BP lost $1b in wind power and just flipped from cutting oil by 40% to increasing it

BP logo, sign. Fuel. Petrol.By Jo Nova

There’s no hiding that this is a major backflip

History books will be written about corporate mistakes.

Twenty years ago BP called itself “Beyond Petroleum” and by 2020 the company was hellbent on getting there. They pledged to reduce their own oil production by 40% by 2030, and promised to pivot into renewable power. The media was thrilled —  “BP Shuns Fossil Fuels“, said Politico, and shines a light on “stranded oil and gas”.  Only two years ago BP talked of  “accelerating” it’s green investments. Then the price of oil and gas exploded and problems with unreliable energy started breeding.

Now BP is writing off a billion dollars in offshore wind investment, and the new CEO is calling for “pragmatism”.  The company has flipped from cutting oil production 40% by 2030 to increasing it instead.

The new chief, Murray Achincloss said they still want to be “an integrated energy company” (presumably so it looks less like a full-reverse and more like a “tweak”), but he betrayed himself when he said: “we see growing demand for energy right now across the globe”. “It is not slowing down.” When he says energy, he means oil and gas.

By Stanley Reed, New York Times

BP has a plan to become what Mr. Auchincloss called an integrated energy company. But in the meantime, “we see growing demand for energy right now across the globe,” he said. “It is not slowing down.”

He just wants to make oil and gas cheaper for us, really…

BP is “going to invest in today’s energy system, to help make sure that prices don’t get out of control,” Mr. Auchincloss said. “So that’s investing into oil and gas,” he added, while also putting money into alternative energy sources like biofuels and hydrogen.

But all those promises to cut oil production by 40% are gone with the wind:

…the company’s mainstay oil and gas production rose 2.6 percent last year. Supplies of liquefied natural gas — a chilled, compressed fuel transported by ships — rose by more than 20 percent.

Mr. Auchincloss said that oil output would continue to rise 2 percent to 3 percent a year through 2027 because of production increases in Abu Dhabi, Angola, the United States and elsewhere.

Chasing green rainbows has been an expensive mistake:

BP backs away from US offshore windpower

By Benjamin Storrow, E&E News

Call it a $1 billion mistake.

BP said Tuesday it wrote down the value of its U.S. offshore wind business by $1.1 billion last year, cementing a strategic shift for the British petroleum giant as it increases oil and gas production while recalibrating its efforts to generate clean electricity from ocean turbines.

It’s partnership with Equinor, meanwhile, increasingly looked like an albatross, with one company executive calling the U.S. offshore wind market “fundamentally broken.

BP’s shares have flatlined, while Exxons have grown 40%

Auchincloss can no doubt be only too aware of BP’s lagging share price relative to its rivals in recent years, which many blame on the company’s green agenda. BP’s shares are trading broadly in line with pre-pandemic levels, but by contrast ExxonMobil’s share price has surged by about 40% over the period. – –       BP’s green agenda all at sea, Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian.

Finally shareholders demand profits and sensible plans

One shareholder of BP turned activist last October and wrote an extraordinary letter to the company to pressure it to drop the “irrational” net zero target and even to sack a board member with links to BlackRock.

Bluebell Capital is a hedge fund in London and it had some remarkable requests:

BP attacked by investor over ‘irrational’ switch to clean energy

Matt Oliver, The Telegraph

In a 30-page letter, Bluebell called on BP to scrap its commitment to scale back its oil and gas business by a quarter this decade, halt investment in renewable energy schemes and rewrite its net zero targets to clarify they will be achieved “in line with society”.

Bluebell argued that the targets will artificially constrain BP and leave it at a disadvantage compared to rivals such as Shell and ExxonMobil…

The activist is also demanding that BP returns an extra $16bn (£12.6bn) to shareholders this decade, and urged the oil giant to sack a board director with links to fund giant Blackrock, which it branded “a world champion of ESG inconsistency and hypocrisy”.

As Bluebell so aptly remarked:

“And in the short term, don’t cut your own production, because you are just doing a favour to the other [oil] companies.”

