Wow. Australia may dump the RET — the renewable energy target — and stop trying to use our national grid to make global weather nicer for our great grandchildren? This would be legendary.
“Lowering prices will be more important than lowering emissions”
Don’t break out the Moët yet. Note two caveats.
1. The Daily Telegraph “understands” this to be true. Not definitively announced. Not passed through cabinet. Is this just testing the water to see how hot it is?
2. Australia will still try to meet our pointless Paris agreement some other way. Sure.
Will those big complex winner-picking, market fiddling schemes go?
RENEWABLE energy subsidies and emission-reduction targets will be replaced with a focus on lowering electricity prices under the Morrison government.
New Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the federal energy policy has been “a mess” and says the fact prices have soared while blackouts persist means something has “gone terribly wrong”
The complex schemes Mr Taylor refers to are understood to be the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET), which subsidises the development of renewable energy.
The Daily Telegraph understands emission-reduction will also play no future role in energy policy. h/t GWPF
As Andrew Bolt says: …he finally gives us the truth: we have global warming schemes that drive your power bills through the roof without cutting the temperature.
Scott Morrison has split the Energy and Environment portfolio. Nice but symbolic. But, but, but, the nation is still aiming to reduce emissions by an obscene 26%. How will that happen — Like the Germans, who aim big, but don’t get there?
PM takes emissions targets from energy minister
Scott Morrison says the role of ensuring Australia meets its emissions reduction targets will be taken out of the hands of Energy Minister Angus Taylor and be given to Environment Minister Melissa Price.
The Prime Minister said Ms Price would be tasked with coming up with policies to hit the government’s Paris targets of 26 per cent reduction of 2005 emission levels by 2030.
“It’s her job to continue to pursue our policies in relation to climate and to pursue the policies we have to address our emissions commitment that was given under the Abbott government,” Mr Morrison said this morning
“Angus Taylor’s job is to be the Minister for getting electricity prices down.”
Guardian: Angus Taylor: ‘I am not sceptical about climate science’
In a speech in Sydney, new energy minister Angus Taylor denies being a climate change sceptic. But he adds that ‘I am deeply sceptical of the economics of so many of the emissions-reduction programs dreamed up by politicians, vested interests, technocrats and politicians around the world’ VIDEO: 1min36secs: 30 Aug
How do our friends at Reneweconomy feel?
Not happy. He is a “Bjorn Lomborg type” who won’t help renewables, which is “crazy” because renewables are cheap, (which is why we can’t stop the subsidy schemes, right)? Got that?
Renewables are only cheap if you ignore all the hidden costs.
Bottom line: This is a step in the right direction. Keep sending those messages to your Liberal members, friends and donors. Make sure they know your opinion. Right now they will be hearing from the rent seekers who may wake up tomorrow incensed.
h/t Pat, GWPF, Dave B.
This is joke right? NO?
81
Winter is arriving early in the Northern Hemisphere this year. It’s just coming to the end of August, their last month of Summer. There are early snowfalls across much of the northern hemisphere, food prices are rising and MSM such as the unspeakable Grauniad (ptui), have said nothing, but are still rabbiting on about Gorebull Warming and Klimate Change while introducing Goebbel’s Propaganda Practices.
The coming cold is going to be a rude shock for them. David Dubyne’s forecast for the NH this coming winter is not a nice one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V9qM-lFMh8. Those who take heed and prepare should survive with less discomfort than those who don’t pay attention or can’t thanks to the Grauniad et al.
In the SH, we have Summer a-coming in. Last summer was cool and wet. Very wet, at least for NZ. NSW caught a drought. That means not enough water vapour in the air for precipitation. It may very well be a repeat performance, however with the Solar Minimum arriving, Tropical Cyclone activity may be reduced. (I’m hoping so! We got drenched early this year, three times.) That only means no more than Cat2 storms. Cat1 and 2 are dependent on “lumps in the solar wind” and those are dependent on Coronal Holes.
Food prices are climbing in the NH, that will repeat down under. This summer, get ready y’all.
Food stocks are not so good: the last two winters of no winter wheat in the NH grain growing areas have made a large hole. Will there be another Arab Spring?
201
A shock for Germany when the Ice Man cometh
and wind turbine blades ice up and solar is
missing in inaction.
242
Agreed. August is the NH’s hottest month, normally. Yet it’s snowing. This looks like “The Year Without Autumn which seems to be about to go MIA …
21
And Gordon:
… it may not be a joke at all. None of it. National leaders down under should be paying close attention to national survival, not implementing UN propaganda in legislation. That would only deepen and prolong an avoidable crisis.
260
Speaking of cray cray…..
What could possibly go wrong? When children tour the old neglected power stations while driving a horse and cart, while marvelling at Dear Leaders wisdom to shut down unpatriotic coal facilities, they will sing with tears in their eyes, songs of praise….. ( sound of me barfing, about now….)
http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-plan-for-100-renewable-1496258464-htmlstory.html
“California will receive all of its power from renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, by 2045 under legislation that passed the state Senate on Wednesday.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) touted his bill, Senate Bill 100, as the most ambitious program in the world.
“Clean energy is the future,” De León said. “SB 100 ensures that California leads into the future.”
The measure would also speed up the state’s goal of reaching 50% renewable energy, changing the deadline from 2030 to 2026.
SB 100 passed over objections from Republican senators. Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Temecula) criticized the measure as government getting ahead of technological capacity.”
81
To: OriginalSteve @ #1.2.1:
We will have to keep our eyes on California’s population statistics—there lies the source of true Klimate “Refugees”.
How long do you think it will take before Californians realize that:
the so-called “Clean Energy” is really a “A Duke of Plaza Toro solution, one of either leading from behind or one of racing into the past of two centuries ago, not leading into the future at all.
In enterprise of martial kind,
When there was any fighting,
He led his regiment from behind
(He found it less exciting).
But when away his regiment ran,
His place was at the fore, O-
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Noble man,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
In the first and foremost flight, ha, ha!
You always found that knight, ha, ha!
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Noble man,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
… W S Gilbert,
The Gondoliers.
The rest of that apropos poem can be found at https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-duke-of-plaza-toro/
Enjoy.
80
OriginalSteve it won’t get that far. China will take over and build all the coal and nuclear powered stations they need as they populate the country. In fact we’ll probably beg them to come over to bail us out since the US will be too busy trying to stay alive themselves. Russia might come over and help them. All conjuncture but don’t laugh – it could happen if we don’t turn things around right now.
40
I think the USA, if it doesnt get its act together and rout the evil that controls the globalist-dominated us govt, will wind up being literally occupied by the UN- supplied Chinese or Russian troops, at the invitation of the globalists.
Local soldiers wont shoot americans, but as Stalin learnt, foreigners definitely will….
10
“government getting ahead of technological capacity.”
aka Command Economics.
00
Dumping the RET may have two meanings. The “Targets” are aspirational, monitored not enforced. The Certificates are the reality, punishing anyone for buying coal, gas or petrol or diesel generated electricity and forcing them to pay triple, the extra cash going to strangers, marked up by retailers. Failing to buy certificates has serious consequences and fines. Government extortion on behalf of their Green friends.
To really dump the RET, they would have to repeal the Act. Anything else is nonsense.
Repeal the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 and the rotten ripoff stops instantly.
After all, the Act was designed to make coal too expensive. In that sense it has been very successful at ruining the country
as when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, we have nothing else. Nothing at all.
630
The Abbott Government tried to abolish the RET but was blocked by the hostile Senate.
I doubt that the present government would succeed.
200
The only way they can make electricity bills fall before the coming election is to remove the subsidies. They can justify that by all the claims that renewables are cheap, including those from Shorten. 2 hours on Google and they would have a list long enough to quote.
By all means claim that the RET remains as the target, but don’t do anything about it like most countries, but say it should remain stationary until Snowy 2 is available as storage for more renewables. It will be difficult for Labor to call for increased costs and instability. And by that time the failure of the Paris Accord will be so evident that the whole thing can be buried in the compost heap.
250
All that is required is to make the fine retailers have to pay for not achieving their RE quota to ZERO DOLLARS, $0.00/MWh (now $65/MWh). That would do it for the bulk of the RET as the RECs would then be worthless. I don’t know if that would require a legislative change or not, probably.
Getting rid of the small scale subsidies would be necessary as well.
Certainly worth a try!
John
80
This can be done by regulation, just by reducing the target which drives down the certificate price or by setting the fines for not surrendering Certificates to $0.01 per MWh which effectively makes the buying of certificates optional.
30
I think your right, the Senate would not repeal the Act, but Morrison should try & try hard.
00
WOW! If true I will have someone to vote for at the next election, & won’t have to vote informal for the house, to avoid my vote going to either of the majors.
Still, not holding my breath.
160
I’ve said it multiple times but here it goes again…
The RET subsidies only work IN CONJUNCTION with PRIORITY ACCESS to the energy market. If the free pass to produce power at any time and have the distribtors buy it under the “semi-scheduled generators” classification was removed for wind solar farms, the the RET would fall apart, even with the ridiculously generous PPAs and REC sales produced by the RET legislation. Forcing the wind and solar farms to bid in to the AEMO 24 hours ahead and to ABIDE BY THE CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS will bankrupt them as surely as removing the RET in whole.
Getting rid of the direct subsidies of the RET is a political battle that the government CANNOT win with the current makeup of the house and senate. But the consequences of getting rid of the semi-scheduled generator classification is not something the lefties will comprehend since they believe the guff about “wind always blowing somewhere” and “highly accurate forecasting”.
20
My sincere hope is that this would be acceptable to all sides of politics. This was a Coalition Act and so Labor would be happy to remove it. The coalition removed Labor’s carbon tax. They could return the favour.
There is no one in parliament who wants higher energy prices, surely. Except the Greens. They are against Climate Change.
A desperate government might just do it. Otherwise they are history.
It also means the suffering and loss and the lessons from South Australia will have served a purpose. Now that Illweather is gone, maybe they can get their coal power back too?
330
Spain is a good model to go by.
