From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
The Mail is warning of looming shortages of aviation fuel in the UK and Europe.
The UK is particularly vulnerable, with Ryanair’s CEO warning of potential disruptions and no assurances into June/July.
But we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
Just over a decade ago, the UK was producing half of its aviation fuel. Today that proportion has dipped to a quarter. Worse still, we now rely on the Middle East for two thirds of our imports.
Of course, it’s all part of the continuing decline of our oil refining industry, which has seen capacity shrinking by a half in the last two decades.
Little wonder, when oil refineries are punished with carbon taxes, electric car mandates and the Net Zero energy transition.
Still, Ryanair could always use chip fat!
Starmer and the Greenies are playing 4D chess. Their long term (VERY long term!) plan is to make competing oil suppliers use up their resources so the UK can step in and reap the reward of very high prices. They are investing!
Insert chart of whale oil prices here
If this is true, they are both very stupid investors.
When you add up the huge losses for consumers due to higher prices and the fact that it will be several hundred years before oil and gas run out. They are causing huge net losses.
Its April 2 , not April 1.. you are too late.
Starmer would be lucky to understand “Snap”, and could never play it anyway, because it takes him a decade to make even wrong decisions.
What??? No 747 EVs or A380 EVs? Where is Elon Musk when he’s really needed?
And where is all the Jet-A fuel that was promised to be made from corn, starting oh, about a decade ago . . . you know “Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)”???
/sarc
yeah, and where are the manors that are covered in the panels and windmills Britain is supposed to use providing free electricity, and the amber waves of grain for ethanol?
Georgia plant gets $80 million grant to make jet fuel from wood chips
https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-plant-gets-80-million-grant-to-make-jet-fuel-from-wood-chips/YALAQM23EBFZHNLLVXNC6BQ424/
from 2023
Oh, please! Wood chips, coming mostly from the cores of tree trunks, are relatively deficient in the sugars that are needed to create synthetic jet fuel.
From the Web:
“The core (heartwood) of a tree trunk is generally not rich in sugars; rather, it consists of dead, lignified wood used for structural support and waste storage, making it low in nutrients. Sugars and starches are primarily stored in the living sapwood, leaves, rays, roots, and especially the inner bark (cambium/phloem), where they are transported.”
I guess it will take that future Georgia planet another $50 or so million to discover this fact AFTER spending that initial $80 million GRANT to build the plant to operational status.
Don’t believe everything you see on the web. Wood is mostly carbs and you know what happens when you eat carbs? They turn into sugars. Besides, what’s the need for sugar? Regardless, I have no doubt it’s chemically possible but I think it’s not likely to be economically feasible. Not promoting it. No need- lots of oil in America. I’d rather see wood used to build homes and for furniture and paper products. Some of those wood chips could go to a pellet plant. Around here in central Wokeachusetts, mostly blue collar folks, many have pellet stoves but our idiotic state government doesn’t want any firms to produce pellets in this state- so they have to come from a long distance.
Well that totally depends on the type of carbohydrates one eats. Humans find it very hard to digest pure cellulose as would be found in wood chips . . . cows can digest cellulose as found in grains and grasses, but not as found in wood chips, and even then they need a stomach with four distinct compartments to do such.
The cellulose-rich trunks of large trees are very difficult for even evolved, naturally-occurring fungi (basidiomycetes and some ascomycetes) and bacteria to digest, explaining why some large, fallen tree trunks can take 50–100 years to fully decompose on a humid forest floor.
The difficulty of converting cellulose to the equivalent of a usable liquid fuel is why almost all synthetic fuel projects that are deemed to be scientifically feasible are based on sugar-rich, starch-rich feed and/or oil-rich feed stocks, such a grains (e.g., corn and sugarcane), beans (e.g., soybeans and canola), and tubular vegetables (primarily potatoes and peanuts).
Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how long it takes the $80 million “wood chip”-based synthetic fuel plant to realized basic chemistry and the lessons offered by Gaia.
If a large tree is cut into small pieces, it’ll rot very quickly, other than cedar and a few other species. In my first few decades as a forester, the state and forestry establishment said cut all slash into small pieces. Then later they changed their minds and said large wood debris is good. Then they later said leave both large and small woody debris. I keep telling them got lost and leave it those in the woods how they chop it up. But they just love to regulate forestry work- gotta justify those big state salaries.
The CO2 famine way back in prehistory was caused by photosynthesis fixing carbon in wood which became coal.
Then, organism which had never existed before appeared, equipped with the enzymes which can break down lignin and cellulose turned the tide and a vast amount was released into the atmosphere and made available for use by all life forms already existent.
As we speak, some of these organisms are being used to digest wood to make a variety of organic and inorganic simpler carbon compounds on a commercial scale.
From Google’s AI bot:
“Shortly after Earth formed (Archean Eon), atmospheric CO2 levels were likely hundreds to thousands of times higher than modern levels. Studies suggest Earth’s atmospheric pCO2 could have been as high as 10 bars (1,000,000 pascals), which is significantly higher than today’s ~0.0004
bar (420 ppm). These high levels persisted for hundreds of millions of years . . .
