Britain will change energy policy, but how?

Not content with giving the green light to Britain’s first new coal mine in decades, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has taken a new stance on energy policy.

“I don’t think we’re going to go to net zero by telling everyone they can’t fly anywhere or they can’t do this or that. That’s not my approach.” Sunak told the BBC.

Instead, you want a pragmatic and proportionate waywhile at the same time staying committed to achieving its carbon emissions target by 2050.

The move comes after growing calls to delay a ban on new car sales running on petrol or diesel to 2030. That makes sense given that Britain’s electricity grid probably won’t be able to handle the demand brunt of increased use of electric vehicles on top. already intense demand from households, businesses and industry.

The above policy seems strange

What is quite surprising is the fact that the announcement comes on the heels of what amounts to internally inconsistent energy policy. For example, the aforementioned coal mine, which was approved late last year, would seem to fit absolutely nowhere within a green energy policy. Coal usually contains mercury, a known poison, which is released into the atmosphere when burned and can cause nasty illnesses.

At the same time, Sunak opposes the idea of ​​drilling onshore for natural gas due to the necessary use of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial extraction method. However, natural gas is still much cleaner than coal as a power source.

That alone is weird, but it gets weirder. Britain imports increasing amounts of natural gas from the United States, much of which is extracted by fracking. I guess it’s okay when you’re abroad, even though we all live on the same planet.

The next question I have is what is the pragmatic and proportionate way? What Sunak wants to go?

What happened to the natural gas bridge

In 2014 it was clear that natural gas would be the bridge to clean energy, but that would take a few decades. It seemed sensible since it meant a quick move away from coal-fired electricity in favor of much cleaner natural gas.

Then came the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow Scotland and everything seemed to have changed. The message was not extreme: all the carbon needed to get rid of in a jiffy no matter what the financial cost.

While those costs are now under increasing scrutiny, it seems sensible to revisit the idea of ​​natural gas as a bridge to clean energy. Of course, that will still mean solar, wind and wave power can be harnessed and electrical infrastructure built as fast as the budget allows.

But currently the risk is that gasoline and diesel vehicles will be banned and existing power grids will be overloaded, leading to blackouts and potential blackouts. As people in Texas and California already know, these events already occur with banal regularity, especially during heat waves.

Hopefully common sense will prevail and Rishi may have the ability to do so. The only flaw is that he may not be in office long enough.

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