Think of how many solar mortgages there are out there, for example (money borrowed for rooftop solar)
“Stampede Of Investors Sue Spain Over Cuts In Solar Subsidies”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2014/02/19/stampede-of-investors-sue-spain-over-cuts-in-solar-subsidies/
150
You can have it both ways with respect to emissions and price. Use natural gas domestically, start hydraulic fracturing if you need to increase supply. Export your coal. I realize in a global sense this accomplishes nothing but in the crazy carbon accounting world Australia could meet its domestic emissions goals.
53
We don’t have enough gas. Bass Strait which has been supplying Victoria for 40 years is running out. On shore exploration is banned. Shale gas is banned. Fracking is banned. Even picking up sticks in the forest is banned.
We can get our own North West gas by importing it from Singapore.
The only solution is to use our own coal and we are sitting on 300 years of it. We export none of it from Victoria. That was banned too.
342
This article says fracking is being “unbanned”: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-gas/australias-northern-territory-lifts-fracking-ban-idUSKBN1HN360
90
I believe that the Turnbull government was quite happy to see gas become “scarce” and therefore expensive.
Margin profits skyrocketing.
Hopefully PM Morrison has a better take on the situation and encourages the use of good clean, readily available, non water _ aquifer damaging, Coal.
KK
220
Of the millions of fracking wells, there has in fact never been a damaged aquifer. It is just one of those wild allegations and unjustified fears like man made runaway tipping point global warming. A similar argument against nuclear power, even though nuclear weapons have prevented WW3. And vaccination which has prevented so many pandemics. And plastics which are not killing the world’s wildlife. The world is being caught by the very scared Greens who live in fear and sell fear and have the progressive views of the Amish to technology.
243
Hi TdeF,
Thanks for that. I must admit I haven’t really gone into the truths or otherwise of the fracking industry and have erred on the side of caution and having been made aware of possible damage.
My prime point was that we have ample coal available and gas is expanding and, as you said, a resource that we can use to greater effect in other areas.
KK
90
In reply to KK about the cautious approach to Fracking I sent Jo a detailed sketch of what the well casing looks like and it’s a really strong and complex structure that I doubt would fail .
50
This is correct, a properly cased well is not going to leak into the aquifer. The salty water that is the byproduct of fracking is that way because the salts and hydrocarbons that are present in the shale/coal seam dissolve in the fracking water and come to the surface when it’s pumped out so the recovered water is dirty water. Most of the chemicals in the removed water are already down there. It needs to be disposed of properly but once the water is evaporated there’s probably a couple of buckets full of salt to dispose of.
60
Sorry, TdeF @ #4.1.1.1.1. I don’t and won’t believe that. You can’t know much about well drilling. Even allowing for the fact that every sweeping statement can be proved a lie, wells connect aquifers. The damage mightn’t look much but goes on and on. Only the wells that are used are maintained. Even regulations are in real life short cut to save costs where it’s possible to not get caught. Casings where used, mostly of steel, rust away, quickly in some environments.
My biggest concern about fracking applies to much of our extractive industry, and that is that historically we have “picked the eyes out of” our mineral resources, thereby making lower grade components of the resources no longer available. e.g. where a ten metre coal resource is mined with equipment that takes three metres of the best, leaving the other seven metres, which was suitable for marketing, rendered no longer recoverable except by open cut. The miners then move on to pick the eyes out of another resource.
This problem demands a whole new approach to the management of our extractive resources.
00
(thinking out aloud)…Perhaps the really, really, really, big money/“hidden costs” is in the debt/borrowing and associated legal/non-biodegradable paper jungle/lawsuits costs/etc that solar/renewable’s generate??
90
Management costs.
50
To TdeF @ # 4.1.1.1
The Amish are very progressive but very selective in the technology they choose to use.
Using a horse and buggy gives employment (and good exercise) to the horse whose dung fertilizes the fields. Horse manure is very rich compost. Waste not, want not and Don’t unnecessarily pollute. They use what they need and what will not estrange or weaken the inner community bonds for convenience tools or appliances. They are good citizens of the Earth, in that approach, greener than any Green.
The Amish are very clever in their simplicity. Who needs a compressed air nail gun driven by an electric compressor when a good quality hammer is available? The hammer may not be quite as fast, but why the rush?
Comparing the Green feckless fear-mongering to the Amish selectivity is doing both wrong: they are at opposing ends of the spectrum with the Greens at one end—they aren’t as intelligent—and the Amish at the other end, who are surprisingly up to date, but very selectively and admirably so. Re-read my point above about the hammer. There’s no real comparison between the two. https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/cultural-practices/technology/ Check them out.
100
I am not criticizing the Amish in the slightest. They are slowly adjusting to the fact that their 18th century technology is not adequate. It is an interesting contrast to see the horse and buggy out front and the computer controlled plasma cutter in the barn. There is a big social component to the Amish too, values, behaviour, morality. The Greens are simply against everything and their hypocrisy is profound. Do as I say, not do as I do.
60
I got the Amish flu once, first you get a little hoarse then you get a little buggy……..
50
Ha! You’ve done it again! :-).
Community—as in social values, behaviour, morality etc is most important to them. Add independence to that. It’s not so much their 18th century technology, it’s adoption of any technology which is either:
1. Not necessary … and
2. May affect their Community in unexpected ways.
That’s why they take their time to adopt any technology and they are so selective in what they do adopt. They are more democratic than others might believe, and very very close in their community values and ways. They’re possibly far better educated than their non-Amish neighbours. They keep a close eye on technology and only adopt what won’t harm their community values, will maintain their simplicity and will improve their independence (from their non-Amish neighbours), and that only after long and careful analysis and discussion. Hence the computer-controlled plasma-cutter in the stall alongside the horses. Cars aren’t necessary and don’t fertilize the fields adequately.
Animals are good for growing children, who learn the values and skills of patience and the required daily and long term commitments from caring for the animals—all-important life lessons. Yet they can adopt machinery for doing work safely which humans can’t do so by hand.
I admire the Amish (you may have noticed).
40
“Scott Morrison has split the Energy and Environment portfolio. Nice but symbolic.” Don’t underestimate the subtlety. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Solomon
70
Well, you don’t put pressure on lowering prices by choking supply. I’m waiting for the shoe to drop and AGL I’m sure, will be only too willing to take taxpayer money to keep Liddell operational. The PR should be fun: “We had sooo much fun giving Liddell away the first time for pennies on the dollar, that we’re going to do it again.”
130
The reason Vesey retired prematurely.
‘Mr Taylor refuted claims he has been sceptical of climate science in the past, saying renewables have an important role in the energy landscape. In his first pitch in the job, Mr Taylor says energy companies have breached the trust of Australians, and did not rule out government intervention.’ Oz
100
NOW you just know that the energy companies are going to be recipients of taxpayer money. It’ll be part of the price for staying silent while politicians like Mr. Taylor use them to focus anger away from their own political ineptitude while trying to re-position the party back into a conservative right for the election. The energy companies have done nothing wrong and have worked within the bounds of the law as far as I can tell. Have they broken any rules? The various governments have been throwing money at wind and solar while demonising coal and now Mr. Taylor determines the energy companies were “breaching the trust of Australians” by picking up the money that was thrown at them. Bad energy companies! They should have left that money alone! Politics ay?!
I suppose there are various discrete ways to add reliable energy without attracting too much attention. The coalition could “encourage” energy companies to add generating capacity to existing facilities. (I’m guessing a lead time required of about 3-4 years.) They could assist with guarantees to energy companies to build new generating plants. (Lead time of maybe 8 years before something comes online.)
What’s that? AGL has a plan in place already to upgrade Liddell and it can do it in 1-2 years? How fortuitous. All it needs is government backing. Afterall, the shareholders need to get their profits on capital already sunk in wind and solar, which are eventually going to be useless at some stage of the game when politicians feel like they have enough courage to admit that they’ve been conned.
80
I demand a Royal Commission into this whole sorry mess.
110
Nuremberg type trial more like…why waste time?
20
🙂
Atta boy!
00
Liddell is the walking dead of the coal power stations. Hazelwood was in far better shape when it was shut down than Liddell is now (or even back then).
AGL are playing the governments by keeping the Liddell site under their control for a large “backup” CCGT power station for the wind and PV farms that are slated for NSW development. Meanwhile, Liddell is falling apart with only band aid maintenance being applied to keep it functional until the scheduled 2022 shut down.
10
It’d also be nice to stop treating the UN as some sort of recognised sovereignty and deal with actual countries instead, the amount of euro-centric influence that’s crept into our country is disturbing and unacceptable!
380
As President Trump told the UN when he spoke there not long after he became President.
140
California is legislating for 100% renewable & no “gasoline” by 2045!
Legal cannabis must be a state government perk over there.
https://thedailycoin.org/2018/08/30/california-passes-law-banning-all-gasoline-and-electricity-by-2045-video/
The ABC will be spruiking this in a program for you SOON!
220
🙂
50
Hope they enjoy the DARKNESS.
Should be fun to watch the MAD MAX future pan out for them.
Get your popcorn ready!
50
Its not petrol…its petroleum beguzzeline….
“Central to Gosling1…”
00
You’ve got to love Henry Ergas’ turn of phrase in his opinion piece “as rent-seekers rampage through Canberra in great troops like foraging baboons, we should remember Aristotle’s observation: “The less the area of his prerogative, the longer will the authority of a king last unimpaired.”
150
There might be an implication in that which suggests that the United Nations may be nearing the end of its life.
Withdrawal of U.S.funds in some areas has sent Ban Kim Moon into a tither.
He desperately needs more donations to continue saving the planet.
KK
160
Mr Harbourside Mansion and Jewellery Bishop are no longer in control of the taxpayer funded cheque book must be upsetting for him.
130
If the UN actually did the task for which it was ostensibly created, they could disband the UNHCR as it would be unnecessary.
80
Correction. He needs more money to spread among UN bureaucrats.
50
screw them!
30
Of course the UN needs a lot more money. That’s because Maurice Strong embezzled their funds … transferred all those UN millions into a company of his and ran away to live in China, a country he couldn’t be extradited from. He’s dead now, so the UN is even less likely to get any of them back.
