The birthplace of the Industrial Revolution has a new bright idea. Big-Government is going to take £1 each from people using electricity and instead of giving it to people who make electricity, they’re going to give it to people who don’t absolutely have to have electricity. Those people might be paid for doing no useful work, or indeed, in a fabulous twist, they might be paid not to do no work, but just to be prepared to do nothing. It’s a brilliant left-of-center economic move, guaranteed to help the non-essential part of the economy at the expense of the part that does things that matter.
Expect to see the UK doing more non-essential things in future.
Businesses could be paid to shut down from 4pm and 8pm on winter weekdays, under plans approved by regulator Ofgem
by Emily Gosden
Hundreds of businesses could be paid to switch off their power between 4pm and 8pm on winter weekdays as soon as next winter to prevent blackouts, under plans approved by regulator Ofgem.
Mothballed old gas-fired power stations will also be paid to come back to stand-by so they can be fired up to prevent the lights going out when demand is high.
The plans – which together could cost household energy bill-payers about £1 each – were drawn up in the summer after warnings that the risk of blackouts had dramatically increased because old power plants are being shut down and replacements not built.
The United Kingdom leads the way in equalizing national wealth of the first world with the third. Rarely has one modern country done so much to reduce its living standards to create a level playing field. The answer to keeping Britain’s lights on is to turn some of them off.
It used to be there was another option, where the energy crisis would be solved by swapping one type of light globe for another. But this is “beyond electrical efficiency”. Nobody is really kidding anyone anymore that switching off the DVD at the wall will keep the heater running. We’ve moved to deep layer efficiency — the hunt for more efficient blackouts.
Where, once, people thought that insurance against power black-outs meant building bigger generators, now the insurance comes from crafting a team in readiness to take the day off.
Is this deindustrialization or postmodern arts graduates taking over?*
Ofgem said at the time that the spare margin – the buffer between peak demand and available supply – could fall as low as 2pc by winter 2015-16 if demand is high.
Under the plans, a large commercial site such as a supermarket complex using two megawatts of power could receive an up-front payment of £20,000 just to guarantee it could switch off if needed – even if it was never actually asked to do so.
But it’s a Free-Market SolutionTM which means it must be good, right. They’re going to find the cheapest going rate to be prepared to be non-productive.
National Grid would hold a reverse auction next spring where companies will offer the lowest price at which they will agree to switch off when needed.
Read the whole story in The Telegraph (may be paywalled in the UK).
It’s not communism, but it’s not capitalism either. Is it a new kind of thing, a sort of capiommunism? The “other, other plan” perhaps? Where capitalists compete to produce nothing, Greens say “omm”, and nobody builds a better power plant?
h/t GWPF
* This is a trick question. Obviously. 😉
———————————-
fjb1957 writes in a telegraph comment:
I watched our local news last night and Eggborough power station,coal powered, is due to close at the end of 2015.
Eggborough produces 4% (you do the maths) of the UK`s total electricity supply but must close to meet our EU green targets.
Morons in Wasteminster, following morons in Brussels, this green scam will be the ruination of Britain and its people, one more reason to vote UKIP …
I quickly check the calendar but no it isn’t April 1st.
200
It is here – every day.
281
I think it’s ‘The Hunt for Black October’….
50
Jo-
It’s State Capitalism that is intended for all of us. I have tracked this all over the world and downloaded what the UN entities and the OECD have planned for us and the UK is determined to be in the lead. The UK Economic and Social Research Council is named as a co-creator of the deeply-troubling “Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience” that I explained here http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/gratitude-over-the-timely-official-admissions-that-now-leave-2014-intentions-beyond-dispute/ that came out in US December 11.
It has the focus of economy shifting from production to experienced subjective well-being, which is dangerous. Especially when a primary source of negative experiences is the intentions of governments at all levels and in all countries to shift us from independence to being “governed.” If you add this to the RSA’s disturbing New Agenda on Climate Change and recent speeches at the RSA by people like Roberto Unger laying out the desired transformation, we actually are dealing with the Marxist Humanist/Prague 1968/human development form of little c communism that Marx wrote about. It should have just remained a theory by a man who was never a success in his lifetime, but all of the UN’s post 2015 agenda and the OECD’s current Great Transition work are tied to fulfilling it. And nobody is being honest with taxpayers about the genesis of what is being pushed on all of us.
Ivan Illich wrote that we can never get to equity globally as long as we are using fossil fuels, and these bureaucrats and politicians seem determined to push equity most of all. It empowers their jobs and that is all that seems to matter because they falsely believe an economy is a fixed sum that can be messed with and remain intact for redistribution.
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There is no doubt in my mind that this is true. It agrees too closely with what you can see going on in the halls of Obama’s little dictatorship.
I’ve become convinced that this kind of stuff is the result of the human race having become too successful. We have too many people hanging around who have no useful job to do but we’ve become prosperous enough to be able to continue paying them to do nothing useful. This is a dead end street of course, with a big brick wall across the end of it. And we must hit that wall if we don’t put on the breaks. But I doubt that enough people know where the break pedal is.
The one nice thing about it is this: IT WILL COLLAPSE UNDER ITS OWN DEAD WEIGHT AS MORE AND MORE EFFORT IS TURNED AWAY FROM PRODUCTION OF ESSENTIAL GOODS AND SERVICES TOWARD BUYING OUR WAY INTO WHAT I’VE BEEN CALLING, “EVERLASTING-FAT-DUMB-AND-HAPPY LAND”. But then those who’re left will be able to pick up the pieces and try to make a workable society again.
You may think I’ve made it too simplistic. But if so, do a little honest reflection on what our current situation and direction are all about.
We have traded our precious freedoms for something worse than serfdom. All I can see to come out of this is a nice warm feeling for everyone followed by poverty, hunger and despair — hardly anything satisfying to reflect upon as you lay dying at the end of your life. It will end badly for everyone.
As we already know from archaeology, a civilization along with its culture is always built on the trash heaps of its predecessors. The question is, what will replace us when this madness can no longer sustain itself? History does not show that anything like The United States of America as a good possibility.
I am extremely grateful that I’m not likely to see this come to full fruition.
180
G’day Roy,I dont know what you think of Glenn Beck and I watch him mainly because the time slot had me between jobs every day.It was also entertaining watching him wind people up and come out with conspiracy theories about super rich people and one world governance.It is amazing what shows up with the passing of not very much time,the adaptive power of humans wont be because of a change to climate.
42
I can only say that Beck’s overall predictions are doing better than anyone else’s.
He’s been out there digging and asking the right questions for a long time.
130
brakes
brake pedal
I suspect some of the major actors trying to impoverish everyone but themselves and their friends will “come a cropper”. Like you, don’t expect to live to see the next act.
10
Robin – being intrigued by the process of measuring “subjective well-being” and quantifying the chaotic emotional status of a human being, I looked up the paper and read the Chapter 3 ” Measuring experienced wellbeing”. I wanted to see how you measured “happiness”.
What I found was comparison of survey techniques and a discussion of why none of them worked, the conclusion being more work and funding needed. The incestuous nature of this field of endeavour being very apparent – Chaos, being infinitely variable, allows infinity scope for probable projections.
