Ed Miliband and Chris Stark Have Just Admitted They Have No Clue What They’re Doing
If you were ever uncertain that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and his Head of Mission Control, Chris Stark, were space cadets with only the vacuum of space between their ears, then the letter they sent to the National Grid ESO yesterday should remove all doubt.
First, it is rather unfortunate that the file name for the letter on the Government website is ‘SOS Chris Stark Letter Clean Power 2030’. It smacks of a certain amount of desperation. But it is the substance of the letter that is more worrying. They have written to Fintan Slye, Director of the National Grid ESO (soon to become NESO) for “practical advice” on achieving a clean power grid by 2030. In other words, neither Miliband nor Stark have the faintest clue how to deliver a Net Zero carbon grid by 2030.
The letter goes on to detail the advice they need, which includes a range of pathways to enable a decarbonised power system by 2030. For each pathway they ask that Slye sets out the energy generation and demand mix and the underlying assumptions that need to be met for these to be deliverable. They also ask for the key requirements for the transmission network and interconnectors. Interestingly, they do not ask for any information about the distribution network. They also ask for a high-level view of the costs, benefits, opportunities, challenges and risks as well as the key actions to be taken by Government, NESO, Ofgem and industry to enable delivery of the pathways. Stark’s post on X/Twitter says the advice will be delivered in the Autumn, so NESO has just three months to complete this work.
Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan was launched with some fanfare back in September 2022 and was put together for the party by Ember, the green energy think tank. Back then it was described as “ambitious but possible”, which is consultant-speak for completely barking. As I covered last year, the plan included completely unrealistic build-out plans for wind and solar power and was very sketchy on the amount of storage that would be required.
The letter from Miliband and Stark puts Fintan Slye in an exceedingly difficult position. Only last month, NG ESO launched its latest Future Energy Pathways (covered here) which were supposed to demonstrate a “a narrower range of outcomes to drive more strategic, credible routes to Net Zero”. The trouble is, all the “credible routes” included very significant CO2 emissions for power generation in 2030 (see Figure 1).
To comply with the request from Government, Slye and his team have to completely rehash this year’s FES “credible” pathways, deliver a completely new set of pathways and somehow pretend that the new pathways are plausible. The extra difficulty arises because FES2024 had it its own credibility problem because it called for a halving of per capita energy use by 2050, had deindustrialisation built in, assumed the use of as yet unproven and expensive technologies to deliver unrealistic amounts of hydrogen and relied upon carbon capture unicorns.
The change in FES 2024 from scenarios to pathways was supposed to bring in “additional economic modelling”, but such modelling was conspicuous by its absence. Now Slye must deliver the previously non-existent cost-benefit analysis for these new pathways within three months. That is a very tall order indeed.
The big question is whether NG ESO can maintain the pretence that a Net Zero grid by 2030 is achievable and economically viable and lose whatever remaining credibility it has, or will it be the first to point out that Mad Emperor Ed has no clothes?
David Turver writes the Eigen Values Substack page, where this article first appeared.
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Mad Emperor Ed with no clothes? My eyes my eyes!!
Not on a full stomach.
January 2029 is going to be Labour’s Winter of Discontent, consisting of the memory or actuality of a bitter winter with energy shortages, massive fuel bills, unaffordable housing and civil unrest, with total social media censorship!
Probably by then anyone decaling they are cold on X will be classed as a dissident climate denier and given 3 years in the clink while real criminals run about stabbing each other with machetes.
The way this is all heading; our future expectation is that we will all effectively be in prison, living on a defined social credit income, in a pre-fabricated housing pod with no private transport, terrified to say anything except how happy we are and how wonderful is big brother.
Thanks Winston
I’m hoping we get a particularly bad winter this year …. like the winter of ’63.
Ho, wouldn’t that be an eye opener?
Many dead because banging on about global boiling made us completely unprepared and ignorant about the real killer, cold!
My dad bought me a sledge and I never slid on it. Instead I played at Scott of the Antarctic and dragged it about in the blizzards. —-So yes I do recall that winter. if it happens this year gas bills will be half of peoples wages.
I remember it too – lasted several months – not pleasant in a badly insulated terraced house – 2 up – 2 down – no real kitchen no proper heating except a coal fire in the living room – windows frosty on the inside nearly every morning outside loo freezing over – Me and my two younger brothers – build an igloo in our grandparents’ back yard – it were reet gradely.
It certainly can’t be the first.
However, this is a ‘smart’ move by Milliband. He and Stark will blame Slye when the country fails to deliver a (hydro)carbon-free grid by 2030.
Given they’re now blatantly positioning themselves to shift and avoid blame for the debacle I hope that Mr Slye lives up to the sound of his name and out-manoeuvrers them.
How could anyone fail to stitch up Millibrain.
Act first, think later. The politics of fairydust.
If Slye has an ounce of integrity he’ll resign noisily, and denounce this bollocks in an open letter to microband.
I’m not holding my breath…
He could resign noisily by delivering the report as asked. With all the costs and assumptions clearly stated.
Like you I’m not holding my breath – though that would reduce the burden on the NHS and remove one more state pension from the budget.
I guess that he’s been selected to be the fall guy (just lucky) – his best move is to go public.
He’s a fully paid up member of the blob. But now he’s going to have to take some responsibility for his report. Or come up with some suitable weasel words, but we should be easily able to see through those.
Dream the impossible dream… then order someone else to make it happen. That’s the Milliband way.
It worked for Steve Jobs – most of the time.
