The UK wants to get back its fishing rights as part of a Brexit deal. The French aren’t too happy about that, but since the UK is heavily dependent on French interconnectors Macron can and is holding the UK electricity grid hostage.
Green Energy puts the UK in a much weaker negotiation position.
The French interconnectors under the Channel are needed both to import reliable nuclear power and to sell off the excess fluffy green kind of unreliable electricity that UK wind power makes at random times. The “value” of energy sales is more than the value of the fisheries (at least in hard currency). But UK imports are larger than the exports, and the UK electricity grid is so fragile it fell over last year leaving people stuck in underground trains for hours, and cutting off a million customers in an instant. The biggest weakness of all is probably the reliance on a foreign power to just keep the lights on. The cost of unplanned blackouts would trump everything else. And could the French “Break” the UK grid with plausible deniability and some inconvenient outage? Sorry but the interconnector had a fault?
I know they might not play that mean now, but who knows who’ll be in charge in France ten years from now.
Macron in last-ditch Brexit punishment with threat to devastate UK with energy blockade
Oli Smith, Express.co
Emmanuel Macron reacted furiously to Boris Johnson’s claims that trade talks are “over” between the UK and EU. Mr Macron has played hardball in the talks on fisheries, insisting on Thursday that French fishermen would “not be sacrificed” for the sake of a deal. However, if the UK leaves the EU without a deal then French fishermen could faced being banned from British waters.
In response, the French President has signalled the EU would launch a devastating energy embargo against the UK unless Boris Johnson gives in on fisheries.
Following the EU summit in Brussels on Friday, Mr Macron told French radio that if the UK does not allow French fishermen in its waters, the EU would have to block the UK’s energy supplies to the European market.
As Rafe Champion points out — energy sales are worth more than fish:
He suggested the right to fish in British waters was worth 650 million euros to EU fishermen, but that access to European energy markets was worth up to £2.3billion (€2.5bn) to the UK.
The UK imports more power than it exports. About 11% of its total power comes from the continent. Half of that is from France. 3% from the Netherlands, 2.5% from Belgium.
May 2019: The Nemo link, which runs from Richborough in Kent to Zeebrugge and which started operating at the end of January, has increased the capacity of Britain’s electricity connections with mainland Europe by a third.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Belgians and the Dutch might like fishing too.
Obviously it’s in the interest of just about every nation to trick their competitors into cutting carbon emissions with unreliable generators. Clever, shameless players talk up green energy and sign meaningless promises while making sure their own grid is reliable and cheap. Stupid gullible patsies sign up for real promises and keep them.
Which nation is the greatest patsy in this international chain?
The Greatest Green Dupe Nation on Earth surely goes to Australia with the fastest per capita increase in random generators while simultaneously sitting on 300 years worth coal and the largest uranium reserves in the world. But entries from Great Britain and others will be considered. Make your case. Green Dupes are applauded loudly at UN junkets, but screwed at the negotiation table or crushed in competitive markets.
Handy hint to our UK friends, with China being so mean to Australia, and cutting back on coal exports last week, we have some excellent value coal to spare for UK power stations to use. Just ask…
h/t To BennyBeatts and Rafe Champion at Catallaxy.
* Fishing territory corrected to “fishing rights” h/t Saighdear.
Can’t be correct, isn’t GB now one of the renewable energy giants, coal rarely used now.
sarc.
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well, er, em, because it’s all jut political junk, wot the Fish Miniser sturgeon sez, I don’t fill my memory bank with it in detail, but she was bumping her gums about the weend providing all Scotland’s power for so much time ( from time to time), some time ago, now. This past week according to the Gridwatch Website, which I check almost daily, WIND and the part-time Solar haven’t done much at all…. The Battery is flat and what Non-eco power we produce now, is required for our increasing demand …. when will there be Spare to re-charge the batteries ? ( figuratively speaking.) ……… and when you have access to European Satellite broadcasts, Germany reckons that they are higher in the League than UK – AND,,,, AND yesterday’s Newsprogram trialled an electric Golf with 320km range to go the range – NOT – no Power points, No fast charges, lot of time and Fattening food spent waiting to re-charge…. only saying.
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I’m sure Mad Vlad Putin would love to put a few spanners in the workings of the EU. Just for All the favours the EU has bestowed on Russia.
Hate for Germany to run short of gas!!,
40
Its amazing how quickly the trumpeting of wind power “success” turned to “oh $h1t” when one interconnector is threatened.
The fragility of the propaganda reflects the fragility of the UK grid.
Winter is coming.
20
These articles say it all:
https://www.thegwpf.com/robust-and-fragile-electricity-systems/
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/10/19/sorry-boris-but-you-still-need-gas/#comments
30
One could make a good argument that renewables are a direct threat to our national security simply because they not only lack the ability to provide base load power, which is essential for us to survive as a nation, but also causes instability issues. The irony of it all is we the tax payers are funding this eco-terrorism, with much approval by our state and federal leaders. So who are the real terrorists?
20
Boris faces a political problem as many who voted for him see the revival of local fishing as a chance for employment and generally a better life in some depressed towns. Dissappoint them and his days are numbered.
