Seems to me that this will place Britain at the forefront of economic disadvantage.
You know, back in the day we had a similar problem like this where politicians ignored the people, and I think we rather pushed back against that sometime around 1776. Perhaps after a few years, we’ll see a repeat of that, but this time in Britain, rather than a colony.
I think some of the goals are impossible to achieve given Britain’s current direction and results, such as the folly of the wind power program.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/04/06/whoa-windfarms-in-uk-operate-well-below-advertised-efficiency/
In the Guardian article, I cringed over this, even though I have an electric car of my own.
The committee’s report says the new carbon deal will require that heat pumps will have had to be installed in 2.6m homes by 2025. It also says that by the same date 31% of new cars, and 14% of those on the road overall, will be electric. Experts say a total of £16bn of investment will be needed every year to meet the commitment. Some of this money will be raised through increases in electricity prices.
God help you all, at least until you throw the bums out. Full story here
h/t to WUWT readers PhilW, M White, Steve C, and Harry Trent
After Adam and Eve ate from “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”, we are still trying to decide what is GOOD and what is EVIL.
It appears that there is no way to be able to determine the correct course of action!
I’m beginning to think that staying naked and uninformed is easier and cheaper than making all of those clothes [and maybe more exciting].
A parable:
If you give a man a fish, he will be great-full. He will eat, be full, and have a great nights sleep, and think that you are his friend.
If you teach a man to fish, he will need to buy fishing tackle, a boat, fuel, and hire a crew. He will then provide for himself and the local village. He will not sleep, because he needs to catch fish to survive. Next, he will be forced to support a government through excessive taxation. He will need to conform to regulations or go to prison.
Of course, the man will hate you and the horse you rode in on. If he is aggressive, he may try to kill you.
You choose->Good or Evil??
He, he, and I suppose the windmills are going to provide the juice for all those electric cars? There are so many things wrong with this “plan” that it would take days to describe them all.
An absolutely perfect example of what happens when you let “progressives” with too much academic “sense” but no common sense call the shots. We in the USA were getting close to this neurotic behavior, until the TeaParty activities put a brake on it.
To answer Barry Woods: no, not all political parties are the same. For sanity, vote UKIP next time — see their website http://www.ukip.org
The end of Great Britain for the next decade. There will be riots in streets in 3 to 4 years as the economic fallout hits the poor immigrants the hardest. Everything will become more expensive. And the poor will be hit the hardest.
When the cars start burning, you’ll know it is beginning. It’s certainly time to short the Pound Sterling as GB’s government has sold out its people and economy. Watch for taxes to rise 15%. Then watch for capital to flee the country.
This is horrible news for Britain.
vote UKIP
An interview with UKIP Leader Nigel Farage min 49
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM7oNohUnJg
Godfrey Bloom
Executive Summary
I. This report examines the costs and benefits of government policy to support the renewable energy industry in Scotland and the UK. The Scottish Government in particular is promoting the renewables sector as an economic opportunity, and the purpose of this report is to assess whether this is justified. The report therefore does not investigate measures designed to reduce carbon emissions directly, nor does it consider the merits of renewable technology as part of the attempts to slow climate change.
II. The report’s key finding is that for every job created in the UK in renewable energy, 3.7 jobs are lost. In Scotland there is no net benefit from government support for the sector, and probably a small net loss of jobs.
III. The lower level of job displacement in Scotland is because of the greater concentration of renewable energy generation in Scotland. This means that electricity consumers and UK taxpayers subsidised the Scottish industry by c £330m in 2009/10 over and above subsidies paid for by Scottish taxpayers and consumers. To the extent that the Scottish industry is a success, it is reliant on the wider UK policy making framework, in particular the Renewables ObligationCertificate (ROC) scheme.
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/03/the-true-cost-of-global-warming-policy/
Richard Hill says:
May 15, 2011 at 1:42 pm
“Dont blame politicians, feel sorry for them. There should be a method to make the Royal Society and its counterparts like the APS responsible for the consequences of mistaken advice.”
Richard, I take your point, however I do expect politicians to have inquiring minds and not just follow the party line as was evident in the last SciTech Com review. So if they are not use their minds and question issues they are to blame.
