UK’s solution to unreliable “renewable” energy: Variable energy pricing plus smart meters means consumers will intermittently switch off their own electricity supply

 UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, despite his title of ‘Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero’, is facing criticism for policies that seem to contradict his duty to protect energy security. These policies include a proposed tax raid on North Sea oil and gas profits, effectively making the industry financially unviable, and a potential ban on new oil and gas fields in the North Sea.

The tax raid on North Sea oil and gas profits that Miliband is planning to impose, through Chancellor Rachel Reeves, will increase taxes on profits to a punitive 78 per cent.  This is in addition to stopping various tax breaks to the industry.

As Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol Rick Bradford argues, these policies will not decrease demand for oil and gas but rather benefit foreign suppliers at the expense of UK jobs and revenue. Furthermore, the government’s push for variable electricity pricing will make electricity unaffordable for most people when wind power is insufficient. “Less UK oil and gas production means a bonanza for foreign suppliers and a leaching of UK cash into their hands,” he said.

“Is the political class really that stupid, or is there an unrevealed agenda which explains this apparent absurdity?” he asked which leads to Bradford’s second point: variable electricity pricing.

Variable electricity pricing to consumers would mean prices vary every 30 minutes, as they do on the wholesale market, and be unknown in advance....<<<Read More>>>...