Have Our Politicians the Energy?

Today, I must congratulate The Times, which sheds its drippy-green, Camilla Cavendish-side in favour of a robust analysis of the energy crisis now confronting Britain. Robin Pagnamenta, its Energy and Environment Editor, presents an excellent report on the proposed nuclear timetable (p.20); Mark Henderson, Science Editor, has a neat analysis of the new standards of nuclear safety (p.21); and, Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent, reviews the economic and engineering problems of the ridiculous EU policy on biofuels (p.9).

Above all, however, there is a truly seminal comment (p. 28), ‘We are six years away from an energy crisis’, by Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford. Helm’s analysis of the current energy debacle should be force fed into every politician in the land. He says it all - the looming, and growing, energy gap; the fact that by 2020 we may need to expand from 70 GWs to 90-100 GWs to meet peak demand; the inconvenient truths that wind will do little to combat climate change and that it may even prove counterproductive in managing supply; the fact that current policies will raise prices markedly for consumers; our increasing dependence on imported gas; and the likelihood of a return to ‘unabated’ coal. These are, of course, themes that I have personally hammered home here, and on previous blogs, but Helm puts them together in an unanswerable and devastating critique.

Welcome to future country | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

The Senate Select Committee on Climate Policy receives a submission - number 176 to be precise.

If genuine, you may find it an interesting testimony to the state of identity politics, education, green dreaming and logic...

Apocalypse manana | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

But isn’t this bloke now saying manana the very same Ross Garnaut who in September said we couldn’t wait an instant longer?

Is Costello saying he’s a sceptic? | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

[Ray Evans] This reinforces the comments I have heard from a variety of well informed sources that indeed a substantial majority of the Coalition parliamentarians are convinced sceptics.