Contributor Energy
I analyze energy economics and related public policy issues.
A cursory survey of recent media headlines reveals a profound shift for analysts and commentators of energy sector issues. The baseline over the past three or four decades has been an endless stream of articles vilifying, deprecating and demonizing the fossil fuel industry as responsible for “wrecking the planet” a la Greta Thunberg. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it would seem that we are at the crossroads of global significance:
Reuters (February 28th): Nuclear, coal, LNG: ‘no taboos’ in Germany’s energy about-face
Reuters (March 13th): German finance minister open to new oil, gas drilling in North Sea
The Times (UK, March 14th): Plan to keep coal power plants open
Express EXPR +0.8% (UK, March 20th): Boris Johnson hints at fracking return as he vows to ‘take back control’ of energy
CNBC (US, March 9th): U.S. Energy Secretary Granholm calls on oil and gas companies to raise output
How The Energy World Has Changed
My, how the world has changed! From a constant barrage of calls to end fossil fuels and “transition” to “renewable fuels” such as solar, wind and batteries (but not nuclear) that inundated media headlines over many years, the leading advocates of Western Europe’s “Green Deal” (and Green New Deal in the US) and “Net Zero by 2050” are now calling for coal and nuclear plants to remain operating, resuscitating oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, allowing fracking in the UK, and urging US oil and gas companies to “produce more”. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told an assembly of oil and gas companies at a recent conference in Houston, Texas
We are on a war footing—an emergency—and we have to responsibly increase short-term [oil and gas] supply where we can right now to stabilize the market and to minimize harm to American families…. And that means you producing more right now, where and if you can….So yes, right now, we need oil and gas production to rise to meet current demand…
This is from a key member of an administration that upon assuming office immediately declared a regulatory war against US oil and gas producers. From shutting down or blocking new oil and gas pipelines, to stopping oil and gas drilling on federal lands, Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, to pushing banks to cease funding for oil and gas investments, the Biden administration made “fighting climate change” its central objective. When this led to falling poll numbers for President Biden as gasoline prices at the pump rose to multi-year highs, the Biden administration resorted to imploring the OPEC+ group of oil producers to increase their output. This perverse state of oil diplomacy has deepened as the administration is looking to Venezuela and Iran as potential sources of increased oil supply.
For energy analysts not sold on modelled predictions of “climate emergency” and magical thinking on unreliable renewables, the expectation prior to the Ukraine conflict was of a slow war of attrition between two forces. On one side is the juggernaut of the climate industrial complex decades in the making, amalgamating a confluence of elite interests and organizations in the West. These range from activist environmental NGOs spreading climate alarmism, renewable energy lobbies pursuing favourable government mandates and subsidies, and international organizations such as the International Energy Agency and the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change that spend more time advocating a radical global energy agenda than critically analysing trade-offs and establishing objective policy choices for human welfare.
On the other side in the war of attrition are the hoi polloi — the inchoate mass of working poor and aspiring middle classes who cannot afford virtue signalling — that are increasingly inflicted with escalating energy prices and higher costs of living. This is becoming increasingly evident in countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom which are at the forefront of the move to “net zero” emissions by 2050. The impact of high electricity prices and unaffordable costs of heating and transport on poorer households in Europe became increasingly apparent during this winter’s energy crisis brought on by reliance on Russian energy imports, surging natural gas and oil prices and an extended period of little or no wind causing renewable energy supplies to plummet.
A Semblance of Energy Realism
The invasion of Ukraine changed all that. At a stroke, a refreshing energy realism dawned upon European political elites, in particular on the German Green party which is a major component of the coalition government. Economy Minister Robert Halbeck said that “there were no taboos in deliberations”, and was considering options to extend the operations of the country’s coal and nuclear power stations and importing liquified natural gas (LNG). Halbeck is a member of the Green party for which climate purity is a central tenet in its political faith. Repeating the “no taboos” refrain, even Frans Timmermans — the EU’s Green Deal chief and leading proponent of Germany’s monumentally-expensive Energiewende policies forcing the transition to a “low carbon future” — said countries planning to burn coal as an alternative to Russian gas could do so in line with the EU’s climate goals. Similarly in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has “made it clear that he is giving the green light to Britain using its gas and oil resources going forward with insiders suggesting that a U-turn to allow fracking is coming”.