That boy knew what he was doing. It’s a sure sign the “Strong Climate Caper” isn’t legit. He knew just how gullible the rest of the people are …
10
Just how duplicitous can a politician get? Let me re-state Morrison’s “new” energy policy. “In the electricity sector cutting emissions has been successful to the extent that we’re quite sure to reduce emissions by 26% in that sector by 2020. But it’s caused a lot of price angst among electricity consumers so we”ll stop doing anymore there. However we can still meet our Paris targets by re-focussing on reducing emissions in the transport and agriculture sectors because the three sectors contribute nearly equal amounts to our total emissions.”
Even more simply:Angas Taylor to go gangbusters on electricity prices, Melissa Price to sit on her hands as Environment Minister.
150
According to Bjorn Lomborg:
Fabulous, isn’t it? Destroy your economy for nothing 0.048°C. What are we waiting for?
21
According to Eurostat estimates, CO2 emissions rose in 2017 in a majority of EU Member States.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/05/20180504-eurostat.html
The EU refuses to negotiate a trade deal unless we are signed up to the destructive Paris Agreement.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-trade-deal-paris-climate-change-accord-agreement-cecilia-malmstr-m-a8206806.html
Meanwhile the EU are ignoring their own Paris commitments with CO2 increasing.
Morrison govt needs to call out this unfair deal that will disadvantage the Aussie economy.
(via malcolm roberts twitter)
160
Interesting.
And to think that all of this ugly thuggery is controlled by the innocent gas CO2.
The gas of life.
KK
160
No, KK. It is said by some to be controlled by CO2.
10
Ugly thuggery.
00
Screw the EU. It’s coming unglued as we debat this; the UK has had their Brexit, Greece wants to renegotiate its debt obligations, and Italy has basically said it’s going to have better terms on trade and immigration reform or it’s leaving the EU as well. Germany has enemies in Hungary and Poland over the
immigrationinvasion fiasco, and there are few other nations in the EU with any real power to demand such obscene tit-for-tat nonsense.We’ll do our own negotiating with individual countries if necessary. The Paris Agreement is a joke and won’t do anything to help offset global temperatures unless vast new nuclear expansion is front and center in the discussion, or perhaps, if fusion is finally realized. Windmills and solar panels simply don’t have the energy density to replace fossil fuels.
210
With trading partners other than the EU, including the UK and US, why would Australia be concerned, reject the blackmail.
150
Yes this and many other facts need to be prosecuted by Morrison and Taylor relentlessly. The other fact is many hundreds of new coal fired power stations are being built all over the world. Anyone who doesn’t see the absurdity of the situation here in Australia where we have such a large supply of cheap good quality coal being exported to fuel the ever increasing numbers of coal fired power stations yet we have been moving to renewables at the expense of coal should seek medical assistance immediately, and I’m not joking. Expose the other side as economic vandals and totally incompetent who are hell bent on moving to 40%, 50%, 60%, etc. renewables while the rest of the world aren’t and never will in the forseable future. Those are the sort of messages Morrison and Taylor must prosecute in parliament and to the people each and every day until virtually everyone agrees. This is just plain and simple common sense and logic.
230
The message has to be simple and unambiguous. Trump deliberately used the words Tax Cuts and not Tax Reform, as tax reform is meaningless. But tax cuts means one and only one thing, a reduction in taxes, and that can be understood by everyone. Tax reform can mean anything you want it to mean. So the government has to make the message simple.
111
Update August 30, 2018: Coal hits the political fan in Germany
Germany’s “climate chancellor” Angela Merkel has shocked the climate alarmist world by declining to support tighter Paris Agreement emission targets for the European Union.
Her place as the leading EU alarmist was already threatened when Germany admitted that they could not meet their 2020 target and now it is probably gone for good.
http://www.cfact.org/2018/08/30/coal-hits-the-political-fan-in-germany/
80
Reality bites. It might have started to bite here in Australia with Morrison et al but the ALP, Greens and many in the LNP are still in denial. It will be interesting to see how Morrison and Taylor handle the polarisation, which will no doubt increase a lot. It could end up splitting the LNP into two, which although will probably lose them the election the split will be the best thing to happen to them for a very long time. No point having an animal that’s forever trying to eat its own tail.
60
Brussels is happy with the current trading in CO2 indulgences. It’s a currency in itself that Brussels controls; a bit like frequent flyer miles. Trump threw a spanner in the works though. CO2 indulgences, socialism and unionism only work (sic) if everyone is in it. If Trump gets a second term, the impact on the economy in Europe of lower US taxes, significantly lower energy costs, no new US commitments or funding to Europe through a Paris accord, US retaliation on supposed “free trade” agreements where US goods are hit with punitive taxes and fees after clearing Customs to ensure local products remain “competitive”, US support for defence requiring a greater local investment, and the refusal by the US to continue to be the piggybank for the UN, is going to be debilitating. The EU is looking at a potential nightmare. Everyone was happy when Clinton was going to be the next POTUS. Ooops! Time to pay the piper. The pressure and money that will be thrown towards unseating Trump after just a single term is going to be huge.
90
Tony K, in a nutshell. Cui bono?
10
‘Swing-time for Merkel and Germany…’
H/T Mel Brooks, tra-la.
30
Nuclear for Poland and France..
We’re abandoning the Paris farce.
Look out here comes the coal restarts.
00
Around this area – hopefully!
“Delingpole: Brexit Is Going to Happen, Whatever the Experts Say…”
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/08/30/the-tide-of-history-is-with-brexit/
90
This might help
“New book shreds the “climate to extreme weather” link”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/08/30/new-book-shreds-the-climate-to-extreme-weather-link/
50
I’m not sure that this type of analysis helps.
The core issue is this:
CO2 doesn’t trap heat in any way which would make the atmosphere “hotter” than it would be if CO2 was removed from the atmosphere.
We urgently need people to speak up on the basic science.
KK
200
People have been speaking up for a long time in various ways. Bolt for example has been a relentless and outspoken critic of the CAGW nonsense and lies. It’s falling on death ears in the ALP, Greens and many in the LNP. What we really need is a big kick in the backside to wake people up to reality. A complete loss of power across the eastern states several times over the coming summer should do the trick. Also a re-education campaign by the government to let the people know hundreds of new coal fired power stations are being built all over the word, some using our coal, which means reducing our emissions is not only stupid it’s insane. Imagine of the rest of the world decided to cut taxes by 50% but we decided to increase ours by 50%. Our economy would collapse not just because of the tax increase but also because businesses will simply close up shop and move overseas. Well that’s exactly what we are doing with coal fired power. While the rest of the world is amassing hundreds and hundreds of new coal fired power stations we are doing the opposite and moving to renewables at the expense of coal, at least until now. Let’s see how the new leader performs.
130
A key problem Keith is that controlled experiments to test the Greenhouse Effect hypothesis are entirely lacking.
I only became properly aware of that problem when I read the chapter called “The Contribution of Carbon Dioxide to Global Warming” by Dr John Abbott and Dr John Nicol in Climate Change- The Facts 2017 (IPA). They look at the spectroscopy experiments by Jack Barrett and a few others. THE IPCC extrapolates from their results using assumptions and calculations based on the Arrhenius paper of 1896.
Abbott and Nicol say that the calculations could and should be tested by building an enclosed experimental system at least 100m in length. That has never been done.
Consequently both sides have to argue from philosophy (eg null hypothesis, popper etc) because there is no direct experimental evidence.
The Chief Scientist (Dr Alan Finkel) tacitly acknowledged this when he gave his reply to Sen Malcolm Roberts at the Senate Estimates enquiry. He said that he was persuaded by the combination of a hypothesis (Green House) and the evidence. But the evidence he was talking about amounts to glaciers, artic sea ice extent, polar bears and complex reconstructions which purport to define the average global temperature.
I did subsequently write to the office of the chief scientist, asking if there was any better evidence, but I received no reply.
130
Hi Peter,
There is no point in doing controlled greenhouse type experiments when the basic physics says that the concept is nothing but a joke.
The situation.
Solar origin UV enters Earth’s atmosphere and by and large gets to ground or ocean level with little loss of energy.
On impact with one of those two surfaces, the energy intensity, or “virtue”, is degraded and reappears as very low intensity IR radiation moving away from land/ocean level back to deep space.
While H2O, natural origin CO2 and human origin CO2 may all absorb this low grade energy, they cannot trap, hold or store it since they are in the immediate presence of other atmospheric gases. Equilibration is effectively immediate.
Even if the so called greenhouse gases were eliminated from the air, the energy provided by the incident UV would still escape to space by the following morning.
This is because the unimpeded IR (no gh gases) will move to space or will be transmitted to the ground level atmosphere by impact, Conduction.
Convection takes the hotter parcel of atmosphere higher.
Additionally, human origin CO2 is quantitatively irrelevant.
We do need people to speak up.
KK
120
KK explaining the science is extremely hard, saying CO2 doesn’t cause global warming is a good start but we need to prove it.
‘Scientists are increasingly concluding that changes in low level cloud cover, not CO2, are what govern the surface radiation budget in the polar regions, driving and determining the retreat of the ice sheets.’
No Tricks Zone
20
El g,
I have mentioned previously that I believe that clouds can delay thermal energy. But that’s water, Not CO2.
Water is a very unusual substance. Our fingernails and toenails are made of water locked in an unusual configuration. I know that’s irrelevant But I think it’s interesting.
CO2 pretty much follows the ideal gas laws and won’t trap or hold heat. PV=nRT.
The whole thing is a scam.
KK
51
True, but all this is far too complex for the layman to grasp and make a rational decision.
Ideally a Blue Team needs to be organised to argue climate science seperate from energy and they need the ears of key journalists and politicians.
Someone with the credentials of William Kinninmonth will do nicely.
“Fundamental science has always identified that it is quixotic to attempt regulation of climate through management of carbon dioxide emissions. The pity is that community leaders have been beguiled by the mystery of powerful computers and have failed to critically assess the predictions within the context of Earth’s history.”
20
The TV show, Mythbusters, had an interesting experiment to show that CO2 was a heating gas.
A lady professor provided the authentication.
I laughed nearly the whole way through.
The arrangement of the containing vessels was a hoot.
All lined up close to each other so that the two end containers would get no double overlap of energy from the heaters, only the middle one.
Guess which one held the high CO2 gas?
And Yes, the centre high CO2 container was hotter.
The two side containers had The benefit of extra cooling from the clear sidewalls.
