Francis Egan, British Shale Gas Entrepreneur. Source GB News, Fair Use, Low Resolution Image to Identify the Subject.

British Government: Shiver in the Dark, to Save Britain’s Broken Green Electricity Grid

Essay by Eric Worrall

h/t JoNova; Under emergency energy rationing plans, the British government is considering launching winter appeals for ordinary people to sacrifice their personal comfort to prevent blackouts.

Back to the dark ages? Now millions of Britons could be told to switch off the lights and turn down the thermostat to avoid blackouts this winter under emergency plans

The government could introduce the plan if the energy crisis worsens in winter 

The National Grid might also have to pay big energy users to cut down 

A document shows contingency plans for avoiding blackouts in the UK this year

By ALASTAIR LOCKHART FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:49 AEST, 24 July 2022 | UPDATED: 10:52 AEST, 24 July 2022

Households might have to turn down their thermostats and switch off lights to avoid blockouts under emergency plans.

Government measures to tackle the energy crisis this winter would include appeals to the public to cut down on energy use in the event of an electricity or gas supply shortage.

A document of contingency plans by the National Grid seen by The Telegraph showed ministers would use the option if the energy crisis worsened even further.

The news comes as EU countries were told to cut their usage by 15 per cent from next month over concerns they will not be able to store enough for winter after Russia reduced its supply of gas on the NordStream pipeline.

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11042881/Millions-Britons-told-switch-lights-avoid-blackouts.html

Lest we forget, the politicians making this appeal are the same clowns who earlier this year ordered Britain’s only shale gas wells be sealed with concrete, lest the evil of trying to ensure adequate domestic gas supplies undermine their net zero push.

Last I heard the deadline for sealing the gas wells has been deferred to 2023. But no entrepreneur should have to put up with such inconsistency and bullying. British Shale Gas entrepreneur Francis Egan (picture at the top of the page) is a hero to be on the receiving end of such political persecution, yet still keep trying. But continuous threats of permanent shutdown are not going to help Egan raise funds to expand his business, to fill Britain’s energy shortfall with his product.

The above is an interview with Francis Egan, British shale gas entrepreneur. Note this interview was recorded a few weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

If British politicians started right now, gave Egan’s company Cuadrilla an unequivocal green light to drill more shale gas wells, and maybe a few grants to help him buy equipment and hire US experts, there is a chance Britain might have enough fracked gas in production by January 2023 to alleviate Britain’s coming winter energy shortages.

Instead, the British government plan is to tell ordinary people to turn their thermostats down, and put up with the hardship.

I guarantee important people like the politicians in Whitehall who created this mess will not go cold or hungry this winter. I can’t say the same for everyone else in Britain.

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Tom Halla
July 27, 2022 10:07 am

Well, Boris Johnson is out, so maybe his replacement will recognize his folly.

Vuk
Reply to  Tom Halla
July 27, 2022 10:22 am

One is ‘continuity candidate’ who got in there at the last moment as the BoJo’s self destructing plant, so he can come back sooner than later.
The other is ‘hare Krishna hare Krishna Rama’ semi-socialist with a billionaire missus.

Bryan A
Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 12:23 pm

You can be certain of one fact, this Will only affect the hoi polloi. The houses of Windsor (Mountbatten) will be quite toasty as will the Manor Houses of the Entitled Titled

Elliot W
Reply to  Bryan A
July 27, 2022 4:58 pm

Most of the elite will be unaffected so, sure, Charles and Camilla will be toasty. So will Bojo, the WEF folks, and Extinction Rebellion. But don’t diss the Queen; during WW2 she went through the same rationing and energy restrictions as everyone else. She’ll likely drive everyone around her crazy insisting on the same privations this time too (in spite of the fact she’s 96).

mikewaite
Reply to  Elliot W
July 28, 2022 12:49 am

Her bridal dress was bought with ration coupons.

Ben Vorlich
Reply to  Tom Halla
July 27, 2022 12:13 pm

Well I’m not holding my breath.

Vuk
July 27, 2022 10:08 am

Leave off, we are busy watching tories’ elections sh1t show
comment image
source:https://www.thetimes.co.uk

Dave Fair
Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 4:43 pm

In life, everybody gets who they deserve.

Tom Abbott
July 27, 2022 10:26 am

All brought to you by the Great Climate Crisis Lie.

Chaswarnertoo
July 27, 2022 10:37 am

Anyone who believes in the net zero bullshit needs to stop exhaling CO2, right now.

Ben Vorlich
Reply to  Chaswarnertoo
July 27, 2022 12:14 pm

It’s not CO2 it’s Carbon.

Elliot W
Reply to  Ben Vorlich
July 27, 2022 4:59 pm

You need the sarcasm tag.

Drake
Reply to  Elliot W
July 27, 2022 6:02 pm

Not really, others who down voted him need training in sarcasm recognition.

Andy Pattullo
Reply to  Chaswarnertoo
July 27, 2022 1:30 pm

Please.

Rod Evans
July 27, 2022 10:42 am

It is completely Kwasi I tell you. He would rather buy gas from anywhere rather than give permission to frack our own massive gas deposits here in Blighty.
That lunacy is driven by Net Zero ideology. The politicians are scared witless. They can not be seen advocating any rules or authority that allow domestic fossil fuel extraction/increase.
Madness complete madness.

