Energy

A combination of low oil prices and rapidly depleting oil fields resulted in the North Sea losing money for the first time in 2015/6.  Last year, 10 oil and gas fields ceased production.  This year industry insiders predict that a further 50 will be abandoned – a collapse on a …

English economist William Stanley Jevons observed that the introduction of the steam engine resulted in a proliferation of steam technology rather than a decline in coal consumption due to improved efficiency.  This became known as the “Jevons Paradox” – which says that energy efficiency leads to a greater use of …

In Britain, next to the banks the ‘Big Six’ energy companies are the only ones to make large profits since the 2008 crash.  This has largely been achieved by capturing the market in energy supply.  So far, the cartel has avoided serious disruption from new energy companies – largely because …

News this week that scientists in Iceland have found a new method for storing carbon dioxide was hailed as a climate change breakthrough.  But was it really?  In fact there are very good reasons for pessimism. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology is at the heart of emissions reduction policies …

Having already engaged in a bonfire of green energy subsidies, the UK government is to turn its fire on anaerobic digesters. There are about 300 anaerobic digesters in the UK; 200 of them on farms, where they use animal and plant waste to produce methane and fertiliser.  The methane is …

Chile has been generating so much solar electricity that it has to give it away free.  And while this looks good for both consumers and the environment, it spells trouble ahead for Chile’s infrastructure. As Vanessa Dezem and  Javiera Quiroga at Bloomberg report: “Spot prices reached zero in parts of …

According to the mainstream media, UK fracking is back in business.  The decision by North Yorkshire Council to approve an application for further testing of the KM8 well that was drilled in 2013 was reported as the first UK approval for fracking since 2011.  From the coverage, you would be …

One reason why Third Energy may have suddenly wanted to begin fracking in rural North Yorkshire is that the breakeven price – the point at which shale oil and gas becomes profitable – has been falling in recent months.  Pro-fracking publicists like to pretend that the reason for the fall …

From the moment Britain’s energy supplies went into irreversible decline in 1999, the National Grid was doomed.  The only questions were about how long the process would take to unfold, and what we might do to replace it. The reason for this is quite simple – National Grid is funded …

Presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s energy policies have already been dismissed by environmentalists as devastating to the biosphere .  But Trump is unlikely to care, not least because a large part of his support comes from climate change deniers.  Far more damaging is the criticism from energy insiders that Trump’s policies are …