Perhaps they could compromise; the Danes couldn’t come in and strip mine British beaches for sand eels, the main food of many sea birds whose numbers have dropped drastically on the East coast**. It isn’t a valuable catch, being turned into fertiliser and animal feed. Any refusal could be put into the Save our Seabirds file.
Should Macron actually carryout his threat, then it might cause an outbreak of commonsense in the UK about their electricity generation, which would be long overdue. Getting rid of the Climate Act and May’s deadline and switching to reliable generaing methods is long overdue. They won’t be able to have their wind farms, their electric cars and the electric heating/cooling they think they need. Switching back to coal mining and gas production would help the economy and reduce unemployment.
**But not on the West coast thus ruling out “Climate Change”.
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I have never heard of this revival of fishing in the UK. Who is proposing it and who is funding it?
01
To revive the industry the UK has to have control of the fishing rights or quota. Once they have that they get it caught any way they like. They can build their own boats, they could get it caught under contract (even by French boats !!!) etc.
The key is regain control of the quota and to many people having control of something that should belong to the UK is basically symbolic to the whole argument.
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The end game of Boarders without Borders.
The ugliness of this decades long sham is showing its raw edges in a way that directly affects many working Britons.
Rule the waves again.
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I notice that Macron didn’t threaten to ban French planes going on the new British aircraft carriers.
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🙂
30
“I don’t want to talk to you.
I fart in your general direction.
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries.”
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Pretty close…
https://youtu.be/-Ro4DrewXHE
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Why am I reminded of The Goodies and their Cod War episode.
Tony.
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Looks like the French have the UK by the Cods.
150
just a load of codswallop, then?
50
I see the same thing happening here in Oz between states , obviously without the fishing scenario but imagine if Victoriastan said to SA no more interconnectors unless you hand over half the GST you get .
Then QLD doing same to NSW and Tassie doing it to victoriastan , now that would be interesting.
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And NSW doing it to the A.C.T.
The A.C.T gloat about being 100% renewable when in reality it would be lights out for their bloated public service if NSW pulled the plug.
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That’s why the ACT grid needs to be connected via a controllable power source (massive inverter or intermediate generator) so their grid can be synched to the power output of their contracted renewable sources AT ALL TIMES
20
Sacre Bleu!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XeDvKqI4E
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9DCAFUerzs
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fishing territory, or fishing rights ? Hmm usually only ever heard of Fishing Rights ….. never thought nor knew that we lost Territory in the EU. Whatever the outcome , hope the FISH will win ( not Mish Sturgeon ) – less overall fishing can only help bolster fish stocks. ( called renewable food when managed properly ). and as for anything else french, – dunno why French is (was?) our 2nd Language in schools in defference to other World languages. WHY did BP Charlie have this thing about France. Britain as a whole seems to think the Sun rises out of the French’s a**e. Go to France an’ no speeka dalingo – stuffed. SPEAK FRENCH or nowt STILL SEEMS to be their attitude, as of this year unless you mix with non-french ‘Locals’ as in the WORK sphere.
20
Dont really see the problem with people having their national language and being proud of it.
20
I couldn’t find data for the whole of the UK in 2014 visual pollution from wind subsidy farms was visible over 60% of Scotland. It’s probably much worse now. Why don’t they just use clean and green fossil fuels and nuclear power?
https://scotlandagainstspin.org/2014/09/wind-farms-visible-from-at-least-60-of-scotland-map/
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Correction: Insert “but” between “UK” and “in”.
11
Eh? !! I couldn’t see much for the cloud cover …. then after reading the link, can see clearly now! – this past week I could see quite clearly – no blurr of rotating blades – NO WIND, pity they all didn’t stop in the same configuration of 1 blade at 6o’clock – would have reduced height an none would / could be seen – to show our grandchildren what they’ve missed – just like as when Tree Plantations are cleared and you get a magnificent view from the roads – ‘Oh I didnae ken ‘ere wis a heel ahind thae treez’ orra ‘ didnae ken er wizza rivva or lochan doon ‘ere ‘ ….
Nothing WORSE than going for a run through ‘Scotland’s magnificent countryside’ and no seen anything for the trees – bit like SW England – the hedges and stone dykes ? – never gone there for that reason.
BTW – they are now talking about re-introducing WOLVES again – something WEIRD about the Green brigade culture – chopping and changing Tack – for the sake of it? Raison d’etre perhaps – useless at anything productive in life?
30
Wolves to harry the sheep, Saighdear… But, but … aren’t there already wolves in the UK,
though maybe disguised in sheeps’ clothing?
30
So either you GIVE us your fish or we won’t let you PAY for our electricity.
That is bound to work.
30
The French may cut off their nose,
To spite their face I suppose,
With much revenue lost,
At a very high cost,
For the interconnector to close.
50
This is an excellent example of climate justice 🙂
30
Yep, or klimate karma
00
“with China being so mean to Australia, and cutting back on coal exports last week, we have some excellent value coal to spare for UK power stations to use. Just ask…”
Even better, in retaliation for China’s anti-Australia policy, we should stop all imports of solar panels and wind turbines from China and go back to good old local coal.
