One person households to blame

Energy consumption rise blamed on single occupancy homes

So, according to statisticians at the Office for National Statistics who compiled the Social Trends report, the blame for the rise in energy consumption must go to the rising number of single occupancy homes. There are a decent number of them in South Tyneside, mostly belonging to South Tyneside Homes, although some are available from private developers.

To save the planet from doom and destruction we will have to force people to like each other more, marry, or form civil partnerships, or live together in hippy student type communes. Gordon Brown will have to find a department to fund a state owned dating agency to help alleviate the problem and help us achieve our carbon emission targets! This single living just will not do, we will never achieve those targets living on our own and doing boring things like staying at home watching the TV.

No doubt the government will set another target shortly, to increase the number of multi-occupancy houses.

Or perhaps we should just switch the lights off, fumble about, and try to remember what it’s like to get to know someone a little better.

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Gazprom in new energy threats

BP under renewed political pressure in Russia

I have been warning for almost a full year about the political and economic aspirations of Russia’s energy giant Gazprom, as it steadfastly buys up vast supplies, production facilities, distribution networks and pipelines for Eurasian and European gas and energy markets.

Smaller neighbouring states of Russia have felt the enormous weight of pressure when they have become involved in political disputes or arguments with Vladimir Putin’s oligarchic state, Russia simply increases the cost of gas supplies or turns off the tap! Yet, the march to dominate the continental gas market continues apace, with western Europen leaders failing to heed the threat to their domestic consumers.

Now it seems that BP is feeling the flames licking below their feet, ostensibly over a visa dispute ;

BP owns half of TNK-BP, Russia’s third-biggest oil company. The remainder belongs to a consortium of oligarchs – Mikhail Fridman, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik. A lock-in agreement that prevented the Russians from selling expired at the end of last year and there has been speculation that Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled gas monopoly, wants to acquire an interest in TNK-BP.

The Russian environmental agency added to the pressures on BP last week when it began an inquiry into TNK-BP’s Samotlor oilfield. The investigation is being led by Oleg Mitvol, the rumbustious head of the RosPrirodNadzor state agency. Mr Mitvol also headed the inquiry into Shell’s gas development on Sakhalin Island in eastern Siberia, which carried a threat of large fines and ultimately led to Shell’s loss of control of the project and the transfer of a majority stake to Gazprom.

Russia’s President - Elect is Dmitri Medvedev, who just happens to be Chairman of Gazprom.

With such a single gigantic operator gobbling up huge chunks of the market capacity it is little wonder that European wholesale gas prices are rocketing as alternative sources begin to dwindle. So in a few years time as we all sit and freeze in South Shields because we cannot afford to heat our homes, try asking David Miliband what he did to halt the march of Gazprom!

British Gas

Is there a good reason why they still have so many customers?

British gas has reported profits of £5717m for last year, and now they have the sheer gall to suggest that the consumer price for gas will not be reduced or even held despite this £15.66m per day profit.

The company insisted the increased profits were unlikely to lead to a drop in domestic prices because of the volatility of wholesale energy costs.

“No one is going to argue that energy companies don’t need to make a profit,” said Adam Scorer, the director of campaigns for energywatch.

“It is perfectly true that there is volatility in wholesale energy markets. But it seems equally true that such volatility hits consumers, not shareholders. “

But Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, said: “This greed has got to be stopped and the Government should step in now and levy a windfall tax on the company.

“British Gas should hang their heads in shame knowing that many people, including families, pensioners and the disabled, are too scared to heat their homes adequately this winter because of the huge bills that follow.”

More simply, it’s about time that consumers started voting with their feet in this artificial market, there are other suppliers out there (banging on doors in South Shields)  who would gladly look after the needs of former British Gas customers. It begs the question about customer service, is British Gas so wonderful that people feel a need to stay with them?

 

Running on air

Concept car runs on compressed air

I thought this was an interesting idea that might tickle the fancy of folks like Rossinisbird and Tyne Dock Green in South Shields. Of course it would be a load of tosh to folks like Iain Dale, unless you can get a big Audi to run on hot air.

Maximum speed would probably achieved after a puncture of the air tanks - a bit like a balloon!

