stupid obvious No True Scotsman fallacy.
How can you take a dynamic video of a windless windfarm with which to upbraid your MP?
Was this ever resolved for the Norwegian Blue Parrot?
When being shown pictures of wind farms with static blades one should question whether one is viewing a snapshot or a video. More often than not, the latter is the case.
Roger,
far better is the yearly production records on Gridwatch Templar that clearly shows just how variable wind and solar are. Solar being very low for four months of the year, and wind is up and down all the time, pogo stick power the American’s call it.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-what-happened-nord-stream-pipeline
Carlson is too blinded by BDS to understand what is happening here.
The threat has been known for some time and hopefully the response will now be expedited. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/new-royal-navy-surveillance-ship-being-developed/
Quite. Interesting that it should include Arctic capabilities. They might find some unusual vessels being used in ROV deployment.
I know I’m repeating myself but we MUST adopt the Ireland Alternative Fuel Obligation and oblige our gas turbine generators to switch to liquid fuels with appropriate storage and save the available gas for domestic heating.
Vernon E: you’ve made this point quite a few times. It certainly would be a good move. But what about the practicalities?
I did a bit of web-searching without finding anything on converting gas-fired turbines to liquid-firing. A couple of major vendors do offer gas/liquid fuel capability as an option for new orders but no mention of retro-fitting.
I’m guessing that conversion is not straightforward because liquid fuels will have different combustion characteristics to gas, require different combustors and so forth.
Secondly, would there be sufficient liquid fuel available to do this at significant scale?
My search was not exhaustive and I have no expertise so I may well have missed things. Has this conversion been done anywhere that you know of?
Starmer/Insulate Britain insanity clear as day.
Spend £60k to save £1k or more likely a few hundred £. But people given ‘free’ stuff luv it!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11260727/Councils-green-plan-hailed-Keir-Starmer-Labour-conference-costs-60-000-home.html
The council said the green technology had reduced carbon emissions by 50 to 75 per cent and last March estimated tenants saved ‘between £190 to £350 a year on their energy bills’.
For Starmer’s speech that magically become a grand. £190 a year is a 315 year payback, which sounds more like par for the course on these schemes.
At last the truth and some common sense !!! We must start using our own coal and gas so we, in Britain, are independent. Let’s hope this government (with all the other problems to sort out) can get to grips with this vital problem ??