A fired-up Tom Harwood tilted at Britain’s failure to develop energy infrastructure on Question Time last night. The newly-appointed GB News Deputy Political-Editor – congratulations by the way – tilted at the “plague on all your houses” political failure to build electricity infrastructure. On each means of power generation, from nuclear and new oil, to fracking and solar, Tom generated examples of the anti-growth attitudes of all major political parties. He went on:

“I don’t think there’s a single form of energy production in this country that a politician, or across the board politicians, have supported. We live in a country now where every single politician, every single political party, from each direction, find reasons to say no. To stop development. To stop growth. To stop our own home-grown energy. Frankly, I don’t care if it’s shale gas, if it’s fracking, if it’s wind, if it’s solar, if it’s nuclear, if it’s oil, if it’s gas. I don’t care, just build it!”

Speaking truth to power.

While speaking to LBC this morning, Climate Minister Graham Stuart couldn’t rule out energy rationing. This is despite Liz emphatically doing so in the leadership contest. The change in tune comes as the National Grid warned that 3-hour blackouts could be a possibility from November. Wrap up warm…

During the interview Graham did also proclaim “we’re not a nanny state government” in response to questions about a public information campaign. Liz is sticking to some campaign pledges…

The government’s new energy package is currently set to last six months, pending a review. Although  Jacob Rees Mogg has just admitted in a pool clip that it may extend far beyond that for the public sector if wholesale prices don’t go down soon. We could be in this for the long run…

Ofgem has, as expected, raised the energy price cap from £1,971 to £3,549 a year, starting in October. They ominously add:

“Although Ofgem is not giving price cap projections for January because the market remains too volatile, the market for gas in Winter means that prices could get significantly worse through 2023.”

Ofgem chief Jonathan Brearley says “it’s clear the new Prime Minister will need to act further”.

With energy prices now shooting into the stratosphere, Guido’s had a quick look through the archives to remind himself why the pointless price cap was ever introduced in the first place. He stumbled across a 2017 campaign speech from Theresa May:

“…[I think] it’s right, as does everybody sitting around the Cabinet table, for government to take action to support working families. And what we’re talking about is a cap on energy prices that will be set by an independent regulator, and that will be a reflection of the market […] We’re Conservatives, we believe in free markets and competition. But we want to see competition working… under our cap, prices will be able to go down.”

May also wrote a Sun op-ed claiming the cap would “stand up for millions of working families” and help keep prices low. Of the 70 or so suppliers in the market when the energy cap legislation passed in 2018, 24 remain. The price cap to see competition working… destroyed competition.

The usual characters on the left – Owen Jones, Novara, even Gordon Brown – are all singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to the energy crisis: nationalise the energy companies, and this will all be fine. Apparently the UK is the only country to get this so wrong – Europe has the right answers…

Across the channel, Macron had the genius idea of fully nationalising the energy firm EDF and capping price rises at 4%. EDF now are suing the French state – or rather, French taxpayers – for around €8.4 billion for being forced to sell their energy at a loss. EDF predict the total losses for the year could reach as high as €15 billion, which will have to be picked up by taxpayers. So the amount households will consequently have to pick up through the tax system will be somewhere in the range of €300 to €500 per French household.

Not only that, Bloomberg reports France is facing an even darker winter than Germany, with EDF running just 26 of its 57 reactors, and the increasing reliance on gas and imported energy shooting wholesale prices through the roof. French forward pricing has shot up almost 1,000% since 2020…

Meanwhile Novara are bandying around charts claiming the UK is uniquely heading for disaster, with European customers shielded from the worst of it. Apparently German retail energy prices have only risen by 23% this year:

Guido’s not sure how Novara stumbled on these figures. According to Rystad Energy, the leading energy research and data analytics consultancy, European electricity bills alone have tripled in the last year…

Bloomberg also reports the total cost of Europe’s energy crisis could come to nearly €200 billion. A cost that one way or another eventually lands as a bill on European taxpayers’ doorsteps…