Blog:Tilting At Windmills
From Bolton Interweb
Penny Fotherguy, Environment Correspondent, 17 July 2009
On Wednesday the Government announced "ambitious" plans to produce a third of the UK's electricity needs via renewable sources, and 40% via low carbon sources (implying 10% nuclear generation), by 2020. This is part of a flagship government environmental policy.
Forget global warming; it's a global political excuse to put up taxes on so-called green grounds and designed to make you feel guilty if you object. And all the major political parties in the UK have boarded this bandwagon. The climate has changed throughout the history of this planet, long before Easyjet started cheap flights to Spain. The River Thames used to freeze up enough to hold Frost Fairs on it. The last one was in 1814, before the car, before the plane, before people lit up their homes with 60 watt light bulbs. The climate was changing all of its own accord, with no help from the oil industry, and it will continue to change.
But there are a number of very real and compelling reasons to "go green". Firstly, pollution is unhealthy and just plain bad. Who wants to breath fumes? Clean air is good. Secondly, dependence on oil and gas, when our national reserves are running out, is just plain bad. A large proportion of the World's oil and gas reserves are in countries that are, at best, unstable, and liable to become more unstable not less in coming years. We've made a lot of enemies just where we don't need them. Invading all of these countries is just not practical, and doesn't appear to improve their stability based on recent experience. Because of the reliance of the developed world on these supplies, the price of oil has a huge impact on our economy and wellbeing. So energy security, the ability to generate our own power needs, without dependence on the unstable Middle East, has to be a top priority for our future overall national security. Thirdly, if our living standards are going to rise and not fall, then we need plenty of cheap, clean energy to power our homes, vehicles, and workplaces. The current situation is that continual price rises, which will continue on an upward trend in the long-term, are leading to ever more people in the UK falling into energy poverty, their standards of living decimated. Do you want to live in a country divided by whether you can afford electricity or not?
There is an answer in renewable energy sources - wind, tidal, solar, geothermal, hydro. And, lo, the Government and the Secretary of State for Climate and Energy, Little Ted, at last seem to want to do something practical about it. But what exactly is this showcase policy. Well, they are going to invest up to, which leaves it prone to cuts, £186 million on wind, tidal, and geothermal technologies. Yep, up to about £3 for each of us. What was Shell's profit in 2008? Over £26 billion or about 140 times the frankly pathetic government investment. Compare it to the money thrown at failed banks. Compare it to the amount paid out annually by the National Lottery in jackpots. The investment, in our futures and for our security, should be 10, 20, 50 times the commitment, and guaranteed not "up to". It should secure our independence from volatile oil and gas prices, create new industries for us to lead the world in, create employment, and release the poor from energy poverty. It should enable our traditional manufacturing industry to at least compete, based on a low-cost energy economy. It can be done, easily, and at so little cost. And I am sure the tree-hugging green lobby are not going to object at actions even if undertaken for the wrong (in their opinion) reasons.
So why isn't the investment £4 billion? Or £10 billion? Well, the oil companies wouldn't like it. Commodity speculators and the City moneymakers would probably object. And the Treasury would lose cartloads of tax income generated from fuel and green taxes and have to be honest in their taxation policies. The only people who would benefit would be manufacturing and the citizens of the UK. We are probably not important enough to matter though. Common sense would say compel every new house to be roofed with photovoltaic solar tiles. Abolish planning permission for micro-generating wind turbines. Put the money into researching more efficient and cheaper solar panels that actually work in our sunshine (or lack of it). Ignore the NIMBYs who object to wind farms they can see; times change and landscapes change. Harness the tides. Plant trees and repeal smoke-free zone restrictions on certified clean domestic biomass boilers. If 2020 is the target then do it now. Bold, dynamic, decisive decision making that makes a difference instead of just tilting at windmills.
© Evrose, 2010