Only by them doing so will we get a system that holds the RS, APS and such to account.
They are taking the easy option, do not let them.
Seems that the “50 million climate refugees” may become true afterall.
but caused by “green” decisions making it impossible to live in areas that were once prosperous, and NOT by any changes in the climate.
One good outcome of this political decision is linguistic evolution. Delingpole at the Telegraph came up with the following: “According to the Observer’s trouser-bulgingly excited report…” It strikes me as the most apt of phrases for describing the attitudes of newspapers toward favored politicians in this era. “Trouser-bulging excitement,” yes, that does perfectly express the attitude of the New York Times and all the MSM toward Obama, for example.
@neil Burrows says:
May 15, 2011 at 2:00 pm
*****
Natural gas is … err … natural. Sometimes it occurs naturally in aquifers.
In Texas, fracking has been used for 60 years, tens of thousands of times, with no major problems. Why don’t you take your Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (and ignorance) somewhere people exist that will believe you … if you can find any at all.
“Hydraulic fracturing for stimulation of oil and natural gas wells was first used in the United States in 1947.[17][18] It was first used commercially by Halliburton in 1949,[17] and because of its success in increasing production from oil wells was quickly adopted, and is now used worldwide in tens of thousands of oil and natural gas wells annually. The first industrial use of hydraulic fracturing was as early as 1903, according to T.L. Watson.[19] Before that date, hydraulic fracturing was used at Mt. Airy Quarry, near Mt Airy, North Carolina where it was (and still is) used to separate granite blocks from bedrock.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Nuclear.
Climate change is merely how it is being “framed.”
The UK politicians in power aren’t greenies, methinks. The actual greenies are in confusion because the landscape they want to protect from climate change is getting ruined by wind farms. Just keep building wind farms until the NIMBYism overrides it and they all give in to nuclear and “clean” coal or gas or whatever.
Where will they get their electricity from in winter?
11 January 2011
“Wind farms produced ‘practically no electricity’ during Britain’s cold snap”
27 December 2010
“‘Green’ Scotland relying on French nuclear power”
Expect future excess winter deaths to decline
11 Jan 2010
“Britain’s cold weather: deaths soar as winter takes its toll”
@Max_B
Well, at least there is that bit of good news!
@ur momisugly
CRS, Dr.P.H. says:
May 15, 2011 at 1:52 pm
I expect we will see a massive exodus of the best/brightest out of the UK to these shores, or elsewhere. They’ve already lost some great talent abroad. Reminds me of Rhodesia….errrr, sorry, Zimbabwe.
I suspect you’re very much correct. Don’t expect Dean Morrison to be among those “best/brightest”…
Dean Morrison says:
May 15, 2011 at 1:53 pm
This is very good news indeed, as it will drive investment in the technologies of the future, rather than those of the Victorian era, such as the internal combustion engine and coal and steam driven electricity generation. It’s the countries that lag behind that will have to import these new technologies from us, and they are the ones that will be economically disadvantaged.
That is called out of the frying pan and into the fire.
31 January 2010
I hate roasted nuts. ;O)
Max-B — I’m sure you are right. I have never understood how the fanatics in the Green movement can push for heat pumps and electric cars but don’t want any extra electricity production to run them. They don’t want coal fired generation , wind and solar in the UK must be ” dead ducks” ( could not keep things going last winter when demand was up ) , I’m not sure how much gas is left in the North Sea and then they don’t want nuclear. Is their answer to “out source” electricity supply to their neighbours ??
(BTW don’t forget the EU directive which will effectively shut down about 5 of the biggest coal fired generators , in few years time)
Meanwhile people will be forced to spend their money: spend for the very same thing they already have, car, appliances, house etc… With no savings left, people will have to work relentlessly with no safeguard. There is no better mind control.
Notice how Labour, Conservatives and Democrats are just puppets of this, rubberstamping Big Green decisions. This highjacking of people’s savings will not go well as populations will feel they now have nothing to lose. Last fall demonstrations against high tuitions were the start. The UK will see civil unrest like they have never known.
