From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
Just in case anybody thinks that the energy crisis is just a UK one, think again!
This article is from the German site, Blackout News:
The Germans have broken a record again. Drastically increased wholesale prices and expensive emission rights are driving electricity prices in Germany to ever new record levels. In addition, of course, there are also high taxes and levies for renewable energies and the network charges, which we have already listed in our article “This is why we have the most expensive electricity in the world”.
A new addition is the annually increasing CO2 tax on electricity generated from fossil fuels, which is one of the reasons why the electricity price has reached a new record.
Germany already has the highest electricity price in the world
Germany has the highest electricity price in an international comparison. However, a new peak was reached in August, higher than ever before. According to a current analysis by the comparison portal Verivox, one kilowatt hour of electricity now costs an average of 30.4 cents for private households.
Wholesale prices responsible for higher electricity prices
The wholesale prices for electricity rose significantly in 2021 and are therefore the main reason for the current rise in electricity prices. In January the average price on the EEX electricity exchange was 45.29 euros per megawatt hour and had already risen to 50.81 euros by July. This corresponds to a price increase of around 12 percent. The electricity providers are now passing the price increase on to the end consumer.
Electricity demand rises after corona lockdown
The reason for the rising wholesale prices is the increasing demand for the corona lockdown. The industry is ramping up its production to the level before Corona. At the same time, longer periods of darkness lead to a reduced supply on the producer side. Renewable energies delivered significantly less electricity than expected in 2021 due to the weather. That is why the network operators have to import large amounts of electricity from abroad at great expense.
The incident on August 14, 2021, on which the network operators had to take several industrial companies off the grid due to a lack of electricity in order to prevent a blackout, also shows how scarce the supply is now.
After the shutdown of the nuclear power plants, even higher prices are to be expected
The operators will shut down the last remaining nuclear power plants by the end of 2022. The resulting gap in supply cannot even come close to being covered by the construction of new wind power and solar systems. For this reason, other coal-fired power plants that have already been shut down must be reconnected to the grid to ensure the supply. Since coal-fired electricity, as well as electricity from gas-fired power plants, is burdened with the CO2 levy and the expensive emission certificates, one must reckon with a further increase in the price of electricity. In the first few weeks of September, wholesale prices even exceeded € 100 per megawatt hour for several days. The record value from August will probably be exceeded again in September.
https://blackout-news.de/en/news/electricity-prices-reach-new-record/
The August 14 blackout was reported at the time here:
Power supply for critical industrial companies disconnected from the grid On Saturday, August 14th, the network operators disconnected several industrial companies from the power grid in the evening. The electricity generation could no longer cover the current electricity demand in Germany. The power supply was critical and it was no longer possible to secure the supply even by importing electricity.
A break in solar power triggers the shutdown of industrial companies The generation of electricity in Germany on this Saturday was downright chaotic. During the day, the solar systems generated a lot of electricity due to the almost optimal solar radiation. Between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., the solar power reached a peak output of more than 30,000 megawatts. In the evening, the power generation of the solar systems collapsed drastically. Between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., they delivered around 3,000 megawatts, just 10% of the output from the afternoon. Demand for electricity not covered by electricity imports either
However, the demand for electricity in the evening was almost unchanged at a good 50,000 megawatts. The network operators therefore had to call up all available reserves. But the output of the pumped storage power plants and the lignite power plants run up to their maximum load was not enough to compensate for the deficit between electricity demand and electricity generation. The still missing amount of electricity could not be compensated by importing electricity from abroad. Therefore, shortly before 8 p.m., loads were shed from larger, energy-intensive industrial plants, such as aluminum and copper smelters.
The disconnection of the so-called immediately disconnectable loads took place for the affected companies, however, without prior warning. As we have already described in our article 5-Steps to Blackout – The Security Concept of the Power Grid, the 2nd stage of the security concept already took effect.
https://blackout-news.de/aktuelles/stromversorgung-kritisch-industriebetriebe-von-netz-getrennt/
The US is hot on Germany’s heels:
https://www.cfact.org/2021/09/19/green-gold-rush-looms-for-electric-power/
Yep, JBs already sold out the US energy sector to the Green blob, although most D voters probably think that’s a good thing. Hold onto your wallets. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
The “D voters” might think that is a good thing, now, but wait to the above mentioned “The electricity providers are now passing the price increase onto the end consumer.” deal kicks in. What do you call smart people doing stupid things? Stupid.
Intellectuals
I would add “wealthy” intellectuals, their policies don’t affect themselves, only the ordinary man & woman in the street, then again that was always their intention!!!
They’ve planned for this, though. What happens next is that “activists” will claim that electricity is a “right” for “disadvantaged” people and we must, therefore, subsidize these incredible electricity rates. They won’t skip a beat here. Prices in the suburbs aren’t just going to hit Germany levels. Try twice that before long. And the “D voters” will love every dollar of it, because it won’t be their dollars. It’s win-win for them. Even if they don’t think it will make a difference to the climate, they will enjoy this.
Socialism is the theory that you can run a country by taking money from people who work, in order to buy the votes of those who would rather not work.
Unfortunately, it’s a winning formula in countries with a critical mass of people who have never faced true adversity. Keep the people angry (artificially stoke racial issues, etc), control the media (in our case, they submit willingly), convince the children that they’re all gonna die if the next election doesn’t go their way.
What’s terrifying is the trust people have in bureaucrats. Government dependence is addictive and every bit as deadly as fentanyl.
They will blame it on the EVIL utility companies and call for nationalization. It’s a feature not a bug.
No wonder JB is playing up aid for extreme heat–he means indoor heat from no electricity.
Ghalfrut tells us it is just that gas prices increased so clearly the solution is to turn off all gas generation and rely solely on those cheap renewables … what could possibly go wrong with such brilliant intellect 🙂
The extension of that is what reality do these leftards live in?
The main reason prices increased is because of the printing of Dollars and Euros by the Federal Reserve and the ECB as if there is no tomorrow. They will print that fiat money into worthlessness killing our savings.
The wizards behind the curtain are those who print the money. They printed all they needed to buy/corrupt the system. Politicians from whatever colour are just their puppets to help them kick their failed planned economic system just a little bit further down the road.
But don’t say it is because of capitalism . Real capitalism has been dead for a long time. We have been living in a planned (communist) economic system since We The People gave away our power to the money printers.
