Which Are The "Stranded Assets" Now?
July 18, 2025/ Francis Menton
How quickly things change. It was only two years ago, in 2023, that I was writing posts compiling long lists of quotes from climate activists warning that all assets used for production of coal, oil and gas were about to become obsolete and “stranded.” After all, wind and solar were (supposedly) cheaper and cleaner for generating electricity, which could then power anything and everything. Therefore anyone stupid enough to make further investments in producing fossil fuels would lose everything. Here is one such post from June 2023, and another from February 2023.
If you look today, you can still find predictions in 2025 that fossil fuel assets will shortly become “stranded.” (Here is one from Bloomberg from March 6: “Investors Risk $2.3 Trillion of Stranded Fossil Fuel Assets.”). But such predictions are becoming fewer and fewer. Instead, what looks far more likely is that large portions, if not the entire business, of “renewable” electricity generation from wind and sun is likely to get “stranded.”
Consider the latest from the UK. The current Labour government of Keir Starmer, elected just a year ago, is languishing with record-low approval ratings. A YouGov poll in May found Labour with just a 23% “favorability” among the populace, compared to 32% favorability for the Reform Party of Nigel Farage (and 16% favorability for the Conservatives). In other words, if and when the next election is held, Reform could well prevail. Meanwhile, the Reform Party has broken with the former all-party consensus in favor of “net zero,” otherwise known as endless subsidies for wind and solar power.
Two days ago, on July 16, the Deputy Leader of the Reform Party, Richard Tice, wrote to heads of UK renewable energy companies to advise them that a Reform government headed by Nigel Farage would terminate the subsidies for wind and solar energy. Here is a copy of one such letter sent by Tice to Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy; and here is a July 17 press release from Net Zero Watch publicizing Tice’s initiative. Tice’s letter specifically warns wind developers that if they are granted subsidies in an upcoming round of handouts from the Labour government dubbed “AR7,” a future Reform government will not continue those subsidies:
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-7-18-which-are-the-stranded-assets-now
