Think it's Time to Start Drilling

[MissAustenMadeAQuilt]

Oil price rising fast which means energy, food, petrol costs, everything will rocket fast and jobs will be lost.

We have our own oil in our own back yard, which would give us protection.

AIBU to think we should grant oil licences and get drilling.

If not we're going to reach Net Zero a lot faster than planned and it ain't going to be pretty.

We've taken a wrong turning, so backwards is the right way to go.

By investing heavily in wind, curtailing gas, and eschewing nuclear, we are stifling growth, worsening cost of living, and missing an opportunity to do far more to decarbonise the planet.

The wrong turn was to prefer expensive UK decarbonisation over much more cost-effective global projects, like preventing peatland burning in SE Asia.

Numbers:

UK wind + storage for base load: £70-180/MWh after paying to fully offset its (fairly small) carbon footprint.

Gas: £30-50/MWh after paying to fully offset its carbon footprint. If we are prepared to pay £70-180/MWh, we could offset 10-40 times as much carbon as gas production produces. i.e. do 10-40 times as much good, carbon-wise, as a wind-based policy.

Basically, we spend far more to achieve far less, for domestic political/ ideological reasons. That isn't taking climate change seriously.

Long term the oil and gas runs out, which is why we need nuclear (which is far preferable). But until then we should use (UK) gas and over-fund the offset. Cheaper for consumers, better for the planet.

Why would anyone serious about climate change oppose that?

"We" wouldn't be selling it, the industry was privatised in the early 80s.

Still a significant chunk goes to the treasury via upstream taxes when we use UK oil and gas.

UK own production: about 40~60% (tax)
Norway about 85% (tax plus direct stake)

UK importing: basically 0% upstream goes to the state.

If you are cross about the state being cut out oil and gas wealth then you should favour switching from imports to domestic sources.

Yeah that will solve the problem, there will be no side effects from that 🙄

We are an island surrounded by sea, why aren't we harnessing tidal power? Prices of oil are only going up due to price gouging, the oil companies use any excuse to put up prices.

Well oil fields need workers, apart from oil men cooks cleaners -they need service ships etcetc so why not provide some employment to harbours, oil treatment plants etc then take the tax from the workers pay. Instead we pay Saudi, Qatar millions whilst they pay their foreign workers as little as possible.

• And the green energy -well you tell me where the jobs (apart from China and Denmark who build them) -the plant hire company owners round here are millionaires thanks to leasing diggers etc etc but once built there are FA jobs and the UK mugs who fall for this are pushing the country into worse and worse decline. The reason the price of gas is a problem is because ‘
• ’Mains gas central heating remains the most common method for heating homes in England and Wales, with around 74% of households using it as their only central heating source.’

The whole of the U.K. would need to be a windfarm to replace that.

“The whole system revolves around the idea that the majority can be made to believe 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, so long as it is repeated loudly and often. And it works”

It’s ok to not be at the point of questioning yet. I was there too, for a long time. I’m sure you’ll catch up soon.

We absolutely should start drilling, prices are rising faster than anybody can keep up and we increasingly find ourselves at the mercy of redundancies and restructures and working for less money than we used to when everything costs more. Interest rates are set to rise - we need a dose of reality rather than a lovely ambition. Net zero is so far out of reach it’s not even in my comprehension

Because tidal power is very expensive to install and maintain due to corrosive nature of seawater. It barely covers the costs of what it creates (it's not constant either).

It can only be installed in a few places around the country in comparison with wind and it's not as environmentally friendly as you think. It causes species avoidance, injury and seabed habitat loss. The size of area required is much greater. It also prevents fishing.

Ah, another free thinker with zero understanding of climate science.

Man made climate change is not a lie that's been repeated. It's a fact.

The thought of it may be too much for you, knowing that it is an existential crisis. You may want to deny it, and take solace in conspiracy theories, but that doesn't change the fundamental truth.

The world is heating due to the actions of humanity. Essentially the world as we know it is fucked.

Yes. Renewable energy doesn’t supply anywhere near enough.

