I am so grateful to all my chums who instead of spending their evenings relaxing under the shade of a handy tree with a glass of something refreshing, have, no doubt much to the surprise of their family, dogs and neighbours, been doing their best to impress the Rain Gods, Mother Nature or whoever else is in charge of precipitation, with their rendition of a Rain Dance. Well, congratulations and Thank You it worked.
The spring crops were on their last legs and looking decidedly exhausted as they battled to stay alive as they searched in vain for moisture in the parched earth. Well, here’s hoping this is not too little too late and they will now blossom forth and make a magical recovery.
It would seem the Gods have not been shining so favourably on Ed Miliband. Nor for that matter has the press. The man is either a genius which I doubt or, with the deepest respect and I say this advisedly and quote, “a complete moron”. His mad Helter Skelter towards Net Zero, and to hell with the consequences, endangers the future of UK energy provision and leaves us reliant on a fragile and targetable electricity supply.
BP is in the throes of cancelling its Teesside hydrogen project which was at the heart of Miliband’s net zero plans. They were set to produce “blue” hydrogen from natural gas and then capture and store the carbon emissions. It was to deliver more than 10pc of the 2030 target set by Miliband for hydrogen production and was expected to come online by the late 2020s.
It is reported that BP is now likely to scale back or indeed cancel the 1.2-gigawatt project as the FTSE 100 company struggles to secure enough customers to make the investment worthwhile.
BP is however pressing ahead with the separate Net Zero Teesside Power scheme. This will see it build a flexible gas-fired power plant equipped with carbon capture technology. The outcome and viability of these projects will be worth keeping an eye on.
It must be disappointing when a well-loved view becomes obscured by a new housing development or Leylandii trees turning a once stunning rural view with lambs skipping around in the spring, to be blocked by a red brick building planted outside your bedroom window.
We have all seen reports of the new phenomenon which is emerging around our shores which are becoming increasingly overcrowded with wind turbines. It is not the view that is being taken but the wind. We read headlines such as, “Wind farms fight over the North Sea breeze”. Wind farms across the North Sea are having to deal with a situation described as the “wake effect” as the wind is literally being taken out of their sails.
This intriguing situation is threatening to cost companies such as Orsted, RWE, Scottish Power, Total and Equinor billions of pounds. They are apparently waging war in the planning system over who will take precedence and who picks up the bill.
Industry insiders have coined a term for it: wind theft.
Ed Miliband is deeply concerned that it risks creating unhelpful turbulence as he seeks to steer the country towards his goal of net zero by 2030 and beyond. He has commissioned a national study led by Manchester University on how to prevent or resolve these disputes.
Off the coast of Europe Belgium is being blamed for stealing wind from the Dutch, and the Dutch are being blamed for taking wind from Germany. You really couldn’t make this stuff up.
The problem is getting worse as there is limited seabed that is suitable for fixed wind turbines, and these are getting bigger. A typical turbine was around 200 metres tall but now turbines are being built in Brandenberg, Germany, which can reach as high as 364 metres – higher than London’s Shard.
The financial consequences are said to be disastrous. Orsted and Equinor complained that Total’s proposed Outer Dowsing wind farm off the Yorkshire coast could cost them a combined £363m in lost revenue. These situations are popping up all round our coast, including in the Irish Sea.
Ross Clark in the Daily Mail has brought to our attention that Starmer is pushing ahead with the £10billion AI data centres on the Northumberland coast. This data centre project, given planning permission in March and with Blackstone’s £10billion investment, is part of the PM’s plan for Britain to become a world leader in AI.
This is most commendable; however, data centres consume huge quantities of electricity. ChatGPT for example is estimated to use up to ten times more power than a Google search. It is also estimated that the site could emit more carbon dioxide than Birmingham Airport.
At a time when the building of new wind and solar farms has failed to keep pace with the closure of coal-fired power stations, such projects clearly have a problem, effecting the whole country. Our national grid was designed around large power stations in the Midlands. Wind and solar farms are far more dispersed and lie some distance from population centres where most power is consumed.
Now is the time to gear up the production of SMRs (small modular reactors) a quick and affordable source of low-carbon electricity. The talking must stop, licenses must be given to Rolls Royce, now.
