I WOULD like to write in support of Daren O’Toole’s letter (JEP 1 November) headed “A nonsensical extravagance”, asking if the States of Jersey has discovered the magic money tree. I agree with every word he says, but, unfortunately, it’s far worse than he states.

This island has committed itself to net-zero by 2050, but no one has any real idea of what it will all cost. Well, we are in luck. A Canadian mechanical engineer named Ken Gregory has published a report with the Friends of Science Society entitled “The cost of Net Zero Electrification of the USA” (V2 – August 23, 2022).

The report is easy to find online and I urge you all to read it. Using government data, he has calculated that the total cost will be US$290 trillion.

That’s 13 times the US gross domestic product and equates to about US$1.1 million per US adult.

I don’t anticipate that the UK mainland or Jersey would be markedly different, so that equates at today’s exchange rates to £900,000 per adult in Jersey, or about £40 billion in total. We all know that everything in Jersey costs more, so it might be even higher.

I would like to invite the States of Jersey to tell us where all this money is going to come from. Many people here won’t even earn that much money in a lifetime of working, so good luck paying for it out of taxes.

But it gets worse. On top of that, the following have been reported in the JEP recently:

•20 September –“A further £52m for newhospital – bringing money spent on project so far to £230m.”

•24 October – “Minister puts bridge to France back on agenda.” The concept of a road link between the Island and France was discussed more than a decade ago and the cost then was going to be more than £1 billion. That’s over £1.5 billion at today’s prices.

•27 October – “Public-sector jobs soar by 20% in last five years.” Why?

•23 October – “Lack of teaching assistants ‘huge problem’ for schools.”

Mr O’Toole also mentions the multi-billion-pound wind farm that “we” want to build, but I don’t have a copy of that JEP report so don’t have the date or details.

So, I ask again, where is all this money going to come from? This is an island that can’t pay its medical staff or its teaching staff enough because “we don’t have the money”. However, we seem to easily find the money for extra bureaucracy.

Even if we did manage to do all of the above, that presupposes that we can make our minds up. Given the £230m spent so far on not building a hospital, I am not at all hopeful.

One last thought. Some people will immediately dismiss Mr Gregory’s report because it makes for uncomfortable reading.

May I suggest, with the very greatest of respect, that unless you have an equivalent qualification and experience in an appropriate field of engineering and unless you have published a similar report, that just maybe his views carry more weight.

Gorselands, Rue de la Petite Lande, Trinity.

We are proud of you

•From Sandra Mathew and Geoffrey Pirouet, Procureurs du Bien Public, Salle Paroiselle de St Clément.

WE, the two Procureurs du Bien Public of St Clement, wish to publicly express our grateful thanks and admiration for the huge efforts made by our Constable, Marcus Troy, our parish staff, our honorary police, our community support team and other parishioners for planning ahead and dealing in a calm and responsive way to the damaging effects of Storm Ciarán, which hit our parish so harshly.

We are proud of you all. Thank you.

Grande Route de la Côte, St Clement.