Vuk
Reply to  Rod Evans
July 27, 2022 11:21 am

Dirty cost of keeping the Government’s net zero strategy alive is revealed by analyses of data from UK’s Drax wood chip burning power station.
Plan to hit green targets relies on burning the equivalent of 25 million trees a year (one New Forest every five months) to supply electricity.
The power station is accused of “greenwashing” which is handed £2.4 million in government subsidies every day must justify its environmental claims, the OECD has said.
Drax last year received £891 million in green subsidies – largely paid from consumers’ bills – because biomass is falsely classed as carbon neutral at the point where it is burnt.

Dave Andrews
Reply to  Vuk
July 28, 2022 5:22 am

This is what Prof Helm of Oxford University has to say about Drax

“Finally there is the sorry and often illusional story of biofuels and biomass. At the very local level biomass has a role to play – though not the 50% of the EU’s 2020 target, for example, but…….the global production, shipping and burning of wood pellets makes little sense in tackling global warming. To claim that wood pellet burning is less bad than burning coal says it all. The fact that emissions from burning wood pellets in the UK do not count against the UK’s territorial emissions is absurd.

www. dieterhelm.co.uk/energy/climate-change/the-retreat-from-net-zero/

Note: Prof Helm is by no means a climate change sceptic but he is an acknowledged expert on energy policy

auto
Reply to  Vuk
July 28, 2022 11:50 am

If I, as a taxpayer and electric bill-payer, was to be happy about Drax keeping open – until it can burn coal again, then the OECD have no standing.
Whatever their watermelons think.

Auto.

Harry Passfield
Reply to  Rod Evans
July 27, 2022 11:38 am

Rod, did you hear the news today that the IMF have downgraded the UK’s future growth because they are too reliant on ‘expensive’ fossil fuel for their energy. Doh!

Rod Evans
Reply to  Harry Passfield
July 27, 2022 1:33 pm

The IMF are famous for getting economic predictions wrong. It is a novel departure for them to try and assign their flawed thinking to such an obvious errant statement of fact.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Rod Evans
July 28, 2022 2:11 am

as uk has adequate rainfall etc and doesnt rely on groundwater may be less risk to frack but any other options would be preferable surely?
naff all decent farmland so unless its otherwise non arable land its dumb

Erny72
Reply to  ozspeaksup
July 29, 2022 6:58 am

may be less risk to frack but any other options would be preferable surely?”

Less risk of what? how is frac’ing so frightening as to convince you that ‘other options’ are preferrable?

The nice thing about bashing one’s head against a wall is that it feel marvelous when you stop doing it…

I’m sure it’s been explained in better detail many times before, but ‘frac’ing’ involves nothing more than drilling a gas well, landing it horizontally in a reservoir (or source rock) comprising low permeability rock and then pressurizing the reservoir section with water so as to produce artifical fractures in the rock. Those fractures are held open with sand pumped in with the water and in addition additives are included to reduce friction, inhibit bacteria growth and inhibit corrosion of steel casing and tubing in the well. The fractures allow the production of gas at a commercialy acceptable rate from a reservoir that is otherwise so low in permeability that its production rate would be the equivalent of mouse flatulence. Nothing new, nothing fancy, nothing especially risky.
Potable groundwater is only found in shallow aquifers, the fractures produced in a tight reservoir don’t impact potable aquifers.
The only time I’ve seen fracturing go particularly wrong was in wells where oil companies are injecting slurries of rock cuttings from new wells mixed with drilling fluid slop. Those disposal wells are relatively shallow since there is no profit to be made drilling a deep well in strong rock when the intention is to dispose of liquid/paste waste. The only reason that WOFTAM exercise is done in the first place is to appease onerous ecomental regulations (because the smarter method of burning the oil based drilling fluid off the rock before then dumping the crushed rock cuttings is deemed objectionable since burning contributes to thin air emissions and material from ‘subsurface’ is considered a hazardous waste, even though it’s nothing more than dirt)

And what are the ‘other options’ in Blighty?
Extension cords to neighbouring countries who have energy shortfalls of their own*?
More hydropower in a more or less flat island?
More tricky mirrors covering arable land in mostly overcast small island?
More shiploads of woodchips from across the globe?
More subsidies and more transmission lines to support more whirlygigs?
Perhaps more sensibly Blighty could reopen more deep coal mines and convert coal into electricity or expensive synthetic gas; provided the likes of Extinction Retardation, Greenpricks and the Davos Skiing Club can be kept at arms length.
Actually the best ‘other option’ would be to pay Rosatom to build a fleet of floating nuclear power plants (like the one keeping the lights on in the Chukotka peninsula) or submersible nuclear plants (like the ones being designed to support hydrocarbon exploitation of the Arctic).

