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UTILITY WEEK | 20TH - 26TH MAY 2016 | 31 Community Editor, Utility Week, and content director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen. bennett@fav-house.com; Assistant editor (insights): Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@ fav-house.com; Associate insights editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@ fav-house.com; Deputy news editor: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080; e: lois.vallely@fav-house.com; Networks correspondent: Lucinda Dann, t: 01342 332083, e: lucinda.dann@fav-house.com; Reporters: Saffron Johnson, t: 01342 332050, e: saffron.johnson@fav-house.com and Tom Grimwood, t: 01342 332061, e: tom.grimwood@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Richard Powell, t: 01342 332062, e: richard.powell@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, t: 01342 332077, e: sarah.wood@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership enquiries: Peter Bissell, t: 01342 332507, e: peter.bissell@fav-house.com. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Published by: Faversham House Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 1UZ 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2015 Membership subscriptions: UK £637 per year. Overseas £749 per year. Contact Peter Bissell on: 01342 332507 Trump denies everything Disconnector must confess that there is something verging on the impressive about Donald Trump's willingness to offend people without giving much thought to… well, any of it really. So even as he nears the finishing post in the Republi- can nomination process, he's making sure that it's not just Mexicans and Muslims who have reason to fear him getting to the White House. This week Mr Trump appointed one of the country's leading climate change deniers to be his expert adviser on energy policy. US Republican Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota is an ardent supporter of oil and gas drilling and will have to take some time out from his campaign to get more land licensed for shale exploration to write a detailed policy report for The Donald on energy. Since Cramer has already said his paper will concen- trate on the dangers of foreign ownership of US energy assets, burdensome taxes, and over- regulation, we already know what Trump's energy policy will be – the only thing up for debate is the presentation. And on that, maybe Donald does need some help. He has already come out as a belligerent climate change sceptic, but his only public utterances on the matter so far – that climate change has been dreamt up by the Chinese to damage America – probably needs a bit of work. Ignore my last email… Mind you, scepticism about climate change could be much more widespread than is gener- ally assumed. Just because people are reluctant to stand up and be counted doesn't mean they buy into the whole "more emissions equals higher temperature" thing. Disconnector ponders thus on learning that it has just come to light that prominent Australian energy executive Roger Massy-Greene acci- dentally emailed a "climate sceptic's handbook" to all the contacts in his address book back in 2009, including such luminaries as Lucy Turnbull, wife of the Oz PM, and New South Wales premier Mike Baird. The list also included most of the country's top climate change scientists and academics. The Skeptic's Handbook is a 16-page pamphlet that eschews formal scientific research in favour of the "if the planet's getting hotter, why am I so chilly?" sort of logic. That didn't stop Mr Massy-Greene from describing it in his email as "the best piece I have seen written on global warming". Needless to say, many of the great and the good on the list were not impressed and two grovelling apologies followed. The first was to say sorry for having mistakenly sent it in the first place, and the second was to apologise for not blind copying the recipients, thus divulging their email addresses to each other and the world. If you're wondering what happened to Mr Massy-Greene subsequently, well the govern- ment of New South Wales appointed him chairman of two of its electricity providers, Endeavour Energy and Ausgrid, and until recently he was also the chairman of Networks NSW, a state-run umbrella body for the sector. Is that rain? A glimmer on the horizon when it comes to dealing with the effects of climate change comes from the Max Planck Insti- tute for Polymer Research in Germany, which claims to have discovered a way to artificially make it rain. A rain machine! Too good to be true, surely? Well, yes, as it happens. Because the method that pro- fessor Tobias Weidner and his team have chanced upon is to make a single-celled bacterium called Pseudomonas syringae, which they claim can make it rain if you dump enough of the stuff in the clouds. Disconnector is not sure that the prof is going to get many takers on that one. "Fill the clouds with bacteria," says scientist. "You'll get rain!" That's not a movie that ends well for most of the cast. Disconnector Louisa Casson @LouisaCasson "We believe we have sufficient policies to meet 2020 clean energy target" says Rudd - despite warning colleagues of 25% shortfall? #deccorals Amber Rudd MP @AmberRudd_MP Energy Bill means secure, affordable, clean energy for families/businesses & support for oil/gas industry. Glad it's going to Royal Assent. Lisa Nandy @lisanandy It defies belief that Ministers are so ideologically opposed to wind farms they were prepared to risk our North Sea industries Tom Burke @tom_burke_47 Brexit vote would make the transition to a low carbon economy more expensive and less secure for the UK #EU #climate Ann Robinson @AnnRobinson8 Because many smaller energy suppliers not part of scheme, they can't give £140 Warm Homes Discount. This obstacle needs to be removed asap. William Marchant @richonlyinname Some of EDF's debts are drifting uncomfort- ably close to junk status, despite the uplift given by state backing... Tidal Lagoon Power @TidalLagoon ComRes poll: 4 in 5 Conservatives support Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon Lang Banks, WWF @LangBanks This is cool… @StatoilAEA cleared to begin work on Europe's largest floating wind farm 350 dot org @350 Brazilians in Umuarama just got their city to ban fracking at the same time people in Germany shutting down coal power plant #breakfree2016 Doug Parr @doug_parr Nissan will use recycled batteries from electric vehicles to get into the home power storage market Top Tweets