Opening new oil and gas fields in the North Sea would “send a shock wave around the world”, imperilling international climate targets, undermining the UK’s climate leadership and encouraging developing countries to exploit their own fossil fuel reserves, experts have warned.
Apparently we are such beacons of light and hope to hte more benighted parts of the planet that we should still be running them. Look, everyone, just do as we do.
The UK government is under stiff pressure from the oil industry, the Conservatives, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, some trade unions and parts of the Treasury to give the green light to new oil and gas fields, despite clear evidence that doing so would not cut prices and would have almost no effect on imports.
Two of the biggest fields remaining in the North Sea, which is more than 90% depleted and where the last pockets are increasingly costly and energy-intensive to extract, are within the licensing system. But the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields, if exploited, would displace only 1% and 2% respectively of the UK’s gas imports, research has shown.
It’s difficult to grasp the logic here, eh? They’re trivial, don;t mean much, there’s not much there. OK, I guess – but why, if they’re trivial, are you getting so pissy about it?
You cannot argue with these lunatics Tim.
We may not be able to argue with such loons, but we must volubly argue against their cretinous views, because, otherwise, their rampant idiocy will convince the gullible and the loons will triumph…
Bit late there, Theo.
That’s a counsel of despair.
Get the Pope to have a word with Ed. Leo is certain that every hard problem can be solved by negotiation.
In a world of plenty, people are much harder to control.
“Research has shown” = I asked the barmaid at the Dog and Duck.
Logic is a natural resource in very scarce supply. Greens and Socialists have not hit a vein in this material in a very long time.
That was the first mistake. The barmaid at The Red Lion might not know much about climate change, but she has a much better understanding of historical glacial ice cores.
And she’s got big tits.
No. That’s the lass at the Slug and Lettuce.
Barmaid? No Guardian Environment writer would listen to ‘the help’. Especially now the actual workers are going all Reformy.
What “research has shown” means is ‘my friends in north London’ or ‘my feed on BlueSky’.
Anybody would think they were shameless liars or something.
He lies and knows he lies. Which makes his Stern Report less valuable than bog roll.
I don’t think that even Traitor Hermer plans to ask spearchucking reparations grifters for their opinion on UK energy policy.
“New drilling and decelerating climate action would be bad for growth…of my grifting.
FIFY
Funny how new oil and gas fields will, at the same time, make no difference to the British economy and create a global shock wave.
We can now add the expression “magic fluids” to the handy “magic dirt”.
…and you know why, Mandrake? I deny them my magic fluids…”
All we need to do is consider what would happen if every country applied the same logic of preventing new fossil fuel exploration. We might consider how that “war on drugs” worked out, though this would likely be orders of magnitude more so.
It’s just inconsistent (not to mention intellectually dishonest) to ban something in one place because of perceived harm elsewhere, but allow it to be done everywhere else (and import it) causing the same harm anyway.
…besides which any media article including the phrase “research has shown” should be immediately flagged as propoganda and treated accordingly.
And ‘experts have warned.’
Introduction of anti-biotics will imperil witch-doctory, experts say.
No wonder they wanted control of education first. At the youngest Grist’s behest, I read one of his books “explaining the physics of climate change”. When I was at school 60 years ago, we realised that Isaac was right and so was Albert, just that Isaac was thinking of a very special case and Albert, despite calling his theory “special” was actually talking about something much more general as he later admitted. But this book was related to both these physicists as much as next door’s cat is related to the fairies at the bottom of my garden. Clue; the people next door don’t have a cat.
And the people at the bottom of my garden are moving in to the garden at Number 10 next week…
“Travellers”, are they? They seem to be quite good a that.
“experts have warned” “research has shown.”
I wonder if these experts have ever researched something where the research reaches a conclusion different from the one they were anticipating.
So, this would “imperil international climate targets, undermine the UK’s climate leadership and encourage developing countries to exploit their own fossil fuel reserves”?
I’m already in favor, you don’t have to sell me.
2 different things concatenated to make an argument.
The last 2 with licences are difficult to get at are trivial. Elsewhere, unlicensed because “green loons” but viable, is enough to power the UK for 20-30 years. or 40-50 if we frack.
Which (ahem) would be plently long enough to see us right through the “green energy transition period” and mean that while we are building windmills and sunflower farms we dont have to import fossils from abroad with consequent risk, higher price, and environmetal cost of transportation.
So we can have lots of cheap reliable UK sourced energy, while building all the facilities for expensive unreliable restricted UK based energy.
We should obviously do that. Well definitely the first bit anyway, no hurry on the second part.
Gamecock thinks that, even if we had his name, he’d still be anonymous.
UK’s climate leadership is their source of power. It is nonsense. But effective.
This is not about oil and gas. It’s about government power to control the industry. That’s what they fear losing. That’s why they are getting so pissy about it.
encouraging developing countries to exploit their own fossil fuel reserves
As if the world gives a shit about what UK does. British imperialism never dies.
Funny how there’s a near 100% overlap between the “we should be ashamed of colonialism” and “UK should show climate leadership” brigades.
This is part of a general thing that (and I don’t have a better term right now) I might describe as Globalist Treachery.
We used to be an empire, we owned lots of overseas places, were a major world power. In such a position, you send lots of gunboats around, and tear people new arseholes. And you lead the world. Both of these were in our interest, but it was some enlightened self-interest.
We don’t have an empire, but there’s always this talk of “leadership”. Why should we be a huge donor to Ukraine, bigger than France, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Czechia by % GDP? Or second highest number of deaths in Afghanistan?
Is anyone bitching about Germany shutting down their nukes and burning lignite?
These people are traitors. They want to do some jolly world building at the cost to the UK.
I note that they attempt to dismiss the importance of Rosebank *oil*field by comparing its output of *gas* with UK imports of gas, making it look half the size of Jackdaw when it is, in fact, c.20% larger.
Be not dismayed! We here in the US will do the drilling, fracking and extraction for you. Britain, you be you.
Can you do it for the Taroom Trough in Queensland??
But be comforted. The Aussie government definitely disagrees with fast-tracking it.