Miguel Rakiewicz writes in Tips and Notes:
Spiegel.com has today published the English translation of its interview of “The Cold Sun” author, Fritz Vahrenholt.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,813814,00.html
Not only is Vahrenholt a prominent Social Democrat and former German Environment Minister, but also outgoing CEO of the renewable energy group RWE Innogy.
It’s an extensive interview, touching upon the various climate-influencing factors left out by the IPCC in its promotion of CO2 as the apocalyptic threat to mankind, and the massive government intervention and expense to supposedly make it go away.
“The Cold Sun” author explains the reason of his current point of view as
follows:
Vahrenholt:
For years, I disseminated the hypotheses of the IPCC, and I feel duped. Renewable energy is near and dear to me, and I’ve been fighting for its expansion for more than 30 years. My concern is that if citizens discover that the people who warn of a climate disaster are only telling half the truth, they will no longer be prepared to pay higher electricity costs for wind and solar (energy). Then the conversion of our energy supply will lack the necessary acceptance.
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@David Wells –
Interesting that two people with diametrically opposite views on God should write almost exactly the same response. 🙂
Nevertheless, we still have to reduce CO2 emissions through worldwide emissions trading.
WHY ? If CO2 is not the problem.
And there are also other reasons to burn fewer fossil fuels. We don’t have that much coal, oil and gas left in the world, so we have to economize more.
So Africa has no right to have cheap energy? They have to stay in the dark. There is more than enough.
We also have to become less dependent on imports from totalitarian countries.
What does he thinks the EU is?
http://youtu.be/HtAt68Lm6d0
I don’t trust this person. He is doing this for the Money. He still believes in Them controling You.
I thnk this is a challenger for your headline
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100136093/the-best-article-on-wind-farms-you-will-ever-read/
Follow the link to the Irish Independent (newspaper)
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/kevin-myers-energy-policy-based-on-renewables-will-win-hearts-but-wont-protect-their-owners-from-frostbite-and-death-due-to-exposure-3012098.html
Introduction & interviewer appear just a bit hostile to me
Vahrenholt:
“For years, I disseminated the hypotheses of the IPCC, and I feel duped.”
————————
Yes and we, the people, feel that you are an incompetent bungling idiot of a former environment minister! Of course you were duped.
However, since you were also a former CEO of a renewable energy company then surely you are one of those also doing the duping! How about returning some of that wealth from tax-payer subsidized renewable energy?
I’m glad he found some sense, but this is really bs:
“My concern is that if citizens discover that the people who warn of a climate disaster are only telling half the truth, they will no longer be prepared to pay higher electricity costs for wind and solar (energy). Then the conversion of our energy supply will lack the necessary acceptance.”
No, I am not prepared to pay higher electricity costs for wind and solar energy that are totally inefficient and not ready for prime time.
One of the most revealing two sentences concerning “green energy” were found in an earlier Spiegel article discussed on this site. The two sentences read as follows: “The costs of subsidizing solar electricity have exceeded the 100-billion-euro mark in Germany, but poor results are jeopardizing the country’s transition to renewable energy. The government is struggling to come up with a new concept to promote the inefficient technology in the future.” http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,809439,00.html
Read that last sentence again. Only a government bureaucrat would admit to such a struggle.
@James Baldwin Sexton says:
February 8, 2012 at 2:29 pm
R de Haan says:
February 8, 2012 at 1:56 pm
The guy is still half an idiot,
=========================================================
No, no…. he’s still a full fledged idiot. He’s just a better informed idiot than he was. You can’t fix stupid, you can only mitigate its effects. He’s been partially mitigated. It isn’t like this guy wasn’t told, he was for years. Now he has learned a bit of truth and he feels “duped”.
OK, let’s settle this.
We call him a Little Green Moron
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/02/little-green-morons.html
Well, maybe he was duped, but still, from the article:
Vahrenholt: All I’m saying is that CO2 is a climate gas, but that its effect is only half as strong as the IPCC claims. Nevertheless, we still have to reduce CO2 emissions through worldwide emissions trading.
Bold mine, and no, we do not.
He may have just discovered he’s been duped, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us weren’t already aware of his “dupidness”.
DirkH says:
February 8, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Paul Milligan says:
February 8, 2012 at 2:19 pm
“If his admiration of renewable energy is not founded in concerns about AGW, I am guessing he has concerns about Peak Oil.”
Well, that’s just another pretense for the public (just like CAGW); the real and constant worry of Germans is energy security in a strategic sense; being a country that is relatively poor in energy resources. (this might change with future shale gas production in Northrhine Westphalia, though)
Vahrenholt argues that wind power makes sense and is close to being economic in Germany while solar power is not. I think the subsidy tariffs are at the moment about 5 Eurocent for a wind power kWh and 24 cent for solar so the numbers for wind are at least not THAT bad for wind.
DirkH,
Wind costs a lot more than 5 eurocents per KWH.
Just think about the back up power you need 90% of the time.
And they still have to start building a new grid.
This is a major investment.
If they switch to shale gas right now they don’t need a new grid at all.
Gerrnany is executing costly EU directives and they should put the break on it right now.
Germany has for centuries of shale available.
Most con men get away with a lot of scams because the people taken don’t want to admit it to themselves. To yourself be true. I give him credit for admitting it. His lament for renewable energy and it’s possible demise comes from a very real, although misguided and abused, concern for the environment. To cheer up Mr Vahrenholt I hope he takes time to see this
There is always hope for mankind. We just have to focus on solving the real problems. We have enough of those to go around, we don’t need to invent more.
