I have been busy crunching some data on UK carbon emissions, so haven’t been able to post for a while. This is the problem with trying to run a data-driven Substack… Often data doesn’t exist, or can take a long time to locate and process, whereas I would love to do two or more posts a week here. Meanwhile, there is apparently an election going on. So here’s a short post about something we’ve put together over at Climate Debate UK.
Many people, especially from the sceptic side of climate and energy policy, are not part of the culture that dives in to contacting MPs, signing petitions, donating, protesting, and things of that kind. Often, they’re content merely having satisfied themselves that the basis for policy is a nonsense, and will then maybe write a few comments to that effect. But even a twitter torrent stops far short of democratic engagement.
The problem is, the greens do all this without even thinking. The mid-2000s “Big Ask” campaign by Friends of D’earth mobilised 100,000 green inkers to tell their MPs to support a ‘legally-binding’ climate law. And so the Climate Change Act 2008 seemed to have public support at a time characterised by (in post-war terms) voter disengagement. They sign every petition. They send every letter template. They go to every protest. This gives the appearance of a much larger political constituency than is actually the case: they are just the most engaged constituency.
Parliamentarians will tell you that what they need is letters. Letters, letters, letters. I point this out occasionally, and about half a dozen or so people will tell me that democracy is an illusion, or somesuch thing — a self-fulfilling prophecy, if there ever were one.
We have written a template, which you can download from the Climate Debate UK website in Word or ODT format. Download, alter or, send as is to you candidates. I’ve also coped the text below. But please, whatever you do, do not tell me that democracy is an illusion…
Your name Address Town Postcode email
Name
PPC for [Name of Constituency]
Address
Town
Postcode
email
Date
Dear Mr/Ms Name,
I am writing to you to express my concern about the direction of energy policy, particularly since the Climate Change Act 2008.
Aside the growing geopolitical risks to continuity of energy supply, recent UK energy policy has increased prices faced by households and businesses, especially small and medium sized firms.
Before I consider voting for you at this General Election I would like to know your views on the negative consequences of recent energy policy. Legally-binding emissions reduction targets have been set on the presumption that they will drive ‘green growth’ and ‘green jobs’. But they have contributed to Britain’s deindustrialisation, and small businesses, facing rising energy costs, are no longer able to be the engines of growth and employment.
No new nuclear power plants have been built since 1995, and only one has been commissioned since then. We have just one remaining coal power station, which faces decommissioning later this year. Successive governments have prohibited shale gas exploration, and have either restricted or placed punitive taxes on North Sea oil and gas production. We have consequently become increasingly dependent on imports – even for the steel and components of wind turbines and PV cells.
Wind and solar power generation have been tried for long enough for us to know that they cannot be a substitute for dispatchable power. Their intermittency requires backup, which increases the cost, as do the subsidy regimes that have been necessary to attract investment. They also require smart metering to ‘manage demand’, which is a euphemism for rationing by price, which will impact poorer households the hardest.
Battery storage technology may never be adequate to provide substantial and secure grid backup. Similarly, EV sales mandates leading towards to the abolition of new petrol and diesel car sales have required extremely large subsidies in the form of income tax write-offs. Battery technology has not advanced sufficiently to produce economic alternatives to private transport for people on ordinary salaries, or for goods transportation. The same policies may also cause immense harm to UK and European automotive manufacturing, which also thanks to high energy prices, cannot compete with Chinese production.
No matter how noble climate policies may seem, they have created targets before any way of meeting them economically or technologically, or with public buy-in, have been proven. Were you to be elected as my Member of Parliament, can you confirm that you will put ordinary people’s day-to-day interests before ideological ambitions?
Will you use your voice in Parliament to argue against reckless and draconian policies, including EV and heat pump sales mandates and smart metering?
Will you make the case for expanding nuclear power, developing shale gas and offshore oil and gas, and restoring coal production and power, to support domestic industries and provide Britain with a robust strategic foundation?
Lastly, will you commit to reducing taxes on all energy resources, and eliminating subsidies for wind, solar, and other unreliable generators?
Despite claims from advocates, policies from this era have manifestly failed to produce the domestic industrial growth and lower prices that were promised and have merely harmed the UK economy and household finances. I hope you can provide definitive and clear answers to these questions in due course ahead of the upcoming General Election.
Yours sincerely,
Your Name
I will do this but judging by the lack if response I've had from Ruth Edwards (Conservantive in Rushcliffe) on covid driven mandates, I will expect the same response.... ie nothing.
I'm one of the self fulfilling prophets..or at least someone who is skeptical of letter writing/protesting/petitioning.
My view is that mass mobilisation is what happens when powerful people decide to back causes, and not the other way round. When movements manage to mobilise that against the wishes of the powerful they tend to feel the full force of law (and media). See Canadian truckers.
This isn't to say do nothing, but I struggle to put ANY faith in parliamentarians that lead us hear.
Having said I don't trust politicians (or media), I'm obliged to say who do I trust.
So, I trust the story telling of someone like yourself. I trust the brains of savvy data/quants/energy/ advertising/PR folk who are amongst your supporters and I trust the networks of those same supporters who may just be able to pursuade someone of influence (say from the world of manufacturing) to champion our cause.
This is not an easy problem and I am not well qualified to answer but I think it's important to at least share skepticism of parliamentary focussed efforts.
Keep up the good work.