Easter weekend reading on the government's response to the energy shock so far

200% more expensive and a 7 year wait - get your new gas turbines here. At least 1/3 of uk gas turbines are over 40 years old. If you want to keep gas on the system these are the costs that come with your ‘cheap gas’ www.woodmac.com/press-releas...

Where I disagree with @most of bluesky - governments hauling in petrol stations is the right first move - it just shouldn't be the last. tl;dr be more Carney electionenergy.substack.com/p/ee21-costs...

Mad - this was previously years away www.hydrogeninsight.com/analysis/exc...

Where I disagree with @most of bluesky - governments hauling in petrol stations is the right first move - it just shouldn't be the last. tl;dr be more Carney electionenergy.substack.com/p/ee21-costs...

Putting up the @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social bat signal for this one *STELLANTIS IN TALKS TO MAKE CHINESE EVS AT IDLED CANADIAN PLANT

Will "crime as a service" suffer from Baumol's cost disease? And is society better off with lower productivity crime?

Will "crime as a service" suffer from Baumol's cost disease? And is society better off with lower productivity crime?

Every week the federal government delays a 25% gas export tax costs the Australian public around $350 million in revenue. That's $350 million a week that could have gone to funding essential services! @davidpocock.bsky.social #auspol

"British workers have half as many robots, machines or modern equipment than their equivalents in France and Germany. And that is setting them up to fail". 📻 @samalvis.bsky.social on LBC 👇

There's no "British productivity puzzle", it's just that most British managers/owners tend to prefer to take small profits rather than invest 🤷

Greatest Australian batsmen in your view Minister?

The lesson of the previous energy crisis: Price interventions have to stop ripple effects before they start. This is about buying time for emergency adjustments. European democracies cannot afford another round of falling real wages and war profiteering. @wsj.com Link: www.wsj.com/economy/glob...

And on the "rejecting north sea expansion is just Nick Clegg on Nuclear" Nuclear in 2010 - projections were for electricity demand to expand, elec flows straight into UK grid, govt set the price. Gas in 2026 - all projects for demand are falling, gas flows to who buys, govt doesn't control price!

There are l many bad North Sea takes at the moment. The one that slips through the net is the sensible sounding ‘We won’t affect global prices but we would be more secure’ Uk energy security is all about price! We didn’t face actual shortages in 2022 or now we just had to pay more to get it

There are l many bad North Sea takes at the moment. The one that slips through the net is the sensible sounding ‘We won’t affect global prices but we would be more secure’ Uk energy security is all about price! We didn’t face actual shortages in 2022 or now we just had to pay more to get it

There is an imagined working class, that largely no longer exists and a modern working class that the political class rarely interact with outside of service provision.

Ultimately electricity and gas prices will be decoupled, not by fiddling around with market rules, but by the continued expansion of renewable, nuclear and storage capacity to the point where gas becomes an increasingly negligible part of the supply mix. The sooner this happens the better. (12/12)

Periods where wind, solar or nuclear plants earn surplus revenues (due to gas setting the price) are also key to paying off the high fixed costs incurred to build these plants in the first place. If wind farms were only ever paid their true marginal cost (ie zero) nobody would ever build one. (4/12)

Lot of debate about splitting the gas and renewables market for electricity (decoupling). This is a distraction from what we need to actually do. www.common-wealth.org/publications... 1/5🧵

Lot of debate about splitting the gas and renewables market for electricity (decoupling). This is a distraction from what we need to actually do. www.common-wealth.org/publications... 1/5🧵

NEW from me and @joeldodge07.bsky.social for @rooseveltinstitute.org / Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator: Trump is using the Defense Production Act to promote fossil fuel of a major donor. We show how it could instead be used to promote clean energy Abundance. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Was impossible to get Vestas & Ming Yang's investment at the same time - so the more secure European option was the obvious choice A shame media ran with (was briefed) > Government blocks ming yang rather than "secures massive Vestas investment in nacelle factory" www.vestas.com/en/media/com...

Every piece of evidence of this live experiment in legalisation in the US is - this is fucking terrible for everyone involved bar some very small companies. And all point to the UK as the end state of how bad things get. Couldn't be more solidly my one major social ill I'd ban immediately

NY Rethink Climate Action week is going to be fun www.ft.com/content/9fb0...

www.verdantthinking.org/blogs/Blog%2... The tufton street effect is so overplayed. Lotads of left think-tanks they prioritise agreement over competition. The right picks the best idea regardless of origin Makes people feel better to fight an organised cabal rather than interogate our own quality

“It’s essential that the UK and Scottish governments work together to ensure this project is pushed forward and that ground is broken on the factory as soon as possible." Read our full response to Vesta's decision to invest in a new nacelle and hub factory in Scotland⤵️ www.ippr.org/media-office...

