sanity in energy policy

A sane energy strategy - this has nothing to do with climate change, and everything to do with the reality that fossil fuels will run out eventually, and we need a viable alternative up and running.

Does energy policy need to be any more complicated than this?...

We begin by recognising that secure, affordable energy is the cornerstone of a thriving economy. Through thirty years of policy neglect, and an obsession with arbitrary climate targets, Britain has undermined its national security and economic resilience. It is absolutely absurd that we are spending billions on the grid to accommodate intermittent sources out in the middle of the sea which are vulnerable to attack. Decommissioning farmland or using it for low yield solar is also unwise. We judge the renewable energy experiment as a comprehensive failure.

We do not share the liberal internationalist view that the world will follow Britain’s “climate leadership” and see no good reason to hobble our economic prosperity. As such, any and all applications for new fossil fuel exploration will be expedited. We will look to exploit Britain’s vast coal bed methane reserves. In accordance with this goal, Britain will withdraw from the Paris Agreement. We do not recognise any notion of “climate emergency”.

As to electricity, Britain will build a fleet of new  combined cycle gas turbine power stations on existing sites as an interim measure, pending a complete renewal of Britain’s nuclear fleet, supplemented by small modular reactors throughout the country. The nuclear sector will be put under an extensive regulatory review to expedite new designs. This will be the number one national priority.

Britain will then undertake a review of planning laws. We take the view, however, that planning regulation is often used as an excuse for lack of political will. We will pass a nuclear infrastructure bill that permits any development on existing nuclear sites. We also regard Small Modular Reactors as safe and unobtrusive, and can be made to fit sympathetically into the landscape. As such, we regard any objections to them as frivolous, time-wasting NIMBYism, and will take legal steps to ensure their construction is exempt from the usual NGO lawfare.

It is a given that successful fusion energy reactors would obviate all other forms of electricity generation, but estimates of deployment vary from 20 to 50 years to never. However, the entire solar system has evolved over 4 billion years fueled exclusively by fusion energy. It just takes a little more imagination than we seem to have been able to master recently.

Mad Ed Milliband and his wind farms are a mistake, or maybe he plans to use prisoner release schemes and have them stand around and blow at becalmed windmills.?  Or maybe pedal millions of bicycle operated generators..? Which in turn would tend to make them puff and blow even harder... 😃

Energy storage using ideas like the Wash Barrier scheme would be a start on more interesting alternatives.

https://x.com/FUDdaily/status/1812455541941080499

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