Bluebell Capital appear to have invested in BP because it was “undervalued” and were betting on a plan that the company could be turned around. They argued that BP would have been worth 50% more on the sharemarket but for this “ill conceived strategy” and scathingly pointed out that BP should keep out of renewable projects where it has little specialist expertise.

In the long run the CEO doesn’t see windmills, he see gas and more gas

It’s surely no coincidence that the new CEO made this statement just a month ago:

AI will trigger global surge in gas demand, says BP boss

Johnathon Leake, The Telegraph

Boom in tools such as ChatGPT means data centres require more power

Mr Auchincloss said: “Gas production will probably go a little bit lower this decade and then will grow significantly as we move into the following decades… Generative AI is something that’s creating an even higher level of demand for electricity.”

The amount of energy consumed by the 8,000 data centres globally is predicted to soar by 73pc to 800 terawatt hours (TWh) by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency.

By comparison, the UK consumes 321 terawatt hours of electricity a year.

According to research by data experts Digiconomist, in order to move its entire search engine operations to AI, Google would need as much electricity to power a country the size of Ireland.

Right now BP is acting as though it has swung right back to being an oil company, but it’s still saying the recent set backs are just a delay. But any company doing a complete reversal would say that, wouldn’t they?

A year ago  we saw a dramatic shift in language across the company –– talking about their disappointment with renewables, and their shift back to oil and gas.  So they were already starting the backflip then, perhaps the Bluebell plan was to wait for the right moment to tighten the screws?

Photo by Keith Edkins |

 

10 out of 10 based on 103 ratings

83 comments to BP lost $1b in wind power and just flipped from cutting oil by 40% to increasing it

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    Why else they are named BPBritish Petrol(eum)

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    mmxx

    At long last, some sense of reality seems to be returning to the global energy supply and demand solution. I wait in hope for a similar swing to rationality to eradicate the wokeism disease that is afflicting western society.

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      mmxx
      “I wait in hope for a similar swing to rationality to eradicate the wokeism disease that is afflicting western society.”

      Agreed – but I’ll not hold my breath.
      The long march has got into many institutions – and a cure, if found, is not likely to be overnight.

      Auto

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    Old Goat

    It seems the tide is turning . The hedge funds will be the last to move , but even they cannot deny reality forever . It will be interesting to see how many of our turbine projects get off the ground with finance drying up . Interesting times ahead for the super funds . Slowly , then all of a sudden…

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  • #
    Penguinite

    BOBowen better wake up and quick! Thank goodness for the farmers/objectors who are frustrating the imposition of solar/wind on their land. It won’t be long before all these Chinese-made windmills and solar panels start to degrade and cause mayhem!

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    • #
      TdeF

      Albanese and his merry band are quite appalling.

      The lifespan of windmills is 18 years, if they last that long. Solar farms too. They are not an investment at all. An axe is an investment, like a coal power plant it can last forever. Not replaceables.

      Yes, Bowen is National and International laughing stock. To thank the traditional owners of Dubai/UAE was beyond funny on the international stage.

      But the Safeguard Mechanism Act 2023 is no laughing matter. It is crippling Australia.

      Penny Wong who cannot wait to give tens of millions to Hamas/UNRWA and would not even visit the site of the slaughter of the innocents.

      Kate Gallagher who as finance minister was documented as fully involved in the fraudulent Higgins affair, although denying it vociferously in parliament.

      And with Attorney General Mark Dreyfus who approved the absurd compensation to Higgins because that was his job, to sign things.

      Albanese himself, leading the weakest government in Australian history, thanks to the windmill besotted Teals who also abstained on supporting Israel.

      I don’t think there has ever been such a scheming but utterly incompetent bunch in Australian Federal politics. But the damage they are doing is incalculable.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Well, with Turnbull and Morrison before them I suppose they thought that downhill had momentum and was the way-to-go.

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        John in Oz

        Unfortunately for us Labor merely believes that by doubling down they can achieve their green dreams, regardless of reality.

