Member Info for romaron

"The election is over and we all know Labour has won with a massive majority. New ministers have been appointed to the Department of Energy and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the hard job of Government has begun.

Labour has appointed six ministers to DESNZ. However, analysis of their background and experience (see below) reveals that two with PPE degrees, one with a degree in history, another with a degree in political studies and one with a degree in history and politics. There’s also one minister gaining a degree in Russian studies before studying law. Not one of them has a background in science, engineering or maths. Almost all of them have worked in the public sector for their whole lives, so between them there is precious little experience of the commercial world and no experience of the energy sector. Ed Miliband and Miatta Fahnbulleh have qualifications in Economics, but the latter describes herself as a “heterodox economist” and she has advocated “flooding the market with cheaper renewables” and introducing “free basic energy.” It can only be heterodox economists who think more expensive, intermittent renewables are cheap and think energy is free.

There are three SPADs listed for Ed Miliband. Jonty Leibowitz studied History at Cambridge. Tobias Garnett studied Law at City and then went to study at the Harvard Kennedy School where his thesis was entitled “A Just Transition to a Fairer Economy: Labour's plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.” Eleanor Salter is the final SPAD, shared with DEFRA, and it is unclear what her degree subject was but she writes for the Guardian and apparently she is particularly focused on “integrating nature into the climate offer.” No evidence of STEM backgrounds amongst the SPADs either.

You might think this does not matter, because ministers simply oversee the department and it is civil servants that really run the show. There are seven senior civil servants listed on the DESNZ website. But when you look at their background a similar picture emerges (see below). There are degrees in modern history, geography and modern languages, but precious little evidence of a STEM background anywhere. Only the Chief Scientific Advisor has any sort of science background and that is in Chemistry, with a special focus on astrochemistry. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the senior civil servants have any significant experience outside the public sector. There is no evidence of experience in proper commercial businesses in any sector, let alone energy.

The rot does not stop in DESNZ. The department might turn to advisors like the NG ESO who have recently published their future energy pathways. Their strategy and policy director is Claire Dykta oversaw the work and wrote the foreword to the new document. Claire describes herself as a “leading influencer in the energy industry,” as though she was running a TikTok channel. Claire graduated from Aston with a degree in management, business and law.

True to his beliefs. Ed has instigated a "5 year plan" with GB Energy. Similar to what Stalin did in the USSR.

His dad would have been so proud.

Https://junkscience.com/2024/07/milloy-talks-windmill-corruption-on-fox-business/

Starts off with defective "Siemen" blades

“With the price of electricity in the UK still higher than that of gas, rebalancing the cost of electricity and gas would make switching to a heat pump more achievable.”

How does that work? Raise gas prices to equal electricity prices. Who pays: either the bill payer or further taxes on an industry already on its knees. How about separating oil from gas in the EPL? That would encourage the demise of gas fields even faster. If they continue the attacks on gas it will impact gas bills faster than electricity bills. An almighty F* up that hasn't been thought through. The public already seem to support the imprisonment of the fanatics who think their protests will "save the planet". They can't hide the prices forever and they ain't going down.

poor old phoebe plummer & friend has been found guilty (again) today and is free until sentencing in september. the heathrow 7 (along with 3 others) have been charged with conspiracy. good - holiday travel is stressful enough without these****** and their cult adding to delays. i liken them to the non-violent bible-punchers who pop up in the high street and warn you to repent and find jesus. difference is that they don't stop you going about your business.

nice to see how labour handles them.

A useful link Oct23 - what it indicates to me is that JM was an off the shelf, Labour supporting candidate who had an association with German industry and renewables. He also likes the limelight. I speculate that his appointment was pencilled in at the beginning of this year. Nothing wrong with that and it does look a neat fit.

I've accepted that renewables is a battle we could never win but I'm paying more attention to Labour's omissions and change of narrative. Labour have stopped giving a figure for the reduction in energy bills. Memories are short and there is little value in reminding people that renewables were promoted as 9X> cheaper. It doesn't stop us reminding them at every opportunity but it helps arguments when energy bills DON'T go down and they can be presented with earlier half-promises (two can play at half-truths). Water is free for my lawn when it rains but I don't flush my toilet with Evian water. It has to be delivered whatever your choice - tap or fizzy.

