From the GWPF, a collection of headlines:
Across the world, unsustainable subsidies for wind and solar are being cut back.—Lawrence Solomon, – Financial Post, 3 December 2010
The French government is planning to suspend feed-in tariffs for new photovoltaic installations above a capacity of 3 kilowatt hours for a period of four months, according to a draft decree discussed at a government meeting on Thursday. –-ENDS Europe, 7 December 2010
Solar developers are set to abandon France following the government’s recent announcement that it will freeze all new projects larger than 3kW in order to prick the “speculative bubble” building up around the industry. –ReCharge News, 6 December 2010
Germany will not guarantee that existing rules for feed-in tariffs for solar power will be continued after 2012, environment minister Norbert Roettgen said on Wednesday.—Reuters, 1 December 2010
According to Mr Eberhard Holstein of Vattenfall Europe Sales, the rapid expansion of renewable energy sources under the present regulatory environment in Germany will lead to a collapse of the power market. Mr Holstein at the Energy Brain days in Berlin said that “We need to decide whether we want a planned economy or market economy.” He said that should no changes be made to the current legal framework in Germany, then the country would have moved to a de facto planned economy.– Steel Guru, 7 December 2010
Few will be surprised if the United Nations Cancun climate talks end in failure. The real surprise is that for the last two decades people seriously believed there was a realistic prospect of securing broad international agreement to restrict CO2 by all the major emitters. –Ruppert Darwall, The Wall Street Journal, 7 December 2010
Three years after he led the charge to require consumers to ditch their comfortable old incandescent lights in favor of those twisty CFL bulbs, Rep. Fred Upton now wants to be the man to help undo that law as the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. —Fox News, 7 December 2010
You know Anthony, each and every one of those has one common underlying thread…
..desire to control
The Green Bubble has burst, like a methane bubble from a fresh Cow pie….
Our own local economy has been under attack by the Wind industry, and
if, by some chance our local politicians can wake up and smell the sliced
prairie chickens, our great NE Oregon scenery won’t be left with post bubble
industrial debris….
Hey – you better call somebody about that mercury spill.
Good for Upton for learning better. We ALL believe nonsense and make mistakes–but some of us can learn from and correct them while others persist in madness.
The faster we help our neighbors and reps to learn better, the better for the REAL “environment.” Ask any chemist what is the most magnificent chemical reaction of all, and he may tell you photosynthesis. Then ask him what CO2 will do for plant growth and food for man and beast.
Then ask any farmer whether crops do best in cool weather (Spring and Fall) or hot weather (summer).
Don’t get too close to that broken CFL! A dose of mercury vapour was released into the surroundings, but at least you “saved” some electricity. ;->
I remember playing with balls of Mercury in HS Chemistry class, rolling them around in my hands, like the other high achievers in my school. Maybe that’s my problem. 🙂
OT Funny, I had one of those CFLs blow out on me last night. It’s only been there for 3 years. The tube itself didn’t seem blown, but the internal ballast bit the dust hard, as evidenced by all the glue-like gunk blown out the sides and the smell of burnt electronics.
Yes, I’m going to throw it in the garbage.
I think that the issuance of the death certificate for Green Energy is premature. The country that will soon have the world’s largest economy, China, is on a track to expand green energy production by an enormous amount.
http://cleantechnica.com/2010/12/04/china-adding-500-gigawatts-of-renewable-power-by-2020/
China’s plan is to get a total of 500 Gigawatts of renewable energy on the grid by 2020. It explodes wind power from a mere 25 GW on the grid now, to a staggering 150 GW, a six-fold increase on the previous already ambitious plan.
I promise I’ll do it Lee Harvey so can I please have my 100W incandescent light bulb back now?
Lady Life Grows says:
December 7, 2010 at 9:56 am
Good for Upton for learning better.
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Lady, I honestly don’t see that Upton has learned a thing.
Before, the green liberals were making a huge noise/stink, so he thought he
was doing what it took him to get elected.
Now the tea party/conservatives is making noise, and he’s just doing what he thinks he needs to do to get elected.
Might’ve been posted before on another thread as it came out yesterday but anyway, it looks like our Oscar and Nobel Prizewinning self-appointed Global Director of Research, the one that’s as dumb as a box of rocks, is back:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/12/06/al-gore-ethanol-environment-opinions-contributors-henry-i-miller.html
I have several old home heating thermostats with the mercury capsule switch, maybe even a few old mercury position-sensing switches. Plus one or two old mercury thermometers.
I can shut down any government building in an instant! Beware the deadly mercury vapor! Run away in fear from the tiny shiny drops of liquid metal!
Mwah-ha-ha-hah! ]:-)
Wagging the Dog!
Unfortunately there is no sign of common sense breaking out in freezing Blighty if this story is to be believed:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1336246/Britain-needs-20-000-wind-turbines-stick-green-targets.html
I’ve just checked the UK electricity industry summary page: http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm
And am not the least bit surprised to find that out of a total metered capacity of 2430MW we are currently(sic) getting a paltry 149MW….
Jeremy said at 10:07 am
Yes, I’m going to throw it in the garbage.
God be with you – – if you’re in San Francisco!
CFLs are only good for their rated lifetime if the power is clean, and they’re not switched on and off a lot.
It should be made a meta-law, that anything Congress want’s to force the public to do, has to implemented by all of the civilian side of the Federal Gov. first. Want to phase out incandescent bulbs in favor of CFLs. First do for all the congressional buildings, judicial buildings, executive buildings.
Upton doesn’t need to do what’s needed to get elected, he has a very safe seat and hasn’t had any competition from the democrats in while.
Oh, it seems that the speculative bubble about AGW’s going to prick…
Three years after he led the charge to require consumers to ditch their comfortable old incandescent lights in favor of those twisty CFL bulbs, Rep. Fred Upton now wants to be the man to help undo that law as the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. –
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THAT IDIOT WANTS TO HOLD A GAVEL? He should thank his lucky stars the people of Michigan are a bit more forgiving(naive?) the the rest of the conservative world. He shouldn’t be in a position to make decisions for the rest of the country.
RE: Incandescent bulbs. I’ve noticed in the last year or two, that incandescent bulbs seem to burn out far more rapidly than they used to, and I’m beginning to suspect that the quality of GE and Sylvania bulbs has been deliberately degraded in order to “encourage” purchase of CFL’s and/or LED bulbs. If anyone has any information in this regard, or is experiencing the same thing, I’d be delighted to know about it.
Soo looking forward to the EUrocrats following the led of the USA in regard to the heat balls (incandescent lightbulbs to you and me)!
Each and every one of these seven points is a blow against what I call “Greensturbation” – the practice of self-gratifying ones “Green urge” with someone elses money.
I have to admit, I didn’t think the CFL thing would fold so quickly. Yay….
Feed-in tariffs for wind power in the US are $.015 per KWh, about 1/2 of the cost of production from coal burners or nukes. But if I recall correctly, feed-in tariffs for solar power in Germany were at about $.34 per KWh. This is a ridiculous number and the solar power equipment manufacturing industry has been taken for a ride by government agencies.
Upton is too late. Incandescent bulb production has been shut down here in the US of A, and the jobs have gone to China.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/07/AR2010090706933.html