This is the link to “climate science” in that both endeavours collect vast data about chaotic systems and pretend that, by analysis, they can extract some perception of reality.
You correctly diagnose that “governments want insight into the emotional states and experiences of people belonging to different groups”. Be confident that, using these methods, they will remain in total ignorance of the “emotions” of the populace they wish to manipulate and will receive a great surprise when the inevitable reaction to their efforts is very different from prediction.
The anger induced by cold, hunger and being broke will not be measured on a five point ” experienced well-being” scale and the difference between the ” detailed reconstruction method” and the “ecological momentary assessment” will be entirely “academic”.
In the meantime, keep on challenging – you have a global audience which appreciates your insight into the face behind the veil.
120
What concerns me is what “they” imagine is “too happy” and something must be done about it. Then there is the real truth: I’m not happy when Leftists are in power and regulating my life! How are they going to fix that?
150
diogenese2,
It won’t matter to them that they don’t understand what’s really going on. They already demonstrate their willingness to forge ahead without understanding what’s going on. The reaction of the population won’t bother them either. They will forge ahead in the face of resistance like everyone else with a messianic vision has done.
Obama’s much touted Affordable Care Act is coming unglued at every seam. But does he stop? No! He tries to bluff it through and then when that doesn’t work he tries to make temporary patches by executive fiat, something he has no constitutional authority to do. He will go down with the ship rather than admit any real fault. That is the problem with pathological personalities. They have a messianic sense of calling to put the world into the order they imagine it should be in. And God help those in the way.
When someone sees a real problem the attempts to fix it can be bad enough. When someone sees an imaginary problem and attempts to fix it the result is even worse. And this is certainly an imaginary problem.
To stop them requires getting more political power than they have. The history of human kind is full of examples of following some savior over a cliff when a concerted resistance by a large percentage of the followers might have stopped the disaster. Try 1930’s Japan, Germany or Italy for example.
Dismantling the UN is what’s required, just for starters. How easy will that be? There isn’t the will to do that even in the U.S. alone, much less the rest of the world. Hell, our leaders and their counterparts around the world are in there causing the problem in the first place.
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Roy,
I agree that the UN has outlived it’s usefulness. It probably should have gone a long time ago as it is just getting bigger and bigger. They are a sham and a gravy train.
100
Maybe they could give that money to the people in the UK that will likely be dead before the end of winter owing to energy madness policies that force them to choose between warmth and food. It is a painful thing to watch the UK leap ahead of Greece in the race for least respected nation status.
370
Puts me in mind of an old song from the president Johnson/Barry Goldwater presidential race though I have changed the names “Oh we’re the brave young men, who want to go back to 1910, we’re Davey’s boys.”
30
Better idea: Shut the government down during those times since they already GET paid. It’s cost neutral (and maybe not meddling with the economy for half a day yield a small net positive effect).
260
Which government would you shut down? The real one in Brussels? Or the (n-5) posturing pretenders who voted for the Climate Change Act with only 5 opposed?
170
If that system works they can extend it to the public transport network and pay people not to use trains and buses so as to take the pressure off during peak hours. What about the hospitals – pay people to not get sick or have babies, especially during busy weekend periods. There is no end of applications to this cunning plan!
260
Paying people not to have babies will help one of their objectives(overpopulation).When they scam some more money maybe this will be next.
70
The whole world has lost its mind. Even as the ship sinks, please, let’s find ways to poke more holes in the hull.
Welcome to Hell!
260
The vast array of refrigerators, freezers and cold rooms in a supermarket are the bigest users of electricity in that store.
If these morons think a supermarket manager would be willing to switch power off to these vital food storage equipment – hence ruining the food – they’re kidding themselves.
The purported payment of 20,000 pounds wouldn’t even cover the losses incurred in a one time ‘switch-off’ let alone switching off numerous times a year.
Businesses such as engineering firms would have to take the chance that they will not be asked to switch off during peak production times, risking contracts worth orders of magnitude above the 20,000 payment.
These morons have obviously never operated a business. I’d say this scheme WILL NOT GO AHEAD AS CURRENTLY PROPOSED. Dead in the water.
250
Baa,
It may not work now. But give the them a little time to (re) “educate” a couple of more generations of students and then see what happens. Remember, everyone in Jonestown with only a few exceptions, drank the Kool-Aid voluntarily.
170
Managers will switch off the power. Good managers do as they are told. That’s how they got to be managers.
Once the power crisis passes for the day, they will just fire up the fridges again to make crook food last just a bit longer.
Anyway, don’t people in third world countries eat just about anything ?
70
What many do not understand, is that the food on the shelves, and in the freezers, does not belong to the Supermarket. It still belongs to the supplier. The supermarket just charges rent for shelf space, and a higher fee for freezer volume, to cover the constant power consumption.
Under such a system, the supplier takes all of the risk, and the supermarket only has a duty of care, within the scope of the current regulations.
There is no way that this scheme could be made to work, within the current business model.
The people who had this bright idea are giving idiots a bad name.
10
The idea behind this is now called the Third Way or Communitarianism where the needs of the community trump the needs of the individual. Consensus (the quashing of dissent) is one of the main principles of communitarianism. Sound familiar?
Here is a straight explanation of the term by economist (BS in) E.M. Smith (Chiefio) link without all the trimmings used to camouflage what it actually is. His simple explanation is very much a recommended read since it explains why socialism not capitalism is the favored philosophy of the MSM, banks, corporations and the politicians they fund.
Also see the London School of Economics former head: Anthony Giddens and his book “The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy”
I did say they were trying to camouflage it so the masses would not understand it.
80
But the principle behind Communitarianism, is that the community doesn’t get a say in what it wants. Somebody in politics decides “this” is what the community wants and declares it as such.
This is just a larger version of the Delphi method.
80
“The community” is just a euphemism for the State or rather the bureaucrats who run the state for the Elite.
You can call it communism, or Communitarianism or Third Way or Neo-fedualism or Neo-corporatism or any of a number of other “Isms” The bottom line is individuals are to be treated as cattle with the middle class the enemy of the ruling class to be defanged, impoverished, regulated, regimented and controlled.
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Amazing what a little rebranding will do for you. I think it used to be called Fascism.
80
I urge everyone in the UK to vote UKIP. It is the only way this bunch of progressive-regressives will be stopped. And don’t say you don’t know how well they will govern, they simply CANNOT BE WORSE than any of the other parties.
260
Britain needs some rage on the streets. I don’t know how you get through to the residence, wheather they know what’s being done to them or not. I don’t see any rage. If the current set of officials aren’t stopped, Britain will sink below the surface and become another North Korea.
I am stunned and mortified that things like this could even be spoken out loud, let alone be signed off as policy.
180
Bring back The Sex Pistols!
40
Hmmm If music does it for you here is one to help you calm down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIAvMiUcCgw
Married to a mermaid at the bottom of the deep blue sea.
Frank Welsh says” this song is about the way the goverment are using the working class to make them rich and the fact that they do not care how the poor are treated..the chorus says “the only thought that floats their boat is kill the poor”..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5fHi5t-aDA
“The Supply of an empire where the sun never set, which is now deep in darkness (Think green energy).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh0F41AvO_Q
10
You are spot on Richard but unfortunately UKIP poll numbers are currently too low to win the 2015 election. Who can they form a coalition with to be competitive come voting day?
