Why Norway beats Britain in the drive for electric vehicles: Yorkshire Post Letters

I READ the article about electric vehicles and their charging by Sarah Olney (The Yorkshire Post, August 12) with increasing incredulity, and I feel that something should be said about the meaningless comparison between Norway and the UK.

Norway has a population of 5.3 million on a land mass of just under 400,000 square kilometres. In comparison the UK has a population of 66.5 million on a land mass of just under 250,000 square kilometres. Most importantly Norway has the fourth largest Sovereign Fund in the world.

How has this Sovereign Fund come about? This has largely occurred because Norway has exploited the oil and gas fields in its territory, which no doubt has added a not insignificant amount to the greenhouse gases from which we seem to be suffering.

The topography and climate of Norway have allowed it, very wisely, to invest this wealth in hydroelectric generation to such an extent that it will become significant exporters of electrical power. Is Ms Olney not aware of the current building of an electrical power connection between Norway and the UK?

In these circumstances of a large surplus of electrical energy is it surprising that Norway is investing in electric vehicles?

From: Chris Broome, Hackthorn Road, Sheffield.

IN his recent column, Alexander Stafford MP (The Yorkshire Post, August 9) lists many of the reasons fracking for shale gas has always been a bad idea for this country.

We should hope a combination of these and public opposition should see off any threat of this industry re-emerging.

He then enthuses about “clean hydrogen as the fuel of the future which can power our cars, buses and homes”.

Unfortunately, various industrial users and others are seeking to convert to hydrogen too.

Once they have taken their “share”, there is little chance of there being enough clean and affordable hydrogen left for all the potential demands he lists. For those, reducing the need to travel, better public transport, electric vehicles and, for home heating, heat-pumps are all low-carbon solutions that will play a much bigger part.

These admittedly have a range of cost and practicality challenges.

More determined Government support would minimise these and enable them to form part of a deliverable net-zero carbon economy, complete with the climate jobs that go with it.

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