seems like a thorough write up. Fwiw, if the hike on my end is as high as expected, my electric bill is going to be between 5-6K yearly, and oil for heat is about 2-3K yearly
I don't know that even that article fully explained the background.
The lack of gas storage here I suspect owes a lot to the privatisations. Just as the privatised water companies have failed to build sufficient reservoir capacity - there's really not much financial incentive for them to spend money on such facilities preparing for possible future supply issues -, that's the sort of strategic national-level issue that governments are supposed to worry about. But when you privatise everything and leave it to 'the markets' it doesn't seem to get done. In general, with the railways, the water companies, the power infrastructure, Thatcherism demonstrated a complete lack of strategic and long-term thinking.
Seems to me there's a contradiction between thinking the state is not competent to run industries directly, but at the same time believing it's competent enough to regulate and negotiate contracts with powerful wealthy multinational corporations. If it's not smart enough to do the first, why would it be any better at the second?
And our over-dependence on gas is partly due to the way the system was privatised. By separating the generators from the suppliers it created a rush to build new power plants as quickly and cheaply as possible, which created an incentive to turn to imported gas (as gas power-plants are quick to build and get running), leading to a shift to gas as our main source of power.
Then there was the traditional Tory hatred of the miners, that meant a turn away from coal (though, to be fair, the huge complication there is climate change, as coal produces more CO2 than natural gas..which is the reason why the Thatcher government actually kick-started much of the research into climate change in the first place when they set up the Hadley Centre).
Meanwhile the power companies are making record profits out of the war in Ukraine. And paying shockingly low levels of tax . (Not surprising when our PM couldn't, when he was Chancellor, even get his own billionaire wife to pay UK taxes.)
Firms defend paying no corporation tax after government handed out billions to energy giants
www.theguardian.com
Labour calls for ‘proper windfall tax’ on oil and gas while TUC describes profits as ‘obscene’
www.theguardian.com
Does it matter that the power Britain relies on to make the country glow and hum no longer belongs to Britain...
www.lrb.co.uk