Guest essay by Eric Worrall
WUWT recently reported how budget cuts to ARENA renewables programmes were an “existential threat” to green innovation. Now we learn that it is immoral to slash green budgets to try to contain the spiralling Aussie government debt.
Global Warming Is A Greater Moral Challenge Than Budget Repair
Australia is at a critical moment.
Cutting carbon emissions remains one of the key challenges of our time. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described it as “the greatest moral challenge of our generation” and Barack Obama has stated “we will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations”.
Between 2012 and 2016, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) supported 254 renewable energy projects across a range of technologies including new storage technology, ocean energy, solar thermal, and solar PV or enabling technologies. These projects have advanced clean technologies and brought the benefit of thousands of new jobs to every Australian state and territory.
Yet the future of ARENA is currently seriously imperilled. Scott Morrison’s Budget Savings (omnibus) bill, currently before the parliament, includes a cut of $1.3 billion to ARENA, which effectively would mean the end of ARENA.
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The Prime Minister has stated that budget repair is a “moral challenge”. Yet surely the future of the planet poses an even greater moral challenge. Renewable energy is one of the best solutions to our greenhouse pollution — as well as a solution for regions that need jobs. ARENA has a critical role to play in Australia’s renewable energy future and needs to be pulled off the chopping block.
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If renewables was a real business which delivered value, they could try to trade their way out of trouble – they could innovate, expand into new markets, trim costs, increase sales to restore profitability. But renewables are not a real business, they are a political fantasy, totally dependent on taxpayer handouts. So their only option when times get tough is to squeal like stuck pigs, to try to frighten politicians into maintaining the money font.
So now the regressives are attempting to steal the ‘moral’ argument in support of their CAGW fiction?
In the modern world where ‘Principles’ are for suckers and right-wing extremists, ‘Morality’ is tied intimately to the dictum of the 60’s hedonist radicals: “If it feels good, do it.”
Combined with the actions of the guilt merchants to seek to make everybody feel personally accountable for whatever in the past may by frowned upon by current propaganda, those who would control the rest of us have created a Skinnerian conditioning routine to increase their own power and wealth.
Between the positive motivation to ‘Save the Planet’ and the negative motivation of ‘Everything we do on out own is evil,’ they are training us with carrots and sticks.
They call themselves ‘Progressives.’
Ah. The phony moral high-ground. Lifetime tactics of the Progressive left. This feeds that ‘warm-fuzzy’ they seem addicted to – enough that they never examine the consequences of their feel-good activism.
They are not affected by starvation, disease, poverty, or squalor – they have the courage of their convictions.
I have said it for years whenever someone would bring up the old “so what if we are wrong, the worst that will happen is that we have a cleaner environment” nonsense. Without a strong economy people resort to whatever they must in order to get enough money to survive. Morality no longer plays into their thought process, only survival.
One of the first things to go when an economy begins to collapse or even decline tends to be the environment. Look at any struggling third world country and tell me which one has excellent ecological policies. Even those that know they have world treasures and try their best to protect them (such as the gorillas and large cats in Africa) simply can’t.
For Earl Worrall, re last paragraph:
“If renewables was a real business which delivered value, they could try to trade their way out of trouble – they could innovate, expand into new markets, trim costs, increase sales to restore profitability. But renewables are not a real business, they are a political fantasy, totally dependent on taxpayer handouts. So their only option when times get tough is to squeal like stuck pigs, to try to frighten politicians into maintaining the money font.”
Let’s consider the facts.
Every form of electricity generation in the US is subsidized, excepting natural gas. Nuclear – subsidized heavily. Hydroelectric – almost entirely built with government money. Coal – granted an almost complete exemption from Clean Air Act compliance until about one year ago. Wind power – a small production tax credit that lasts only 10 years and is only 2.3 cents per kWh produced. Solar power – an investment tax credit of 30 percent of installed cost.
Fact two: coal resources are rapidly running out, with less than 20 years supply remaining in the US and less than 50 years supply worldwide. Germany already has exhausted their economic coal and now subsidizes every tonne produced just to keep the lights on. Coal also produces approximately 40 to 50 percent of all electricity world-wide.
Fact three: That creates a massive crisis looming in the next few decades. In the US it is already here as coal plants are shutting down in record numbers. They shut down rather than spend money to cut their air pollution.
Fact four: Replacing coal as power generation fuel has 4 options: nuclear, hydroelectric, natural gas, and renewables.
Fact five: Nuclear costs far too much and cannot be built in the short time frame. Hasty construction would render them entirely unsafe to operate. Nuclear is not an option.
Fact six: Hydroelectric requires rivers with substantial gradients, most of which already have dams on them. Hydroelectric cannot replace coal.
Fact seven: Natural gas is a viable option, with low construction costs, short construction schedules, low air pollution, and abundant, cheap fuel.
Fact eight: Renewables, especially wind power but solar power also in areas with adequate resources, are a viable option now that some subsidies and intense research has produced low-cost and reliable power from those. Grid-scale storage is available via low-cost batteries to time-shift the electricity as needed. Underwater hollow spheres for pumped storage hydroelectric also can be used for offshore wind power.
One could argue that it is better to do what Germany does: subsidize coal as necessary to continue mining the deep coal that loses money with every tonne. That extends the life of coal mines only a few short years. The problem must be faced squarely, and the time is now.
Building wind power with natural gas combined cycle plants to complement each other, and battery storage is the best option available.