Our so-called Conservative Government and its virtue signalling green policies. A critique by Chris Davies.

An article by Chris Davies, published on the Bruges Group Blog, illustrates our so-called Government’s hypocritical attitude with regard to its energy policies which are fixated upon obtaining Carbon Net Zero.

I reproduce a couple of paragraphs below.

“The UK government is keen to articulate its green credentials around the central metric of emitting less than 1% of global CO2. This is fallacious in all but name. By reducing domestic energy production to just over half of the country's needs, instead relying on imported gas, oil and coal, we have simply displaced where the CO2 is emitted whilst conveniently ignoring the additional CO2 created through transportation.”

Mr Davies notes the deficiencies in current policy and lists his eminently sensible and practical solutions.

“I recommend the government urgently reconsiders their position. In the short term:

• Remove 5% VAT on domestic energy bills;
• Abolish the 25% green energy subsidy embedded in all energy bills;
• Grant further licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea;
• Urgently review the feasibility of opening a new coal mine in Cumbria;
• Maintain the 3 remaining coal fired power stations in operation until there is no further need for them as a contingency source of energy;
• Stop the early decommissioning of existing nuclear power plants and return them to production;
• Remove the moratorium on fracking to deliver cheap gas, thousands of jobs and £ billions of GDP in the Blackpool area in short order;
• Utilise new British nuclear technology from Rolls Royce and others through capital investment and R&D tax incentives to commission the construction of mini plants around the coast line to ensure we have safe, cost effective nuclear energy as a significant part of our energy mix by 2035.”
  
  

Mr Davies had the article, entitled Time to Pivot to Domestic Energy, published on the Bruges Group Blog on 13 Feb.  Since then a lot has happened to make his views even more relevant.

Here is a link to the whole article.

Time to pivot for Domestic Energy - Bruges Group Blog