Category Archives: Energy

A budget for fossil fuel industries

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The Touchstone blog reports that George Osborne has issued a budget for gas and oil.

The budget gives over £3bn tax breaks for gas and oil exploration off the Shetland islands, and includes a strategy to secure investment in new gas-fuelled power stations.

This ties in with plans that the Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, let slip last Saturday afternoon, says the Touchstone blog. These are “plans to boost investment in gas-fired power stations that will allow them to emit high levels of CO2 until 2045. Davey said that the emissions standard for gas powered stations would be 450 grammes of carbon dioxide emitted for every kilowatt hour of electricity generated. This is over 4 times the 2030 level recommended by the independent committee on climate change. He hopes for legislation in the next Session of Parliament.”

Minus any support for investment in renewable energy.

Plus a promise to scrap or simplify the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) which is due to cost service employers like Tesco £9 a tonne of CO2 from next April.

 

Unison report on local government, sustainable energy, jobs & skills

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The new green team: Local government, sustainable energy, jobs & skills includes outlines of how local councils can create a revolving fund using income from the installation of renewables and FITs to help create a green team that would redeploy local council staff into delivering sustainable energy projects such as energy efficiency retrofits and renewables installation. Calderdale’s Energy Future mentions a new revolving loan fund without saying how it will work – could it be something like this? If anyone knows, please say.

Biomass boilers for six Calderdale primary schools

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Six primary schools in Calderdale – St Mary’s, Beech Hill, Old Earth, West Vale, Ash Green and St Chad’s – are to install biomass boilers to replace their aging oil and gas boilers. In reply to a Freedom of Information request, Calderdale Council said that the biomass boilers were to be installed over the summer of 2012.

Calderdale Council’s Energy Officer, Daniel Knight, explained to the Calderdale Cabinet Council meeting on 12th March that, “These are the first biomass installations in schools in Calderdale. It makes sense economically and in carbon reduction terms. If successful, it’ll create a precedent for much more biomass in Calderdale.”
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Conference report on US Electric Coop Association

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The National Rural Electric Coop Association conference  in the USA makes the case for electricity companies that run as cooperatives, putting profit back in the business that is democratically run by coop members. Dame Pauline Green from the International Co-operative Alliance, pointed out that, “The world would be a different place if just a fraction of the public money was put into cooperative development that went to bail out the big commercial banks across the world.”

Sign up to Green Energy UK through BEAT!

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BEAT has a longstanding partnership with Green Energy UK to provide 100% electricity from renewable sources. From 1st Feb 2013, BEAT’s arrangement with Green Energy UK is changing. New customers who sign up through BEAT will get the first month of electricity for free. This replaces the previous arrangement, where new customers who signed up through BEAT got a 10% discount on their bills.
Green Energy customers already signed up through BEAT will continue to receive 10% discount – the new offer only applies to new customers.

BEAT receives £25 for each new customer that signs up through BEAT, if new customers are still with Green Energy after 12 months.

For more information speak to Liz Bell at Green Energy UK on:
  • Telephone: 01920 483 431
  • Fax: 01920 484268
Remember to say you want to sign up through BEAT.

Government fracking advisers are being paid by the fracking industry

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A forthcoming British Geological Survey advisory report on fracking for the UK government may not be properly impartial and objective, since several companies in the fracking industry have been funding the British Geological Survey. These include companies like Chevron, Conoco Phillips and Exxon. Neither the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) nor the British Geological Survey has noted this conflict of interest.

This isn’t the first time DECC has blurred the lines between government and industry interests. Quite a few energy industry employees work on secondments in DECC, advising the government on energy policy. This cannot be right. No-one voted for industry to take over government policy making.

Donate to Blackshawhead Chapel retrofit, and Local Giving will double your money

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Blackshawhead Environmental Action Team (BEAT), a charity that supports sustainable living – environmentally, socially and economically, is asking for donations to raise the £1345 that they still need in order for work to ahead on insulating Blackshawhead Chapel meeting rooms, and installing four double glazed windows.

From today (Thursday, 1st March), you can have your donation to BEAT doubled and Gift Aided (an extra 25%). Altogether, BEAT can have up to £2,500 doubled via http://localgiving.com/charity/beat.
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Silly tariffs

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Silly tariffs

We need a more sensible price structure for gas and electricity. At the moment, people in fuel poverty, and others who use small amounts of energy, pay high prices per unit of the energy they use, while people who use a lot of energy pay lower prices per unit of energy. This creates a perverse incentive to use more energy, since the price tariff is higher for low rates of energy use, and lower for higher rates of energy use. Daft or what?

Sensible tariffs

Apart from Cooperative Energy, which has a single tariff regardless of the amount of energy a customer uses, Ebico is the only UK energy company I know about that sells electricity and gas at the same rate per unit to all customers within a given region.