Energy is precious – surely? The UK faces a decline in gas and oil output from the North Sea and for the first time in decades is importing the bulk of its fossil fuels. Despite long-term subsidy, renewable energy only satisfies a tiny part of the energy demands of the UK. So, you would think

Wind farms are holding back renewable energy. Due to wind farms, we will have to continue to use fossil fuels to provide power for longer than would otherwise be necessary. Excessive subsidies make them an expensive and inefficient way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a study by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) think-tank says… The industry admits

As most renewable energies are still more expensive than fossil fuels, a variety of support schemes have been put in place to accelarate their uptake and meet the EU's goal of sourcing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Unconventional fuels, that is gas or oil from coal, shale and tar sands are a bit helpful for security of supply but about the worst thing going for the environement. How much energy do we get for every pound of carbon we send into the atmosphere? Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, meaning they consist of atoms of

Yes, they really do exist. Subsidies for the use of fossil fuels. Obviously this is insane when we’ve also got huge subsidies for the use of non-fossil fuels. The thing is though, it’s different countries offering the different subsidies. It’s the rich western countries subsidising non-fossil while the fossil fuel subsidies are all in poor

However, fossil fuel addiction can be solved only when we recognise an economic law as certain as the law of gravity: as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy they will be used. Solution therefore requires a rising fee on oil, gas and coal – a carbon fee collected from

Clearly, “neo-liberal” isn’t strong enough now: Václav Klaus, the ultra-neoliberal Czech president, Ultra-neoliberal now, eh? But the sleight of hand is here: Worldwide, subsidies for fossil fuels are 12 times greater than subsidies for renewable energy. Many of the most generous handouts are awarded by rightwing governments (think of the money lavished on the oil industry

Renewable energy typically employs at least three times as many people per dollar invested as fossil fuels You continually trot out this point as if it’s a benefit. When, of course, jobs are a cost, not a benefit, of such plans. Get with reality can’t you? Having more people producing energy

Geoffrey Lean: Reducing consumption of fossil fuels saves money Sadly it’s all a little more complex than that: if that’s all there were to it then we’d all be cutting our consumption of fossil fuels and there wouldn’t be any problem, would there? We can reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, of course: if we decide to reduce

The European Commission's Second Strategic Energy Review warns that net imports of fossil fuels will remain constant until 2020 despite EU efforts to move towards a 'low carbon' economy. Gas supply security takes centre stage in the review.