Wednesday
Jun262013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Renewables industry moves to amend Energy Bill
Jun 26, 2013 Climate: Parliament Lord Oxburgh, chairman of Falck Renewables, has moved an amendment to the Energy Bill that would require the country to adopt a 2030 decarbonisation target.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is as good a summary of the corrupt state of the nation as you could possibly want.
[Update: It seems that Lord O is no longer a director of Falck. He remains a director of another green energy company 2OC, is an advisor to a green investment fund, and is chairman of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association.]
Reader Comments (42)
Yup! That's about as perfect an example of our corrupt system as ever there could be. For shame!
Blinder. Well played,
I have just two words for Lord Oxburgh-
Falck Off.
Isn't this the same amendment proposed by fellow eco-trougher Tim Yeo a couple of weeks ago?
That really does force every last drop of bile to rise.
Did he ever declare his interest in falck renewables at the time of CG?
Is his interest properly declared to the House now? (And is he meant to draw attention again to his interest at time of proposiing his amendment?)
This must surely provide highly suitable material for another question to the House, but just as surely it needs someone far more eloquent than me to get the phrasing right.
The worse it gets, the more likely it will be noticed and something done about it.
Then again, perhaps not.
Perhaps a sign of desperation when Oxburgh must risk being seen in public without clothes. Could they really not find someone untainted to move the amendment?
It's time to start arresting people.
Is this THE Lord Oxburgh? The impartial one?
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is as good a summary of the corrupt state of the nation as you could possibly want"
A sad but prescient eulogy of a once proud nation brought low by a ruling class of 21st Century robber-barons aided and abetted by a pathetic, compliant and eager-to-please fourth estate.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man; perhaps a forlorn hope but unless someone of stature steps up to the mark and destroys the forces of economic insanity that threaten our futures then, ladies and gentlemen, we're right, royally f**ked!
This is Oxburgh of climategate enquiry fame.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100044687/how-lord-oxburgh-of-persil-washed-the-climategate-team-whiter-than-white-pt-2/
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100030905/climategate-the-whitewash-continues/
Richard North noticed something interesting tucked away in Obama's Climate Action Plan - support for "emerging nuclear technologies – including small modular reactors".
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=84067
Maybe the renewables troughers are getting worried?
Haven't I heard that name before somewhere?...innocent face
I have just two words for Lord Oxburgh-
Falck Off.
Jun 26, 2013 at 10:28 PM | chris
////////////////////////////////////////////
it should not be Falck Off, but rather Frack On.
The US has greatly reduced its CO2 emissions simply because of fracking, and the switch from coal to gas.
Whilst I am not one of those who sees the need to get rid of coal, nor the need to reduce CO2 emission, the UK could make a 'worthwhile' reduction in its CO2 emissions by using gas from fracking.
Biomass (due to its lower calorific value) actually produces more CO2 than gas (and it is only via an accounting slight of hand, that gives it a CO2 credit, that enables the government to claim that it produces less CO2 than coal; in the real world it does not). So the replacement of coal and biomass by gas from fracking would acttually lower UK's emissions (ie., real world emissions)..
is this worthwhile? Well given the miniscule reduction in global temperatures that would theoretically result from the UK completely cuutting out all CO2 emissions, and given that China and India are adding a couple of new coal fired generators every week, it is nothing more than gesture politics on behalf of the UK.
PS, I often wonder what Climate/CO2 sensitivity they use when assessing the reduction in global temperatures that would result from the UK cutting out all emissions. If sensiitivity is lower than used (which I envisage will be the case as evidence mounts up that climate sensitivity is less than the IPCC assume) then the gesture becomes even more futile!
Perhaps Lord Donoghue might like to repay the favour we have been doing him lately with suggestions for PQs by taking on this 'noble' lord head-on.
For once I am "thinking of the children" as these charlatans insist I should do. I have a year-old grand-daughter and I have no wish to see her life chances — and those of every other Briton under about 25 — totally destroyed so that this man and his cronies can continue to fill their pockets
The conflict of interest is bordering on the breathtaking. Is there no-one left in a position of authority who can call time on people who — in fact if not in law — are committing acts bordering on treason?
