“Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s around 80% of Britains electricity was generated from domestic coal. For the Tories, that dependence on coal had to be broken, at almost any cost. This was the principal motivation behind the governments systematic promotion of nuclear power at enormous public expense, the break-up and privatisation of electricity supply, the dash for gas, and the long-delayed sale of the coal industry itself.” [The Secret War against the Miners, by Seumas Milne – 1994]

“During that very short and unique period in world history of cheap and plentiful oil, what happened as a result of the cheapness and plenty of oil? How did it crystallise out in our economic life? All those things that have happened as a result of cheap and plentiful oil now will be in great danger, the danger of collapse or disappearance when that economic base gradually is withdrawn.” [The End of an Era, by Fritz Schumacher – 1979]

The Miners strike of 1984-1985 called to account the Tory attempt to sell off a National asset. OPEC challenged the rights of Multinational oil companies to plunder the earth’s limited fossil fuel reserves in 1973. The continuing battle for the remaining energy supplies as a guaranteed source of profit tramples not only the rights of people to a share of those resources but blatantly impoverishes them in the ever-more competitive markets of capitalist exploitation. Furthermore, the imminent collapse of this power base entails ever more dangerous attempts to exploit what is left and the total disregard for the need to restore a more sustainable economy which has been ravaged by the plastic lifestyles and moral imperialism of globalisation.

I am aware of an emerging pattern in the current British regime to sell out our natural resources, to pursue the profit motive above any moral concern for the safety of its citizens and a continuing disregard for the traditional structures of accountability and economic foresight which have been progressively eroded by the hunger for controllable sources of power.

I see this pattern in the ongoing project to install the massive LNG pipeline through 150 miles of unspoilt welsh countryside as a storage facility less prone to long-term disruption as a result of terrorist attack. Another example of the disregard for consultation and safety is the greenwashing and price-fixing of the plans for nuclear new-build. And now we see the selling off of licenses for oil in british coastal waters as a means of generating revenue and keeping the energy supply firmly in the hands of private companies. The DTI have now suggested that these licenses should be given extended timespans to increase their chances of finding exploitable resources because they are favouring ‘small’ oil companies as a way of being fair. But as this next quote from Seumas Milne points out, this tactic of creating multiple franchises is a way of pandering to the lowest common denominator as a foil to the multinationals.

“The rigging of the market against coal was a ruthless as it was neat. By splitting the old state-owned monopoly Central Electricity Generating Board into a private duopoly of National Power and Powergen, the government gave the newly privatised regional electricity distribution companies a compelling interest in building their own new gas-fired power stations as a way of buying commercial independence from the two big generators. It was of little consequence to the new privateers if power generated from gas turned out to be more expensive than electricity from coal-fired power stations – let alone exorbitantly subsidised nuclear power – so long as the government kept handing out gas station licenses and the industry regulator allowed costs to be passed on to consumers. Thus was the ‘dash for gas’ born and the NUM’s grip on electricity generation finally brought to an end.”

The government is also dicing with the deaths of future generations by selling the myth of clean nuclear power. This is done in the name of energy security and the threat of global warming, which otherwise it does nothing to improve. BE was bailed out by the government when it could not compete on the open energy market. Now licenses are being offered to European energy giant EDF to build PWR’s in Britain in exchange for fixed electricity tariffs. They are also demanding that the public be made compliant with the planning process and this supposedly becomes legal because they are built on existing leaky nuclear sites. Note the similarity with the fast-tracked planning process for the LNG terminal in the heavily fortified Milford Haven.

So now we come to the push to facilitate the extraction of ever more polluting oil from the Irish sea in an area of exceptional marine significance. This will not improve our security of supply. It will not bring in any more revenue to develop alternative sources when it runs out. And in the words of the heroic protestors defying the brutality of Shell and the Irish Government on the west coast town of Rossport: “haven’t they got enough money already?”