What Can Be Done About Energy Costs?

[Untitled]

https://news.sky.com/story/energy-bills-forecast-to-rise-even-higher-than-previously-thought-12668906

average household energy bills are expected to hit more than £4200 a year...

many people simply will not be able to pay for them... and those that can just about afford to will not be able to spend the money elsewhere in the economy while it still recovers from covid...

meanwhile some energy companies are reporting five-fold profits on just a few years ago.

What is to be done?

[youngmafbog]

Well get fracking and giving licences for NS exploration and drilling.

Drop the green taxes and net zero nonsense.

Until supply outstrips demand the price will remain high.

[Untitled]

how long would fracking take to deliver new energy supply and what would be the environmental cost?

[youngmafbog]

If you dont start you dont finish.

Unless the West is to go cap in hand to Russia this will go on for some time.

The Environmental cost is not as it has been made out to be.

Of course, if you think any cost to the environment is too much and you dont care about the poor then I guess thats your priviledge.

[youngmafbog]

That 'You' wasnt meant to be directed at you untitled. It was a general 'you'

[Untitled]

but if we started fracking say tomorrow would the benefits kick in by January? i doubt it. Even if it's a solution it's a medium-term not a short-term or long-term one... it won't be able to help anyone struggling this winter surely.

[Untitled]

it's okay I got your meaning

[FatticusInch]

There’s going to be a hell of a crisis if it’s a harsh winter, an already crumbling NHS will be inundated because the population but especially the elderly will be eating less and heating less too.
Disaster looming in 21st century Britain.
What a shambles.

[gulliver1]

Get rid of this present Tory Scum. Bring back Tony Blair then things can only get better.

[gulliver1]

14.12, Nora Nora Nora. how are you managing with that one last remaining Brain Cell ????.Tee hee hee

[New Judge]

//…but if we started fracking say tomorrow would the benefits kick in by January?//

No. That’s why the decision to abandon the process (because of “earthquakes”) was a mistake and a familiar example of government caving in to minority opinions instead of acting for the good of the entire country. Estimates vary as to how much shale gas can be exploited, but most estimates put it no lower than 30% of annual requirements.

As far as electricity goes, once again the crisis is caused by government torpor. It has been widely known for many years that if coal fired generation was to be run down, alternatives that do not depend on the wind blowing or the sun shining would be necessary. Not so, said the government, “renewables” (including freshly felled timber from North America, shipped 4,000 miles to be burnt in Yorkshire) would do the trick. They won’t and what’s necessary are nuclear power plants together with the resurrection of coal fired power stations. These can run on imported coal until some mines are reopened here in the UK. Those worried about the environment should address their concerns to the Chinese Embassy. China burns more than 50% of the world’s coal – 100 times more than the UK (around 40% of which is used in what’s left of the UK’s steel industry).

There simply is no viable alternative to gas for a sizeable proportion of our electricity generation, large swathes of industry and most households. The notion that “heat pumps” will provide that alternative for domestic heating is absurd. The current crisis has been caused primarily by the indolence of successive governments.

[Gromit]

There is unlikely to be any new UK coal mines. The only one with any real prospect, in Cumbria, is unlikely to go ahead.

// In preparation for turmoil in the energy markets, it [National Grid] has asked five coal power units to be available to supply power to the grid but not to the wider electricity market. It said EDF and Drax, which own four of the five, have already agreed to do so, but did not disclose the fifth.

The agreement follows government negotiations with French state-owned energy firm EDF, over its West Burton A plant in Nottinghamshire, as well as with Drax over its plant in Yorkshire. //

The lights are unlikely to go out, but the costs (and our bills) will rocket.

[New Judge]

//There is unlikely to be any new UK coal mines. //

Yes I agree. And that's why it is no use people fretting over energy bills and security. Solutions are available but ideology trumps pragmatism, so we'll just have to put up with big bills and jeopardised supplies.