3 hours ago, Beelbeebub said:

BBC News

UK government approves Jackdaw gas field, and says produc...

The government says the approval will "heat millions of homes and protect hundreds of jobs". Green Party leader Zack Polanski calls it "climate vandalism".

Government have finally come down off the fence.

Personally I think it sends the wrong signals internationally but, as has been repeated, this will make little difference to prices, jobs or energy security.

The plus side is that the government have indicated the revenues from this will be funneled to a fund to help the transition to renewables and it does end the crap from certain politicians on the right about lowering energy bills.

I can imagine how unpleased you were this morning....................

Let us see how much this changes in the next few months.

3 hours ago, Spinny said:

I still think there is madness here. All renewables has given us so far is higher energy prices and the lurking threat of power cuts.

Renewables provided about 2x the amount that has did this summer and will probably do so through the winter albeit more from wind and less from solar.

Given the price of the gas that fuels the power stations has jumped from around 75p per therm this time last year to over 210p per therm now renewables have had a definite impact on reducing our electricity prices.

And given how low our gas storage is (a few days worth - though it will take a couple of weeks to extract it) we are just one Russian sabotage mission away from our gas power plants having to shut down and have rolling blackouts.

It is absolute madness to think that relying on a substance we have to import for our electricity (and heating) is better than moving to a system where we can produce the majority of our electricity and heating and (ultimately) transport in the UK and only use small amounts (which we may be able to source from our own reserves if we don't piss them away first) of gas as occasional backup.

35 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Let us see how much this changes in the next few months.

We'll all be roughnecks,working on the rigs soon.

58 minutes ago, Roger440 said:

I can imagine how unpleased you were this morning....................

You don't have to imagine.

I was slightly disappointed but not surprised.

I think it is the wrong decision but I can understand what it was taken.

There will be negligible benefit to energy prices, energy security or jobs.

On the other hand the CO2 effect will also be pretty negligible.

And if (big if) the tax revenues are ploughed back towards transition - that will be good.

And not having to listen to idiots claiming that bills would fall and we would be energy secure if only the government allowed drilling will be an absolute godsend. Possibly the biggest benefit of the whole thing.

Meanwhile the country still needs to up the pace on the energy transition with policies like

• Reducing energy consumption

• Electrification of heat and transport

• Building out renewable capacity

• Upgrading the grid

• Increasing energy storage (including of gas)

• Even building more CCGT plants as backup.

All of the "net zero" policies (plus a few others)