Huffing and Puffing
Might it blow the house down?
POSTED ON 21 JAN 23
BY MARK HODGSONIN UNCATEGORIZED
Chris Skidmore, in his Chairman’s foreword to the “independent” Review of Net Zero, wrote that “[t]he Review has sought to engage, listen, and learn from businesses, organisations, industries, and communities from across the UK.” I’m guessing that one of those businesses was SSE. Certainly its Chief Executive, Alistair Phillips-Davies, seems very pleased with it. But then he would be, since it might as well have been written by him. So much for the independence of the review. Jit has already written about this, and I have nothing to add. Instead I want to draw attention to a puff piece that appeared on SSE’s website about a week ago under the heading “It’s time to ‘build, build, build’ to deliver sustainable energy independence”.
It starts with a positive reference to the Net Zero review, which apparently “neatly describes the clean energy transition as “the growth opportunity of the 21st Century” creating almost half a million jobs in what could be a £1Trillion market.” But there’s a small problem – in order to realise this “vast potential” we must move quickly and act decisively in order to seize the opportunities in a global race.
I’ve always been rather dubious about this “logic”. Being first, or an early adopter, with regard to new technology, often involves making mistakes, which can be expensive. It may be better to wait until others have refined the technology, made and recovered from mistakes along the road, and generally smoothed the way for those who follow. However, when the energy user and the taxpayer are picking up the tab, we can throw caution to the winds. Mr Phillips-Davies agrees with Mr Skidmore that we have to move quickly and act decisively. But then – as Chief Executive of a company making lots of money from renewables thanks to a generous subsidy and planning regime, especially in Scotland – he would say that.
https://cliscep.com/2023/01/21/huffing-and-puffing/