By propelling energy security to a central place in the policy agenda, the Ukraine war has brought some semblance of energy realism back into popular discourse. Yet, the “climate emergency” narrative is far from being dethroned in elite policy circles. Speaking to an audience via video link on Monday, UN Secretary General António Guterres highlighted how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatened to become a huge setback for the concerted effort to speed up climate action. “Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use,” Mr. Guterres insisted. “This is madness.”
While many might disagree on just where this “madness” resides, Mr. Guterres reflects the same sort of tone deafness exhibited by John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, who bemoaned that the Ukraine invasion was distracting people, including Russian President Putin, from the “fight against climate change”. In another interview he said the war was “very tough for the climate agenda, there’s no question about it.” These comments show policy elites to be ideologically blinkered not only from the actual day-to-day problems of ordinary people. They are also blind to the fact that it were the very anti-fossil fuel policies in Europe and the U.S. that helped Russia gain such a stranglehold on energy supplies to Europe.
Western Oil and Gas Companies Under Attack
The oil and gas companies in the West that have been belittled and vilified for decades with social stigma and ESG strictures are now under attack for not ramping up production enough and quickly! Only slightly tongue-in-cheek, energy author and journalist Terry Etam describes the message cast by Western political leaders to the industry as follows:
Hydrocarbon industry, just shut up and raise production, we know it is easy and you just choose not to. We don’t want to hear from you, you have no future, and you are outdated dinosaurs that are still wrecking the planet. But due to an unforeseen war, we just need to use you for a few more years, and if you don’t ramp up production immediately well, that means you just don’t support the people of Ukraine.
While international oil and gas companies such as BP and Shell are busy deconstructing their business models in favour of renewable technologies and the “energy transition” to satisfy their activist stakeholders, Saudi Aramco has doubled its 2021 net income to $110 billion, allowing it to issue bonus shares. With profits expected to be even higher in 2022, the national oil company is planning to boost its upstream capital expenditure by $40 – $50 billion to further expand its production capacity and cement its role as a global swing supplier. In its view, the world, particularly developing countries accounting for 80% of the global population, will need its oil for decades to come.
The Russia-Ukraine war has caused much bloodshed, ruin and tragedy for millions of displaced people. It also has made the green chickens come home to roost.
The speed of the about-face reminds me of how Communist parties around the world did a 180 when Stalin and Hitler signed their non-aggression pact in August 1939, enabling their combined invasions of Poland; and then rotated 180 again two years later when Hitler invaded the USSR.
It’s almost enough to make you think their science is political science with a single thought-meister.
Preaching to the choir brother. Amen
Why beg Venezuela, Iraq and Iran for oil, when right across the border in Alberta, Canada, there is enough oil sands to supply the North American continent for at least 40-50 years at these prices. With the rest of NA production, we would have 100 years at least of economical oil if we also included Mexico in the mix.Tragically, Canada can’t even get its own oil to Quebec or the the Maritimes, cause they not too bright.
Begging off the axis of EVIL for some oil seems to be insane, when Canada can easily supply all the shortfall for a 100 years. Yes, now the chickens come home to roost, because everyone now knows we can’t do without oil, plus for 7000 other products we make from it as well. People better wake up, cause we only get so many chances before things really go south. Especially at the beginning of winter.
I feel like I am following Alice through the looking glass when I read about begging other oil countries to increase production while simultaneously impeding our own. It is too blatantly hypocritical to make any sense, even for Greens, Marxists, Alarmunists, or Democrats. Every time I see another report on it, I shake my head and wonder if I’m having the kind of dream which seems familiar and I can’t tell if it really is a repeat or whether it is the first time and the deja vu is part of it.
while theyre roosting i hope the chooks crap all over dozyjoe
To grow oil sands production, we must bring back the income tax and royalty changes that I initiated in the 1980’s – 100% CCA rate and 25% DNP Royalty with a 1% gross minimum until payout. The federal Libs and NDP killed the tax and Premier Ed Stelmach ruined the Royalty. The Stelmach sliding scale Royalty sterilizes oil sands growth due to inflation. It is remarkable how stupid and destructive our governments are – including our provincial Conservatives. Canada is still the 4th largest oil producer in the world because of the oil sands, but new projects won’t go anywhere as long as our governments are so incompetent.
Not to diminish the potential contributions of our good neighbor to the north, but we have enough oil and gas here in the US to provide all our needs with enough left over to export.
