Who's to blame for high commodity – energy, food, metals, prices – it's the producers, stupid, not the banks and speculators

Happy New Year everyone. This article of mine re markets might be of interest (also below). http://seekingalpha.com/article/245574-who-s-to-blame-for-high-commodity-prices-it-s-the-producers-stupid v=1294568746&source=tracking_notify In my view commodity markets have two price boundary ‘trend-lines’: a ‘sellers’ market’ upper boundary, where consumer demand destruction sets in, and a ‘buyers’ market’ lower boundary, where ‘production destruction’ sets in. The current situation, where finance […]

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Government to shift resources from wind power to nuclear power in ERM – Energy Market Reform…….by Dr Dave Toke

A letter on this subject was published in the Guardian today, 27th December 2010http://realfeed-intariffs.blogspot.com/ – for further info…. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne is heralding  a move towards giving nuclear power  guaranteed subsidies from electricity consumers whilst going back to the discredited 1990s approach of awarding contracts to supply wind power through contract auctions. […]

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Wind Energy Reduces Electricity Prices,Says Independent Study"….NOT

Extract from Claverton Energy Group Archives, by Paul Frederik Bach, ex director Danish Western National Grid. On 12 May 2010 21:13, Paul-Frederik Bach <pfbach@profibermail.dk> wrote: Dear all, The debate on the economy of wind power seems to be never ending. Observations of wind power output and spot prices indicate that wind power creates low prices […]

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Event Invitation: “Selling to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Lessons from Marketing Compost” by Jonathan Rouse, Director of HED Consulting

The HEDON Household Energy Network (www.hedon.info ) holds a monthly informal meeting in London, UK, where practitioners, policy-makers, funders, and business-owners actively pursuing a cleaner, affordable and more efficient household energy sector unite to share their experiences, learn from one another, and create new knowledge. The next meeting, which your members may find interesting, will […]

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OFGEM report on problematic future energy supplies – admission of market failure in electricty supplies

The report is at: http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Markets/WhlMkts/Discovery/Documents1/Project_Discove ry_FebConDoc_FINAL.pdf News articles at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8494899.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household- bills/7144386/British-households-risk-unaffordable-energy-bills-Ofgem- warns.html http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/sse-says-customers-using-less-gas-electricity-reuters_molt-20a544628846.html A little interpretation: Quote: “There is a need for unprecedented levels of investment to be sustained over many years in difficult financial conditions and against a background of increased risk and uncertainty.” To translate, “the fat cats and their shareholders have […]

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Graduate attacks outsourcing of UK water engineering jobs to India etc as a cheap electoral gimmick by way of keeping water bills down.

The consultant I work for is undergoing a major redundancy process in the water engineering side of the business, with the majority of jobs being lost at graduate level and below.

We have been informed that the reasons for this are that the draft determination from Ofwat appears particularly tough and as such, we won’t be getting any work out of the water companies for possibly as much as a year. It is also apparent that when the work does start to come, unachievable efficiency will be required, forcing consultants to “offshore” work to India and the like.

To make graduates redundant in this country, only to employ staff in India in their place does not seem acceptable. If we, as an industry, are left with this as the only option to be able to survive, then it would seem that Ofwat has got it wrong and we should be doing more to influence its decision making.

This is a very important issue for the country as we have already practically lost manufacturing as an industry and cannot afford to lose construction skills overseas.

It is also clear that the reason for the harsh determination is that the government doesn’t want to put water bills up because it is still hoping to win the approaching General Election.

This is unacceptable and is destroying an industry. What is the ICE doing about this?

Joe Andrews, mailto:joekayaker at hotmail dot com

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