Nice to see someone who understands economics and politics commenting. The “existential threat” isn’t one degree C of warming from another 100 ppm additional CO2. The threat is an international debt crisis. Much of the debt is from the misallocation of limited capital resources on sunshine and breezes. An unworkable solution for a non-existing problem that does nothing for the environment and only increases electricity prices.
I’m glad to see others that realize government-controlled money is at the root of the problem. If you have a system of honest money, the only means to acquire same either through coercion (theft or taxation) or cooperation in a free economy. The latter has obvious merits as it expands the production of marketable goods and services, while increasing social civility. (Sellers can be jerks, but at least for purposes of maximizing their own wealth, need to be outwardly civil towards their employees, suppliers and customers). As noted, coercion would still exist in the form of theft or taxation, but these would be highly visible and more easily resisted, as opposed to the hidden theft / taxation of wealth that occurs when the State has the power to expand the money supply.
As an aside, I recollect that JRR Tolkien never publicly acknowledged that his LOR trilogy was an allegory of the modern State. However, between Sauron gathering power in his tower fortress (academia?) and his defeat when the Ring (State controlled money?) is finally cast back into the fire, I think it was pretty apt.
Printing $ is just a tax on savings.
I am sure that question was rhetorical, but if you (or anyone else) really want to know and explore that question, I suggest the following two audiobooks, which happen to be free on YouTube:
A Conflict of Visions – Thomas Sowell
In this book, Sowell categorizes “visions” about how the world operates into two groups: constrained visions and unconstrained visions. In unconstrained visions, there are “solutions” to all of our problems and it is just a matter of being smart enough to figure everything out and implement what we know. This basically puts everything in the world in the hands of “experts” ; like gender surgeons and pharmaceutical companies or models of reality like CMIP6.
https://youtu.be/JslO9HwFDmg
Intellectuals and Society – Thomas Sowell
In this book, Sowell looks at what happens to societies that rely on the expert/intellectual (almost always progressive) class and their unconstrained visions. So, if you are wondering how Germany can be short of electricity, it is the same mechanism exposed by Peter Boghossian in his hoax paper series. One of which was entitled, “Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at the Dog Park”; of which one academic reviewer wrote: the “Dog Park” is “incredibly innovative, rich in analysis, and extremely well-written and organized“. And that passes as “scholarship” in the hermetically sealed echo-chamber world of today’s intellectual class. So, if you are trying to understand the “peculiarities” of the last US election, you will see it as an attempt to forestall reality from intruding upon the intellectual world, as the last thing the progressive intellectual class wants is input from reality (as understood by the common man/voter struggling to pay their utility bills). It also explains the shift from fact based journalism to narrative based journalism and the emergence of Greta Thunberg as an “authoritative” spokesperson.
https://youtu.be/GOWJSOz8SWA
I know this is a heavy lift for a lot of people (18 hours of reading/listening) but it really explains the question, “what reality do these leftards live in?”. And it really helped me understand my own beliefs… as some of the axioms I believe in (but never examined) are also just presuppositions, un-based on facts. This is not “joyous” reading, but if anyone is desperately seeking “clarity”, these two books provide it. IMHO
For what it is worth…
Many decades of scratching my head trying to comprehend leftism has left me totally bald.
I was born bald ,so i was years ahead of you.
From how you’ve described it, I see Magical Thinking
i.e. Self brainwashing borne of cherry-picking and confirmation-bias
Those things coming out of a dull, lazy, slow and chronically depressed mind (and body)
In turn occasioned by a low nutrient diet – (classical) alcoholics being the perfect example.
We all know what they say and how they act:
“Oh, I can handle my drink” they’ll say, while existing off the calories it contains. The magical thinking extends to imagining that doing it in the company of other’s – Makes It OK.
wrong wrong wrong
If anyone disagrees, they call on their similarly afflicted friends to back them up and if you persist with the/any argument they dislike and/or can’t get their heads around, will verbally or physically beat you up.
The chemically induced depression also occasions a fixation on Doom & Gloom scenarios.
IOW, they know they’re in a bad way but fixating on and imagining people in worse situations makes them feel better about themselves.
….them selves being the operative
(Sometimes called Virtue Signalling or Good Intentions)
Describes Climate Science to a T – also Western politics and associated MSM
Cooked/processed/refined Starch is the depressant in all this – it is a perfect Alcohol Mimic
I think that is part of it, but Sowell goes into more deeply than that. From what Sowell posits, all it takes is one unexamined or incorrect presupposition to open the door to an “alternative universe”.
String Theory in physics might be an example… look at all of the theoreticians, academic work and discussions that have gone into it. It is such a “tantalizing” idea, that it has to be correct… however, what if it is wrong? That will obliterate all of the past work and will really make me wonder about all of the hours and hours of my life I spent listening to String Theorists.
And that String Theory “vision” has led to bifurcated physics departments.. analogous to our current Left & Right media environments. They simply can’t talk to one another.
I would not call String Theorists “magical thinkers”… but they have staked entire careers and bodies of work on a “presupposition” and have created a String Theory Universe, both descriptively and concretely in the Physics departments.
And Sowell did the same thing “conscientiously” with Marxism and even wrote his thesis at Harvard on Marxism (something which he considers rubbish today, and is embarrassed about).
I think Magical Thinking is a good description of the phenomenon “after the fact” but while you are captivated by ideas, unless you recognize your fundamental axioms as “ideas” and not facts, you won’t recognize the Magical Thinking for what it is. Einstein essentially described quantum mechanicists as “magical thinkers” because of their reliance on statistics… so even our brightest minds can fall victim.
I was just listening to:
Slavoj Zizek on Liberalism’s Failure, Capitalism Restricting Freedom, & US’ Ideological Civil War
https://youtu.be/r1286yMzbzE
And because Zizek insists Climate Change is real, he has constructed a false universe for himself… and painfully struggles throughout the interview to make sense of the world.
And the shame of it is that probably millions will tune in to listen to Zizek, thinking they are getting some type of “erudition” or “clarification”, when in reality he is leading his listeners into a rabbit warren. IMHO
Ten years ago (before I decided to do the climate change math myself) I would have probably consumed hours and hours of Zizek. And back then I was teaching CAGW to students at University, with a lot of the same conviction and intensity as Zizek.
