Fracking hell . . . is it the end?
It is almost as if someone is intent on erasing George Osborne’s tenure as chancellor from the history books.
First, Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid declared an end to “austerity”. Then Downing Street’s latest incumbents announced that Osborne’s pet infrastructure project, High Speed 2, was under a “go/no go” review. Now the controversial mining process of fracking, which the politician-turned-newspaperman once lauded as a “personal priority”, looks destined for the back burner.
The government’s imminent energy white paper is set to ignore fracking completely, promoting a gamut of renewable energies instead. Westminster insiders said that shale gas fracking was out of step with the move away from fossil fuels and the target of net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.
Activism by Extinction Rebellion and growing public concern about climate change have weakened the chances of an industry once expected to create 64,500 jobs ever getting off the ground.
Cuadrilla Resources, the fracking company most active in Britain, has in recent days been removing equipment from its sole operating site in Lancashire. Petrochemicals tycoon Sir Jim Ratcliffe has vowed to pursue shale gas exploration overseas because of “archaic” and “unworkable” regulations at home.
While the Conservatives are the only main political party still publicly in favour of fracking, there are enough Tory backbenchers in rural constituencies who oppose it to make any lightening of the current regulations unlikely.
It is not simply that giving the green light to fracking is politically unpalatable. “The world has moved on,” an industry source said. “All the talk is now about biomethane or hydrogen power.
“Next to that, fracking all sounds a bit 2013. Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site was the flagship. The fact that they’re moving kit off site says it all for me.”
Unsurprisingly, some of Cuadrilla’s investors have called in Royal Bank of Canada to advise on the possibility of selling their stakes. The company has not given up. It maintains that it has identified vast shale gas reserves that could be a key part of the zero-net carbon strategy.
Ken Cronin, chief executive of the pro-fracking lobby group UK Onshore Oil and Gas, believes the opposite to those in Westminster and claims that failing to harness domestically-produced gas would ensure that the 2050 target was missed. That could be true, but so far, all UK fracking has delivered is a lot of hot air.
Sunday Times
UK set to miss goal to cut carbon emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2050
The UK will miss its new goal to cut carbon emission to “net zero” by 2050 unless it takes “urgent” action to change consumer behaviour, such as regulation to make green sources of energy cheaper and a tax on frequent flyers, according to the first assessment of the target for the government’s environmental advisory body.
The report, commissioned by the UK’s influential Committee on Climate Change, warned little had been done to tackle household consumption, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of global greenhouse gases. It pointed out that the 40 per cent reduction in emissions by the UK since 1990 was largely as a result of the decarbonisation of the electricity supply.
Researchers at Imperial College London, who wrote the report, called on the government to engage with the public and push through ambitious policy measures to force behavioural changes.
Proposed measures include intervention to cut the cost of low-carbon electricity which is currently more expensive than that generated by fossil fuels.
It called for a reduction on VAT charged on hybrid heat pumps, which switch between energy sources depending on which is the most efficient at a given time. It recommended an extension of the renewable heat incentive scheme, which rewards consumers with cash payments for installing renewable heating technology over seven years, beyond 2021.
The report also urged the government to introduce an “air miles levy” to discourage “excessive flying” by the 15 per cent of the UK population estimated to be responsible for 70 per cent of flights. Frequent flyer reward schemes should be banned, and the tax should “factor in the much larger emissions for business and first class tickets”.
FT Weekend
Phantom debts that have come to haunt energy customers
Last month Michael Jennings received a text and a final statement, both on the same day, informing him that his dual-fuel account was in the red. The statement bore the logo, livery and customer services hotline of Extra Energy, which had supplied his home since 2016. The alarming thing was that Extra Energy ceased trading last November and the pensioner, along with its other customers, had been transferred to Scottish Power. Moreover the charges, which covered a one-month period between October and November 2018, amounted to £2,919.12.
Jennings called customer services and discovered that the alleged debt was based on an estimated reading and was told that none of the actual readings provided over the years could be retrieved. He then contacted Scottish Power, which confirmed that his account had a zero balance when it was transferred last year.
Nevertheless, the phantom Extra Energy insisted its figures were correct. “I was told I had three choices: to pay in full immediately, to pay over three months or to await a collection agency,” he says.
Jennings feared that the demand was an attempt to defraud him and contacted the Observer. Depressingly, it turns out that he is not the victim of a scam, but of a similarly damaging incompetence.
The final statement had been issued by Extra Energy’s administrator, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), although only a paragraph of tiny print on the final statement explains this.