60
Typo – make that Stephen.
20
Stephen,
I think you are right, the two mainstream parties need a shock, if the UK delivered the treasury benches or even the balance of power to UKIP it would deliver that high voltage shock that the UK needs delivered direct to the brain.
Political ECT is required in the UK,
60
Isn’t that what happens when you can no longer be relied on, to do anything that matters ?
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Ah but won’t this head start eventually make British BlackOuts the envy of The World ?
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They are leading the way. Showing us how it’s done.
Won’t be long and they’ll be exporting it too (better put a wall around Britain).
60
I remember the 3 day week in England as a teenager. Ted Heath was the PM at the time I think. It was okay to have those candles everywhere, and learn to do something else other than watch TV. Of course there was a bit of a baby boom from this period too, so I understand. This could be interesting for the future as more blackouts may provide a new baby boom, and they can all learn to play Monopoly by candle light.
70
♫♪”Drool, Britannia…”♫♪
50
In the past decade I have grown to truly appreciate the message that a lot of elderly people have tried to convey to me, that is NOT to be tolerant of left wing politics in Australia as they had experienced first hand the destructive insanity it produced and never wanted to see it happen again.
Early on I had an idea that it was good to have a balance of left and right as it created a Yin and Yang effect where everyone got some benefit out of such a system and to a point it worked, I once heard “Shat on by Tories and shoveled up by Labor” and thought it could be roughly correct.
But you learn that the left are never happy in sharing power even if it’s working and so the next attack on democracy was launched not with a bang but a whimper of underhanded long term subversion using the very systems we held dear against us.
Will it prevail? yes if it’s allowed to but remember this, in modern warfare it doesn’t matter how clever your bombs and air force are sooner or later you need to get troops on the ground for actual control, when this happens you know the real fight is on.
170
I have experienced destructive Labor Green socialist left governments in Australia and have often attempted to warn people not to tolerate the left ever. During the 1970s I was handed a photo copied comprehensive document about The Fabians and the socialist new world order agenda but few people that I spoke to about it took me seriously. Surely the last 6 years of socialist government here has put the majority of Australians on guard? Yet almost daily I read complaints about the new Coalition government that has only been in office for 3 months not performing to the satisfaction of the complainants, but from what I am observing they have made a very good start.
We know that a large section of the media are hostile to the Coalition and that the Labor spin doctors continue to work with Labor Green MPs to undermine the Coalition. One comment from Tony Abbott that encouraged me was: “I will not allow socialism to masquerade as environmentalism”. And the carbon tax legislation that has been passed in the lower house but is being blocked by Labor Green in the Senate. Operation Sovereign Borders is another.
How can we make more Australians aware of what the left is up to?
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“How can we make more Australians aware of what the left is up to?” Here is the biggest problem in who controls the information and as we know this has been a steady takeover of the MSM by left leaning idealists, maybe do it old school and go out there to press the flesh?
The other day in a café I picked up The Age to read out of curiosity, now I can’t remember when I last read it but I couldn’t believe how anti LNP/Abbott it was, I mean why not just call it the “Socialist Worker” and be done with it, why the charade?.
Remember we’re not fighting anything new here, it’s all been done before so let’s study past conflicts to learn the best tactics for success.
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Government paying someone for it makes it a Market Solution in socialist parlance. Capitalists call it Christmas, twice over. Champagne Capitalists (or is it Socialists) are already conceiving new startup businesses to make a killing from contracts for doing nothing.
As if Energy companies being able to just name their price wasn’t already bad enough, the country can now be held to ransom by industries threatening to produce.
80
Did George Orwell think about the industry threat?
40
No, nor did Winston Churchill – if you get the chance read “The Prize” by Daniel Yergin – it’s about the history and politics of oil. Churchill was aware of the importance of oil supplies in WW11 and acted accordingly to maintain its strategic supply. No doubt he is rolling around in his grave at Westminster Abbey trying to understand what PM Cameron is trying to do.
40
Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice post modernism.
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Do a Google search on “UK wind power to force blackouts” and you get over 8 million hits. So nobody can say they weren’t warned about their crazy plans. Way back in 2009 a manager of the UK power grid stated that people would just have to get used to only using power when the wind was blowing. Every country committed to wind power that is forcing up electricity costs will find that the market has an answer – shift manufacturing to countries with lower costs – end result, economic suicide.
It’s the same in Germany: (source PressTV) “A few days ago Kurt Bock, the firm’s chief executive, warned that its Ludwigshafen plant may soon be forced to close, with BASF’s German jobs relocated elsewhere. The reason, he said, was Germany’s soaring energy costs and the crippling green levies being used to pay for ‘renewables’ such as wind farms. With German energy prices already twice as high as in the United States and likely to rise much further, the time had come to reconsider ‘the competitiveness of the location’.”
That won’t save the planet, but the Greenies will at least feel warm. Hopefully Australians will wake up before it’s too late – stop the RET and save jobs! Oh, and where are the unions speaking out and looking after their members?
Where are you now, Paul Howes, National Secretary of The Australian Workers’ Union and former ACTU President? “If we were to put too high a price on the carbon emitted from this facility here we would simply be shipping these jobs off to nations like Brazil, nations like India, nations like China, where there will be more emissions, not less”.
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Exactly, add the unFair Work Australia legislation created by former PM Gillard for her union comrades (we have you back PM said Howes) that the High Court of Australia has just upheld in a judgement that Toyota Australia cannot renegotiate wages and conditions with employees. To put this in perspective, the average cost per day to employ a skilled person (all operating costs including wages) exceeds A$600 as compared to the US exceeds $400 and countries such as India less than $200. Many businesses have already left Australia because of rising costs, electricity based on carbon tax and renewable energy surcharge and other factors included.
What is taking place now with manufacturing industry leaving started when the Whitlam Labor government signed the UN Lima Protocol in the mid-1970s.
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Is this the same guy that said if ONE JOBwas lost due to the Carbon Tax he’d withdraw his support for it? How about he actually honours his word,or is that too much to ask,and if that’s the case,quit spouting lies! I expect better than this,by a long shot
40
Another interesting article on GWPF is about Airports and the non-expansion possibilities allowed because of the climate change “law”.
I am reminded of the story of Daniel and the Lions. Check out Daniel chapter 6:5-9 to see how the satraps used the same technique. Nothing new under the Sun!
“We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”
6 Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! 7 All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to bthe law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction.
Read the rest to see how it ended.
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Oh, true enough.
Watermelons in Brussels, plus blinkered – oh, let me be vaguely polite – dem@nted [snip – not polite enough] – in Westminster = blackouts.
Davey may be pretty micturition-poor – but he sure is an improvement on a predecessor – Millibean, E.
I imagine that- before mid-century – various colleges will offer ‘British Implosionism 101’. At least in Zimbabwe, North Korea, and perhaps Bhutan.
It appals me to say this.
The crematorium is not far away for me, now; a small mercy.
Auto.
50
UN General Assembly A/RES/44/228, 85th plenary meeting, 22 December 1989.