In the middle of a price shock your goals are economic - protect consumers and suppress inflation. Solar and batteries can help some people now, but the price shock itself makes expanding clean energy harder. This will get worse. open.substack.com/pub/election...

In the middle of a price shock your goals are economic - protect consumers and suppress inflation. Solar and batteries can help some people now, but the price shock itself makes expanding clean energy harder. This will get worse. open.substack.com/pub/election...

open.substack.com/pub/election... Clean energy might stop us being exposed to fossil fuel shocks, but fossil fuel shocks make shifting to clean energy harder. What the Iran crisis means for policy in the medium term - taking inspiration from @gruberte.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/election... Clean energy might stop us being exposed to fossil fuel shocks, but fossil fuel shocks make shifting to clean energy harder. What the Iran crisis means for policy in the medium term - taking inspiration from @gruberte.bsky.social

To those wanting new O&G infrastructure. You can remove the barriers (licences), doesn't mean you'll find the finance. Carney did this for a pipeline in Alberta - no takers edmontonjournal.com/business/chi... Investors know new infra takes 5-15yrs & will be online when demand (aka revenue) is down

To those wanting new O&G infrastructure. You can remove the barriers (licences), doesn't mean you'll find the finance. Carney did this for a pipeline in Alberta - no takers edmontonjournal.com/business/chi... Investors know new infra takes 5-15yrs & will be online when demand (aka revenue) is down

Britains potholes just a sleeper policy to suppress oil demand

Maybe I’m just secronomics pilled but this strikes me as more ‘single point of failure’ than humble brag.

Maybe I’m just secronomics pilled but this strikes me as more ‘single point of failure’ than humble brag.

Loads more in the report by @beccam-c.bsky.social and @steveakehurst.bsky.social and in Steve’s substack this morning www.ippr.org/articles/apa...

Are we assuming that advanced geothermal has limited potential in the UK for the same reasons as fracking? People aren’t gunna want deep drill sites in a dense country that likes its green space? Any research in the UK on it? #energysky #climatesky

Great to see our @ippr.org report on climate backlash in the FT this morning. Anyone saying there is a breakdown in public support for climate policies is wrong. It’s entirely an elite confection, driven by people who don’t want to change. The strategy should be take them on not accommodate

Media coverage of net zero is more than twice as negative as public opinion - no wonder politicians think it's risky territory. @beccam-c.bsky.social @samalvis.bsky.social & @steveakehurst.bsky.social analysis in @theguardian.com on why staying quiet is a mistake👇 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Politics is about the stories we tell - what we stand for and where we’re going. The right is doing this with confidence. Progressives need to do the same: making big, values-driven arguments about the future. That's what @ippr.org's National Renewal work is all about - now with an🔥advisory panel.

And just this week the excellent @samalvis.bsky.social and @sofiejenkinson.bsky.social published the latest National Renewal paper - the progressive case for acting now on climate impacts like flooding and extreme heat: www.ippr.org/articles/ada...

‘The public support net zero; Labour should too’ @beccam-c.bsky.social via @labourlist.bsky.social labourlist.org/2026/03/publ...

Great to see our @ippr.org report on climate backlash in the FT this morning. Anyone saying there is a breakdown in public support for climate policies is wrong. It’s entirely an elite confection, driven by people who don’t want to change. The strategy should be take them on not accommodate

Interesting from @samalvis.bsky.social. In my new book #Elemental I write how populists take advantage of climate change and our responses to it to frame a sort of elite plot to ruin the lives of ordinary people.

I loved this - met some great people I’m still in touch with and have recommended a colleague every year since.

Saying restart drilling now will not inure you to a future far right government that is ideologically opposed to the existence of your organisation www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

New paper from @sofiejenkinson.bsky.social & me on the political threat and opportunity of climate adaptation Progressives have ignored the need to protect people from extreme weather - and that leaves an opening for the populist right. 🧵 @ippr.org www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

New paper from @sofiejenkinson.bsky.social & me on the political threat and opportunity of climate adaptation Progressives have ignored the need to protect people from extreme weather - and that leaves an opening for the populist right. 🧵 @ippr.org www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Also generally even if lots in here was underway already it’s a) encouraging that this is the narrative of choice - clean = secure and b) builds pressure in govt to deliver this things faster.