DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Green posturing that picks all our pockets
Who could possibly think that cutting down forests in North America, transporting the timber across the ocean, then burning it as ‘biomass’ in a British power station is good for the environment?
Felling trees removes an important source of carbon dioxide absorption. Shipping them thousands of miles on dirty, oil-guzzling container ships increases pollution. And burning them produces as much greenhouse gas as fossil fuels.
Yet the Government pays vast subsidies to the Drax power company to go through this perverse charade and has the nerve to call it a ‘green’ initiative.
As if that weren’t bad enough, there are now accusations that Drax (whose chief executive was paid £5.4million last year) is using a cynical ruse to squeeze even more out of the taxpayer.
Contained within the subsidy arrangement was a safeguard. If the electricity price climbed so high that Drax’s biomass generators became profitable without subsidies, payments would be capped, with any surplus going back to bill-payers.
This fiasco is yet another example of the public being taken for fools in the name of spurious green causes (Pictured: Drax Power Station in Yorkshire)
But when that moment came during the recent energy crisis, Drax allegedly slashed biomass output at its Yorkshire plant and increased production from coal-fired generators on the site instead.
This not only allowed them to avoid paying consumers what the financial website Bloomberg estimates at £639million, they were also able to sell off stocks of biomass at sky-high prices. Little wonder the firm made £731million last year. Most of it came out of our pockets.
This fiasco is yet another example of the public being taken for fools in the name of spurious green causes. The Gadarene rush to net zero has clouded the judgement of our political class, all of whom are desperate to appear virtuous on climate.
London mayor Sadiq Khan’s Ulez extension sham, the illogicality of strangling North Sea gas and oil production when the alternative is buying from tyrants, and the meek tolerance of Just Stop Oil all play into this absurd eco-muddle.
There are signs a reset is coming as these follies become more and more obvious. The Mail is not against green initiatives. But they must work, must not compromise our energy security and, above all, must not allow opportunists to fleece the taxpayer.
The sum of all fears
As if the world were not scary enough, the Government has published a list of 89 risks that might just finish us off. They may as well have put out a clip of Dad’s Army’s Private Frazer, saying: ‘We’re all doomed!’
This register of ‘key threats to our national safety’ ranges from the blindingly obvious (terrorism, pandemic) through the positively incomprehensible (severe space weather) to the vanishingly unlikely (major outbreak of African horse sickness).
Having been criticised for their unpreparedness over Covid, this looks like a back-covering exercise by ministers and mandarins. Do they really have a clue as to when or where our next disaster will strike? As Covid showed, it’s the unpredictable we really need to worry about.
(File Photo) As Covid showed, it’s the unpredictable we really need to worry about
BBC Radio pushes out its most popular DJ Ken Bruce and loses one million listeners, while audiences soar at his new berth on Greatest Hits Radio.
Meanwhile TV sees its steepest viewer decline on record. This goes to show that if you give people what they want, they tune in.
If you don’t, they switch off. Someone ought to impart this obvious fact to witless BBC bosses.
Not content with having spent £40million after just 23 days of evidence, the hapless Covid inquiry is splashing more public money employing top PR firm M&C Saatchi to improve its battered image.
Doesn’t this suggest a guilty conscience? Everyone knows you only employ brand managers when you’ve done something wrong.
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