Campaign to highlight the serious economic and societal implications of expensive and poorly considered climate and energy policies #CostOfNetZero
London
Joined September 2014
- Tweets47.8K
- Following933
- Followers69.6K
- Likes2.4K
The Chancellor could split Burnham’s Cabinet as Healey backs giving the green light to drilling at the 500m-barrel Rosebank oil field in the North Sea. However, Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Secretary, who will make the final decision has indicated she is minded to turn down the application on environmental grounds.
Ed Miliband is also opposed, having previously described proposals for oil extraction at Rosebank as “climate vandalism” that would conflict with the Government’s plans to reach net zero.
#CostOfNetZero
The Church of England is facing mounting criticism over its £190m Net Zero programme, as 37 of its 42 dioceses run budget deficits.
The Church committed to reaching Net Zero by 2030, funding green upgrades to churches and vicarages. It has since admitted it will miss the deadline.
Critics say restrictions on new oil and gas boilers have left parishioners shivering in cold churches, while a new report describes costly initiatives as “unrealistic, extravagant, unsustainable and deeply depressing”.
#CostOfNetZero
The risk of winter blackouts has risen for the first time in four years, amid warnings from Britain’s grid operator that net zero is making it harder to keep the lights on.
A damning independent report earlier this week warned that Neso control-room engineers were concerned that the switch to renewable energy was making it harder to manage the grid but felt pressure to “convey a positive message”.
#CostOfNetZero
British households will pay more on their gas bills to pay for the maintenance costs of an undersea gas interconnector linking the UK and Belgium says Ofgem.
Without the pipeline, it warned that the grid would risk gas shortages in a worst-case winter scenario where temperatures plummet and a major system failure happens elsewhere. That could leave power plants without enough fuel or – in extreme circumstances – households without their central heating.
#CostOfNetZero
"Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Secretary, is minded to block Rosebank, the UK’s last major untapped oil reserve, citing 'climate obligations'."
"This is absurd. Britain contributes less than 1 per cent of global emissions and will keep using oil and gas for decades... The only question is whether it comes from the North Sea, supporting British jobs, supplying significant tax revenue and strengthening our energy security, or arrives from abroad."
"Britain has sacrificed its national interest on the altar of net zero for too long." @Telegraph
#CostOfNetZero
"The more renewables we build, the more our electricity depends on the weather, the more expensive back-up is, and thus the more problems we have... We don’t need renewables. We need oil, gas, and nuclear," says @DavidGHFrost, warning:
"The energy clock has not stopped. It is ticking, and ticking down to economic decline, unless the policy changes. An energy strategy that simply makes Britain poorer and colder is not in the interests of the British people. It is a failure of government dressed up as a moral achievement."
#CostOfNetZero
North Sea gas production will increase within weeks after ministers gave approval on Wednesday for drilling in the first big new field in almost a decade. Jackdaw is the UK’s largest known untapped gas reservoir and could account for 6 per cent of North Sea gas production when fully operational.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, confirmed that Jackdaw, off Aberdeen, will go into production before Christmas. A decision on Rosebank, the largest untapped oil field in the North Sea, will take “a bit longer”.
#CostOfNetZero
Net Zero Watch retweeted
Renewables will cause a grid collapse sooner or later, and when it happens, the industry will lie through its teeth and blame anything but the actual cause - and the media will swallow the narrative wholesale. No lessons will be learned. The policy will not change. Power supply will become ever more expensive and precarious, until we're into full blown energy rationing. Warnings will fall on deaf ears.
It’s official: a legal investigation has found engineers in Britain’s electricity grid control room are stressed because renewables make it so hard to keep the lights on. And when they raise concerns, managers won’t listen - they only want “good news”
thetimes.com/article/413d547…
"Electricity security is not measured by whether the lights stayed on yesterday – it’s measured by whether the system can withstand the failures that might reasonably occur tomorrow," says @KathrynPorter26, warning:
"With so many identifiable risks, worrying about blackouts is not scaremongering. Dismissing those concerns without properly addressing them is the bigger danger."
#CostOfNetZero
Net Zero Watch retweeted
It is extraordinary that NESO’s takeaway is that the core allegations made by the whistleblowers are unsubstantiated.
As I’ve always said, the core allegation is that the electricity grid is not being run securely. In that respect, the Eversheds report is utterly damning.
Not only does it say that renewables are making our grid more difficult to manage, but it says that several engineers in the control room profoundly disagree with NESO management’s claim that the grid was secure on 23rd June.
There are multiple serious problems highlighted - from a culture of managers only wanting to hear ‘good news’, to poor record keeping, and, most concerningly, a reluctance to action complaints from engineers because of the need to 'keep stakeholders happy'.
In other words, managers are failing to improve the security of our electricity grid because keeping Ministers in DESNZ happy is seen as more important.
NESO's Chief Executive earns close to £1 million a year and the whole organisation costs the better half of a billion pounds to run. The country and billpayers deserve better.
Government should be holding NESO to account, but instead, Ministers spent their time attacking me for raising the control room engineers' concerns and for making sure that any kind of investigation took place at all.
If this had been washed under the carpet, then where would we be?
A grid that is increasingly at risk and Ministers who, frankly, preferred to be asleep at the wheel rather than to do their jobs and protect our electricity supply.
With regards to the engineers' concerns on corporate affairs and record keeping, Eversheds did not give a clean bill of health as NESO is claiming. They found that a culture of 'reputational sensitivity' does indeed affect operational decision-making, and recommended several changes to correct significant failures in record keeping practices.
While I am on maternity leave, the Conservative team will continue to press the Government on this issue, because the bottom line is this: if we cannot trust NESO management to be honest about our ability to keep the lights on, how can they stay in their roles?
I look forward to the release of Ofgem's investigation on whether the grid was run securely on 23rd June. But we do now know that the control room strongly feel that it wasn’t.
An independent investigation has found no evidence to substantiate the core allegations against NESO around operational decision-making and record-keeping.
It constructively identifies areas where we could improve how colleagues can raise concerns and how we respond to them. We will act on the recommendations and be open with colleagues about our progress.
Read the report: bit.ly/4jtGewn
"Enthusiasm for AI is running headlong into the government’s net zero policies, leading to a growing cabinet schism. AI might look modern and clean, yet it is as voracious an energy consumer as all those heavy industries which are being driven from Britain’s shores thanks to high energy prices," says @RossjournoClark, warning: "If Britain wants to be a big player in AI, it is going to have to find significant quantities of power, and reliable power."
#CostOfNetZero
Read more 👇
spectator.com/article/ai-is-…
