We knew he had wind, or more accurately the Crown Estate has wind*, subsidized no less, but gas is a revelation.
From The Guardian, April 9:
King’s green energy firm was investigated after 38-day greenhouse gas leakJV Energen’s accounts suggest it made about £4m profit in 2022 for the Duchy of Cornwall, control of which has now passed from Charles to Prince William.
Health and Safety Executive also issued several notices related to worker safety and explosive substances at JV Energen
A green energy company set up by King Charles was investigated for numerous health and safety breaches after the unauthorised leak of more than 1,000 tonnes of global-heating gases.
Methane, CO2 and traces of the toxic gas hydrogen sulphide were released after a gas-holder at the plant split open in 2020. The incident, which lasted for 38 days, was described as “significant” by the Environment Agency.
The plant in Dorset, JV Energen, was also investigated for breaches involving “flammable and toxic” substances. It is majority-owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, a hereditary estate that raises revenues for whoever is the male heir to the throne.
The duchy said in a statement: “The negative impact of the emissions associated with the leak, while regrettable, were completely immaterial compared with the positive impact of the provision of renewable energy.”
The plant is at Rainbarrow Farm, near Dorchester, on land belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall. Now owned by Prince William by right of his title of Duke of Cornwall, the duchy estate had for decades been overseen by his father.
JV Energen was opened in 2012 and hailed by Charles as a breakthrough in green energy production. It is a joint venture between four farmers and the duchy. The plant turns crops into gas and electricity, which are used in the local area, as well as to create fertilisers for local farms....
....MUCH MORE
He's such a piker. If you are going to dump methane into the atmosphere, go blow up Nord Stream and trigger the largest man-made release in history.Queen Elizabeth: Offshore wind farms to generate £100m windfall for Crown Estate
From the Times of London:
The Crown Estate will earn windfall profits of at least £100million a year from Britain's booming offshore renewable energy industry.
The estate, which owns the foreshore and seabed around the UK, has already signed contracts worth tens of millions of pounds with operators of offshore wind farms.
Rents from the siting of wind turbines are only the beginning of a vast new commercial opportunity for the Crown Estate. In addition to a huge expansion in offshore wind power and the development of tidal power, the estate will profit from the laying of subsea cables and an emerging industry in storing carbon captured from coal-fired power stations.
Rob Hastings, the Crown Estate's marine director, said that the group, which manages land and assets owned by the Queen but pays most of its revenues to the Treasury, charges offshore wind operators an annual “rent” of just under 1 per cent of the value of the electricity generated....MORE
Regarding the wind subsidies the Crown Estate is not alone. From The Telegraph, August 2011:
Noblesse Oblige: "The aristocrats cashing in on Britain's wind farm subsidies"
Okay, it's not Oblige, it's more like Noblesse, Score!!!
How beautiful they stand!
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
O'er all the pleasant land.
The deer across their greensward bound
Thro' shade and sunny gleam,
And the swan glides past them with the sound
Of some rejoicing stream.
Blackwoods Magazine April, 1827
I wish Noel Coward were around to comment:
- The stately homes of England,
- How beautiful they stand,
- To prove the upper classes
- Have still the upper hand.