As proof, we were doing it before Biden took office.
mmm…not really. That USA export included the purchase and imports of Canadian oil that got exported. Which is what some of that fuss was about with Keystone XL, in that the criticism was that Canada would just use the USA to export its oil through southern gulf ports, and also feed the refiners in Texas with WCS heavy oil.
While some of that got sold back to eastern Canada in some form, including refined product, the NET contribution to USA energy independence already included Canadian imports to a signifiant contribution. Not that it matters a whole lot, as USA/Canada are fairly closely aligned in many aspects and our economies are the most integrated on the planet.
Oil imported from Canada for export is a net zero. One unit in, one unit out. It couldn’t increase the US’s exports.
Tilak,
It’s not much about CO2 emissions any more than religions are about original sin. The entire world has gotten richer, much richer, over the last century. Richer people use more energy. And governments want their piece of the economic pie represented by more people using more energy, for spending control purposes.
The limits of economic spending that can be achieved by the usual types of taxation are at their public acceptance limit….income tax, sales tax, inheritance tax, user taxes, property taxes, and on and on….but basically they can now run their tax simulation program and an increase in nearly ANY of them actually hurts the government “take”.
Even their favorite hidden tax, inflation, whereby they end up making your children pay capital gains tax or inheritance tax on the summer cabin you bought years ago….is now just money that goes to pay government employees salaries.
But carbon taxes, CO2 credits and the like are a whole new means of money spinning, with an aura of “sin tax” to convince the public that it needs to be paid.. Governments will continue their present philosophy of NOT being too effective at cutting oil and gas consumption overall, but your bill will go up to cover the “overheads” which are actually $ used for government controlled items. Of course there are some problems with useful idiots going too far like New York stopping natural gas projects while sitting on the Utica shale…but sooner or later the demand will allow them allow installations as long as there is adequate “sin tax”….
Even Greta realizes CO2 is mostly a government do-nothing-but-collect project, just as it is for herself…..
It’s not much about CO2 emissions
YES IT IS!
So you admit its all about non-science. Well done griff. !
Sorry, but even someone as dim and addle-minded as you, must have figured out by now that its all a great huge con-job. !
Explain what’s CO2 efficient about having Oil and Gas extracted in Saudi/Iran (take your pick) then transported to America Vs extracting Oil and Gas in America with no transportation cost.
There’s a clue in there griff – Transportation cost. Lots of diesel powered ships chugging their way across Oceans to get to America with Oil and Gas America already has in the ground.
if it were about CO2 emissions, then we (in the West) be building nuclear power plants as fast as China is today. And the climate warriors would be leading the nuclear power charge to “save the planet”
Instead we are told to buy more cheap solar panels from China.
Your lies are easily exposed Griff-ter.
If the supposed food shortage suggested come to fruition, followed by civil unrest; the entire notion of CO2 will lose its appeal given CO2 is plant food and fossil fuels and especially natural gas are critical in fertilizers and the production of food. A greener earth is far better than a colder earth. Moreover, the CO2 charade is a fools errand. China and India emissions eliminate anything the West might do to reduce carbon emissions. Making people poorer and adding unnecessary chaos and upheaval into our societies will unleash events likely will have some very unpleasant unintended consequences. Uncertainty, chaos and a sense of helplessness will only provide the excuse for people to act rather badly. If our government officials don’t get a handle on this and resolve the energy self-inflicted wound things will get worst, before they get better.
Griff is anti-phytology.
Passage from an American Thinker article.
It certainly isn’t about weather, which isn’t doing anything unusual.
Where is the emperical evidence that CO2 has any effect on the climate? As far as I can see, it has all been conjecture.
The Green Juggernaut has not stopped. Governments are simply looking for a quick fix to tide them over.
High gas prices provide “evidence” that gas is bad. Thus wind and solar must be good. We need to convert even faster. The green mob will not let this crisis go to waste.
What young person is going to contradict this when their careers depend on remaining silent? This was confirmed by the recent contest on WUWT.
I expect Ball and Steyn would rather not have gone through their legal ordeals, and for what reason? Because they dared poke fun at a green scientist.
How many people have not written critical articles as a result? How many publishers have refused anonymous articles to minimize liability?
The lawsuits had their desired effect.
I wish I shared the optimism conveyed in this article.
