To the relief of many of the country’s biggest manufacturers and industries, there has been a distinct shift in the government’s tone on green issues. Even Steve Hilton, Mr Cameron’s chief policy adviser, and the man credited with coining the phrase “vote blue, go green”, appears to have had some serious second thoughts. “There is a clear disintegration of the green consensus,” says Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a critic of many climate policies. “We’re still at the stage of rhetoric rather than really strong rollback of policies, but it normally starts with the rhetoric before you start with policies.” -- Pilita Clark and Sylvia Pfeifer,
Financial Times, 4 January 2012Britain’s climate change minister has rounded on the “environmental Taliban” of green campaigners, insisting they are wrong to accuse the government of abandoning its commitment to an ambitious low carbon agenda. “There is nothing environmental about exporting manufacturing jobs abroad,” said Greg Barker, in a sign of the dilemma ministers face as they confront mounting industry concerns about high energy prices in a weak economy, having vowed to try to be “the greenest government ever”. -- Pilita Clark,
Financial Times, 4 January 2012
The English Democrats are now claiming that, depending on which territorial convention is applied, either half or a quarter of the North Sea coastal sea bed, with its oil and gas reserves, belongs to England. With over half of these reserves still to be extracted, they represent an asset base of £1 trillion, according to Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney. Mr Swinney’s figures show North Sea revenues adding up to £54 billion between 2011-12 and 2016-17. There is no doubt that the potential loss of 25% to 50% of projected oil and gas revenues would make the financing of the independence proposition look quite different. --
Argyll News, 30 December 2011
Tim Worstall has picked up on the DECC energy pathways report and notes something intriguing: although the costs of the individual elements of the energy mix in the new regime are acknowledged to be higher than at present, the overall cost is said to be lower! But Timmy has managed to work out how this particular piece of government mathematics works: “So, how is it that they have squared the circle? How have they concluded that the new, greener, energy system made up of more expensive components is going to be cheaper? The answer is here at the report site. They are not saying that producing the same amount of energy is going to be about the same price with the new technology. They’re saying that producing half the amount of energy is going to be about the same price.” Perhaps understandably, Tim's article is entitled "Lying with Numbers". --Andrew Montford,
Bishop Hill, 30 December 2011
