IN a post here a couple of days ago, I noted that Green MP Caroline Lucas was calling for a war-time mentality in the UK, as during WWII “people put up with so much disruption and deprivation because they knew there was no alternative”.
Now Bloomberg reports that lawmakers in the UK are rapidly moving ahead with schemes to impose a radical regime of carbon rationing within the next ten years:
Fuel rationing may be needed by 2020 in the U.K. to meet the government’s carbon emission targets, a panel of lawmakers said, suggesting an electronic trading system for energy quotas.
Under the system, called Tradable Energy Quotas, or TEQs, energy credits would be distributed free to every adult, who could then buy and sell surplus units, the London-based research groupThe Lean Economy Connection said today in a report commissioned by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil. The multi-party panel of lawmakers looks at the impacts of declining fossil-fuel production.
Bloomberg. Fuel Rationing Needed By 2020 to Cut Co2 Emissions, Lawmakers Say.
Under the regime envisaged by lawmakers, every individual would have their own Tradable Energy Quota (TEQ) which would be linked to their personal bank account to help track their energy use and Co2 emissions:
John Hemming, chair of the parliamentary panel, said a payment system could involve a credit card with two numbers — one linked to the customer’s bank account and another to their energy TEQs account. The system would help level out price changes, because the value of TEQs would decline as energy prices rise, said Chamberlin.
Bloomberg. Fuel Rationing Needed By 2020 to Cut Co2 Emissions, Lawmakers Say.
The aim of the plan is to force people to cut back on their energy use, by issuing them with fewer energy credits than they actually need, thus making them either use less energy or buy more credits, as the Press Association reports:
The amount every adult received would be equal but not necessarily enough to meet their needs – forcing people to directly think about their energy use.
Press Association. Quotas ‘Would Tackle fuel Poverty’
Green MP Caroline Lucas said that this had always been a goal of the Green Party, as it gave people a “direct connection to their carbon emissions”. However, whilst welcoming moves to force carbon rationing on the UK, she said that the reduction targets were not strict enough:
“We need to put in place mechanisms that will guarantee we can meet and in fact exceed them,” she said, referring to a goal enshrined in U.K. law to slash emissions by 34 percent by 2020. She says it should be higher.
Bloomberg. Fuel Rationing Needed By 2020 to Cut Co2 Emissions, Lawmakers Say.
The Financial Times reveals that only 40% of an individual’s allowance will be given to them free, with the rest being “auctioned off”. As the FT sees it, the idea behind the scheme is obvious – to drastically raise the price of energy and fuel by means of a carbon tax:
The primary objection is obvious: this leaves the (presently cash-strapped) consumer paying lots more for the energy they use – not only in terms of the power they consume at home, but also in terms of the extra cost of everything they buy. After all, manufacturers are hardly likely to absorb all the extra costs themselves.
Those who support the proposal say it would cost less than the inevitable price spike that will come our way when we hit peak oil — better to ration our energy use now than have it forcibly rationed by a lack of oil.
Financial Times. British Lawmakers Propose energy Rationing.
I think the s**t would hit the fan over this proposal if they tried to actually make it law. Remember the poll tax?
For more on the lead-up to the carbon-rationing regime see:
Daily Mail: Every Adult Should Be Forced to Use a ‘Carbon Ration Card’
The Times: Staff in Carbon Footprint Trial Face £100 Fine For High Emissions.
Politics.co.uk: Carbon Rationing ‘By 2012’.
The Telegraph: Milliband Backs Idea of Carbon Rationing For All.
New Statesman: Why We Must Ration the Future (2006) – a ‘must read’.
hauntingthelibrary 
A nice way of hardening up stratified pivilege especially as people are forced to sell their ‘credits’ to pay for food…
When it gets to the winter months the social security system will have to have a form of social fund for heating credits for the poor (a much larger percentage by then)…
Hell, why not go whole hog and give people a card to give them, say ‘x’ number of ‘life’ credits which they can also buy and sell as seen fit?. When the pre-determined number of credits (or whatever the balance is in the bank) is used up the central computer activates the RFD mini-explosive planted in an artery in the brain…..