All in all a masterpiece of getting what you set out to get: experimental proof of cagw.
No attempt was made to duplicate the effects of convection.
Of course constructing a genuine experiment in a 100 metre high tower could not replicate Earth’s atmosphere.
One issue would be to duplicate the near vacuum at altitude and the extremely low temperatures.
I don’t think that there’s any need for these large scale experiments since the behaviour of CO2 is well charted as a single gas.
The trick factor used by the scammers is to use the greenhouse analogy.
I suspect that the greenhouse effect works by allowing UV to enter the greenhouse where energy is absorbed by the plants and solid structures.
What tries to get out is only the low virtue IR.
I suspect that it cannot penetrate the glass and all of the incoming energy remains inside.
The greenhouse effect probably has nothing to do with water and CO2.
I think it’s all about the heat trapping glass.
KK
51
What if we argued that CO2 is only a trace gas and H2O is the pariah, this from Adrian Vance.
‘CO2 is a “trace gas” in air and is insignificant by definition. It would have to be increased by a factor of 2500 to be considered “significant” or “notable.” To give it the great power claimed is a crime against physical science.
‘CO2 absorbs 1/7th as much IR, heat energy, from sunlight per molecule as water vapor which has 188 times as many molecules capturing 1200 times as much heat producing 99.9% of all “global warming.” CO2 does only 0.1% of it. Pushing panic about any effect CO2 could have is clearly a fraud.’
50
That’s good, it focuses on the quantitative aspect of the problem.
But it is still assuming that CO2 and H2O create the greenhouse effect. I don’t believe that the greenhouse mechanism is at work in the atmosphere.
Still it’s good to look at the quantitative aspects.
KK
10
KK,
The Mythbusters program, to which you referred is what I would call a demonstration, contrived to produce a certain result. It was not a controlled experiment. You have correctly pointed out some of the deficiencies.
However it should also be noted that even ground based outgoing IR heats CO2 and consequently the Air, that is not the Greenhouse Effect. If indeed the air is heated, the hot air then rises and is replaced by incoming cooler air. That amounts to a COOLING effect.
20
KK,
What you suspect wrt IR trapped by glass-house causing elevated greenhouse temps is, in fact, the Arrhenius conjecture, The conjecture was disproved by Wood(1909); the elevated temp is the result of suppressed convection (the glass walls & roof prevent the warmed air from rising and being replaced by cooler surrounding air), His result showed that trapping virtually 100% of IR could (not would) raise temp by no more than ~1 degree, since an identical device which did not impede escaping IR achieved the same elevated temp.
Maxwell (of electrical engineering fame) provided an alternative theory for atmospheric heating (and lapse rate) based on gravitational compression which seems to work well, and is more likely correct.
20
KK et al:
The experiment has been done, by Dr Thomas Allmendinger [2017] The papers have been written and the science has been published:
Paper 1: Refutation of the Climate Greenhouse Theory and a Proposal for
a Hopeful Alternative.
https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/the-refutation-of-the-climate-greenhouse-theory-and-a-proposal-for-ahopeful-alternative.php?aid=88698
Paper 2: A Novel Investigation about the Thermal Behaviour of Gases Under
the Influence of Irradiation – Further Argument Against the Green
House Theory.
https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/a-novel-investigation-about-the-thermal-behaviour-of-gases-under-theinfluence-of-irradiation-a-further-argument-against-the-greenh-2157-7617-1000393.pdf [Pdf]
10
Hunger will help. Food prices are rising. Food stocks are falling and next year could see the start of a widespread food shock …
David Dubyne’s forecast for the 2018-2019 winter should shock a few pollies …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V9qM-lFMh8
This is one of the reasons for the recent Internet censorship. Can’t have the little people finding out they’re going to be run over by a climate semi-trailer really soon now …
00
The PM had best check the arithmetic. The liberal base that objects strongly, so strong that
1000,000 (one million +-,)did not vote for the Coalition. Those are the numbers that need to be turned around. How many Climate Change nutters do we have? Simple arithmetic will give us the answers. They are a minority with a loud voice thru the media & various organisations .
Lose that base, & were back to where we started & worse. If you’re a gambling man Mr PM, go for it but don’t come with the wrecker story like the last clown when in fact you wreck it yourself!
The nations patience has been worn very thin!
It would appear that the Pacific Island nations are terrified of losing their hard earned handouts for sea levels which rise in direct proportion to the amount of tax payer funds which are offered. They have already joined the Gangreen mob wiith cries of something like we’re criminally insane to deny sea level rises. Funny old racist sea levels they are! The sea levels only rise around the islands, not around Australia, New Zealand or any where else for that matter.
180
I’ll believe it when I see it, there have been false dawns in the past.
Like the many-headed Hydra or John Carpenter’s Thing, ‘The Blob’ has an uncanny facility to defy all attempts to bump it off.
130
Like I’ve already said to the point of boring everyone, “Nothing sticks around longer than a bad idea.”
If a politician is getting his job right he has no reason to point to all his successes and say, “See what I’ve done for you. Now vote me back into office.” And it’s that office they want more than anything of benefit to anyone else.
It’s even worse when they want to point to the whole world and say, “See what I’ve done for you.” And in either case it’s a lot more likely that it’s what they did to you than for you.
80
I hate to keep picking up Jo’s headlines this way but what could be a better idea than that. Then export your fiscal, social and general all around success to California.
Of course the fact that it will give you back reliable energy and a vibrant economy is probably why they won’t do it.
100
It hasn’t happened yet Roy. Politicians have a reputation of saying one thing and doing another, or doing nothing at all. Hold the celebration until “after” the RET is killed.
130
Yep. Sadly, we still need the example of a proper tragedy with deaths, injuries and long term industrial damage from a widespread blackout of the entire south east coast that takes a couple of days to recover from before the masses will wake up and demand the pollies forget the aspirations of Paris and look to the long term future of our company.
The rolling blackouts planned by the grid operators (and already implemented in SA) to keep the grid up are an affront to proper electrical engineering and shows the AEMO and utility managers are complicit in the kriminal farce that is the LRET.
10
long term future of our economy, not company
00
You will believe.
Re-education is just a step away …
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele hits out at climate change sceptics during fiery speech
“So any leader of any country who believes that there is no climate change, I think he ought to be taken to mental confinement.
He is utterly stupid.
And I say the same thing to any leader here.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-31/samoan-prime-minister-hits-out-at-climate-change-sceptics/10185142
Quite so.
91
Funny how the believers always start to lash out when threatened, especially so when cash flow is threatened as much as their beliefs. When I say threatened , I mean threatened with the truth.
110
‘…..the “Biketawa Plus” security agreement, which declares that climate change remains the “single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific”.
Before I look for evidence to prove Samoa is rising, the greatest threat to the Pacific islands is the American Alliance.
50
This falls somewhat short of my proposal to obliterate the climatariat, incinerate what remains and scatter the ashes with the help of one last symbolic wind turbine.
Mind you, there is definitely something odd about the climate these days. A couple of weeks back our droughty midcoast had predictions of big dumps of rain by week’s end. As the days drew near the predictions shriveled…then no rain fell. Earlier this week we were proposed a flood, with falls of up to 80mm, 40mm over several days. The predictions have shriveled back to 5mm, 10 if we’re lucky. I’m guessing that by the weekend we’ll be searching the skies.
So you can’t tell me that Russians haven’t been zapping our climate with those Sputnik Space Station thingies.
90
I note again that Tony Abbott is named, this time by PM Scott Morrison: ““It’s her job to continue to pursue our policies in relation to climate and to pursue the policies we have to address our emissions commitment that was given under the Abbott government,” Mr Morrison said this morning”.
There was no commitment by the Abbott Government, there was a cabinet decision to attend the Paris Conference in Nov-Dec 2015 and guidelines decided to table when there. PM Abbott was replaced by PM Turnbull in September 2015.
After the Paris Conference in 2016 Minister Greg Hunt went to New York and at the UN signed the Paris Agreement. In November 2016 he returned to New York and ratified the Paris Agreement – committed Australia to it.
As the timing for signing and later ratifying the Paris Agreement indicates the intention was to sign but not ratify as Australia did with the UN Kyoto Agreement which was ratified several years later by the Labor Rudd Government.
PM Turnbull decided with his colleagues in cabinet to rush to New York and ratify the Paris Agreement before President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw.
180
Here we go again, when will the li@rs in Canberra admit they can’t lower emission + maintain reliability + lower prices?
It’s impossible.
170
I think we need to take a more sophisticated European approach to our Paris commitments: fudge, promise, bribe, fib and pillage. Over there they call it lobbying.
For example, you just say you’ve planted a billion trees. If someone contradicts you, whine in outrage and invite them to come and count trees. This sort of thing only works if you are sophisticated and know how to fudge, promise, bribe, fib and pillage. The press will be a prob, of course. Might have to terrify the ABC with threats of emphasising more rural reporting and even crueler atrocities. Rupert…dang, what do you give to the man with everything, even Golan Heights oil?
Seriously, Europe knows that climate bothering is an advantage to them over the other main powers. And Eurepeans can use it against one another. They keep the price of carbon in the toilet so Germany can keep shouting the drinks and because nobody wants low-carb France to get an edge (’cause everyone hates ’em). They find thousands of ways to rort green systems and programs. Where electricity shifts all over the shop who’s going to prove your watts came from Polish coal? It’s a comedy, so put on a clown suit and get with it…or get out.
But nah. Let’s just be righteous men under the Southern Cross and do the superb coal God gave us.
160
We seem to have an extra serving of unhinged this morning…..what is it about today?
— what – do you meant o say the climate has chnaged radically in the past? No noes….it must mean this is a natural event….talk about the CAGW mob shooting themselves in their own feet…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-08-31/climate-change-fossil-record/10172532
“If the world continues on a “business-as-usual” trajectory on climate change, global ecosystems including Australia’s will undergo a “major transformation” over the next century.
That’s the warning from researchers who have analysed hundreds of pollen and fossil records from the Earth’s last period of significant global warming, which followed the last glacial maximum around 14,000 years ago.
The study, published today in the journal Science, found that ecosystems that underwent low levels of change were “concentrated in regions where the temperature anomaly was relatively small”.