It might be my imagination but I'm seeing less of Ed. They have stopped demonising the UK "oil giants" and it has now been downgraded to "Putin's control of fossil fuels and his boot on our throat". No mentions of actual intentions with the UK O&G industry. It would be foolhardy to attack the industry further as businesses use energy too and cannot be duped so easily as the public. If O&G did jump in the future they wouldn't have the safety-valve of EPL and the public WOULD remember that. NO O&G industry, NO WFT.

We also have Union support.

I think Ed is back in his box. He saw what happened to the 7 Labour rebels (his friends) who voted against the government. He has got some of what he wanted and he can spin that. I can't wait for the results of AR6 and then AR7 prices. The "sprint" to 2030 means they cannot lower CfD prices because who'll bid? The renewable industry cannot survive without subsidies. The country cannot survive without energy security at an economic price. Renewables aren't the answer for at least another decade imo.

All of the above without mentioning the dead end of EV's and heat pumps for most of the public.

This was his audition for GB Energy https://x.com/bbcquestiontime/status/1758270193246056677

Guaranteed Knighthood I'd say. Siemens lost 4.6bn euros in 2023 after problems with Siemens Gamesa their wind turbine subsidiary.

Interesting programme about Port Talbot and the dying UK steel industry. It loses money and seems doomed. I did a quick google to see how big it is compared to the O&G Industry. Not scientific but early results.

1. 33,400 jobs

Scale and Contribution of the UK Steel Industry (2020)

The industry comprises 1,100 businesses and supported 33,400 jobs in 2019, constituting 0.1% of all UK jobs.

2. The combined oil and gas industry supports more than 200,000 jobs and adds about £16 billion to the UK economy annually.5 Nov 2023

Why do politicians hate the O&G industry so much?

Only the stupid steal from the rich. The clever steal from the poor. The law usually protects the rich. -Carsten Jensen, author (b. 24 Jul 1952)

But Labour steal from both. The poorest though are hardest hit. Where are the promised cheaper energy bills Ed? Meanwhile the UK concedes economic advantages

Https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/23/uk-may-need-new-gas-fired-power-stations-to-decarbonise-grid

Don't blame me guv. I'm only a politician. Ed Stone.

The problem with ideology and faith is that once it bumps into reality and common sense returns a lot of what you've done and said will come back to bite you in the *rse. There are a multitude of videos and speeches on Public Record that become plain embarrassing in quite a short time. This one from 11 months ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJg1IFQkcoQ

If you listen from 15:00 Ed demonises and blames fossil fuels using Russia and dictators in his explanation (thereby conflating them). He said that "we were the worst hit country in Western Europe" for energy price increases caused by the Ukraine invasion. He says that this is because we pay the "same for fossil fuels whether they are produced here or imported". This is a blatant half-truth. Yes we pay the "international market-price" to a local extent because that is how modern commerce and economics works. US gas is many times cheaper and last time I looked the US was considered International. To get it here as LNG makes it higher in price and emissions but that isn't his worst omission or spin.

He conveniently ignores the help the country received from the UK O&G industry which whilst already paying the highest taxes in the UK at 40% were charged another 35% as a WFT. That is money used to offset the energy prices charged because of the "international pricing mechanism".

Other countries in Europe weren't so lucky as they had to subsidise their energy prices from other sources. So we are actually lucky to have a successful O&G industry so Ed says now let us destroy it.

I am not alone in being aware of the embarrassing propaganda that has been used by activists and parties in opposition that is a treasure trove used in the right way. They would like us to forget it and for it to fade away That is not going to happen.

"Last week, new prime minister Keir Starmer announced his party is considering increasing subsidies even further for offshore wind developers in the upcoming auction.

“Applications for AR6 are currently being assessed and the Secretary of State will then carefully consider whether to increase the budget,” a spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero wrote.

This is an attempt to scale up wind energy roll-out in order to meet the country’s lofty ambitions for the renewable power source."

From Energy Voice today - headline ‘Evolving energy policy’ will force Starmer to make a decision on the future of CfD rounds

Confirms that Ed knows how many and at what price applications were received. If they were oversubscribed I suggest they'd be either leaked or screamed from the rooftops.

Old Sparky is unknown and possibly more than one person. Private Eye sail close to the wind and their sources are on a par with Reuters. They are not in hock to either side or party and are used to handling leaks.

