Despair here that US is viciously doubling down. The green lighting opening California to lumbering. We’ll see how successful that is, although with the intentional chaos, there’s an assault on all fronts. Latest EO to instruct military to assist LE to ICE oversteps 5th & 14th amendments.
Any long-term energy plan that does not include a move to 100% renewable resources ignores the extremely basic reality that non-renewable resources are NOT FUCKING RENEWABLE.
Fossil fuels are going to be phased out because they are expensive and dirty. Now green is cheaper, the clean air just sweatens the deal. The oil corrupted can say what ever nonsense they like, it won't matter.
And really, the tendency to pick up dumb but provocative statements by irrelevant but known personalities is a journalistic bad habit. If they must, they could at least counter it with good studies like this. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/uk-gas-power-phase-out/
They did quote some in-office people countering Blair and offering more sanguine visions. And the transition is already well underway. "UK renewables set to outpace fossil fuels for the first time, generating 37% of electricity with wind power nearly overtaking gas as the top energy source."
And carbon capture, praised here by Blair, has been widely disparaged by the experts. I always think of it as akin to those quack diet promises--lose weight while eating six cheeseburgers a day, aka you can keep pumping out carbon and magically we will somehow eventually pump it back.
Here's @michaelemann.bsky.social testifying before Congress a few years ago. My search also turned up a Chevron site pushing carbon capture, because that's who loves that false promise.
The En-ROADS climate policy simulator update released last month adds more fine-grained analysis of carbon capture & storage, showing just how little impact it can have even with substantial taxpayer funding.
en-roads.climateinteractive.org
Spot on. Fossil based CCS is front loaded with massive dependence on LNG and very high methane emissions outside UK. More emissions are created than are ever capture and stored.
It has been interesting here on the Great Plains. Some North Dakotans, who were perfectly comfortable with a pipeline going through Indigenous land, resist eminent domain for carbon capture. (And S. Dakotans).
I live in western MN on the border near DAPL and Line 3 resistors.....
Blair is funded by fossil fuel oligarchs he did business with starting when he represented the "Quartet". That he supports investing in keeping his paymasters in business isn't shocking, though it is still appalling.
There is no way on earth that the UK will be able to decommission every domestic gas boiler and oven by 2030. So, critical reserve asset and domestic heating/cooking ... but it still won't happen. There's no political appetite for it.
Given a choice between you and Ember, I'll go with Ember, which is talking about electricity generation even in the short passage I posted, not every appliance in the UK.
I have no doubt they're right about generation, I wouldn't suggest otherwise! The reliance on gas is just far wider than that, so to look at one without considering the other - 'the fuel's only role then...' - seems a little ill-considered, 'cos it won't be. I agree that Blair is being shortsighted.
Perhaps he's never heard of the US economists' most-recommended policy approach, Carbon Fee and Dividend with a CBAM? It's the most cost-effective pollution reduction policy while putting more money in most people's pockets. https://bit.ly/carbon-price-gap-presentation
Tony “Weapons of Mass Destruction to hit UK in 40 minutes” Blaire.
That’s why Labour MPs used to call him Tory Blaire. He’s alway been a Conservative shill.
It’s raining in Antarctica. Our ancient sea ice is melting. Ocean acidification, hurricanes, fires, coral bleaching, colony collapse disorder, mass extinction, climate feedback loops. Our politicians are still handing us the same platter of fuck every last one of you, and I’m tired of it.
It was known at the time - millions marched against it and they still went ahead. It emboldened them and created enormous cynicism about democracy. There was no opposition, no leadership of the anti-war movement.
CCUS Isn't anywhere near worth the VfM in terms of payoff. It is the one thing the UK outdoes the RoW, but It's essentially like saying we shouldnt worry, AI will dig ditches next to country roads. Engage with US, China and India - That's how you slow Climate Change, not CCUS.
It's pretty remarkable that Blair's direct ties with the House of Saud and other global petroleum oligarchs aren't routinely disclosed given their relevance to what he offers the policymaking process.
Was that really necessary ? He is plainly not stupid but saying he is - well is . Bluesky is meant for polite but robust discourse . You can disagree with him but don’t be rude . If you can’t help yourself there is always X .
As Blair himself was, as millions tried to tell him, doomed to fail, after he zealously lied and lied and lied about the existence of WMD that he and the intelligence services knew didn't exist, in order to launch his savage assault on the people and land of Iraq, from which our world still suffers?
Blair as his sticky paws in the Saudi Oil industry
As oil & gas runs out he needs to make sure he can do all he can to fill the pockets of himself & his associates before alternatives take over the market
Like Farage Tice and Badenoch
Climate change is real but the devastation doesn't affect them
I do wish he would mind his own business ! NHS are still paying massive interest rate on his private/public partnerships that built hospitals that are now falling to bits ! A Murdoch mate could never be trusted!
We stopped listening to that tw@t years ago. Perhaps he could shoot down the power stations with his "Smoking gun". Oh wait.... Sorry.... That was bull too.
Comments
en-roads.climateinteractive.org
Starmer ignored this and has put £22bn into CCS against advice of scientists, see https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/25/climate-scientists-call-on-labour-to-pause-1bn-investment-plans-carbon-capture-blue-hydrogen
I live in western MN on the border near DAPL and Line 3 resistors.....
https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/revealed-tony-blair-s-secret-oil-links-to-middle-east-6703888.html
https://bit.ly/carbon-price-gap-presentation
Will this war monger never leave us in peace?
I wonder whether he understands that carbon capture and storage would need to be scaled up by three orders of magnitude to have an impact.
"Any effort to prevent the extinction of humanity is doomed to fail. And I personally will help doom it."
That’s why Labour MPs used to call him Tory Blaire. He’s alway been a Conservative shill.
Will this war monger never leave us in peace?
He gets loads o’ money shilling for CCS fossil fuel greedy effers e.g. Larry Ellison
https://www.politico.eu/article/tony-blair-seeks-climate-role-cop29-azerbaijan/
Anyway, it should be.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
Blair's links with the fossil lobby go back decades!
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/04/what-is-behind-tony-blairs-net-zero-intervention
🤮🤪🤷🏽♂️
It's not stupid - it's calculated corruption.
Stupidity would be forgivable.
As oil & gas runs out he needs to make sure he can do all he can to fill the pockets of himself & his associates before alternatives take over the market
Like Farage Tice and Badenoch
Climate change is real but the devastation doesn't affect them
Will this war monger never leave us in peace?
What happened to former PMs and presidents simply retiring to paint watercolours or toot around the lake in their motorboat?
Will this war monger never leave us in peace?