The researchers used their data to predict the amount of future ecological upheaval that would occur under warming scenarios of 1.5 degrees, 2.4 degrees, 3 to 4 degrees and 5 degrees, by the end of the century.”
An abnormally strident defence of nonsense….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-31/samoan-prime-minister-hits-out-at-climate-change-sceptics/10185142
“Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele has lashed out at climate sceptics and urged Australia to make deeper cuts to carbon emissions to help save Pacific Island nations from the “disaster” of climate change.
Mr Sailele told the Lowy Institute in Sydney that climate change posed an “existential challenge” to low lying islands in the Pacific, and developed countries needed to reduce pollution in order to curb rising temperatures and sea levels.
“We all know the problem, we all know the solutions, and all that is left would be some political courage, some political guts, to tell people of your country there is a certainty of disaster,” Mr Sailele said.”
50
As noted before, the word ‘subsidies’ is deceitful. The government of South Australia, for example, did not pay for a single windmill. The electricity users of Australia did, hidden in their electricity bills. Did they reduce the bills, of course not. Do the people who paid, the people of Australia own the windmills? No.
So where socialism is taking everyone’s money for the common good. The RET takes you money without your knowledge to give to other people so they can charge you for your own ‘free’ power.
Subsidies? No. Theft.
220
Lady Margaret Thatcher’s classic conservative view on ‘public money’. Wind and solar ripoffs are not even taxation. The RET is legislated, government enforced robbery. The benefit to Australians is zero. Coal is free too. Coal power stations can last for hundreds of years, like factories. Windmills are only renewable as short term replaceables. You would only use wind or solar if you had no choice. As the world’s biggest exporter of coal, our current Government enforced self harm at great cost is utterly unjustifiable.
160
A stronger way of saying it is the consumers are making massive donations to power companies to build solar and wind farms and in the process the companies are profiteering enormously yet the consumers can’t claim a tax deduction. There are in effect two thefts going on here, one are the power companies and the other is the government.
170
It is also illegal. Governments do not have the right to take your money, call it government ‘subsidies’ and give it to someone else, friends of the politicians.
Consider the $444Million gift to the GBR group is nothing compared to the $3Bn in RET charges and as much again in markups. We get nothing for this. It’s not shown on your electricity bill. Most Australians know noting about it.
Worse, most politicians have no idea. It is the world’s biggest stealth carbon tax, designed to shut down the coal industry and channel billions overseas. According to the Australian newspaper, $3Billion of this money goes overseas.
All I hear is that the politicians are thinking about removing subsidies? What subsidies?
This started when I wondered how Jay Weatherill could afford all the windmills. So I downloaded the SA budget. Not a cent for windmills. Follow the money trail. It leads to Canberra and the Deep State activists who crafted this most evil of government Acts.
170
A government has the right of taxation and the duty to spend the money wisely. It remains our money. It is not ‘government’ money. This money MUST go into General Revenue, under our Australian Constitution.
A government has the right to fine.
A government has the right to charge for services, such as education and hospitals and these days even for police protection if you are a conservative voice.
A government does not have the right to enrich third parties.
Under the RET they do this by forcing companies (electricity retailers) to take your money secretly and give it to others so they can personally buy windmills and solar farms.
As well, these same people are rewarded with your cash just to operate the same your windmills and solar panels even if they do not provide any saleable power at all.
Then the electricity retailers are obliged to buy wind and solar power if at all possible, no matter what the cost. This allows wind and solar providers to charge what they like.
At what point is this right? It would not stand a High Court Challenge. Even Tony Abbott said to me that he had not thought of it before, the prohibition on the enrichment by Governments of third parties which is intrinsic to British Law and goes back to Magna Carta. Why is there no outrage? Or don’t even the politicians understand the Act? AGL does.
200
“AGL does”, And Andy V knows we know, and that we intend pushing the point until the price of electricity is at least halved or preferably cut to one third of its current price.
If the latter happens, just watch our manufacturing and employment go bang.
KK
70
I understand that Andy has announced that he will return home to America.
50
I just love that first paragraph.
Wat Tyler would be spinning in his grave.
KK
20
Not sure if it is illegal but it’s certainly unethical and wrong. We shouldn’t be surprised though since the architect of it was Turnbull who came from Goldman Sachs who happen to have been the masters of the GFC.
90
The former Goldman Sachs employee who is heading off for a six week break in New York staying at his multi-million dollar apartment in Manhattan not too far from the UN HQ. Purchased in 2012 I read which is of course the year before the Abbott led Coalition defeated Rudd Labor.
60
Don’t forget this “Josh Frydenberg” came from “Deutsche Bank”……….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Frydenberg
“In 2005 he took up a position as a Director of Global Banking with Deutsche Bank in the company’s Melbourne office”
70
Although Deutsche Bank like many others did participate in the financial bubble machine it was more of a victim than a direct cause of the second stage of the crisis. After the initial prick in the bubble due to the reset of the low interest home loans in the US, Goldman Sachs and others saw the writing on the wall and decided to offload their CDOs (collateralised debt obligations) as quickly as they could onto the market leading directly to the GFC. The rest is as we say history.
30
Deutsche Bank *really* wants us to trade carbon « JoNova
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/03/deutsche-bank-really-want-us-to-trade-carbon/
20
Of course they would. What bank wouldn’t? Why do you think the banks here wanted to keep Turnbull as PM? Note too Westpac and others have increased their interest rates on loans. Is it a dummy spit or a spit in the face of Australians for helping to get Turnbull ejected? Banks are legalised crooks.
30
This act was 2000. Turnbull did not enter parliament until 2004. Whoever wrote the Act, sponsored by Robert Hill had a cunning plan. It was not a tax, as the money did not go to the government. The word carbon was not used in the act, which used deceitful negatives. Fossil fuel generated electricity was simply ‘ineligible’. Never has an act been so designed to deceive. Even today, I doubt many people have read it. A master work of Green politics, clearly constructed so as to sail through parliament.
Here was Tony Abbott railing against Gillards $23 a ton Carbon Tax when the Liberal RET was $200 a ton for coal, $400 a ton for gas! No one seems to understand this will push up electricity prices!
110
New Daily journalist, James Fernyhough, not happy either.
Typical perspective of the MSM on events of last few days. How can they get it so wrong?
“If there’s any doubt Mr Turnbull once took the dangers of climate change seriously, here’s how he described the issue in 2010.
“Climate change is a global problem. The planet is warming because of the growing level of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.
“If this trend continues then truly catastrophic consequences will ensue, from rising sea levels to reduced water availability to more heatwaves and fires.”
Nothing has changed since then. In fact, the global consensus has only become clearer that climate change is real, is caused by human activity, and is likely to have devastating effects on the planet. Big business, which for many years was the major obstacle to climate change mitigation, has even accepted urgent action is needed.
But the Liberal Party, or at least the right wing of the Liberal Party, has only become more recalcitrant. In the mind of Tony Abbott, still the spiritual leader of the conservative wing, climate change remains a left-wing conspiracy.”
Reference: https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/08/30/turnbulls-abject-failure-climate-change/
30
Yep. It is a left wing conspiracy. That’s obvious enough and only one of many. Then there’s the evil James Cook, white imperialist mysogynist. All coming from the Left handbook. It saves thinking.
50
SAMOAN PM IS THE REAL DENIER………..
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/samoan-pm-is-the-real-denier/news-story/99c908a5868037a0fd93b75455cd8379
Just another rent seeker wanting to scam free money!!
100
‘Professor Paul Kench, an Auckland University coastal geomorphologist, along with Australian scientists, has studied more than 600 coral reef islands.
‘His findings: about 40 per cent have actually grown in size. Another 40 per cent stayed stable, and just 20 per cent have shrunk.’
Good data, I’ll borrow it.
90
MORRISON DITCHES TURNBULL GLOBAL WARMING CRUSADE
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/morrison-ditches-turnbull-global-warming-crusade/news-story/08ffe39f6e1f49f83edb20d103c8048a
60
your reappearance on here is coincident with Alex Jones’s restrictions on social media.
Did you ned somewhere else to vent Alex?
08
it’s in the dictionary!
20
That’s the “N word”, by the way, that the “thought police” won’t let people say….
[Now that you’ve made your point, drop it. Most offensive speech would pass and be published unless it runs afoul of 18C. But you guys have played with what amounts to an ad hominem attack for no good reason and that will not be accepted here. What you hint at is the fastest way to stir up trouble and accomplish nothing else.] AZ
[Moderators are not thought police. That isn’t the job I signed up for. So think whatever you want. My job is to keep pointless offences off of Jo’s bog.] AZ
30
use the dictionary and stop being so sensitive!
00
Your so sweet “Gee Aye”
Love ALEX….
70
For someone decrying the state of literacy education, that’s very funny.
25
thanks sweetie…….
you’re funny
50
Alex Jones Claims 5.6 Million New Infowars Subscribers Since Big Tech Blacklisting
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/08/08/alex-jones-claims-5-6-million-new-infowars-subscribers-since-big-tech-blacklisting/
70
He must have read this https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2018/08/31/tim-ball-canada-must-get-out-of-the-paris-climate-agreement/ oped from Tim Ball, the Canadian sceptic.
Enjoy.
10
behind paywall…Crikey has a solution:
31 Aug: Crikey: After five years without climate policy, time for the states to step up
We’re now in our fifth year without a meaningful climate policy. Labor and the states and territories are the only ones who can fix that.
by Bernard Keane
How apt it was that new Energy Minister Angus Taylor spent half an hour hiding from the media yesterday after his first speech, sequestered from scrutiny and questions. It used to be that ministers gave speeches, then took questions and the media reported what was said. Now the speech is dropped to newspapers ahead of time, it is perfunctorily delivered and the minister hides from journalists afterwards. A truly efficient process would involve the minister not bothering to deliver the speech at all.