Would certainly sort out the population cull….
Am I mad cos these are the sorts of things that pop into my head?…….must be that aforementioned chip……..
There will be trouble ahead’…tra-le-la-le-la-la-
”Caroline Lucas, leader of the U.K. Green Party and vice chair of the panel, said in an interview that using the tradable quotas would place a cap on emissions that gives more certainty to achieving greenhouse gas goals than existing measures.
“It’s the most EQUITABLE way and the most certain way that we have to make sure we can meet our emission reduction targets,” Lucas said. ”
http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2011/01/18/british-lawmakers-propose-energy-rationing/
I would like to draw attention to the word ‘equitable’ above.
Thanks Pilonidal – perfect example of Orwellian double-speak!
What I find so irritating is that we were routinely told that a majority of the ‘new intake’ of Tory MPs were, generally speaking, sceptics and to the Right of Cameron and his cabal.
As things have turned out, it would appear that it is not only the lunatic hippies of Brighton who have elected a Green MP.
Isn’t that called a ‘coup’?
Is this part of a strategy to do away with cash? Control freaks have long been keen on exclusively electronic transactions so that they can take a slice more efficiently. We will have to buy everything by card and pay tax on the babysitter. Brave new world
This could get very interesting.
Wouold it be woring to propose that the ‘lawmakers’ set the example for the rest by accepting no TEQ’s and agreeing to cut the Westminster CO2 output to zero (I’ll give them an extra 5 years to make it apply to their breathing). All travel to be disallowed. They can take time off, at their own expense and under their own power, to travel to and from their constituencies twice per annum.
Anyone arriving from abroad, legally or otherwise, must pay for a licence for the right to use energy (if they can find it) at point of entry. £5000 would seem an appropriate amount. Obviously usage limited and the licence lasts for a year. Instant deportation if they can’t pay.
Emigrating to the comparative sanity that is Afghanistan looks ever more attractive.
Hauntingthelibrary,
Have you already read this?
It seems to me that people are on the same track to destruction. How foolish will these carbon rationing people look if we enter a couple of decades of a cooling trend in the face of ever rising manmade greenhouse gases? What will they say?
”How foolish will these carbon rationing people look if we enter a couple of decades of a cooling trend in the face of ever rising manmade greenhouse gases? What will they say?”
Ideology is most powerful stuff.
The dissonance escape route has already been constructed……such an eventuality is already prostituted as either ‘weather’ or a ‘localised event'(even when covering the Northern Hemisphere as is almost the case).
This will all be done with a straight face.
Tis wonderous to behold.
No pressure.
HTL – We have to fight these twin evils in any & every way we can.
Tradable Energy Quotas: The policy framework is in place.
http://www.glebedigital.co.uk/blog/?p=1522
New Home Front Design Competition
http://www.glebedigital.co.uk/blog/?p=1494
Seems that ideas such as this are indicative that the “Green” in the Green Party is actually slime . . . . nasty, dumb, ridiculous over-the-top slime.
And it has gotten past their thick skulls and now occupies the void that previously existed between their ears.
It’s always hilarious to look at a “free market” system designed by a socialist to “force” behavioral change.
@ HTL – I thought you might be interested in the following short article in the Norwich Evening News. It’s not in the (free) online edition, so I’ve scanned it and uploaded here:
Thanks Dave – great find there. Appreciated.
Cheers,
HtL.
Perhaps OUP should now be re-named RIP. What a load of nonsense.
“Remember the poll tax” – I surely do. There were two things I thought I would never see again in my lifetime: an old-fashioned bank run (along came Northern Rock!) and a genuine tax riot!
I’ll be out too: mustn’t have this sort of thing in the People’s Republic of Britain.
I get it! Population control by starvation and freezing, saving the planet…. For who?
Well – that should completely kill off the UK’s industry at a stroke.
But – hey – who cares, as long as we get our carbon emissions down..??