Sadly when you look at the ongoing actions from the UK government departments responsible for setting the energy policies we see a consistent anti fossil fuel game play taking place.
We are short of oil and gas which is driving world prices to unaffordable levels. That is bizarrely, considered a ‘good thing’ by the BBC and the chatterati greens.
‘Their’ man in office at the department of energy, Kwasi Kwarteng thinks the way to solve the structural shortage of gas, is to build more wind farms…. urgently!. He has refused to withdraw the instruction to back fill the only two fracking wells we have. His instruction is to concrete fill the Bowland shale exploration wells and get it done by the end of June, this year.
The other player in government actively responding to the shortage of oil and gas is the PM Boris Johnson. His wife is an XR activist and friend of George Monbiot which might explain a few things, I digress. Boris Johnson’s solution to the fossil fuel shortage is to advocate urgent construction of small nuclear power generators?.
Now, if a single one is built this side of 2030 I will come back and apologise for doubting him. Either way, it still won’t make filling up your car with petrol or diesel any cheaper or easier, any time soon.
Until Johnson declares, fracking is to be urgently progressed in the Bowland shale, plus the North sea oil extraction is to be reenergised, as per the 1970 push. Then I am afraid what we are getting from government and woke politicians in general, is window dressing, words and nothing more.
I am increasingly worried we will not be prepared to survive a bad winter if one comes at us later this year, here in the UK.
Boris is not driving UK green policies because of his wife’s influence… he’s not the sole driver of Tory net zero
Net Zero was on page 1 of the 2019 election manifesto and is supported by a wide range of the party (except only the populist nutjobs)
Couple of points, griff
“Boris is not driving UK green policies because of his wife’s influence… ”
….these are not the droids you are looking for….
Well, as a member of the Tory party I can tell you that very few support the drive to net zero. In truth very few people in any political party in the UK support the drive to net zero. The politicians have tried to force it on the UK population and Joe Public isn’t happy about it.
The only thing the push to net zero has achieved in the UK is soaring energy bills, which millions are going to struggle to pay. It’s taken a war to wake up our stupid politicians — they’re all as bad as each other regardless of their political views — to the fact that net zero is going to do nothing except make people poorer.
Of course we all want to reduce pollution, which is a very good reason to reduce fossil fuels, but CO2 never has been a pollutant and never will be.
Net Zero was always intended to make most people poorer.
Yeah, the endgame is making us all live like 17th century serfs. While the elites live in the modern/future world with more than enough of whatever they might need for whichever whim suits them at that moment.
So you elected someone to shoot the UK in it’s own foot but you managed to blow the whole leg off … congratulations.
Nobody in the BBC looks at the Met Office pressure map . There’s NO WIND AT ALL in UK and Germany until late Saturday – maybe. That’s four days and counting.
all of the fossil fuel actions mentioned here are very short term responses to an emergency – and i say again the mid to long term plan is to INCREASE renewable energy.
this is no about turn.
and with a 100% fossil fuel economy we’d still see massive disruption and need for emergency action.
Poor griff, deep down even you must know that you are lying through your a**e.
If UK was producing its own fuel from the copious supllies they have access to (rather than letting the greeniie agenda get in the way) there would be no problem..
You reap what you sow, and its great to see the western countries starting to hurt because of their pathetic cow-towing to the anti-human, anti-CO2 agenda.
Time for them to wake up and start looking after their own fuel supplies, and stop the idiotic and malodorous whinging about a non-existent, fabricated climate issue.
Poor Griffy-pooh is in a state of both denial and delusion. But that’s our Griffy. What would we do without him?
SCIENTISTS WHO DIDN’T PREDICT A SINGLE THING ACCURATELY FOR LAST 12 MONTHS CONFIDENT THEY KNOW WHAT THE WEATHER IS GOING TO BE LIKE IN 100 YEARS
April 29th, 2020 – BabylonBee.com
WORLD—Authorities in the scientific community who touted faulty COVID-19 models are “pretty confident” they know what the weather is going to be like in 100 years, sources confirmed Wednesday.
“Yes, we were off by a factor of about 1 billion in our predictions for what happened over the last few months, but trust us: we know exactly what the climate is going to be like in a century,” said leading scientific authority Dr. Garth Wendybrook at a press conference. “See, I have this lab coat and this Bunsen burner here.” At this point, he gestured toward a Bunsen burner sitting on the table in front of him, but he accidentally caught his sleeve on fire. “Fire hot! Fire hot!” the scientist cried before diving in a nearby vat of acid to put it out.