*Let me tell you an energy ‘clown world’ story from Norway. It may sound familiar to anyone from Tasmania…
Hydroelectric generation accounts for around 90% of Norway’s generation and on account of this, electricity has long been ‘cheap’ in Norway. Reservoirs in south-western Norway are presently below half full and generation is being rationed to allow sufficient water storage for the winter demand peak. Norwegian electricity tarrifs have risen to the point where government subsidies are planned to ‘cushion the blow’.
Normally, if properly managed, the reservoirs would be drawn down for generation purposes each year by about the same volume as is caught and impounded courtesy of winter snowmelt. The reason for the low water levels is blamed by the fake news on a ‘drought’ but in reality is that ‘lecky distributors on the Peninsula (EUssr) will pay top-notch tarrifs for ‘green’ energy and the companies who operate Norwegian dams are not going to miss out on the opportunity to separate fools from their money via the interconnectors built to Germany and Blighty in 2020 and 2021 respectively. In addition, the Norwegian oil and gas industry is under political pressure to produce ‘low carbon energy’ and the simplest way to do this (on paper) is to take ‘green’ hydropower generated ashore and keep the production platforms running via an extension cord instead of generating their own electricity by gas turbines burning gas produced on site. Each platform saddled with power-from-shore adds about the same demand to the grid as adding a city of around 50000 people (and just keep schtum that the emissions ‘saved’ by power-from-shore are emitted anyway since the gas not burned on the platform is exported via pipeline to be burned by German, Dutch and British consumers).
The solution might be to build more dams in the mountains of Norway, but ecotards have seen to it that new large dams are out of the question, so some half-wits seriously talk about pumped hydro schemes, where the North Sea is the low storage (I’m sure pumping sea water into mountain rivers will be just dandy for the environment and perfect for the longevity of pipelines and turbines).

hmm, maybe it’s time to find a wall to park my forehead on again…

Chris Nisbet
July 27, 2022 10:57 am

Hmm, people will be expected to suffer through the cold because the planet is overheating.
Makes perfect sense.

pigs_in_space
Reply to  Chris Nisbet
July 27, 2022 12:26 pm

Let’s just hope for a really freezing winter with loads of snow and ice, airports closed, trains stopping for the wrong sort of snow and a nice anticylone with lots of freezing fog and zero wind to make that plonkers in Government get the message loud and clear…

It’s well overdue for the “great reset” methinks.
How about a frozen Serpentine and parts of the Thames just to rub it inm how Dickens and frost fairs on the Thames would be fun stuff for the millenials who wouldn’t know what snow was…..

RevJay4
Reply to  pigs_in_space
July 27, 2022 4:18 pm

Sounds like a “Zhivago” winter scene to me. Revolution in the EU? Moron politicians everywhere.

auto
Reply to  RevJay4
July 28, 2022 12:01 pm

Moron politicians ousted everywhere.
Fixed it for you.

I was going to write
‘Moron politicians tarred and feathered everywhere’, but I certainly don’t condone violence except in self-defence.
Tho’, come to think on it . . . . .

Auto..

ResourceGuy
Reply to  Chris Nisbet
July 27, 2022 3:01 pm

….while a land war in Europe is playing out and the Americans are busy with electric airplane testing and biofuel mechanized units and woke recruiting and base renaming ceremonies

That’s after falsifying waiting lists at VA hospitals and prioritizing solar panels on the hospital rooftops.

Drake
Reply to  ResourceGuy
July 27, 2022 6:17 pm

Funny, why is anything having to do with the US military of concern due to a land war in Europe.

I vote that we, the US, sit this one out.

TRUMP! tried to get the European members of NATO to meet their minimum military spending requirements. How many European countries met the 2% GDP minimum? 8 of 28? UK yes, just barely, but Germany, France, Canada, Italy, NOPE.

I think it is long past time for the US to resign from NATO.

Bring our troops home. If TRUMP! were still president, that process would be already underway, and there would be no Russian incursion into Ukraine.

John Shepherd
Reply to  Drake
July 28, 2022 9:37 pm

If Trump brought the troops home he would have no leverage with Putin short of nuking him so how would Trump keep Putin out of Ukraine?

Alba
Reply to  Chris Nisbet
July 28, 2022 1:35 am

Ah, but the rise in the temperature causes extreme cold, you see. Well it does whenever there is lots of snow, ice and frost. It’s all very logical.

Bob
July 27, 2022 11:16 am

British politicians, administrators and bureaucrats are stupid and evil.

John Garrett
Reply to  Bob
July 27, 2022 11:27 am

The BBC has played a big part in promulgating this mass delusion.

I have to admit that I find it difficult to believe I am witnessing and living through such an amazing popular delusion in this day and age.

John V. Wright
Reply to  John Garrett
July 27, 2022 2:40 pm

Yes, all of that John, and also a compete failure of journalism. There’s not a single enquiring mind amongst Fleet Street’s finest. They just receive the Press releases, nod their heads like nodding dogs and churn out their columns.
In the face of Net Zero, not one UK journalist has worked out that we contribute 0.000012% of CO2 emissions to the global atmosphere. Or if they have they are too scaredy cat to write that piece.
It’s like talking to children.

Blacksmith
Reply to  John V. Wright
July 29, 2022 8:31 am

The same Fleet Street hacks claim that the UK is a leader in field of “The fight against climate change” and that the rest of the world looks up to us.
Wrong
The rest of the world is p*$$**g itself laughing at our politicians gulibility

Bob
Reply to  John Garrett
July 27, 2022 8:21 pm

Of course John you are correct.

