Minister warns of 'really difficult winter' amid rising energy costs and food shortages
In this newsletter:
1) Britain considers nationalisation of energy companies to stop collapse
The Independent, 21 September 2021
2) Minister warns of 'really difficult winter' amid rising energy costs and food shortages
ITV News, 23 September 2021
3) Russia 'to determine UK's winter fate' after Merkel 'outsmarted' by Putin on energy crisis
Daily Express, 23 September 2021
Daily Express, 23 September 2021
4) Energy crisis intensifies backlash against Brussels carbon tax plan
Financial Times, 22 September 2021
5) Govt dismisses pleas from Tory MPs and energy firms to scrap 'green levies' to avoid gas crisis triggering wave of 'fuel poverty' this winter
Daily Mail, 20 September 2021
6) Alex Brummer: Why are we facing an energy crisis when we're sitting on a gold mine? We should consider giving fracking pioneers and North Sea drillers the only 'green' light that matters: the one that says 'Go'
Daily Mail, 23 September 2021
Daily Mail, 20 September 2021
6) Alex Brummer: Why are we facing an energy crisis when we're sitting on a gold mine? We should consider giving fracking pioneers and North Sea drillers the only 'green' light that matters: the one that says 'Go'
Daily Mail, 23 September 2021
7) Green energy transition will cost debt-ridden Italy 650 billion euros, business leaders warn
8) Citi isn’t ruling out natural gas at $100 in a frigid winter
Bloomberg, 23 September 2021
8) Citi isn’t ruling out natural gas at $100 in a frigid winter
Bloomberg, 23 September 2021
9) Con Coughlin: Europe is wrapped around Putin’s little finger
The Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2021
The Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2021
10) And finally: UK business minister blames free market for global warming
The Times, 15 September 2021
The Times, 15 September 2021
Full details:
1) Britain considers nationalisation of energy companies to stop collapse
The Independent, 21 September 2021
The government is considering temporarily nationalising failing energy companies to stop them collapsing from surging gas prices, ministers have indicated.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is holding crisis talks with firms following a meeting with regulator Ofgem on Sunday. Mr Kwarteng said "well-rehearsed plans" were in place to ensure consumers were not cut off.
And he indicated that he would be prepared to appoint a "special administrator" that would see the firms taken under the government's wing – effectively nationalising them on a temporary basis.
The business secretary said consumers would be protected from sudden price hikes through the Government's energy price cap.
But the cap puts pressure on consumers who are unable to pass on costs when wholesale costs rise, with four small energy companies having already folded and fears more could follow.
Regulator Ofgem has said it will ensure people on failed suppliers will be picked up by another company.
Speaking on a diplomatic visit to New York Boris Johnson sought to reassure consumers the price increases were only "temporary" as the world economy picked up after the Covid pandemic.
"It's like everybody going back to put the kettle on at the end of a TV programme, you're seeing huge stresses on the world supply systems," he told reporters travelling with him to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Full story
2) Minister warns of 'really difficult winter' amid rising energy costs and food shortages
ITV News, 23 September 2021
People in the UK will face a "really difficult winter" this year, a business minister has warned, with energy bills rising and a "real concern" about food shortages.
Paul Scully told ITV News that the UK's energy crisis, which has seen nine providers fold and resulted in more than 1.5 million customers being moved to new, likely more expensive contracts, will present a "challenge" for many Britons.
"This is going to be a really difficult winter for people," he said.
"We know this is going to be a challenge and that's why we don't underestimate the situation that we all find ourselves in".
It was a contradiction to Boris Johnson's assessment of the situation, with the prime minister telling journalists in Washington that "no", he doesn't believe it will be a tough winter because problems facing the energy industry are short-term.
But energy is not the only issue causing concern in the UK, with gas shortages causing a reduction in carbon dioxide supply - essential in food and drink production - which has led to concerns supermarket shelves are emptying.
Full story
4) Energy crisis intensifies backlash against Brussels carbon tax plan
Financial Times, 22 September 2021
Surging gas and electricity prices in Europe have intensified the political backlash against Brussels’ plans to extend carbon taxes on petrol and heating bills, threatening a central policy of the EU’s drive to hit net zero emissions by 2050.
EU energy ministers on Wednesday discussed rising energy prices that have prompted some governments to prepare billions of euros worth of emergency aid for struggling households.
The price squeeze has emboldened countries such as Spain and France that are firmly opposed to the planned revamp of the EU’s carbon pricing system. They say it will plunge poorer households further into energy poverty by raising household and petrol bills.
Speaking after the meeting, EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said the bloc needed to “end our dependence on foreign volatile fossil fuels as soon as possible”. Russia is the EU’s biggest source of natural gas.
Simson said Brussels would support policies to curb the impact of higher prices on consumers, including cutting excise duties on petrol and direct support for households as some countries have announced.
As part of its Green Deal package aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission has proposed extending the EU’s carbon market to cars and heating for buildings, including homes. Some legislators in the European parliament are now considering scrapping the plan and replacing it with alternative measures such as tougher regulation.
Pascal Canfin, a French MEP and head of the European parliament’s environment committee, which must approve the commission’s green package, said his centrist Renew Europe group was working on plans to “recalibrate” the bloc’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to prevent a “gilets jaunes 2.0” — a reference to the revolt against planned petrol tax rises in France that began in 2018.