I think the article is more than just a summary.

The wriggle-room is important and it is a broad hint that Labour will encourage drilling; they have to imo. The for and against is greens for virtue signalling and the industry and unions for jobs and tax revenue. I'm pretty sure who Keir and Rachel will back. The greens have just lost a massive case in the court of public opinion. The sentences of Roger Hallam and his co-conspirators has raised barely any reaction or support from the public. Labour will have waited for this before any reaction and I still think the top brass (Ed, Keir and Rachel) know the AR6 results. My guess is they're not a raging success judging by the lobbying that has already started for AR7.

Old Sparky refers to it as the "opening salvo" but I think Keir and Rachel are not as ideologically driven as Ed and, after all, they need the money. I am encouraged by this article. Opinion is slowly moving in our direction and after all WTF are Dale Vince, Chris Packham and Goblin Greta to tell us how to live our lives? All 3 are on the spectrum/

You can probably add Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Ed to them making another conspiracy with 5 ring-leaders.

Winter is coming.

“What to make of the confected story, immediately denied, that returning energy secretary Ed Miliband has ignored his officials and slapped an immediate ban on North Seas drilling, asks Old Sparky.

This is merely the opening salvo from the oil and gas industry to force the government to clarify its deliberately ambiguous manifesto commitment. Keir Starmer has carefully sought to run with the oily hare and hunt with the green hounds, by encouraging pre-election headlines reading “no new offshore licenses”.

In fact the manifesto commitment is “no new exploration licenses” (bearing in mind the Tories already licensed everything worth having), leaving entirely open the matter of whether production permits will be issued when viable discoveries are made.

For green consumption, the hint has been “no”; for industry and the powerful unions involved, “yes”. The industry cannot live with such ambiguity – individual wells to discover what’s beneath the seabed cost millions each to drill – and it needs to know for sure whether production licenses will ultimately be granted. If it’s “no”, they’ll pack up and go home now.

The government, hellbent on economic growth, has purposefully left itself wriggle-room to come down definitively on the side of “yes”. But it would rather not enrage the greens just yet.

Always dangerous and we are exposed to it on here. I listened to Kuenssberg this morning and 'group think' was the weaselly excuse Jeremy Hunt gave for our failures with the Covid response. Kinda sharing the blame because we are all guilty in a small way. Isn't this the same mistake being repeated with 'renewables'? Going with the consensus keeps you out of trouble but actually doesn't mean you're on the right path. Which takes me to 9X cheaper (collective sigh as romaron's obsession gets aired yet again).

Not me this time though. "It is an even worse story with green hydrogen. Late last year, the Government announced the results of its Hydrogen Allocation Round and agreed contracts for green hydrogen at £241/MWh. This is more than nine times the cost of UK gas and some forty-two times the cost of gas in the US." from David Turver at Eigen values.

https://davidturver.substack.com/p/future-energy-scenarios-brainstorm?utm_source=substack&publication_id=1285567&post_id=146712081&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=lx6e9&triedRedirect=true

No w3onder that Greg Jackson, the Octopus Energy boss, said that using hydrogen for home heating is comparable to "flushing the toilet with champagne".

Is he saying "stop subsidising the dead end that is hydrogen and increase wind subsidies"?

Https://x.com/Deej9876/status/1813177945130729492/photo/1

Doom goblin Greta Thunberg has deleted a tweet she posted in 2016 assuring us the world would be underwater by 2024. Poor Gret, this climate change "emergency" just isn't working out for her. But she still has supporters.

Https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=372886592176585&rdid=6vhU8CbZ8etLwj7r

She certainly didn't sugar-coat it. There is a growing resistance to the overwhelming sanctimony of the vegans and justopoil supporters.

Neither is Sky News. Microsoft major service outage worldwide could be the reason. Analogue still has its uses.

"I suspect that ‘Great British Energy’ will lead to increased consumer prices at best and energy blackouts at worst."

I make him right.

Farage on "X"

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay confirms he’s opposing new electricity pylons needed to link green energy to the grid in his East Anglian constituency. Says the route is not popular locally and he’s a ‘constituency MP’ first.

Ah, diddums. This is what happens when you get elected and can no longer heckle from the sidelines.

What is the point of the Green Party?