So, I think Magical Thinking is a good descriptor, but when you are living in a “world of ideas”, reinforced by a media and peer echo chamber, it looks to you like the “real world”.
I really feel embarrassed about what I was teaching students in my CAGW days, but I “trusted the science” and thought that was reality.
For what it is worth…
I listened to Zizek for 5 min some months ago and shut him down. He is a fraud.
I feel the same way. But he is a portal into the question “what reality do these leftards live in?” that LbD posited initially, which is why I brought him up… not to exposit his point of view. I found the interview quite painful, like a presentation by the Flat Earth Society or Lysenkoists, etc.
String Theory is 100% BS .
Decades of effort wasted for showboating.
And there is no way to proof a thing.
For 2 simple reasons.
1) Space has no properties .
Neither in the real world nor in the virtual.
We do not need to code space nor does the universe has to create it as space does not exist in an absolute way.
Space is the absence of something just as shadow is the absence of light.
2)Scientist have not succeeded to pin down a single one of our 3 Dimensions(just take a look outside and show me where the first dimension is,where the second,where the third.
They are interchangeable and can be used in all directions.
We cant because 3D is a human abstraction to define space in an understandable mathematical to way.But the universe doesn’t care nor works that way.
If we can not isolate / pin down our 3 known dimensions
we can for sure not do such a thing for further 8 dimensions .
It should be impossible for such a supercomplex base as the stringtheory to have as result such a rocksolid universe that works so well as the number of disruptive factors should be infinite.
But it obviously works very well as deus ex machina to hide any phenomenon in one of those dimensions and if we look a little bit closer we may realise that such a huge number of dimensions is taylor made for a bazillion of theories and excuses.
They never say where the strings came from.
Thanks for sharing this. I have a similar progression. In the 90s I learned of CAGW from Steve Schneider himself when he was at Stanford. I figured these guys were experts and started giving Al Gore speeches before Steve sold his slide deck to Al. Then a good friend mathematician and high integrity scientist in Australia announced he was hired by The Australian government to do the math for their cap and trade program. We celebrated saving the world.
A few months later, he sent me emails saying that he was investigating the CAGW science and, to paraphrase, it was BS. He quit. That cognitive dissonance kicked me into skeptic mode and as I started learning through first person study and did a 180 u-turn.
Today it amazes me to see people who condemn the military industrial complex and the Pharma industrial complex happily insisting that we “listen to the experts” and sign up for the climate industrial complex and their war on climate, yet another parasite to bleed them dry.
I tell them, hey if you thought Afghanistan was a brilliantly executed military campaign with clear goals and demonstrated results, or that the Pharma led US covid response was a brilliant, perfectly executed scientific/government/pharma project that the rest of the world should emulate – then you are going to LOVE the War on Climate.
The operators will shut down the last remaining nuclear power plants by the end of 2022.
Climate change is a religion, and is on a level with the Jonestown death cult
cyanide-laced grape juice at least tasted good going down.
What’s the German for ‘schadenfreude’?
Schadenfreude 😀
What else ?
Pech?
As I said, the English word “Schadenfreude” is a loanword from German.
Borrowing a word is one thing, changing its meaning is another:
“Peeling” skin, rind, bark, etc, that has been peeled off: eg a potato peeling
In German peeling morphs into
Face Scrub
Does it ? I only know peeling.
You might be interested in epicaricacy.
“socialists in charge”
Money printers (ECB Federal Reserve) in charge (and above the law). And yes their planned economic system is a socialist system always doomed to fail and without freedom. Freedom and Direct taxation can not coexist. Direct taxation is all about power and control.
That’s funny I don’t care where in Germany you live 😂 Brilliant 😂👍
Try auf wiedersehen, pet
The Geordie accent might be a bigger problem than the German language!
Something like that:
whoever has the damage does not need to worry about the mockery
In Germany, “loads were shed from larger, energy-intensive industrial plants, such as aluminum and copper smelters”, but here in the UK, most of the equivalent industries have already been forced to close due to the high fuel prices, and unreliable electrical supply with required load shedding. With little industry left to take the first hit from a deficit in electrical generation, blackouts loom closer this winter. No doubt the interconnect problems will be blamed, when the French would be prioritising any spare capacity to the rest of the EU anyway.
UK is in a really horrible position regardless of how many interconnectors are built because the EU zone is running into power shortages. I love the commentary made by the central bank “Anyone who thinks this is temporary is out for a big shock during the winter.”
Imagine COP 29 in Glasgow next month amidst blackouts in the cold: ha,ha, ha!
Let’s hope the delegates get stuck in a lift!
Didn’t the UK survive last winter with something like a 1% overcapacity for electricity? Seems like the last few years there are stories about the UK just squeaking by on being able to supply power and heating.
Well here in the States we have public officials admitting what is coming next:
Breaking our “will” to enjoy life and have affordable energy is the Billionaire-sponsored Green Blob’s goal. For the politicians pushing the Climate Scam, it is about accumulation of political power in a ruling class that answers only to themselves and the Billionaires. The people are to be pushed into serfdom and their freedoms taken away by high prices for everything.
China, Russia, India, and much of the Third World are going to give the Big Middle Finger to the Climate Scam and deliver lip-service on their emissions as the charade it is.
Yes China, August 1,2021, ended the charade when they ended utility scale subsidies for wind and solar having found them “unreliable”. The bad news for China is they’re not going to have anyone to sell their energy intensive products to as the West economies collapse.
The UK has a robust ‘demand response’ industry, where by agreement firms are paid to take demand offline… in the main this results in no actual loss of operation, as systems are shut down which need to operate within a given period, but not continuously.
And when production lines are shut down, are the workers paid to stay home?
Thanks to renewables, the UK grid has had to develop methods to quickly shed loads when renewables start to fail.
griff actually believes that this ability proves that renewables work.
You see the difference ?
In Germay, they just shut down, no demand, no hint in advance, from one to the other second.
I’m guessing you don’t live in the UK. Or indeed the real world?
I’m guessing that his mom is one of the elite, so they have plenty of money to pay the higher energy and because of their connections they don’t have to worry about having their power cut to keep the grid for collapsing.
Griff has claimed he is not middle class….
Champagne Socialism anyone???
He does live in the UK and constantly comments on power supply in countries like Germany and Australia. I am confident he never experienced the power shortages and 3 day working week in the UK in the 60’s and 70’s.
