[T]he UK is [not] safe from the possibility of a Gas Emergency. I cannot stress how important it is that we avoid such an emergency. It would lead to the CBI's worst case where much or all of the gas generators are closed down to maintain gas supply to peoples properties. This could entail rolling blackouts [of electrical supplies] if brownouts were not sufficient.

Chairman of the Independent Energy Scrutiny Panel, John Hemming MP - December 1, 2005

John Hemming, a British Member of Parliament, has a weblog where he discusses issues of interest to him, and to the nation as a whole.

One of his interests appears to be gas (the invisible kind, not petroleum) or, more precisely, the overconsumption of it. Supposedly the UK is pulling collossal amounts of gas out of reserves due to the bitter winter so far and, in theory, we could be "out of gas" by the end of February.

He has setup a blog called The UK Gas Crisis 2005-2007 to cover all of the issues.

This is a topic I don't have a real interest in, but which concerns me as a citizen. I've also read articles claiming that our power generation systems are near crisis point with the heavy demand, and now it seems gas is having problems too. What happens when it all runs out? It has to at some point, and thinking that we are so blindly trusting a handful of companies with our whole way of life (admit it, your life would be radically different without electricity!) is preeetty scary..