        Not enough power due to night-time of low wind, that’s because we do not have enough of them. Illogic at its finest

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          TdeF

          I don’t think Labor people care. It’s about political power, nothing less. Windmills are just another game, part of posturing about the public interest when they could not care less. You can laugh at Bowen, but he has the job and that tells you how much they care.

          Green is make believe, a path to power, an exploitable mad religion. Adam Bandt is no green, but a trained communist who did his PhD on communism on Melbourne’s wharves and found the Greens his successful path to power. As he said to me before he discovered his Green future, “We tell them what they want to hear and when we get power, we do what we like”

          The world Socialist/Communist Chinese movement today is not about jobs or manufacturing but all about killing agriculture, shutting down democracies, foisting massive unskilled immigration on successful democracies and destruction of the very thing which has made European based countries the most important in modern history, cheap reliable power. And creating totally unmanageable debt, as with Victoria which now has more debt under one Chinese favorite Premier than the other two biggest states combined. And nothing is finished or working or in fact necessary. Our very fast train to Geelong is still slower than it was in 1950. The bus is faster, despite the traffic.

          The distance between Spencer Street and Geelong is 64 km in 1 hour 3 minutes. That’s an amazing 62km/hr for our signature very fast train. I have no idea how many billions have been spent. This improvement has been going on since the 1950s because in 1954, the train took 54-57 minutes.

          And calling Albanese a ‘pretty boy’ is as insulting as likening President Xi to Winnie the Pooh. Our leaders are not held in high esteem in China while we do their bidding and buy their windmills and supply their coal, minus the odd embargo on wine and cheese and more.

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  • #
    Penguinite

    [Off topic]AD

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  • #
    TdeF

    “we see growing demand for energy right now across the globe”. “It is not slowing down.” When he says energy, he means oil and gas.

    He means what BP has always sold. Portable, storable, zero loss, on demand, controllable, scalable energy. Everything replaceables are not.

    And coal, of course. Fracking. Shale. Peat. The lot.

    One of the ways the anti fossil fuel lobby worked was to divide and conquer, gas, petrol, coal. Coal was the low hanging fruit as it was labour intensive. Even Margaret Thatcher supported Nuclear and was amenable to man made Global Warming simply because of the enormous disruptive and political power of the coal unions. But as a B.Sc(Hons) in Chemistry, she knew better and eventually said so.

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    CO2 Lover

    Now BP is writing off a billion dollars in offshore wind investment,

    This is chicken feed compared to how much Ford and GM are writing off on their EV “investments”.

    The cost of producing electricity offshore is at least twice that of onshore wind and up to four times higher for floating wind turbines.

    Not much of a business case here.

    What we are witnessing is “Hitting the Green Wall”.

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      wal1957

      Ah yes… does anybody else remember certain politicians and some in the media spruiking that wind and solar is “free”?

      Therefore using the logic of those imbeciles, if the cost is double or even quadrupled it is still zero cost!

      Absolute madness!

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      • #
        Ronin

        A sailboat is propelled along (when the wind is blowing) for free, too bad the mainsail cost $8000.

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        • #
          Dennis

          I often point out that if wind was really free and reliable commercial shipping fleets would still be sailing ships.

          And that sailing ships were replaced by steam powered ships, steam power also drives electricity generators in power stations, coal heated boilers or nuclear energy heated.

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          • #
            ozfred

            Michelin estimates fuel savings could be as high as 20%.
            https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/cargo-ships-sails-michelin-spc-intl/index.html

            of course it really all depends on how much the capital and maintenance costs of the sails will be….

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            • #
              Dennis

              Cost of “wings” of course would be a major consideration, and repairs/maintenance expenses.

              It reminds me of all the solar projects years ago that were going to reduce operating costs, and the solar powered experimental catamaran built in Germany that was planning to electric motor around the world and soon the crew discovered overnight and overcast days of minimal or zero solar, that best result when sun overhead and usually between 10 am and 2 pm. Also the lack of power to deal with headwinds and rough seas.

              The trip was abandoned I recall in Hawaii.

              And no more exciting stories since.