Oh those happy days of yesteryear!!! That was when the coal miners Union tried to bring down a democratically elected government because it wasn’t of the “correct” political hue!!! That was why when out of power the Conservative Party put in place deals with coal suppliers from across Europe, mainly Poland, so that when the inevitable nationwide strike by the coal miners took place, there would be no power cuts, & therefore the strike would have little or no effect whatsoever, & it didn’t!!!
Wilson shutdown more coal mines than Thatcher ever did and he was democratically elected.
Stunning, simply stunning. So, is there anything in common between a planned blackout and a sub station breaker tripping? Answer…Yes, the lights are still out!
And who pays them to come off line?
“Demand response” is energy socialism. In a (relatively) free energy market, say for gasoline, prices convey information. If they go up, consumers demand less gasoline and producers expand production and/or seek alternative supplies. In a regulated electricity market, prices convey no information. If they go up, it might be because of increased supply costs, or maybe the utility is just passing along the costs of the goofball social engineering ideas fronted by a politicized public utility commission. Either way, there is no additional supply forthcoming, so the utility just sheds load.
“Demand response” – ha ha ha! “Planned blackouts” in other words. Strange to say, I had never heard of this or “load shedding” until Renewable Energy became widespread in the UK.
Why do we even need this if Renewable Energy is so wonderful?
In 2015 I had a German girlfriend, (I am in the USA) one of these leftists, the hypocrite, she flew to Europe for a vacation and then when she came back she said that every house in Germany had solar panels on the roof and in the USA there are few or none. What a jet setting climate hypocrite, and of course none on her house (Pontiac , Mich). Of course she is over weight and then lectures me on diet and nutrition even though I am thin and fit. I hate leftist hypocrites.
A lot of, but not every house has solar panels on the roof.
I like having electricity at night time that I can afford. F^@k solar panels on my house… never. I will not participate in the Climate Charade.
The writing is on the wall. At the rate things are going, the grid is going to fail. Installing solar panels on your house now will put you ahead of the curve. If I were younger, I’d be seriously looking at that, but at 77 I’ve got better places to spend the money.
Oh, quite a lot of it isn’t my money. To all you serfs out there paying your FICA taxes, “Thank you, our new cars, airplane, RV and trips around the world are in no small way funded on your nickel and I appreciate that, I really do”
Installing solar panels on your house now will put you ahead of the curve
Where I live it will not.
What, pray tell, do you think putting solar panels on your house will do for you? Hint: when the grid goes down, you won’t see any power to your house from the panels. Unless of course, you decide to install lithium bombs in your house and double the capex cost, and spend another 1.5 or 2X on a different inverter to run the batteries.
I have solar panels on my sailboat along with a wind generator. The boat runs on 12V and I subbed out the deep cycle Pb batteries (except for a starter battery) for a home grown lithium based battery set. I designed the battery bank to be pretty “safe” but still wonder some. The setup is pretty robust. I fully charge the battery from shore power before launching and can run very easily on the solar/wind, but I do have a diesel generator as backup if I needed it, plus it charges while motoring. I have all kinds of safety alarms for the battery which helps my worries somewhat, but never completely.
It’s a perfect setup for solar/wind. Small demand footprint with backup.
I’m also in the process of building a 3.6KW solar setup for my house that I can roll out from my garage to my backyard and plug it into the house to drive selected appliances, HVAC. It’s strictly a failsafe if I ever need it. I have a whole house NG backup generator which comes into play once or twice a year due to hurricanes or just bad weather. I figure if the solar setup stays in a protected spot, wear and tear on it will be minimal and I can roll it out a couple of times a year to make sure it fires up. We’ve lost power for a couple of weeks due to hurricanes so it might help. I can afford it so why not.
Think what you could do with the whealth you earned if you did’t have to spend it on building a backup power system to protect your self from all of this man made climate stuff.
rbabcock,
How large is.your roll out solar array? I would think that, at a minimum, you would need about 10 square meters and, if correct, this would be a bit unwieldy for a roll out.
BTW, I recognize you to be a very knowledgeable person so I am not challenging your claim, i am instead using your claim to challenge my own beliefs which, it would appear, may be incorrect.
Good for you but your approach is financially impossible for the majority of folks.
Just FYI, AC 110-240V switching power supply like laptops, cell phones, TV’s are fine with DC 30 – 240V directly from panels. 3 x 300W panels will give you DC120V, with minimal output of around 50W during day, 900W maximum, suitable to run TV or laptop, charge your mobile for the night.
This is absolute minimum you can do in 300$ investment range.
I’d cut out all the middle man faff and just rely on the diesel generator.
“Installing solar panels on your house now will put you ahead of the curve.”
Yep the U bend on the toilet curve.
Come dusk NO POWER at all, until freeezing dawn.
To all my critics, solar panels will provide a minimum of power for lights communications and other low power consumption appliances. You’ll need a gas stove, clothes dryer, refrigerator, water heater and gas or maybe wood heat.
Long time ago, I visited a solar house that was “off the grid” that use good ol’ Pb storage cells. It was expensive then and probably is still pricey and you have to maintain it. But it will be better than shivering in the dark when “They” turn off the juice.
In other news yesterday’s “Hey hey ho ho Western culture’s got to go” crowd is the “They” from above, and “They” are running the show now. And if California’s ban on gas hook-ups for new construction is any indication, it looks “They” also plan banning natural gas everywhere. “They” should be taken at their word.
When that fact finally sinks in we might actually see a real insurrection.
In the words of 10cc’s Rubber Bullets, “blood will flow!”.
I live in a part of Orange County, CA where the average home price is about $1 million. I would be surprised if more than 10% of the homes have solar panels. It could be as low as 5%.
I do have solar panels and they have worked out well. I figure they will pay for themselves in 7 years because 1) My wife works for the company that installed them and we got them at cost, 2) Plenty of credits and subsidies from the state, feds and local utility (THANK YOU!), 3) Plenty of sun in southern California and 4) The electricity prices here are so high.
I was also considering a Powerwall for the inevitable blackouts. But I 1) I think they are a fire hazard and 2) I think we might be at Peak Musk and don’t want to bet on the longevity of Tesla.
