My dear good man,
WHAT?
I ain’t clear on your response. Were you combining replies by any chance?
For the record. I’m the very last left leaning person you’d ever find suggesting that cutting down forests to burn in power stations is remotely a good idea.
It’s yet another capitalist scam. The tree to furnace process probably uses up more fossil fuels than the power station would otherwise on coal. I am on record for clearly condemning the international trade in wood pellets.
Oh and don’t forget, those pesky eco warriers that annoy you so much, they have stopped the wood pellet trains before as well as fuel tankers. I’ve roundly condemned the likes of Drax for cheating the taxpayer out of millions for so called eco fuel which investigations have shown were as much virgin forest, as waste wood trimmings.
I’m also on record for condemning the large scale misuse of farmland for solar farms. It’s plainly wrong that a vital natural resource we need to minimise the vast amount of imported food, should be used for solar that attracts large subsidies even when conventional power stations are churning at full power and the solar energy gets ignored. Again it’s a capitalise scam, taking taxpayer money and shovelling it into a few rich bar stewards pockets.
I’m also on record for having zero love for the Chinese. They have an oppressive regime that treats the majority of their people badly, and some minorities like the Uyghur who have been rounded up and imprisoned to be used as cheap labour.
Eh? At least you didn’t mention 15 speed boxes. Do you think I’m insane as well… Nuclear radiation can hang around an awfully long time. Given the choice between nuclear fission and coal, neither of which are cool, one still has to choose coal and hope that soon this new kid on the block actually works without blowing half the world up. It will be fascinating if nuclear fusion can be made to work as it could be that key decisive development that actually makes true space travel possible.
But given how insane and incompetent supposed geniuses like musk are, I’m not holding my breath. Anyway. Back your road train up a bit. Mothballed? You do know that A.) it was maggie efffing thatcher that ruined the coal industry. And that even though some deep mines were “mothballed” in reality as anyone with knowledge of mining will tell you. Unless you actively maintain a deep mine, things get a bit wet down there. Over time existing excavations start to collapse which are far harder to clear later because the entire overburden starts to shift down. Very few deep mines in the UK could be reopened.
Maybe, instead of all the waste and administrative costs that have gone on previous house insulation schemes could be prevented. A proper scheme that tackles the worst insulated houses first, knuckles down and gets the job done.
Try this for economic logic. If something needs doing, and the cost of not doing it increases year on year. And the cost of doing it also increases year on year. And the negative effects on the people affected by not doing it, also add on over time in terms of health.
Then why the duck don’t we get on NOW with doing it. Keep saying, oh we can’t afford it. Bull. We can’t afford not to. How long would you drive a vehicle with a leaking fuel tank saying, ah no, can’t afford to fix that. Very similar. waste of fuel. more inconvenience because you have to refuel more often. More danger because petrol could ignite, or someone slip on diesel.
And, the more you need a commodity which is finite, the more it’s cost goes up. 101 law of economics - supply and demand. You know, how OPEC keep trying to reduce production to force the barrel price up. (and all the while the Saudis etc are investing heavily their profits in solar because they’re not stupid…)
So if we hurry up and get the worst homes insulated, we then need less energy, which means we need less energy generation, we reduce the energy price because we’re not demanding it so much.
Then we can spend the money then saved on other things. But all the time we buy the energy, then throw it out the roof and pooof, it’s gone. Gone whether it was useful or not. No matter how long we keep throwing energy way through bad insulation, the one thing it won’ do is somehow magically improve the insulation. Only by improving the insulation now, can we save energy later.
And solar on every roof that can take them. Then we won’t need so much extra transmission towers for importing electricity. It’s insane that neither tory nor labour have made it law to design all new buildings to the highest standards now. Again, at some point it will need doing, and it’s darned easier to fit insulation as you build than add it later.
Oh but that will put the cost of houses up you say.
And here we go around in another circle. Why does building materials cost so much now?
Plastics, cement, aggregate, timber, bricks etc etc. Because the cost of energy is so much higher. Bricks and cement need a lot of energy to make. And it all needs transporting.
So if we keep cost cutting, we keep using more energy which means energy costs keep rising which means material costs keep rising which means house prices keep rising.
Part of the huge cost of housing is profit for the builders anyway, Barratts, Persimmon, and Taylors are hardly slumming it. And the other major cost is land. As we’re not building land anymore, that cost ain’t gonna drop ever, so again, get cracking now with the hard stuff. Insulate buildings properly now, save energy going forward, reduce the need for power stations and gas imports, slow the energy cost rises or even reverse them.
Meanwhile.