The Dire State Of Energy Politics

Dr Stuart Woolley
5 min readAug 29, 2022

Yet another example of short term gains destroying long term security.

Photo by Doris Morgan on Unsplash

There’s so little long term planning in politics it’s infuriating.

Everything revolves around public mood, of course, as the reelection imperative always trumps the needs and aspirations of the people, and country as a whole.

But this imperative revolves around public support at that moment in time and never, ever considers the state of the country or the needs of the people in the future — especially if it costs actual money, may be in any way controversial, or if it could be spent placating the voters in the short term with perfunctory tax cuts, greenwashed vanity projects, or hosting of expensive high profile events.

This is why, as tends to increasingly happen, in the modern world of ‘just in time’ everything it’s crisis after crisis, knee-jerk reactions to problems, and appeals to the public to do ‘their bit’ for the national cause rather than the elected governments and their politicians actually making possibly unpopular, yet properly strategic, decisions for the longer term.

Lack of Energy

There are many examples of this particular method of haphazard government that’s driven by immediacy and reelection rather than careful thinking and, naturally, planning.

--

--

Dr Stuart Woolley

Worries about the future. Way too involved with software. Likes coffee, maths, and . Would prefer to be in academia. SpaceX, X, and Overwatch fan.