Data doodling - the malicious impoverishment of the UK via “net zero” policies of the Marxist UK Labour lunatics - epitomised by the Cult High Priest of “Energy Security” - Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since July 2024. Energy policies in the UK are his “baby” and he was responsible for spending £630 million in taxes to create National Energy System Operator (NESO) - in September 2024. So gar NSO has one employee.
Today’s UK inflation data was not good and this is before the upcoming inflationary impact of the hikes in National Insurance and the minimum wage impact the economy in a month or so.
“In the 12 months to January 2025, the consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation rose from 2.5 per cent to three per cent, the Office for National Statistics show.”
The TLDR version of this article is that UK households pay four times the price that is enjoyed by Chinese households and that the UK’s “net zero” policies are only possible by even more CO2 pollution in China than is “achieved” in the UK. Even if reducing CO2 is a valid goal (and it isn’t) - planting trees would achieve the same CO2 reductions that are targeted to achieve “net zero” and would make money - in an eco-friendly manner - rather than costing Brits a fortune.
The UK Government and the bureaucrats In the Bank of England (who just voted to reduce base rates by a quarter point with 2 morons voting for a half per cent cut) are all “thick as a brick”, with as much foresight and earthworms.
. Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (07/31/1976)
As with the US, EU and elsewhere, prices in the UK haven’t returned to levels resembling those prior to the C19 scamdemic. The C19 scamdemic was supposedly an emergency, The emergency is over, but prices remain at elevated levels, chiefly because of the cost of energy,
Energy prices are dominated by the cost of building out “renewables” that are ugly, expensive and intermittent whilst restricting reliable, cheap and available hydrocarbon fuels that are mistakenly considered to be producers of inacceptable levels of “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide, methane (0.016% of the atmosphere) and laughing gas (nitrous oxide - 0.03% of the atmosphere by volume). These 3 “greenhouse gases” make up less than one tenth of on per cent of the atmosphere, but are the reason for global spending of trillions upon trillions of dollars on “renewable energy” projects of obsolete and useless forests of wind turbines and plantations of solar panels - to produce electricity for homes, businesses and to recharge batteries for EV’s.
Carbon dioxide makes up just 0.04% of the atmosphere and is plant (and tree) food - plants convert CO2 to oxygen via photosynthesis.
If a country wants to absorb more CO2, it could plant more trees.
The wood from trees has may uses - not so much for fuel these days - but for many other things within the building and furniture industry, for example.
Water vapour (including clouds) is by far the most significant “greenhouse gas” - per Brave AI “The percentage of water vapor in the atmosphere varies but typically ranges from 0.2% to 4%.”
And when events like the Hunga Tonga volcano occur, the weather can be influenced for years.
You would think that if a country wanted an “eco-friendly” approach to reducing its misnamed “carbon footprint” (more accurately its “CO2” footprint) - it would plant more res and carefully manage the resulting forests.
All assuming of course that levels of CO2 need to be “controlled” in the first place - which is a dubious proposition!
Now for some data doodling.
Let’s start with a comparison of electricity prices between China and the UK.
Per Brave AI - Chinse electricity prices:
“Residential electricity prices have fluctuated between 7.5 and 8.5 cents per kWh since September 2020.”
UK household electricity prices from British Gas are now:
They will be increasing again in a few months - maybe by 5%.
26,057 pence per kWh = 32.21 US cents which is QUADRUPLE the price in China. To which must be added the annual “standing charge” of £151.71 a year (an extra 5-15% on the annual bill) for the privilege of being gouged by the insanely expensive prices.
The UK has an energy regulator, OFGEM, who sets a “price cap” for the maximum price gouging level - OFGEM does not determine a cheapest price, just the maximum price that can be charged for the current energy supply mix -with all the imported energy costs and renewables factored in
The UK has shut down its coal and steel industry. China is ramping its up.
Fun facts, from Brave AI:
“The main demands for steel are driven by several key sectors including construction, automotive, and infrastructure development. Construction is the largest consumer of steel worldwide, accounting for over 50% of the world's steel consumption.”
“The production of wind turbines and solar panels requires significant amounts of steel. Each new megawatt (MW) of wind power needs between 120 to 180 tons of steel, while each new MW of solar power requires between 35 to 45 tons of steel.”
