Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fossil fuel industry has us by short and curlies
Shauna Corr keeps an eye on the planet
AS punters lined up at one Belfast petrol station yesterday to fill their cars for the bargain price of £1.19 a litre, it got me thinking.
The fossil fuel industry really has us all by the short and curlies in more ways than one.
Not only are they largely responsible for rises in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere since the 1900s that have led to global warming, they are also costing each of us a small fortune if we want to stay warm in winter or drive somewhere.
Yet despite the impact they are having, even after COP26, most of us still rely on fossil fuels to heat our homes and power our cars.
It’s well documented how they are destroying our planet.
And for years people have put up with rising prices at the pumps.
But as family budgets are increasingly squeezed by cost of living rises while wage increases remain the stuff of dreams for most – now the price of petrol, oil, gas and electricity is bringing fresh hell to homes across the country just in time for Christmas.
I’ve been writing stories about the plight of those choosing between eating or heating their homes in winter, of parents going without to make sure their children have a warm meal and elderly people sitting in freezing houses because their pensions won’t stretch to putting on the gas.
What we are seeing now is the result of years of government schmoozing by fossil fuel firms, followed by policy decisions that have done nothing to protect the planet or us from them.
I’m really confused about how the prices have got so high.
A trawl through the internet shows the price of Brent crude oil – which Statista say “acts as a benchmark price for oil around the world” – has gone up.
But while the prices at the pump are at record highs – the price of a barrel in October ($69.29) was cheaper than 2018 ($71.34) and below the $111.26 to $98.97 it cost from 2011 to 2014.
I know it’s a bit more complicated than that, but it doesn’t make sense.
But then that could be why the Fairfueluk believes drivers are being “fleeced” by profiteering retailers. It has called on the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate why the cost of oil barrelled at the beginning of the pandemic but was not reflected at the pumps.
As someone who cares about the environment, I think it’s long past the time fossil fuels were consigned to the history books.
But it’s outrageous consumers are bearing the brunt of a system that has done everything to make us entirely reliant on fossil fuels – and then punish us for it at the pump or topping up the gas and electric.
MLAS shouting about how fuel rises are impacting is not going to make a difference to now.
For years politicians here and at Westminster have failed to plan ahead or look at the big picture – they have let this happen.
And yet they are still fitting gas pipes in Northern Ireland when we should be talking about ripping them out and replacing heating systems so families are kept warm by electricity generated by clean energy like solar, wind, tidal and ground source heat pumps that could also be much cheaper.
Wind turbines are turned off at night, with around 15% of electricity wasted because we can’t store it.
What a joke. That energy, as one esteemed academic told me, could be powering someone’s electric car at minimal cost overnight or to do a wash and dry – and it isn’t emitting anything dirty into the atmosphere.
We need a government working for our best interests – not the interests of industries scrambling to drain every last penny out of fossil fuels they can.
We need our MLAS to start making decisions that will save us money as we try to keep our families warm while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Not MLAS pandering to an industry that is poisoning us and robbing us because they’ve been able to keep their grip on our fuel needs for so long.
Northern Ireland’s new Energy Strategy will tell a tale when it’s finally released to the public.
I hope to see plans to bin fossil fuels and empower communities to generate their own energy at a fraction of the costs we are now suffering.
Maybe our leaders will surprise me and actually deliver for once.
The Department for Economy said: “The consultation process for Northern Ireland’s new Energy Strategy was completed in July 2021.
“The strategy is being finalised and will be brought forward for Executive approval in the near future.”
If it contains all sorts of plans on how to extend the grip of fossil fuel firms and the rising costs that come with that, I hope you’ll all remember the price of petrol, oil, gas and electricity when politicians are doing their rounds before May’s elections.
It might be presented by a department that’s been led by the DUP in recent years, but everyone around the Executive table will have a say on whether it’s adopted.
For years people have put up with rising prices at the pumps