Net Zero Jobs? British Government Offers £500 Million Green Funding for 2500 Job Losses Eric Worrall
Green economic absurdity at its finest.
Net Zero Jobs? British Government Offers £500 Million Green Funding for 2500 Job Losses
CLIMATE ECONOMICSCLIMATE POLITICSNET-ZEROOPINION
Net Zero Jobs? British Government Offers £500 Million Green Funding for 2500 Job Losses
Essay by Eric Worrall
Green economic absurdity at its finest.
ANDREW NEIL: Port Talbot has been sacrificed to the altar of Net Zero – which is why Labour’s crocodile tears are hard to stomach
PUBLISHED: 09:00 AEDT, 20 January 2024 | UPDATED: 21:34 AEDT, 20 January 2024
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Port Talbot is the latest victim of the Tory Government’s headlong rush towards Net Zero carbon emissions which has pushed up British energy prices and made what’s left of our heavy industry uneconomic.
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Port Talbot is the UK’s largest steelworks. It’s owned by an Indian conglomerate, Tata Steel, which, with British Government encouragement, is replacing its blast furnaces with an electric arc furnace that will emit less CO2.
It also requires less labour, hence the 2,500 job losses, most of which will go in the next 18 months. These losses are the direct consequence of the Government’s Net Zero strategy.
The Tories are so keen on pursuing it that they’re even stumping up £500 million of taxpayers’ money to help Tata meet the £1.25 billion cost of converting to the electric arc process.
So, in effect, the Government is using our money to pay Tata to shed jobs. Such is the zealotry behind Net Zero. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the alternative is the complete closure of the plant — and it’s true that Port Talbot has been losing Tata money for years.
The irony is that decimating our heavy industry does not, in fact, reduce global CO2 emissions. It is reckoned that converting Port Talbot to greener electric arc production will cut our CO2 emissions by 1.5 per cent.
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I used to think Arc furnaces are only good for recycled steel, but Arc furnaces can apparently process iron ore, though I couldn’t find any information about the economic viability of this ore smelting process.
Whether the new Arc furnace is only used for recycled steel, or whether they attempt a full ore to steel process, melting steel with electricity requires lots of cheap electricity.
But Port Talbot is in Wales, and Wales has a problem with electricity. According to a report by the Welsh government produced in March last year, Wales has high electricity costs.
Does the British or Welsh government plan to subsidise the electricity bills of a foreign steel company, while their own people are suffering and struggling to pay household bills?
The press statement from Tata steel, the company which owns Port Talbot, suggests a transition period in which the company would receive half finished steel products from overseas, while evaluating whether steel production should continue at Port Talbot – so that $500 million agreed subsidy may not even have secured a promise of an ongoing steel business.
I’m guessing even more money will be demanded in the near future, to keep this taxpayer funded boondoggle afloat.