Post-press-conference analysis indicated his observations were correct, and the fire was hot.
The scientists say they have settled on a climate model that confirms the earth’s average temperature will be either 1 million degrees Celsius or below freezing, give or take 1 million degrees.
We here in Texas found in Feb 2021 just how reliable wind and solar are. Doubling down on failure seems normal for greens.
To leftists, the solution to every problem is more government, especially those problems that are being caused by government.
Yeah, when the government screws up… easy fix. The government needs more power and authority to fix it.
RE Feb 2021 cold in Texas that killed what? 700 people?
Told you so 20 years ago.
“We are not amused!” – attributed to Queen Victoria.
CORRECT CLIMATE AND ENERGY PREDICTIONS FROM 2002
In 2002 my co-authors and I published:
1. “Climate science does not support the theory of catastrophic human-made global warming – the alleged warming crisis does not exist.”
2. “The ultimate agenda of pro-Kyoto advocates is to eliminate fossil fuels, but this would result in a catastrophic shortfall in global energy supply – the wasteful, inefficient energy solutions proposed by Kyoto advocates simply cannot replace fossil fuels.”
I published on September 1, 2002:
3. “If [as we believe] solar activity is the main driver of surface temperature rather than CO2, we should begin the next cooling period by 2020 to 2030.”
I updated my global cooling prediction in 2013:
3a. “I suggest global cooling starts by 2020 or sooner. Bundle up.”
This global cooling is primarily solar-induced, driven by the end of very-weak Solar Cycle 24 (SC24) and the beginning of very-weak SC25, as we published in 2002.
Reference:
“SCIENTIFIC COMPETENCE – THE ABILITY TO CORRECTLY PREDICT”
by Allan MacRae, B.A.Sc., M.Eng., October 20, 2021, Update March 18, 2022
https://correctpredictions.ca/
“to INCREASE renewable energy.”
Germany already has around 30,000 windmills that over the last couple of days have produced hardly any electricity, and at times really nothing, nada, zip.
If you were to double the amount of windmills to 60,000 you’d still have produced nothing.
High pressure at this time of year over Germany, and much of northern Europe has reduced wind speeds to 3 mph max, so no asking your neighbours for a boost, they’re in the same boat.
Is there a limit to this madness?
Are you willing to place a bet Griff they are still in place in 5 years time … loser doesn’t post for 12 months?
This first statement – the mid to long-term plans are essentially unchanged – may be true. I’m not going even debate that.
The concluding statement is another non sequitur. It logically does not follow. First, the straw man — nobody is arguing for a 100% fossil fuel economy. Most people advocate adding more nuclear power to the mix. Second, there would be no massive disruption without 1) dependence upon imports from Russia and 2) the foolish dismantling of the conventional power system.
PS – Assuming “renewables” actually work as you claim, it’s utterly stupid to shut down the existing infrastructure until “renewables” can entirely replace it.
Because this is the one and only emergency the world will ever experience, we can afford to ignore principles and put off the revolution.
I don’t normally bother, but in your case I’ll make an exception. The above is sarcasm.
Griff,
You need to be a leader in the efforts to rebuild Ukraine (utilizing only green energy) into a green utopia of windmills & sunshine. The people of Ukraine will obviously embrace you and your ideas … in the end they will be very grateful for your input.
The UK Chancellor’s spring statement on tax/economy yesterday responded to the current energy crisis: he dropped tax on petrol – and on solar panels and heat pumps.
Oh, that’ll fix the Diesel shortage then – you cannot make it from (light) Brent crude.
The Zero-VAT rating on “green” stuff was merely to align us with its treatment in the EU, despite lies about our being “independent”.
AND he gets more additional VAT on the current price of squirt than the duty reduction.
You’ve been fooled again, I’m afraid.
If the climate policy was to make Europe dependent on Russian fossil fuels (gas, oil and coal), it has achieved excellent success. It has allowed Russia to level entire cities (Mariupol, Kharkiv and many other smaller towns around Kiev).
A young gymnast was killed during the bombing of Mariupol. She was only 11 years old.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbbBk9LKy-9/
When the Ukraine Government is forced to give Putin what he wants & Peace is declared, then the EU & the UK will heave a big sigh of relief, & Russian gas & oil will be politically acceptable again
Mind you the Greens will say ” Only as a bridging fuel.””