And so, from this ‘grave concern’ springs the ‘solution’, expressed below in chapter 4 of UN Agenda 21.
Chapter 4. Changing consumption patterns. Means of implementation 4.27.
Such is the path to the realisation of the dream of a Green Utopia. Anyone want further clarification? Try a glance through UN Agenda 21— Environment and Development Agenda. Notice how the 21 document is replete with the confident language of the unelected, of ‘should’, ‘ought’ and ‘must’.
In this current ‘age of austerity’, Green flagellation and flourishing of the Ministry-Of-We-Know-Best-For-Your-Own-Good one asks whether free civil society may slowly be edging toward a grand expression of discontent?
Surely the development of a political focus that institutionalises ‘subjective well-being’ (Robin #2) seems the required mushroom cultivation step necessary to advance Agenda 21 with its ‘sustainable’ policies of global central control.
Does a tacit rcognition that all is not quite well with the implementaton of the Green Dream lie within this?
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The Germans in the mid 1930’s implemented social policies that included “Gleichschaltung” or standardization which didn’t turn out so good for certain people who didn’t fit the standards outlined.
Are people really so stupid to believe that if they’re in a cherry position for the implementation of Agenda 21 now that this will not change down the track?
I can see a lot of “celebrities” that will outlive their initial usefulness and just be seen as what most are, useless, annoying narcissists.
50
You are correct.
I always like to point out what happened in Russia. Attacks on Intelligentsia
Too bad the useful idiots never realize that the last thing a new government wants is a bunch of proven traitors running loose….
80
Nothing new….payment for demand reduction is a common practice in the U.S.
http://www.pjm.com/~/media/about-pjm/newsroom/fact-sheets/demand-response-fact-sheet.ashx
10
Well, this is just one of the UK’s energy lunacies devised by the Ecoloons:
1. There is also the importation of 70,000 tonnes per day of wood chips from the USA to partly fuel Drax, a modern coal fired power station.
2. Paying wind power producers huge sums to switch off their turbines in case they cause uncontrollable surges in the national grid,
3. Entering into a long term nuclear power station contract using unproven nuclear technology at double the current cost (in real terms) of today’s wholesale energy prices.
4. Paying a stand by fee of £48,000 per year per megawatt capacity for private diesel generators and then at a guaranteed price many times the current wholesale price of electricity
5. Using Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth as the principal environmental advisors for government fracking policy. That’s like asking cockroaches for their opinion on kitchen hygiene.
The bottom line is the leaders of the junior partners in the coalition government, the LibDems, are all card carrying Ecoloons and are obsessed with unreliable and expensive to be the panacea for the UK’s energy future. The Department of Energy is run by Ed Davey, an arrogant and ignorant individual with no science skills or experience, who relies on activists for advice and never takes it from anyone who actually might know what they are taliking about.
Australia, you need to be careful, this nonsense could result in millions of Poms winging their way your way. As they say, thereby raising the average IQ of both countries.
181
No, the smart British will migrate to Australia (and in fact are already doing so).
The dumb one will stay home and vote for the LibDems or whoever else thinks wind turbines are wonderful.
120
Just a note on your point 1: In my home Town one of our lumber factories which was using it’s timber offcuts as a form of fuel somehow they weren’t eligible for “carbon credits” and had to fork out a 25,000 fine instead. Just where does this insanity end? The IQ’s of the people that regulate this scheme needs raising in the extreme.
70
They are suffering from climacide …
20
Finally a scheme I can support, subsidizing the installation of diesel generators at every supermarket.
Or those that do not already have back up power.
This is the law of unintended consequences run amok.
Instead of doing the monthly standby genet test, the businesses can just wait for a power outage, now guaranteed by govt, and then get paid to run the store on house power.
Of course this will count toward their emissions reduction goals.
I forsee a boon to co-generation installations, as reusing the heat from the powerplants can only make sense in winter.
Hence depending upon the script of the regulation, a diesel power plant may be heating equipment or power plant or both depending on the best way to harvest the payola.
80
As a citizen of the UK I confidently expect that the first organisations to volunteer for this and be at the forefront of the “reverse auction” will be :
1. The DECC – the lunatics who made this up.
2. GMG – of course the Guardian wouldn’t want to miss out on saving the planet. Maybe they will do a deal with the Indy for a joint bid ? They don’t need their i-Pads, the internet or twitter if it is killing polar bears ?
3. The NGOs – Greenpeace, WWF etc.
4. The McGovernment (aka the Scottish Government) as First Minister Alex Salmond is a big lover of renewables.
Are they on the top list ?
No.
Thought not.
Personally I’m investigating a diesel generator for the house just in case. The maximum fuel I can store is 20L (2x10L cans).
90
What, only allowed to store 20 Litres???
Gee, I use more than that to mix up a batch of napalm!
Got myself a firepit generator system in the backyard, the primary fuel being mining truck tyres. I use the napalm to arc them up when our street is at peak energy use.
The first time I used napalm I was somewhat heavy handed but I look on the bright side. If I didn’t blow the experimental pit to the size of a swimming pool it would not be possible to power the whole street.
Now I’m an energy baron.
72
Get a LPG-powered generator (Seddons do LPG conversions on Honda diesel generators). You can store as many large LPG bottles as you like.
30
as ever & always, follow the money. am amazed how “CAGW Greens” never consider this angle, publicly at least:
23 Dec: Bloomberg: Ehren Goossens: Siemens to Supply $2.6 Billion U.S. Offshore Wind Plant
Siemens, the largest supplier of offshore wind turbines, said the deal is subject to final negotiations. Its 3.6 megawatt turbine is the most installed offshore turbine in the world, Jim Gordon, founder and owner of Boston-based Energy Management Inc., the parent of Cape Wind, said in an interview.
“Because it’s the first offshore wind farm in America, it was very important for us to pick the workhorse of the offshore wind industry,” Gordon said…
Siemens said last week that Cape Wind is likely to qualify for a tax credit that expires at the end of this year. It has faced delays due to lawsuits opposing it…
The Interior Department has said about 1,000 gigawatts of potential wind energy exists off the U.S. Atlantic coast, though no projects have been completed. Several, including the Block Island project are moving forward as well…
“This is really the first offshore wind project of any significance anywhere in the U.S.,” Zwirn said. “As the leading supplier of offshore wind turbines in the world, we obviously have an interest to see that market potential to be developed.”
