Posts under ‘Environment’

Is Hinkley C the turning point against nuclear power in Britain?

by Michael Meacher.

Despite the government’s constant assertion that funding is impossibly tight and that any departure for a rigid status quo by the Labour party is unaffordable, there seems to be no limit to government subsidies gushing into the doomed nuclear project at Hinkley in Somerset. Last year the government offered the French energy company EDF the […]

Osborne learns to his cost that private markets don’t oblige

by Michael Meacher.

It’s really rich that Osborne has tweeted: “Vital this (drop in the oil price) is passed on to families at petrol pumps, through utility bills and air fares”. He’s spent the last 5 years lambasting Labour in support of the Tory free market mantra that the State should get out of the way and leave […]

20,000 London bus workers go on strike – with the public on their side

by Jon Lansman.

Picket lines were in place across London’s 70 bus garages today as over 20,000 bus workers working for 18 bus operators take part in a 24 hour strike to end unfair pay disparities across the capital’s bus network. With very solid support for the strike the bus workers’ union Unite urged TfL and the mayor of London […]

Fracking: Osborne’s latest 18th century-style ‘folly’

by Michael Meacher.

It’s a safe bet that Osborne’s Autumn Statement this Wednesday will hail a fracking revolution as the start of a new energy cornucopia for Britain.   Like everything else politicians say 5 months before an election, it needs to be taken with a piece of salt.   Only one shale well has been fracked in […]

Nuclear power is turning out badly: why is the government clinging to it?

by Michael Meacher.

The news for nuclear gets worse every day. The latest news is that the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset, the government’s flagship nuclear project is near the point of collapse. After Ed Davey, the LibDem secretary of state (there was a time before they joined the government in 2010 that the LibDems were […]

Privatisation of energy risks lights going out this winter

by Michael Meacher.

The effects of the UK privatised energy system are now becoming clear, not only in cartel pricing and poor service , but also, critically, in loss of energy security. As a result of the latter there are real risks of blackouts this winter. The Big Six privatised companies’ failed to invest on a scale that […]

The great high speed white elephant

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

High Speed Rail 2 is a massive white elephant, a £50bn boondoggle of a project as out of time as it is over priced. Yet, despite this I am a little sore that the bid Stoke-on-Trent put forward for a station got dismissed out of hand. Were it on the basis of a competition in […]

Save UK Rail

by Grahame Morris.

The North East has a long and proud connection to the railways. In 1825, George Stephenson’s engine – locomotion, became the world’s first steam locomotive to carry passengers, and the public railway was born. In the years following thousands of miles of rail track were laid connecting every part of the UK, as the industrial […]

Why energy policy should be devolved

by Dave Watson.

Devolving energy policy would tidy up the often conflicting mix of devolved and reserved powers and enable Scotland to develop new approaches to energy policy. At present energy is a largely reserved matter to Westminster. Specific reservations in Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998 include the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity; the […]

Falling oil prices could scupper UK shale production

by Michael Meacher.

Last Tuesday the share price of Chesapeake Energy, one of the leading US shale oil producers, fell 29% in a single day. With internationally traded Brent Crude now trading at below $88 a barrel, a 4-year low and down from $100 only a few weeks ago, and the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate at below […]

© 2024 Left Futures | Powered by WordPress | theme originated from PrimePress by Ravi Varma