In deciding if this is worth the effort, the might want to consider how long it will take any CO2 savings there to be compensated by CO2 emissions growth elsewhere. I believe they will discover that if they immediately reached their goal of total CO2 reductions, that reduction will be eliminated by growth elsewhere in only a few weeks time.
But that all supposes that CO2 is in some way harmful and needs to be reduced. Please, can someone show any actual link between CO2 and climate?
So far nobody actually has.
P Gosselin says:
May 15, 2011 at 1:06 pm
“Britain at the forefront?
Germany is also racing with Britain on the same track. Tomorrow I’ll have a post about what Germany’s leading political daily calls “a growing green tyranny”. Things are really getting bad here, too. ”
Thanks for the hint, Pierre. Found it 🙂
But i won’t comment on it before you post.
As if Britain didn’t have enough economic woes as it was… now they are surely doomed to years of recession or minimal economic growth. My 3 brothers and their families live there … I know that my niece, her husband and child are planning to make the shift to Canada. Two of my brothers will probably move to the continent…
This should help with Australia’s skills shortage due to the Chinese mineral demand boom. Let’s hope some more Brit trades people come to Western Australia as we are in desperate need. At least until the wheels fall off in Europe (which can’t be that far away). After that it is anyone’s guess what the world economy will do.
Anthony,
Ed Milliband, the current Labour Party leader, and in opposition used to be the Secretary of State for Climate Change. He is a rabid warmist.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7648551.stm
well – email off to my MP demanding some answers. My job is at risk if the UK can not guarantee reliable and globally competitive pricing of electricity.
I work in a call centre of 30 odd engineers giving technical support for an American Company to EMEA (French; Spanish; English; Scandinavian; Southern Africa; Middle Eastern industrial clients) and part of my job is to run a global support contract to some 160 factories (Japan; US; France; Thailand; UK …) This requires that I (and my team) have 100% reliable internet connections. Which means we must have 100% reliable electricity.
The day it appears that we may not be able to go on line at a moments notice to some country (Oz; Finland…) and resolve their production problem is the day my job goes (along with 30 other engineers).
Other tech based companies in the UK would have to do the same.
The company I work for would just move the call centre to some other part of Europe – or even China/India. So would other companies. Near where I live is the global centre of Formula 1 technology (like Nascar; but the circuits are a bit more complex ! 🙂 ). Again; a high value knowledge based industry that can not afford to have any doubts about the electricity supply; nor can it remain here is the energy bill becomes as crazy as the watermelons intend.
These people are absolute morons. They have no idea what they are doing. Nor are they listening to the people. Anyone got a green card to spare for an Automation/Process Control engineer the wrong side of 55 ? (mm – I am not sure how serious that appeal is – it’s meant to be sarcastic/tongue in cheek; but I’m actually not quite so sure ? )
India must be licking its chops at the idea of taking over the U.K…….
For every ton of CO2 the U.K. cuts, India and China will increase theirs by 5x. India and China will be dancing in the streets knowing that they can make even more money selling to the U.K. what is prohibitively expensive…or not allowed.. to be produced domestically.
Smoke belching Tatas will transport the gleeful Jaguar workers to the plants that build the batteries and electric motors for the Green Jag of Tomorrow.
Former head of Australia’s Climate program bolts.
“Carbon warming too minor to be worth worrying about
By David Evans
The debate about global warming has reached ridiculous proportions and is full of micro-thin half-truths and misunderstandings. I am a scientist who was on the carbon gravy train, understands the evidence, was once an alarmist, but am now a skeptic. Watching this issue unfold has been amusing but, lately, worrying. This issue is tearing society apart, making fools out of our politicians.
Let’s set a few things straight.
The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s. But the gravy train was too big, with too many jobs, industries, trading profits, political careers, and the possibility of world government and total control riding on the outcome. So rather than admit they were wrong, the governments, and their tame climate scientists, now outrageously maintain the fiction that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant.”
Doctor Evans has left the farm.
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/04/07/climate-models-go-cold/
Julia Gillard is doing badly in the polls in Australia, what with the proposed Carbon Tax ( no mention ever of the Dioxide word), and the migrant policy. If there was to be an election today she would lose.