Aberdeen is a beautiful city by all accounts. Nestled around a grand port in northeast Scotland, it's the third largest city in the country. It has a long and storied history, and until recently, it was a prosperous city. Part of the reason for that prosperity was the North Sea oil and gas business, which drove Aberdeen's economy up and brought good-paying jobs with it.
Now, thanks in large part to the United Kingdom's Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and his lunatic "Net Zero" schemes, Aberdeen is crashing and burning. Jobs are leaving, the oil and gas workers are headed for greener pastures, and real estate values are crashing.
Net Zero has taken a prosperous city and ruined it in just a few short years. The UK Telegraph's Money writer, Benedict J Smith, has the numbers.
Just over a decade ago, Aberdeen was thriving.
It was the gateway to Britain’s North Sea oil and gas industry. Average weekly earnings were higher only in London and it consistently ranked among the top UK cities for business and jobs growth.
At £215,000, property prices were nearly double the Scottish average, having risen 165pc in just 10 years as the area boomed.
Following the scent of oil and gas, new arrivals appeared in their droves to fill highly paid positions. Between 2004 and 2015, the population jumped by nearly 20,000 and local businesses flourished.
That's the "before." This is the "after."
The picture is starkly different today. Tumbling oil prices, punitive taxes and the underwhelming advance of renewables have tipped the North Sea energy industry into a spiral of accelerated decline that is taking Aberdeen’s property market down with it.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s pledge to deliver a net zero transition for the area – in which jobs in oil and gas are replaced by ones in clean energy – has also fallen flat.
Rather than a renewables energy boom, some of the biggest companies in the region have scaled back investment or withdrawn entirely, seeking more profitable opportunities in other places as far-flung as the Persian Gulf.
Many of the most skilled workers have gone with them.
A major city, a modern city, a city thriving due to energy extraction, reversed course and is now crashing, in less than a decade. We may very well wonder if any American climate scolds are paying attention, but these are people who are very practiced at ignoring, shall we say, inconvenient truths.
Read More: $20 Trillion Down the Drain: Renewables Barely Dent Fossil Fuels
Climate Change: Trillions Spent, and Now We See Nothing Gained
Worst of all, the United Kingdom is doubling down on stupid.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: “We are not willing to accept the status quo we inherited of the North Sea being in decline.
“We have set out a plan to build a prosperous and sustainable future for the North Sea, backed by record investment to grow clean energy industries.
“Our landmark clean energy jobs plan will also deliver the next generation of skilled jobs including over 40,000 new roles in Scotland by 2030.”
Yeah, let us know how that works out for you.
Note the language put out in this outpouring of horse squeeze, because if you've been following the Net Zero/green energy stupidity for any time, it will seem very familiar. We can translate a few terms:
"We are not willing to accept the status quo we inherited of the North Sea being in decline," means, "The North Sea oil and gas industry, as well as Aberdeen, were doing just fine before we started sticking our green oar in."
"We have set out a plan to build a prosperous and sustainable future," means, "We will pour more money into 'green' energy boondoggles that can and will never replace the gas and oil resources that we are taking offline."
"...backed by record investments" means, "...pouring more tax dollars and private investments, if we can find any, down yet another series of Net Zero ratholes."
"...the next generation of skilled jobs" means "...we have no idea if or when anyone productive is going to remain in Aberdeen."
Aberdeen - a place I've always wanted to visit, but about which I harbor many doubts now - is failing. People are leaving. That's always one of the first danger signs, when the productive citizenry starts bailing for greener pastures (are you reading this, Governor Newsom?). Property values are dropping like a stone, and that may benefit a few remaining residents; it will harm many more. In the UK, like in the United States, real estate is often a significant portion of one's net worth, and when real estate crashes...
The United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a part, is beset with problems, some of which (immigration) may be beyond the point of no return. But if there's any way that the fall of the once-Great Britain could be accelerated, it would be by jacking up energy prices for lower-density, higher-cost, less reliable sources, when there is ample natural gas and oil for the taking in the North Sea.
Energy is at the heart of everything in our modern, high-tech lifestyles. Ed Miliband seems determined to set the people of Britain back to the 1850s, energy-wise, and Aberdeen won't be the last major UK city to pay that price.