“Earth’s atmospheric CO2 concentrations dropped below 200 ppm during glacial periods (ice ages), particularly over the last 650,000 years, driven by natural cooling cycles, increased ocean absorption, and enhanced carbon sequestration. These low levels, often down to 180–200 ppm, resulted from a combination of changes in ocean circulation, solubility, and biological activity.
Key factors causing the drop below 200 ppm include:
Oceanic Changes: Cold water absorbs more CO2. During glacial cycles, changes in ocean circulation and increased biological productivity (the “biological pump”) caused the ocean to absorb vast amounts of carbon from the atmosphere.
Glacial Cycles: The Earth’s orbital shifts causing cooler temperatures led to increased sea ice coverage, which can alter ocean circulation to lock away more carbon in the deep sea.
Chemical Weathering: Long-term drops in CO2 are often tied to geological processes like tectonic uplift and erosion of silicate rocks, which remove CO2 from the air and store it in carbonate sediments . . .
Earth’s atmospheric CO2 concentrations have risen above 200 ppm—reaching over 420 ppm by 2026—primarily due to human activities since the Industrial Revolution, notably the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas). This rapid increase is caused by releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere, along with deforestation and cement production.
Key drivers and details:
Fossil Fuel Combustion: Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause, as it releases carbon that was stored underground for millions of years into the atmosphere,
Deforestation and Land Use: Clearing forests and changing land use for agriculture has contributed significantly to the rise in CO2,
Rapid Pace: The current rate of increase is over 100 times faster than natural processes that occurred at the end of the last ice age,
Isotopic Fingerprint: Scientists can confirm the increase is from human activity, rather than natural sources, by identifying the unique chemical fingerprint of fossil fuels,
Deforestation/Industry: Significant
emissions also come from industrial activities like cement production.
The current atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than they have been at any point in the last 3.6 million years.”
(my bold emphasis added to the above quoted blocks of text)
Hmmm . . . no mention whatsoever of “organism which had never existed before appeared, equipped with the enzymes which can break down lignin and cellulose” being a reason for the relatively large rise in atmospheric CO2 from previous levels in the range of 180–200 ppm.
Oh well.
No fossil fuels, no energy, not even for electric cars.
Says Google AI summary:
”
AI Overview
Fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—are non-renewable energy sources formed from prehistoric organic matter found deep in the Earth’s crust. They provide over 80% of global energy, used primarily for electricity, transportation, and industrial heating. While reliable and dense, their combustion causes significant climate change, air pollution, and health hazards
”
The last sentence seems absurd to me. I wonder whether kids believe it?
I know you don’t believe in fossil-fuel-related climate change, but are there no air pollution or health hazards in your fantasy world either?
In my real US world, air pollution from petroleum and coal was essentially cleaned up many decades ago. And the EPA PM2.5 diesel exhaust health hazard was an invented scare debunked years ago by Steve Malloy.
You forgot the rabid application of the linear non-zero threshold.
Belief systems are for nitwits like you, not scientists. There is zero real scientific evidence for fossil fuels having any measurable effect on any global climate parameter, so stop lumping other people into your fantasy world of make belief.
Also, instead of your passive aggressive juvenile attempted taunt, why don’t you give us a list of the health hazards with some non-bullshit data, then people can see what you’re attempting to talk about?
There is air pollution, absolutely none of it comes from burning fossil fuels.
Is there no reality in your world?
Wind and solar are the most environmentally destructive forms of pseudo-electricity production there is.
But that doesn’t seem to count in the gullible anti-CO2 brain-washed mind of “climate change” zealots.
The solar “farm” built next to my ‘hood in ’12 broke numerous environmental laws including building too close to a river, too close to vernal pools, on land with noted “rare and endangered species” and others. I called state agencies to complain- one told me “this is what the governor wants so we’re gonna ignore those laws”. But as a working forester, I have been held up numerous times for truly stupid reasons. Once I was told some of the acreage had a rare insect! Seriously!
It ain’t a perfect world- never was, never will be. Thinking that it can be is idealistic stupidity. The air and water in America is far cleaner than it was when I was a child in the ’50s. The nearby Housatonic River (in Berkshire County, MA) smelled like a sewer on hot days and had zero life in it. I still wouldn’t drink it, but there are fish and other animals living in it. Health hazards? Guess what, life is a hazard. You want zero pollution and no hazards. None of that in woke Europe? Good luck with converting your immigrants into such idealists.
I recall driving through Cincinnati in the 60s and early 70s and was unable to breathe due to the pollution spewed by the soap factories. Not so later on after the problem was corrected..
Didn’t some lake in that area catch on fire since it was loaded with chemicals?
And yet more lies spewed by our peak lie spewer.
Just so . . . only fools believe that the output from any given AI bot represents truth.
No phone, no lights, no motor car,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
It’s primitive as can be.
source: https://lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/gilligansislandlyrics.html
Gilligan!