“I’m not convinced by the need to extend the ETS,” said Canfin, whose concerns about the social impact of the measures are shared by some environmental NGOs, the Greens in the European parliament and centre-left governments in the EU.
The Green Deal comprises 13 policies designed to reduce EU emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, falling to net zero in 2050.
The plan to extend the ETS to consumer sectors such as cars and housing would raise petrol and energy prices because companies will be forced to buy carbon credits to cover their emissions. Brussels has also proposed a €30bn fund to help compensate those hit hardest by the changes.
Internal EU estimates suggest a carbon price of €50 per tonne on petrol and heating for buildings would impose a €40bn cost on affected companies. “We can afford that increase,” said a senior EU official.
Canfin said the ETS extension could be made more palatable if the rising CO2 price was not borne by domestic tenants but focused only on commercial buildings. Another option would be to exclude petrol from the ETS and instead toughen emissions targets for the auto industry.
“We have to try and make it work because if it doesn’t, the fear I have is that it will damage the whole [Green Deal] package,” he said.
The commission is resisting wholesale changes to its plans, arguing that extending carbon pricing is the only way to bring down emissions in sectors such as transport, whose carbon footprint has increased over the past decade.
“If the ETS extension is gone, it leaves a big hole that will need to be filled,” said the EU official. “You can’t simply replace an instrument like the ETS with a new target.”
Disputes over how best to design a carbon pricing mechanism are set to run for months as governments and MEPs thrash out their positions on the ETS and separate plans, including emissions targets for cars, an EU carbon border tax and nationally binding greenhouse gas targets.
Brussels’ plan for a €30bn social climate fund has roused opposition in so-called frugal northern states such as the Netherlands and Nordic nations, which are opposed to financial transfers the commission says are crucial for social fairness. But southern and eastern countries are pushing for a bigger pot of money to limit the regressive impact of higher carbon costs.
Nicolas Schmit, EU employment commissioner, told the Financial Times that Brussels would supplement the climate fund with additional measures to alleviate the social impact of climate policy, including plans for worker retraining.
“We will not leave anyone to fend for themselves, not when it comes to affording their energy bills, nor when it comes to getting ready for the new ‘greener’ jobs,” said Schmit.
The Independent, 21 September 2021
The government is considering temporarily nationalising failing energy companies to stop them collapsing from surging gas prices, ministers have indicated.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is holding crisis talks with firms following a meeting with regulator Ofgem on Sunday. Mr Kwarteng said "well-rehearsed plans" were in place to ensure consumers were not cut off.
And he indicated that he would be prepared to appoint a "special administrator" that would see the firms taken under the government's wing – effectively nationalising them on a temporary basis.
The business secretary said consumers would be protected from sudden price hikes through the Government's energy price cap.
But the cap puts pressure on consumers who are unable to pass on costs when wholesale costs rise, with four small energy companies having already folded and fears more could follow.
Regulator Ofgem has said it will ensure people on failed suppliers will be picked up by another company.
Speaking on a diplomatic visit to New York Boris Johnson sought to reassure consumers the price increases were only "temporary" as the world economy picked up after the Covid pandemic.
"It's like everybody going back to put the kettle on at the end of a TV programme, you're seeing huge stresses on the world supply systems," he told reporters travelling with him to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Full story
2) Minister warns of 'really difficult winter' amid rising energy costs and food shortages
ITV News, 23 September 2021
People in the UK will face a "really difficult winter" this year, a business minister has warned, with energy bills rising and a "real concern" about food shortages.
Paul Scully told ITV News that the UK's energy crisis, which has seen nine providers fold and resulted in more than 1.5 million customers being moved to new, likely more expensive contracts, will present a "challenge" for many Britons.
"This is going to be a really difficult winter for people," he said.
"We know this is going to be a challenge and that's why we don't underestimate the situation that we all find ourselves in".
It was a contradiction to Boris Johnson's assessment of the situation, with the prime minister telling journalists in Washington that "no", he doesn't believe it will be a tough winter because problems facing the energy industry are short-term.
But energy is not the only issue causing concern in the UK, with gas shortages causing a reduction in carbon dioxide supply - essential in food and drink production - which has led to concerns supermarket shelves are emptying.
Full story
3) Russia 'to determine UK's winter fate' after Merkel 'outsmarted' by Putin on energy crisis
Daily Express, 23 September 2021
VLADIMIR PUTIN has the fate of a UK's winter in his hands after he "outmanoeuvred" Angela Merkel on gas supplies in Europe, experts have warned.
The German Chancellor struck a deal with the Russian President for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to export gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, bypassing Poland and Ukraine.
But to avoid Berlin from implementing EU law across the system, Mr Putin has reportedly restricted the flow of gas into Europe that travelled through existing pipelines putting pressure on European gas supplies. This affects the UK, as it imports Russian gas from the Netherlands.
It comes as gas prices are already soaring, with experts warning that central heating could be a "luxury for the rich" this winter.
John Lough, Associate Fellow of the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, says Russia has "outmanoeuvred" Germany on Nord Stream 2.
