Gas is cheap because there isn't demand for it, energy generation has one of the most inelastic supply curves under a decade of any industry. If the UK was sti

Gas is cheap because there isn't demand for it, energy generation has one of the most inelastic supply curves under a decade of any industry. If the UK was still producing steel at the level it was in 1960 it would require up to 10% of the total current electricity production to meed the demand of the sector [1] [2]. That's just one industry. The UK's electricity demand has fallen over 20% since the peak in 2000 [3]. The other reason why coal is no longer a good deal for the UK is that Thatcher wanted to crush organized labour in the mines, managed to do it and then found that trying to import coal from Australia was a losing proposition. Had British industry not been stabbed in the back by the Tories we'd be looking at new plants which would be a mix on coal and gas and maybe if the greens could have been kept at bay nuclear, but old plants will still be open because they could make money. [1] http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/martelaro1/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/martelaro1/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_Kingdom [3] https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-primary-energy-use-in-2018-was-the-lowest-in-half-a-century/uk-electricity-generation-by-source-terwatt-hours-1996-2018-shares-of-uk-electricity-generation-percentage-2 https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-primary-energy-use-i...