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) unit MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. awarded Siemens, whose largest business is energy, on Dec. 16 with a more than $1 billion contract, the largest ever, for 448 turbines for wind farms in Iowa.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/us-government-spends-over-1-billion-a-year-on-sweatshop-buying-spree/
Wikipedia: Siemens
Siemens’ principal activities are in the fields of industry, energy, transportation and healthcare. It is organized into five main divisions: Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Infrastructure & Cities, and Siemens Financial Services (SFS)…
The company has been the subject of considerable controversy in recent years…
Siemens & Halske was founded by Werner von Siemens on 12 October 1847…
In October 2009, Siemens signed a $418-million contract to buy Solel Solar Systems an Israeli company in the solar thermal power business…
In September 2011 Siemens, which had been responsible for constructing all 17 of Germany’s existing nuclear power plants, announced that it would exit the nuclear sector following the Fukushima disaster and the subsequent changes to German energy policy. Chief executive Peter Löscher has supported the German government’s planned Energiewende, its transition to renewable energy technologies, calling it a “project of the century” and saying Berlin’s target of reaching 35% renewable energy sources by 2020 was feasible…
Siemens’ OSRAM subsidiary produces lighting products including incandescent, halogen, compact fluorescent, fluorescent, high-intensity discharge and Xenon lamps…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens
Wikipedia: Siemens Wind Power
In 2011, Siemens Wind Power had 6.3% share of the world wind turbine market…
Between 1982 and 1987 the company exported wind turbines to the USA in collaboration with Difko AS, in response to a wind farm building boom promoted by government subsidies…
In September 2012 Siemens Wind announced the lay off of 615 of a workforce of around 1650 workers in the United States, citing reduced demand for wind turbines due to uncertainty concerning future tax break incentives in the USA for wind power…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Wind_Power
2 Aug: Bloomberg: Alex Webb: U.K. Politician Loses Wind Farm Job on Siemens Family Conflict
A U.K. junior government minister has lost his remit for wind-farm planning because his brother holds a senior position at Siemens AG (SIE), the world’s third-biggest maker of wind turbines…
Siemens, which manufactured 83 percent of the offshore wind turbines installed in Europe in the first half, trailed only General Electric Co. (GE) and Vestas Wind Systems AS (VWS) in terms of installed megawatts globally in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-02/u-k-politician-loses-wind-farm-job-on-siemens-family-conflict.html
cronyism, revolving doors play their part, but a public united across party political lines could put a stop to this reckless behaviour threatening our energy supplies in the name of CAGW.
50
Note where pat quotes this little gem:
Please don’t tell me that they are still using this charlieromeoalphapapa. This is the Department Of The Interior which says this, the same as a Government Ministry here in Australia, and also in the UK.
You would seriously think that this whole Department would have somebody in it who can actually do Maths.
At the stated capacity for the big one of those Wind Nacelles, 3.6MW, that means that for the claimed 1000GW Nameplate Capacity, they would need 277,777 towers, each topped by a 3.6MW Nacelle, driven by a fan with a blade length of 58.5 Metres.
Now, you can’t have them overlapping so there has to be some distance between then, and let’s cut that really fine, say a 12 Metres gap between those blade tips, which isn’t much at all really.
That Atlantic Coastline is 2069 Miles long, or 3300 Kilometres.
So, then, let’s stack those wind towers along that Atlantic coastline, all 277,777 of them. With the barest minimum distance between blade tips, which means we can construct one row tip to tip along the whole length of that coastline, and that row would contain 47,500 towers.
So now, for the stated 1000GW Nameplate, we would need, along that whole length of coastline and let me place this in block quotes so I can make it Bold.
Now imagine how long it would take to construct those 277,777 towers ….. out in the Atlantic Ocean, provided you had all the nacelles, generators, fans, etc etc etc.
Consider they have a lifespan of barely 25 years (absolute best case theoretical scenario)
So, working at a yearly average of 8 hours of daylight, for 365 days a year and for 25 years, they need to construct 4 of those competed towers every hour, one every 15 minutes, out in the Atlantic Ocean, provided they have the equipment, the labour force, the infrastructure, considering that once they finish, they have to start back at the beginning all over again.
Then, all you get is variable power, around 330GW in total, not mush for such a monumental project.
You’d think that someone would add up the sums on this, and yet the same old crock gets wheeled out every time.
This is an absolute joke.
Tony.
270
Hey Tony,
How do you get shipping past the 6 rows.
Do some towers fold up or over or what.
You couldn’t make this stuff up !
120
“You would seriously think that this whole Department would have somebody in it who can actually do Maths.”
If there was anybody who could actually do Maths in my government, we wouldn’t be 17 trillion in debt.
But on the bright side, if they go ahead with these plans, I’ll start lobbying for my hometown of Phoenix (Arizona — middle of the desert) to begin constructing a deep water port and a waterway to the Gulf of Mexico, since ships could no longer dock on the east coast.
(BTW, I have a pocket protector just like yours. I’m an engineer by profession, so I’m assuming you must be as well.)
Merry Christmas to all!
60
Incremental deindustrialization now accelerating. All based on the CO2 mythical hobgoblin.
Do they think we’re all knuckle-walking retards not to see it?
150
Yes!
40
Jo, the word you are after is ‘Caponism’ after Capon, a castrated rooster.
50
I think this is a brilliant idea, and we should have more of it in Australia. I do an awful lot of nothing, and I could do a lot more, but I don’t get paid enough for it. I should get a lot more money for my lack of effort.
140
Hey as long as I get paid more than you, I can’t even be bothered to finish this sent………….
80
What’s new? We pay people not to work, it’s called unemployment benefit or some similar title depending on what country you’re in.
Also, here in Merrie Englande we have been paying farmers not to farm for at least two decades, under wildlife conservation schemes, while we also pay them subsidies to grow crops. Under a free market system nobody is going to starve, are they?
Here is a satirical letter that a friend of a friend actually wrote, I believe (I have modified it slightly):
Dear Secretary of State,
My friend, who is in farming, recently received a cheque for £3000 from the Rural Payments Agency for not rearing pigs. I would now like to enter the business of not rearing pigs.
In your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on, and which is the best breed of pig not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy. I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type you want not rearing, I will gladly not rear porkers. Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots, or are too many people already not rearing these?
Would you please also pass this letter on to the Department for Business and Enterprise, which I understand provides start-up grants for small businesses?
The hardest part of this programme would appear to be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven’t reared. Are there any Government or Local Authority courses on this?
My friend is very satisfied with this business. He has been rearing pigs for forty years or so, and the best he ever made on them was £1422 in 1968. That is until this year, when he received double that for not rearing any.
If I get £3000 for not rearing 50 pigs, would I get £6000 for not rearing 100?
I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 400 pigs not raised, which will mean about £24,000 for the first year. As I become more expert in not rearing pigs, I plan to become more ambitious, perhaps increasing to, say, 40,000 pigs not reared for my second year, for which I should expect about £2.4 million from your department. Incidentally, I wonder if I would be eligible to receive tradeable carbon credits for all these pigs not producing harmful and polluting methane gas?
A further point: these pigs that I plan not to rear will not eat 2,000 tonnes of cereals. I understand that you also pay farmers for not growing crops. Will I qualify for payments for not growing cereals to not feed the pigs that I don’t rear?
I am also considering the “not milking cows” business, so please send any information you have on that too. Would you please also include the current DEFRA advice on set-aside fields? Can this be done on an e-commerce basis with virtual fields (of which I can readily set up several thousand hectares)?
In view of the above you will realise that I shall be unemployed. I understand that the government now pays people not to work. I shall be not working for only a few hours in the first month, but would then intend to not work for progressively longer as the number of pigs I don’t rear increases. Can the unemployment benefit be linked to my hours?
Yours sincerely
340
Priceless – bloody wonderful.
Did he get an answer and how many pigs was he allowed not to rear?
90
Anton that is one of the funniest things I have read in a long long time.
