I REALLY SHOULDN'T BE CLUBBING BABY SEALS.

On the other hand, when somebody puts forth a manifesto ambitiously headed "How Progressives Would Handle the Current Energy, Inflation, and Climate Crises" maybe we should take it seriously.  The subheading continues, "The multiple crises are encouraging consensus on the need for public ownership and socialised management and control of energy sectors in the short and medium term."

I suppose, with November 7 approaching, there are useful idiots who still hope for one more wallow in the past.

It's funny watching socialists twist themselves into pretzels to denounce Vladimir Putin along with the plutocrats, in predictable ways.

[F]ossil fuel firms are enjoying their tax breaks and reporting quarterly record profits. Market analysis on energy prices predicts continuing high prices of gas for the next two years. This is not just due to the uncertainties created by the Russian occupation of Ukraine, but rather the movement of gas assets in forward markets. Forward markets create facilities used for speculative purposes, as well as for hedging, which means energy prices will continue to rise and we will continue to see phenomenal record profits by fossil fuel companies.

If we know the price is going to go up tomorrow, it will go up today.  In like manner, if we know the price is going to go down tomorrow, it will go down today.  If extraction and transmission capacity is going to come on line tomorrow, that will be reflected in today's prices.  Never mind Vladimir Putin, look for the cancellation of pipeline capacity and future oil leases on federal lands here at home.

It gets better from there, dear reader.  The only thing worse than the deprivation that a Green New Deal would bring is the deprivation that is currently in store.

The Financial Times has been featuring stories of adjustments and energy saving measures being made by companies in Europe like turning down heating, which will keep facilities cold in winter. This would mean workers must continue to work in chilly workplaces and come to cold homes too. Firms are also increasingly resorting to importation of essential manufacturing materials where they are cheaper or reducing manufacturing altogether. There are reasons to worry that this could cause imminent de-industrialisation in Europe, which would lead to further losses of jobs here in the UK as well.

What effect will those substitutions have on corporate profits?  No answer forthcoming, only a hope that the deprivation will be tolerable in the service of the right goal.

With the energy and food crises happening against the backdrop of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing war, governments are using the excuse that climate concerns are becoming less of a priority. This contrary to the reality that with geopolitical crises, the climate emergency will bring even greater disruptions. We are already seeing merciless floods, mega-droughts, and simultaneous crop failure in key grain-producing regions worldwide.With the energy and food crises happening against the backdrop of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing war, governments are using the excuse that climate concerns are becoming less of a priority. This contrary to the reality that with geopolitical crises, the climate emergency will bring even greater disruptions. We are already seeing merciless floods, mega-droughts, and simultaneous crop failure in key grain-producing regions worldwide.

How does one make the disruptions go away? Then a miracle must occur.

The multiple crises are encouraging consensus on the need for public ownership and socialised management and control of energy sectors in the short and medium term. Energy is now considered a national security issue, opening new conflicts, and it is clear that each fossil fuel producing country asserts its rights to continue using fossil fuels. There are many cases of not just national but also municipally owned and managed energy sectors.

What we also need to understand is that embarking on energy transformation, will also be, and need to be, disruptive. The energy system is the foundation of industrialised economies, for transition to happen it needs to be overhauled for a phase-out of fossil fuels within a few decades. Huge industries like coal and oil will have to shrink or go through a period of phase-out, before they then disappear. Agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, aviation and other sectors will need to change radically to become more sustainable and resilient. That radical change will not happen without conflicts.

There is a class aspect to the questions—how, where and why fossil fuels will get left in the ground, and how, where and why the renewable energy sector gets built up and accelerated. It will be very difficult to plan a phase-out if the energy assets are not publicly owned and socially managed. At the same time, it must be ensured too that the social needs of economies relying on fossil fuels must be addressed. That inter-state question needs to be addressed, otherwise a global phase-out will not happen. There are no concrete policy proposals yet to end the market for energy prices or to bring into common ownership the energy companies, retail, distribution and wholesale operations.

Multiple miracles, apparently.  But this Dorothy Guerrero is not done with the wishful thinking.

It is not just households that are facing massive challenges of paying energy bills, so too are schools, hospitals, care homes, and small businesses. What is not much discussed is how domestic energy is priced in this country. The rules ensure that everyone suffers except the privatised energy companies.

The energy we get is from a mix of oil, gas, nuclear, coal, hydro and renewables. However, the wholesale price of electricity is based on marginal costing. As argued by Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK, what it means is that the wholesale energy price is set so that the most expensive producer can make a profit from the sales they make into the wholesale energy market. At the moment, this is set on gas, which is the most expensive to produce now. This doesn't make sense at all. The government puts a price guarantee on energy sectors, and it is within its remit to intervene and reduce energy costs by changing regulations.

Burn your energy economics textbook if it tells you, first, that the equilibrium producer is indifferent between producing or not producing at that price, and that the way to keep producers with marginal costs that high from producing is to have additional, lower marginal cost producers enter the market.

Perhaps that's why the Pajamas Media people keep cracking wise about socialists using electricity before they started using candles.