UK Energy Needs

its proven they cant do fracking without causing earth tremors Trevor. There are other forms of energy we can use without literally causing man made earthquakes.

 

I would argue that happened at a time when environmental concerns simply weren't concerns at all.

 

Again, it comes back to governments governing instead of relying on the vagaries of the so called 'free market'. Domestic gas and electricity bills have skyrocketed since they were privatised and have largely passed into foreign ownership. It's ridiculous to leave essential energy supplies in the hands of profiteering companies. It's abdicating responsibility. The government has spent around £35b on hideously ineffective Covid services run by its insider friends, but is powerless to subsidise domestic fuel bills because it has given the supply away to foreign companies.

 

Isn't this exactly the issue though? Right now all meaningful energy extraction/creation causes environmental concerns but we're not allowed any trade off at all.

If it's not wind (Where the UK is already a world leader - is it something like 6 of the 10 largest offshore windfarms are in the UK?) or tidal - which can also have environmental concerns and is in it's relative infancy, then an element of the population don't want to know.

It's okay saying we need to get rid of gas but 85% of homes in the UK are heated in that way so the infrastructure changes are enormous.

So long term a plan to increase renewables is the right one but we also need to find solutions in the short terms and ALL of them have environmental impacts. You can't get around it. I don't know enough about fracking as all sources seem to be biased in some way but shipping shale gas from America where it has been fracked anyway doesn't seem particularly environmentally friendly either on the face of it.

 

Well I think a part of this is caused by us refusing to grasp the nettle earlier and spend the time and money required to get these other forms of energy generation to a point where they are viable. Now we're all going to be hit in the pocket massively because of it.

I agree we have serious short term challenges in changing this but it's made geopolitical sense to make this shift anyway, given how the main exporter of gas in europe is now well up for starting ww3. It's a difficult question with no easy answers but I think would be fair to say simply continuing as we are is emphatically not the best course of action.

 

Doesn't the fact we're a world leader in wind power show that we have done the first bit? What are the actual expectations in real terms?

Isn't Trevor advocating moving away from staying as we are? Everything in your second paragraph pushes us to the conclusion that we need to be more self sufficient however everything that we would do to achieve that has environmental impacts so we surely need to balance those two things logically.

 

If it wasn't for the Russian backed various climate change groups and shale gas protesters etc we wouldn't have to go looking abroad for our energy supplies....

 

just paying more?

 

* Because wind and solar power that we produce is not enough for our needs.

* Quite the opposite, they don't want us to produce our own so that they can sell to us, don't tell me the XR group and it's other like minded fools are not funded by our adversaries..

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-10625169/Reabold-Resources-granted-permission-drill-gas-Yorkshire.html

Fortuitous or not?

 

Not at the moment. But that's because Cameron's government cancelled their promised plans for massive expansion of our renewable capability. There are numerous wind and wave schemes that are waiting to go and could be built relatively quickly but are waiting for government planning permission. By contrast, it would be many years before environmentally damaging fracking could produce any results. It's the dinosaurs on the right of the Tory Party who are stymying our renewable potential for political reasons.

 

That's a ridiculous and unfounded thing to say, but I do agree re tidal waves, if that could be harnessed it would see us right for as long as we wanted...

 

you've just tried to claim XR is a russian plant tony

 

It's not ridiculous or unfounded. There are numerous renewable energy schemes planned and waiting to be built, including several wave schemes. The only thing holding them up is government go-ahead. The reason the government won't give the go-ahead is to appease the dinosaur climate change sceptics on the right of the Tory Party including those with interests in the fracking business