Bishop Hill Deben denies interests in energy
Jul 3, 2013 Climate: Parliament Deben A grand committee of the House of Lords has been examining the provisions of the Energy Bill. The video of the meeting is below. The contributions to the debate are remarkable in that almost every speaker had to acknowledge a financial interest in the side they were supporting. One of the few exceptions was Matt Ridley (from 17:19.25), who pointed out that he was speaking against his declared interest in coal and in favour of gas.
During the debate, Lord Deben declared (16:52.00) that he had no business interests in areas related to the bill (although he declared his interests in the CCC and GLOBE International during his speech).
According to Veolia Water UK - which readers will recall has a business connecting new power generators to the grid - he remains chairman of the board.
His failure, once again, to acknowledge his conflict of interest is presumably because if he acknowledges it now, he will be accepting by implication that he should have declared it when he stood as chairman of the Climate Change Committee. He has no choice except to try to tough it out.
(Incidentally, Nigel Lawson, from 17:33.0 onwards, was on very good form)
Bishop Hill
Later on in the debate, Deben says something about having stopped himself having anything to do with the bit of the company (presumably Veolia) that is involved with grid connections.
Not sure this is going to wash.
Reader Comments (14)
OK - and Jimmy Saville was a celibate Trappist monk - Gummer was summed up to my mind by the Norwegian fisheries minister on Norwegian national TV a few years ago - drettsack.
Time for a quiet word in the ear of the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, I think — not to mention the gentlemen at New Scotland Yard.
Gummer always was a supercilious toad and he now appears to be a cowardly and possibly even mendacious supercilious toad.
Nothing personal, John. Just politics.
Viscount Ridley briefly mention a 1.7 degree increase in global temperature for each doubling of CO2 concentrations but in my view did not stress that the next 1.7 degree of warming will occure when the concentration is 4 times as much and the next l.7 degree when the concentration is 8 times as much. In other words just 5.1 degree increase for 8 times the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (this I believe is not disputed by the accepted science). This does not take into account the negative feedback by increased absorption by plants etc. Even if this worst case scenario were true any possible attempts by man to further reduce these concentrations are enormousely costly and just not worth it on the dubious speculation of the negative effects of any increase in in global average temperature. Mitigation of any real effects is much more sensible and cost effective.
Heh, Deben denies Deben.
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Ridley was very watch-able and extremely informative. A giant among pigmies. As for Lawson: a wonderful speech. He put Worthington in her place - she wanted to know how the Chinese were being so successful with PV (and being hit with EU tariffs), to which Lawson responded that they were happy to sell cut-price panels to gullible Europeans but weren't about to use them themselves on any scale - and then told Oxborough that his bill was just so absurd that he might be tempted to vote for it so that its passing could be seen by the populace to be absurd as well. However, he said, I shall resist the temptation (!).
And of course, the spectre of shale gas was the real spoiler for the warmists. It was obvious to me that the setting of a de-carbonisation target was going to be set such that even shale could not be viable.
The worthingtons of this world seek only to bring the country to its knees.
Driving home from night shift I heard him say this yes on the LBC Radio yesterday
London Mayor Boris Johnson "Wind Turbines combined could nt pull the skin off a Rice Pudding".
Classic Boris being an even bigger thorn in Camerons side.Hes realised he wont ever make PM .He also announced hes going for a third term as London Mayor So now he can say what he likes about national politics.
How very opportune.
The Bish will know exactly what I mean :-)
More carbon corruption. See Tallbloke.
http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/flip-flop-fiasco-failed-fix-for-flatlined-fossil-fuel-fund-fields-fresh-fangs/#more-13466
Bish
I am not seeing any link to the video ?
Ed Davey clearly doesn't have any interests in energy either. But he's not dealing from a full DECC...
http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/the-cuckoo-card/
Fenbeagle, I salute you !!
Ross Lea
The planet has been far more consistent than politicians ; it does not change its mind about how to respond to various stimuli. If you add CO2 to the planet's atmosphere there is one thing that it will always do, store it ^.^
When the planet was born or somewhere around then, the planet was presented with an atmosphere containing 800,000 parts per million of CO2. The planet obviously took umbrage about this and started ferreting it way in every possible receptacle! Don't worry, the planet has almost completed the job all by itself and we are now helping it along ^.^
For roughly 4.5 billion years the trend line for atmospheric CO2 has been down, down and down. There is a big problem with this because at somewhere between 180 and 220 ppm all of the plant life that feeds us (and the animals we eat) will die out. Taking CO2 out of the atmosphere is a seriously stupid thing to do.
A little digging reveals that Veolia has a major subsidiary (€8bn 2009 turnover) called Dalkia which is heavily involved in renewables and "environmental management". Dalkia has a UK operation:
"In the UK, Dalkia Plc employs 675 staff members and generated revenues of €163 million in 2010. The CEO of the UK business is Frédéric Pelège. Dalkia Plc delivers managed energy solutions that aim to reduce carbon emissions to industry, healthcare, district heating and other sectors. It also provides specialised services via the following brands:
Cogenco Ltd – packaged cogeneration (CHP)
Dalkia Bio Energy Ltd – renewable biomass energy solutions and fuel supply"
Maybe this operation does not come under Debben? What other excuse could he have for not owning up to it?
MikeH:
Useful information about Veolia and Dalkia. It can’t be pointed out too often that Veolia got big by systematic bribery and corruption, paying backhanders to local French politicians to privatise their municipal waste and water treatment businesses.
kim: “Deben denies Deben”.
It’s when he does it three times and the cock crows that he has to worry.
It’s fair game to mention Deben’s religion, since he mentioned it himself in a recent speech in Oxford, comparing climate sceptics to Protestants defying the Catholic consensus.
Godbotherers like Deben and John Cook have a problem. They are held to higher standards of morality by something superior to their own consciences. When they go wrong, they go wrong big, and inevitably end up betraying themselves.