Economic commentator Ambrose Pritchard-Evans has even warned that “Russia will determine Britain’s winter fate".
He pointed out that the UK has no national strategic storage of gas in reserve, making matters even worse for Britain.
He wrote in the Telegraph: "This Government will have to explain why Britain’s gas storage capacity was slashed to 1.7 percent of annual demand when the global norm is a safety buffer of 20 percent, and why it has subcontracted the task to countries in Continental Europe, now facing their own supply squeeze.”
Gazprom, the state-owned Russian gas company in charge of the pipelines, also chose not to bid for a top-up of flows in October through Nord Stream 2, further hiking up gas prices and posing a threat to European gas supplies.
British energy suppliers have started to collapse and after soaring wholesale gas prices bumped the cost of energy above the price cap.
Full story
Daily Express, 23 September 2021
VLADIMIR PUTIN has the fate of a UK's winter in his hands after he "outmanoeuvred" Angela Merkel on gas supplies in Europe, experts have warned.
The German Chancellor struck a deal with the Russian President for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to export gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, bypassing Poland and Ukraine.
But to avoid Berlin from implementing EU law across the system, Mr Putin has reportedly restricted the flow of gas into Europe that travelled through existing pipelines putting pressure on European gas supplies. This affects the UK, as it imports Russian gas from the Netherlands.
It comes as gas prices are already soaring, with experts warning that central heating could be a "luxury for the rich" this winter.
John Lough, Associate Fellow of the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, says Russia has "outmanoeuvred" Germany on Nord Stream 2.
Economic commentator Ambrose Pritchard-Evans has even warned that “Russia will determine Britain’s winter fate".
He pointed out that the UK has no national strategic storage of gas in reserve, making matters even worse for Britain.
He wrote in the Telegraph: "This Government will have to explain why Britain’s gas storage capacity was slashed to 1.7 percent of annual demand when the global norm is a safety buffer of 20 percent, and why it has subcontracted the task to countries in Continental Europe, now facing their own supply squeeze.”
Gazprom, the state-owned Russian gas company in charge of the pipelines, also chose not to bid for a top-up of flows in October through Nord Stream 2, further hiking up gas prices and posing a threat to European gas supplies.
British energy suppliers have started to collapse and after soaring wholesale gas prices bumped the cost of energy above the price cap.
Full story
4) Energy crisis intensifies backlash against Brussels carbon tax plan
Financial Times, 22 September 2021
Surging gas and electricity prices in Europe have intensified the political backlash against Brussels’ plans to extend carbon taxes on petrol and heating bills, threatening a central policy of the EU’s drive to hit net zero emissions by 2050.
EU energy ministers on Wednesday discussed rising energy prices that have prompted some governments to prepare billions of euros worth of emergency aid for struggling households.
The price squeeze has emboldened countries such as Spain and France that are firmly opposed to the planned revamp of the EU’s carbon pricing system. They say it will plunge poorer households further into energy poverty by raising household and petrol bills.
Speaking after the meeting, EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said the bloc needed to “end our dependence on foreign volatile fossil fuels as soon as possible”. Russia is the EU’s biggest source of natural gas.
Simson said Brussels would support policies to curb the impact of higher prices on consumers, including cutting excise duties on petrol and direct support for households as some countries have announced.
As part of its Green Deal package aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission has proposed extending the EU’s carbon market to cars and heating for buildings, including homes. Some legislators in the European parliament are now considering scrapping the plan and replacing it with alternative measures such as tougher regulation.
Pascal Canfin, a French MEP and head of the European parliament’s environment committee, which must approve the commission’s green package, said his centrist Renew Europe group was working on plans to “recalibrate” the bloc’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to prevent a “gilets jaunes 2.0” — a reference to the revolt against planned petrol tax rises in France that began in 2018.
“I’m not convinced by the need to extend the ETS,” said Canfin, whose concerns about the social impact of the measures are shared by some environmental NGOs, the Greens in the European parliament and centre-left governments in the EU.
The Green Deal comprises 13 policies designed to reduce EU emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, falling to net zero in 2050.
The plan to extend the ETS to consumer sectors such as cars and housing would raise petrol and energy prices because companies will be forced to buy carbon credits to cover their emissions. Brussels has also proposed a €30bn fund to help compensate those hit hardest by the changes.
Internal EU estimates suggest a carbon price of €50 per tonne on petrol and heating for buildings would impose a €40bn cost on affected companies. “We can afford that increase,” said a senior EU official.
Canfin said the ETS extension could be made more palatable if the rising CO2 price was not borne by domestic tenants but focused only on commercial buildings. Another option would be to exclude petrol from the ETS and instead toughen emissions targets for the auto industry.
“We have to try and make it work because if it doesn’t, the fear I have is that it will damage the whole [Green Deal] package,” he said.
The commission is resisting wholesale changes to its plans, arguing that extending carbon pricing is the only way to bring down emissions in sectors such as transport, whose carbon footprint has increased over the past decade.
“If the ETS extension is gone, it leaves a big hole that will need to be filled,” said the EU official. “You can’t simply replace an instrument like the ETS with a new target.”
Disputes over how best to design a carbon pricing mechanism are set to run for months as governments and MEPs thrash out their positions on the ETS and separate plans, including emissions targets for cars, an EU carbon border tax and nationally binding greenhouse gas targets.