And I was taught, as a child, many, many years ago, that England was ruled by honest, honourable men.
Yes, it was them who told you.
I'm afraid the true indicator of corruption (and it is an intellectual corruption) is that the ‘leaders’ of our supposedly investigative fourth estate, the BBC and the Guardian, won't touch this story with a barge pole EVEN if they became aware that it existed.
The good Lord is one of their ‘good guys’. And therefore untouchable.
"The British Geological Survey was asked to estimate how much gas is trapped in rocks beneath Lancashire and Yorkshire.
It said there could be 1,300 trillion cubic feet at one site alone, but it is unclear how much could be extracted."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23069499 (Read Harrabin's comments as well)
So Lord Oxburgh would have seen this report and decided to try and shut off major shale gas developments by introducing this amendment before it is too late. More fools them if our Houses of Parliament fall for this wheeze.
We never heard any more about Falck's links to the Mafia wind scandal - dug up by the Bish over two years ago - and described in detail in Tom Fuller's Examiner piece.
The head of Falck Italy had to resign - but the Noble Lord seems to have sailed imperturbably onward.
The article describes those famous wind farms in Corleone, Sicily - which pulled in huge subsidies without the boring inconvenience of being connected to the grid.
Maybe he should be referred to as Don Oxburgh in future.
"emerging nuclear technologies – including small modular reactors".
I am sure I saw a documentary about these units, quite a few years ago. It was a three part documentary and, as I recall, the part about the miniature reactors was either at the end of part one, or possibly in part two. I think the documentary was called something like "Back in the Future". The micro-reactor was fitted to a car, nice silver one - looked quite sporty.
Reminder from
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/24/climategate_oxburgh_globe/
In the House of Lords Register of Lords' Interests, Oxburgh lists under remunerated directorships his chairmanship of Falck Renewables, and chairmanship of Blue NG, a renewable power company. (Oxburgh holds no shares in Falck Renewables, and serves as a non-exec chairman.) He also declares that he is an advisor to Climate Change Capital, to the Low Carbon Initiative, Evo-Electric, Fujitsu, and an environmental advisor to Deutsche Bank. For a year he was non-exec chairman of Shell.
GLOBE is conspicuous by its absence, however. Oxburgh joined GLOBE in 2008. The University of East Anglia appointed Oxburgh after consulting the Royal Society.
"We are grateful to the Royal Society for helping us to identify such a strong panel and to the members for dedicating their time to this important matter," said the University in a press statement. It may not be the smartest advice the UEA has ever received - the Royal Society's partisanship is well known.
(A parallel enquiry, headed by Sir Muir Russell, is already underway.)
One insider, who declined to be named, described Oxburgh's appointment as "like putting Dracula in charge of the Blood Bank".
GLOBE has not returned our request for comment. Nor has the University. The network hasn't had much luck with its UK appointments, as key figures have become caught up in the MP expenses scandal.
GLOBE's worldwide secretary Elliott Morley and its British branch secretary David Chaytor were two of three MPs to face criminal charges last week. Brent MP Barry Gardiner, co-chairman of the GLOBE Dialogue on Land Use Change & Ecosystems claimed for a second home eight miles from Westminster, and worked the system for £200,000.
In 2007 Oxburgh won a Lifetime Achievement Award from Platts. The judges said they were also impressed by “his very high ethical standards".
Surely a case of "Misconduct in a Public Office".
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/misconduct_in_public_office/
Where the motive is defined as:
"In order to establish whether the behaviour is sufficiently serious to amount to the offence, the officer's motive is also relevant: ...the question has always been, not whether the act done might, upon full and mature investigation, be found strictly right, but from what motive it had proceeded; whether from a dishonest, oppressive, or corrupt motive, under which description, fear and favour may generally be included, or from mistake or error..."
Willis Eschenbach noted this a couple of days ago at WUWT:
I suspect Oxburgh though is happy to enjoy his champagne and cigars now together with his crony-accolades, and let history go hang itself (and the rest of us).
Private Eye will be right on it...
The phrase don't they have any shame springs to mind, but of course they don't ...