“To produce one ton of steel, approximately 630 kilograms of coke are required, which is derived from metallurgical coal This means it takes around 770 kilograms of met coal to make one ton of steel The process involves using metallurgical coal to produce coke, which is then used in blast furnaces to smelt iron ore into steel.”
“The UK had over 11,000 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 30 gigawatts (GW) by 2023, of which 16 GW was onshore, and 15 GW was offshore.”
“The main producers of iron ore are Australia, Brazil, China, India, Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Canada.”
“As of April 2024, the UK wind farm infrastructure comprises 9,825 operational wind turbines across 802 wind farms, including onshore and offshore installations in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.”
“The total electricity generation from wind sources during the first three months of 2024 was 25.3 terawatt hours (TWh), compared to 23.6 TWh from all fossil fuel sources.”
The first quarter of any year in the UK will be part of the windy, winter season - whenever the wind drops for an hour or a day or a week, hydrocarbon fuels must be cranked up to cover the shortfall - but let’s go with that as an indication of the installed capacity..
23.6 terawatt hours - (23,600,000 megawatt hours) from around 10,000 wind turbines, requiring 150 tons of steel per megawatt hour.
That implies that over 3.5 billion tons of steel have been used so far in the construction of the UK’s wind turbines.
It also implies that - given that 770 kg of metallurgical coal is required to produce one ton of steel - 2.7 billion tonnes of metallurgical coal has been used to produce that 4.5 billion tons of steel.
“Burning a tonne of metallurgical coal produces approximately 2.6 to 3.67 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), depending on the carbon content of the coal.”
So, the odd emissions of 5 billion tonnes of CO2 just for the UK’s wind turbines up to a year ago- hardly “carbon neutral” - and there are plans to sequester 10% of (CO2 absorbing) prime and beautiful agricultural land and pave it with wind turbines and solar panels - not trees!
All this excludes the “carbon footprint” from all the other materials used to construct a wind turbine - the concrete platforms, the foundations, the access roads, the plastics and fibres used in the blades etc.
Also excluded is the “carbon footprint” from transporting the wretched things from China to the EU companies that end up installing them in the UK (Chinese workers not allowed!).
What we aw left with, is the monstrous carbon footprint compared to planting trees that are nicer to look at, support natural ecosystems and remove CO2 from the air.
Ad that is even if there is a CO2 problem requiring any reduction measures at all!
Coal is not exactly “pure” to extract either:
“Coal seams are not pure coal but consist of coal mixed with other materials. They are formed from dead and decaying organic matter, typically from ancient peat bogs that died and fell into shallow, stagnant waters. Over time, this material decomposes and transforms into peat, which then, under increased heat and pressure, becomes coal. The thickness and composition of coal seams can vary widely, and they often contain impurities and other minerals.”
Mind you:
“The UK has identified hard coal resources of 3 560 million tonnes, although total resources could be as large as 187 billion tonnes. About 80 million tonnes of the economically recoverable reserves are available in shallow deposits capable of being extracted by surface mining. There are also about 1 000 million tonnes of lignite resources, mainly in Northern Ireland, although no lignite is mined at present.”
“Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat content. When removed from the ground, it contains a very high amount of moisture, which partially explains its low carbon content.67 Lignite is used almost exclusively as a fuel for steam-electric power generation.”
As for other hydrocarbons:
“The UK has significant oil reserves, with estimates ranging from 10 to 20 billion barrels of both discovered and undiscovered potential.”
“A review published in March 2020 by Warwick Business School estimated that UK fracking might produce between 90 and 330 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas between 2020 and 2050, which could represent between 17 and 22 percent of projected cumulative UK consumption over that period.”
I am not sure how those percentages work with these cubic metres, but three you go.
I won’t belabour the point and go through the same numbers of solar panels - suffice to say, from Brave AI, the UK has:
“As of 2025, solar power is one of the UK's largest renewable energy sources. On 20 April 2023, solar power generation reached a peak of 10.971GW, enough to power over 4,000 households in Great Britain at that point.”
The UK has around 28 million households.
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Onwards!!!
The UK could be in such great shape if it only would!
Wonderful info! Thanks, Peter Halligan!