Meanwhile …
China billows coal fired electricity to make your copper wire, solar panels, solar control electrics, grid electrics, and lithium batteries for your ‘power’wall and EV automobile. At the very least, GREEN means MASSIVE CURRENCY TRANSFER ( to China from the West).
The whole manmade global warming scam is all about “wealth-transfer”, from West to East & developing countries, to make some intellectual wealthy elites feel good about themselves, at other peoples expense of course, never their own!!!
From the article: “The power supply was critical and it was no longer possible to secure the supply even by importing electricity.”
There’s your Red Flag warning.
The communist flag ain’t red for no rwason.
A never ending fun of red flag events
where starvation and track suits are the biggest achievement.
And there is nothing more communist than paying 100% increase for a 50% decrease in quality and supply.
And the worse and more obvious the destruction by co2mmie becomes the more the AGW propaganda will increase.
And in the meantime:
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-09-20/poland-must-pay-500-000-euros-daily-for-ignoring-eu-court-ruling-on-turow
;-D
Spain is worse they had to do emergency law … Nuke power providers are now threatening to shut the rectors down early. It’s what you call a bit of economic horse play.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/14/spain-cuts-soaring-energy-prices-with-emergency-measures
It’s easier to see the problem from non climate change activist analysis
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/europe-faces-bleak-winter-energy-063000504.html?
Bottom line ===> Europe is short of gas and coal and if the wind doesn’t blow, the worst-case scenario could play out: widespread blackouts that force businesses and factories to shut.
Grab your popcorn and watch winter play out.
For those who don’t give a coprolith about a God-forgotten open pit lignite mine ‘somewhere in Eastern Europe’, the Turow mine is the only lignite supplier of the Turow power plant, the forth biggest and the most modern Polish power plant (its Block No. 7 of 496 MWe power was put into operation in May… 2021):
https://turow2044.pl/en/turow-supplies-five-percent-of-the-country-s-energy
BTW: Turow is located right on the Polish-German border.
Like LdB above says: ‘Grab your popcorn and watch winter play out‘.
And what, pray tell, are we going to make popcorn with in Europe?
Install your wood stove now, before it gets cold, and lay in a supply of wood. You can cook, heat, and keep warm around a wood stove.
I installed one last year and my shed is choc full of logs. If the lights go out at least we’ll be warm.
Gooder. Harder.
Britain is in the same RE boat as Germany, except it is a lot more decrepit and leakier.
Britain has been sliding sideways and downward for decades, grossly underinvesting in educating people, training and productivity.
I visited it some years ago, and I was appalled by the shabbiness everywhere, dirty, stinking, unattractive people from all over the world.
Britain has invested in wind, especially off-shore, which has proven to be far more costly than Nirvana promises, because:
1) Power plants that cannot be shut down, as PR-envisioned
2) The impacts of variable wind on the in-poor-shape, not up-to-date grids.
Significant additional grid upgrades will be required, which are very costly, and they are opposed by angry/disgusted nearby people, who saw their property values go into the tank.
Wind has turned out to be a very expensive can of worms regarding operating electric grids.
It has created a huge political headache for RE politicians and their idiotic promises, based on NO ANALYSIS AND LIES
The wind can of worms is being added to the many existing cans of worms, in the UK and the US.
The people know they have been screwed over.
They have become angry, discouraged, lost their can-do spirit.
The same is happening in the US, made far worse by the widespread, over-the-top, election fraud and coup d’etat, which installed a blundering idiot in the White House, who, at almost 80 years old, is basically told what to say and do (here are 30 executive orders for you to sign, right now)
We have a self-avowed Communist/Socialist, very old Bernie, who celebrated his honey in the USSR, before the Iron Curtain came down!!!
Flirting and wining and dining with the enemy is nothing short of Treason.
Sanders is now the Chairman of a major Senate Committee with a $6.0 TRILLION BUILD-BACK-BETTER bill for starters, which he had to pare down to $3.5 TRILLION, and this is after approving a free-for-all, pork-laden, “INFRASTRUCTURE bill for $1.2 TRILLION
And then there is 78 year old, no-face-mask, hairdo, $10/pint-ice-cream, Pelosi, who says she will do nothing, until she gets BOTH bills.
This is off-the-charts CHUTZPAH, perpetrated by election-stealing usurpers of the Government.
If this continues, the US will go the way of Britain
As a loyal Brit, I have to respectfully disagree with you
As a realist, I cannot
There’s more to the UK than London.
Yep, London was run by that serial liar Bojo for a few years.
It was a practice run for the current crappy corrupt government of all England and Wales.
BoJo is not running the country. His eco-nutter, Marxist, wife is.
I clearly said London “was”, a period when Johnson managed to renege on just about every single promise he made to get elected.
His record as mayor should have disqualified him from having any form of public office ever again.
..but NO, it takes some b..lls to be able to run for office, then get elected to make the whole of the UK decline even faster than the worst of the 1960s-70s labour govs managed to do, when they had to beg for cash at the IMF.
Honestly I thought the Bliar/Gordon-moron years were to set a record in producing record deficits and bankrupcy of the UK economy, but Bojo has managed to outdo even those 2 labour kamikazes…
I’m not sure it’s even clear to the current UK government, how close to bankrupcy the UK is heading, but the crash is coming much sooner than they expect.
It’s just one cold winter away, a hike in interest rates to control inflation caused by runaway energy prices, and this time no miners or virii to blame it on…
Already here in Michigan with Consumers Energy. 50% rate increse during peak times for the sumer. Next, permanate high rates year round. Next, sky rocketing prices for electricity and eventualy rationed power no matter what you have to pay for electricity. All of it unnecessary.
As Trittin, a Green, was in charge as Minister for Environement, he promised the Energy Transition to Renewables will cost not more than a ball of ice. It’s a golden one of several tons.
This is good. without blackouts people will just continue with their heads in the clouds . The sooner it all goes wrong the sooner the pressure to fix it.
Sad for those caught in the middle but if it goes too long there will be more deaths and suffering than covid.
He discovered e new member of the periodic table, and named it after himself, of course – Trittinium. It is so rare only a few micro grams will do. Unconfirmed are reports of trace amounts in recycled mountains of beer cans.
“EEX electricity exchange was 45.29 euros per megawatt hour and had already risen to 50.81 euros by July.”
and
“Verivox, one kilowatt hour of electricity now costs an average of 30.4 cents for private households.”
so the wholesale price went up from 0.045 euros/kwh to 0.051 euros/kwh. Yet the consumers pay 0.33 euros/kwh (according to the link).
