Sidelights on energy

Woodsy, who was in a discussion with Frank and others over energy strategies, adds this today … or rather, I add what he wrote at another place:

Yeah well I got told off for suggesting that all UK controlled fossil fuel extraction should be nationalised for domestic use. It was a poor choice of word, the gov can't run gas wells and I didn't mean they should. 

But in war and emergency they can and do directly control what businesses do, what is manufactured, and who it's for. Like Vox I see a dire emergency here. 

It's not as though the Gov have not been controlling the fuel industry anyhow. They allow (or more often disallow) leases, they make conditions of who when and where gas is extracted, and for 2 decades have squashed fossil fuels, prevented extraction and use, now forcing us to subsidise so called green technology and to turn to electric (of which there is not enough and it's increasingly unaffordable). 

While waiting for the magic unicorns to solve the problems of not enough power, no storage of even the inefficient windmills and solar arrays, they outsourced all the nasty polluting manufacturing and mining to China and covered the shortages by the inconcievable stupidity of handing Putin, a known potential antagonist, the master key to all western economies by making us all 100% dependent on his gas. 

To an extent we can deal with some shortages, the 3 day week and petrol rationing has happened before. Not comfortable but we can survive it. However society cannot cope with energy prices doubling, tripling and more. People will freeze, pubs, hotels, bakeries and all,manufacturing will close down, farming won't cope, food storage and freezers will become uneconomic, hospitals and schools won't be heatable, society will collapse when food is scarce and unaffordable because nobody can make fertiliser. 

The real test will be next year.

The Uk is fundamentally better placed than central Europe as we do have offshore gas and oil, but we need it all now and we need it here at an affordable price.

So I won't use the word nationalise, lets call it a type of excess profit reduction scheme,for the duration of the emergency, instructing UK controlled extraction wells to be fully decoupled from the international market and delivered to the UK at a sensible price. It's certainly intervention, but no more so than the net zero crap and increasing controls of the past 20 years. 

Bits of sticking plaster won't work. Liz can throw payments to benefit families, pensioners, pubs etc but they don't solve the problem. I fear she will cap prices and pay fuel companies the difference, leaving our children with ridiculous long term debts and still failing to make us energy independent which is the only long term solution.

And while they are at it I read recently an article that much north sea gas is exported because it's calorific value is slightly outside our rules so we can't have it, we'll have that too please. Better to have gas that's a bit less efficient than none at all.

Then when it's over, if we are still here, we can maybe get rid of the net zero fairy tale scenario of 'renewables' and force the green nutters to explain - if they want to reduce fossil use and CO2 suggest a workable plan not this current stupidity.

Will anyone take such, or equivalent, drastic action, let's see.