Best Of

I've heard suggestions that there simply won't be enough LNG in the world to meet global needs without Qatar if warmer weather doesn't arrive in Europe and North America within the next couple of weeks. There will be blackouts as countries are simply unable to get enough supply for energy generation.

I think we may need to turn the coal power back on, the government needs to start contingency planning to have coal energy back online within weeks, even if the war ends and shipments restart by the end of March there is going to be a shortages everywhere for months.

Starmer may have the misfortune to be in power when multiple mistakes made by previous administrations start coming home to roost. The state of the Royal Navy is the current one, but you're right that energy is probably the next.

I've heard suggestions that there simply won't be enough LNG in the world to meet global needs without Qatar if warmer weather doesn't arrive in Europe and North America within the next couple of weeks. There will be blackouts as countries are simply unable to get enough supply for energy generation.

I think we may need to turn the coal power back on, the government needs to start contingency planning to have coal energy back online within weeks, even if the war ends and shipments restart by the end of March there is going to be a shortages everywhere for months.

Starmer may have the misfortune to be in power when multiple mistakes made by previous administrations start coming home to roost. The state of the Royal Navy is the current one, but you're right that energy is probably the next.

Yet unbridled glee from right wing posters desperate for the UK to go in to recession.

Unpatriotic traitors

We non drivers with bus passes are unconcerned by the oil crisis.
*smug*

Good thing you don't use electricity or gas. Or eat food. Or buys things.

There's a reason why price shocks like this lead to recessions.

A recession is perfectly possible. Nobody knows. It depends on the actions of people outside these shores. We have zero control over things.

I’m livid about it. How are we meant to have a decade of national renewal with Donald Trump constantly blundering around screwing life up for everybody. There's a sovereignty issue here when you think about it. The US has an enormous impact, economy, culture, mood, on us. Who their president is is actually more important to the UK than who sits in Downing St. That's a fact. Yet we have no vote on it. We have no say whatsoever in their elections.

The term, I believe, is democratic deficit and it’s a whopping big one. Far bigger than the one frequently complained about in the EU. There we had a vote and a veto and (unlike with Trump’s USA) we benefited from most of what was done. Given even that arrangement proved intolerable to us the same in spades must apply to this relationship with America. Special? Yes it’s ‘special’ alright. I don’t know what the answer is – it's a tricky one - but a good start would be to join me in being livid.

There isn't necessarily always going to be a cold, dark, still week in January that we are never able to cover with renewables. Tidal and geothermal continue regardless of the weather. Hydroelectric is less connected to the weather and pumped-storage hydroelectricity is unaffected by the weather. More efficient solar and more solar means you make the most of whatever the weather conditions are. Better interconnectivity means you can rely on somewhere where it's windier and brighter.

If you are going to burn carbon, it can be domestically produced biofuels, biogas and waste-to-energy.

So, should we be spending money on a big investment in methane storage capacity, or could we spend it better on nuclear, wave, geothermal, biofuels, solar...?

I was curious what the current figures are for UK gas imports. 2024 figures are...

Norway 50.2%
Domestic (North Sea) 33.8%
US 11%
Qatar 1.2%
Trinidad and Tobago 1.1%
others less than 1% each

And then I thought, what would Trump do? Presumably invade Trinidad and Tobago. How quickly can we get an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean?

As I said earlier, remember Norway already proposed cutting the supply of gas to the UK last year.

And a few other points:

Current hydro capacity is about 1 percent of demand.
Pumped Storage is not generation. It is simply a liquid battery.
Tidal and geothermal are almost non existent in the UK and successive governments have refused to invest in them, which is criminal to my mind.
Interconnectvity can only provide about 9GW of power total. Peak demand in the UK is around 60GW.

All of these things are important and on a decades level, if we get a government with any sense (no laughing at the back please), then tidal, geothermal and nuclear could be a huge leap forward for us. But that is a very very long way away. Even further with the sorts of governments we seem to get these days.

It's worth a mention that the UK's first geothermal power plant has just been turned on:

Earth's heat to power 10,000 homes in renewable energy first for UK

It's not much and it's been a long time coming, but it's a start.

A pitiful start A Cardiff tidal lagoon power station could power north of 1.4 million homes.

Just sayin'...

We non drivers with bus passes are unconcerned by the oil crisis.
*smug*

Good thing you don't use electricity or gas. Or eat food. Or buys things.

There's a reason why price shocks like this lead to recessions.

A recession is perfectly possible. Nobody knows. It depends on the actions of people outside these shores. We have zero control over things.

I’m livid about it. How are we meant to have a decade of national renewal with Donald Trump constantly blundering around screwing life up for everybody. There's a sovereignty issue here when you think about it. The US has an enormous impact, economy, culture, mood, on us. Who their president is is actually more important to the UK than who sits in Downing St. That's a fact. Yet we have no vote on it. We have no say whatsoever in their elections.

The term, I believe, is democratic deficit and it’s a whopping big one. Far bigger than the one frequently complained about in the EU. There we had a vote and a veto and (unlike with Trump’s USA) we benefited from most of what was done. Given even that arrangement proved intolerable to us the same in spades must apply to this relationship with America. Special? Yes it’s ‘special’ alright. I don’t know what the answer is – it's a tricky one - but a good start would be to join me in being livid.

If we were a net oil and gas exporter, as we should be, then we would be profiting off high prices and the taxes from that would be slashing our deficit.

It is only pigheaded ignorance that is the reason why we are not a net exporter.