Through 1980s & 1990s Britain generally had the third most competitive industrial electricity costs of G7. But since then we have performed far worse. In the 5 yrs before Tony Blair became PM, our industrial electricity costs were around 9 % higher than avg of advanced economies

By 2010, they were nearly 23 per cent higher, and for the past 5 years have risen to 52% higher. Our industrial electricity prices are three times higher than in America and Canada. They are more than twice as high as in Korea and New Zealand.

They are about twice as high as those in European countries – Finland, France and Sweden – with a strong nuclear energy sector, and much higher than those – like Germany and Poland – still using coal to generate power.

In China, responsible for 53% of global coal consumption, and where coal generates 61% of electricity, industrial electricity prices are around a quarter of those in GB. Meanwhile, emissions associated with imports to GB from China have risen 62 % since the late 1990s.

To give you an idea of the scale of the issue (and why it is not true this is simply a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine), here is a chart of UK industrial energy prices since 1970

Now compare that chart with a chart on UK total factor productivity

High energy costs are not responsible for all UK productivity issues. But there is no solution without dramatically lowering them. Yet our current trajectory isn't just for higher costs still but for a supply & demand imbalance leading to blackouts

Intermittent renewables are not just far too expensive but not available on demand. Nuclear would do the job but even if we started building now they wouldn't be ready until way past the blackouts point.

Gas imports are expensive and as @NJ_Timothy states leaves us reliant on often unstable/unsavoury regimes. The only solution that gives us cheap, reliable and secure energy is to increase domestic gas production. Yes more in the North sea. But that alone won't be enough

We need to frack. Frack until we have built the new nuclear capacity which can provide us with the cheap, reliable, secure and emission free energy we need.

We are paying the price of decades of elite mismanagement of our energy production. But the price only gets steeper from here. We need to act and we need to act now.

@DerrickBerthel1 @NJ_Timothy This is an excellent thread! Thank you.

@Bru1g @NJ_Timothy Thanks

@DerrickBerthel1 @NJ_Timothy Great thread, as always. Do you have data on UK net energy imports/exports? If so, might be worth plotting that against same for migration and per-capita GDP. I've a feeling it would paint a picture of Blair swapping cheap energy for cheap labour, to the detriment of productivity

@markbishopuk @NJ_Timothy Ta. I'll see if I can take a look. Although the relationship might be better between energy prices rather than imports/exports because the issue isn't just imports but higher domestic prices.

@DerrickBerthel1 @NJ_Timothy Derrick, excellent work, you’re “on fire” at the moment or that could be “X” knocking you out of my feed…. 🤣

@2damnation @NJ_Timothy Ta. knocking me out?

@DerrickBerthel1 @NJ_Timothy @threadreaderapp unroll

@DerrickBerthel1 @NJ_Timothy If he was only arguing for lower energy costs via more sensible energy policy I would agree. But the idea that we should be subsidising manufacturing and engaging in industrial strategy is just nonsense. If the Chinese want to subsidise us to have cheap cars that’s their loss