From Dr. Benny Peiser at The GWPF
The UK government wants nuclear power to be given parity with renewables in Europe, in a move that would significantly boost atomic energy in Britain but downgrade investment in renewable generation, according to a leaked document seen by the Guardian. The EU-wide target should be scrapped when its current phase – requiring member states to generate 20% of energy from renewables – runs out in 2020, according to a secret submission to the European commission. “The UK envisages multiple low-carbon technologies: renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage, all competing freely against each other in the years to come. For this reason, we cannot support a 2030 renewables target,” it reads. –Fiona Harvey and Juliette Jowit, The Guardian, 12 March 2012
The Government is poised to give the go-ahead for resumption of the controversial ‘fracking’ technique of mining that caused earthquakes near Blackpool last year. It is understood that the Department of Energy and Climate Change is likely to allow exploration by Cuadrilla Resources in Lancashire to continue on condition that the company introduces new safety methods to ensure mining stops on signs of impending tremors. —Mail on Sunday, 11 March 2012
The European Union’s ambitious low carbon plan collapsed yesterday when Poland vetoed plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically after 2020. If the Europeans can’t agree on a climate plan, the prospect that the rest of the world can agree is less than zero. Every dime spent by climate activists on this goal was wasted. Every white paper on the subject was a folly. Every global conference was a grotesque and pointless boondoggle. Every pundit who supported this agenda was blowing smoke and every politician who endorsed it was either an idiot or a demagogue — or both. This dog won’t hunt. This pig won’t fly. This horse can’t win. This parrot is dead. None of this will stop green scam artists raising money from naive and goodhearted donors. It won’t stop bureaucrats who have a vested interest in eternal international processes and immortal, salary paying institutions devoid of all purpose or use. It won’t stop people who don’t understand the international system dreaming up new and equally unworkable unicorn catching devices. It won’t stop socialists, Malthusians and other anti-capitalist activists from using green rhetoric in attempts to whip up resistance to progress and change. –- Walter Russell Mead, Via Meadia, 10 March 2012
A senior MP has demanded answers from Energy Ministers as support for the Green Deal appears to have started crumbling away. The Green Deal is scheduled to be launched on October 1 but reports this week suggest the full rollout may be delayed until next year in a wrangle over the payment mechanism. Critics are accusing the Green Deal of being a flawed policy, which could actually double the cost of installing energy efficiency measures, once a list of extra costs are factored in. —Green Click News, 11 March 2012
DECC have spent millions of pounds of tax payers money to arrive at a Green Deal scheme that is nothing more than a very expensive and complex ‘buy now, pay later and pay much more’ finance offering. A scheme that will lead to consumers receiving extremely poor value and that will harm the UK economy and destroy jobs. A way of using subsidies to destroy tens of thousands of longstanding non-subsidised jobs, that’s all that DECC have achieved, is it any wonder they are desperate to promote the Green Deal. –John Oddi, Green Click News, 11 March 2012
Wind power – more accurately wind impotence, since turbines operate at just 24 per cent of capacity – is the curse of Scotland. One of the most beautiful landscapes in Europe has been brutally ravaged, families have been driven into fuel poverty, pensioners have been presented with the lethal dilemma “heat or eat” – all to appease the neurotic prejudices of global warming fanatics. –Gerald Warner,Scotland on Sunday, 11 March 2012
“…a move that would significantly boost atomic energy in Britain but downgrade investment in renewable generation, according to a leaked document seen by the Guardian.”
Whoever decided that atomic energy is not a “renewable” energy” must have forgotten about that huge nuclear reactor in the sky. Would solar, wind, or any other “renewable” energy be possible without it?
Slipping nuclear into the renewable mix is a bit sneaky. In Ontario (Canada) we have reduced our CO2 emissions from electricity generation by 66% since 2003 (from 39.9 to 13.5 megatonnes) and our hydro rates have probably only doubled. This was accomplished by the virtual elimination of coal (from 21% to 3%) and the addition of renewables all while our electricity production went up an average of 3% per year. I can’t bring myself to believe this (they don’t count the CO2 emissions from the gas-fired plants on idle to take up the slack in wind energy for example) but, if true, that is pretty impressive stuff and represents CO2 emissions equivalent for all the cars on the road in our province.
http://www.thestar.com/business/cleanbreak/article/1143692–coal-an-easier-target-than-oil-sands-in-alberta
Pleased to hear that shale gas fracking might start again… I’ve never understood why fracking was such a no-no but carbon capture and storage was ok- both involve pumping liquids at high pressure into rock units.