More hot air from Lib-Dems

Ban for outdoor heaters?

This one will go down well in a few pubs in South Shields - NOT!

Why does it have to take a Lib -Dem MEP to spout this sort of nonsensical hot air? I can just imagine Kirkpatricks in Ocean Road, or The Bamburgh, and quite a few other South Shields pubs getting really hot under the collar if they are told that their customers can no longer enjoy the comfort of their outdoor patio gas heaters!

Is this yet another sop to the enviro-taliban movement?

Dr Eric Johnson, National Expert Reviewer for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the price paid in terms of global warming was small.

“The overall impact of outdoor heaters on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions is very minimal, and once you look at the domestic models used in homes, the impact is almost non-existent,” he said.

“Once comparisons start with well-known offenders such as aeroplanes, outdoor heaters dwarf in comparison. In actual fact, plasma TVs produce far more CO2 than patio heaters when you compare normal usage patterns for each appliance.

“What constitutes a waste of energy is always going to be open to debate, but it is important that the public is properly educated about environmental impacts in order to make informed decisions on their everyday activities.”

One of the biggest wastes of energy must surely be the EC Commission and Parliament which still roams between Brussels and Strasbourg and does little to satisfy the everyday expectations of it’s citizens

EU rules will add a minimum 15% rise to electricity bills

EU Commission to force prices up

Britain apparently has the third lowest levels of renewable energy sources in Europe and under the Commission’s rules must raise it’s renewable target from 1.3% in 2005 to 15% in 2020. This would equate to 20,000 wind turbines, and the costs of building such edifices would add 15% to our electricity bills before inflation is taken into account. The Commission are also interested in ensuring that 10% of motoring fuels come from bio-sources despite recent evidence that rain forests are being cut down to provide the land to grow the crops on! If we did build 20,000 wind turbines, I wonder how much CO2 would be expended in the process?

This whole carbon emissions eco-talibanism is starting to get hideously out of control, especially as there are siren voices calling out that the debate has been hijacked by those of the far left interested in pursuing a new route for their agenda. There are many scientists who argue against the theory of anthropogenic climate change and disagree that CO2 emissions are harmful - go to this post and watch the video.

Far more important issues loom on the horizon as far as energy supplies are concerned, European gas supplies are becoming hijacked at an alarming rate by the Russian oligarchs and their “enterprise arm” Gazprom, pipelines are being laid from Russia into Western Europe and we are buying into partnership agreements with the aid of the efforts of former German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder working on behalf of the odious Vladimir Putin. Russia’s new found oil and gas hegemony is pouring riches into Putin’s coffers which are being used to re-equip his ailing armed forces who are now flexing their muscles and sabre rattling in the Bay of Biscay.

Europe should be concentrating a little less on the pipe dreams of windmill building and a little more on the security of it’s current energy supplies, it should be interfering less in the day to day lives of it’s inhabitants and allow it’s member states to go ahead and create more nuclear reactors for clean energy supplies, it should concentrate less on the rhetoric and more on the practical business of trading, which as far as I can remember is what the Community was created to do.

Yet another reason why the “enabling legislation” called the Lisbon Treaty should be rejected out of hand.

Related Posts

• Energy dependency
• Beware rogue salesmen
• Gazprom to buy Centrica
• Russians extend stranglehold on energy
• Energy; the new cold war

No standby for Tories

A sensible solution

Zak Goldsmith has come up with some sensible ideas to reduce our energy consumption, they include getting rid of the standyby function on many electrical appliances, the proposal to illustrate how much each appliance would cost in electricity over the course of a year is also a good idea.

Apparantly if all of Britain’s 25 million mobile phone chargers were left switched off, the unused energy could power 66,000 homes for a year.

Curly often cannot find his charger!

Energy; the new Cold War

Fox warns on security of energy supplies

An issue which has been troubling me for the past couple of months has been the rather sinister way in which Russian energy giant Gazprom has been buying up supplies and claiming new gas fields as well as ripping up contracts with former partners, this coupled with Russia’s rush to turn off the tap that supplies it’s neighbours whenever they feel like enjoying a little more freedom and democracy must set the alarm bells ringing!

