Completing The Circle: A Succession Of Thick As Mince Energy Secretaries Starting And Ending With Ed Miliband

The latest incumbent (now called the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero) is Claire Coutinho. It would appear that she is challenging Ed Miliband (almost certainly the next incumbent) on who can be the thickest Energy Secretary whilst knowing next to nothing about energy. She posted this on X today:

‘Energies of the future'? Offshore wind turbines are basically Mediaeval technology (windmills) slightly updated with the application of coil winding dynamo technology first developed by Faraday in the early 19th century, so that they generate electricity as opposed to grinding grain. Burning hydrogen to create energy is nuts - it’s far less efficient than burning naturally available methane. Also, hydrogen gas is not sourced from natural reservoirs; it has to be created either by splitting water (which takes energy) or extracted from methane (which creates CO2 emissions).

Fusing hydrogen to form helium releases absolutely huge amounts of energy and it is what powers our nearest star, the Sun. But nobody here on planet earth has managed to generate useful amounts of energy via fusion of hydrogen - because it requires a plasma gas heated to millions of degrees Celsius and it is very difficult to design an efficient vessel to contain that plasma in any quantity. But Coutinho thinks we’re ‘leading the world’ in fusion, plus small modular nuclear fission reactors, which are still on the drawing board.

Carbon capture is a batshit crazy technology supposedly with the aim of sucking planet destroying carbon dioxide out of the air, which has never been successfully tested at scale. It is not energy or an energy generation technology. And she thinks that it’s just the Labour party that doesn’t understand energy!

Mind you, Ed Milibrain is probably even more clueless about energy than Coutinho. He thinks that ‘cheap,’ weather dependent, intermittent and inefficient renewables are going to reduce our bills ‘forever and ever.’ Amen. So in the thickie stakes, Miliband is probably still one plank ahead of Coutinho.

We’ve had a succession of thick as mince Energy Secretaries in this country, beginning with Miliband himself in 2008:

From 2016 to 2023, the government established the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. No mention of climate change or Net Zero. Probably because the Conservatives were pretending to be getting on with making Brexit a success. Grant Shapps was the last incumbent in charge of that department and war-mongerer Defence Secretary Shapps is not known for his engineering and science knowledge or his intellectual acumen. Shapps was followed by Coutinho.

Chris Huhne was forced to resign because of a scandal involving him passing on speeding tickets to his ex-wife in an attempt to avoid losing his driving licence. Then came Ed Davey who managed to negotiate the world’s most expensive energy deal ever (at the time) with the French firm EDF building Hinkley Point C with a guaranteed strike price of £92.50 per MWh. He called it a “good deal.” He’s leading the Limp Dems now and here he is today, having a jolly old time in the run up to the election:

Amber Ruddy Useless, with her masters degree in history, lasted in the post for just over a year until the department was disbanded, but she was initially welcomed with open arms by Damian Carrington at the Guardian, which tells you all you need to know:

From July 5th, it will be Ed Miliband in charge again.

God help us.