What will our little island look like in years to come. The coastline will be encircled by wind turbines and our green and pleasant land covered in solar panels. Our roads will be clogged up by abandoned electric driverless vehicles with flat batteries. Raving AI ‘driver’ robots will die, and many EV vehicles catch fire. Already the number of EV fires have increased by 77 per cent over the past two years. These are more dangerous than petrol or diesel car fires as they are very hard to extinguish.
Our cities will grind to a halt as rogue states target our power supplies, and as everything is heading in the direction of the total dependency on electricity, nothing will work.
This includes the computers which direct the traffic, trains, airports, sewage, food distribution, hospitals, crematoriums, satellite systems, mobile phones, internet and so much besides. Is this the future the British public envisaged when they put their trust in government? There will riots and looting, and blood shed with everyone out for themselves.
This scenario is not a case of if but when. It is people such as Ed Miliband with his crack pot ideas of net zero without any understanding of the consequences, who are driving this forward in their blinkered madness.
His decision to close and cap our oil reserves, close coal mines and destroy coal fired power stations borders on criminal. Gloat as he abandons fracking and cheers from the sidelines as Cumbria’s Whitehaven coal mine lost its battle to provide coking coal for our fragile steel industry.
I quote, ‘the £165M underground metallurgical coal mine had been granted planning permission in December 2022 by the then secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, Michael Gove.
But planning consent for the mine was quashed in the High Court last September after Gove’s decision was challenged by Friends of the Earth (FOTE) and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) on environmental grounds.
The mine’s future has been in doubt since Keir Starmer’s Labour government, egged on by Ed Miliband, announced that it would not be defending Gove’s decision to grant planning permission. It said that planning permission had been unlawfully granted and withdrew its defence of the mine.
The UK government has since announced that new coal mining licences are set to be banned in the UK, making it the first Group of Seven (G7) country to ban coal mining.’
How utterly irresponsible; this will prevent future generations from achieving as a nation, energy production which previous generations benefitted from.
It is easy and tempting to criticise the actions of governments and ministers particularly when those actions effect the future of the country and all its citizens, whatever their colour. My deep concern and that of so many others is that this mad dash to net zero is being driven by politicians and their ideology and environmentalists who would prefer to see the country grind to a halt and descend into chaos, unable to defend our borders, feed the population or generally function. When will the grownups with practical and unblinkered solutions, enter the room? Time is running out.
The spring crops were on their last legs and looking decidedly exhausted as they battled to stay alive as they searched in vain for moisture in the parched earth. Well, here’s hoping this is not too little too late and they will now blossom forth and make a magical recovery.
It would seem the Gods have not been shining so favourably on Ed Miliband. Nor for that matter has the press. The man is either a genius which I doubt or, with the deepest respect and I say this advisedly and quote, “a complete moron”. His mad Helter Skelter towards Net Zero, and to hell with the consequences, endangers the future of UK energy provision and leaves us reliant on a fragile and targetable electricity supply.
BP is in the throes of cancelling its Teesside hydrogen project which was at the heart of Miliband’s net zero plans. They were set to produce “blue” hydrogen from natural gas and then capture and store the carbon emissions. It was to deliver more than 10pc of the 2030 target set by Miliband for hydrogen production and was expected to come online by the late 2020s.
It is reported that BP is now likely to scale back or indeed cancel the 1.2-gigawatt project as the FTSE 100 company struggles to secure enough customers to make the investment worthwhile.
BP is however pressing ahead with the separate Net Zero Teesside Power scheme. This will see it build a flexible gas-fired power plant equipped with carbon capture technology. The outcome and viability of these projects will be worth keeping an eye on.
It must be disappointing when a well-loved view becomes obscured by a new housing development or Leylandii trees turning a once stunning rural view with lambs skipping around in the spring, to be blocked by a red brick building planted outside your bedroom window.
We have all seen reports of the new phenomenon which is emerging around our shores which are becoming increasingly overcrowded with wind turbines. It is not the view that is being taken but the wind. We read headlines such as, “Wind farms fight over the North Sea breeze”. Wind farms across the North Sea are having to deal with a situation described as the “wake effect” as the wind is literally being taken out of their sails.
This intriguing situation is threatening to cost companies such as Orsted, RWE, Scottish Power, Total and Equinor billions of pounds. They are apparently waging war in the planning system over who will take precedence and who picks up the bill.