Oh well, I spend my winters in Thailand. But it will be fun watching the Milifool’s power cuts and everyone blaming each other
You won’t be by 2030, unless you swim.
And in the meantime, Drax has been criticised on account of it’s claim re the type of wood that it is burning – a mini fine, perhaps (£25M), but this story emerged a couple of days ago: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-13794099/Drax-hit-25m-penalty-lying-wood-pellets-Watchdog-says-no-excuses.html
So being that:
..Miliband and his basement gimp Stark are a greatest threat to human life since the Black Death.
Welcome aboard. —–I have been on this case since about 2007
Me too.
But I do also realise that leaving comments like that on here are preaching to the choir – especially following the wonderful David Turver. I sometimes just have to open the valve before I turn into the Hell Boy without an angle grinder.
Feel Free——–You are leaving comments to people who already are aware of this scam, but there will be many points you make that others not aware of it will see, plus if you are commenting on here you might also be doing it in other places. We cannot stand by and let these eco communist phony planet savers get away with this “official science” used to bludgeon us into accepting the UN /WEF Sustainable Development Politics, which gives them total control of wealth and resources using climate as the excuse with little in the way of evidence, but lots of “all scientists agree” propaganda.
Absolutely.
I thought we had got rid of the cretinous eco socialist goon Miliband, but like a very bad dream here he is waking us up again with the same recurring nightmare. To be fair the entire Political Class set us on this path to Net Zero ironically with a Conservative (Teresa May) and her 2019 amendment to the Climate Change Act. This was not debated and was simply waved through parliament with no vote. There was not any concern for cost, since estimated to be in the trillions, or of the feasibility and whether any of the technologies required, like battery storage eg. could ever be invented. ——What we see here is a tail wagging a dog. The tail is the UN/WEF and the dog is our silly political class impoverishing their own citizens and none will impoverish harder or faster than the eco fundamentalist parasite Miliband. To decarbonise by 2050 would be impossible and the cost astronomical, but to suggest as Miliband etc do that this can be achieved by 2030 is the infantile Politics of a madhouse combined with Alice in Wonderland. There are 21 million gas boilers in the UK, and these fantasists are going to try… Read more »
How much money do you have to print to buy 100 trillion AA batteries to power the grid? Of course, they will have to be rechargeable from wind and sun. If they’re really radical, I guess they could plan and build thirty or so nuclear power stations in the next six years. You people are so negative – where there’s an ideology there’s a way of making things look true.
We were warned a few years ago by the then Head of the National Grid—–“We are going to have to get used to using electricity as and when it is available”——Welcome to 21st century of Sustainable Development.
Being prepared for power cuts will become ‘part and parcel’ of living in a major city.
“Slye old chap, your lies are not big enough, we need great big, massive carbon neutral whoppers!” says Milliband whilst producing more Carbon out of his arse than China does in a decade.
On a positive note. The Conservative Party is history soon to be followed by the Labour Party. We will survive their stupidity, they will not. Vote Reform UK 🇬🇧
Fintan Slye should just respond with “Can’t be done. Back to you.”
So ….. the Eco Nutters in the Uni-Party have decided on and announced the policy; spent £squillions so far trying to implement it ……. and only now are asking if its feasible.
Why am I not suprised.
The most telling point here is that local distribution networks cannot take any more load (the cables that go to houses etc). You can add to the grid, at huge cost, but that is nothing compared to the local stuff. These cables are usually buried under pavements, are generally copper, and some are nearly 100 years old. They took at least 60 years to build for most of the Country. Millibrain doesn’t even seem to know that they exist, yet wants to increase power (electricity) usage by a factor of 5 times to replace gas with heat pumps. Presently each house can draw 1-2kw at the same time as everyone else, or peak at 12kW for short and random periods, but heat pumps are a constant load of at least 3-6kW on well insulated houses. The make this increase in capacity we would need the World supply of copper for several years, as well as a workforce of a million to dig up every residential road before 2030. The cost (assuming we could get the copper and plastic required for cables) would be £trillions. Dream on boys, your idea has failed already.
Ed : “Chris, l’m starting to wonder if this cheap, green electric thing is actually possible? I’m hearing whispers from some people that it’s not!
I’d like your thoughts on it being as I have stuck my political neck on the line and promised a UK green superpower by the next election, cheers Ed
Chris: Hi Ed, yes, I was wondering that too, here’s a suggestion, let’s ask the people who are supposed to know about such things, the national grid guys for instance,
Then, if they say its not possible, we can blame them instead! gives us a get out clause for being so pig sh#t stupid in the first place! But at least, it got us voted in! Regards Chris.
Yes minister?
Unfortunately the UK Parliament is currently lacking a Petitions Committee. Once this is formed, I am going to submit this petition:
“Legislation to Mandate New Battery Technology
Recent Governments have developed the idea of Net Zero, and there are now legally binding targets for achieving Net Zero by 2050.
The incoming Labour Government has set itself the ambitious goal of fully de-carbonising the UK’s energy grid by 2030.
However, all of these plans are put at risk because of the lack of suitable, sustainable Battery Storage capacity.
This petition is to demand that the Labour Government pass legislation to mandate the development of New Battery Storage Technology, in time to support the 2030 target for fully de-carbonising the UK’s energy grid.”
Let’s see if the cretins really think that an Act of Parliament trumps the Laws of Nature.
Spoiler alert: They do, otherwise there would be no legally binding target to achieve Net Zero by 2050.