Net Zero Watch

Campaign to highlight the serious economic and societal implications of expensive and poorly considered climate and energy policies #CostOfNetZero

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

British households will pay more on their gas bills to pay for the maintenance costs of an undersea gas interconnector linking the UK and Belgium says Ofgem.

Without the pipeline, it warned that the grid would risk gas shortages in a worst-case winter scenario where temperatures plummet and a major system failure happens elsewhere. That could leave power plants without enough fuel or – in extreme circumstances – households without their central heating.

#CostOfNetZero

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

"Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Secretary, is minded to block Rosebank, the UK’s last major untapped oil reserve, citing 'climate obligations'."

"This is absurd. Britain contributes less than 1 per cent of global emissions and will keep using oil and gas for decades... The only question is whether it comes from the North Sea, supporting British jobs, supplying significant tax revenue and strengthening our energy security, or arrives from abroad."

"Britain has sacrificed its national interest on the altar of net zero for too long." @Telegraph

#CostOfNetZero

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

"The more renewables we build, the more our electricity depends on the weather, the more expensive back-up is, and thus the more problems we have... We don’t need renewables. We need oil, gas, and nuclear," says @DavidGHFrost, warning:

"The energy clock has not stopped. It is ticking, and ticking down to economic decline, unless the policy changes. An energy strategy that simply makes Britain poorer and colder is not in the interests of the British people. It is a failure of government dressed up as a moral achievement."

#CostOfNetZero

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

North Sea gas production will increase within weeks after ministers gave approval on Wednesday for drilling in the first big new field in almost a decade. Jackdaw is the UK’s largest known untapped gas reservoir and could account for 6 per cent of North Sea gas production when fully operational.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, confirmed that Jackdaw, off Aberdeen, will go into production before Christmas. A decision on Rosebank, the largest untapped oil field in the North Sea, will take “a bit longer”.

#CostOfNetZero

[Pete North @FUDdaily]

Renewables will cause a grid collapse sooner or later, and when it happens, the industry will lie through its teeth and blame anything but the actual cause - and the media will swallow the narrative wholesale. No lessons will be learned. The policy will not change. Power supply will become ever more expensive and precarious, until we're into full blown energy rationing. Warnings will fall on deaf ears.

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

"Electricity security is not measured by whether the lights stayed on yesterday – it’s measured by whether the system can withstand the failures that might reasonably occur tomorrow," says @KathrynPorter26, warning:

"With so many identifiable risks, worrying about blackouts is not scaremongering. Dismissing those concerns without properly addressing them is the bigger danger."

#CostOfNetZero

[Claire Coutinho @ClaireCoutinho]

It is extraordinary that NESO’s takeaway is that the core allegations made by the whistleblowers are unsubstantiated.

As I’ve always said, the core allegation is that the electricity grid is not being run securely. In that respect, the Eversheds report is utterly damning.

Not only does it say that renewables are making our grid more difficult to manage, but it says that several engineers in the control room profoundly disagree with NESO management’s claim that the grid was secure on 23rd June.

There are multiple serious problems highlighted - from a culture of managers only wanting to hear ‘good news’, to poor record keeping, and, most concerningly, a reluctance to action complaints from engineers because of the need to 'keep stakeholders happy'.

In other words, managers are failing to improve the security of our electricity grid because keeping Ministers in DESNZ happy is seen as more important.

NESO's Chief Executive earns close to £1 million a year and the whole organisation costs the better half of a billion pounds to run. The country and billpayers deserve better.

Government should be holding NESO to account, but instead, Ministers spent their time attacking me for raising the control room engineers' concerns and for making sure that any kind of investigation took place at all.

If this had been washed under the carpet, then where would we be?

A grid that is increasingly at risk and Ministers who, frankly, preferred to be asleep at the wheel rather than to do their jobs and protect our electricity supply.

With regards to the engineers' concerns on corporate affairs and record keeping, Eversheds did not give a clean bill of health as NESO is claiming. They found that a culture of 'reputational sensitivity' does indeed affect operational decision-making, and recommended several changes to correct significant failures in record keeping practices.

While I am on maternity leave, the Conservative team will continue to press the Government on this issue, because the bottom line is this: if we cannot trust NESO management to be honest about our ability to keep the lights on, how can they stay in their roles?

I look forward to the release of Ofgem's investigation on whether the grid was run securely on 23rd June. But we do now know that the control room strongly feel that it wasn’t.

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

"Enthusiasm for AI is running headlong into the government’s net zero policies, leading to a growing cabinet schism. AI might look modern and clean, yet it is as voracious an energy consumer as all those heavy industries which are being driven from Britain’s shores thanks to high energy prices," says @RossjournoClark, warning: "If Britain wants to be a big player in AI, it is going to have to find significant quantities of power, and reliable power."

#CostOfNetZero

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

A new independent review has found employees at Britain’s electricity grid warning that the net zero transition is making it harder to keep the lights on

The investigation found “high levels of stress and concern” among grid operators “given the challenges of the net zero transition and increased reliance on renewables” and a “significant disconnect” between control room staff and executive leadership.

#CostOfNetZero

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

Andy Burnham is facing desperate demands from his own MPs to lift the ban on North Sea drilling and scrap punishing Net Zero taxes.

Labour backbenchers have launched a cross-party pressure group urging the PM to approve Rosebank and Jackdaw, and green-light more oil and gas licences, warning “We cannot afford to stand by while decarbonisation leads to deindustrialisation."

#CostOfNetZero

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

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[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

British businesses are cutting costs and eating into their profit margins to cope with rising energy costs, the Bank of England governor has warned.

Andrew Bailey said that UK firms were taking measures such as reducing their headcounts and not passing on the higher costs of energy to their customers.

Net Zero is crippling British industry.

#CostOfNetZero