They will not give up on their Dream of a World Government, ie Communism.
Michael VK5ELL
Ukraine is not going to give Putin want he wanted, at the outset of his war on February24th, that is a puppet government that the Kremlin controls.
He may get a puppet government, especially if his forces capture Kyiv, however Russia and China will be the only countries that will recognize it and it will take the continued presence of Russian security forces to keep it in power.
They will not capture Kiev. Russian forces in the north are losing.
The Ukrainians are defending freedom for all of us and are doing a damn good job of it.
NATO should be sending them every weapon they need.
This humiliating defeat of Putin in Ukraine may cause the Chicoms to have second thoughts about invading Taiwan.
The West should be pouring weapons into Taiwan right now. Let’s get ahead of the game for once.
If the deterrent is strong enough, the dictators will leave you alone. Let’s make Taiwan’s defense strong enough to discourage invasion. Now.
This keeps on coming up that the Chinese will very soon invade Taiwan. This is nonsense. There is an extremely good reason why this has not happened. And the Chinese communists have had over 70 years to think about this and so far have done nothing. Its the water dummies, Taiwan is an island and is over 100 km from the mainland. That makes an invasion of Taiwan extremely difficult or nearly impossible. Why do you think Hitler, the Germans never invaded England? It was the English Channel which at its narrowest point is only 32 km or 20 miles wide. The Germans never had the capability to try it. The Chinese do not have it either re Taiwan and the strait there is minimum 3 times wider.
In this case, we may be dealing more with Xi’s ego, than with common sense.
I’ve always thought the Chicoms would have a very hard time subduing Taiwan. I think the Taiwanese value their freedom just as much as the Ukrainians and will fight just as hard to preserve it.
It is important to remember that the Ukrainians are defending their territory and are not the aggressor.
Carrie Antoinette is ensuring the UK goes back to mediaeval feudalism
The Chancellor should have ended the green subsidies which account for 25% of energy bills
BUT if he ended the subsidies, that would soon end the output of the unreliables. Without the subsidies, they are not profitable.
Hoo boy, the combination of both weapons-grade Greentardation and cognitive dissonance going on now is truly a wonder to behold. It takes a very special kind of Stupid to try to claim that we only just now have a desperate need for more fossil fuels, but once this inconvenient distraction of war is over then boom, bye bye fossil fuels. The gormless Greenie Goombas are delusional. The jig is up, and in their heart of hearts, they know it.
“but once this inconvenient distraction of war is over then boom, bye bye fossil fuels.”
And just who do they think is going to fall for that lark !
Why would anyone invest money into fossil fuels now, with that outlook.
These people are totally clueless. !
Who is going to fall for it?
The same trolls who have spent the last few years telling us that the only reason why Trump advised against buying Russian gas, was he wanted Europe to buy US gas. (Of course they didn’t mention that there were options other than US and Russia.)
If I was a FF producer I’d be wanting some sort of legally binding commitment from the government that they wouldn’t shut me down again within the next, oh I dunno, 100 years or so. In fact, I might be tempted to have them compensate me for the damage already done before I even listen to them.
Here in NZ I gather that it’s a policy of our main opposition party (if they can be called that) to undo our oil and gas exploration ban introduced by the lunatics currently in power, but who would be mad enough to start exploring only for the govt after them to bring the ban back?
This whole “it’s a climate crisis!!” idiocy has to stop. Literally every other _actual_ crisis is far worse than any imagined climate crisis (aka gentle warming) we might be suffering through.
CO2 levels in Europe rise as forests burn after bombings around Chernobyl. Will masks come in handy?
Renewable protagonists are fighting back: the new cry is ‘renewables cheaper than coal gas or nuclear – the answer is more renewables’
And they are buying airtime in the national media to promote it.
The thought that they might be lying for profit, still hasn’t really sunk in.
One of the possibly hopeful outcomes of Putin’s ‘little adventure’ may possibly be that the millennial snowflakes have a light bulb moment and realise that there are indeed people in the world to whom the truth is simply an inconvenience, and all that matters is the plausibility and attractiveness of an utterly faux narrative.
They will naturally start to feel very insecure and need a lot of counselling.
Has anyone noticed the Davos Great Reset is actually right now under our very noses proceeding exactly according to plan?