Brussels’ plan for a €30bn social climate fund has roused opposition in so-called frugal northern states such as the Netherlands and Nordic nations, which are opposed to financial transfers the commission says are crucial for social fairness. But southern and eastern countries are pushing for a bigger pot of money to limit the regressive impact of higher carbon costs.
Nicolas Schmit, EU employment commissioner, told the Financial Times that Brussels would supplement the climate fund with additional measures to alleviate the social impact of climate policy, including plans for worker retraining.
“We will not leave anyone to fend for themselves, not when it comes to affording their energy bills, nor when it comes to getting ready for the new ‘greener’ jobs,” said Schmit.
5) Govt dismisses pleas from Tory MPs and energy firms to scrap 'green levies' to avoid gas crisis triggering wave of 'fuel poverty' this winter
Daily Mail, 20 September 2021
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, who heads the 'Net Zero Scrutiny Group' of Conservatives, told MailOnline that the situation was 'extremely serious' and the UK faces 'fuel poverty' this winter unless Boris Johnson rethinks climate levies
Boris Johnson faced fury after refusing to axe a green 'steal tax' on family energy bills to avoid the gas price crisis triggering a wave of fuel poverty this winter.
Tory MPs and energy firms have demanded Downing Street scrap environmental levies that can form as much as a quarter of consumer electricity bills, as wholesale costs ravage utility firms.
Fears are mounting about the consequences of soaring gas prices - up 70 per cent since last month - that are sending providers to the wall and causing chaos for a range of industries.
Ministers have been told to act to keep the 'lights turned on', with gas shortages driving up prices, and taxpayers facing pumping billions of pounds into stricken energy firms.
But No10 today refused to take action on the green payments despite warnings that homeowners will be left to foot the bill.
A spokesman told reporters: 'We've spoken at length and the Prime Minister has spoken at length about the importance of renewable energy sources and his commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions here in the UK.
'I'll point you to the targets that we have clearly set out with that regard, and that the levy's an important part of driving our energy supply to renewables.'
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, who heads the 'Net Zero Scrutiny Group' of Conservatives, told MailOnline that the situation was 'extremely serious' and the UK faces 'fuel poverty' this winter unless Mr Johnson backs down.
'It is very obvious, we have to get rid of green levies temporarily or permanently. We need rapid structural reappraisal of our dash to net zero,' he said.
'The primary role of government is to keep the show on the road, the lights on, people warm and businesses able to do what they do.
'And we are getting perilously close to a failure of those primary functions. That does mean considering domestic gas production as far as we are able.
'And no matter how unpalatable fracking has to be within that frame.'
He added that North Sea Oil should also be exploited as much as possible, gas storage boosted, and nuclear policy clarified after being 'confused' for decades.
'The transition to Net Zero is going to be over a long period of time. Fossil fuels will be part of the mix for a long period of time. So it makes sense to be as domestically secure as we possibly can,' he said.
'This is putting into focus the parlous state of our energy policy or lack of it that we have had for 20 years. Governments of all persuasions have completely taken their eye off the ball for 20 if not 30 years.'
Experts say that as well as spiralling bills for household energy, food supplies and even medical procedures are at risk as the pressures cause shockwaves across supply chains. One consultant said the problems are so huge they could 'easily see a three-day working week' across affected companies this winter.
Full story
6) Alex Brummer: Why are we facing an energy crisis when we're sitting on a gold mine? We should consider giving fracking pioneers and North Sea drillers the only 'green' light that matters: the one that says 'Go'
Daily Mail, 23 September 2021
The crisis in the nation's energy supplies has reached a level unseen for two generations. Nine firms have gone bust this year amid soaring wholesale gas prices, while companies supplying some six million homes are said to be at risk of imminent collapse.
Millions of pensioners and the most vulnerable households now face untold hardship this winter, while the 'squeezed' middle classes can expect their bills to soar far in excess of anything they are used to.
For years — as the run-up to the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow has amply shown — successive governments have focused on renewables and other non-polluting energy sources as a means of addressing climate change.
Drilling
The result is that Britain now faces a crisis in its energy security. And the worst part? This chaotic and alarming situation is wholly unnecessary.
More than 50 years since the first North Sea oil was struck, the British Isles remain surrounded by unexploited oil and gas reserves; while beneath the country's surface lie layer upon layer 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, many fear we now face the prospect of the lights going out just as they did in the 1970s.
Quite simply, Britain must look for alternatives. If we do not, the consequences will be grave.
British Steel is warning that prices are 'spiralling out of control' amid an unbelievable 50-fold increase in quoted rates for power.
Yet while the industrial fallout from the present crisis is obviously horrendous, the potential damage to households is even greater.
The current energy 'price cap' limits the average energy bill for UK households at £1,277.
As wholesale prices spiral out of control, the pressure on the regulator to raise the cap, or see the industry strewn with failures, is now almost overwhelming.
Without an eye-watering increase in the price cap of perhaps £400 (some 30 per cent or so), even the biggest players such as Centrica, owner of British Gas which has more than 12 million customers, could be under enormous pressure.