120
With Tony Abbott being appointed as a trade advisor for Britain, this can only be good for Australia.
40
It’s not about fish at all.
It’s all to do with Sovereignty.
The European Union want POWER over everything, and if they cannot wield power in our land, wielding power over our seas will be a second best.
I hope Boris understands this.
In these difficult times, the European Parliament is focusing on a critical decision, which Australia appears to have completely ignored, to the detriment of the people they are supposed to represent.
The question is whether a vegan sausage should be allowed to be called a sausage.
I bet you don’t even have one expert on the subject!
And for those in a state of disbelief:
https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/20/eu-to-vote-on-vegan-food-being-called-burgers-sausages-or-bacon-13450108/amp/
80
https://youtu.be/nJnA7ft8X0w
Yes Minister was way ahead of its time!
41
Yep, even the sausage-dog is made of Meat!
00
If the UK does not agree a deal with the EU before January then it will automatically be out of the Single Energy Market but don’t expect the lame legacy media to comment on this. While this may sound bad it is actually good as to stay in the SEM the UK would have to keep signed up to the green energy bollocks and be compliant with EU rules in the sector.
As Jo rightly points out, imported power helps prop up our increasingly fragile grid so without it we would have to make to quick decisions on keeping generating plant going. But since the UK no longer possesses the ability to govern itself competently don’t expect a good outcome.
Something people also don’t know – thanks media – is we import gas under the SEM as well. A couple of years back, only the gas imports kept us going as April was cold.
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Gerry
I am ashamed of your disinformation. Ever since global Warming kicked in there have been no More cold days at all in the UK. April was very warm and no one needed any power at all. I am not putting my garden furniture away this year as I fully expect to be able to use them every day over the winter
. Should I buy an off season above ground swimming pool to keep me cool in January?
100
Well played Orwellian comment!
Here in Australia, every summer is ‘the hottest summer ever’.
40
Where are the Modular Reactors, developed from the Rolls Royce nuclear submarine program ? In the mean-time there are plenty of idle RB211 jet engines to build gas fired generators from. Treat it like a war. If the arrogant frog wants conflict he can go without fish.
31
This map shows Australia’s massive shale oil and gas extraction potential.
https://www.thegwpf.com/content/uploads/2018/04/Screenshot-2018-04-18-09.08.40.png
About Macron’s threat, I would call his bluff. Eurotyranny is in its dead throes. Once Britain Brexits, while Poland and Hungary are telling Brussels ‘over our dead bodies’, and Italy being Italy, the EU will collapse like the USSR did in the late 80s
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Good point Albert.
Recently we have been told by Matt Canavan, of all people, that we in Australia don’t have the shale oil deposits that the US has used to make itself energy independent. Fact is that we haven’t been looking for them very much. So much of Australia is still to be explored and understood geologically that there are likely to be big things found yet.
Look at this big hydraulic fracturing project in the NT. They expected to find only what they call dry gas but they are instead finding a lot of liquid hydrocarbons as well. Totally unexpected or predicted by the geoscientists. It’s exciting think of what else we will find in future.
10
I have been trying to determine the depths of major continental rivers to see if either of our two new aircraft carriers could make their way to either Brussels or Paris. I favour destroying only one of these two cities as a warning, but which one?
31
Brussels, but only while the EU is in session.
30
We would need to consult a diary then, as we wouldn’t want to make a strike against Brussels only to find the commision and parliament had cleared off to Strasbourg.
It might cause a bit of a diplomatic incident if we took down the wrong parliament building.
30
Och would that boatie not make it up the Rhine? – especially when it’s not carrying a full complement of planes? great idea though!
00
Eh? bit futile, isn’t it? Aircraft carriers USUALLY carry aircraft to do the business. Ship stays well out of way at sea.
00
The clue is in the name Tony, i reckon they may send the planes for the destruction bit
00
Once America exits the Paris Agreement, perhaps some, if not most, of this nonsense will go away. This is assuming a Trump victory. I don’t believe in predicting election outcomes, but the needle is pointing in the Trump direction at this time. Of course, things can change.
20
Zeebrugge is in Belgium. Thank goodness the power cable does not come directly from France. However the nearest reliable power source is France (nuclear). Germany does not have enough. Poland would likely be willing to supply but they are quite a long way away.
Maybe Boris should lease a couple of Russian floating nuclear power plants.
30
Hi Jo
I say good for the French! They decided to build their power grid based on atomic energy and are now getting the benefits. It’s not their fault that the Brits elected generations of politicians who from Thatcher on destroyed their domestic coal industry for one reason or another and left their nation basically with its pants down ready to be spanked.
Destroy your domestic power industry, chase away heavy manufacturing and rely on mass migration to prop up your budget? Hmmm, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, that’s what us idiots have been doing in Australia up until the virus made us shut the boarders.
I understand that Indonesia are building some atomic power plants soon. Maybe we can get an interconnector over there to prop up our ever more unstable power grid. What could possibly go wrong with that?
10
With all this EU claptrap, I wonder if some little beaurocratic Bonaparte in Brussels is looking at electric eels to solve all the RET problems? Would solve both famine and electricity production in one swoop 🙂
00