Who is pocketing the difference? Dont bother looking up, it is the German government.
Governments have become a menace to the society.
You do understand the difference between wholesale and retail prices, don’t you?
I do. Do you understand what is tax gouging? German people pay 29 c/kwh as taxes, fees or surcharges. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/what-german-households-pay-power
Well connected people or groups pay nothing. Such tax gouging often leads to revolutions or at least revolts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_acts_of_tax_resistance
Now let’s ramp up the use of electric vehicles and let the real fun begin!!! Merkel’s legacy will be the biggest drop in the standard of living for Germany since the Treaty of Versailles.
With elections very soon, bringing possibly a green coalition, industry could wither away.
The Morganthau Plan would be complete. Note it was not the greens, rather the ruling parties that quietly signed the nuclear exit 5 months before Fukushima.
As in the USA voters only take notice when the wallet, portmonae, hurts, not on principle or concepts. The Great Reset trainwreck is banking on that – and then want cashless wallets! What is a poor voter to do?
Vote for Republican conservatives.
or better yet: Libertarians
… or better yet, classical liberals who were worthy of the name “liberal” before that word was ripped-off by the Progressives and other socialists.
“The operators will shut down the last remaining nuclear power plants by the end of 2022. The resulting gap in supply cannot even come close to being covered by the construction of new wind power and solar systems. For this reason, other coal-fired power plants that have already been shut down must be reconnected to the grid to ensure the supply.”
Don’t know if Germans ever heard of this adage:
“To err is human. To really mess things up requires government.”
Biden administration motto: So many things to screw up and so little time to do it…
Yes, but that doesn’t keep them from doing their best. Worst. Whatever.
Have you ever seen a plant which has been closed down intentionally long term, and able to be reconnected to the grid at short notice? Reminds me of those fools who deliberately dynamited the coal-fired plants as they were closed down, just to ensure that nothing could interrupt their Green dreams – even realism!
Extrapolate the trend and one gets infinite cost, and zero electricity. Almost makes sense to buy a diesel generator.
You don’t really believe they will let you keep buying diesel or propane fuel, do you?
Or buy a diesel generator. Or if you have one operate it.
gasoline engine, in generator can be retrofit to use wood gas as fuel.
If they won’t let me buy the fuel then I’ll chop down trees. Not sure which they would detest the most. I may give my neighbors a discount if they use my newly formed power station.
Sebastian Luning has a videoblogg Klimatschau.
The last program had a critical view on Merkels energivände and her shutdown of the nuclear power. Mostly based on feelings and religious belief
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHVWFZ6wkQs&t=6s
Germany is just playing catch up. Our cost of electricity from PG&E in California (after all extra fees) has averaged 30 cents/KWH for several years now..
I am so tired of reading the following excuse: “Renewable energy delivered significantly less electricity than expected due to weather.”
No, sorry, when they decided to rely on weather dependent energy they expected this to happen. They just didn’t care. They also expected everyone to just put up with this along with the expected higher cost.
The US, Britain, the EU, Canada, Australia are ruled by governments that are criminally negligent. They create problems willfully. They don’t care about the consequences because they are never held responsible. And sadly, most voters go along with it.
I am very concerned that the griffter hasn’t stopped by to enlighten us on the low cost of RE!
Could someone pop by his house to see if he’s okay? Be cautious of delayed head explosions!
Es tut mir leid…
Sorry?
Could you translate?
😉
Pay close attention to this, mi amigo Americanos, this the the Biden Admin’s big plan for America and they are quietly putting it in place by bypassing Congress and the states’ Legislatures.
A typical Watts alarmist piece.
In the winter you were falsely prophesying the complete collapse of German electricity.
Wait ’til winter 😀
BTW, it’s not Watts 😀
Poor little griffie, he’s so far behind that he has to lie about what others have said in order to make it look like he’s keeping up.
Nobody gave a definitive date for this collapse, so that fact that it hasn’t happened yet is not proof that the prediction has failed.
On the other hand, time and time again, the German grid comes within a hairsbreadth of failing. Adding more renewables and less reliable power to the grid only makes it more unstable. One of these times their luck is going to run out. Will it be this winter? Who knows. But’s it’s more likely than it was last winter.
Alarmist would be a prediction that isn’t based on proven concepts or data – e.g. a claim that elevated CO2 will cause dangerous warming. This article is pointing out proven facts- Germany did have to shut down industry due to over reliance on solar, and it is known that there won’t be new generation in place to replace the nuclear plants going off-line.
Germany’s grid would have collapsed last winter but they got through by running their coal and lignite (dirty coal) plants nearly 100% flat out (for long periods of time, too) . There were whole months last winter when Germany relied almost entirely on non-renewables for electricity, and they still rely on fossil fuels all 12 months for their total energy needs (including transportation and industry).
You tout Germany, griffter, but when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine (all winter) they are one of the highest emitters of CO2 per capita in the world. And they pay 3x what some countries pay for electricity like China and the US. Figure it out, you dense coprolite, unreliable renewables are a scam.
Didn’t you notice that when the news about Germany is indefensible, the griffter tries to change the subject to the UK supposedly not having the same problem. “Look! Squirrel!”
He doesn’t address the reality, just keeps clinging to his delusions.
They are often a means for government, via fees and speciality taxes, many of which can be assessed prior to the end consumer’s bill so they are not so visible, to make up (somewhat) for huge financial shortage since the peasants complain far less about this system that they do about open tax increases.
“Immediate climate protection program” – what is behind it?
We are about to vote for the 20th Bundestag. Climate protection is a key issue in this election campaign. For the time being, the parties are argued in a dizzying competition. The game of fear, as well as the pointing of blame for inactivity in the past, are booming. In-depth explanations of the required measures are unfortunately often presented in a nebulous manner or only inadequately explained. “Who offers more”, or who can “faster – higher – further”, is how the strikingly expressed election campaign statements are supposed to produce their effect. Why do politicians actually not have to assume any (product) liability for their statements and the resulting consequences?
Whether the gigantic size of the task of climate protection can be mastered at all is to be subjected to a stress test based on the Greens’ 10-point immediate climate protection program.