There were two different projects one a tidal estaury one and one a bay one near us - both have had Environmental push back and ultimatley failed to get permission depsite several efforts and the money for the projects went away.

Eveyone rails at China but they have massively increased the world solar and wind electcity generation and have made serious inroads into electric vehicles.

The USA is the problem child and points fingers to hide that.

The U.S. military alone is the world’s largest institutional consumer of petroleum and a top global greenhouse gas emitter, generating an estimated 55–60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. If considered a country, its emissions would rank higher than many industrial nations, with roughly 60% of emissions from operational fuel use and 40% from its vast infrastructure.

If we put a fraction of the investment into tackling climate change that we put into war, we could solve so much. It’s depressing how short-sighted and selfish the human race in general is - happily ignoring the biggest problem of them all while trashing the planet. I think we should be focusing on reducing our reliance on oil and fossil fuels full stop.

I think we should be focusing on reducing our reliance on oil and fossil fuels full stop.

We are globally.

Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity

Developing countries, especially China, led the clean energy charge but richer nations including the US and EU relied more than before on planet-warming fossil fuels for electricity generation.

...

Even though China is still adding to its fleet of coal-fired power stations, it also remains way ahead in clean energy growth, adding more solar and wind capacity than the rest of the world combined. This enabled the growth in renewable generation in China to outpace rising electricity demand and helped reduce its fossil fuel generation by 2%.
India experienced slower electricity demand growth and also added significant new solar and wind capacity, meaning it too cut back on coal and gas.
In contrast, developed nations like the US, and also the EU, saw the opposite trend.
In the US, electricity demand grew faster than clean energy output, increasing reliance on fossil fuels, while in the EU, months of weak wind and hydropower performance led to a rise in coal and gas generation.

I don't think the focus or speed is right in UK and the high engery costs are likely stiffling economic growth but the overall direction towards renewables is the right approach.

The less we rely on fossil fuels the less we are dependant on dodgy countries to supply them.

Yes, I agree that it's definitely a good thing from the relying on dodgy countries perspective but it still won't make a difference environmentally.

I also think climate change is real and serious.

I think the best thing the UK can do about this is to divert funding from (very expensive) domestic decarbonisation like wind power + storage, towards far more cost-effective interventions overseas.

I think the best thing the UK can do about this is to divert funding from (very expensive) domestic decarbonisation like wind power + storage, towards far more cost-effective interventions overseas.

What cost effective interventions are these?

Top oil producers - United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada, and China, Iraq, Iran, UAE, Kuwait, Brazil abd Venezula.* *

Just wondering how we are supposed to intevene in these countries especially as US seems to be trying to do so and causing more problems.

Plus long term coal, oil and gas will run out and we will need to shift just perhaps not how we are trying to do so now.

We can't really afford the pivot to renewables

I'd argue we can't afford not to. If we had done it earlier, we wouldn't be exposed to this now and at the mercy of hostile states. Energy independence is a national security imperative, I can't understand why anyone doesn't recognize this. Just drilling more and kicking the can down the road is only going to lead us into a worse mess.

(Also feeling pretty smug about my EV right now 😉)

Evs come at a great cost too to the environment.

Well Russia's war is funded by fossil fuel purchases, if we can cut them off then the war (and the environmental harm it causes) will stop. We do at least appear to be making progress with disrupting the shadow fleet.

Meanwhile the wastefulness of various places (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Texas) is also funded by oil revenues.

Thanks. Well I can't see any way off cutting them off (Russia) any time soon. Can you? And how?

In what way are we disrupting the shadow fleet? It seems there are still a few boats getting through the strait of hormuz, I am guessing these are the shadow fleet maybe so not cut off.

How do you propose we tackle the wastefulness of SA, etc? They're not going to suddenly stop exporting.

EVs are powered by electricity from gas fired power stations.

Bicycles on the other hand do not. With one I'm basically immune to petrol prices.

Trains for longer distances.

I feel like people constantly have to have this very slowly explained to them.