Capitalism in Tooth and Claw or not

James Delingpole, in my view, is on the more hysterical right side of arguments about capitalism and the environment but I have to say his blog on The Commentator today is absolutely spot on and a must read. His criticism of Shell in supporting green 'solutions' cannot be faulted. It is a pity though he doesn't mention BP and its production of biofuel. Biofuel is the ultimate mad scientist's solution to a perceived problem which in reality is not a problem at all. It is like a cure that can be said to succeed because eventually you no longer need it as it's killed you. You can catch up with Delingpole's essential piece here. There is some glimmer of hope on the fuel front though as I see that the company with a licence to explore for shale gas in the North West has been allowed to continue its assessment of its find. This must mean that it will be allowed to extract the gas in the not too distant future. If Osborne is clever he will say something about this in his budget. The mere mention by Cameron that he is considering releasing some of the oil held in reserve for strategic reasons has had a downward pressure on crude prices so the mention by Osborne that we are going to exploit the shale gas reserves under Blackpool should have a similar effect. I hope the rumours that Osborne is going to lower the 50% tax rate back down to 40% are correct and I hope the rumours about the introduction of the jealousy mansion tax are incorrect. The government still needs to cut expenditure, cut regulation as well as repeal such absurdities as the Child Poverty Act which is an expensive folly as so ably argued here by Fraser Nelson in his article in the Telegraph today.