It’s usually considered bad from to say ‘I told you so’.
But I hope you’ll be generous-spirited enough to allow me to claim just that.
Almost exactly four years ago to the day, I crafted an article for this newspaper about energy security where I wrote the following:
“Nuclear energy has an absolutely vital role in this country’s future energy security. Without the significant investment required to build the next generation of nuclear power stations, this country will experience a growing energy gap – or become ever more dependent on gas supplies from Putin’s Russia.
And who in their right mind would want that?”
Well, energy security and the linked issue of energy prices and the gap between demands and supply has certainly come to the fore in recent times. The latest energy cap has risen by 80% to £3549 per year for the ‘average’ household and is, on one estimate at least, scheduled to more than double by next spring.
Hard-pressed businesses currently receive no help whatsoever, with the very future of many SMEs, including thousands in this area, now under real threat as spiralling energy bills squeeze their operating margins to zero – and below.
There are ever louder calls for massive, short-term interventions, in addition to those already announced by the Government. This is a sure sign of a systemic failure of successive British administrations.
The situation over the next year or so is certainly fairly gloomy.
Some commentators, Jeremiah-like, wring their hands and say all of this is outside our control – it’s all due to Putin’s war in Ukraine or the preferential acquisition of liquid natural gas for east Asian countries and the USA. That way they justify the mind boggling figures being suggested to provide handouts to households.
This will only assist two groups: the energy generators for whom this will provide inflated and guaranteed incomes for the foreseeable future and the control freaks in Whitehall who just love having control over an ever-increasingly dependent population.
I believe the solution lies in re-establishing the rightful roles of the state and the free market.
The state has a key role to play in accelerating the role out of a diverse range of domestic energy sources. I’m absolutely delighted that Sizewell C has been given the go-ahead – hence securing the long-term energy needs of six million UK homes.
How different a future we prospectively face compared with Germany, whose denuclearisation programme and dependency on Russian gas supplies is forcing other European Union states to sacrifice their own consumers’ interests to support inefficient Teutonic industries!
But the extended time it has taken to get to this point is unacceptable – not least to energy companies and their investors.
The future rollout of additional, quite possibly smaller, nuclear power stations need to be fast-tracked over the questionable objections and tactics of the usually very well-off and ideologically driven campaign groups.
It’s time the planning system was streamlined and helped do its part in delivering energy security sooner than later.
The state needs to also ensure that the energy infrastructure to distribute and transmit the generated energy is fit-for-purpose.
The East Anglia GREEN proposals from Norwich to Tilbury, for example, will certainly cause some visual inconvenience to communities in Suffolk, but these can be mitigated by the use of smaller, less intrusive pylons and screening schemes.
The failure by Whitehall to underwrite the Rough natural gas storage facility – it closed in 2021 – meant this country overnight lost storage capacity to the equivalent of 100 billion cubic feet of gas.
Thereafter, the Government, indeed all governments, need to get the hell out. Fundamentally, the international energy market is rigged – the very opposite of a free market.
I find it ironic that the UK, with its growing strengths in renewable energy – far cheaper now than oil or gas – is still an energy price taker. So regardless as to how many offshore windfarms we build off our coast, we currently cannot directly buy such competitively priced energy. We must accept the global prices fixed by a shady system of generators and speculators. That needs to be addressed.
At the other end of the geographical scale, we need to empower the ‘little platoons’ of our society to have more control over their own energy consumption and costs.
To be fair, UK citizens and businesses, spurred on by private sector product improvements, are now collectively consuming 30% less energy than in 2001. But we can do more – if we are freed to so do for both reasons of self-interest and the collective good.
In particular, I’m very supportive of what are known as community energy vision projects whereby a town or village looks to agree what types of small-scale renewable energy projects it wishes to host, where those should be located and the financial and other benefits they should receive from such farsighted planning.
More of that is needed, please.
And trust me – I really don’t want to be saying that ‘I told you so’ another four years from now!
First published www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk & www.dissexpress.co.uk on Thursday, September 1, 2022
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