Vuk
Reply to  Bob
July 27, 2022 11:45 am

Our politicians are just plain stupid, not even clever enough to be evil. Climate scientists advocating this new ‘profoundly immoral and wicked religion’ are the evil lot.

Oldseadog
Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 1:14 pm

They aren’t Scientists.

Vuk
Reply to  Oldseadog
July 27, 2022 1:35 pm

Agree

pigs_in_space
Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 9:24 pm

I just told my 13 year old daughter an answer to her question.
“What do scientists do” ..something useful?

I reply “ASK FOR MONEY” more than 90% do nothing of use, and are no better than street beggars.

Gary Pearse
Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 1:40 pm

MetOfice’s Dr Betts cemented in his evil legacy by prevailing upon outgoing PM Teresa May to put up another £Billion for Climate Change as her last act, scooped out of the nearly empty pockets of poor taxpayers. (I’m keeping my promise to shame evil scammers and neomarxist centrally planned purveyors of hell on earth for their ordinary citizens and for 3 billion of the earth’s poorest. We’ve been marginalized and cut off from scientific debate, but we can shame these evil doers so those suffering know where it is coming from).

Bob
Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 8:22 pm

I agree Vuk.

July 27, 2022 11:36 am

Instead, the British government plan is to tell ordinary people to turn their thermostats down, and put up with the hardship.”

Say goodbye to trees in urban and suburban areas.

Ben Vorlich
Reply to  ATheoK
July 27, 2022 12:22 pm

And an increase in chimney/house fires and carbon monoxide deaths because people under 60 have never operated an open fire and are ignorant (lacking knowledge or awareness) of the dangers

Vuk
Reply to  ATheoK
July 27, 2022 1:51 pm

Nice fence … here in the evening, gone by the morning
comment image

Bryan A
Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 2:42 pm

If you stapled posters stating “We need Reliable Affordable Energy NOW” to every third picket, you’d have a true Picket Fence

Right-Handed Shark
July 27, 2022 12:12 pm

Look, the government is constantly telling that they understand the urgency of the issues the UK faces today, almost daily increases in prices of fuel, energy, basic foodstuffs, and the knock-on effects of all their previous policies. Just as soon as they figure out who is going to be the new leader they will get right on it. Well, after their 6 week vacations in Italy, the South of France, the Maldives.. you know, places nicer than here. They are going to hit the ground running sometime in September. Oh wait, September is conference time, so they’ll get to it in October. Honest. Anyways, they will come up with some creative new policies that will solve all our problems ready to be implemented about 6 weeks before the next general election. Some of us may even still be alive to vote for them.

Elliot W
Reply to  Right-Handed Shark
July 27, 2022 5:03 pm

Notice that all their vacation spots are WARM. Hypocrites, all of them.

TonyS
July 27, 2022 12:15 pm

At the price gas is climbing to I doubt many in Britain will be able to afford to run the gas heating this winter..

ThinkingScientist
Reply to  TonyS
July 28, 2022 12:19 am

UK electricity is still 4x the price of gas per kWhr.

My energy use is approximately 50/50 so my strategy is to minimise electricity use and maximise gas for hot water, heating etc.

Michael in Dublin
July 27, 2022 12:20 pm

The UK government will face far more than the winter of our discontent. It is a pity there is no easy way to boot out all the politicians and replace them with people that have some common sense and a track record of responsible behaviour.

John Dilks
Reply to  Michael in Dublin
July 27, 2022 2:39 pm

You might get better results, if you kick out all of the existing politicians and then have a lottery of all the citizens for their replacements. With no former politician allowed to be in the lottery. Could it really be any worse?

H B
Reply to  John Dilks
July 27, 2022 4:39 pm

and the civil service that feed this bullshit to the pollies

ozspeaksup
Reply to  H B
July 28, 2022 2:17 am

and they ARE the actual problem and source
you can throw a pollie out
but the civilservants remain and do as they wish or theyre suited/paid on the side etc to do regardless

MarkW
July 27, 2022 12:50 pm

Turning off lights just means that the heater has to run more.

Curious George
Reply to  MarkW
July 27, 2022 1:09 pm

Even better, turn the heater off to save even more.

H.R.
Reply to  Curious George
July 27, 2022 10:21 pm

That will save on making ice cubes. Come to think of it you can just open the doors to the fridge/freezer and save even more!

Vuk
July 27, 2022 12:58 pm

James Lovelock, creator of Gaia hypothesis, dies on 103rd birthday https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/27/james-lovelock-creator-of-gaia-hypothesis-dies-on-103rd-birthday
(ps. my granddad died decades ago, he was born on 28 Jan, died 103 years later on 14 Feb)

Vuk
Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 1:02 pm

Richard Branson: James I’m starting a new airline, have I your permission to call it ‘Gaia Airlines’
James Lovelock: Yes, if I have your permission to open brothel and call it ‘Fly Virgin’

Stevek
July 27, 2022 1:13 pm

Chinese are laughing their asses off at the West.

tgasloli
July 27, 2022 1:18 pm

And all of this to support a Ukrainian dictator who took time out from his war to pose for photographs for Vogue magazine.