Just marvelous, thanks for making my day.
60
O/T
Listening to Radio overnight, where I heard reports of a large volume of water trapped under the ice in Greenland. On a commercial network in the late evening they reported the aquifer could lift sea levels 0.4 mm. Switched to our ABC at midnight where they reported the volume of water trapped in the aquifer would lift sea levels just under half a metre, I kid you not.
Wondering did anyone else catch a similar report on our ABC.
90
Bob,a different topic,but the same embellishment.Holden closure when announced was said to affect at least 50,000 workers in related industries.Two days ago bill shorten had somehow increased that figure to 200,000
10
‘Read the whole story in The Telegraph (may be paywalled in the UK)”
Not sure about the UK but I use private browsing to get around the restrictions on free article limits with the Telly and others.
Doesn’t work with subscription tho’
00
Searching article title in Google news sometimes works.
00
It’s a disaster isn’t it ? My cousin is a chemistry PhD. He is scared of the coming climate catastrophe (though not so scared as to avoid having a third child at the age of 48) We are living in an age of well-qualified fools.
They think they are immune to power cuts. Like I said, fools.
Merry Christmas from Old North Wales to all you Aussie b*****s
And a happy New Year.
Pete.
180
Why ?
Don’t they use money at all ? With no power, ATM’s, banks, cash registers simply don’t work … nor do petrol pumps, or food transport or …
100
…. the rail system, or hospitals, or workplaces, or traffic control, or …..
Tony.
70
Which is a darn good reason to live in southern USA on a farm far from any city where I can grow my own food and can manage to survive without electric.
Imagine what the urban areas are going to be like after a week or more especially when the people are aware that the government cut the power INTENTIONALLY.
This is what we have in the USA so far and the EPA has many more nasty regs in the wings.
The EPA and Department of Energy drastically underestimated the effects of the new EPA rulings. Many more plants are closing than anticipated. This means electricity prices will sky rocket and the electric grid could become unstable New Regulations to Take 34 GW of Electricity Generation Offline and the Plant Closing Announcements Keep Coming… According to EPA, …. these regulations will only shutter 9.5 GW of electricity generation capacity. OOPS, I guess the government miscalculated.
So what about the “Green Energy companies funded with tax payer dollars that are supposed to replace these coal fired plants? They are going bankrupt at an alarming rate So far, [thats] 34 companies OOPS, I guess the government miscalculated.
A power systems engineer commented on WUWT:
What the politicians neglect to say is their plan for making this work is to install Smart Meters, an attractive opportunity for Investors This theoretically allows residential electricity to be turned off so the system can be balanced as wind and solar power surges and declines. Of course with renewables bankrupting, smart meters not installed and coal plants closing at three time the rate expected, this put a real big kink in that plan. OOPS, I guess the government miscalculated AGAIN so we are looking at rolling blackouts. Heck they have already started.
As problems with an unstable grid due to Solar/wind becomes worst expect Smart Meters to become mandatory:
Meanwhile the actual unemployment rate in the USA is ~23% and climbing (about the same as Greece link) so having to pay for new appliances (made in China of course) that allow the government to shut them off at will is going to go over with the voters like a lead balloon. Add a few more severe winters plus the replacement energy costs already skyrocketing to eight to ten times the current rate and even the total idiots might get a clue… but I doubt it.
50
Thanks Gai,
in the article she links to, it mentions that these regulations will close down 34GW of coal fired power.
That’s the equivalent of taking 200,000GWH of power out of the system.
Let’s then replace that amount of power.
You cannot do it with new coal fired power because the EPA has regulated making it impossible for any new coal fired plants to open.
Let’s then do it with the power plant of choice, Wind Power.
Wind Power CURRENTLY supplies 160,000GWH of power from 60GW of Nameplate Capacity
So, they have to more than double their current wind power, in fact find a NEW 75GW of Nameplate Capacity.
That’s around 30,000 new wind towers, or 300 new large scale wind plants, at around $2.5 Billion each, say $750 Billion.
And then you still only get your power on a sporadic time basis, barely 8 hours a day at the rated 30% Capacity Factor.
To even suggest that 300 NEW large scale wind plants are even at the proposal stage is laughable, and it’s around 5 to 8 years from proposal to delivery of power stage, and these coal fired plants are closing in the near term, not really from regulation, but mainly because they are time expired.
Even if half of that new total comes from Natural Gas fired plants, that’s still laughable to consider.
For the life of me, I just cannot understand why NOBODY will even mention the truth when it comes to situations like this.
This is actually getting to the serious stage now.
The average age of those large scale coal fired plants is close to 50 years, and they only have a projected life span of 50 years, something wind can only dream of.
Tony.
130
It’s pretty obvious to me why it’s happening. It’s a deliberate attempt to derail Western civilization and to replace it with something else founded on socialism (or fascism if the pendulum swings the other way). What still amazes me is how many people don’t see it. The people in power are not stupid. Nor are they dumb. Their thinking is very clear and planned. They wouldn’t be there in the first place if they weren’t. If anyone is stupid or dumb it’s the people who voted them in and keep doing so. Of course the people on the whole are starting to smell a rat but it’s not clear to most yet. Things will have to get a lot worse before the penny drops. By that time though it will probably be too late.
50
Just for the record the new name for Fascism is “Third Way” or government – corporation “cooperation” sometimes called Neo-corporatism
See EM Smith’s comment and his isms, ocracies and ologies
Of course this is not the ‘official’ definition of the Third Way but how it actually works. The whole idea is for the ruling elite to gain more power while wiping out the threat from the middle class.
As E. M said
Of course re-branding, propaganda, confusion and ‘Let’s you and he fight’ are just methods of controlling the masses. The elite really do no care if it is actually ‘Socialism’ ‘Third Way’ or anything else as long as they control it.
Dr. Evans gets to the heart of the matter with his regulating class and Angelo M. Codevilla with his America’s Ruling Class
30
Thanks Tony,
And that is the OLD NEWS from last year.
The most recent brain dead move by US politicians is a new bill called National Renewable Electricity Standard
This is actually a rather old thought since it was passed as the 25X25 resolution in 2004.
To date, the 25x’25 goal has been endorsed by nearly 1,000 partners, 35 current and former governors, 15 state legislatures and the U.S. Congress through The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
It is hard to believe there is that much ignorance of economics and engineering in Washington DC and the rest of the country. What in the name of the ten thousand little gods do these people think drives modern civilization, horse, oxen and slave power??
Slaves were replaced by mechanical inventions and mechanical energy. Get rid of that mechanical energy and you are back to serfs/slaves, starvation and short brutal lives for the majority of people.
30
Capitalists will be blamed, along with G.W. Bush. The simpletons who voted for Obama will buy it hook, line, and sinker.
30
Actually I was thinking move of what L. A looked like after the Rodney King Riots. PHOTO
After all this is what Obama’s Admin has been working towards with The Obama Administration’s Race-Baiting Campaign and the Department of Homeland Security’s purchase of 1.6 billion rounds of ammo, enough for 20 years of sustained war. This includes 450 Million Hollow Point Bullets, ammo so nasty it is forbidden by international law for use in war. link
That is bad enough but you can also add in The Militarization of America’s Police Force.
