The whole energy crisis thing

Utilities companys should be nationalised. They fail at the first hurdle of free market economics in that different providers cannot offer different levels of service. Can provider A pump electricity into my house more efficiently than provider B? Nope. Can they provide a higher quality electicity? Nope. Can I live without electricity? Nope. I’m sure it’s classified as a need, not a want in various places which it should be.

It makes the whole enterprise a cartel between providers where they can keep one upping on the price because….. why not…. Others will bump thier prices in tandem and the customer has no where to go.

Nationalise the lot.

The one thing that no one seems to talk about is how it will affect the housing market. People won’t be able to borrow as much as they used to, so, I would expect this to affect property values in the future.

I bumped into a mate in Morrisons today who works for a company which provides electricity to small businesses. He said it’s going to more than double in October but then said just wait until next year. I then asked him what could he do to help them. Not a lot was his reply.

Unbroken1 Nope. Wasn’t laying blame for the cost of energy at their door. It’s gross what the energy companies are doing, and the problem lays squarely with them. Personally I think we should’ve gone full tilt with expanding nuclear energy many moons ago, but the amount of red tape, political toing and froing, and “no to nuclear” protesting that’s dragged places like Hinkley Point into the quagmire has been painful to watch.

I was just pointing out where my sympathy lies more as a result of the above.

Wally Think I’m in agreeance with this. Just look at the rail network as an example. Privatisation was supposed to save it from ruin, but instead it’s turned into an utter shit show! Didn’t stop the prices skyrocketing in the process either.

Wally It makes the whole enterprise a cartel between providers where they can keep one upping on the price because….. why not…. Others will bump thier prices in tandem and the customer has no where to go.

“Because…why not?”…. how does that work then?

Nationalising energy providers wouldn’t help right now because the issue is high prices of energy (nat gas, oil, coal) at source.

Jules72 raising prices because why not? Human greed and a business’ raison d’etre which is to make money. If they can ramp up prices and know the customer has no choice but to pay, they will. What we’re seeing now is the end game of that philosophy.

mono-stereo exactly, the slow slide you don’t notice until you’re in that position too, and by that point it’s too late

The turkeys are coming home to roost for everyone.

If there’s a silver lining it might force more thinking about renewables and better choices.

Don’t see those ‘in power’ doing any such strategic thinking though.

As it is, nobody gives a fuck as long as they’re not personally inconvenienced.

Viva La Revolution

Jules72 Yeah sure, that’s why, for example, French prices haven’t risen at all.

Was reading this about the green tax we pay as part of our bills:

https://fullfact.org/economy/green-levies/

This bit jumped out at me:

“While it is true that some of the money from these costs goes towards large-scale renewable energy projects, they are also used to fund a range of other environmental policies, including improvements to the energy efficiency of homes and business and Feed in Tariffs paid to households for surplus energy generated from renewable sources (like solar panels). ”

Am I being incredibly thick here, or is this claiming that the green tax goes towards paying for energy that people with solar panels sell back to the grid? So we are contributing towards the energy companies buying back energy, which they go on to sell again for profit. Is that what this is actually saying?

What are peoples thoughts on the following statement. ’We’ve had it too good for too long’.

It’s something I have heard from a couple of people over the last few weeks. The argument being that in comparison to the rest of the world we are have been living in relative luxury - we work, we earn decent money, we have leisure time, multiple leisure options etc. Maybe that has to end now and our resources go towards paying for needs rather than wants.

Any substance to that folks?

The other driver of high fuel prices is decarbonisation. Government policy is now directed against carbon fuels, which means no new investment by the private sector in these sectors and therefore limited capacity. You get a shock like Russia invading Ukraine and the shit hits the fan.

Jules72 the race to net zero, as worthy as it is, risks bankrupting Britain