The citizens of Europe & the US are chumps.

Vuk
Reply to  tgasloli
July 27, 2022 1:42 pm

He was an actor, moving on stage an parroting according to scripts handed over to him to memorise; is it possible that only the stage and scriptwriters have changed.

Reply to  Vuk
July 27, 2022 1:57 pm

BLYAT PUTIN!

Reply to  tgasloli
July 27, 2022 1:55 pm

BLYAT PUTIN!

John Dilks
Reply to  tgasloli
July 27, 2022 2:42 pm

Better than support a murderous dictator that wants to rule the world and brags about wanting to be called Peter.

Bryan A
Reply to  tgasloli
July 27, 2022 2:44 pm

Still doesn’t give Putin or any other dictator license to strike up a war against them

Dave Fair
Reply to  tgasloli
July 27, 2022 4:54 pm

Where have I heard “beware foreign entanglements?”

Drake
Reply to  Dave Fair
July 27, 2022 6:23 pm

George Washington, but you knew that.

John Shepherd
Reply to  Dave Fair
July 28, 2022 9:51 pm

Just because Washington said it does not mean he was right. Had the US cut a deal right after Trafalgar when relations were good to look after British Maritime interests in the Western Atlantic in exchange for Royal Navy protection of US commence in the Mediterranean then there would not have been a War of 1812.

The US fought two wars with European nations and one war because of events in Europe between 1798 and 1815. So if the United States could not stay out of foreign conflicts when we were an insignificant third rate country on the wrong side of the Atlantic during the age of sail how do you expect to do that now? You probably don’t even know that stock markets closed for three months in 1914 beause Europeans were dumping stocks and exporting gold in such volumes that if left unchecked would have caused a 1929 level financial crisis.

Isolationist have always lived in fantasy world.

Andy Pattullo
July 27, 2022 1:28 pm

The elites will be toasting with fine wine, chomping down on rare steaks and soaring across the mostly empty skies while the rest of us search for crumbs in the cold and dark, just as they planned it to be. The climate will keep doing what it does without concern about human actions or CO2 and eventually the voters, assuming they still have that right will take their revenge. The time will come when the elites see being made redundant by the electorate as a welcome alternative to the other option which was swift and far less to be desired by the French aristocracy not that long ago.

Joe B
July 27, 2022 2:01 pm

The Bowland Basin, where Cuadrilla has drilled 2 laterals (8,000 foot TVD, 6,000 foot laterals, IIRC) has enough natgas to supply the UK for about 50 years. Two stages have already been frac’d with promising early shows.

When the Weald Basin shale gas is added in, the UK could be self sufficient in natgas out to the end of the century.
Perhaps the crushing pain of scarcity and high costs will prompt a sane approach to recovering their hydrocarbon bounty.

mikewaite
Reply to  Joe B
July 28, 2022 1:14 am

It is not as if the presence hydrocarbons in west lancashire is news. I have an old (1954) copy of British Regional Geology which states tjhat oil seepages at Formby , on the coast , have been known since mid 19th Cent.In the 1950s drillings were producing 2000gallons/week oil from the Keuper Marl sandstone layer which, the report says is “impregnated with oil”. They were shallow borings however .

Chris Hanley
July 27, 2022 2:12 pm

How many sitting members of parliament and within the bureaucracy have direct or indirect pecuniary interests in wind energy?

roger
Reply to  Chris Hanley
July 27, 2022 4:04 pm

That will not be evident until after they retire to their sinecures as highly paid non execs working six days a year.
Some may even go on the speech circuit where they will be paid millions for a few appearances. Who amongst us would pay money to hear them? But we are led to believe that it is so.
We of course have to jump through hoops backwards to ensure we are not money laundering.

Giordano Milton
July 27, 2022 2:14 pm

Maybe they should sacrifice the British government members and return to a rational life.

Redge
Reply to  Giordano Milton
July 27, 2022 11:37 pm

I’d like to cut off the British governments members and feed them to the pigs

Oops, Camerons already been there

Rud Istvan
July 27, 2022 2:20 pm

As unpleasant as these ‘preparations’ sound, they will likely not be enough to stop the UK climate madness. That takes a real catastrophe. Like if the UK grid goes dark midwinter during a bitter cold high with no wind. Would take up to a week to do a black restart. The NE US blackout of 2003 took 4 days to restore even with interconnections to other Midwestern, southern, and Canadian grids that remained up to facilitate black starts.

John Hardy
July 27, 2022 2:37 pm

The two candidates to take over from BoJo both have degrees in PPE from Oxford. Be nice to have someone in the top job who knew a bit about science

Drake
Reply to  John Hardy
July 27, 2022 6:26 pm

The degree is not of the most influence, it is that they went to Oxford. They are contaminated and should not be allowed to become PM.

If the UK cleared out ALL of the Oxford educated from elected and appointed positions in the government, it would be far better off.

Drake
Reply to  Drake
July 27, 2022 6:42 pm

In the US, clearing graduates of Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford would be a good start.

BTW, How many Protestant Christians (not Catholic) are on the SCOTUS, only 2, both appointed within the last 2 years. There are 6 Catholics and one is Jewish.