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              Lawrie

              It was reported those wind powered ships could be on the water by 2022. I haven’t seen or heard about them yet. There are two types of idiots in this world; those who dream up nonsensical ideas and those who report them as facts. On Friday I heard some “scientists” were contemplating a giant parasol to shade the earth and to keep it cool. Obviously they think the sun plays some part in warming the earth which is a good sign. They obviously don’t know that clouds help keep it cool now, for nothing.

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  • #
    CO2 Lover

    Money talks

    How have ESG funds performed in 2023?

    In 2023, ESG funds were dragged down by too much exposure to clean tech and not enough to big tech. The Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF —a green-power benchmark—finished 2023 down 20% against a gain of 26%, including dividends, for the S&P 500.

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  • #
    CO2 Lover

    Perhaps the whales will be saved after all!

    Siemens Energy, the world’s largest maker of offshore wind turbines, expects a 2024 loss before special items of around 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) at Siemens Gamesa. The wind division has had to deal with the cost of addressing quality problems affecting some onshore models.

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  • #
    Neville

    I can’t think why it has taken them this many years to WAKE UP?
    But just this morning their idiot ABC were yapping about a VIC Greens loony demanding that the Labor govt stop all Gas projects in VIC, because Gas was unsafe and a threat to the states’ future.
    Gas unsafe, are these loonies completely BARKING MAD?

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    • #
      Ross

      Neville, it gets worse. While driving around yesterday I caught a news session on FM radio. There was a story with a Swinburne University (Melbourne) professor or equivalent discussing the possibility of mankind constructing a shade in space to help block out the sun. Said this was important due to the earth warming etc. This bloke was deadly serious and probably getting some grant money to research the stupid idea. He admitted this would be huge undertaking but that the work is justified. Unbelievable.

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      • #
        Mike

        ‘Shade in space’….you think that’s nuts? Well I also recently heard via radio that ‘scientists’ at JCU university Nth Qld were investigating the concept of protecting the Great Barrier Reef from the effects of the sun aka ‘sunburn’ by aerial dispersal of some form of ‘sunscreen’! Who are these unelected supposed mad custodians of the anthropogenic climate controls, who believe they can tamper/tweak with the equilibrium provided by natural weather & climate controls? Sorry they are not GODS!

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      Ronin

      It’s only unsafe if you stick your head in the oven.

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    Rusty of Qld

    The whole chook house is coming home to roost. Greta who??

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    Ronin

    BP has had some extraordinary bad luck in the past decade or so, most bad luck is a result of bad decisions from up top.

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    • #

      Ronin, It goes back further. In the 1970’s BP (and also Shell) went into coal mining. They had no idea of the technology, and how to handle the unions. They had lots of capital and let the unions dictate manning, bonuses, and transport. One would have thought that they would learnt about the coal unions in UK who Margret Thatcher took on. BP and Shell lost hundreds of millions if not billions in Australia. I think Esso did not invest in coal in Australia but they lost lots in coal mining in Venezula (or was it Columbia?). However, BP did have some success with coal in Kalimatan Indonesia where there are no unions and they could use Australian engineers and geologists.

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  • #

    Almost on topic.

    The thing about renewables and politics is something that makes me so furious.

    Politicians are supposed to ‘find out the facts’ about something as vitally important as this is supposed to be. They have advisors to tell them all this.

    On my recent trip to Canberra, I had a ‘sit down’ with Senator Matt Canavan in his rooms for almost an hour, and I presented him with some of the facts, mainly about wind power, and showed him two graphs illustrating the renewables ‘actuality’ of NOT delivering. Not only did he agree with me, but in fact, he actually ‘knew’ what I was talking about, and understood those graphs.

    Now, my point in mentioning that was ….. here was a politician who actually did know the facts.

    It should be the case where they ….. ALL ….. know these facts. It should be incumbent upon them all to seek out the truth, and for advisors to TELL them the facts, and not for those advisors to tell them just what they want to hear.

    As an example, just in this last week finished on Sunday.

    There were only two weeks in the last year (2023) when wind generation was lower than it was for the whole week of this last week. This is not just a single point in time, but for a whole week.

