Lazy and shortsighted (From York Press)
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Lazy and shortsighted
9:04am Saturday 8th December 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter
THE Government has announced that it is going to build more gas-fired power stations and exploit gas reserves which lie under large swathes of Britain, including under York.
I believe this to be the wrong way to power the country, as it will result in us failing our obligations under the Climate Change Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The government claims burning gas is low carbon; this is not do. Burning fossil methane may result in lower CO2 emissions per watt of electricity than burning coal or oil, but it is in no way “low carbon”, as it adds unwanted CO2 into our atmosphere, from carbon which has been safely and naturally stored for millions of years.
Low-carbon energy comes from renewable resources, such as the sun, wind, waves, tides and local biomass. Gas may be a useful primary fuel (in homes) but to use it for generating electricity is madness.
The recent announcement also reiterated that “Carbon Capture and Storage” would continue to be explored. If this were to work, I’d be in favour, but the trial technology has not worked well, and is years away from being a commercial proposition. Taking yet more gas out of the ground is lazy and shortsighted.
John Cossham, Hull Road, York.
Comments(6)
ColdAsChristmas
says...
10:51pm Sat 8 Dec 12
Then you go on to talk about targets: how about a target to bring down the number of winter deaths through hypothermia, that would have made far more sense and benefit our people.
I would agree that gas should primarily have been used for mostly heating instead of the dash for gas, almost destroying the coal industry UK. However, we now have the shale gas bonanza and we need to get onto it quickly to not only reduce costs to the domestic user but also to power our industry if we are ever to pay off this massive deficit, costing us currently £120 Million a day.
Meeting stupid CO2 targets won't do one single bit of good except keep energy prices sky high meaning less disposable income to aid our economic recovery but instead fill the bank accounts of our mostly foreign owned energy suppliers.
The Captain is correct, we need cheaper energy and we need it fast!
ColdAsChristmas
says...
11:07pm Sat 8 Dec 12
The secret climate conference (COP 18) in Doha ended today, a day late so as to save face and agreed to extend their Kyoto treaty until 2020. By that time we should be at the end of this nonsense. If not we will be well and truly bankrupt.
John Cossham
says...
2:31pm Mon 10 Dec 12
And, sadly, you are in a tiny misguided minority with regards to your opinion about climate change. Cooling we certainly aren't. You may be too arrogant and proud to change your mind, and may go to your grave with your beliefs, but there are plenty of ex-deniers now who grudgingly admit that they were previously wrong, and agree that all the evidence and science points towards higher emissions of CO2 = higher temperatures = less climate stability/more climate chaos.
Time will tell. I think we can all see that our weather (one indicator of climate) is becoming less predictable.
Dave Taylor
says...
3:26pm Mon 10 Dec 12
www.gaslandthemovie.
com
Magicman!
says...
3:27am Tue 11 Dec 12
I can't be bothered to put a reply to the letter writer because they've obviously bought into the global CON (or should that be "CO2N"...) and so won't listen to proven logic.
capt spaulding says...
3:04pm Sat 8 Dec 12