Yesterday Dr. Liam Fox, the Conservative Shadow Defence minister urged European nations to sit up and take notice warning that the security of energy supplies will lead to the next cold war.

“Two weeks ago Russia announced its intention to annex a 460,000-square mile portion of ice-covered Arctic. Scientists claim that the area, on which Russia has audaciously set its sights, may contain an estimated 10 billion tonnes of gas and oil deposits. While this ridiculous claim has no legitimate legal basis, the West must take threats like this from Russia seriously…….

Russia’s petrodollars are financing a $189 billion overhaul of its armed forces between now and 2015. They will purchase more than 1,000 new aircraft and helicopters, 4,000 new tanks and armoured vehicles and a new submarine fleet. New missiles will carry nuclear warheads. Western addiction to oil and gas is causing us to fund the threat against us.

Reports that Russia is now withdrawing from the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty will only fuel suspicions about Putin’s defence posture.”

He appears to be calling for Nato to take a greater role in the defence of energy choke points and considers Norway and Turkey as key strategic areas for additional defence. However, I wish he had been at liberty to suggest that more and more European states look for greater use of alternative renewable energy resources and to turn away from Russia’s supplies, we also need to put more faith in the use of nuclear powered generating stations.

We cannot allow our security to be tied to a Gazprom gas deal!

Russians extend stranglehold on energy

BP cowed into sale

I warned in May of the dangers facing our energy supplies in the coming years as Russian giant Gazprom attempts to put a stranglehold on the European market. In June we note that Gazprom are eyeing Centrica, the owners of British Gas, in a possible takeover, and hidden away behind the interest in the Labour Party events was this piece of news last week revealing that Russia has cowed BP into selling it’s stake in a Siberian gas field to Gazprom.

BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP has agreed to sell Gazprom its majority interests in the giant Kovykta field for between $700m-$900m (£350m-£450m). Analysts said this is a fraction of what TNK-BP’s stake is worth, and that it is the latest example of the Kremlin forcing out Western energy firms. Last year Anglo-Dutch group Shell were also forced to sell a large interest to Gazprom in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project off Russia’s Pacific coast.

Herein lie some fairly sticky problems facing our new Prime Minister and whoever he appoints as our Foreign Secretary; these snippets of news relating to Gazprom are beginning to read like plots from a James Bond novel, but the threat to European and British interests is becoming more severe as Russia builds a gas empire which can be used to apply political and economic pressure at the turn of a valve. How we deal with British and European business and energy interests in any sort of partnership with Putin’s Russia could make or break the new PM and indeed the EU with it’s new found power of foreign diplomacy. The problems will be compounded by the Russian’s use of former German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder as an ambassador for Putin’s ambitions.

For the sake of our economic, and possibly cultural and political stability and security, we must ensure that a much larger proportion of our energy needs are met from sources other than natural gas and oil. We no longer have access to resources that would secure our own well being, and it would be foolhardy in the extreme to place our trust in Russian oligarchs.

Gazprom to buy Centrica

Energy and economic stability under threat

Following on from my recent posts about Russian gas supplier Gazprom and it’s leverage at the hands of Vladimir Putin, news arrives of the giant’s interest in Centrica, the owner of British Gas. Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom’s deputy chief executive, said at an economic forum in St Petersburg yesterday:

“In the near future there will be a deal to further increase the customer base on the British market. Anyone who will be in London for the Wimbledon tennis tournament will know about it.”

But the idea of a major British purchase has alarmed the government in the wake of Russia’s bullying of some of its neighbours by using gas supplies as a weapon.

Gazprom bought the British energy retailer Pennine Natural Gas last year and has been busy signing up big name firms and organisations to expand its British customer base. It is possible that the proposed acquisition to which Mr Medvedev was referring was the gas supply company NGSS, which is already part-owned by Gazprom and which operates from the same building as Pennine. Mr Medvedev added that Gazprom expected to increase its market share in Europe to at least a third by 2010 from 27%.

Having already bullied and cajoled it’s neighbouring states for acts of political insouciance, this latest news should set alarm bells ringing with shareholders and politicians alike, the possibility of British gas supplies being totally at the whim and control of the Kremlin is something we all should fear.