This was the intent of the CO2 scam all along.
Even UN Climate Finance Czar Marc Carney made it perfectly clear at COP26 that relentless,ruthless pursuit of NetZero is anyway the goal with GFANZ in place.
So we have a war and rationing economy with soaring inflation, and famine threatened, and all blamed on one man, President Putin. For the Great Reset to steamroll, NATO must fight to the last Ukrainian, no peace deal is possible.
There is the true evil – Ukraine is being used, the Kiev Nazi Banderites funded by the US since before 2014 are cannon fodder. Ukraine is merely collateral damage for NATO.
See the true color of NATO – it is using the old Brown to push the New Green.
As Israel President Bennett told Zelensky, sign Putin’s 4 points. When Zelensky then pulled a Holocaust PR stunt, he walked straight into a wall.
Russia and China, and India, refuse to accept the Great Reset, so Russia is the only obstacle for a full scale economic and financial onslaught on China next.
The Eurasian Economic Union, the SCO, the BRI programs proceed against the Great Reset.
It’s one thing to be an unwitting victim of propaganda – Ukraine is run by a secret Nazi cabal, Russians will be greeted as liberators, Putin is justified in his war, etc,, etc. and it’s quite another thing to spread such disinformation.
Are those Putin’s talking points this week?
BTW, what happened to your claim that Ukraine was using the Chernobyl exclusion zone to build a plutonium based dirty bomb?
US Secretary of Energy Granholm is the typical two-faced lying Democrat.
On one face now to the public, she asking US oil and gas producers to “produce more.”
On her other face, the one that matters, she is continuing to pursue “green madness” of bureaucratic rule making to stifle domestic production, a nod to the Democrat’s green insane base.
The only reason we’re having to endure her lying “produce more” face is because Democrats are going to get wiped out in November.
Even (most) Fools recognize that Wind-Solar-Battery is not a short-term solution to today’s energy crisis. And even (some) Fools also recognize that it’s not an intermediate solution either. Many rational scientists will tell you that it’s not even a long-term solution due to the necessary invention of some new technologies to make it practical or possible. The technical requirements for land area, storage times, and distribution distances are quite formidable.
The US short-term solution for today is pump-pump-pump oil. That’s currently ruled out politically. There aren’t any others without giving billions of dollars to terrorists and war criminals.
Sorry but global starvation is already the setup in the farm sector with fertilizer prices and supply shortages. That takes evil NG to make it, right Griff?
Ukraine will never forget Russia’s murder of children and old people. Most of these women with children who are in Poland will return to their homeland.
https://youtu.be/8qAI0rsgJ6E
No doubt within a few years there will arise a movement whose goal it will be to deny that anybody died during the Russian invasion, and that anyone who makes such claims is just a victim of US/British propaganda.
I remember some here, in the first week or two of the invasion, trying to deny that there was an invasion and that all the photos and videos were faked.
I remember some here, in the first week or two of the invasion, trying to deny that there was an invasion
Haven’t seen it here recently but there are still people saying that.
We note that Boris Johnson has gone from the UK being the “Saudi Arabia of wind” (paraphrasing) to supporting Nuclear, within a couple of years.
He’s throwing his weight behind Nuclear power now, despite EDF and Toshiba withdrawing from building full scale conventional Nuclear power stations on the grounds of expense, which is a function of the ridiculous red tape in the UK.
Instead, he’s now promising SMR’s. The problem is thousands are required to power the UK and Rolls Royce is only proposing the first of 16 to begin construction in 2030.
But to make up for successive government screw ups over energy security, relaxation of planning laws are now being considered so onshore turbines can be built in England. They are already littering Scotland which is blighted by them in some of the most remote, beautiful, hitherto unspoiled landscapes in the world.
Interestingly, Biden seems to be unwittingly (ahem) doing the world a favour. After about 18 months he’s successfully wrecked the worlds energy markets and with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, everyone has sat up and taken notice.
The way things are going, inflation will approach, if not exceed, the 15% the UK saw in the 80’s/90’s, which took the country years to deal with.
By 2024 it won’t just be Americans screaming for the sanity of Trump to return, but the whole world. The man was by no means perfect however, he approached running a country the way it should be approached, as a big business, which is precisely what it is.
It only seems that long, it’s only been 14 months.
The big elephant in the room is the probable demise of the petrodollar and all that implies.