Griff
Remember when you predicted an ice free north pole “next year” and it didn’t happen? I sure do and called you on it then and tried to get you to bet on it and you wouldn’t, remember Tony McCleod he at least had the guts to bet, he lost and can’t post here any more, but at least he was willing to stand by his nonsense. No one predicted the German system would fail last year, they said it was possible and ultimately headed in that direction.
Meet griff; the Energy Denier.
Technically the UK grid is probably more at risk than the German one this winter because they will play EU first and you are now an outsider. A collapse is probably a 50/50 bet but I think the price pain is pretty much 90% odds. The logical thing to expect is UK will have to turn back on the coal power stations not already mothballed
Problem is that it also requires an inventory of coal, it’s no easy task to re-start a coal mine, and shipping it in requires a fair amount of infrastructure to handle the bulk hauling process. Me thinks the worst is coming for the British Isles.
More sh.t from Griff.
Do you know what the temperature is likely to be in the Baltic states later this week?
It’s SEPTEMBER and not even equinox. (0 to -2)
They just put the communal heating on ONE MONTH EARLY, because we were all freezing our asses off!
It was the same this spring….heating stayed on into MAY.
Things are getting significantly colder after these years of “hey let’s throw money at those crappy wind turbines” (yep 2 days this week, they were doing nothing and no solar either cos dead cloudy/no sun, cos we have a 2 week freezing Easterly wind from straight out of Murmansk and Siberia….
Do you realise how much more it costs to heat a block of flats 2 months extra out of 12?
Do you realise I have to pay 15% extra ON TOP of the normal charges for subsidising this green crap, and now will pay for a longer winter too….!
Griff I want to hear a lot less crap from you, cos they sold lots of Teslas here on the back of those unicorn “alternative energies”.
Believe me when it’s -25C in January, there’s 3-4hrs of daylight, the whole grid is maxed out, and there’s no heavy industry like in Germany, they ain’t gonna be going anywhere!
Wake up….
Analysis-Europe’s power firms locked out of record price bonanza (yahoo.com)
No, just collapse of industry, including a CO2 shortage for beer etc.
WSJ
The higher prices pushed two large fertilizer manufacturers, Norway’s Yara International AS A and CF Industries Holdings Inc., of the U.S., to close plants in Europe last week. Mr. Kwarteng met with CF Industries Chief Executive Tony Will on Sunday, his spokeswoman said.
The closure of the plants will have a knock-on effect on industries that use the carbon dioxide that is a byproduct of fertilizer production.
Carbon dioxide is used to stun animals before they are slaughtered, and any shortage will cause problems for meat providers. The gas is also used in the vacuum packs that store meat and other goods and for dry ice that keeps food cool.
The British Meat Processors Association estimates that its members have less than 14 days’ supplies of the gas.
Brewers are also concerned about a lower supply of carbon dioxide, which they use to produce gas in beer and clean oxygen from their tanks.
Greg Hobbs, head brewer at Five Points Brewing Co., said his London-based company has already been struggling with gas supplies due to widespread supply-chain issues. Transport on sea, rail and road is currently gummed up around the world, after Covid-19 left ships out of sync and caused workers to stay at home.
“This news is not good at all,” he said of the closure of fertilizer plants.
If you heard of ‘ tipping point ‘ and you didn’t know what it is, now you know.
Griffs comments about inter alter the German grid is one of these tipping points. 😀
Didn’t someone once declare: “I have seen the future – and it doesn’t work” ?
If the Germans can’t make it work, in the old days one would say don’t bother trying it. I’m afraid nowadays they have become garden variety stupid like everywhere else.
Covid takes a back seat to the stupid virus and there won’t be a vaccine for it. Even predictable calamities don’t seem to change behaviour suggesting even instinctive self preservation has broken down.
Fortunately, all this is is bad publicity for attracting people to a néomarxiste governance, certainly by the muppets who would be running the show. Sheesh
This, amazingly enough, is from the NY Times! So the NYT and the BBC have finally noticed who is doing the emitting.
And in Germany and the UK, people are finally noticing that wind and solar are intermittent.
People are coming to their senses. Slowly, one at a time, but they are.
Sadly, none of them are politicians!
One day someone will think to ask Engineering companies for their consensus of what to do…..instead of relying on movie stars, politicians, and environmental activists.
I guess the other thing, which is a lot less encouraging, is that the NYT does not then draw the logical conclusion, that their agenda requires ‘the other middle-income countries like China and India’ to reduce emissions.
That remains the conclusion that its politically and culturally incorrect to draw, even when in the same para you have noticed that two thirds of global emissions are coming from these countries.
We also have this weird pretence that a country, China, with per capita emissions equal to those of the EU, is in some way disadvantages. Its a ‘middle income’ country in the eyes of the NYT.
Just look up the stats on steel and electricity production for China and the US. Middle income? By any proper standard, the largest economy in the world. Not employing half their educated population in positions of diversity management, either.
Let’s hope that the central US is not hit by another winter like what happened last Feb. We here in Manitoba are part of MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) and last Feb. were were able to up our commitment to MISO to help out. Because of this year’s drought, our hydro resources are being held back to ensure we have enough power for our province this winter. Manitoba Hydro has already said we might not be able to send much power south.
The last forcast I saw, which was yesterday, is for the central U.S. to be a little colder than normal.
You can misrepresent and lie about AGW but you can’t hide or downplay lack of electricity.
People are not going to appreciate sitting around in the dark for long periods of time, and will be especially unhappy if the weather is cold at the same time. Politicians better secure their energy supplies if they know what’s good for themselves, otherwise people may vote them out of office for being incompetent and unhelpful.
Enter the now typical UK solution to any problem, throw money at it…
Quote:”So far, four energy firms have gone to the wall, and four more are expected to follow in the coming days. On Sunday, the UK’s sixth largest energy company, Bulb, announced is seeking a bailout.
The government has said it is considering offering emergency state-backed loans to surviving energy companies to encourage them to take on customers from bust firms”
BBC
Amazing also..
I bookmarked that link barely 2 hours ago, when its headline read:
Rescue loans for gas firms urged over energy price crisis.
Spot and wonder, why the difference…..
Subsidise wind and solar with electricity bill taxes. Subsidise power stations to remain on standby for when wind and solar fail. Subsidise energy companies when they go bust due to government policy. All paid for by the taxpayer.
