Editor-in-chief of BusinessGreen, writing for a couple of decades or so about the environment, the economy, green politics, and the Climate Theory of Everything
James Murray
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It’s fair enough to argue we should do these things to help at the margins, but to suggest more fossil fuel infrastructure is the answer we need to the crisis while a renewables led approach is inherently flawed is just deeply unserious.
I don’t get how you make the case we’re on the brink of a global energy and economic crisis and then imply a bit more oil and gas storage capacity and domestic production (which could never be anything other than marginal) would make any meaningful difference.
Yet another conversation where he barely engages with climate risks, the disruptive nature of clean tech, or what happens if you don’t reach net zero emissions.
He’s right the fossil fuel shock and energy transition are complex and defined by risks and uncertainty. None of this is simple and there are big challenges with a renewables-dominated path. But then his preferred approach doesn’t even begin to stack up, even before you consider the climate risks.
And now he’s on to the North Sea as a way of boosting the UK’s tax base, while blithely dismissing the idea there almost certainly isn’t much gas out there.
And then we’re on to how we’re on the brink of a fossil fuel triggered economic crisis, which apparently we could resist through a bit more domestic drilling and more oil and gas stockpiling. His preferred solutions are objectively much less credible than the policies he’s attacking.
Great read from @rafaelbehr.bsky.social. Am yet again struck how climate denialism was a dry run for so much of the misinformation and detachment from reality that followed. I do wonder what would’ve happened if there’d been a more robust response from the start.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I suspect I can guess who Rory Stewart talks to about energy policy, but I wish he’d talk to some other people occasionally.
open.spotify.com/episode/0rG6...
"Plan for Britain" cover essay for Prospect magazine by
@raviguru.bsky.social explains that the North Sea is a "marginal debate" and that it would be "better to concentrate on electrification"
