National Grid executives are sounding the alarm, predicting blackouts in the South East by 2028 due to the transition to reliance on renewable energy. This dire warning comes as no surprise to Guido, who has long questioned Labour’s reckless rush towards their utopian Net Zero dream…
Blame for this looming crisis is laid squarely at the feet of the erratic wind and solar power schemes that Labour so fervently champions. Electricity supply from renewables is set to skyrocket this decade under Labour’s push to make the power grid Net Zero by 2030. Industry leaders also point to a set of outdated market rules that are only making the bottlenecks worse. More red tape to go green over growth…
Electricity System Operator (ESO) executives are reportedly deeply “worried about keeping the lights on” in the South East with a source telling the Telegraph that “there will be blackouts in the South East by 2028”. Ed Miliband’s dash to decarbonise and rely on wind and solar plants – which are being mostly built in the North – making it difficult to transmit power across the country. With ongoing strikes and the threat of blackouts, are Labour taking us back to the 70s?
UPDATE: An ESO spokesman responds:
“We refute this categorically. We are not forecasting blackouts. As a prudent system operator we regularly assess the future challenges to decarbonising Great Britain’s electricity system whilst maintaining security of supply and managing cost. The ESO’s analysis in respect of zonal pricing supports the strategic build out and operation of Britain’s electricity system in a manner that is efficient and ensures that all networks and assets are utilized [sic] to their maximum. The ESO’s analysis does not show there will be blackouts because of current market arrangements. It indicates that we will need to continue to use our operational toolkit to balance the electricity system on a national basis. However, we expect that reforms to the wholesale electricity market, the accelerated delivery of electricity networks, and delivery of new generation and storage, will create a more efficient electricity system for the future.”
Guido thinks he means by “zonal pricing” that prices will have to go up in the South East if we don’t want power cuts.
Starmer and Miliband today confirmed that former Siemens UK chief Juergen Maier will be chairman of GB Energy. He describes himself as an “industrialist” who is “a passionate advocate for a new economic approach, which should provide stronger leadership for innovation and technology led ‘green frontier sectors’ and industrial tech start-ups… these should gain significantly more support as part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy“. The perfect mix of vacuous and statist…
Maybe Maier’s numerous Question Time appearances caught Labour’s eye, in which he called for a weak Brexit or trashed Tory policies over the years. Or maybe it was that Maier has been full of praise for the Starmer project over the years, especially hailing the glorious leader’s commitment to massive state spending on green subsidies. Typical fare from a corporate tipped for a cushy government job…
Maier has for over two years been pushing hard for the UK to rejoin the single market and reinstitute freedom of movement. More recently he’s been focussed on attacking anything Tory and offering barely-veiled support for every step taken by Starmer. No merit hires here…
According to The Telegraph Ed Miliband has today issued an order to immediately ban all new oil and gas drilling. Bids for 35 areas were meant to be up for grabs, confirmed by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), and assured to The Telegraph as soon as yesterday. Those have been kiboshed by Red Ed – losing millions in bid preparation in the process…
Industry representative Offshore Energies UK’s response is not a happy one:
“We remain deeply concerned that some of the new proposals being put forward for our industry will undermine the energy transition we all want to deliver. Labour’s leadership has recognised that North Sea oil and gas will be with us for decades to come and they have committed to managing this strategic national asset in a way that does not jeopardise jobs. They now need to deliver on their commitment to support our industry.”
Companies affected are said to be considering “legal action for damages” after wasting time and cash. Meanwhile the policy itself will pump up C02 emissions and lose the Treasury billions in revenue. No wonder Miliband is so keen…
UPDATE: DESNZ issues a response to The Telegraph:
“This piece is a complete fabrication – it invents meetings and decisions that have not taken place. As previously stated, we will not issue new licences to explore new fields. We will also not revoke existing oil and gas licences and will manage existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan.” So what will happen to the 35 new bidding areas?
