By Paul Homewood
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It is very alarming when the Business Secretary is being so badly briefed by his energy advisors:
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Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, has said onshore fracking for gas is not the answer to high energy prices and the UK will instead push deeper into renewables and nuclear power to protect itself from the energy crisis.
Mr Kwarteng said in a tweet that extra supplies generated from untapped shale reserves under Britain would do little to bring prices down and in the long term “we need to move away from gas”.
He said that it would be “madness” to turn off existing domestic sources of gas, and vowed to continue support for the North Sea, but added: “The more cheap, clean power we generate at home, the less exposed we’ll be to global gas markets.”
The comments are likely to infuriate supporters of fracking who claim that embracing the controversial process would improve Britain’s strategic autonomy…..
Writing on Twitter this morning, Mr Kwarteng said the UK was not facing security of supply problems but accepted it is facing price problems, saying: “Put simply: we have lots of gas from highly diverse and secure sources – but it is very expensive.”
He added: “We back North Sea production. Good for jobs, energy security, tax revenue to fund public services, and kick-starting a hydrogen economy and carbon capture and storage.
“However, additional North Sea production won’t materially affect the wholesale price (certainly not anytime soon).
“The wholesale price of gas has quadrupled in the UK and Europe. Additional UK production won’t materially affect the wholesale market price.
“This includes fracking – UK producers won’t sell shale gas to UK consumers below the market price. They’re not charities.”
Arguing the long-term solution was to move away from gas, the Business Secretary said that the Government was “reversing 30 years of drift” to back new nuclear projects, and “accelerating renewables”.
He said: “Remember: renewables are cheaper than gas. UK renewable capacity is up 500pc since 2010 – but way more to do.
“Now more than ever we must focus on generating cheaper, cleaner power in Britain, for Britain…
Oil and gas are currently responsible for about 75pc of the UK’s energy supply. The Government wants to quadruple the amount of offshore wind capacity to 30GW by 2030 and has also introduced a new financing mechanism to try and encourage funding for new nuclear plants.
We have already covered the question of whether fracking will cut prices. Whether it will or not is irrelevant, as the UK will benefit financially either way from domestically produced gas.
But I do object to this ridiculous comment:
“Put simply: we have lots of gas from highly diverse and secure sources – but it is very expensive.”
The international price may be high, but that does not the COST of producing shale gas is. And that is all that matters.
But it becomes alarming when he says:
“Now more than ever we must focus on generating cheaper, cleaner power in Britain, for Britain”
As the Telegraph article states, oil and gas supply about 75% of the UK’s energy. What they don’t tell you is that wind and solar only contribute 4% of the total.
Gas on the other hand meets 38% of demand:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes-2021
And it gets worse!
Whereas averaged out over the year, gas consumption runs at 98 GW, in winter it peaks at around 250 GW:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gas-section-4-energy-trends
How does Kwasi Kwarteng think that an extra 20 GW of offshore wind power can make even a dent in that?
And forget about nuclear, which he also mentions. It will take at least 15 years to build any additional large scale nuclear capacity, and there is little sign of Sizewell or any other project starting anytime soon. Mini nuclear may have a future, but will make little difference for many years to come.
There is no doubt at all that, just like all of his predecessors, Kwasi Kwarteng is wholly dependent on the information given to him by his advisors in his Department, the Committee on Climate Change and others, who have all long been fully paid up members of the Green Blob.
They have now so thoroughly infiltrated the government machine, that it is hard to see how we will avoid catastrophe in the not too distant future.
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March 2, 2022 at 05:33AM
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