The energy transition will be expensive

In 1965 britain struck gas in the North Sea. The government wanted to exploit its new fuel to heat buildings. But the gas that had been found was different from “town gas”, made from oil and coal, which most boilers were designed to use. So state-owned gas boards carried out an enormous project: the conversion of 13m buildings to a new heating technology. An army of contractors was recruited and enlisted for the task. “It seems quite wrong that, after two weeks’ training, ex-bus conductors, postmen and so forth can walk in and take one’s cooker to bits,” complained one housewife. No premises could be spared: a group of workers sent to Soho, home to London’s red-light district, found they had to wait in line to enter “one of the more dubious” clubs.