Almost 50% of the US is Protestant, less than 25% Catholic. about 2% Jewish.

Until Jackson replaced Breyer, there were more Jews than Protestants on the SCOTUS.

Time for the levers of power in the US, and the UK to reflect the “great unwashed”.

Nick Graves
Reply to  John Hardy
July 28, 2022 12:47 am

I understand Kemi Badenoch is an engineer.

No wonder she was out of the race early on.

ResourceGuy
July 27, 2022 2:39 pm

Wait till John Kerry is safely away on his jet before freezing to death. It would not look good.

ResourceGuy
July 27, 2022 2:43 pm

Quartermass never envisioned this level of chaos and mind control. Better get the giant crane in place to zap the grid.

Chuck_M
July 27, 2022 2:49 pm

Think both 10 Downing Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue should lead the way by setting their thermostats to 10C / 50F this winter.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Chuck_M
July 27, 2022 5:02 pm

I was an electrical engineering student when Smiling Jimmy was at the height of his stupidity in the 1970s. The university turned down the thermostats that winter at his advice. The campus newspaper published a picture of us huddling over lab resistors to provide heat in a 58 ℉ basement lab. FJB. FLeftists.

Drake
Reply to  Dave Fair
July 27, 2022 6:43 pm

AN electrical engineering student should have been able to bypass the Tstat.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Drake
July 27, 2022 6:48 pm

It was more fun to get in the school paper.

It doesn't add up...
July 27, 2022 3:21 pm

To avoid a blackout…

Turn out the lights!

¿Que?

When the music’s over…

Rud Istvan
Reply to  It doesn't add up...
July 27, 2022 5:16 pm

Well done.

Nick Graves
Reply to  Rud Istvan
July 28, 2022 12:49 am

It’s more a case of:

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain,
And all the children are insane…

RickWill
July 27, 2022 3:38 pm

UK is 500 years into a 10,000 year winter cooling trend. So far the largest monthly reduction in solar intensity is during October but that will gradually shift to December.

LdB
July 27, 2022 6:51 pm

Now the question to pose to Griff is will he go without power to help?

That would be no using a computer to post unless it is running from his own non grid power.

TonyG
Reply to  LdB
July 28, 2022 10:11 am

LdB, no, because “the UK power grid won’t fail” you know…

observa
July 27, 2022 8:10 pm

Some mixed blessings for British taxpayers cum electricity consumers-
UK Ending Electric Car Subsidies To Concentrate On EV Charging Infrastructure – CleanTechnica
while the Labor Gummint in Oz gives luxury EV buyers a juicy backhander-
Treasurer reveals incentives for EV buyers (msn.com)
Never mind our AEMO has to intervene in the electricity market to keep the lights on as it will all run on e-motion.

Coeur de Lion
July 27, 2022 9:05 pm

Come, come, guys, all is well! UK windmills are now up to SEVEN per cent of demand!

observa
July 27, 2022 9:37 pm

Squirm girls squirm-
Climate crisis ‘insufficient’ to halt oil and gas exploration, says New Zealand government (msn.com)
It’s cold down south and the punters’ power bills are rising fast with pressure on power grids so they have to compromise with their ‘climate crisis’. More transitioning time.

July 27, 2022 9:50 pm

Wow – Who could have seen this coming?
We did – in 2002, and in more detail in 2013:

AN OPEN LETTER TO BARONESS VERMA
British Undersecretary for Energy and Climate Change, 31Oct2013
By Allan MacRae, B.A.Sc.(Eng.), M.Eng.
[excerpt]
So here is my real concern:
IF the Sun does indeed drive temperature, as I suspect, Baroness Verma, then you and your
colleagues on both sides of the House may have brewed the perfect storm.
You are claiming that global cooling will NOT happen, AND you have crippled your energy
systems with excessive reliance on ineffective grid-connected “green energy” schemes.
I suggest that global cooling probably WILL happen within the next decade or sooner, and Britain will get colder.
I also suggest that the IPCC and the Met Office have NO track record of successful
prediction (or “projection”) of global temperature and thus have no scientific
credibility.
I suggest that Winter deaths will increase in the UK as cooling progresses.
I suggest that Excess Winter Mortality, the British rate of which is about double the
rate in the Scandinavian countries, should provide an estimate of this
unfolding tragedy.

Reply to  Allan MacRae
July 28, 2022 1:31 am

COLD WEATHER KILLS 20 TIMES AS MANY PEOPLE AS HOT WEATHER
By Joseph D’Aleo and Allan MacRae September 4, 2015
Cold weather kills. Throughout history and in modern times, many more people succumb to cold exposure than to hot weather, as evidenced in a wide range of cold and warm climates.
Evidence is provided from a study of 74 million deaths in thirteen cold and warm countries including Thailand and Brazil, and studies of the United Kingdom, Europe, the USA, Australia and Canada.
Contrary to popular belief, Earth is colder-than-optimum for human survival. A warmer world, such as was experienced during the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, is expected to lower winter deaths and a colder world like the Little Ice Age will increase winter mortality, absent adaptive measures. These conclusions have been known for many decades, based on national mortality statistics.
 
