I know this is not a "trans" issue. It will however affect a great many trans people, as often transitioning can lessen job prospects and wealth.
The energy price cap goes up again by 80% from 1 October for 24 million people in England, Scotland and Wales.
If you’re on a default tariff and pay by direct debit, your bills will increase by £1,578 a year to £3,549. If you’re a prepayment customer, your payments will rise by £1,591 a year to £3,608.
The cap sets the maximum amount that energy suppliers can charge for each unit of energy. The figure reported is for an average home, so you could end up paying more than this, for example, if you have a large home or use more energy than a typical household.
Gas and electric costs have been rocketing over the last 12 months, in part due to the rise in wholesale gas prices. It’s also affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – as the former is a major gas and oil supplier globally, particularly to the EU.
More energy price cap hikes are forecasted, too, with the next one coming in January 2023 – as the update is now every three months, instead of twice per year.
This shows the huge rise in energy costs over the last few years
October 2020: £1,042
April 2021: £1,138
October 2021: £1,277
April 2022: £1,971
October 2022: £3,549.
Now we have headlines like this.
Energy price cap is expected to soar to £6,616 in April 2023 on back of an Ofgem announcement.
That means an average household paying £86 per month in October 2020: will be paying £551 per month in April 2023.
Utter madness.
Of course, everything else has gone up due to this. Petrol going up to nearly £9 per gallon did not help. It is around £6.50 now.
Is it due to the UK selling off all it's state-owned infrastructure? Capitalism driving up fuel prices due to the war? The fact that Europe is heavily reliant on Russia for gas ( The UK gets 3% from Russia, but that does not stop the price from rising) or a bit of everything?
Is this happening anywhere else?
I know there are people from the USA, Canada, and Australia on here. Are you facing these huge increases?
Comments
Madness is the right word
My heart goes out to those having to choose between power and food.
Over the years, I have done a lot to improve the energy efficiency of my home. While it was built in 1930 it is now pretty efficient energy wise. The same can't be said for the majority of homes in the UK.
So far I've not had any of the rebates etc promised by the government. Because of the improvements I have made to my home, it is in a council tax band that is excluded from the council tax rebate. Well thought out HMG (not)
The worst is yet to come. All we can hope for is a relatively mild winter.
Samantha
When I was young in the 60's
When I was young in the 60's and 70's our flat had one gas fire in the living room. The rest of the place had no heating.
I remember scraping the ice from the window in my bedroom to look out. I fear many of us are going to get a dose of nostalgia this winter.
Saying that, it does annoy me that some people think it is a god given right to walk around wearing almost nothing indoors when it is -10c outside. Humans got by without central heating for 1000's of years.
I'm going to dig out some jumpers and thermals.
Leeanna
Locally
In the last year, we've gasoline (petrol) prices jump. No too long ago $3.00 per gallon was considered unreasonably high. But recently the price has been up over $6.00 per gallon at major brand stations, though I always managed to find discount stations that kept it under $6.00 but not by much.
Locally here in the Pacific Northwest, prices have declined a bit. I'm not sure about national averages. The last time I filled up I paid $4.85 per gallon. A welcome relief.
The town I live in has electricity supplied by a Co-op. We are rather remote on the electric grid and pay higher prices than other more populous areas. While electric prices have steadily increased it's been nothing like what you've described.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
The UK sold off almost
The UK sold off almost everything.
In France, publicly owned EDF kept energy bill rises to 4% in April 2022 while our prices went up by 54% and will go up further
EDF Energy UK is 100% owned by Électricité de France, a French public utility owned by the Government of France
Scottish Power is 100% owned by Iberdrola (listed in Spain), a Spanish energy electric utility which counts BlackRock and the Qatari Investment Authority as its major shareholders
Owners of Centrica, the lesser-known parent company of British Gas, include the UK asset management firms Schroders and abrdn, as well as Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, a US investment bank.
The UK is the only country in Europe (apart from Portugal) which has a privatised electricity grid.
We're doomed.
Leeanna
$6.78 per US gallon here in
$6.78 per US gallon here in Ireland gasoline (petrol)
€1.799 per litre at the cheapest station. in my local one €1.85 per litre.