New military training manual on extremism, AFSS 0910 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND TREATMENT INCIDENTS (EOTI) LESSON PLAN that includes such material as:
Oh and just to twist the knife in. The U.S. Army War College,… has begun discussing whether it should remove its portraits of Confederate generals — including those of Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
Please note that General George S. Patton Jr. shouted at German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel “Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book! ” So the admiration of military men for a brilliant military mind makes this move by the US military reek of the small minded pettiness of those who hate the good and the brilliant for being good or brilliant.
10
Bob Malloy
December 24, 2013 at 9:43 am · Reply
O/T
“Listening to Radio overnight, where I heard reports of a large volume of water trapped under the ice in Greenland.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/23/enormous-aquifer-discovered-under-greenland-ice-sheet/
30
You mean there are layers of water in Greenland – a quick paper for the Royal Society there and a Nobble Prize as well. And yes I meant to spell Nobble that way.
A Merry Christmas to all.
50
Have you wondered what that reservoir does to the viability of recording annual oxygen isotope changes in core from the ice below? Which might well have gone through similar processes, smearing the records before consolidation over the years?
20
Luke Warmist
Hi LW
Yes, I read the article at WUWT, what got me was how our ABC took 0.4mm and turned it into 0.4 meters. Was it just incompetence or deliberate, to scare as poor peons even more.
30
I’d like to get paid to sit and drink whiskey, that’s very close to doing nothing and requires very little electricity. My rates are reasonable.
Looking forward to your offer.
60
Another coal-fired power station due to close is Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire. Half of the 2,000MW is due to close in March. According to the Guardian
More importantly, why keep open a coal-fired power station with a 10% profit margin, when you can get 50% margin on wind farms? Also, you are doing your bit to help the profits of the majors, get kudos from the greenies, maybe a Knighthood for the boss, plus the owners of diesel generators might by you a drink, as they will fill in the gap with electricity generated with higher CO2 emissions than coal and 4-10 times the cost.
150
“What did you do yesterday, Dear.”
“Nothing.”
“What are you going to do today, Dear”
“Nothing”
“But you did nothing yesterday!.”
“Yeh, I know, but I didn’t finish it.”
80
The UK govt should take policy advice from my missus.
She reckons HRH Charles is behind this electricity dreamland scheming.
But then she thinks that global sea rise happens when all the fish in the sea piss at the same time.
Puts you off fish and fishy things like the UK govt plans.
Which are partly due to pillow talk with certain green wives anyhow.
I’d blame Camilla for pillow talk, then Charlie, the epitome of wanting to be in the right place at the wrong time (as per those revealing phone call intercepts).
70
Probably all that piss makes the ocean acid too !
50
No wonder the oceans are becoming, umm, acidic!
Turning good sustainable fisheries into National Parks and then banning fishing in them.
Tony.
50
Living in a marine national park, I’m worried they may take my gold fish off me.
30
Anton –
the eu CAP letter is hilarious. have emailed it to friends who will undoubtedly get a belly laugh from it.
speaking of “smart” meters, nice to know Siemens is in that game too:
Siemens: Picture the future of Australia
Energy: What will the future of transmission, distribution & SMART GRID look like
http://www.siemens.com.au/ptf-energy-casestudies-smartgrid
Siemens: Smart Meters
Siemens’ Automated Metering and Information System (AMIS) paves the way for the stable power grid of the future…
http://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/publikationen/publications_pof/pof_fall_2008/gebaeude/zaehler.htm
20
always helps if u own some MSN to guarantee no negative reporting:
General Electric: Smart Metering
http://www.gedigitalenergy.com/Meters.htm
20
given almost all of the reactors at Fukushima Diachi are General Electric Mark 1’s, it’s no wonder there’s been so little coverage of that ongoing disaster. remember, nuclear was included with renewables as part of the remedy for CAGW.
btw, abc/Christine Milne & co., it has been Murdoch media in the US that has led the way with reporting of this particular horror story, including murdoch’s ny post linked in here:
22 Dec: ENE News: NY Post: Snow falling on Navy ship caused by Fukushima radioactive steam… “Is that aluminum foil I taste?” — Sailor: People were defecating on themselves in hallways from excruciating diarrhea — Officer: We saw radiation 300 times ‘safe’ levels
http://enenews.com/nypost-snow-falling-on-navy-ship-was-from-fukushimas-radioactive-steam-is-that-aluminum-foil-i-taste-sailor-people-were-defecating-on-themselves-in-hallways-from-excruciating-diarrhea
10
Next, you’ll be fined for your christmas lights, cause they could cause a blackout.
Merry Christmas, Jo, Merry Christmass readers
Bob.
20
Merry Christmas bobl, ‘n all.
This is this beginning to sound like the Waltons. Yes it is!
21
Politicians: people who make scarcity out of plenty, justifying it by claiming it will be much cheaper while raising the prices.
Wake me when Britain declares bankruptcy. It won’t be far away.
In the meantime, I’ve got a good book to finish reading; Fred Harrison’s “The Traumatised Society.” If you find yourself with an odd hour or five to fill, try it for yourselves. It’s very interesting.
Have a great Christmas and an even better New Year!
It’s summer where I live and I’m going to continue enjoying the sunshine and the warmth!
30
For those interested
http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm
See – Generation By Fuel Type (table)
Bear in mind most of our coal and nuclear will be closing in the next few years.
10
The unintended conn-sequences of … if-it-moves-tax-it … dead hand of …
central-guvuh-mint-decision-making ain’t a shining beacon of Enlightenment.
More like back-ter the -Dark Ages,(
beth-the-serf.
20
i’m tempted to say drop what you are doing and watch this but, if you can’t, at least save it to watch at the first opportunity. Levant is a conservative/libertarian Canadian media personality, & i certainly don’t always agree with him, but he is at his brilliant best in this 54 minutes investigation of Suzuki.
ABC’s Q&A gets a couple of references, and Levant praises Tony Jones for what was a pretty weak challenge on Suzuki during his recent visit to Australia. otherwise, lots of stuff on taxpayer-funded CBC that could equally apply to BBC and, to some extent, ABC:
FULL EPISODE: Ezra Levant confronts David Suzuki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nARIP90l9Q
20
Six feet of snow, from here clear down to Mexico.
Last week, snow covered more than half of the continental United States, the highest this measure has reached by this date in a decade, according to government scientists.
That’s a significantly higher portion than in recent years.
In 2006, for example, snow covered just 12 percent of those states on the same date, according to Climate Central, a climate news Web site.
While the large snowpack in the continental United States was largely the result of typical fluctuation in weather unrelated to climate change, it’s possible that snowfalls in the United States might increase in the future with global warming, said Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
“That’s one of the ironic things about global warming,” Trenberth said.
It’s a tough thing to understand.
Less ice at the top of the world, often considered the planet’s thermostat, might normally signal warmer global temperatures, not colder ones.
.
Merry Christmas from the Settled Science Team, 2013. The gift that keeps giving.
30
The bastards in charge are at last feeling the first twinge of the piano wire around their necks.
30
This is just the latest wheeze in a crazy world of “going green” that nobody properly understands.