SMALL-AREA ASSESSMENT OF TEMPERATURE-RELATED MORTALITY RISKS IN ENGLAND AND WALES: A CASE TIME SERIES ANALYSIS
A new Lancet study by Gasparrini et al (July 2022) ominously reports that from 2000 to 2019 in England and Wales there were an average of 791 heat-related excess deaths and 60,753 cold-related excess deaths each year. That’s an excess death ratio of about 85 to 1 for cold temperatures. That’s an excess death ratio of about 85 to 1 for cold temperatures.

We’ve been watching this systematic culling of the elderly unfold for years, especially in Britain and Germany as green-energy schemes are promoted by the usual suspects. Depopulation! First it was the global warming Climate-and-Energy scam, and then it was the Covid-19 Lockdowns-and-Vaccines scam.

Reply to  Allan MacRae
July 28, 2022 2:16 am

Some may say that my above “Depopulation” accusation above is unfair or excessive.
Some may say that the Ruling Classes of Europe are not deliberately trying to cull the elderly through their Climate-and-Covid scams, rather they are just so deeply inbred that this “error” is an unfortunate side-effect of that intellectual deficiency.
 
The counter-arguments are:
·     The Global Warming-and-Green-Energy narrative is a fifty-year-old fraud, which we published was false nonsense in 2002. Others including the eminent Richard Lindzen at MIT were publicly doubting the global warming falsehoods in the 1990’s. The warmist arguments were never credible, not even remotely so – they were always scary fictions with no basis in science.
·     Uncommon sense says that no rational individual or group could be this wrong, this incredibly obtuse, for this long – the warmists knew they were lying from the start. They promoted their scary CAGW narrative for financial and political gain – “wolves stampeding the sheep”.
 
The big cull of the elderly of Europe will happen this winter – we predicted it in 2002 and 2013 – it was all terribly costly – in dollars and lives – and all entirely avoidable – a willful squandering of the lives of innocents. Crimes against humanity.

Redge
July 27, 2022 11:30 pm

There’s going to be a lot of excess deaths amongst the elderly this winter and it won’t be COVID related

michel
July 28, 2022 12:37 am

Paul Homewood has done an excellent analysis of the UK’s long term plans. In case not everyone has seen it, go here, its essential reading:

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/07/25/fes-2022-more-wishful-thinking/#more-57395

Homewood examines the National Grid plans for 2035, which is only 13 years away. They will be found here:

https://www.nationalgrideso.com/future-energy/future-energy-scenarios#fullsuite.

The numbers are staggering. Even more staggering is the fact that professionals in charge of the national electricity supply can be so deluded. There is going to be a crisis this winter, but if the long term plan is persisted with there is going to be a long term crisis which makes this winter seem like a tea party.

What you see in the UK plan is the consequence of trying to at the same time move everyone to electric vehicles and home heating AND move the grid to mainly wind and solar.

The document itself and Homewood’s analysis make clear what this actually means in quantitative terms. I was going to summarize the numbers, but its better everyone goes over and reads his analysis. Its a case history. All attempts at this are going to lead to the same issues.

If its persisted with he thinks it will lead to rationing. I suspect it will lead to week long winter blackouts, though they may blink as that becomes clear. Deep recessions. And it will all have absolutely no effect on global carbon emissions, which is supposed to be the reason for the whole thing in the first place.

auto
Reply to  michel
July 28, 2022 1:12 pm

Thanks
Sent the link to my MP.
A Minister [or was . . . ] – and, I think, probably numerate, if not an engineer or a scientist.
But, I’m still not holding my breath for a U-turn!

Auto

Reply to  michel
July 29, 2022 4:35 am

Well said Michel.
“And it will all have absolutely no effect on global carbon emissions, which is supposed to be the reason for the whole thing in the first place.”

“Supposed to be”, but is NOT! It’s all been green deliberate lies, a 50-year old fraud.

NO EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CRISIS June 23, 2022
https://www.worldcommercereview.com/html/macrae-no-evidence-of-a-climate-crisis.html
“To conclude, the alleged fossil-fuel-caused Global Warming Crisis does not exist in reality. The only real, measurable impact of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations is improved crop yields – which are hugely beneficial.” 
 
SCIENTIFIC COMPETENCE – THE ABILITY TO CORRECTLY PREDICT October 20, 2021. Update July 16, 2022
https://correctpredictions.ca/
“The ability to correctly predict is the best objective measure of scientific and technical competence.”
Our scientific predictions on both Climate and Covid are infinitely more accurate than the mainstream narratives, which have been false and baselessly alarmist to date.
 
THE CATASTROPHIC ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING (CAGW) AND THE HUMANMADE CLIMATE CHANGE CRISES ARE PROVED FALSE January 10, 2020
https://thsresearch.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/the-catastrophic-anthropogenic-global-warming-cagw-and-the-humanmade-climate-change-crises-are-proved-false.pdf
“There are numerous highly credible observations that falsify the CAGW hypothesis and many are listed herein, but as Albert Einstein famously stated ‘One would be enough’.”

Iain Reid
July 28, 2022 1:49 am

Quote:-

“The National Grid might also have to pay big energy users to cut down ”

Increase cost to the consumer and reduce GDP, excellent idea, what can go wrong?