    Here we have 84 Industrial wind plants with a (pretty huge really) Nameplate of 11,409MW. For the whole of the week, they only delivered 435GWH of generated energy to the AEMO grid. That’s at an average of just 2589MW, and only operating at a Capacity Factor of 22.7%.

    For the sake of comparison. During this same week, the Bayswater coal fired power plant delivered 357GWH of power. That’s 82% of the whole total delivered by ALL wind generation. That Bayswater coal fired plant is (supposedly) a relic from the past, now superseded by four levels of technology, a plant which first started delivering power FORTY YEARS ago, a dinosaur from a past era we are told. Bayswater has four Units to generate its power. Those four Units with a Nameplate of 2640MW delivered 82% of the total power generated by EIGHTY FOUR industrial wind plants (with around 3,500 or more individual turbines) with a Nameplate of 11,409MW, and that’s 4.32 TIMES the Nameplate of Bayswater. How much money was spent to construct ….. 84 wind plants, (‘ballpark’ around $32.6 Billion, based upon the $1.2 Billion cost of the 420MW Macarthur wind plant) and all it could deliver for the last seven days was marginally higher than from ONE ancient coal fired power plant.

    That little fact would NEVER have made it into the news.

    That little fact is something the public (or those politicians) will NEVER be told.

    Until these truths come out, everyone will just blithely believe that renewables CAN do the job (we are told) that they are supposed to do, deliver reliable and constant energy to the grid for consumers to use, and to replace coal fired power, just three things that they PATENTLY CANNOT do.

    Articles here like the one Joanne mentions above are the slow ‘drip feed’ that will eventually get out. Oh, and why is it that we only read about things like this here at Joanne’s site?

    Tony.

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      wal1957

      Love your work Tony.
      And it goes without saying I love and am very appreciative of all the work put in by Jo.

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      Neville

      Thanks again Tony for your research over the years and Matt Canavan is certainly right up with the latest energy data.
      But could you answer a few questions?
      What is the REAL capacity factor for W & S across Australia? I think wind could be 30% and solar about 23%, but am I in the ballpark?
      Is Bolt correct when he stated last week that W & S have to be increased 9 fold before they’ve finished? I presume a lot of extra wind will be installed offshore as well?
      And how much back up by batteries will be required and wouldn’t the cost be in the trillions of $?
      To finish, what is the REAL life span of the batteries and wind and solar? I’d guess the batteries would be 10 years max and W & S 15 to 20 years? But wind in the sea would have a shorter life.
      Just give us a short answer to the above Tony, thanks again.

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      Neville

      Tony why is the so called King island hybrid generator results so bloody awful most of the time?
      I’ve checked their dashboard day and night over the years and the Diesel always seems to be carrying the load.
      And this is supposed to be in the roaring 40s, but most of the time it is very disappointing.

      https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island

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        ozfred

        over on one of the pro-renewable sites this is one of the answers I got when questioning the Bass Strait installations in response to “good results” at Lord Howe Island.
        Bass Strait installations were (are) older, hence not as efficient as what they did on LHI, lead acid batteries are not in the same league. One of the wind turbines on King Island is only 90kW, privately owned, installed in 1992 (if my memory still works)!

        The aim when the installations was done was 50% reduction in diesel fuel (KI had an upgrade aiming at 65%! Flinders Island was aimed at 60%)!

        I don’t think the goals were achieved

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        PeterPetrum

        That dashboard has shown 60% for diesel for the last four months, to my knowledge. No matter what the wind is in the Bass Straight it never seems to change. I doubt that is actually live. I think it is a sham

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          Yarpos

          I dont think its refreshing in you browser. Today its 36% and all the components of the system were inputting at 5pm

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          • #
            PeterPetrum

            You may be correct. I am looking it on my iPad and I can refresh it but it makes no difference. However the AEMO site always refreshes correctly.

