Fracking good or bad?

That's flippin' difficult for all those living in Edwardian/Victorian/earlier dwellings with solid walls (there's are a lot of them). Internally applied insulation is incredibly expensive/disruptive. Externally applied insulation systems are unlikely to be given the benefit of planning consent in Conservation Areas.

Otherwise I would agree with your comments.

 

I don't think it matters too much - and none of us would agree on it anyway! We don't do ring-fenced tax [there's a special word for that, which I have forgotten - @ARMANDII ?? ] raising in this country (probably not in yours either) - we have budgets for things, departments fight over them for as much expenditure as they can get, the Chancellor raises what he thinks he can, and money/ gets spent.

As I see it:

1. Raise taxes (on fuel) to get people to use less (and lets hope some goes towards Green Tech !!)
2. Give grants to people who install Green Tech and sponsor Research etc.

Indeed, that is coming.

Electric Cars for example. No way of taxing the fuel, and easy for Employers to "give" that fuel to employees - charging points in the company car park, tax free perk - no way for Tax Office to tax that as a "benefit in kind"

let's hope that by not giving all our Hard Currency Pounds to Middle East for Oil, and Russia for Gas, we will balance our books better, and not need so much tax JUST to pay in interest.

EDIT: Hopefully fixed the text that got mangled

 

Lifted this of the Net, so dunno how accurate it is, but its "good enough".

UK national debt is £19,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. Every household will pay £1,900 each year (and that comes from tax of course), just to cover the interest.

 

Sorry, my earlier post got mangled, hopefully I've straighten it out

 

Instead of a Chancellor, we have a Governor of the Reserve Bank and Premiers of each province which sit and discuss what each province should get.
This is then (un-equally) divided up between the departments in each province.

What really gets my goat is that we produce a shed load of petrol from coal (SASOL) each year which is then sold to neighbouring countries for a pittance yet average Joe here get's to pay for that petrol based on international crude oil prices.
Actually depending in which province you are in, it's a mixture of SASOL petrol and other brands such as BP, Shell and so on (the mixture ratio depends on the province).
The same quasi-government owned SASOL also produces heating oil, aviation fuel, candle wax and a myriad of other products but we don't get any benefit at all.

 

I suspect that some of the people who have posted in this thread have shares in fracking companies, I've heard it said many times in the mainstream media what a great investment fracking will be in 2014.

 

The local politicians around here went over to the States to see the results for themselves. Even if it was an all-expenses-paid jolly (and it's hard to believe there wasn't an element of that) it backfired badly on the fracking companies. On their return, the politicos all voted against. As (so far) a majority of the French government has done. There are still incentives here for energy-saving measures, whether for new or existing buildings. Energy prices are increasing, although mostly in the form of taxes on taxes, so it's not the energy companies who gain all. Don't care....I'll be first in the barricades if they try to do it within 100kms of L-et-G

 

Disagree. Because of Lies, damned lies, and statistics many households who pay little or no tax will pay nothing like £1,900 p.a. "tax" (incl. VAT).

 

I knew you'd know!

In that case its too late! Once high street banks will lend for it, and the press is full of it, the opportunity has passed IME. Anyway, the whole of Europe may well reject it, like they did for GM. Who knows whether that would be the right decision - it will consign us to high fuel prices and increased balance of payments deficit ... but would probably also herald faster implementation of Green Tech. ... so might be better in the long run.

 

On this part I agree, and I live in hope.

 

Remember that B&Q (I think?) wind turbine to fit to your house (which was a fiasco)?

Can't be done,. as I understand it, because basic physics says that the turbulence, to the wind, caused by the building (or any trees anywhere nearby) causes the turbine to stall, or fluctuate, and in order to generate electricity it has to "do work" continuously, rather than fits & starts.

People who understand physics tell em that that Law cannot be broken, but I live in hope that someone will invent a wind turbine that doesn't mind turbulent air - then any household that want's one could have one.

I have a socking great big tower here measuring wind speed (which it has to do for a year) to see if my site is suitable for a wind turbine ...

 

@shiney

The electricity problem in Argentina is very similar to the position we find ourselves in here, more demand than supply.
For years electricity was so cheap that people simply added more air cons as needed with no thought given to better insulating homes and solar power was obviously seen as a complete waste of time and money.
However over the years this demand has crept up and up and no upgrading done to infra-structure that we now find ourselves with a shortfall in supply and to raise money to build more power stations, the government has said that electricity will increase by an average of 17.5% per annum for the next 5 years.
Guess what?
Solar panels are now the "in" thing.