Stop the lights! Greens’ plan for energy is from Dark Ages

The pandemic is a study in the trade-off between lives and livelihoods. It’s also a mirror image of the existential threat we face from climate change and the way it threatens to disrupt our world by way of food and water shortages and, perhaps most problematic of all, mass migrations involving tens of millions of people and the conflicts that would entail.

Climate change is complex and so we prefer, in the main, to leave it to the likes of Eamon Ryan and Catherine Martin of the Greens to grapple with.

Trouble is, we really do need to talk about their energy policy, before it’s too late.

In their General Election manifesto, the Greens couldn’t have been clearer about their intention to ban all oil and gas exploration in Ireland. They also want to ensure that no fracked gas is imported.

In their April 23 response to the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael framework document for government formation, the Greens, unsurprisingly, sought a commitment for a ban on fossil fuel exploration.

That means, if accepted by Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar, Ireland will exhaust all locally produced gas by around 2030 when the Corrib gas field off the coast of Mayo runs out of puff – after about 15 years of production and after contributing an estimated €6bn to the economy.

Crucially, it’s not as if by 2030 we’ll have sorted our energy demands to the point where we won’t be needing either gas or oil.

BY THE end of 2018 fossil oil and gas accounted for about 75% of all energy used in Ireland, according to the Sustainable Energy Authority,

SEAI.

And although electricity generation is relying more and more on windfarms, transport remains a fossil fuel guzzler, with a 97% reliance. Heating our homes and factories depends over 80% on oil and gas. Clearly, therefore, our reliance on fossil fuels will continue for many more decades to come as we transition to renewables for electricity and as transport and heating demands link into the electricity grid.

In the meantime we’ll need lots of gas and oil, unless of course we also intend to transition ourselves to the more laid-back, minimalist lifestyle of the Tora Bora Mountains, involving blackouts in operating theatres, very cold homes and transport grinding to a halt.

Also, Green policy that demands a ban on exploration for gas or oil would leave our energy security in tatters, and deliver us up to the likes Boris Johnson for gas supply once the Corrib is exhausted. And, as we know, Boris is just the kind of man we can rely on, seeing as how his word is his bond.

We’ve a huge dependency on energy imports – to the tune of 67% of all our energy needs in 2018, costing €5bn.

And there’s another thing. How is it sensible to run up a bigger carbon footprint by importing fuels from abroad, rather than tapping into potential fields off the west coast?

Why would any country spurn the opportunity to have an extra layer of protection as we, at the same time, push ahead towards zero emissions with more and more renewable energy?

The Government’s policy statement last December on exploration set out such a twin-track vision for our energy policy, saying that natural gas would be a ‘key component’ as the country transitions to a low carbon economy. The policy also points to energy security as a rationale for natural gas to combat increased reliance on imports.

GREEN policy on fossil fuel exploration has no upside. It’s naive and appeals to emotion alone. It’s self-maiming and directly conflicts with the national interest. We’ve seen how nationalism and self-interest has surfaced during the current virus crisis – can you imagine how acute that would become in the event of critical problems with the international oil or gas supply chains?

Like the current trade-off with the coronavirus, there is also the trade-off facing Micheál Martin and Taoiseach Varadkar – the desire for power on the one hand and the requirement to do the right thing by Ireland on the other.

Let’s see how they do.