It’s a huge shame that the person charged with decisions about Energy in the UK doesn’t have a science or engineering background.
He can’t determine truth from fiction, that’s why.
We can produce report after report and datasheet after datasheet showing how ridiculous it will be to continue with Coal and Nuclear, and he won’t be able to see the wood for the trees.
This is yet again proof of why it is pointless trying to engage with the decison-makers. They don’t have the mental framework to be able to deal with the facts and figures.
Oh yes, they may be smart. Smart enough to try to navigate differing positions and managing timelines for decisions and announcements.
But clever ? Now that takes a lot more in terms of education.
There is a hole in the head of the governing authorities of the world. They do not understand Energy, nor the limitations of Engineering, and they’ve never had to make or repair anything. So they just don’t know about the underlying reality of technologies.
They are hypnotised by the sales merchants kept in work by the large lobbying budgets of the large companies and transnational corporations.
They are bamboozled by faked figures and dodgy accounting.
What hope is there for reality instead of more TV ?
Watching the US political drama the West Wing one night, Ed Miliband found he had something in common with Josh Lyman, who plays the deputy White House chief of staff. Both, Miliband says, have been exasperated by the infighting within the energy industry.
The energy and climate change secretary recounts the episode in which Lyman crashes his SUV into a Prius, symbol of the environmentally conscious. As penance for such sacrilege, the White House staffer has to attend an industry summit where people are promoting different low-carbon technologies. “They end up having a big fall-out with each other,” Miliband says. “Sometimes the UK debate feels a bit like that: the renewables lot say you should only do renewables and shouldn’t do nuclear or coal. Nuclear people say all this wind will lead to big problems. Coal people say, ‘Why are you going on about renewables and nuclear?'”