Fixated on 'net zero' as part of his political legacy, fresh from delivering his address on climate change to the United Nations this week and looking forward to strutting the global stage at Cop26, Boris Johnson has 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 (a huge gas supplier to Europe) and a ghastly collection of Middle-East potentates has been a grievous error.
Making matters worse, a serious fire on a key undersea electricity cable from France has further limited supplies and shown the value of a reliable domestic source.
So what are the alternative technologies that the Government should now urgently be exploring to prevent this crisis from worsening still further?
As someone sympathetic to the green objections to fracking, from despoiling of country roads to potential earth tremors in nearby urban areas, I would prefer we avoid that path if possible.
Nevertheless, we should not overstate its dangers, and we should certainly not fall victim to untruths about 'earthquake' risks and other lurid allegations.
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 vital strategic gains that can be reaped from regaining a measure of energy independence.
Having risen steadily for 30 years, American imports of oil are now negligible thanks to the fracking revolution, as the process releases oil as well as gas.
Washington, therefore, enjoys somewhat greater freedom in its relations with the dictatorships of the Middle East, and is no longer beholden to those who control the rivers of cheap oil that flow from Arabia's desert sands.
Exploration
When the UK Government halted fracking in November 2019, it made it clear that this was a moratorium, not a permanent ban.
If ever there was a moment to rethink this pause, it should be now: especially given that the evidence suggests the 'earth tremors' from exploration were far less than originally measured and also confined to a much narrower area than was claimed.
But fracking is only one possibility. A less intrusive way of bringing oil and gas to these shores might be for Boris Johnson to license applications for development of the Cambo field situated some 75 miles to the west of Shetland.
This contains more than 800 million barrels of oil as well as 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, a 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 been soaring — 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 — where else? — Russia.
Alarming
In my view, one of 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'.
Rather than spending decades building huge and inordinately expensive plants such as Sizewell and Hinkley Point, 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 and North Sea drillers the only 'green' light that matters: the one that says 'Go'.
Daily Mail, 20 September 2021
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, who heads the 'Net Zero Scrutiny Group' of Conservatives, told MailOnline that the situation was 'extremely serious' and the UK faces 'fuel poverty' this winter unless Boris Johnson rethinks climate levies
Boris Johnson faced fury after refusing to axe a green 'steal tax' on family energy bills to avoid the gas price crisis triggering a wave of fuel poverty this winter.
Tory MPs and energy firms have demanded Downing Street scrap environmental levies that can form as much as a quarter of consumer electricity bills, as wholesale costs ravage utility firms.
Fears are mounting about the consequences of soaring gas prices - up 70 per cent since last month - that are sending providers to the wall and causing chaos for a range of industries.
Ministers have been told to act to keep the 'lights turned on', with gas shortages driving up prices, and taxpayers facing pumping billions of pounds into stricken energy firms.
But No10 today refused to take action on the green payments despite warnings that homeowners will be left to foot the bill.
A spokesman told reporters: 'We've spoken at length and the Prime Minister has spoken at length about the importance of renewable energy sources and his commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions here in the UK.
'I'll point you to the targets that we have clearly set out with that regard, and that the levy's an important part of driving our energy supply to renewables.'
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, who heads the 'Net Zero Scrutiny Group' of Conservatives, told MailOnline that the situation was 'extremely serious' and the UK faces 'fuel poverty' this winter unless Mr Johnson backs down.
'It is very obvious, we have to get rid of green levies temporarily or permanently. We need rapid structural reappraisal of our dash to net zero,' he said.
'The primary role of government is to keep the show on the road, the lights on, people warm and businesses able to do what they do.
'And we are getting perilously close to a failure of those primary functions. That does mean considering domestic gas production as far as we are able.
'And no matter how unpalatable fracking has to be within that frame.'
He added that North Sea Oil should also be exploited as much as possible, gas storage boosted, and nuclear policy clarified after being 'confused' for decades.
'The transition to Net Zero is going to be over a long period of time. Fossil fuels will be part of the mix for a long period of time. So it makes sense to be as domestically secure as we possibly can,' he said.
'This is putting into focus the parlous state of our energy policy or lack of it that we have had for 20 years. Governments of all persuasions have completely taken their eye off the ball for 20 if not 30 years.'
Experts say that as well as spiralling bills for household energy, food supplies and even medical procedures are at risk as the pressures cause shockwaves across supply chains. One consultant said the problems are so huge they could 'easily see a three-day working week' across affected companies this winter.
Full story
6) Alex Brummer: Why are we facing an energy crisis when we're sitting on a gold mine? We should consider giving fracking pioneers and North Sea drillers the only 'green' light that matters: the one that says 'Go'
Daily Mail, 23 September 2021
The crisis in the nation's energy supplies has reached a level unseen for two generations. Nine firms have gone bust this year amid soaring wholesale gas prices, while companies supplying some six million homes are said to be at risk of imminent collapse.
Millions of pensioners and the most vulnerable households now face untold hardship this winter, while the 'squeezed' middle classes can expect their bills to soar far in excess of anything they are used to.
For years — as the run-up to the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow has amply shown — successive governments have focused on renewables and other non-polluting energy sources as a means of addressing climate change.