Write more, thats all I have to say.
Latitude says: “uh, excuse me, but I wasn’t willing to pay higher electricity bills in the first place
and everything else that will be higher because of it”
Water bills will necessarily skyrocket. Most of the cost of water is in pumping it. But don’t look to hear Obama admit this voluntarily.
At least they didn’t moth ball the plants……….http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Cold_snap_forces_Germany_to_restart_nuclear_reactors_report_999.html
“The cold snap gripping Europe has forced Germany, which decided last year to abandon nuclear power, to bring several reactors back on line, the daily Handelsblatt reports in its Thursday issue.”
We should not vilify him. He has done what we want – he has recanted his position on AGW. We should celebrate him for that.
The key to understanding the duplicity in the warmist camp has always been their insistence that renewable energy is the only solution to the coming climate catastrophe.
You have only to ask yourself what you would do if you absolutely knew beyond a doubt that devastation as described by Mann and the team were imminent. Windmills? Solar panels? I doubt it! I might have bought in if a Manhattan like project were proposed to develop fusion or thorium alternatives. The whole thing is preposterous and reeks of another agenda.
Jim
DirkH says:
February 8, 2012 at 3:16 pm
“Vahrenholt argues that wind power makes sense and is close to being economic in Germany while solar power is not. I think the subsidy tariffs are at the moment about 5 Eurocent for a wind power kWh and 24 cent for solar so the numbers for wind are at least not THAT bad for wind.”
DirkH,
I assume that it works in Germany as in other jurisdictions. When wind and solar are producing power, the power companies are required to purchase the power at a premium whether they need it or not. If the power is not required, the power companies must try to dispose of it to some other jurisdiction, often at a bargain rate or less. Even where the power can be used, backup generation must be available on standby ready to take over when the wind and/or solar craps out. So the premium paid for wind and solar is only part of the appalling story that is wind and solar power.
The cold wind of reality doth blow.
It blows thtough chinks in crumbling walls,
It blows through cracks beneath the door,
Draught protection is no avail,
The cold wind of reality
Is becoming a gale.
[snip over the top – Anthony]
He is just a professional politician. He anticipated that the government feeding station he was sucking at is about to go dry. He will now rehabilitate himself while making money, people will praise him for having seen the light, etc,etc. He will then attach himself to a new feeding station.
It will be interesting to track where he lands.
Anthony quoted Varenholt;
“My concern is that if citizens discover that the people who warn of a climate disaster are only telling half the truth, they will no longer be prepared to pay higher electricity costs for wind and solar (energy)”.
I, for one, WAS NEVER PREPARED to pay higher electricity costs for any of these silly “alternative energy” schemes. They are in fact JUST THAT; an ALTERNATIVE to REAL ENERGY….
Anthony again quoted Varenholt;
“and I feel duped”
Welcome to the large historical cadre of dupes… The members are almost endless; The Tulip mania, The Pet Rock, Ulcers are caused by stress and spicy foods, “Cold” fusion”, etc. etc.
Cheers from a “denier”, Kevin.
Robert Austin says:
February 8, 2012 at 6:28 pm
“some other jurisdiction, often at a bargain rate or less. Even where the power can be used, backup generation must be available on standby ready to take over when the wind and/or solar craps out. So the premium paid for wind and solar is only part of the appalling story that is wind and solar power.”
Don’t tell me, I’m a free market proponent. I just wanted to explain Vahrenholt’s position oand the economic parameters in Germany that make solar power 5 times as ruinous as wind power.
kakatoa says:
February 8, 2012 at 5:58 pm
“At least they didn’t moth ball the plants……….http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Cold_snap_forces_Germany_to_restart_nuclear_reactors_report_999.html
“The cold snap gripping Europe has forced Germany, which decided last year to abandon nuclear power, to bring several reactors back on line, the daily Handelsblatt reports in its Thursday issue.””
As far as I could find out, no nukes are restarted, but old inefficient mothballed foosil fuel plants worth 1000 MW combined; they have been prepared for restart as designated “cold reserve” in the past months.
It’s the meme – oh I’m really a sceptic because, fill in choice, but it can all be put right if we all just paid more carbon taxes, and variations thereof.
Can he really have held the position he did and not know the scam?
Myrrh says:
February 9, 2012 at 3:33 am
“Can he really have held the position he did and not know the scam?”
Remember that Mann’s hockeystick was widely trusted before Steve McIntyre uncovered Mann’s statistical tricks. And it took Montford’s book to bring that information to Vahrenholt. The MSM in Germany were a very effective block for all skeptic information. Most Germans don’t read American blogs. So, yes, it is very likely that it took Vahrenholt that long.
DirkH says:
February 9, 2012 at 6:09 am
Remember that Mann’s hockeystick was widely trusted before Steve McIntyre uncovered Mann’s statistical tricks. And it took Montford’s book to bring that information to Vahrenholt. The MSM in Germany were a very effective block for all skeptic information. Most Germans don’t read American blogs. So, yes, it is very likely that it took Vahrenholt that long.
OK, then he’s got a lot of head searching to do. I hope he puts some of into examining his beliefs on renewable energy. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/06/germany-in-skeptical-turmoil-on-both-climate-and-windfarms/#comment-886200