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/politicians-thieves-and-those-grey-areas-in-between/
Pointman
Steven Goddard posted this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bX3EZCVj2XA
it carries a (chilling?) claim by KGB defector that most of KGB activity was conditioning a whole generation in the west so they couldn't think coherently, to the extent that even if they were presented with clear evidence that what they current thought was wrong they would not be able to accept this new evidence.
This process takes one or two generations as this is the time it takes for people to move from education to positions of power.
Of course such a thing could never happen here.
best I bite my tongue
I have just had a look at Falck Renewables website he is not registered as Chairman or even a director, you might want to edit this post.
The Ignoble Lord has failed to declare in the Lords' register of interests his membership of the advisory board of Real Asset Energy Fund - a post that it would be surprising if it were pro bono...
He opened as follows in the Energy Bill debate: "I declare an interest as honorary president of the Carbon
Capture and Storage Association and a director of 2OC."
He then went on to say:
"I shall confine my remarks to electricity market reform or EMR..",
and then:
"The main aim of EMR is to use market mechanisms to achieve a secure, decarbonised electricity supply
at the lowest possible cost."
And all the while the subsidy burden grows ever larger as the corruption becomes more blatant and contempt for the electorate is barely masked.
Nigel Farage and UKIP should be a shoe-in at the next election when the winter 2014/15 energy bills, bloated by an unsustainable RO levy hit the front door mats just as the electorate sets out for the polling booths.
The main parties are all in it together, not a cigarette paper between them.
Can't wait!
I bet my bottom dollar that none of the MPs (with a couple of exceptions) or MSPs here in Scotland have any idea of what they are achieving with their dumb Climate Act and other strange measures.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23081695
"Ofgem warns danger of power shortages has increased"
Around 2015 is the time for start of power cuts. Back to Ted Heath's three day week with an abandon.
Happy times ahead. Thanks all you elected representatives without heads.
Will be interesting as the first "shut-down of UK plc" may happen during the election campaign. How many UKIP MPs might that create?
The green industry is just a cesspit of special interests and corruption.
Ref above the power shortages issue is now also getting top attention at the Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/10145803/Risk-of-UK-blackouts-has-tripled-in-a-year-Ofgem-warns.html
Davey is on the case "Mr Davey also unveiled further details of subsidies for new wind farms and of a promised auction process to pay gas-fired power plants to be available when needed. " More of our money being paid for stand-by cover on top of subsidised wind power."
"National Grid said one of the new proposals involved seeking large consumers to reduce electricity use during times of high demand (between 4 and 8 pm on weekday evenings in the winter) in return for a payment".
Manufacturing group the EEF said it could cost big industrial users millions of pounds to switch off and that for the largest energy consumers the process would take several days."
Time for industry to pull up the tent pegs and move to countries with guaranteed power supply. How daft can you get?
Lord Oxburgh the new Tim Yeo.
The News of the World had the Fake Sheik and now he is at the The Sun and the Times has got the Fake Lobbyist.
'Industry' seems like the wrong term for something wholly dependent on taxpayer subsidies.
Back to the earlier Tyndall 'conference' thread...
Let the 'in fighting' begin. Can't have it both ways. Either 'de-carbonisation' or 'energy rationing' is the future. One group, yacking out of the Tyndall/RS corner, want rationing and the other want to continue toughing in the land of taxpayer supported Unicorn poo. Civil war in the fold?
Jamspid, I wouldn't be surprised if Yeo learned everything from Oxburgh.
Roll on the elections and UKIP.
Lord Oxburgh left the Board of Falck Renewables on 26-11-2010, see http://companycheck.co.uk/company/04501104
As Mathu points out above in the Register article, he is an investment advisor to Climate Change Capital, where they still describe him as chairman of Falck Renewables: http://www.climatechangecapital.com/about-us/people/lord-ronald-oxburgh.aspx.
He is also still a member of Deutsche Bank Climate Advisory Board, along with Lord Browne, John Schellnhuber (and previously with Rajendra Pachauri.)
https://www.db.com/en/content/company/advisory-boards.htm (page updated March 2013)
"UK monthly coal imports rise to 6.5-year high in April: DECC data"
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Coal/26058063
It must be great to be a Lord and be able to push through legislation that directly profits your business interests in such a bald faced manner.