They are already getting ready for petroyaun, petrorubles, etc.
Simply put, demanding payment in currency other than U.S. dollars means that the cost of servicing the US debt will go up. That could lead to hyperinflation and default on the debt.
A good overview of the situation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHfn4z5l82U
Anyone who thinks that there is even a slim chance of the Ruble replacing the Dollar isn’t playing with a full deck.
So the choice for Germany is either payup in some other currency or freeze.
Wonder what they will do?
You also have a choice of Bitcoin, Rupees and of course gold.
Not too many want to use the dollar if it could mean sanctions for doing something someone else does not like.
Nobody plays with a full deck anymore. Get used to it.
The elites sit back in their padded leather chairs, their stomachs bloated with fat and sweet as they self-indulgently ponder the idea of fasting and how it would be good for the commoners. But one small decline in their portions at the next meal and they are raving about starving to death and the sad state of their political fortunes. These are the people we elected leaders, or made into icons of progress because they were passably skilled in music, acting, business or children’s games become professional sports. None of us should have any illusions that this was done to us. Any of us who voted for or spent our savings on these idiots are culpable in this idiocy. We did it to ourselves and will all bear the costs.
It’s disgusting how the rich and influential react when their science and superior morality suddenly affects them in even the slightest negative way their principles are tossed away without a second thought.
They would let their global warming scam destroy the middle class and poor while reacting with classic phycopathy.
The green chickens are coming home to roost alright-
Bald Hills Wind Farm ordered to stop emitting night-time noise, pay neighbours damages in landmark ruling (msn.com)
Green means unripe not fit for consumption and it gives you a bellyache. You shouldn’t consume green things until they’re fully mature and ripe for pleasant consumption-
Could a capacity market be key to bringing energy storage to market? | RenewEconomy
The introduction of a capacity mechanism is under active consideration by the Energy Security Board, as part of its proposed post-2025 redesign of the National Electricity Market, but there is concern that such a market design would simply underwrite coal generators to stay in the system longer.
Seems the climate changers have finally worked out electricity needs to be dispatchable at the correct frequency and voltage rather than flaky and fickle at the whims of daylight and weather. The progressives are finally progressing.
GREEN THINKING: Geopolitical considerations
Subsequent to outbreak of war and Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, it is clear that the whole of “GREEN THINKING” is the outcome of a long-term fifth column operation supported by Russia and promoting the damaging activities of Putin’s “useful idiots” in “environmental” organisations, in Western academia and in Governments throughout the Western world.
This undermining process was already recognised by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in 2014. An excellent way to damage Western economies has been to render their power generation unreliable and expensive.
That objective of GREEN THINKING has been imposed by Government policy but with no popular mandate throughout the Western world. Western actions alone, without worldwide Global acceptance would have insignificant influence over Climate and could never save the World from “Man-made Climate Change”.
But Western Climate policies and actions have already done untold and fruitless self-harm to Western economies and Western populations.
Man-made Climate Change
Bjorn Lomborg is correct that Man-made Climate Change from now forward is a comparatively minor Global problem amongst many others, that could be much cheaper to address and would have vastly more worthwhile results. Any extra relatively minor warming is likely to be advantageous rather than detrimental.
Man-made Global Warming is certainly not an immediate and existential global catastrophe caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Future warming from CO2 emissions is a non-problem
The logarithmic diminution of the effectiveness of CO2 as a warming agent, means that the effect any future Man-made CO2 emissions can now only ever be marginal. This view is well rehearsed by Professor Will Happer, former scientific advisor to the US government. It is also well understood by the IPCC, (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). It is included in their detailed reports, but the crucial diminution effect, making future Man-made Climate Change irrelevant is never admitted in the IPCC Summaries for Policy Makers.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/19/green-thinking-geopolitical-considerations/
>…this winter’s energy crisis brought on by reliance on Russian energy imports…
To say Russian imports were the problem is misleading. The real problem was that around 2000, most European gas system largely stopped using long term contracts and purchased gas as needed on the spot market. After all, gas was an evil, obsolete energy source that would soon be going away. So why have long term contracts.
Recently, Russia started selling gas to China on long term contracts. And so placed less gas on the spot market. Spot priced jumped up, and without long term contracts or hedging, Europe was fully exposed.
Speaking of green chickens.
Visualizing the EU’s Energy Dependency (visualcapitalist.com)