Just a reminder – petrol (gasoline) in the US – 50p a litre equivalent….
I think I finally understand the British phrase “barking mad”.
Do you think I would be able to cut down and burn my own trees without big brother noticing? Will there be a CO2 monitor on my chimney? Will I be allowed to have a fire in the open and cook my vegan burger over it?
Thank God that shale oil and shale gas together with global cooling will kill this peak oil and green idiocy nonsense off.
I don’t think anything will kill off this idiocy. They will give themselves new powers to stamp out protests while pressing on regardless.
I fear these nutters have infiltrated too many key positions to be stopped. They may be losing the scientific debate, but consider that a minor inconvenience now they have a power base.
There’s some worrying truth in this. Despite the growing scepticism of the general public across most of the world, the political classes seem to be sailing on, careless of the growing dissent.
Over at EU Referendum, you can really sense the seething anger and while we Brits tend to think we’re incapable of being stirred to violent protest, that’s not the case. History shows that we can snap – and snap nastily.
If this carries on and if the politicians continue their pig-headedness, I think it will both take and will get a violent reaction. And I’m old enough not to welcome the prospect.
Nutty. We’ve already seen that carbon trading has been a magnet for scammers. This will just cause the biggest baddest black market you ever saw.
The amount every adult received would be equal but not necessarily enough to meet their needs – forcing people to directly think about their energy use.
Denying a population of 60 million the fuel required to survive a British winter – hey what could go wrong with that plan?
Oh, I think they’d find something to burn pretty soon.
That will quickly turn the British into criminals.. some black market will rise.. some “groups” will get too many tickets to sell.. some will get far too few.. scams will arise.. and people will change their behavior, not to cut carbon use.. but to use more without permission. Like all liberal socialist marxist plans it will fail and harm millions in the process. Perhaps the evil part of this is thats its all for nothing.. CO2 isn’t a factor in AGW, even if AGW was happening and its not.
People who lose their cards or aren’t well equipped to deal in a personal traded market will be up the creek ( “Lost your card – only 3 months to get a replacement – hope you don’t die first, luv !” )
and after UK MPs shameless rorting of parliamentary expenses – I think we can be fairly confident that there will be ‘exceptions’ to ‘allocations not necessarily sufficient to cover their needs’ – parliamentarians, senior climate change bureaucrats, BBC producers, NGO senior staffers, Guardian columnists etc.
It is a mindbogglingly shameless effort by a group to entrench privilege, power and advantage over the bulk of the populace usually seen to date in third world despotisms – think Tunisia going in reverse.
It will never happen.
Those who support the proposal say it would cost less than the inevitable price spike that will come our way when we hit peak oil — better to ration our energy use now than have it forcibly rationed by a lack of oil.
Really? The price of oil will increase slowly, this tax will be on top of the oil price rising. I think I’d prefer to have as much oil as I can use for as long as I can afford it.
“better to ration our energy use now” Is this a joke, can we buy and store oil so the oil price increase will be blended with the cheap oil we saved?
“Let them eat carbon…” we know what happens next.
Vive le revolucion!
Ms. Lucas MP is more stupid than Browner or Pulosi in America. She is our only ‘green’ MP and with luck will lose her seat next election. There is nothing like requests for tax increases to get a no vote in UK since we are taxed more than anyone else at the moment.
This outrageous energy rationing proposal, given the public’s rising scepticism of CAGW, is the most potent recipe for mass civil unrest/disobedience I’ve seen in a long time. It could and should prove to be a game changer. The game being up for the Westminster village idiots and assorted ecofreaks who are pushing this garbage.
Talk about regulating yourself out of existence. Looks like some prime real estate will be opening up on the coast.
I vaguely recall that a year or so ago, Caroline Lucas’ house was subjected to thermal imaging and found to be very poorly insulated. Do we know if she has been sufficiently encouraged to think about – and act upon – her energy useage?
I doubt it. You have to understand that these are the special people. The rules don’t apply to them, just the little people.