Pending Energy Crisis?

[TerryH]

Simples !












(only kidding)

[Tarrel]

Actually, I do try to take a fairly laid back approach to visitors. Being in Scotland, we are subject to the Land Reform act, which gives right of access, and even camping, on private land to members of the public. The Act provides for non-mechanised access (i.e. walking, cycling, kayaking or horseback) but excludes motorised vehicles. So, I draw a very firm line there.

People are pretty much welcome to what they can carry in their hands but I would kick up a fuss if, say, someone took a horse in there with panniers or a cart and started taking out large quantities of firewood.

The other advantage we have is the population density in our area is pretty low, so it's hardly a major problem.

[oldclaypaws]

Told you so..... with the elections being the big story today, they've sneaked out a report highlighting the huge opportunities presented by fracking in the South...., just after Russia decided to give its gas to China if we don't want to depend on it..

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/good-day-to-bury-bad-news-survey-reveals-south-downs-is-ripe-for-fracking-and-government-report-puts-major-construction-projects-on-red-alert-9424664.html

[Tarrel]

...however, there's this:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/may/22/two-thirds-write-down-us-shale-oil-gas-explodes-fracking-myth

Next month, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will publish a new estimate of US shale deposits set to deal a death-blow to industry hype about a new golden era of US energy independence by fracking unconventional oil and gas.

EIA officials told the Los Angeles Times that previous estimates of recoverable oil in the Monterey shale reserves in California of about 15.4 billion barrels were vastly overstated. The revised estimate, they said, will slash this amount by 96% to a puny 600 million barrels of oil.

The Monterey formation, previously believed to contain more than double the amount of oil estimated at the Bakken shale in North Dakota, and five times larger than the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, was slated to add up to 2.8 million jobs by 2020 and boost government tax revenues by $24.6 billion a year.

[oldclaypaws]

Might be an idea to have a bath before next week?

The two countries are also at odds over the pricing of Russian natural gas, with Moscow threatening to cut supplies as early as next week

Also you'll notice the Queens speech included measures to speed up fracking development by Changes to the trepass laws that will allow drilling beneath property and homes without the owners consent. Presumably even if you own the mineral rights, it gives a green light to fracking companies to drill horizontally under your wood.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/queens-speech-controversial-infrastructure-bill-will-allow-fracking-companies-to-drill-under-homes-without-owners-permission-9489230.html

I frankly find this incredible and a gross intrusion of private property rights. It seems to be proposing to change the ownership of property from a slice of the planet in three dimensions to 2, meaning you own the surface, but parts of your mineral rights are effectively written out and the stuff beneath your feet can be removed without your consent.

I think the government is heading for big trouble on this one, and I've just turned from mildly sceptical to full on anti-fracking. To quote from the song 'Concrete and Clay',

the ground beneath my feet begins to crumble

[oldclaypaws]

Here we go.

[url] http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/1 ... 6P20140616[/url]

[oldclaypaws]

(Reuters) - Russia cut off gas to Ukraine on Monday in a dispute over unpaid bills that could disrupt supplies to the rest of Europe

A long-term reduction of supply could hit EU consumers, which get about a third of their gas needs from Russia, around half of it through pipelines that cross Ukraine. "Regarding transit risks, they exist and they are not insignificant," Miller said of supplies reaching the EU. The bloc's energy commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, who has been brokering the gas talks, said in Vienna that the EU should top up its storage or could face problems in winter. But with both sides filing lawsuits at the Stockholm international commercial arbitration court to try to recover billions each says they are owed, any quick agreement seems a way off.

[Meadowcopse]

I 'retire' from the fossil fuel energy industry (north-sea) on June 30th. I had considered transferring back to a local refinery here in Cheshire a while ago, but my long-term employer sold it to an Indian family consortium. It looks like Barclays Bank have a financial interest and that it may be sold again (various other UK refineries face uncertain futures and therefore a strategic void may be opening up).
When I started in the oil industry at the height of 80s Cold War posturing, there was an a national infrastructure and reserve (I vaguely remember signing The Official Secrets Act) capable of sustaining a land based re-invasion of Europe...

When I next consider moving house, I'll be making sure it has a sound traditional chimney...

[Tarrel]

...And an unshaded south-facing roof for solar PV and solar thermal, and it's somewhere flat for bicycling!

[oldclaypaws]

Its not the predictable and carefully designed strategys that can kick start a shooting situation, its the guy who had too much vodka the night before and has a shaky trigger finger.

Yes, turning the telly off and going to the woods sounds like a great way to forget the rest of the world and its idiots.

Personally, I strongly disapprove of all military, the glorification of slaughter, the arms industry, and the way that the ranks of the worlds armies are filled with psychotic misfits.

After yesterdays tragic events in Ukraine, I rest my case.