Bad news for the planet saving private jet brigade. Call it a Carbon tax…
How will the British Navy defend the Strait of Hormuz? How will it stop the Islamic hoards from invading?
Oh wait.
It’s the ‘Royal Navy’, in fact; and it had no reason to “defend the Strait of Hormuz” until president numbskull forced the issue.
Thanks for that.
President “numbskull” saved London from a Hiroshima grade atomic bomb.
I know you refuse to believe this. Your denial does not make it any less true.
This website seems to be morphing into a place where all the crackpots hang out. That’s positively unhinged!
For once, TFN, I have to agree with you. Never thought I’d find myself writing that.
UK can do without oil then. It will be a new Islamic state soon anyway. !
Can’t even stop them crossing the English Channel.
When UK becomes Islamic State, it will join the oil merchants of the Middle East doing its own “drill baby, drill”
sailing ships! Admiral Nelson did it….
I find the UK’s Daily Mail to usually be a bit overwrought. As here.
That said, Starmer is in a jam along with the rest of the EU because they depend on the Strait of Hormuz while the US doesn’t, and Trump has called them out on it. Rubio’s statement questioning NATO on Hannity two nights ago was exactly correct.
Rud they are marching towards nut zero and they don’t need hydrocarbons. According to myusername they already have the cheapest form of energy in wind and solar. They don’t need an army, Air Force or navy because with nut zero you are in harmony with nature. Even Final Nail wrote Europe needs to get off fossil fuels. He of course led the way by writing his post with quill pen on tree bark, then pointed his post to the sky where US satellites translated his post to digital and sent to Anthony who uploaded his post.
Ok Europe, here is your chance to show the world.
Europe off fossil fuels….. As if !!!
Despite decimating the EU industrial base due to increased cost and decrease in reliability of the electrical grid, wind and solar are still only a tiny part of the EU’s energy usage.
“I find the UK’s Daily Mail to usually be a bit overwrought.”
So do we, Rud, so do we on this side of The Pond.
I wonder if that stops politicians to keep flying from one global Climate Congress to the other.
Jet fuel from coal…coming soon. http://www.frontieras.com
Germany used a lot of that in WWII !
It is not new..
.. but it is a great opportunity..
Jetfuel (JP-1 and JET-A1) has been made from coal at the SASOL III plant in Secunda, South Africa since 1982.
That’s 44 years.
Qwned the stock years ago. Wouldn’t own anything there today. Remnant of the Carter years in NoDak. Home – Dakota Gasification Company Hubby of a high school honey worked at the mine. Big power plant next door sent juice to Minneapolis though
This current president of the US has inadvertently forced the world to rapidly rethink its dependence on fossil fuels in a way that climate activists could only have dreamed of.
In what passes for your mind, switching from a form of energy that is always available and occasionally expensive, for another one that is rarely available and always expensive, is a great idea?
Well, TFN, that probably wasn’t POTUS’s intention… but that’s where we seem to be. Our own PM has contributed by refusing to sack Mad Ed.
On the contrary, we can now call for prosecution of all leaders who have endangered civilisation by implementing Net Zero – Nuremberg trials with prison and death penalty on the table.
There is an easy solution, each nation should develop its own fossil fuels. If a nation has plentiful fossil fuel and refuses to take advantage of them then they should be last in line for imported fuel no matter what price they are willing to pay for them. I know I know who am I to be suggesting more rules and regulations? It is right and proper in this case, those nations insisting everyone follow the CAGW/NetZero ideology should be made to walk the walk. That will leave more for the rest of us. Good luck to them.
Best not to interfere with the free operation of markets.
And yet that is exactly what EU has been doing since it’s creation.
The ads on this site are getting grosser by the day. I can’t imagine they’re paying much to this site.
I use the brave browser and have yet to see a single ad on this site. Not saying it’s the best for everyone, but it works for me.
I am on my work computer and ads are disabled by IT.
At home, yea, ads are gross and not even relevant to the community.
uBlock is your friend.
Australia will likely be the canary in the coalmine for this one. It relies on CCP China for a third of its jet fuel imports and those are no longer being exported, while the other nations that supply it are reconsidering how much they release because they’re prioritising their own needs, naturally.
Come May, there may be very little in the air other than birds!
Birds and massive (sarc) quantities of “greenhouse” gasses (no such thing).
Despite of the green media repeating themselves, there is no renewable energy! The manufacture of green energy devices such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles requires large amounts of critical metals, some of which only occur as rare trace byproducts in the mining of base metal deposits (e.g., Se, In, Cd, Te). Once a mineral deposit has been exploited, new ones need to be explored and developed. There is nothing renewable about them! A recommended source is https://www.sciltp.com/journals/hp/articles/2603003359
Perhaps that’s what the world needs, stop flying so much. Reduce air travel by 50% and take off 0.45C off the global temperature average within 18 months.
This is EXACTLY what the greentards have been screeching they want for 50 years, now they pretend otherwise. Typical for lying leftist a$$holes.