[Sephiroth]

In my capacity as a pragmatic (really) Conservative, I can't for the life of me defend the privatisation of the energy industry under present rules.

I can see why Thatcher did it - to raise cash for debt repayment and her Guvmin's projects. But 40 years on, crisis meets a private company's obligations to its shareholders. The profits at this time of the underlying providers (rather than the Alt-energies) are excessive and are being paid by us. That's wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...-cause-outrage

Soaring profits at two of the UK’s biggest energy companies have been described as an “insult” to millions of people struggling amid the cost of living crisis, with high oil and gas prices funding multibillion-pound rewards for their shareholders.

A day after households were warned average annual energy bills could hit £3,850 from January, triple the level at the beginning of this year, Shell and Centrica sparked outrage by announcing huge windfalls.

Shell posted record earnings of $11.4bn (nearly £10bn) for the three-month period from April to June and promised to give shareholders payouts worth £6.5bn.

Asked about the stark contrast with punishingly high bills faced by households already struggling amid sky-high inflation, Shell’s chief executive, Ben van Beurden, said the company could not “perform miracles” to bring oil and gas prices down, adding: “It is what it is.”

At the same time, Centrica, the owner of British Gas, reinstated its dividend, handing investors £59m, after reporting operating profits of £1.3bn during the first half of 2022.