Industry insiders have coined a term for it: wind theft.
Ed Miliband is deeply concerned that it risks creating unhelpful turbulence as he seeks to steer the country towards his goal of net zero by 2030 and beyond. He has commissioned a national study led by Manchester University on how to prevent or resolve these disputes.
Off the coast of Europe Belgium is being blamed for stealing wind from the Dutch, and the Dutch are being blamed for taking wind from Germany. You really couldn’t make this stuff up.
The problem is getting worse as there is limited seabed that is suitable for fixed wind turbines, and these are getting bigger. A typical turbine was around 200 metres tall but now turbines are being built in Brandenberg, Germany, which can reach as high as 364 metres – higher than London’s Shard.
The financial consequences are said to be disastrous. Orsted and Equinor complained that Total’s proposed Outer Dowsing wind farm off the Yorkshire coast could cost them a combined £363m in lost revenue. These situations are popping up all round our coast, including in the Irish Sea.
Ross Clark in the Daily Mail has brought to our attention that Starmer is pushing ahead with the £10billion AI data centres on the Northumberland coast. This data centre project, given planning permission in March and with Blackstone’s £10billion investment, is part of the PM’s plan for Britain to become a world leader in AI.
This is most commendable; however, data centres consume huge quantities of electricity. ChatGPT for example is estimated to use up to ten times more power than a Google search. It is also estimated that the site could emit more carbon dioxide than Birmingham Airport.
At a time when the building of new wind and solar farms has failed to keep pace with the closure of coal-fired power stations, such projects clearly have a problem, effecting the whole country. Our national grid was designed around large power stations in the Midlands. Wind and solar farms are far more dispersed and lie some distance from population centres where most power is consumed.
Now is the time to gear up the production of SMRs (small modular reactors) a quick and affordable source of low-carbon electricity. The talking must stop, licenses must be given to Rolls Royce, now.
What will our little island look like in years to come. The coastline will be encircled by wind turbines and our green and pleasant land covered in solar panels. Our roads will be clogged up by abandoned electric driverless vehicles with flat batteries. Raving AI ‘driver’ robots will die, and many EV vehicles catch fire. Already the number of EV fires have increased by 77 per cent over the past two years. These are more dangerous than petrol or diesel car fires as they are very hard to extinguish.
Our cities will grind to a halt as rogue states target our power supplies, and as everything is heading in the direction of the total dependency on electricity, nothing will work.
This includes the computers which direct the traffic, trains, airports, sewage, food distribution, hospitals, crematoriums, satellite systems, mobile phones, internet and so much besides. Is this the future the British public envisaged when they put their trust in government? There will riots and looting, and blood shed with everyone out for themselves.
This scenario is not a case of if but when. It is people such as Ed Miliband with his crack pot ideas of net zero without any understanding of the consequences, who are driving this forward in their blinkered madness.
His decision to close and cap our oil reserves, close coal mines and destroy coal fired power stations borders on criminal. Gloat as he abandons fracking and cheers from the sidelines as Cumbria’s Whitehaven coal mine lost its battle to provide coking coal for our fragile steel industry.
I quote, ‘the £165M underground metallurgical coal mine had been granted planning permission in December 2022 by the then secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, Michael Gove.
But planning consent for the mine was quashed in the High Court last September after Gove’s decision was challenged by Friends of the Earth (FOTE) and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) on environmental grounds.
The mine’s future has been in doubt since Keir Starmer’s Labour government, egged on by Ed Miliband, announced that it would not be defending Gove’s decision to grant planning permission. It said that planning permission had been unlawfully granted and withdrew its defence of the mine.
The UK government has since announced that new coal mining licences are set to be banned in the UK, making it the first Group of Seven (G7) country to ban coal mining.’
How utterly irresponsible; this will prevent future generations from achieving as a nation, energy production which previous generations benefitted from.
It is easy and tempting to criticise the actions of governments and ministers particularly when those actions effect the future of the country and all its citizens, whatever their colour. My deep concern and that of so many others is that this mad dash to net zero is being driven by politicians and their ideology and environmentalists who would prefer to see the country grind to a halt and descend into chaos, unable to defend our borders, feed the population or generally function. When will the grownups with practical and unblinkered solutions, enter the room? Time is running out.
RSS Feed