I just got a load of kerosene for the central heating 704 litres €855.96 including sales tax (vat) of 13.5%
https://mewswithaview.wordpress.com/
well its a "told you so moment"
well its a "told you so moment"
well there was this now ex-prez of the US that told all of Europe to get off depending on Russia for natural gas and oil
they laughed at him in the UN....I bet he is now laughing
Plato “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”
Proud member of the Whateley Academy Drow clan/collective
The reduction in drilling for
The reduction in drilling for oil and gas because of the switch to renewable energy left Europe much more dependent on oil and gas from Russia.
https://mewswithaview.wordpress.com/
????
should have more followed a slow reduction instead of trying for a 100% lets do this in 4 years or less and regret it
tell me I am wrong...cause that is what I see!
Proud member of the Whateley Academy Drow clan/collective
South Florida, USA here
I suppose we have been lucky here. My energy cost was around $160, 3 years ago, this past few months it has been averaging around $200.
My smart power monitoring says 43% is for air conditioning, and this summer is been positively cold here, viewing highs around 95F (35c).
Gasoline is $3.56 today, was $2.50 or so a year ago.
Private power provider, state owned power grid. Florida Power is allowed a certain profit and not a penny more. Tariffs are tightly controlled. People remember when election time comes around.
Brutus
The price of electricity has
The price of electricity has gone up in Europe due to the increase in the price of natural gas.
Natural gas is used a lot to produce electricity in Europe. The natural gas price increase affects the price of electricity in a big way.
https://mewswithaview.wordpress.com/
Manitoba
On average it’s mostly gasoline and foods that have gone up. Electricity won’t change since we produce and export electricity.
Well, here in Texas, I
Well, here in Texas, I watched our electricity rates go up significantly. Basically, it's now up a third from what it was, and that was after I managed to weasel only _somewhat_ higher rate by going for a longer contract.
I suggest you start harassing your local parliament members, to ask why no new nuclear power plants have been built since 1995. They aren't dependent on wind, waves, or nutjobs East of you :) Right now, I believe Britain has either 8 or 9 plants, and they produce 15% of the power there - steadily, and with no real rise or drop in running costs (other than standard inflation/labour costs)
Now, fuel here went up past $4.30 a gallon (The Houston area is one of the largest producers of refined petrochemicals in the US). It's now back down to between $3.07 and $3.70 depending on the station and part of town. (for the base level Top Tier gasolines - 87 octane)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Nuclear and all that
The UK is building one new Nuclear plant (Hinckley Point C) and we may well get the go ahead for Sizewell C very soon. They ain't cheap by any means.
There is still a huge amount of opposition to these plants even though they are being built at locations where there are existing nuclear plants.
Petrol costs have been coming down a bit but nowhere near enough. £1.65/litre is about the cheapest around here.
Samantha
Self Inflicted
I've spent all my working life in the power industry and it breaks my heart to see the consequences of idiotic decisions with politicians' cow-towing to lobbyists who believe the myth about the world becoming carbon neutral.
I've been involved with coal, oil, gas, biomass, waste to energy, nuclear, marine, offshore oil etc over my career even representing our company at International Conferences. We supplied equipment all around the world and the economy, development of all technology and our living standards are all dictated by the availability and use of natural resources. Electricity doesn't come for free even if we think it does by using solar and wind. All decisions have consequences. Going carbon neutral is what drives up the price of electricity and fuel and people like Joe Biden and Boris Johnson are pandering to those who think stupid targets are possible and as we see already it's the people who will pay. The Government doesn't pay we do and until it hurts nothing will be done to reverse policy. Maggie Thatcher stopped Nuclear in the UK because it was too expensive to develop and build and expensive to dispose of the waste. It was considered too dangerous to operate after 2 major incidents in the Soviet Union and the USA. The procedures and the paperwork involved are extensive. So we quickly built gas fired power stations using North Sea Gas and sold some of it to fund the power industry and providing natural gas to most homes in the UK. We also upgraded the most modern coal fired stations extending their life by 20 years and now most have been knocked down. Drax burns wood pellets using timber from North America. We tried many alternative solutions burning combustible materials such as household refuse, tyres etc, Then moved to biomass as another option burning fresh timber instead of the fuel laid buried for millions of years. These projects like solar and wind were heavily subsidized to make them viable and some attracted private investment. Australia, China, South Africa and India have masses of natural resource like coal so small wonder they build coal fired power stations as they developed their infrastructures. I was in China for 10 years and witnessed the massive development first-hand. They had no money when they started so they relied on Western and Japanese technology that was gladly sold to them in joint ventures by major international companies. Look at them now.
