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Will energy prices rise
We are constantly being told that energy prices will relentlessly rise. Does everyone agree? There is a lot in the news about the cheapness of gas in the US due to fracking. It seems that fracking and tar sands may soon make them self-sufficient in energy. Even if they don't export their need for imports is hugely reduced. This threatens to create a glut of oil and gas in the world market, despite a predicted rise in demand of 8% p.a. in the rest of the world. I read some time ago that the Russians were very worried (we pay them 3 times as much for gas as current American prices). This seems to have been lost in the news. Surely supply and demand would argue that fracking in the US and maybe elesewhere will cause energy prices to fall. Yet there is so much propoganda predicting constant rise in prices I am not sure if I am right. Any views or better still inside knowledge?
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Already in uk
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/shaleGas/howMuch.html
https://www.gov.uk/oil-and-gas-onshore-exploration-and-productionI am responsible me, myself and I alone I am not the keeper others thoughts and words.0 -
They're always going up, for whatever reason.I am a moneysaver0
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It's all the fault of speculators.
What we need to do is create a gigantic hoax, that a huge oil and gas deposit has been found in the South Pole, and that it just needs international agreement for orderly exploitation. Watch that barrel price tumble.
Obviously we need to sell oil futures in a big way before we announce it, so we can make loads of money when it falls, and then buy when it bottoms out, so we make even more when the prices recover (Like Trading Places, but the opposite trade). The bonus is that speculators like Goldman Sachs will lose their pants, jump off tall buildings, which we should capture for YouTube for everyone's entertainment, as well as an object lesson in morality.
We donate some of the profit to George Osborne, as a bribe so he will tell the FCA to turn a blind eye. George will pay off the National Debt earlier, so he's happy to help. With the rest of the money, I will buy a tropical island, and never be cold again: like the end of Trading Places.0 -
Don't you think the government needs to fund more research into alternative energy sources? We've had a load of companies come around to our house offering solar panelling recently...0
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I do think more needs to be done about green energy but current policy isn't really helping. For example because US low gas prices has driven down US coal price Europe is importing coal and using it in electricity generation instead of gas and coal is 3 times as polluting as gas. So while we get our act together it would be better to use gas as an interim (which we were doing until recently) but we are not doing it. We are relying on wishful thinking about green energy. And of course it is not the government which is gaining by the excess profits from an artificially inflated gas price. It is the energy companies. The government may be colluding of course because it helps them sell weak green energy policies. Further if the energy companies rae using coal instead of gas for electricity gen why isn't the price of gas falling. ALSO the Russians have siad they will drop their price next year by 10% (presumably because they know world gas price is weak) why aren't we being promised a gas price drop?? Murky indeed.0
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why aren't we being promised a gas price drop?? Murky indeed.
Because markets are unpredictable, and neither demand, or supply is quite certain.
Add to this that shipping some forms of energy is really expensive over long distances, and it all gets rather unpredictable.
If you had a foolproof method of predicting the price - you could sell it for literally billions.
The price is what the price is - predicting this in advance is hard.
However - the rise in demand from china and many other emerging nations is putting a lot of upward pressure on the cost of all sources of energy.
Fundamentally, if you strongly believe energy price (in any form) is going to drop significantly in price, over what the futures markets expect, you can sell futures to that effect, and make significant amounts of money.0 -
Yes, of course its going to go up, so far they've been constantly increasing prices one or two times per year, for several years and we (as society) have done nothing about it (personal / group whinging on forums accomplishes nothing and so doesn't count), so with this sense of silent public encouragement they'll just keep on doing it, they are businesses after all. Wouldn't you want to see just how far you can push and how much profit you can make?.
That said, the EU haven't finished with us yet, and following the (expensive) and continued roll out of Solar Panels and Windfarms, they are telling us that we now need to phase out our 'dirty' old fashioned coal and gas fired power stations, and its a fair guess they (EU) won't be funding it, just like they have never footed the bill for any of their other crackpot ideas.
I've also read posts from people within the industry who say that the infrastructure of the grid system is now running close to capacity in some areas and so the distribution system (Power Lines, Transformers etc) needs to be upgraded as the population has not only increased but people's lifestyles and work / social habits have changed also, meaning the way that we use power has changed to, and is vastly different to how it was when the grid was originally designed.
Don't forget that the distribution system is now essentially working 'two way' with energy being fed back in from Solar Panels et al, so an increased demand on the infrastructure there also.
You can bet the billions needed for this will come from the customers' purse.
So, yes I think prices will increase, and quite significantly."Dont expect anybody else to support you, maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse, but you never know when each one, might run out" - Mary Schmich0 -
It will increase every year from now on until someone in power has the guts to tell the so called green lobby "No more Subsidies"0
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