Britain is facing a crisis in its energy security, which is wholly unnecessary.
The British Isles remain surrounded by unexploited oil and gas reserves, while beneath the country’s surface lie layers of shale.
With careful and environmentally sensitive modern drilling techniques, these untapped gold mines of natural resources could keep our fleet of mothballed natural-gas generators fired up until long-lasting sources of greener energy have been secured.
In decades to come, Britain may well sustain carbon-free energy solutions at huge scale in solar, water and hydrogen. We could even, as the Prime Minister once colourfully put it, become 'the Saudi Arabia of wind power'.
But until those technologies are properly invested in, we now face the prospect of the lights going out just as they did in the 1970s. Quite simply, Britain must look for alternatives.
Yet while the industrial fallout from the present crisis is obviously horrendous, the potential damage to households is even greater as prices spiral out of control.
Unfortunately, Boris Johnson or his advisers have clearly failed to understand the risk to the country of relying excessively on energy purchased from abroad.
It ought to be obvious that surrendering our energy needs to the Moscow-controlled Gazprom and a ghastly collection of Middle East potentates has been a grievous error.
Most people are sympathetic to the green objections to fracking, from despoiling parts of the countryside.
Nevertheless, we should not overstate its dangers. In 2017, for example, the advertising watchdog rapped environmental charity Friends of the Earth for a 'misleading' leaflet that claimed fracking can cause cancer.
Meanwhile, one only has to look across the Atlantic to witness the gains that can be achieved from regaining some energy independence.
Having risen for 30 years, American imports of oil are now negligible thanks to the fracking revolution.
When the UK Government halted fracking in November 2019, it made it clear that this was a moratorium, not a permanent ban.
But fracking is only one possibility. The PM could license applications for development of the Cambo field situated some 75 miles to the west of Shetland. It contains more than 800 million barrels of oil and considerable potential gas deposits.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer may come to regret his opposition to the drilling, which would have created a reported 1,000 jobs, on 'carbon emission' grounds.
Similarly, the new modern and safer coal mine in Cumbria has been held up in spite of the willingness of investors to plough more than £150 million into the project.
Instead, coal imports to Britain have soared — up 45 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 on the same period last year, to a total of 1.5 million tonnes. Some 60 per cent of Britain's imported coal comes from — Russia!
The experts say the best ways of rapidly delivering a greener and more secure energy supply would be for the Government to commit far bigger sums of money — perhaps as much as £1 billion rather than the £215 million already earmarked — to speed up Rolls Royce's plans for 'miniature nuclear plants'.
The engineering giant has announced plans to build up to 16 of these so-called 'small modular reactors'.
The smaller plants are assembled from 'modules' in factories, thanks to technology that is already used in the nuclear turbines that power the Royal Navy's submarines.
Most sensible people want to see Britain and the world's carbon emissions fall for the sake of generations to come.
But sacrificing our prosperity and the health and comfort of our people on the 'green altar' — when technology exists that renders this entirely unnecessary — would be unforgivable.
The nation is engaged in a monstrous act of self-harm. To avoid prolonging this crisis, we should consider urgently giving the fracking pioneers, North Sea drillers and Rolls Royce the only 'green' light that matters: the one that says 'Go'.
The British Isles remain surrounded by unexploited oil and gas reserves, while beneath the country’s surface lie layers of shale.
With careful and environmentally sensitive modern drilling techniques, these untapped gold mines of natural resources could keep our fleet of mothballed natural-gas generators fired up until long-lasting sources of greener energy have been secured.
In decades to come, Britain may well sustain carbon-free energy solutions at huge scale in solar, water and hydrogen. We could even, as the Prime Minister once colourfully put it, become 'the Saudi Arabia of wind power'.
But until those technologies are properly invested in, we now face the prospect of the lights going out just as they did in the 1970s. Quite simply, Britain must look for alternatives.
Yet while the industrial fallout from the present crisis is obviously horrendous, the potential damage to households is even greater as prices spiral out of control.
Unfortunately, Boris Johnson or his advisers have clearly failed to understand the risk to the country of relying excessively on energy purchased from abroad.
It ought to be obvious that surrendering our energy needs to the Moscow-controlled Gazprom and a ghastly collection of Middle East potentates has been a grievous error.
Most people are sympathetic to the green objections to fracking, from despoiling parts of the countryside.
Nevertheless, we should not overstate its dangers. In 2017, for example, the advertising watchdog rapped environmental charity Friends of the Earth for a 'misleading' leaflet that claimed fracking can cause cancer.
Meanwhile, one only has to look across the Atlantic to witness the gains that can be achieved from regaining some energy independence.
Having risen for 30 years, American imports of oil are now negligible thanks to the fracking revolution.
When the UK Government halted fracking in November 2019, it made it clear that this was a moratorium, not a permanent ban.
But fracking is only one possibility. The PM could license applications for development of the Cambo field situated some 75 miles to the west of Shetland. It contains more than 800 million barrels of oil and considerable potential gas deposits.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer may come to regret his opposition to the drilling, which would have created a reported 1,000 jobs, on 'carbon emission' grounds.
Similarly, the new modern and safer coal mine in Cumbria has been held up in spite of the willingness of investors to plough more than £150 million into the project.
Instead, coal imports to Britain have soared — up 45 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 on the same period last year, to a total of 1.5 million tonnes. Some 60 per cent of Britain's imported coal comes from — Russia!
The experts say the best ways of rapidly delivering a greener and more secure energy supply would be for the Government to commit far bigger sums of money — perhaps as much as £1 billion rather than the £215 million already earmarked — to speed up Rolls Royce's plans for 'miniature nuclear plants'.
The engineering giant has announced plans to build up to 16 of these so-called 'small modular reactors'.
The smaller plants are assembled from 'modules' in factories, thanks to technology that is already used in the nuclear turbines that power the Royal Navy's submarines.
Most sensible people want to see Britain and the world's carbon emissions fall for the sake of generations to come.
But sacrificing our prosperity and the health and comfort of our people on the 'green altar' — when technology exists that renders this entirely unnecessary — would be unforgivable.
The nation is engaged in a monstrous act of self-harm. To avoid prolonging this crisis, we should consider urgently giving the fracking pioneers, North Sea drillers and Rolls Royce the only 'green' light that matters: the one that says 'Go'.
RSS Feed