For their own short-term interests, the energy industry bought in to the climate change bubble. With that and the increase in energy costs – not all of which are explained by the shift in global prices, they have become about as popular as banks.
This, though, is only the start. While we must look to the administration for the failures of policy which could lead to our lights going out, the industry has not been sufficiently voluble or firm in setting out the consequences. Thus, when the lights do go out, energy firms are going to get a lot of the blame.
But, with EDF becoming the latest to raise its UK retail prices – putting up gas bills by over 15 percent and electricity by 4.5 percent - there are short-term consequences as well. Energy, more than any other sector, is driving up inflation, increasing levels of fuel poverty. About seven million households come into the poverty band.
When we see soaring bills, official indifference and union intransigence, plus the euro about to go belly-up and the Polish finance minister admitting that the EU might not survive the collapse, those "interesting times" that the Chinese cursed us with look ever closer.
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