Tom Harwood: If you want clean energy, you can't afford to not back shale and nuclear

Tom Harwood
Tom Harwood
GB News
Tom Harwood

By Tom Harwood


Published: 21/09/2021

- 10:19

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 11:25

'The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine'

Green activists have shot themselves in the foot.

As the UK stares down the barrel of an energy crisis this winter, we are desperately looking to see who we can purchase power from overseas.


Having to fall back on foreign imports of gas and other CO2 emitting energy sources is not green.

Yet it is the reality we are being faced with due to those who have made the perfect the enemy of the good.

The UK sits on a wealth of shale gas - not 100% clean, but a hell of a lot cleaner than other energy sources.

Instigating the shale revolution - under President Obama no less - in the United States ensured that country accidentally met its Paris commitments despite Trump pulling out from the treaty.

Shale has the potential to lessen - yes not eliminate, lessen - CO2 emissions in the UK, all while keeping the lights on. Those who campaigned against it will have much to answer for over the next decade.

It is a vital transition fuel. Not something we should use forever, but something that can help out now.

By campaigning against it, we have been lumped with potentially the worst of all worlds. Importing dirtier energy from overseas, with higher prices to boot.

Looking at our energy mix in the next decades is a bleak picture. Energy crises will become more and more common as energy sources become less and less reliable.

Not all low carbon energy sources are created equal.

The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine.

It's no coincidence that the countries which both use a significant amount of energy, but also have unusually low emissions use a disproportionate mix of hydroelectric, and nuclear power.

Yes, nuclear power - that overwhelmingly safe, powerful, and crucially reliable source of energy is absolutely vital to our energy mix if we are to have any hope of even nearing net zero.

Those who oppose it are flying in the face of scientific consensus.

Germany's emissions started to climb again after in the face of loony pressure from its green party the government decommissioned its power stations.

In this country the Scottish government, madly, has decreed no new nuclear stations will be built in Scotland.

The UK currently has just 13 nuclear reactors, generating around 20% of our electricity. Almost half this capacity will retire by 2025.

Yes some new capacity is to be built but nothing like enough.

The conclusion is clear. If you want clean, green energy, you can't afford to not back shale and nuclear.

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