RE: CALIFORNIA TODAY = IRELAND TOMORROW21 Jun 2021 16:50
Hi Grh,
Your very welcome.
Another article from the Business post from this weekend and a bit closer to home.
https://www.businesspost.ie/energy/pat-rabitte-if-leo-varadkar-is-right-and-the-economy-takes-off-like-a-rocket-we-are-at-risk-of-an-energy-crisis-3b341790
Leo Varadkar thinks that, following the lifting of restrictions, “the economy will take off like a rocket”. Let’s hope the Tánaiste is right. And if he proves to be right, care would need to be taken that we don’t sleepwalk into an energy crisis.
The decommissioning of power stations, the voracious appetite of big data centres for energy, the end of the Kinsale gas field, the climate-proofing of energy activity, the new piety about a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on the southwest coast – all of these could have the cumulative effect of leaving our energy supply on a knife edge.
When I was energy minister I seldom met anyone, outside the industry, who had much interest in or much knowledge about energy policy. So long as the kettle boiled in the morning when plugged in and once the lights in the evening came on at the flick of a switch, most people seemed content to leave the more arcane aspects of power generation to the experts.
Nor are most media businesses inclined to devote scarce resources – this parish excepted – to grappling with decisions made in the energy area. I recall being lined up by RTÉ to do an interview from an EU ministers’ meeting in Athens at a time when I was resisting the sale of the ESB.
When I asked my Greek counterpart if her government could meet the troika demands on the disposal of state assets, she replied: “Not unless we sell islands.”
The RTÉ interview took place from a hotel that, on the previous night, had been surrounded by a raging protest against the troika, but never got to a single question on energy. Rather the interview was devoted to what I knew about a supposed controversy, highlighted in the Dáil, about what was or wasn’t accurately recorded in the Taoiseach’s diary.
After more than 40 years, the Kinsale Head gas field has been exhausted and decommissioning is under way. This is an under-appreciated milestone in the country’s energy history. The only remaining indigenous gas supply comes from the Corrib field off north Mayo, but that will scarcely see out the decade.
Why does this matter? Won’t we be living in a green economy nirvana by then? Well, not without gas back-up for wind generated electricity, we won’t. Thanks to the new energy minister, Eamon Ryan, who has been in that role before, the emphasis of the government has switched quite properly to climate change and the urgent necessity to reduce our carbon emissions. However, responsibility for energy security has not gone away.
continued.
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