The BBC dropped a Panorama ‘exclusive’ this morning on UK energy firm Drax, claiming that it burns the wrong type of trees from Canada. At first glance the BBC’s story – bylined by BBC One Show talking head Joe Crowley – looks like a piece of mind-numbingly technical environmental journalism. But if you check the receipts, all is not as it seems…

The BBC’s claims are uncannily similar to those contained in a report by hard left campaign group BiofuelWatch – which was published simultaneously. Funded by a raft of eco nut left-wing foundations, this group of greenie campaigners has been present on joint demonstrations with climate loony ambulance blockers Extinction Rebellion. The BBC report seems to lift statistics straight from BiofuelWatch’s research:

The BBC’s news piece (and accompanying Panorama programme) also relies on ‘timber marks’ to trace the origin of the offending trees. The BiofuelWatch report reveals these ‘timber mark case studies’ were originally carried out by another group of lefty campaigners….

To be fair to BiofuelWatch, they are a public campaign group aiming, in their own words, to “call for an immediate end to most of Drax’s subsidies” and effectively put the company out of business. The BBC does not mention BiofuelWatch’s findings as a source for their report. Has Panorama and the BBC splashed ‘research’ by a left-wing environmental campaign group all over its website without admitting a group of greenies are the primary source for its ‘investigation’? Just how much reporting did Panorama actually carry out? Surely silently taking a hand out from a group of eco warriors and badging it as journalism would breach the BBC’s high ethical standards…

The government is trying to spin its way out of a massive increase in “fuel poverty” today. That’s a phrase the left uses, Guido prefers “household proportional fuel spending”…

A new report released by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero declares in its headlines that the number of households shelling out over 10% of their income on fuel is “effectively unchanged” from last year under its “Low Income Low Energy Efficiency” metric. If only the real picture were so rosy…

Guido notices that the same report admits their under-emphasised “After Housing Costs” metric is “a better metric since households have limited ability to change their housing costs at least in the short term“. Deep in the publication sits the admission that households exceeding the affordability threshold have more than doubled from 2020 to 2023. In 2023, 36.4% exceeded the threshold, a fifth up from 27.4%  in 2022. Burying the lede…

The government is claiming that nothing has changed, then pushed out by the media, by using a metric they admit is worse. Meanwhile billions of pounds in subsidies given to bloated companies like Drax (which received £893 million in 2021 alone) are pushing up bills for ordinary families. A spine-chilling rise in fuel poverty is the result…

Despite the general hullabaloo over climate inside government at the moment – including the resignations of Chris Skidmore and Climate Change Committee CEO Chris Stark – Rishi Sunak remains committed to reaching the 2050 UK Net Zero target. His position falls between two stools: doing a bit more on North Sea oil, but sticking to the big 2050 target. As we enter 2024, the rubber is now hitting the road on the countdown to Net Zero, along with the associated costs for taxpayers…

Key to reaching Net Zero for any future Labour government is a process called carbon capture and storage – which syphons off carbon emissions at the point of electricity generation. Carbon capture technology is not cheap and generally requires government investment. Guido hears that the UK government will, in the next 24 hours, approve a significant scheme in North Yorkshire. You’d expect it would be welcome news for the green lobby…

It’s curious, then, to find energy think tank Ember – Labour’s “independent climate advisers” according to The Guardian – out attacking the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ahead of the move. The Drax scheme (whatever you make of Net Zero) will avoid taxpayer’s money being spent on a range of policies such as the imposition of heat pumps (735,000 to be precise, costing £5 billion), loathed by homeowners, or increasing imported biomass by 10%, which greenies themselves claim to hate. The project is set to be endorsed by ministers partly because it will save taxpayers £700 million a year – or £25 a household – vs other more costly routes to Net Zero nirvana. Further complicating things for its critics, it will also create 10,000 jobs, underwriting 7000 more. In high tax times, if we must continue to have Net Zero, it must be done as efficiently as possible. The climate will be right for politicians who work this one out, Labour or otherwise…