More to the point, it was a perfect symbol of a government that has entered its fifth year of having no climate policy beyond a renewable energy target that has less than two years to run. The risible Emissions Reduction Fund continues to dribble money to lucky business participants, but even the government itself no longer pretends that’s a credible policy, and cut off its funding…
https://www.crikey.com.au/2018/08/31/after-five-years-without-climate-policy-time-for-labor-and-the-states-to-step-up/
Coalition spokespersons need to hone their media message. name the countries failing to reach their Paris commitments. who are back-tracking on shutting down nuclear (France), or keeping coal (Germany);
they should quote leftist darling, Justin Trudeau:
11 Mar: Business Insider: ‘No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil and just leave it in the ground’: Justin Trudeau gets a standing ovation at an energy conference in Texas
by Jeremy Berke
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trudeau-gets-a-standing-ovation-at-energy-industry-conference-oil-gas-2017-3?r=US&IR=T
and so on and so forth. all those highly-paid advisors need to get working on the message.
20
“Coalition spokespersons need to hone their media message. name the countries failing to reach their Paris commitments. who are back-tracking on shutting down nuclear (France), or keeping coal (Germany); ”
Just imagine the carnage in Europe if they did both, the Germans trying to lean on interconnectors with no capacity behind them. The Fench struggling to meet their own demand.
Now once you have that mess in your mind, overlay mass enforced transition to EVs with all that means to the grid. Those long gloomy days of winter would be a real treat.
30
YouTube corrupting scientific inquiry and expansion of human knowledge
http://morningmail.org/youtube-is-fighting-against-scientific-knowledge/#comment-86109
20
LABOR TO CLOSE 75% OF COAL-FIRED POWER, ADD $200 TO BILLS
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/labor-to-close-75-of-coalfired-power-add-200-to-bills/news-story/ae0ad4f6a9d319b4d42329aab3037fcd
30
Let the games begin. The LNP can now go to the next election on the promise to block ALP’s policy of increasing our power bills by $200 (more likely much higher than that) and destroying our power grid to place us in the dark and create an economic depression. The choice will be simple for even most simpletons.
60
Weatherzone going on about a warm Sydney winter. Only talking about day-time temps and neglecting the fact that night-time temps have been lower than usual. I was watching the night time temps and they definitely were not 1.1 above average.
Here’s my reply. Wish I had saved the data for the other two months…
https://twitter.com/weatherzone/status/1035379565034532865?s=21
70
Plus If the DTR – diurnal temp range — is larger than normal that is exactly what the models didn’t predict…
80
That’s interesting. We have definitely had larger DTRs in Sydney this year.
Even this month of August, the min temp is -0.2 below average and the max temp is 0.1 above average (northwest Sydney).
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/nsw/sydney/cherrybrook
30
Wake me up when it becomes a reality. I’ll crack the Moet when all subsidies are gone, Paris Agreement is no more, The Clean Energy Finance Corp. is shut down, the RET/CET/NEG … are gone, current clandestine carbon tax-like legislation is repealed and all climate change departments and bureaucratic positions cease to exist. Be nice also if nuclear power was back on the table.
130
That’s a long list.
https://i.imgur.com/YTn3cIf.mp4
Are you sure we can’t celebrate sooner than that?
20
Keep an eye wide open for a stealthy carbon tax on petrol, diesel & probably gas as well. That is certainly an objective of the Paris Accord & probably a contributing reason for not renouncing the Accord up front. Forcing electriciy prices down will signal a drop in the stealthy carbon tax revenues imposed through the sale of “certificates” to generators by the departed Dear Leader.
I believe the tax mechanism is already in place & the wild fluctuations in pricing are the tests to seepublic reaction. Unless that Accord is shredded will be a tempting tool for use at a later date by either the current tools or the next mob of ALP tools.
40
We already have that, it’s called fuel excise and correlates to around $300 per tonne CO2.
10
I’d also like to see all carbon accounting and reporting rules repealed so Government and private sector can purge themselves of “Energy Efficiency” management.
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How the war on climate change slams the world’s poor
https://nypost.com/2018/08/26/how-the-war-on-climate-change-slams-the-worlds-poor/
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Climate taxes on agriculture could lead to more food insecurity than climate change itself
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/news/180730-food-insecurity.html
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From GWPF “”Japan’s fifth-biggest utility by sales plans to restart the No. 2 reactor at its Sendai station later on Wednesday, giving Kyushu the most nuclear generation since the 2011 Fukushima disaster led to the shutdown of Japan’s atomic power sector.”
“Output restrictions can occur when power demand is low and solar power generation is high, such as in the autumn, spring or at the year-end and beginning of the year,” the spokesman said.””
Either a misquote or I don’t understand but whatever …..so leaving a couple of Tuesdays in winter.
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30 Aug: GWPF: EU Threatens Australia Over New Climate Policy
When asked how Australia’s new approach to climate policy might affect the ongoing talks, a Commission spokesperson told EURACTIV that “it would be difficult to imagine concluding a broad trade agreement without an ambitious chapter on trade and sustainable development”.
EurActiv article…
http://www.thegwpf.com/eu-threatens-australia-over-new-climate-policy/
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SO be it, cheaper Australian Products unburdened by the climate tax in every power bill might be quite welcome in Asia and North America.
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Just as a note to those that haven’t thought about it. In introducing carbon taxes and other green goop the EU has made themselves very uncompetitive. They know it. There are two ways to fix this problem, 1. You set about improving productivity reduce regulation and become cheaper and more competitive leveling the playing field and advantaging everyone or 2. You try to impose the same things that make you uncompetitive on your competitors to make them as uncompetive as you levelling the playing field but advantaging noone.
It’s clear the EU is trying method 2 on us. We should not permit this.
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31 Aug: SBS: AAP: Hockey says ‘formidable’ Trump will be re-elected
Australia’s ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, says Donald Trump is one of the most formidable politicians he’s seen in his life and is backing him for re-election
Australia’s ambassador to the United States says Trump is authentic, not as aggressive in person as he is on Twitter, and is underestimated by many people.
“He is one of the most formidable politicians I’ve ever seen in my life,” he told Sydney’s 2GB radio…
Mr Hockey, in Australia this week, said he’s had a number of private engagements with the president – including some fairway therapy, most recently in April – and admired his “very inquisitive mind”.
“He’s always asking questions about ‘what do you think of this? What do you think of that?’…
The former Liberal treasurer felt there was a lot of momentum behind him in the US, and lauded him for fulfilling his promises to cut taxes, boosting the American economy, tearing up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, ***pulling out of the Paris climate agreement and moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
“When is the last time you had a president like that?
“If I was a betting man I would say you would bet that he’d be re-elected.”…
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/hockey-says-formidable-trump-will-be-re-elected
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ABC needs to declare conflicts of interest of those they put on their CAGW programs.
ABC’s Life Matters just finished a whole week of CAGW propaganda, under the disguised “Whatever the Weather” moniker, but they haven’t stopped there:
from 22mins15secs: on the phone, Christobel, ZeroByron: had fantastic event last month with Will Steffen re “Big U-Turn Ahead”.
they’ve had LockTheGate.
renewables renewables.
ABC’s Mackenzie asks how many in the group – Christobel ignores the question, keeps clearing throat. ABC ends interview but, very conveniently, Amanda Cahill in the studio was with ZeroByron from the start, so is able to continue where Christobel left off.
AUDIO: 29mins50secs: 29 Aug: ABC Life Matters: Talkback: Community groups that help the environment while feeding the soul
Presented by Amanda Smith and Michael Mackenzie
We all have lots of reasons to be concerned about the environment. But how can we go about challenging our concerns into direct action?
Life Matters hears advice from Jo Barraket, Chairperson of the CERES Community Environment Park in Melbourne and Amanda Cahill, CEO of The Next Economy in Brisbane about when to join a local environmental group, and when to start your own.
We also hear from listeners about what communities can gain from genuine grass-roots solutions to environmental problems.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback:-community-groups-that-help-the-environment-while-feed/10174262
ZeroByron.org: Creating an emissions-free future…
FROM Organisational structure:
Partners
The initial or founding project partners are Byron Shire Council, Centre for Social Change and Beyond Zero Emissions, who are represented at Board level, in the Advisory Panel or in sector/ representative projects.
FROM the Board:
Craig Johnson
Craig is the Founder and CEO of Redgum Projects, a local Byron Bay Sustainability and Climate Change consulting business. He looks to apply his experience in Project Finance, Financial Services and Financial Markets to ecologically sustainable development. Craig was previously a Director in Sustainability and Climate Change team at Pricewaterhouse Coopers Australia, a Commercial Development Manager in the Global Energy Solutions team at Johnson Controls, and an Associate Director at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation…
***Giles Parkinson
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of Reneweconomy.com.au, Australia’s leading website on clean technology and climate issues. A journalist of 30 years’ experience now living in Coorabell, he is a former Business Editor and Deputy Editor of the Australian Financial Review, a columnist for The Bulletin magazine and The Australian, and the former editor of Climate Spectator.
Christobel Munson
Before settling in Byron Shire, Christobel spent decades working in journalism, film, publishing, marketing, IT and communications in Europe, Asia, the Middle-East, Australia and America…
Ex-Officio: Simon Richardson
Byron Shire Mayor since 2012…
During 2015, Councillor Richardson represented Byron Shire Council at COP21, in Paris and earlier in the lead in conference in Bonn, Germany. Since then, he has led the shire to join the Global Compact of Mayors, ICLEI and the Cities Power Partnership ensuring Byron Shire walks along the path to a zero emissions future…
https://zerobyron.org/
ZeroByron.org: Advisory Panel
Simon Corbell
Renewable Energy Policy and Planning
Simon Corbell has more than 20 years’ senior experience in public policy and has been a champion for reform in the renewable energy and climate change sector.
Before being appointed to the position of Victorian Renewable Energy Advocate (VREA) to the Victorian Government in December 2016, he was the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for the Environment and Climate Change of the ACT, where he drove the delivery of large scale solar and wind farms and oversaw the implementation of the ACT large scale feed in tariff and reverse auction process…
The key responsibilities of his position as independent VREA include heading Victoria’s key advisory body on renewable energy development, leading efforts to attract further investment in renewable energy, assisting in the implementation of the Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET) scheme and providing independent advice to the Government.
Simon was a recipient of the Banksia Foundation’s Gold Award for the ACT Solar Auction program, and he has been recognised by the Clean Energy Council and Australian Solar Council for his work in championing the clean energy transition nationally.