Labour’s plans for the oil and gas sector have gone largely unscrutinised – thanks to the sector being a piñata for quick revenue-hungry chancellors. There aren’t many sweets left in it as the sector reaches absolute breaking point…
Under climate zealot Ed Miliband, Labour is proposing an increase to the already eye-watering windfall tax to 78% (from 75%) until 2029, as well as blocking any new licences. American international investment bank Stifel has conducted research into the effects of the tax plans. They have found that:
- An increase in the windfall tax to 78% and the removal of investment allowances would yield an extra £6.5 billion by 2029, not the expected £11 billion.
- From 2030 onwards, tax revenue would drop significantly, with a projected loss of £20 billion in tax income over the remaining life of the North Sea energy fields.
- The industry is likely to see a £20 billion reduction in capital investment by 2035 which leads to a 50% drop in production by 2030.
- According to projections, around 100,000 jobs could be lost in the sector by the next general election in 2029.
- The UK would become increasingly reliant on imports, with 80% of its gas demand met by imports by 2030, up from the current 55%.
Apart from the loss to energy security, without the North Sea our Co2 emissions would be higher, because production of oil and gas is not highly carbon intensive. Transportation/importation of oil and especially gas (specifically LNG) is where carbon intensity rises. So carbon emissions across the world would rise. The story of net zero writ large…
Read the full report below:
The Guardian has put up a fawning interview with Miatta Fahnbulleh, Labour PPC for Peckham and senior economic adviser to Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband. The paper bills her as a “rising intellectual star in Labour’s ranks” who is “juggling campaigning in her own patch, charity work, and school pick-ups for her 10-year-old and her five-year-old twins.” Along with directing policy and research for the left-wing think tank IPPR, Fahnbulleh for the last six years served as CEO of the socialist New Economics Foundation. Her public résumé reveals she has spent her entire life in academia – PPE at Oxford topped up by a Ph.D from LSE – before a stint in Whitehall followed by think-tank wonkery. As clever as Miatta undoubtedly is it is fair to say that all her knowledge of economics is theoretical and she has never so much as run a whelk stall. It’s clear what sort of proposals the “rising star” will be pushing to Rayner and Miliband…
The New Economics Foundation, under Fahnbulleh, recommended, among other things:
- A wealth tax and yet another windfall tax on oil and gas.
- Calls for mass nationalisation e.g. of land, transport, and energy.
- Extending national insurance to investment income.
- A cap on interest rates and charges on every form of consumer credit.
- Hiking capital gains tax to income tax levels.
- Hiking divided tax to income tax levels.
- Abolition of the upper earnings limit for national insurance.
- Huge expansion of the benefits system including a “minimum income guarantee” paid to everyone apart from the rich
- Nationalisation of banks and creation of new “green” banks with taxpayer funds.
- Block on private banks lending to anyone with a “large amount of greenhouse gas emissions” and “penalisation of banks that provide too many carbon-intensive loans.“
- Forced sale of existing businesses to employees.
- A tripling of the stamp duty surcharge to 9% for multiple homeowners and an increase to 6% for non-residents.
Rachel Reeves’ new tax advisory team is filled with high-tax supporters. Now someone who thinks “chasing economic growth” is wrong and that “antiracism means anticapitalism” has the ears of the shadow cabinet’s two leading left-wing members. Who do Labour think they are fooling when they parrot lines on fiscal responsibility?
Everyone is asking “Where’s Ed?” this morning after shadow Wales minister Jo Stevens was tasked with talking up Labour’s “Great British Energy” nationalised plans instead of the party’s green spokesman shadow cabinet minister. Rumour has it Starmer’s team has forced Ed into hiding…
On Thursday last week Miliband visited Morecambe and decided to snub the two nuclear power stations, the area’s largest employers, turning up instead to struggling engineering firm Balltec. The firm provides its services to, you guessed it, oil and gas firms. Balltec boasts that it provides “unrivalled engineering products and experience in the global oil & gas sector” and most recently worked for BP on large-scale oil extraction projects in the Gulf of Mexico. Is LOTO playing an extended prank on green Ed?