Drilling
The result is that Britain now faces a crisis in its energy security. And the worst part? This chaotic and alarming situation is wholly unnecessary.
More than 50 years since the first North Sea oil was struck, the British Isles remain surrounded by unexploited oil and gas reserves; while beneath the country's surface lie layer upon layer 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, many fear we now face the prospect of the lights going out just as they did in the 1970s.
Quite simply, Britain must look for alternatives. If we do not, the consequences will be grave.
British Steel is warning that prices are 'spiralling out of control' amid an unbelievable 50-fold increase in quoted rates for power.
Yet while the industrial fallout from the present crisis is obviously horrendous, the potential damage to households is even greater.
The current energy 'price cap' limits the average energy bill for UK households at £1,277.
As wholesale prices spiral out of control, the pressure on the regulator to raise the cap, or see the industry strewn with failures, is now almost overwhelming.
Without an eye-watering increase in the price cap of perhaps £400 (some 30 per cent or so), even the biggest players such as Centrica, owner of British Gas which has more than 12 million customers, could be under enormous pressure.
Fixated on 'net zero' as part of his political legacy, fresh from delivering his address on climate change to the United Nations this week and looking forward to strutting the global stage at Cop26, Boris Johnson has 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 (a huge gas supplier to Europe) and a ghastly collection of Middle-East potentates has been a grievous error.
Making matters worse, a serious fire on a key undersea electricity cable from France has further limited supplies and shown the value of a reliable domestic source.
So what are the alternative technologies that the Government should now urgently be exploring to prevent this crisis from worsening still further?
As someone sympathetic to the green objections to fracking, from despoiling of country roads to potential earth tremors in nearby urban areas, I would prefer we avoid that path if possible.
Nevertheless, we should not overstate its dangers, and we should certainly not fall victim to untruths about 'earthquake' risks and other lurid allegations.
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 vital strategic gains that can be reaped from regaining a measure of energy independence.
Having risen steadily for 30 years, American imports of oil are now negligible thanks to the fracking revolution, as the process releases oil as well as gas.
Washington, therefore, enjoys somewhat greater freedom in its relations with the dictatorships of the Middle East, and is no longer beholden to those who control the rivers of cheap oil that flow from Arabia's desert sands.
Exploration
When the UK Government halted fracking in November 2019, it made it clear that this was a moratorium, not a permanent ban.
If ever there was a moment to rethink this pause, it should be now: especially given that the evidence suggests the 'earth tremors' from exploration were far less than originally measured and also confined to a much narrower area than was claimed.
But fracking is only one possibility. A less intrusive way of bringing oil and gas to these shores might be for Boris Johnson to license applications for development of the Cambo field situated some 75 miles to the west of Shetland.
This contains more than 800 million barrels of oil as well as 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, a 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 been soaring — 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 — where else? — Russia.
Alarming
In my view, one of 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'.
Rather than spending decades building huge and inordinately expensive plants such as Sizewell and Hinkley Point, 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 and North Sea drillers the only 'green' light that matters: the one that says 'Go'.
7) Green energy transition will cost debt-ridden Italy 650 billion euros, business leaders warn
Reuters, 23 September 2021
ROME, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Energy transition could cost Italy in excess of 650 billion euros ($760 billion) over the next decade and the government must do more to help businesses bear the cost, the head of the employers' federation said on Thursday.
"The national recovery plan provides only 6% of the investment needed for the transition. Almost 94% has to be covered by companies," Confindustria President Carlo Bonomi told the group's annual assembly.
Full story
8) Citi isn’t ruling out natural gas at $100 in a frigid winter
Bloomberg, 23 September 2021
Citigroup Inc. more than doubled its Asian and European natural gas forecasts for next quarter and said prices could surge to as high as $100 per million British thermal units in the event of a particularly cold winter.
Liquefied natural gas prices are skyrocketing as seasonally low European inventories, booming Chinese demand and supply constraints from Russia to Nigeria lead to a bidding war for the power generation feedstock before the northern hemisphere winter. Japan-Korea marker prices have jumped almost 50% so far this month to near $30 per mmBtu, while in Europe LNG is up around 40% to close to $25. Price gains in the U.S. have been more subdued.
Average prices next quarter will be moderately higher than current levels in Citi’s base case, the bank said in the note. However, there are likely to be price spikes and if unusually cold weather boosts demand and hurricanes in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico disrupt supplies, cargoes could trade in the $100 per mmBtu range, or $580 a barrel in oil-equivalent terms, it said.
Full story
Reuters, 23 September 2021
ROME, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Energy transition could cost Italy in excess of 650 billion euros ($760 billion) over the next decade and the government must do more to help businesses bear the cost, the head of the employers' federation said on Thursday.
"The national recovery plan provides only 6% of the investment needed for the transition. Almost 94% has to be covered by companies," Confindustria President Carlo Bonomi told the group's annual assembly.
Full story
8) Citi isn’t ruling out natural gas at $100 in a frigid winter
Bloomberg, 23 September 2021
Citigroup Inc. more than doubled its Asian and European natural gas forecasts for next quarter and said prices could surge to as high as $100 per million British thermal units in the event of a particularly cold winter.