Only when the Observer requested a breakdown of the sum did PwC admit that the debt had accrued due to “a history of under-billing” by Extra Energy, despite regular meter readings having been submitted. When we pointed out that customers can’t be charged for more than 12 months of arrears if they have not been billed, PwC slashed his balance to £1,132.00.
In the wake of Extra Energy’s collapse, its 108,000 domestic customers were promised that they would receive final statements by September 2019, leaving them exposed to shock bills for up to 10 months. To meet that deadline PwC appears to have issued demands without adequate evidence.
Asked by the Observer whether it first checked customers’ billing histories and meter readings, it implied it had inherited a shambles from the defunct supplier. “We have encountered issues with customer data and billing systems that could not have been reasonably foreseen,” it says. “We are in the process of coordinating the complex process of final billing.”
Hundreds more Extra Energy customers have received unexplained three- and four-figure bills months after the company ceased trading and many, who were never customers, claim to have been contacted over phantom debts.
MoneySavingExpert, the consumer forum, says it received scores of complaints in April when the first bills started to land.
“A number of former customers were unexpectedly told by PricewaterhouseCoopers that they owed cash and others, who claimed they were never customers of the firm, said they were also chased,” says Steve Nowottny from the website.
“We told those affected that they shouldn’t just ignore the letter, even if they believe they didn’t owe money, since some did owe cash. Those who believed they were being wrongly chased were urged to get in touch with PwC as soon as possible to dispute the claim and present whatever evidence they could showing they’d paid money owed.”
Utilities regulator Ofgem acknowledges that customers have been poorly treated. “Ofgem’s role is to appoint a supplier of last resort and ensure a smooth customer transfer. We do not appoint the administrator,” it says. “Unfortunately, in the case of Extra Energy customers, we have had to engage very closely with PwC as we are aware of high levels of complaints.
“We’re extremely disappointed that Extra Energy customers have had to wait so long to receive final bills and we are aware of some customers disagreeing with the final amount. We have called on PwC and Scottish Power to work together to resolve this as quickly as possible. We have also been clear that customers with debt should be handled sensitively, and asked that PwC gives due regard to our supply licence rules on debt collection.”
Scottish Power, which is responsible for refunding credit owed to customers inherited from Extra Energy, declined to comment on complaints about PwC but says that it is close to completing the refunds.
The Observer
Dyson facing return of taxpayer cash for axed electric car project
Ministers could force Dyson to hand back £5m in taxpayer cash after the company abandoned its government-backed plans to develop an electric car.
The Telegraph understands the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is currently in talks with Dyson, which yesterday made a U-turn on its ambitious car project, unveiled to much fanfare two years ago.
Dyson’s project, consisting of plans to build a “radically different” car, had received a £5m grant as part of the UK’s National Infrastructure Delivery Plan.
In documents published in 2016, the Government had said the money would “secure £174m of investment in the area, creating over 500 jobs, mostly in engineering”.
Dyson had initially been given a grant of £16m but said on Friday it had only drawn down £5m and would not be drawing down the rest.
The company itself had set aside £2.5bn to develop the electric car, going into areas such as research into new technologies, including robotics, as well as battery development.
The money will now be spent on growing its education institute, the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology as well as into developing new technologies, it said yesterday.
Dyson added the “funding we have received from the UK Government is to support Dyson’s research and development of battery technologies”, and said such battery development would continue irrespective of its closure of the car project.
Daily Telegraph
Ferrybridge: Power station demolition ‘milestone’ for UK energy industry
Demolition at Ferrybridge C Power Station in West Yorkshire has begun in what’s been described as a “significant milestone” in UK energy.
People from around 100 homes near the demolition site were evacuated, as a crowd gathered to watch four cooling towers be destroyed.
Roads near the towers were closed during the controlled explosion – the Ferrybridge C Power Staton sits at the junction of the A1(M) and M62, just south of Ferrybridge village.
The demolition of the towers, which stood at 374ft (114m) high, took around 10 seconds.
The West Yorkshire power station provided the UK with energy for 50 years, before its owners, SSE, closed the plant in March 2016, believing it to have no longer been economical.
It’s the second controlled explosion at the plant this year, with eight towers destroyed in July.
The final three towers are being kept in case a decision is made to convert the site into a new gas-fired power station.
Demolition work at the site is expected to be completed by summer 2021 and is part of SSE’s move to reducing its carbon output.
The company plans to cut the carbon intensity of its electricity in half by 2030.
Opening in 1966, Ferrybridge C became the first power station in Europe to succeed in generating electricity from a 500-megawatt machine.
The station also made the record books in 1973 when one of its generators set a world record by running non-stop for over 5,400 hours and generating 2,999 gigawatt hours.
Sky News