Global warming is a real threat.
Wasting money, sinking capital on dubious solutions, before those solutions are viable
is worse than inaction on climate change. Wasted action, flailing about in fear, is worse
in the long run than inaction.
you want to spend money to curb c02. educate poor women.
John West says:
March 12, 2012 at 11:54 am
John, are these even tremors? I used to work in a mining town where you could feel the underground blasting of the stopes. They weren’t tremors but energy direct from the initial explosion, measurable by seismographs.
Does this explain why the oil companies are so happy to open their cheque books to fund climate scientists and their research.
steven mosher says:
“Global warming is a real threat.”
Yes, it is. The fact that there is no evidence of accelerating global warming is a real threat to scientists and other rent-seekers feeding at the public trough. They must be terrified that the natural warming since the LIA isn’t accelerating.
If society wants to spend money responsibly, it could prepare a defense against the inevitable asteroid strike instead of wasting $billions of a non-threat.
Sanity slowly creeps to the surface dragging a trillion pound lead weight called renewable energy!
Steve from Rockwood says (March 12, 2012 at 1:04 pm)
“Slipping nuclear into the renewable mix is a bit sneaky.”
———————-
Not to doubt it Steve. However, according to Wiki and latest ieso figures….
http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/media/md_supply.asp
..Ontario’s electricity mix has changed from 2005 to January 2012 thusly:
2005 Jan 2012
Nuclear 37% 34%
Hydro 25% 23%
Coal 21% 10%
Oil/Gas 16% 28%
Wind/Bio 2% 5%
So nukes still seem to be strong, and the main change has been substituting gas for coal. And they don’t count the emissions from gas? And how are your electricity prices now?
I’m confused. And a long way away from Ontario! What renewable revolution have you had, other than less coal and more gas?
How will this play out against the UK Climate Act of 2008 which calls for an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions relative to 1990 by the year 2050?
steven mosher says:
March 12, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Global warming is a real threat.
… you want to spend money to curb c02. educate poor women.
============
You forgot to include Dr, Nocera’s comment about Global Warming 😉
http://youtu.be/Rh7nHtFhceg
Steve from Rockwood says:
“John, are these even tremors? I used to work in a mining town where you could feel the underground blasting of the stopes. They weren’t tremors but energy direct from the initial explosion, measurable by seismographs.”
My understanding is that fracking doesn’t use explosives; it’s high pressure water/steam and corrosives that increases the porosity and forces the NG out. So, I suppose these are tremors; perhaps the increased porosity decreases the rocks’s stress/tension resistance.
James Sexton says:
March 12, 2012 at 11:51 am
Now if the U.S. has enough sense to follow suit, maybe this global economy can finally start to pick up.
___________________________________________
You have to get the USA out of the blasted World Trade Organization first and second quit giving all our technology to China.
U.S. Commercial Technology Transfers to the People’s Republic of China: http://www.bis.doc.gov/defenseindustrialbaseprograms/osies/defmarketresearchrpts/techtransfer2prc.html
End WTO Job Loss: http://economyincrisis.org/content/end-wto-job-loss
Costly Trade With China, Millions of U.S. jobs displaced with net job loss in every state: http://www.epi.org/publication/bp188/
Seems that Breeder reactors should count as “renewable” energy to me.
Earthquakes and Oil-Gas-Fracking might be linked via Waste Water Disposal Wells
Google “Rocky mountain arsenal injection well” for a list of documents that investigate a series of Earthquakes that Denver experienced from 1964 to 1968. USGS Earthquake records indicate they were shallow (about 5 km). The Rocky Mountain Arsenal had a 12,074′ well to dispose of waste water into the deep Denver strata. In 18 months from 1965 to 1967 they disposed of 165,000,000 gallons. Because of the earthquake activity, they sealed the well.
