Energy Costs
Energy bills are rising so steeply that they could overtake mortgage repayments in parts of Britain in just five years’ time, the chief executive of supplier, First Utility, has claimed. Ian McCaig issued the stark warning as he said energy policies must be reviewed to minimise the impact on bills and said consumers should think about turning down their heating to reduce costs. Critics have said that the Government’s environmental policies on windfarms and energy efficiency schemes, for example, are adding unnecessarily to the cost of bills. There is widespread agreement that energy bills will rise significantly to pay for hundreds of billions of pounds of new power plants Britain needs, but estimates vary as to how much. Government figures suggest household energy bills will be about £76 higher by 2020. However, the official figures assume major reduction in energy consumption as a result of schemes such as the Green Deal scheme offering households loans to make homes more efficient.
Telegraph 19th May 2013 read more »
Hinkley
Sedgemoor District Council has this week said it is ‘disappointed’ that there will be no community benefits on offer during the construction period of new nuclear plants such as Hinkley Point C near Burnham.
Burnham-on-se.com 18th May 2013 read more »
Rosyth
The £40 billion engineering giant, Babcock, is demanding up to £500,000 from the Scottish Government’s wildlife agency because it opposed the company’s plans for a major new freight terminal in Fife. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) argued at a public inquiry that the terminal proposed at Rosyth could threaten bird colonies in the Firth of Forth. Now Babcock is demanding SNH use taxpayers’ money to help pay its expenses at the inquiry.
Herald 19th May 2013 read more »
Utilities
SSE, the Big Six energy provider, is bracing itself for accusations of profiteering at the expense of its struggling customers as it prepares to announce a 30 per cent jump in profit at its division supplying gas and electricity to UK households. Overall, SSE is expected to announce a group adjusted profit- before-tax of £1.4bn for the year, compared to £1.3bn the year earlier. A spokesman said: “It is our expectation that we will make an average profit on energy supply of around 5 per cent. This is a reasonable level of profit and is around or below the profits made by providers of other essential products.”
Independent 19th May 2013 read more »
Scotsman 19th May 2013 read more »
Uranium
Uranium prices are in for 2012, and costs continue to head higher. The magic molecule’s price tag is up over 400% in the past decade and could continue to cut into your dividend stocks’ profits in the years ahead.
Motley Fool 18th May 2013 read more »
Belgium
Greenpeace are threatening to sue the Belgian government. The leading environmental activist network is threatening legal action after Belgium’s nuclear safety regulator gave the green light to GDF Suez to go ahead and restart two nuclear reactors. However, during a news conference, the Belgian Interior Minister, Joelle Milquet claimed that the government does not have the power to block the move.
Euro News 17th May 2013 read more »
North Korea
North Korea is still trying to import and export nuclear and ballistic missile-related items but financial and trade sanctions are slowing progress on development of their prohibited weapons, UN experts say in a new report.Key parts of the expert panel’s report provide further information on North Korea’s attempts to evade four rounds of increasingly tough UN sanctions aimed at reining in its development of nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles to deliver them.
Independent 18th May 2013 read more »
Renewables
MORE than 60 wood pellet-burning biomass boilers are to be installed in leisure centres, schools and other community facilities following a £10 million injection involving the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB). The scheme’s backers hope that the project will demonstrate to businesses that they can cut both their energy bills and their greenhouse gas emissions by switching to biomass boilers. Woodpecker Energy, which is based in Somerset but makes its boilers in Northern Ireland, has secured £4.1m from Energy Saving Investments (ESI), a fund managed by Equitix. The GIB – which has bases in Edinburgh and London – pumped £50m into Equitix’s ESI fund in August, with private sector investors stumping up match funding.
Scotsman 18th May 2013 read more »
Green Deal
Homeowners taking out a loan under the government’s Green Deal energy efficiency scheme could find themselves having to pay off the debt before they can sell their property, according to consumer body Which?
Observer 19th May 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The growing role of the US in world energy markets was underlined on Friday as the Obama administration approved wider exports of liquefied natural gas and international companies committed billions of dollars for new infrastructure. The developments were both consequences of the shale revolution in the US, in which improvements in the techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, have unlocked new supplies of oil and gas, and raised the prospect that the US will be an increasingly important supplier of energy to the rest of the world. The Department of Energy on Friday authorised the Freeport LNG project in Texas to export to countries that do not have a trade agreement with the US, including Japan and the members of the EU. It was the first such approval to be granted for two years and only the s econd ever. President Barack Obama had been expected to approve worldwide sales from the Freeport project, as the administration sees rising energy exports as providing economic benefits and strengthening the global influence of the US.
FT 18th May 2013 read more »
AN internationally acclaimed toxins experts is visiting Scotland next week to highlight the risks of unconventional gas extraction techniques such as “fracking”. Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, a senior advisor to the Australian National Toxics Network, will speak at an event at the Scottish Parliament organised by Friends of the Earth. Green campaigners claim the controversial technique, which involves drilling down and creating tiny explosions to shatter and crack shale rocks to release gas, can release cancer-causing chemicals, contaminate drinking water supplies and release harmful methane gases. Parts of Midlothian and East and West Lothian, which are rich in shale deposits, face being put out to tender for fracking later this year by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change.
Scotsman 18th May 2013 read more »