***Dr Amanda Cahill
Community Engagement and Governance
Amanda is the Director of the Centre for Social Change and Chair of the Next Economy. Originally trained as an anthropologist, Amanda has been working on community development projects across Asia-Pacific region, as well as in Australia for over 20 years…
She is a founding partner of the Zero Emissions Byron project, and is on the steering committee of the New Economy Network of Australia.
Amanda has a PhD in Human Geography from the Australian National University and has an adjunct position at the University of Queensland.
—
wait, there’s more…
28 Aug: ABC Life Matters: Low-income renters and energy affordability
Presented by Amanda Smith and Michael Mackenzie
Independent Senator Tim Storer has filed a private members bill in the Senate, proposing tax incentives for landlords of to make energy efficiency upgrades on properties where the rent is $300 a week or less.
Damian Sullivan is Research and Policy Senior Manager for the Energy, Equity and Climate Change program at the Brotherhood of St Laurence.
Rob Murray-Leach is the Energy Efficiency Council’s Head of Policy.
The bill is being reviewed by the The Environment and Communications Legislation Committee. It will be open to submissions shortly, followed by public hearings in October
27 Aug: ABC Life Matters: Harnessing the power of community
A childhood spent in developing countries observing communities working together to solve problems, influenced the career of sustainable energy facilitator, Jarra Hicks.
She and a friend from university co-founded the Community Power Agency which helps communities across Australia with grass-roots sustainable energy projects.
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Intersting to read.
https://www.iceagenow.info/the-misguided-affordable-clean-energy-rule/
“The Trump Administration is still playing the same “CO2 is causing dangerous manmade climate change” tune.
– Paul Driessen
_______________
“Why is the EPA still determined to control plant food?” asks Driessen. “Authors Tim Ball and Tom Harris thought the Trump EPA would not just terminate Obama’s job-killing Clean Power Plan (CPP) – but would finally end its ridiculous attempt to control Earth’s climate by controlling carbon dioxide emissions. Unfortunately, at least thus far, the authors freely admit, they were wrong.”
“EPA’s proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule shows that the Trump Administration is still playing the same “CO2 is causing dangerous manmade climate change” tune, though somewhat less loudly than Obama did. Just like the CPP, the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule focuses on reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the nonsensical belief that this will somehow reduce global warming – a phenomenon that virtually ended 20 years ago and would benefit wildlife and humanity anyway.”
“All Americans must understand how unaccountable “Deep State” technocrats are still directing government policy behind the scenes, using a little known and highly undemocratic feature of the U.S. legal system called “Administrative Law.”
Deep state controls Trump. (we know anyway, even over climate).
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31 Aug: CarbonPulse: China’s Guangdong suspends offset programme
China’s Guangdong province has suspended its regional carbon offset programme, as the local government wants to improve the mechanism before issuing further credits.
31 Aug: ClimateChangeNews: Withdrawn UN advert shows why carbon offset scheme should be scrapped
Comment: The Clean Development Mechanism has a weak environmental record and creates the illusion that high-carbon lifestyles are sustainable
By Gilles Dufrasne for Carbon Market Watch
The United Nations (UN) climate agency released a video this week mocking lifestyle changes, such as reducing meat consumption and flying, to promote the use of highly controversial credits to offset emissions.
The video “Keep calm and offset” has since been removed, but inadvertently points to the main problems with offsetting, a concept that creates the illusion that high-carbon lifestyles can be maintained…
Only 2% of CDM projects are highly likely to have environmental integrity (LINK), that is truly reduce emissions beyond what would have happened in the absence of the project…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/08/31/withdrawn-un-advert-shows-carbon-offset-scheme-scrapped/
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hilarious:
30 Aug: Business Green Editor’s Blog: James Murray: 20 reasons the UN’s carbon offset video was a terrible idea
Was it a spoof? A misfiring attempt at satire? A hack by a bunch of climate sceptics displaying hitherto unseen levels of sophistication? Who knows.
Only one thing is certain, it was a truly terrible idea. And here, with apologies to City Metric’s Jonn Elledge, are 20 reasons why…
5.The first and last rule of debating is not to accept the premise of your opponent. Here the UNFCCC doesn’t just accept the premise of climate contrarians and critics of decarbonisation. It actively endorses and promotes it…
6.If your worst critics present decarbonisation as a joyless creed that requires people to give up many of the things they regard as fun, then probably best not to rubber stamp that world view through official UN channels.
7.If the most nonsensical and offensive ‘joke’ thrown at those who are worried about climate change by alt-right internet warriors is ‘if you care so much about carbon dioxide why don’t you stop breathing’, then you don’t really want the global secretariat charged with promoting climate action repeating the line as if it is actually funny…
9.Seriously though, don’t mock those people who are actually willing to give up cars, flights, and steaks in a bid to cut their emissions…
11.Oh, and that steak. It looks terrible. And who eats steak on its own? It is beyond the abilities of the UN’s chosen actor to look genuinely happy at the prospect, and understandably so…READ ON
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/blog-post/3061836/20-reasons-the-uns-carbon-offset-video-was-a-terrible-idea
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31 Aug: ClimateChangeNews: Heavyweight help needed at the Green Climate Fund
Comment: The UN fund has struggled with governance and urgently needs to raise new money, here are two ideas that could help it recover
By Niranjali Manel Amerasinghe and Joe Thwaites
Replenishment is around the corner. When contributing countries made the first set of financial pledges to the GCF, the fund’s Board agreed that replenishment would be triggered when 60% of that money is allocated. Based on the current status of pledges, reaching roughly $5bn in allocations would trigger replenishment. GCF allocations are getting close to this trigger. It is imperative that the Board come to some agreement on how to launch the replenishment process, and soon…
More inclusive replenishment process
The role of the board in the replenishment process is one of the key issues that held up discussion. The concern is largely rooted in dissatisfaction with the “initial resource mobilization” or “IRM” (the wonky term for the first round of financial pledges in 2014). Developing countries would like a more inclusive process than last time, particularly when negotiating policies that accompany the financial pledges…ETC
Bringing In Outside Help
The best way to make the replenishment process more inclusive is to bring in a high-level external facilitator. Note that this role is separate from that of a new executive director, which the GCF is also in the process of recruiting. The executive director cannot do it; it needs to be someone independent with no personal stake in the process…
The role should be analogous to that of a Cop presidency, allowing the facilitator to actively help shape substantive discussions and try to find the right diplomatic equilibrium…
They would need to be a sufficiently high-level diplomat, with expertise in the world of international climate policy and finance, who has earned the trust and respect of both developing and developed countries…
Past heads of the UNFCCC secretariat, or former ministers or ambassadors might be good candidates…ETC
(This article was originally posted on the World Resources Institute blog)
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/08/31/heavyweight-help-needed-green-climate-fund/
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what a joke:
30 Aug: AP: How Macron won Trump’s friendship, failed to influence him
By SYLVIE CORBET; AP White House reporter Zeke Miller contributed to this story.
For over a year, French President Emmanuel Macron has cajoled his counterpart Donald Trump, convinced he could make him change his thinking on climate change, the Iran nuclear deal and world trade. But the 40-year-old leader acknowledged this week it didn’t work, and instead said he was focusing his efforts on European partners.
“The partner with whom Europe had built the order of post-war multilateralism seems to turn his back on this common history,” Macron said Monday in an annual speech to French diplomats.
For the first time since his election in May 2017, Macron appeared about to give up hope about influencing the 72-year-old U.S. president — what his aides often called “a work of conviction.”…
Macron listed on Monday the American policies on which he tried, in vain, to persuade Trump to change, listing his “doubts on NATO, aggressive and unilateral trade… the withdrawal from the Paris (climate) agreement, the exit from the Iranian nuclear deal.”…
Francois Heisbourg, a former French government adviser and chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, noted an “obvious change in tone” from the French president. He said that Macron had acknowledged that “since friendship doesn’t seem to be a language that works, he will do differently.”…
Yet the French leader remains a man of dialogue, Heisbourg stressed, comparing him to a “horse whisperer,” for his at least earlier ability to rouse smiles in Trump.
In Macron’s mind, Trump has joined more wild horses like Russian and Turkish counterparts Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Heisbourg said…
Macron wants Europe to lead the way toward more multilateralism, as opposed to isolationism, to address the worlds’ challenges like migration, climate change, digital transformation and inequalities.
“The real question is not so much to know if I will take Donald Trump by the arm during the next summit but how we will collectively get to grips with this moment of great transformation we are going through,” he said Monday
https://apnews.com/9be34c7c24ea4943892da3391ce487c7
30 Aug: Montel News: French energy transition is a “facade” – expert
by Leila Fernández Thévoz, London
Nicolas Hulot’s shock resignation is proof that the French government’s so-called energy transition is a “facade”, independent nuclear expert Yves Marignac told Montel.
“The system requires a deep transformation, away from nuclear and towards renewables. We are witnessing the failure of this long-term vision,” he said.
“The change in gear didn’t happen,” Paris-based Marignac added, saying he had “serious fears” about France’s energy outlook…
Hulot failed as energy minister to convince the French executive, demonstrating that the government was more concerned about the “short-term consequences of its actions on the markets” than bringing about long-term change…
In off the record comments made to French daily Liberation last August but published this week, the minister said he feared that if the PPE did not name the reactors that would need to be closed in order for France to meet its target to cut nuclear use to 50% then this would be “crossing a red line”.
But EDF had battled against Hulot, refusing to name reactors slated for closure, and instead campaigning to build new ones…
“Nicolas Hulot was a man who, above all, tried to convince. There will now be a return to power relationships,” Marignac said. “It’s an end to the Macron government’s promise of a new world.”
Yet according to prime minister Edouard Philippe the French energy transition is still very much on track.
“We will choose to go as far as possible as quickly as possible. This doesn’t prevent us from doing it methodically, without naivety but with unwavering determination,” he said…
https://www.montelnews.com/en/story/french-energy-transition-is-a-facade—expert/930236
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Lowering electricity cost while still using wind and solar as a source of electricity is a contradiction that cannot be accomplished. That “they” think they can have a contradiction is the reason they thought it was a good idea from the get go.
It is rather like their thinking they can have their cake and eat it too as long as they can take and eat everyone else’s cake too. All they have to do is pretend it is all their cake they are eating and convince you that the pretense is an actuality.
The bottom line is that you can’t vote better people into government until you have better ideas in the people. We are getting closer but are not quite there yet even in the US.
