This article is taken from the November 2022 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10.

The price of net zero

Tim Congdon’s discussion of energy prices (“AN OVERDONE ‘EMERGENCY’”, OCTOBER) omitted important factors affecting energy supply by not including the drive to “Net Zero”. 

Looking at energy as just the economics of supply and demand misses the effect of political actions. The price of energy is driven up by  the adoption of renewables such as wind and solar power because they  are inherently less efficient than   fossil fuels. 

In addition to being dearer, renewables need the back-up of natural gas when the wind stops blowing or wind speed becomes too high. But to supply gas only now and then is much more expensive per unit of energy than if it were a regular supply. 

California provides an example of pro-renewables politics affecting energy supply. Tim Congdon refers to how cheap and therefore plentiful American natural gas is, yet California is regularly hit with brown-outs because of energy shortages, and recently had to call for owners of electric vehicles not to charge their cars because of a lack of power. This is only because of a deliberate policy of phasing out fossil fuel energy (and nuclear power) in favour of renewables. 

Joe Biden promised a ban on fossil fuels prior to the American presidential election and is boasting of “an incredible transition” away from fossil fuels to renewables: and there will be at least two more years of US Democratic Party energy policy. I don’t think it would be wise to put too much trust in the supply of American natural gas in the future. 

The UK’s energy situation would be far better if our government had pursued fracking in the way that President Trump did — which is the reason American gas is still comparatively cheap and readily available, at least for the moment. Many other jurisdictions, especially in Europe, suffered high energy prices because of green energy policies, even before the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. 

There may not be enough energy this winter in the UK to keep the lights and heating on at all, regardless of cost. If this turns out to be the case and it is a severe winter then people will die of cold — as happened in Texas recently in a state that had deliberately switched from fossil fuels to wind (a death toll in the hundreds). 

The premise of “Net Zero” in the UK is that severe winters are a thing of the past, instead of a result of a recent warm phase in natural cycles. If this premise is wrong then a switch back to fossil fuels may not be quick enough to prevent a major humanitarian disaster. 

Phil Beckley

Bury, Lancashire

Grave Error

Matthew Lloyd Roberts (STUDIO: “VICTORIAN GRAVEYARDS IN LONDON”, OCTOBER) claims that the mausoleum of Julius Beer in Highgate Cemetery was designed by John Oldrid Scott. It was not. Research carried out by Dr Ian Dungavell, which he has kindly shared with me, shows that it was actually designed by William Bouwens van der Boijen (1834-1907).

Professor James Stevens Curl

Holywood, County Down 

Standing up for Rand

I take issue with Anthony Daniels’s criticism of Ayn Rand (“THE   CURIOUS CULT OF THE FRIEND   OF FASCISM”, OCTOBER) which   manages to disparage Rand, Judaism and Russia’s proud cultural history all in one hit-piece. Rand wrote a couple of bestselling novels, one of which was made into   an acclaimed Hollywood movie, The Fountainhead. 

Her philosophy of personal responsibility and the value of a small state has influenced leaders across the world.

The label “fascist” doesn’t stick. Rand favoured the gold standard. Fascists   reject the gold standard. They prefer to print money to reward their cronies and fund their expensive vanity projects. 

More recently, the money-printers have inflated our currencies and managed to wreck our economies. Rand would not have approved.

C.M. Wheeler McNulty 

Oxhey, Hertfordshire

R.P. on radio three

Regional accents on Radio 3 seem to annoy Michael Henderson. 

I wonder whether he is sure he himself doesn’t have a few curious tics  of pronunciation from his Bolton upbringing — or did his public school  iron them out? I do hope so, I’d hate to think of him making some infelicitous slip of the tongue in public. What would people think of him? 

Mark Williams

Piddinghoe, East Sussex