Where I think the story gets most interesting is that about 6 months, 11 months, and 18 months AFTER the well was sealed, Denver experienced its three biggest quakes: Magnitude 5.1, 5.3 and 5.5. These were shallow (5 km) and within a few miles of the well. The activity then declined. (This can be verified on the USGS Earthquake Archive). In 1968 the well was briefly reopened and some liquids were pumped out to formation pressure.
I think it likely that earthquakes can be tied to disposal wells. So it would be an industry blunder if the fracking gets a public black eye when the problem can be made to disappear with better disposal practices.
Latitude says:
March 12, 2012 at 12:32 pm
The Year Solar Goes Bankrupt
Get ready for a new round of green bankruptcies, as Europe trims back subsidies for solar
companies and taxpayers lose their appetite for subsidizing green power.
——————————————————————————————————————
Time to do some dd and look at shorting some of these.
On another topic.
Let’s say that wind power was brought in by oil companies and various other capitalists and that Greenpeace took them to task for say–I know, mincing bats and birds, driving people crazy with LFN, spoiling beautiful views and lining the pockets of wealthy land barons. Of course, you can’t leave out exploiting the poor. How many of these turbines would still be standing considering what they do to whaling ships, coal plants etc…They are in the middle of nowhere, easy to access and it would be very impressive if one fell down.
I would be more interested if PETA took on the turbines they always have sexy super models telling us what to do!
Any MSPs reading this?
If so, someone tell Mr. Salmond.
Lest Any Forget the statement :-
“Every dime spent by climate activists on this goal was wasted.”
and Every Dime or Pound Wasted has been Ours, the Tax Payers’.
“The UK envisages multiple low-carbon technologies: renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage, all competing freely against each other in the years to come. For this reason, we cannot support a 2030 renewables target…”
The word “envisages” is appropriate as it conotates “imagines”, “visions” and “dreams”. What sort of energy policy assumes a non-existent technology — carbon capture — will be in use well before 2030? And there is no guarantee that it will ever be workable.
Maybe it’s time for the Polish to start making up English Jokes.
Old England says:
March 12, 2012 at 2:49 pm
Lest Any Forget the statement :-
“Every dime spent by climate activists on this goal was wasted.”
and Every Dime or Pound Wasted has been Ours, the Tax Payers’.
…….
You need to add the tax payers of most of the industrialized countries. The amount of money raked in from this fraud is truly MINDBOGGLING!
The U.S. WWF gets 20% of its revenue from government tax money… $24,589,994 in 2001. http://www.undueinfluence.com/wwf.htm
Michael Mann is good for almost $6 million in Tax payer money… http://spectator.org/blog/2009/12/02/manns-mad-money
And then there is the $737 Million Green Jobs Loan Given to Nancy Pelosi’s Brother-In-Law
“Despite the growing Solyndra scandal, yesterday the Department of Energy approved $1 billion in new loans to green energy companies — including a $737 million loan guarantee to a company known as SolarReserve…. “Ronald Pelosi, a San Francisco political insider and financial industry polymath who happens to be the brother-in-law of Nancy Pelosi…”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/crony-capitalism-737-million-green-jobs-loan-given-nancy-pelosis-brother-law_594593.html
And in case you wonder how those “Loans” work….
Solyndra Loan Default
“….an Energy Department memo that outlined the legal basis for its decision to restructure the $535 million loan to Solyndra….a 6-page memo, dated Feb. 15, 2011, outlining the legal basis for the Energy Department’s decision to ensure that investors who provided additional funding to Solyndra would be repaid before the federal government if the company defaulted on the loan….” http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-10-14/solyndra-loan-restructuring/50769058/1
Considering 80% of new businesses go belly up it is nice to have the Federal government guarantee your investment returned if the business fails…
It seems bizarre for an organization named “Greenpeace” to be supporting the return of the “dark Satanic Mills”. William Blake’s coffin probably sounds like a turbine at the moment.
Elephant * Room * Fusion
From the Telegraph March 12 2012, by James Kirkup, Deputy Political Editor:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/9137213/Consumer-watchdog-Which-condemns-green-tax.html
This parrot is dead.
‘E’s restin’.