Under Trump the USA went energy independent as we almost did in the UK until stupidity took over. We still have natural resource and can extract enough gas by fracking until we have the gumption and money to build more nuclear plants without Chinese and Japanese funding and we can still use coal if we agree to store carbon dioxide from coal plants underground. Particle emissions are no longer a problem. We also spent millions building large oil and gas terminals to offload fuel from large tankers that were support to transport fuel from the Middle East or any alternative source. We then decided these were redundant due to the consequences of Political decisions and driven by green lobbyists. Stupidity is very expensive.
Russia are of course taking advantage of our stupidity by trying to reclaim Ukraine because of its natural resources for large batteries and masses of wheat. They are not stupid. Neither are China who have invested heavily in countries who have the resources we will need. The world has gone mad. We need lithium for storage of electricity. Who will benefit? Not the people.
Sadly those who have grown up through the era of technology development are like broken records. We waste our breath I'm afraid.
great informative reply loved it!
great informative reply loved it!
IMO I look at Nuke as a power source that nations like France jumped onto and now run most of the nation with it and depend on now one
I find it sad that Nuke got a bad rap from one accident in the 70's that DID NOTHING and was contained
then again in the 80's in Russia where we ALL can say the russians GOOFED and blew that plant up by violating every rule int the book!
next lastly in Japan where from what I have read the plant got whacked by one of the BIGGEST quakes ever recorded THEN whacked again by one of the BIGGEST Tsunamis ever recorded and only blew up because? the leaders of japan wanted to save 'face' by not asking for help on day one!
What I'd love to see is a "lets go to the moon before the end of the decade" type of leadership that grabs the best minds in the Nuke biz and the best in the US navy that have a few ships that use nuke. I think they might have one or two? and a few years of knowing the process?
and plan out a few 'kits' for plants that can go anywhere that are all basically the same layout and design. then go a building spree for the next few decades, building dozens of plants!
then you can charge that Tesla and plug in your hair dryer while watching sponge bob on your Ipad thingy!
just my idea?
Proud member of the Whateley Academy Drow clan/collective
Fuel and energy prices
A lot of is greed by the fuel and energy companies.
I'll correct you on that one.
I'll correct you on that one.
Almost all of it is greed on the part of _energy traders_. I think that (in the US at least), "futures" contracts should not be tradable like they are now. As in the original purchaser of the future _can_ sell it, but only to someone who will be a consumer. No trading 9 times before going to an actual user. (Maybe add one additional sale point, because the original futures contractor may have a money crunch at the wrong time for a consumer company to buy it)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Instability is an 'opportunity'
... for those who trade in the commodity.
People forget that oil is sold on the open market.
Last time I checked, as of last year, the US is actually self-sufficient with regard to Oil and Gas.
Soooo, why are our prices stressed out just like the rest of the world?
Well, believe it or not we still export and import the stuff and thus is subject to open market pricing which the greedy traders are taking advantage of.
So, a lot of the current inflation is also due to the higher than normal oil prices, costlier production and transport etc
It does not matter who is in the White House as far as oil prices goes, they have no control but of course there is always the knee jerk reaction of ignorant people thinking that is the case.
Free market, you know? If you want to take out your ire on those energy traders than support renewables, the more renewables come on line the less costly it would be to produce the components needed to produce the machinery and materials needed to produce renewables, hopefully leading to a virtuous circle.