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30 Aug: CBC: Premier Rachel Notley pulls Alberta out of federal climate plan over Trans Mountain ruling
‘Albertans are angry, I am angry,’ premier says of Thursday’s federal court ruling
In a dramatic announcement Thursday evening, Premier Rachel Notley said she is pulling Alberta out of the national climate-change plan to protest a federal court ruling that quashed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
The ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal poses a threat to Canadian sovereignty and economic security and leaves the country hostage to the whims of the White House and U.S. President Donald Trump, Notley said.
“Albertans are angry, I am angry,” Notley said in reaction to the ruling that stalled a project her government has spent major political capital to advance. “Alberta has done everything right, and we’ve been let down.”…
The premier called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to immediately appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court and recall Parliament for an emergency session.
Notley blamed both the current federal government and the previous one for creating a situation she said has made it “practically impossible” to build a pipeline to tidewater in a country with more coastline than any other on Earth.
“Now, more than ever, we need to come together and prove to ourselves and to the world that our country works,” Notley said. “This ruling is bad for working families. And it is bad for the economic security of our country.”
Canada can’t accept that the only market for its oil and gas resources is in the United States, Notley said.
“No other country on Earth would accept this, and Canada shouldn’t either, especially when we are doing it to ourselves. It is ridiculous…
“Money that should be going to Canadian schools and hospitals is going to American yachts and private jets. We’re exporting jobs, we’re exporting opportunity, and we are letting other countries control our economic destiny. We can’t stand for it.”
She said Alberta will not sign on to the national climate-change plan “until the federal government gets its act together.”
“And let’s be clear,” she said, “without Alberta that plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”
Notley said she spoke to Trudeau on Thursday. The prime minister assured her that his government remains committed to building the pipeline…
The premier said the decision reached Thursday has no impact on Alberta’s own climate-change plan, or on the carbon tax her government introduced on Jan. 1, 2017, and raised a year later. But her declaration that Alberta plans to pull out of the federal climate change plan leaves proposed future carbon tax increases in doubt…
But Canada can’t transition to a lower-carbon economy, Notley said, until it creates the jobs and raises the tax money needed to do so by selling its natural resources at fair market value.
The $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion would double the capacity of a pipeline that transports Alberta petroleum products to the West Coast…
Earlier Thursday, Jason Kenney characterized the court ruling as a win for other oil-producing nations, and urged the Notley government to immediately repeal its carbon tax…
Speaking in Calgary at about 1 p.m., the leader of the Official Opposition United Conservative Party said the court decision proves Notley’s NDP government has been headed in the wrong direction by continually arguing that carbon tax would win the social licence needed to build such projects.
“She has been wrong on this from Day 1,” Kenney said. “She drank the proverbial Kool-Aid, believing that a punishing carbon tax would get the environmental radicals to down tools.
“We’ve been paying that carbon tax now for a couple of years. It’s made the cost of everything higher, but it’s done nothing to get us the so-called social licence.”…
Kenney called the court decision a sad day for Canada.
“Today is a win for the OPEC dictatorships,” he said. “It’s a win for Donald Trump. He gets to continue to buy Canadian oil at a steep discount, while reselling American oil to the rest of the world at a much higher price.”…
He called on the federal government to immediately appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada and to immediately pursue whatever additional consultations the Federal Court of Appeal is demanding…
“I’m not a lawyer but I am very frustrated with the decision and, as a general comment, I think the judiciary needs to understand that these are not academic questions,” Kenney said. “That decisions like this have massive impacts on people’s lives, on ordinary people’s livelihoods.
“People are going to lose their jobs. Businesses are going to go down. First Nations will lose the opportunity to generate wealth for their people as a result of today’s decision.
“Do they even care about that when they balance out competing interests in these decisions? I don’t know. But I certainly hope the Supreme Court of Canada will have an opportunity to review this and, I hope, restore some balance to this decision.”…
Notley said in July that Alberta would likely end up owning a piece of the pipeline. In May, she said her government would make up to $2 billion available, if necessary, to keep the project going.
Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel called Thursday’s ruling “a very sad day for Alberta” and for the future of Canada.
“As a result of this government’s continued naivety, Albertans are now left with higher taxes and nothing to show for it besides a pile of cancelled permits and a nearly 70-year-old pipeline,” Mandel said in a statement.
“Time and time again Rachel Notley stood in front of Albertans with shovels in hand, promising that Trans Mountain pipeline would go ahead without fail. Rachel Notley owes all Albertans an apology and answers on the hopes and monies which have been committed to this project.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-jason-kenney-political-reaction-rachel-notley-kinder-morgan-pipeline-1.4805224
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30 Aug: CBC: Alberta pulling out of federal climate change plan until pipeline construction resumes
Plan ‘isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,’ without her province, premier says
by John Paul Tasker, Kathleen Harris
“As important as climate action is to our province’s future I have also always said that taking the next step, in signing on to the federal climate plan, can’t happen without the Trans Mountain pipeline,” Notley told reporters in a live address Thursday evening.
“So today I am announcing that with the Trans Mountain halted, and the work on it halted, until the federal government gets its act together; Alberta is pulling out of the federal climate plan,” she added.
“And let’s be clear, without Alberta that plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”…
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier on Twitter that he had spoken with Notley and assured her his government would continue to back the project.
Now, the Liberal government is the owner of a proposed pipeline project that could be subject to years of further review.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the federal government is carefully reviewing the decision but is determined to proceed with the project, that, he said, is in the best national interest and “critically important” for the economy.
“We are absolutely committed to moving ahead with this project,” he said at a news conference in Toronto. “What the decision today asked us to do is to respond promptly; gave us some direction on how we can do that in a way that is going to be efficient from a time standpoint. So we will be considering our next steps in light of that.”…
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called today’s ruling “devastating” news for Canadian workers and taxpayers and a “complete indictment” of the Trudeau government’s efforts to get the project off the ground…
“Today’s development is further eroding the confidence in this Liberal government’s ability to get big projects built,” he said. “They either kill or cancel the projects based on ideology, or they mismanage and bungle them to the point where they’re in a very precarious position.”…
Just three days ago, the Trans Mountain Twitter account posted pictures of workers beginning construction of the pipeline expansion…
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trans-mountain-federal-court-appeals-1.4804495
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30 Aug: Financial Times: Nord Stream 2 construction begins in German waters despite threats
Russian gas pipeline has been condemned by EU while US has warned of sanctions
by Henry Foy in Moscow and Tobias Buck in Berlin
Construction work for Nord Stream 2, the planned Russian gas pipeline to Europe, has started in German coastal waters, despite the threat of sanctions from US president Donald Trump and condemnation from across the EU.
The contentious pipeline, which will double Russian gas imports to Germany across the Baltic Sea and reduce shipments through Ukraine, has heightened geopolitical tensions between Europe, the US and Russia, souring relations between Berlin and Washington and highlighting the EU’s fractured stance towards Moscow.
Owned by Kremlin-controlled Gazprom, the project is supported by German chancellor Angela Merkel’s government but opposed by a large group of EU states…
A spokesman for Nord Stream 2 described the construction in German waters as “preparatory”, but confirmed that the current activities included the building of a connection from the landfall site in Lubmin to the offshore pipeline in deeper waters.
At the same time, work was continuing on an underwater trench that would encase the pipeline as it ran through shallow waters close to the landfall installation.
“Preparatory works are ongoing in the four countries in which Nord Stream 2 has permits,” the spokesman said. “The pipelay activities in deep waters of the Baltic Sea will be started within a few weeks.”
News of construction in German waters will renew criticism of Ms Merkel’s support for the pipeline from countries such as Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic nations, which have sought to block the project.
Germany, Finland, Sweden and Russia have given the necessary approvals for the 1,200km pipeline to pass through their waters but Denmark’s agreement is still pending…
Nord Stream 2 filed an application to the Danish government this month seeking approval for a new pipeline route that avoids the country’s territorial waters. The new route would lie at a greater distance to the Danish coast, in the country’s “exclusive economic zone”, where the government’s ability to veto the project would be sharply reduced.
Nord Stream 2, which will run alongside the operational Nord Stream 1, will give the two pipelines a combined capacity of 110bn cubic metres of gas per year.
***Mr Miller said on Thursday that gas exports to Europe so far in 2018 were 5.6 per cent above last year’s record levels.
The Kremlin asserts that any sanctions against the project would breach international law. In a concession to Ms Merkel, Moscow has recently made assurances that gas shipments through Ukraine will continue after the pipeline is operational…
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, this week condemned Mr Trump’s suggestion that the pipeline sought to divide Europe, and retorted that the US president only wanted to stop the project to promote sales of American liquefied natural gas.
“Nord Stream 2 is exclusively commercial in nature,” Mr Lavrov told Slovak newspaper Pravda. “It is up to Europeans to decide which [supply] option they like better.”
http://archive.fo/Vcucj#selection-1825.0-1829.0
31 Aug: Reuters: Nord Stream 2 pipeline on track despite sanction risk, operator says
by Olesya Astakhova, Vera Eckert
Nord Stream 2 AG, which will double the existing Nord Stream 1 capacity from a current 55 billion cubic metres of gas a year, is owned by Gazprom, which is taking on half the planned costs of some 9.5 billion euros (8.52 billion pounds).
The rest is divided between five European energy companies – Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall, Anglo Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, France’s Engie and Austria’s OMV.
By the end of June 4.8 billion euros had already been invested in the 1,200-km long project, and pipelaying in the Baltic Sea started in July…
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And just when natural gas is cheap and plentiful from our own internal U.S. sources we want to sell it for political reasons?
Is politics wonderful or is it sinister? I wish I knew.
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comment in moderation re: Financial Times: Nord Stream 2 construction begins in German waters despite threats
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People were quicker to grasp the implications of the Ribbentropp-Molotov pact. This latest pact taxing the mindless dupes of looter mixed economies to the benefit of totalitarian dictatorships has, despite its obviousness, held traction for a long time.
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CHECK THE MIRROR TO SEE THE REAL DANGER IN SAMOA
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/check-the-mirror-to-see-the-real-danger-in-samoa/news-story/9d0bc79a909c01dba9eb99d7744315a5
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