Just like the 70s
In the UK, the forced transition to highly expensive “green” energy is sowing the seeds for a major crisis. I recall the power cuts of the early 1970s (just), where my family had a collection of oil lamps and candles for when the lights went out, but there’s no excuse in 2013.
However there is a glimmer of hope in the darkness:
Britain must abandon its bias towards green policies or face an energy crisis, a key parliamentary adviser has warned.
Peter Lilley, a member of the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Advisory board, has warned that the UK’s hesitance to embrace shale gas comes at great expense to the country.
He cites decreasing gas prices in American as an example, where gas is a third of the price of what it is in Europe, and questions why Britain is “dragging its feet”.
The UK is potentially sitting on enough shale gas reserves to heat all homes in Britain for at least 100 years, experts at the British Geological Survey claimed in April this year.
However, there has been resistance to excavate the fossil fuel amid concerns about the possibility of earthquakes and water contamination if gases are leaked into the water table while the “fracking” process is carried out.
In an article for The Spectator, the Conservative MP accuses the Department for Energy and Climate Change as being “in disarray” over the issue, with some ministers now beginning to question the direction green policies have been heading.
He claims that the green lobby is in control of the Department for Energy, dominates the EU and is institutionalised in Whitehall via the Climate Change Committee. He also accuses them of deploying “scare stories with reckless disregard for the truth” on a scale comparable to the MMR scare.
“Whatever the power of Big Oil in the past, it has been eclipsed by Big Green,” he said.
(source)
Australian Climate Madness 
Simon,
I believe we have a game of possum going on to get the implementation wthout the outcry. The means is education coupled to land use policy. I have been tracking what UNESCO and the OECD are calling Learning Cities as well as the Global Cities Education Network. Expressly included is Melbourne. You get the total transformation because you are using regulation coupled to changing what people believe and value and feel.
Backing off is inconsistent with everything going on in Australia and Hong Kong and the US and UK and Canada and South Africa. in education and what the expressed (well somewhat offline) intentions are if you can locate those conference notes.
Let’s all be careful and assume a playing possum.
Excellent article! It’s so good to see this happening, ministers and governments waking up everywhere. Can’t wait to see Big Green kicked out once and for all. They’ve done enough damage for several lifetimes.