Renewables have the advantage of mostly being consumed in-country (assuming we don't use the energy to produce an energy product to export, but that is inefficient) so would provide more stability. Let's hope batteries for mass storage (e.g. some Aluminum based batteries seem to be promising) will come along soon.
The biggest issues with a lot
The biggest issues with a lot of the true renewable resources is that people are too politically correct to push for them.
1) Use glass, not plastic. As long as you're not picky about the colour, glass is easy to recycle into new glass. It's also never going to end up with people screaming about 'microcrystalline particles' in the ecosystem. Require deposits. Growing up, my brother and I made quite a bit of spending money walking along the ditches outside of Ottawa, picking up beer bottles (broken and not), and taking them to the shop for the deposit money.
2) Stop insisting on plastic clothing. There's nothing wrong with leather - yes, I'm looking at YOU, California Vegan idiots. Cotton, linen, hemp, silk, various wools... they're biodegradable, and perfectly suitable for clothing of all types.
3) Thermal depolymerization. Yes, build chemical plants in every town. Replace the landfills AND sewage treatment facilities with these. Organics are broken down, minerals are separated out, medical waste is completely destroyed, it's a relatively efficient process, and you end up cleaner outflow. There are some side effects, but those _can_ be dealt with. (dioxins, mostly) (There was a plant built in Carthage, Missouri, but it was shut down because of dual attacks. Greed on the part of the company that was providing the feed stock - without having to pay for disposal anymore - and people constantly filing complaints against the plant for odour, noise, etc - even on days when it was shut down, and not producing any odour at all.
We _can't recycle batteries_. We can recycle NiMH, we can recycle NiCd, but we can't recycle lithium ion - not efficiently (yet). Rare earth metals aren't recoverable (yet). We can't recycle windmills when they fail. So, trying to go 'renewable'? It's not happening.
Nuclear waste 'disposal'? It's not that bad. People complain about putting radioactive material in the ground. The radioactive material was taken from the ground already! Find stable areas such as the Rocky Mountains, in one of the arid areas. Drill shafts. Put material into it, cork. No water table risk, and anyone trying to steal it would be very obvious. Stop calling filing cabinets and desks "Nuclear waste" (yes, if it comes out of a power plant's footprint, it's called nuclear waste, even if it's the guard shack at the front of the facility.) Even better. Go back to breeder reactors, so that the 'waste' goes back into use.
There are lots of ways that we, as people, can reduce our footprint. Most of us refuse to do so, because it's an inconvenience, or out of misguided empathy.
Here are some VERY simple things that everyone here can do to reduce their personal waste footprint.
1) Switch to fountain pens, using converters and bottled ink. I have one pen that's been in reasonably steady use for 36 years, a Parker Vector. I'm certain that in that same time period, most people have thrown away thousands of pens - and I'm trucking along with the same one.
2) Stop using disposable razors. I don't care how fancy your "shave with a sneaker" six blade razor head may seem to be - it's not any better (and usually worse) than an old fashioned safety razor. I pay less than 20 cents per razor blade (much less. I bought 100 blades for $7 last order), and I get between six and twelve shaves with one completely recyclable steel razor blade. The razor handle I'll be using in about an hour is somewhere around 70 years old. Brass with nickel plating. As long as I don't beat the heck out of it, it'll last another 70 years.
3) Bar soap. Get rid of the bottles of liquid soap and liquid body wash. Most soap is still in cardboard boxes, and what plastic wrap they use is minimal compared to the bottles.
4) Get leather when possible for accessories. My leather top shoes tend to wear out the soles and the actual connections between sole and top long before the leather shows significant wear. My leather belts tend to last enormously longer than the paper filled vinyl monstrosities - my last one, the buckle broke after five years, and I felt cheated.
Those four things are easily doable by _anyone_, without making huge changes to your lifestyle.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I agree. If the UK were to
I agree. If the UK were to start fracking tomorrow, the prices would not change. It would be sold at the market price. Which is high at the moment. Perhaps it would come down a little due to competition, but not much.
A few years ago there was a glut of crude oil. They had to almost give it away.
All down to market forces. That's why self sufficiency does not help too much.
Leeanna