Julia Hartley-Brewer clashes with Just Stop Oil activist

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Speaking to a young woman named Xanty, the talkRADIO presenter questioned whether the activist wanted “us to sit in the dark and the cold” instead of using fossil fuels to warm UK homes. The debate was staged as millions struggle with the cost of living crisis and the colossal rises in gas and electricity prices leave Britons freezing.

The pair began by discussing renewable energy sources such as wind and power, with Ms Hartley-Brewer arguing that their usefulness was capped by the fact that they could not be stored.

She said: “We can make wind and we can make solar power, but we can’t store it. Therefore, if the wind is not blowing and it’s at night we don’t have access to that energy, and we need to have back-ups of nuclear, gas, oil, or whatever it is.”

She then used this opportunity to ask the caller if she had a solution for people trying to heat their homes if they could not use gas and oil.

She added: “So given that we are years and decades away from actually having alternative supplies of reliable fuel, what do you prefer us to have as the alternative if you don’t want us to have gas or oil?”

“Or do you want us to sit in the dark and the cold because those are the choices?”

The young woman, speaking for the campaign group Just Stop Oil, appeared to dodge the question, demanding that the Government cease investing in fossil fuel projects.

She then suggested that should the Government stop using oil, it would allow the country to “start now”.

She said: “Do you realise how quickly the Government responded to the coronavirus pandemic? They can respond quickly to emergencies if they start now, if the UK Government just stop oil and investing in new fossil fuel projects, then we can start now.”

Unsatisfied with the answer, Ms Hartley-Brewer pressed Xanty to respond to the question of alternatives but was met with further resistance, with the activist saying that was “a stupid question”.

Just Stop Oil sparks fury as he "D-locks' himself to fuel tanker

More than 200 Just Stop Oil activists were arrested over the weekend after the group joined up with Extinction Rebellion to blockade major UK oil sites.

Protesters glued themselves to the road and locked themselves to oil rigs and lampposts in a bid to force the Government to halt “expanding UK oil and gas production”.

The group have employed similar tactics to those used by Insulate Britain over several months last year, known as “non-violent civil resistance”.

Other examples of their activism include the 21-year-old Louis McKechnie, who used a zip tie to fasten his neck to a goalpost at Goodison Park during an Everton football match against Newcastle United on March 17.

DON’T MISS: 

Extinction Rebellion to make comeback with wave of protests next week [REVEAL] 
Protesters dig TUNNELS to storm oil terminals blocking 100 tankers in [REPORT] 
XR plots month of hell with DAILY London protests [REVEAL] 

The issue of storing renewable energy has proved an expensive problem that has so far hindered its ascension to the most relied-upon sources of power.

Estimates suggest that to store a week’s supply of solar or wind power, a household would have to obtain a battery the maintenance of which would triple their electricity bill.

Though activists have made it clear that fossil fuels must be discontinued in the near future, they have not provided alternative solutions for energy.

Just Stop Oil simply claims that transitioning away from fossil fuels will “help cut energy bills and help us meet our international climate obligations”.

Source: Read Full Article