There is no accountable overall authority in the U.K. for energy security to ensure adequate sources of energy and electricity. The government assumes much of it but are unaccountable.

ozspeaksup
July 28, 2022 2:07 am

or they could reopen reboot COAL mines and power

griff
July 28, 2022 2:28 am

But there’s no possibility of UK running out of gas this winter.

Pat from kerbob
Reply to  griff
July 28, 2022 2:51 am

Better tell that to ITV and others, they understand there is a crisis even if you don’t.
Of course, you helped create it

michel
Reply to  griff
July 28, 2022 8:54 am

griff, I would not be so sure. I am sure every effort will be made to keep supplies going, at any price, to residential customers. Because closing down residential gas in a country where 85% of homes are heated with it will be a disaster.

But I am not at all sure that supplies will be maintained to businesses.

And even if supplies are maintained to homes, the other question is at what price. People are going to die this winter in the UK because they can’t afford to heat their houses, when the price cap is raised in October, as it will be.

The correct thing for the UK to do at this point is declare a national power emergency and abolish all of the various wind and solar subsidies which (as Paul Homewood has calculated) cost about 450 sterling to every UK household and just give back the money to the population.

It costs the 450 while providing wildly fluctuating power to the grid, which would be better off without it.

Then at the same time embark on new construction of supercritical coal fired power plants with proper scrubbers and anti pollution controls. By which I don’t mean CO2 scrubbing, just let that go. And get Drax off the environmentally idiotic burning of wood pellets shipped in from the US. That is absolutely the maddest idea one has ever heard of. Its supposed to be green in 60 years time when all the replanting of those trees absorbs all the carbon emitted in burning them. In your dreams!

auto
Reply to  griff
July 28, 2022 1:21 pm

Griff
We had a house.
We were told it needed a new roof.
We took much of the old roof off.
But didn’t look to see if we could get a new roof.
Or employ people to put the new roof on
Or if the new unreliable roof is watertight.

China is laughing themselves stupid.

It’s an analogy.

Auto

Pat from kerbob
July 28, 2022 2:49 am

Was just listening to Julia Hart on Talk TV, she sure is a no BS treasure, disparaging mindless Netzero idiocy and clearly talking back to the alarmist dunces.
Energy costs to double here by years end, I see no will to fix anything

Matthew Sykes
July 28, 2022 5:19 am

Let those who are anti fracking, those who are anti CO2, go without first. Take their driving licenses away, turn off their gas and electricity.

Let them put their money where their mouth is,.

Coach Springer
July 28, 2022 6:03 am

Shiver in the dark and practice self-dentistry. The British government has all the answers for all the problems it creates.

auto
Reply to  Coach Springer
July 28, 2022 3:23 pm

Idly passing through Redhill recently, past the gasometer site, I wondered how many – if any – of these ‘relics of a bygone age’ still exist [and how many are in working order, and could, thus, store gas, in an extreme case].
Does anyone know?
UK or indeed elsewhere?

Auto

auto
Reply to  auto
July 28, 2022 3:26 pm

To view a circular depression in Redhill: –
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Redhill/@51.2328205,-0.1669543,127m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4875e4d2591c41fb:0xfb16f6433a5c4155!8m2!3d51.239208!4d-0.16988?hl=en

Bit of water there [useful in the drought we are told we will have in SE England . . . .

But no gas storage.

Auto

Neo
July 28, 2022 7:34 am

A Swedish expert commodities analyst has warned that a Russian shut-off of gas to Europe could not only lead to higher prices for electricity but could collapse electrical grids as well.

a shortage of electricity in Europe could lead to … useless EVs

Nick Haag
July 28, 2022 9:01 am

Perhaps we can keep warm by clapping and banging saucepans.

It doesn't add up...
July 28, 2022 9:13 am

This was last Christmas. Imagine pay for imports at £10,000/MWh, up to £57m per hour, or say £1bn per day.

12 Days of Christmas interconnectors.png
Slowroll
July 28, 2022 9:46 am

This is the government that insists people drive EV’s and heat with ELECTRIC hear pumps to save the planet, but need to turn off lights and lower the heat to avoid blackouts? If there’s not enough power to run existing daily life, howinhell can everything be converted to electric? Did Biden get “elected” in Britain too?

Diogenese
July 28, 2022 11:42 am

A winter in the dark would do the British people a power of good , they then might take their collective heads from up their rectum and elect someone that keeps the bloody lights on !

Enginer01
July 28, 2022 2:38 pm

I keep hearing “Grants! Loans! Subsidies!
Why not save the exchequer and use loan guarantees?

Kemaris
July 28, 2022 6:14 pm

Sacramento, California, beat them to it. The state was running ads, which I heard on a Sacramento radio station, calling on Californians to cut back on their electricity usage between 4 and 9 PM. In other words, get off work, go home, and starve and sweat in the dark.

observa
July 29, 2022 1:36 am

The British treclicity market isn’t really broken. It’s just that there’s none left to spare so bad luck with the housing shortage-
News: West London Faces New Homes Ban as Electricity Grid Hits Capacity (zicos.com)
We’re gunna get you deplorables out of ICEs and into sleeping in your EVs by 2035 one way or another.

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