Liquefied natural gas prices are skyrocketing as seasonally low European inventories, booming Chinese demand and supply constraints from Russia to Nigeria lead to a bidding war for the power generation feedstock before the northern hemisphere winter. Japan-Korea marker prices have jumped almost 50% so far this month to near $30 per mmBtu, while in Europe LNG is up around 40% to close to $25. Price gains in the U.S. have been more subdued.
Average prices next quarter will be moderately higher than current levels in Citi’s base case, the bank said in the note. However, there are likely to be price spikes and if unusually cold weather boosts demand and hurricanes in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico disrupt supplies, cargoes could trade in the $100 per mmBtu range, or $580 a barrel in oil-equivalent terms, it said.
Full story
9) Con Coughlin: Europe is wrapped around Putin’s little finger
The Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2021
Our increasing reliance on Russian energy has placed the tyrannical leader in an impregnable position
If Vladimir Putin has one defining characteristic, it is his pathological intolerance of those who seek to oppose his relentless quest for power and influence. Russian voters will hardly have been surprised that the president’s United Russia party emerged victorious from the ballot last weekend, winning two thirds of the 450 seats in the country’s parliament. The contest, as is so often the case, was marred by reports of ballot boxes being stuffed with false slips as well as forced voting, while leading opposition candidates were banned from standing or, in the case of the prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, confined to a prison cell.
Mr Putin’s obsessive pursuit of his adversaries, moreover, extends well beyond Russian borders, as demonstrated by the conclusions reached this week by two decisions relating to Kremlin-inspired attacks on Russian dissidents based in Britain.
A ruling issued by the European Court of Human Rights concluded that Moscow was responsible for the murder in 2006 of Alexander Litvinenko, the dissident former Russian intelligence agent who died after drinking tea laced with polonium-210 at a London hotel. The court concluded there was a prima facie case that the murder was carried out by two Russian agents who “had been acting on the direction or control of the Russian authorities”.
The judgment coincided with British counter-terrorism police charging a third Russian intelligence officer, Maj Gen Denis Sergeev, with involvement in the attempted murder of the former Russian spy Col Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018. The existence of a third Russian intelligence officer – first revealed by The Daily Telegraph – who oversaw the plot to murder Mr Skripal with the nerve agent Novichok highlighted the sophistication of the assassination attempt by Russia’s GRU intelligence operation to silence one of Mr Putin’s fiercest critics.
Mr Putin’s well-documented history of tyrannical behaviour during his two decades in power has made it abundantly clear that he is singularly unsuited to hold any position that affords him any form of global responsibility. Yet, thanks to the increasing influence Moscow is able to exert over Europe’s energy market, he now finds himself able to hold his European neighbours to ransom over their energy requirements.
Mr Putin may argue that he is not entirely to blame for the recent dramatic increases in global gas prices, which will result in households throughout Europe – especially Britain – facing higher energy bills this winter. A combination of factors, such as a sharp post-pandemic rise in demand in Asia, low gas storage stocks and a reduction in output from renewables such as wind, have certainly contributed to the astonishing 280 per cent increase in wholesale gas prices in Europe so far this year.
Yet, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) made clear this week, the Kremlin is also contributing to Europe’s deepening fuel crisis by slowing down its normal flow of gas supplies to mainland Europe, with storage levels lower than normal heading into the winter months.
In a rare public rebuke, the IEA pointed out that Russian exports to Europe were lower than in 2019, and called on Moscow to “demonstrate its credentials as a reliable supplier” and “do more to increase gas availability to Europe”.
It is unlikely that assisting Europe in its hour of need will feature prominently in Mr Putin’s priorities as he assesses the potentially devastating impact that the energy crisis could have on Britain and the European Union’s economic recovery from the pandemic. Instead, the indications suggest that the Kremlin has been deliberately planning for just such an eventuality.
Concerns about Mr Putin’s attempts to exert undue influence over the rest of Europe have been steadily growing since construction began five years ago on the £8 billion Nord Stream 2 subsea pipeline that runs from the Baltic to Germany. The project, which was completed this month, has been the focus of great controversy over claims it will further increase European dependence on Russian energy, which already accounts for about one third of its requirements. The project is also seen as a deliberate ploy by the Kremlin to isolate Ukraine, which is set to lose out on billions of dollars in gas transit fees.
Washington has long regarded the Nord Stream 2 project as a blatant attempt by Moscow to establish a controlling interest over Europe’s energy needs, one that, once established, can be exploited to ransom European capitals into acceding to Moscow’s demands.
These concerns have finally persuaded the EU to take a more sober assessment of Mr Putin’s motives in developing Nord Stream 2, which has created hesitancy in Brussels about giving its approval to the new pipeline. The problem Europe now faces is that, as the crisis over gas prices has highlighted, European leaders have woken up too late to the insidious threat Mr Putin poses to Europe’s energy needs.
The Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2021
Our increasing reliance on Russian energy has placed the tyrannical leader in an impregnable position
If Vladimir Putin has one defining characteristic, it is his pathological intolerance of those who seek to oppose his relentless quest for power and influence. Russian voters will hardly have been surprised that the president’s United Russia party emerged victorious from the ballot last weekend, winning two thirds of the 450 seats in the country’s parliament. The contest, as is so often the case, was marred by reports of ballot boxes being stuffed with false slips as well as forced voting, while leading opposition candidates were banned from standing or, in the case of the prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, confined to a prison cell.
