Huhne to face charges?

Guido Fawkes has just tweeted about Chris Huhne, our Energy and Climate Change Secretary:

+ + + Vicky Pryce: “”I understand there will be charges” + + +: BBC correspondent tweeting unconfirmed rumour: V...

Toast?

Update on Feb 3, 2012 by Bishop Hill

Charges it is.

A short pause for celebration, followed, no doubt, by the (inevitable) appointment of someone just as bad.

Update on Feb 3, 2012 by Bishop Hill

George Monbiot tweets

I'm sad to see #ChrisHuhne go. He's been one of the few voices of (relative) sanity in the Coalition.

Cameron's climate connections

Leo Hickman has a fascinating report about a series of "networking" meetings at which businesses paid up to £1800 a head for access to ministers, government officials and special advisers.

Among the public sector employees to have attended the networking evenings is Ben Moxham, David Cameron's special adviser for energy and the environment and a former employee of BP, who was at an event on climate change in November.

The club charges senior executives from energy companies, consultancies and technology businesses between £1,300 and £1,800 per person for each event, although it invites some from the public sector to attend for free.

Senior executives from companies including BP, Shell, and the Russian oil giant Gazprom have attended the company's climate change events, while Apple, Google and Citigroup executives were among those at other networking evenings.

Click to read more ...

How DECC fiddled its figures

Tim Worstall has picked up on the DECC energy pathways report and notes something intriguing: although the costs of the individual elements of the energy mix in the new regime are acknowledged to be higher than at present, the overall cost is said to be lower! But Timmy has managed to work out how this particular piece of government mathematics works:

Click to read more ...

Dates for Scottish readers

A couple of diary dates for Scottish readers:

On 21 November, Prof Geoffrey Boulton is leading a discussion on Why and How Should Science be Open? at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

For those feeling flush, the Scotsman is running a conference called Will Green Energy Leave Scotland in the Red? on 13 December.

I don't think I will make either of them, but if anyone is going it would be good to have a report.

Darien II

One commenter on the last thread rather perspicaciously pointed out the parallels between Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's leap for renewables and the Darien scheme - the disastrous commercial venture at the end of the 17th century that bankrupted the Scottish establishment and led to the country having to go cap in hand to the English and ask for union.

With this in mind, it's useful to notice the report by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers into energy needs for an independent Scotland. As the Telegraph says,

Scotland faces buying power from abroad to keep the lights on because Alex Salmond has no “practical strategy” for delivering his promise of a green energy revolution, a damning report by a leading engineering group has concluded.

Darien II, indeed.

DECC ministers meetings

The Department of Energy & Climate Change has issued the latest lists of meetings attended by ministers. It appears that Huhne and his buddies are still vigorously resisting any possibility of speaking to anyone who might question anything they do - only energy companies and environmentalists are welcome. Trespassers will be prosecuted.

I was intrigued by a meeting attended by Huhne's deputy Greg Barker. Barker met with energy retailers to discuss, among other things, "information on consumers' bills". Is this where the government says "you will not break out the cost of green taxes on bills under any circumstances"?

I've written to ask.

This time it's hydro

Mark Lynas is back in the groove, relaying new allegations of bias in the renewables report - this time related to the hydropower chapter.

“The value of the IPCC report is weakened by the strongly biased treatment of hydropower,” says Peter Bosshard, policy director for International Rivers, which campaigns to raise attention of the damaging effects large dams can have on riverine ecosystems. “At least half of the lead authors of the hydropower chapter are not independent scientists, but have a vested interest in the promotion of hydropower. This creates a conflict of interest, which is reflected throughout the report.”

Beyond repair

Our glorious government here in the UK is considering subsidising the Irish wind industry.

THE BRITISH government could massively subsidise the Irish wind energy industry under proposals to be considered in London today.

Britain believes the west coast and the seas around Ireland can provide it with a large amount of its renewable energy and could be willing to subsidise offshore wind farms there.

Industry groups here say such a move could be worth up to €1.6 billion a year to the Irish economy.

These clowns really have to go don't they?

Not his finest hour - Josh 106

From Booker's latest article

Quote of the day

[I]f the ‘deniers’ are the only ones standing up for the integrity of the scientific process, and the independence of the IPCC, then I too am a ‘denier’

Mark Lynas deals with criticism head on.

(H/T Barry Woods)

Renewable friends - Josh 104

Cartoons by Josh

Ideological money laundering

This is a guest post by Ben Pile, of Climate Resistance fame.

As everybody now knows, the headlines from IPCC WGIII report on renewable energy appear to have been written by Greenpeace. When the Summary for Policy Makers was published last month, I was one of many who noted the role of Greenpeace, and the extent to which the SPM's authors were involved in the renewable energy industry. Steve McIntyre's discovery has caused further criticism  of the IPCC's letting such overt agendas near its evidence-making for policy-makers, even from the green camp, albeit only because it is such bad PR. But there is yet more to this story.

Click to read more ...

Lynas on the IPCC

Mark Lynas has posted an article on the IPCC/Greenpeace shambles:

The IPCC must urgently review its policies for hiring lead authors – and I would have thought that not only should biased ‘grey literature’ be rejected, but campaigners from NGOs should not be allowed to join the lead author group and thereby review their own work. There is even a commercial conflict of interest here given that the renewables industry stands to be the main beneficiary of any change in government policies based on the IPCC report’s conclusions. Had it been an oil industry intervention which led the IPCC to a particular conclusion, Greenpeace et al would have course have been screaming blue murder.

New consensus: IPCC is dumb

Lots of interest on Twitter re the Greenpeace's involvement in the IPCC renewables report. Both sides appear united in their disbelief that the IPCC could be so foolish after everything that has gone before:

Mark Lynas

Having read the post, I think McIntyre is onto something. Kudos to him for spotting this.

Leo Hickman

Looks like IPCC hvnt learnt lessons

Mark lynas

Might have known concl was dictated by Greenpeace Germany!

Leo Hickman

My sentiments echo McIntyre: 'hoped against hope'. V dumb of IPCC to let this happen after evrythng

How time flies

Sunday:

[Scottish Finance Secretary John ]Swinney said: “I am deeply concerned at the scale of Scottish Power’s price increases. Any fuel price rises have an impact, yet these increases will leave many households, in particular vulnerable consumers, in real, real difficulty.”

Swinney’s criticisms echo remarks by First Minister Alex Salmond, who hit out at “thumping fuel bills that will affect huge numbers of people throughout society”.

Monday:

Speaking at the opening of the new wind farms, Mr Salmond said: "The opening of the Arecleoch and Mark Hill wind farms here in South Ayrshire is a significant milestone for Scottish Power Renewables.

"It also underlines both the rapid progress Scotland has made in clean energy generation and our industry's leading role in the wider development of a genuinely low carbon economy across Europe."