– There is a wholesale market for electricity, but increasingly these costs play a smaller part of the end customers bill, falling from 66% to 56% of the final bill from 2009 to 2012. The difference is the cost of saving the planet.
– Politicians blame increasing costs on the big six energy companies. Yet they only generate two-thirds of the electricity generated and supply 80-85% to the end customer.
– Backup power for when the wind does not blow. There is a few gigawatts of emergency capacity, mostly from diesel generators. The lights will not go out, but the bills will go through the roof as coal-fired power stations are shut down.
– Renewables certificates issued rose by 77% between 2010/11 and 2012/13. (Additional cost around £800m per annumm) This was as much due to an increasing amount amount of offshore wind generation (which has twice the subsidy of onshore) as growth in actual electricity generated by renewables
More after Christmas.
Best Wishes to everyone.
20
In the USA the increase cost of replacement electricity is not small.
If you figure Obama’s EPA manages to shut down ALL of the US coal plants thanks to the new low levels of mercury now required or other regs, (link) then about 40% of USA power bills will skyrocket. (Coal produces 42% of US electricity)
That is if your bill was $100/month then $40 of that will increase by a minimum factor of 8 for a total bill of $380.
According to the EIA The average U.S. household electric bill for June through August [2013] is expected to total $395, down 2.5% from last summer. That means you can multiply that by 4 and get an average bill of $1520/month if the coal plants all shut down and we go to new natural gas plants at the present cost.
Now add in the fines for using natural gas and not using renewable or the additional costs for 25% renewables…
One of the big problems is out of the 1,466 coal plants in the USA, only 125 are at mid-life, that is 25 years of age or younger, and 997 are at least 40 years old and therefore face replacement soon anyway. Some of the plants are being converted to biofuels. link
When you think about it this is a great way for electric companies to shut down the old aging fleet of electric plants and jack the prices sky high without the government socialists screaming their heads off. Chris Horner called it a Baptist and bootlegger coalition.
40
The beauty in all this is that Obama told the whole country exactly what he planned to do before he was elected. Some of us believed him and some didn’t. Now that it’s happening a lot of additional eyes are opening but it’s probably too late to stop the madness.
I doubt that Obama’s real motivation is cleaner air but that’s the sales pitch he gives out so let’s ask an important question.
Does anyone think that technology never has a downside?
We need to understand the principle of diminishing returns. How much are we really willing to pay for that last little bit of improvement? Will closing all the coal fired plants in the U.S. actually result in a noticeable benefit to anyone? I wonder… And if there is a benefit will we really think it’s worth the cost 5, 10, 20, 50 years down the road? Again, I wonder…
60
You’re right. O’s desire to increase energy costs is simply a quest for greater state control of the populace.
40
Actually it is all part of UN Agenda 21 – Sustainability.
The easiest way to get people off their land and into Transit villages (formerly known as cities) is to make it impossible for them to own their own homes. This is the main goal of Obama’s ‘War on Coal’ It is actually a “War on Freedom’
Clinton tried to get Congress to sign the UN Biodiversity Treaty that would put over 1/2 of the USA off limits to it’s citizens. link The ratification was stopped by a couple of citizens an hour or so before the vote. However this has not stopped the implementation.
Clinton was also responsible for the laws that caused the foreclosure mess and signed the World Trade Organization Tready. Now we have 23% unemployment, manufacturing jobs leaving in droves while cities come up with ‘Micro-mini’ 14 foot by 15 foot apartments and California towns passes laws requiring new housing to be built at 20 or more to the acre, which is at least five times the traditional quarter acre per house.
Meanwhile we are being told Apartments are the core of any sustainability strategy. They are more resource- and energy-efficient than other types of residential development because their concentrated infrastructure conserves materials and community services.
Sounds like a mad science fiction tale until you start adding together all the news stories like: 6/03/2011 L.A. County’s Private Property War
The other shoe dropped on 03 January 2013 with this story: Warren Buffet Buys Antelope Valley Solar Projects for $2.5 Billion
Nothing like buying the land on the cheap after bribing the county to do a land clearance via zoning laws.
00
The UK has discovered a new, deeper strata of stupid. Now, save power by not using it, so it is available to be used! Or am I missing something.
The “conserve energy” mantra is like telling a hungry man to eat less, so he will no longer be hungry.
There is no energy shortage in the world, just an intelligence shortage amongst the western ruling classes.
100
Paying large consumers to remove consumption is common.
It’s done in Australia too.
Doing this as a short term measure is fine. Doing it as a long term measure indicates a level of foolishness. Far better for the power to go into a cycle of rotating blackouts, which might then drive the message home to the pollies that they are a bunch of morons.
20
Not only will this so-called New British plan will pay people to be “ready to do nothing” to help with energy crisis let’s face it, is nonexistent, but will help cripple an once great nation to ruin.
30
What a perverse and corrupting policy.
10
The European common agricultural policy used to pay people to not produce food.
They never tried paying people to not eat food.
I think this policy is going to fail.
10
The policy on food production accomplishes the opposite of this latest bit of AGW madness.
Food and ag subsidies insure that there is plenty of food at reasonable prices.
AGW policies create energy shortages while raising prices to unreasonable levels.
10
‘Crap’iommunism the power of green politics.
20
Capiommunism? Nah. It’s the New Age Economix, aka World Bank Speak where `markets’ are the cure for everything. The Western ‘developed’ nations are now all ‘post-industrial’ economies (translations: their industries are being progressively wrecked) so building new power plants would create a surplus in the electricity market which would lower prices and the electricity owners cannot reap a monopoly profit. And Cheap energy would help the plebs breed. Can’t have that.
It’s the economix you get when nobody knows how an economy really works, just as the Warmers don’t know how a climate really works. Rent-seeking is now the sacrosanct `industry.’
00
This shut-down is EXACTLY the time electricity is needed, Winter when it gets dark early, and in rush hour.
God help us! And God helps those who help themselves!
00
It is policies like this along with declining educational standards which have my daughter and son-in-law researching countries to which they might emigrate. Australia seems high on the list, as even under its previous government it was doing better than here and had avoided the banking/financial crisis.
00
But, you see, the pollies in the UK are proud to boast that ‘We lead the world in renewables’….
Isn’t that a bit like saying: ‘We lead the world in using square wheels on cars..’…? In other words, other nations simply go: ‘Hmmm – thanks, but no thanks..’..?
Along with the BBC, they have simply swallowed the IPCC’s statements hook, line and sinker. No argument. The science is settled. (But its wrong) – no matter. The science is settled. 97% of scientists agree. Climate change is all down to human emissions (oh, really..? That’s like reviewing a movie by assessing the quality of the copyright date at the end of the credits…)..
10
So, now we have the sitation in the UK where we are, for once, in an excellent economic position ‘going forward’ as they say – even (allegedly) able to overtake Germany within the next few years.
All this could be cut off at the knees by our government’s lunatic energy policy – allowing us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory….
You couldn’t make it up…
20
Someone needs to put together a package for starting up a business for the sole purpose of harvesting these payments. Everyone will be happy — the investors get money, the government agencies responsible can point to the enthusiastic public response, and the UK can pat itself on the back for their faux energy conservation.
00