Yep we don’t call Boris ‘spaffer’ for nothing.
Energy companies going broke! Sheesh this wind and solar at 75 cents/kWh (yeah, nominally 30cents but I mean all-in including subsidies, bailouts, $1000/kWh during major shutdowns, etc), when fossil fuels made 5cents/kWh and paid taxes out of it!!
All the 100s of billions paid in taxes by oil/coal companies and their well-paid employees to all levels of gov (corporate taxes, individual income taxes, taxes at the gasoline pumps, etc.) will disappear from
G revenues. Don’t they see this? And guess who they’ll come to to replace this cashflow?
With ruinables, factories, energy companies, gov wand its citizens will all go broke.
The same cycle happens in Australia. Subsidise wind and solar, subsidies power stations to be on standby, and subsidise people who are now unable to pay their electricity bills because of governments’ policies.
Doesn’t the acceptance of any loan imply that things will get better in the future?
It’s only politicians and taxpayers who would believe that of the UK electricity situation!
Renewable energy firms failing? How is that even possible? After all, they don’t need to purchase natural gas or coal….
Leftists still think an electrical grid comprised primarily of wind and solar will miraculously be cheap, sufficient and sustainable despite all the math, physics and evidence that show the complete opposite…
As AOC says, “It’s better to be morally correct than to be factually correct.”
We’ll soon see if AOC’s platitudes are enough to keep the grids from crashing….
Did you hear that the designer who made AOC’s “Tax the Rich” dress, hasn’t been paying her taxes, both state and federal.
Yes, and because her “TAX THE RICH” dress was given as a gift, she violated House Ethics Rules, and could face some reprimands..
Oh,the irony of the Left.. They never cease to provide great humor.
The tickets were also a gift.
Regardless of the amount of evidence, nothing will be done.
Now had she been a Republican, she would be kicked out of congress. Democrats never go after their own.
Tax the Rich evasion story here;
Designer clothing brand that devised AOC’s ‘Tax the Rich’ Met Gala dress doesn’t even pay its OWN taxes! Records show Aurora James’ firm failed to pay state and federal taxes totaling $130,000
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10005599/Designer-AOCs-Tax-Rich-Met-Gala-dress-doesnt-pay-taxes.html
This most advanced countries on Earth and we can’t figure out how to supply our own people with reliable power? The world is laughing at us.
Unless the bodies are piling up in the streets from climate change, it’s hard to imagine that people are going to put up with high prices and high unreliability for very long.
Every time I ask a renewable cult member “If renewables are so cheap, why does Germany has the highest electricity prices in the world?”, they claim it’s because of the taxes on electricity. What is the logic in touting renewables because they are supposedly so cheap but then not passing the savings on to the consumer?
Has it occurred to anyone here that down voting griff’s posts may actually encourage him to keep posting? I think the better idea is to simply say what it is you disagree with, and ignore the down voting, or say nothing at all. I would do away with the up and down voting if this were my website. It’s pointless.
What happens to an aluminum smelter if it is turned off during the middle of a run full of molten metal?
Backup power for safe shutdown
This is a complicated topic. Here is everything you might ever want to know about it:
Aluminium International Today: Power failure, restart and repair
https://aluminiumtoday.com/content-images/news/Oyeweb.pdf
“A power outage may be partial or total, planned or unplanned. Time is an important parameter. Total loss of power for half an hour due to change of cathodes or minor repairs are no problem. Stops for two to four hours are manageable while five hours or more causes large problems with loss of cell life. “
Must be a complete coincidence……/sarc
New England, California to See Soaring Energy Costs This Winter (yahoo.com)
The Energiewende, German for “energy transition”, is the ongoing transition by Germany to a low carbon, environmentally sound, reliable, and affordable energy supply. The new system intends to rely heavily on renewable energy (particularly wind, photovoltaics, and hydroelectricity), energy efficiency, and energy demand management. The last nuclear power plant will shut down in 2022, all existing coal-fired generation will be retired by 2038. Legislative support for the Energiewende was passed in late 2010 and included greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions of 80–95% by 2050 (relative to 1990) and a renewable energy target of 60% by 2050.
— source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energiewende
Hey, freundliche Deutsche, how are you folks feeling right now about your Energiewende?
It’s not like you weren’t warned years ago.
The land of EVs and green investing is here to help with more gas sales.
WRAPUP 1-Norway promises Europe more gas as prices soar (yahoo.com)
Countries With Most Expensive Electricity Priceshttps://www.electricrate.com/data-center/electricity-prices-by-country/
The funniest part of that link is the leftard statement at end
Quote:
However, low electricity prices are not always a good thing – in many countries, they represent large quantities of cheap fossil fuels that continue to pollute our planet. Finally, as we ponder electricity and all its wonders, it’s important to remember that there are still people in the world without access to electricity (approximately 13%), so we shouldn’t take it for granted.
Communtards.
That is darn inconvenient. Those are not industries that can just restart by the turn of a switch.
Perhaps they can saw the lumps of metal into usable pieces?
One gets the idea that the operators who decided which industries to cut loose in that load shedding, aren’t the brightest.
Companies sign up to very low rates on the understanding that they will be hit with power cuts when needed.
If you agree to pay the full price then whole areas are blacked out instead.
Hang on: the reported August 14th power blackout seems to have been a result of a metal-coated balloon which came into contact with the relay station in Dresden
I can’t find any mention of the other events outside the ‘blackout news’ linked to by Notricksszone
This is only being reported on skeptic sites?
Is this even true?
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/klima-energie-und-umwelt/industriebetriebe-kurzzeitig-vom-stromnetz-genommen-17487869.html
Is it possible that Leftists are congenitally more susceptible to something in the air/water/food that harms them – manifesting as criminal insanity? Could it be the rest of us are shrugging whatever-it-is off successfully, while these poor souls fall victim to something akin to lead poisoning?
Ecocide, the new economic model fir the west….
The US is energy independent – but don’t expect CNN to tell you that. In fact, US is an oil exporting nation.
So they are shutting down factories? Hopefully this will wake up some Germans… “loads were shed from larger, energy-intensive industrial plants, such as aluminum and copper smelters.”
The characteristic of all governments is they promote scarcity while private enterprise is always working to increase abundance and lower prices.
“We must ever remember we are refining oil for the poor man and he must have it cheap and good.” – John D. Rockefeller