The Green consensus is cracking and it will pay dividends

THE CONSERVATIVES will win the next General Election.

That’s not me saying it but energy expert Kathryn Porter, who is advising Kemi Badenoch and is impressed by the way she is methodically reforming Tory policy. Kathryn recognises the need for a purge of wets in the party to complete the transformation.

Richard Tice set out Reform’s energy strategy on 12 February 2025. He wrote to all companies considering new wind power developments to warn them that their investments would be penalised by future Reform tax regimes. Kathryn reckons this is unrealistic because Ed Miliband’s people have sewn up the contracts so tightly that the energy companies would sue the government.

The public will gradually be persuaded that renewables are the prime cause of high energy prices. As Richard Tice said: “Wind and solar plus back-up must be more expensive than just back-up”. Wind power is not an asset but a huge liability. How could anyone take seriously an energy system that only works in certain weather conditions?

By 2029, power cuts could be a reality. Many existing gas and nuclear power stations are nearing the end of their lives. Urgent action is necessary. New coal-powered stations take about three years to bring online, and gas six years. Both must be commissioned, while we identify how much coal and gas we can obtain domestically. These projects will require guarantees as they would be unviable if they were intermittent back-up to wind. We may have to pay wind farms to shut down, but the cost of power cuts is unthinkable.

New traditional nuclear power stations should be considered for base load, and the South Korean model is a fraction of the cost of the French one. Raising funds via the bond market is appropriate and eases the capital cost risk. Small-scale modular nuclear reactors will be commercially viable at some point, and could be built close to urban areas, so there is no need for the extensive transmission lines that defile our countryside.

To cut out the green cancer, we must challenge the ideology because the cry will be “climate change denier”.The “science” is founded on cosy consensus and fanciful futurology, not empirical evidence. For a current review of climate science, refer to the US Department of Energy report A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the US Climate, July 2025.

Why was there no warming trend – the UN called it a “hiatus” – between 1998 and 2014 when China produced more emissions than the UK did in 200 years? Why did America experience record high temperatures in the 1930s, when three million people were displaced by the Dust Bowl? Why has the number of people dying each year from extreme weather events dropped by more than 95 per cent in the last century, while the world population has more than tripled?

Carbon taxes and green regulations penalise industry and agriculture, and must go

There has never been a public debate on the issue, so let’s have one now to fully quash the dogma and benefit from the dividend that rejecting green ideology will bring. We cannot predict climate and, whatever happens, our species will adapt as it has done for the last 200,000 years, when temperatures have often been much less benign than today.

Even if carbon dioxide emissions have a significant effect on the climate (my analysis suggests the evidence is very weak), making our energy costs so high that we export manufacturing to coal-burning countries, and import goods back in diesel-powered ships, increases emissions. Then we tax the high carbon content imports like fertilisers. Carbon taxes and green regulations penalise industry and agriculture, and must go.

While coal gas methane reserves are small in comparison to shale reserves, they are cheap to extract. In 2014, the SNP government stopped a project near Grangemouth with over five years’ output. This could be resurrected quickly. Coal in associated seams couldn’t be extracted because of the explosive threat from the gas, but if this is removed, black gold becomes available. The USA has turned to coal to power AI data centres.

Peat is a fuel in parts of Scotland although it is regarded by greens as sacrosanct because bogs retain carbon. BBC gardening programmes insist on peat-free composts, but they are much inferior for agriculture and horticulture. I buy imported Irish peat-based compost. Acidic Scottish bogs are not very biodiverse and could be made so after peat extraction.

Green politicians, who hate greedy humanity for seeking economic growth, subsidise electric cars and solar panels for well-off people, while a million Scottish homes suffer fuel poverty from excessive energy costs.We disguise the true cost of electricity with an energy cap subsidised by the taxpayer, thereby denying people spending power to stimulate the economy. All this must be reversed, saving many billions of pounds.

Public organisations are mandated to waste money on green initiatives, like buying electric vehicles and then charging them with diesel generators because the grid can’t cope. Schools waste money on windmills, green roofs and “living walls” to indoctrinate their charges. Energy performance certificates threaten the viability of rental accommodation, hotels, care homes and other businesses.

The Building Regulations mandate heat pumps, solar panels, EV points, air-tight building envelopes and other measures that increase the cost of a new home by up to £30,000. They tell us that we must prepare for “planned power cuts typically lasting a maximum of three hours” because we rely on unreliable renewables.

Authoritarianism always hurts the poorest in society most

Perhaps the most stupid requirement for new homes is the installation of carbon dioxide detectors in habitable rooms, as if we can stop exhaling this gas. Green psychosis regards this elixir of all life as a dangerous pollutant, like carbon monoxide.

Orwellian language abounds. “Climate friendly” is a silly expression. “Active heating systems” must replace“direct emission heating systems” while sanctioned “biofuels” (essentially wood) produce lots of emissions and damage the environment. We must pursue “active travel” which means walking and cycling, impractical for most journeys, especially on cold, wet and windy days. The “just transition” is unjust and just impossible. Authoritarianism always hurts the poorest in society most.

New construction projects must predict future flooding events, as if this were possible and as though climate change will inevitably make them more frequent and severe. We must spend money on water-use efficiency, despite Scotland not being short of rainwater.

The Zero Waste Plan failed in its target of a 75 per cent recycling rate by 2025. Its rationale assumes that the world’s resources are limited. They may be eventually, but human ingenuity and market forces find new materials and improve efficiency. Let’s save money by recycling only where this is the cheapest option and let’s incinerate stuff we don’t want, generating electricity from the process where possible.

Such insidious measures, high taxes, an austere regulatory environment, unnecessary bureaucracy and high energy costs degrade every aspect of our lives. We must root them all out as ruthlessly as possible.

Holyrood has the power to halt net zero madness by repealing “climate change” legislation and stopping further renewables developments in their tracks with a reformed National Planning Framework.