Transcripts: Bannon’s War Room. Dave Walsh The UK's Irresponsible Energy Policy Will Lead to Blackouts, America Must Steer Clear of Same Path. October 20, 2022.
Topic: The UK’s irresponsible energy policy. Guest. Dave Walsh. October 20, 2022.
Transcripts from Bannon’s War Room on Rumble: Dave Walsh: The UK's Irresponsible Energy Policy Will Lead To Blackouts, America Must Steer Clear Of Same Path
Published October 20, 2022.
Steve Bannon:
I want to go to Dave Walsh first. Dave the centerpiece of this is the political class and particularly the Tories, that are supposed to be the conservatives, really kowtowing to this infantile and dangerous sustainability. Yes, we like sustainability, eventually over time we want to be good stewards of the earth. Clearly, we’ve got to do it but not the radical way they're doing it.
Walk me through it and you see right there from Peter from Hearts of Oak how Boris this has been one of the centerpieces of his reign, 50% by 2030, excuse me all British homes by 2030. Dave Walsh, give me your assessment of the energy plan that essentially destroyed Liz Truss.
Dave Walsh:
Well, the deep concern is the repudiation of her articulated energy plans for opening up fracking across the UK, making it not illegal and opening up about 132 permits in the North Sea where possibly way involved in her undoing, the repudiation of that by our Tory party. England in 2000 was 100% self-dependent on electrical power and energy, overall. Since that time, it has consciously reduced electricity production by 14% and 27% per capita.
Electricity production is basically the lifeblood of any developed economic society. England has taken conscious steps to reduce capacity, electrical capacity, energy capacity and particularly per capita as the population has grown. The UK had been about 34% dependent on its own coal powered power or energy. It reduced all of that. It took its nuclear capacity down by about 25%.
So, basically since 2000 have reduced continuous duty base load on demand electricity sources by 40%. How have they compensated for that? Massive additional imports of gas because they no longer produce much in the North Sea, almost none on the continent on the island itself in ground. And also, from a conscious process of electricity consumption reduction. The reduction in the production of electricity has caused a consumption reduction by 15 to 16% per capita since 2000, which again is a lifeblood.
Growth and electricity consumption is a lifeblood of an economy. This broadband discussion among many other technologies, broadband is an electrical based phenomenon. You need more electricity to have computers, to have laptops, cell phones, broadband, all the above. The UK has consciously taken steps to go in the opposite direction.
So, we have the BBC this week broadcasting or we're hearing from credible sources preparing public announcements for the winter about service interruptions occurring, blackouts up to two days duration, potentially this winter the preparing emergency announcements. And then we have John Pettigrew, the CEO of the National Grid, announcing that we should expect 4:00 to 7:00 PM brownouts periodically in the UK this winter, from the mouth of the CEO of the National Grid. So, the energy policy is over in ruins.
Steve Bannon:
Hang on, in a conservative government, Tory government has been around for 12 years, BBC is getting ready to make announces 2-day blackouts, rolling blackouts and you could have 4:00 to 7:00 daily brownouts in an advanced industrial economy. That is what the 4th or the fifth or sixth biggest economy in the world. You got the US, China, I think you got Germany and then you got a couple of guys you know, France and the UK and Italy.
Compare and contrast that to what Biden has done since he's been here and this economic debacle, we're in. Compare with the British have done since 2000 right, conscious decisions by the political class not looking at the realities of the physical world and not looking at the realities of the capital markets which has their own physical properties to them. Walk me through what Biden has done in his first I guess 18 months, sir.
Dave Walsh:
His own commentary and strategy, the strategy of his leadership through the Department of the Interior, the EPA and now the Secretary of Treasury are taking us in exactly the same direction and that is with the announcement of the desire to cease, in the long run any dependence on fossil fuels. They've been right out there with it.
The restriction on production in this country, the restrictions imposed on pipeline transmission of gas had been all about and only about moving to the Ocasio Cortez version of Green which is eliminating any dependence on fossil fuels which takes you right to the same position the UK is in today, because the renewables do not work as a replacement for fossil fuels.
We're not close to having renewables be a viable solution in that as you become more dependent on them what Boris is broadcasting, about 50% dependence on wind, means endemically codependence on much more natural gas to back up all of the times, the 50% of the time and the intermittency that it's not there. And then as you build more of it, you're in a 0 sum game needing to build more and more and more of it.
To get to 50% they'd need to build three to four times what they have already in wind resources in the UK, because it’s a point of diminishing returns given the fact that it's intermittent and only works about 42% of the time. You've got the reciprocal buffer but it's got to be natural gas. You're building a codependence on even more gas when you do this. It makes no sense.
Steve Bannon:
Look Dave Walsh doesn't make sure the audience understands because this is going to be the issue after you have the shift in power. Why is energy in this world in the 21st century, why is the energy underpin everything when you talk about GDP, GDP growth productivity GDP per capita, all that? Why is it that you have to have a realistic energy policy or everything else, you're just building it on a house you're building it on a foundation of sand, sir?
Dave Walsh:
Well, if you think about the notion of what's called core inflation, inflation that impacts core production, core products, aluminum, steel, coal, plastics, polymers, fertilizers for agriculture, transportation, core products, energy is at the heart of it. It’s a major major cost input and barrier to existence of most core products of the type I mentioned. Anything to do with materials virtually of any kind except wood.
All of the rest of materials for metals to polymers and plastics, all based on energy and basically natural gas and oil to produce them and critical inputs to their content along with of course fertilizers. We've made that case hugely.
The entire developed world elevation and food production by a factor of three times even since 1900 and two times since 1960 is almost entirely based on the fact of having ammonia produced from natural gas fertilizers, propel agricultural production globally in the last 40 to 50 years.
Medicines, the ability to transport medicines, the ability to conduct surgery, and the ability to use a 5G system, even brought up by Johnson today or a few days ago, all dependent on electrification, natural gas and oil energy sources to transport to make to ship. Nothing's changed, nothing's changed at all
Steve Bannon:
Dave Walsh, anything on energy we've missed here is Boris Johnson..By the way the word is now Boris Johnson in fact I just sent a very smart guy from Scotland that I really admire his thinking. He says Boris Johnson is going to come back he's got this locked. He says they'll just come in because right now these other guys are midgets compared to Boris Johnson get to Peter in a second that.
Your thoughts Dave Walsh on, they’re jammed up on energy, right. She's but she's adding $20 billion I think, 20 billion pounds to pay for everybody's electricity, trying to get back to some fracking but right now they don't have an energy policy that they have the balls to push through.
Dave Walsh
No, just the key punch lines doubling down on their on their policies of the last 20 years will not work. What they've done by destroying base load continuous generation by 42% of their mix, coal and nuclear being taken offline, they've displaced that by reducing personal consumption by 27% and then by importing gas, the rest of it.
They used to be a net exporter of natural gas in 2000 now they’re a massive net importer of it from Norway of course, the US. They only have one import terminal which is another huge problem. Europe has only really the UK, Spain and France have meaningful importation capacity for LNG.
So yes, right now you've got all these pens of tankers lined up from the US, from Qatar, from Australia lined up to support natural gas to LNG to Europe but they don't have the importation capacity built to deal with it and that takes 2 1/2 three years to build. So, they're in a huge problem that wind will not, will not get them out of that actually accelerate the problem.
Steve Bannon:
You see these commercials are fantasy. Dave Walsh how do people get to you?
Dave Walsh:
Thank you, Steve, Dave Walsh Energy on GETTR, thank you.
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