We appear to find ourselves in something of a Catch 22 situation. Nobody will invest in the new generating capacity that the government wants because nobody believes that the government policy of institutionalised insanity will last – taxpayers will not bear the kind of price rises that Davey wants to impose on everyone. But while the government is insisting that insanity is the way forward, nobody is going to invest in the UK energy industry at all.
– Here. From one of a number of recent Bishop Hill postings on the insanity of UK energy policy.
Hardly just a UK phenomenon. Last year a wind-energy startup company presented to an Angel investor group I work with. They actually had a novel and interesting approach to solving a niche energy problem. However, in the followup discussion, someone pointed out that what we were really being asked to invest in was the rationality and stability of the California state legislature’s tax and subsidy policy. I agreed, and immediately lost interest.
Alessandro Volta, Michael Faraday, Nikolai Tesla, can you hear me? You were, in the long run, wasting your time. The people have spoken, and they do not want electricity, or, at least, not any dependable and economic source of it. Their chosen representatives are acting accordingly.
The people might get a nasty ‘shock’, as it were, when the lights, fridges, broadband, μwaves and televisions go off, but that will be too late.
As Mr Marks might observe, raw flesh will be on the menu, rather than roast.