Mr Putin’s obsessive pursuit of his adversaries, moreover, extends well beyond Russian borders, as demonstrated by the conclusions reached this week by two decisions relating to Kremlin-inspired attacks on Russian dissidents based in Britain.
A ruling issued by the European Court of Human Rights concluded that Moscow was responsible for the murder in 2006 of Alexander Litvinenko, the dissident former Russian intelligence agent who died after drinking tea laced with polonium-210 at a London hotel. The court concluded there was a prima facie case that the murder was carried out by two Russian agents who “had been acting on the direction or control of the Russian authorities”.
The judgment coincided with British counter-terrorism police charging a third Russian intelligence officer, Maj Gen Denis Sergeev, with involvement in the attempted murder of the former Russian spy Col Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018. The existence of a third Russian intelligence officer – first revealed by The Daily Telegraph – who oversaw the plot to murder Mr Skripal with the nerve agent Novichok highlighted the sophistication of the assassination attempt by Russia’s GRU intelligence operation to silence one of Mr Putin’s fiercest critics.
Mr Putin’s well-documented history of tyrannical behaviour during his two decades in power has made it abundantly clear that he is singularly unsuited to hold any position that affords him any form of global responsibility. Yet, thanks to the increasing influence Moscow is able to exert over Europe’s energy market, he now finds himself able to hold his European neighbours to ransom over their energy requirements.
Mr Putin may argue that he is not entirely to blame for the recent dramatic increases in global gas prices, which will result in households throughout Europe – especially Britain – facing higher energy bills this winter. A combination of factors, such as a sharp post-pandemic rise in demand in Asia, low gas storage stocks and a reduction in output from renewables such as wind, have certainly contributed to the astonishing 280 per cent increase in wholesale gas prices in Europe so far this year.
Yet, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) made clear this week, the Kremlin is also contributing to Europe’s deepening fuel crisis by slowing down its normal flow of gas supplies to mainland Europe, with storage levels lower than normal heading into the winter months.
In a rare public rebuke, the IEA pointed out that Russian exports to Europe were lower than in 2019, and called on Moscow to “demonstrate its credentials as a reliable supplier” and “do more to increase gas availability to Europe”.
It is unlikely that assisting Europe in its hour of need will feature prominently in Mr Putin’s priorities as he assesses the potentially devastating impact that the energy crisis could have on Britain and the European Union’s economic recovery from the pandemic. Instead, the indications suggest that the Kremlin has been deliberately planning for just such an eventuality.
Concerns about Mr Putin’s attempts to exert undue influence over the rest of Europe have been steadily growing since construction began five years ago on the £8 billion Nord Stream 2 subsea pipeline that runs from the Baltic to Germany. The project, which was completed this month, has been the focus of great controversy over claims it will further increase European dependence on Russian energy, which already accounts for about one third of its requirements. The project is also seen as a deliberate ploy by the Kremlin to isolate Ukraine, which is set to lose out on billions of dollars in gas transit fees.
Washington has long regarded the Nord Stream 2 project as a blatant attempt by Moscow to establish a controlling interest over Europe’s energy needs, one that, once established, can be exploited to ransom European capitals into acceding to Moscow’s demands.
These concerns have finally persuaded the EU to take a more sober assessment of Mr Putin’s motives in developing Nord Stream 2, which has created hesitancy in Brussels about giving its approval to the new pipeline. The problem Europe now faces is that, as the crisis over gas prices has highlighted, European leaders have woken up too late to the insidious threat Mr Putin poses to Europe’s energy needs.
10) And finally: UK business minister blames free market for global warming
The Times, 15 September 2021
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has blamed the capitalist free market for global warming and said that governments around the world have a duty “to legislate and intervene” to protect the environment.
Kwarteng, who was once seen as being on the right of the Conservative Party, said there had been a “market failure” over climate change.
He said the government had a duty to pass new laws and suggested subsidies could be offered to consumers to buy more ecologically friendly products...
At an event organised by the think tank Onward, Kwarteng said that the seriousness of the climate emergency warranted government intervention.
“Sometimes the market needs a little encouragement,” he said. “If market solutions naturally greened the world, we wouldn’t be where we are.
“Clearly there’s been a market failure. If there are market failures, then governments have to legislate and intervene.”
He added: “Market forces by themselves cannot be relied upon.”
Full story (£
The Times, 15 September 2021
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has blamed the capitalist free market for global warming and said that governments around the world have a duty “to legislate and intervene” to protect the environment.
Kwarteng, who was once seen as being on the right of the Conservative Party, said there had been a “market failure” over climate change.
He said the government had a duty to pass new laws and suggested subsidies could be offered to consumers to buy more ecologically friendly products...
At an event organised by the think tank Onward, Kwarteng said that the seriousness of the climate emergency warranted government intervention.
“Sometimes the market needs a little encouragement,” he said. “If market solutions naturally greened the world, we wouldn’t be where we are.
“Clearly there’s been a market failure. If there are market failures, then governments have to legislate and intervene.”
He added: “Market forces by themselves cannot be relied upon.”
Full story (£
The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com.
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