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      CO2 Lover

      Back in my younger days I was part of the design team for the Bayswater Power Station

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      TdeF

      Tony, well said. I am impressed that you spent an hour with Matt Canavan, the most informed of the opponents of this lunacy. Wind power and solar power are the complete opposite of what is needed. Unreliables. Replaceables. Extremely land hungry and requiring vast areas which in turn require vast new distribution networks we never needed before. The ecological impact of replaceables is appalling! And it’s part of a large assualt on Western democracies by China and friends, the same ones who cut us off at the knees when we asked for an inquiry into the origins of the Wuhan Flu.

      My particular knowledge extends to radio carbon dating, the simple way to measure if the basic premise of this whole mess, that ’emissions’ accumulated in the air is completely wrong. And it is the ONLY reason we are building windmills and solar farms and taxing all our ‘big polluters’ aka farmers, miners, transport(car, truck, tractor, ships, aircraft), metal refiners, concrete manufacturers, brick manufacturers, fabrication engineers, glass makers and even sewage systems to death. Every group except public servants in Canberra who are metastasising.

      There is no truth at all in CO2 ’emissions’ causing any sort of problem let alone building up in the air. But this is now enshined in so many laws and so many tens of thousands of public servants are administering these laws, it is becoming embedded in our society. And in turn big companies like BHP, Alinta, Bluescope, Qantas, Coles-Myer, Woolwoths and countless more have no choice but to comply with nonsense laws and non existent science.

      I spoke to John Howard about his law which means coal power is penalised to pay windmills and he ducked the question. This was the Renwable Energy(Electricity) 2001 law and subsequent amendments which means that wind power is paid even if it is not sold where coal power is the power of last resort and if you buy it, the cash also goes to the windmills people, doubling the cost of electricity.

      So we have the crazy situation where coal power is admitted to be half the cost of replaceables power, but we are still forced to buy replaceables as the electricity distributors have to buy wind and solar or pay a huge premium to buy polluting coal power.

      But I have had no success explaining to politicians that we already have the world’s largest carbon tax. It was so successful at deceiving both the politicians and the public that it was copied in the UK. It’s a pack of lies.

      And I used to admire John Howard. But he ducked the question and said something about how he disagreed on the rates.

      Until we can start to repeal some of these many pieces of legislation and dismantle the Clean Energy Finance department and the rest, it is a self propagating lie which permeates Canberra, Washington, Whitehall and Brussells.

      There is no truth in any of it. Not just Capacity Factors and eco friendly, any of it. And it is now completely out of control.

      My great hope was Tony Abbott. And he was defenestrated by his own side, people who are now out of a job.

      They say the truth will out. But I have been waiting a long time now. As have you.

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    melbourne+resident

    Well those wanting to “just stop oil” never did explain what the alternative was for – lubricants, road making, plastics (oh we dont need those either!) and the production of bunker fuel for ships, diesel for bulldozers to make the roads for the wind tower construction, etc etc etc

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    Honk R Smith

    So, forty years of this kr@p, only to be told ‘never mind’.
    ‘Yes, we rifled your wallet, but it was for a good cause, you know for the children, but it didn’t work, so let’s just move forward’.
    And, you almost died in a ‘Pandemic’, so just be grateful.
    Look!
    Aliens!

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      Ross

      Yes Honk, I’m waiting for the next big ” thing” to pre-occupy the media. Maybe it’s the upcoming US election. I think the sting has gone out of Ukraine and now possibly Israel/ Gaza conflicts. There’s nothing happening here in Australia, except for our loony federal politicians putting us further into economical decline. The Alien thing hasn’t resonated much. Perhaps Tucker Carlson will light up the airwaves for a week- with one side thinking he’s some sort of Russian spy and his loyal followers knowing he’s actually providing good journalism.

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    John Connor II

    “A new paper published by Net Zero Watch shows that governments worldwide are starting to ditch decarbonisation policies, as they seek to avoid electoral wipeout. Author Ross Clark shows that the economic pain inflicted by Net Zero policies has now become acute, and that voters are starting to rebel against them:

    As you look across Europe, politicians who reject climate alarmism and Net Zero scaremongering are on the rise. The days of green radicalism, and other luxury beliefs, are on the wane. The political landscape will look very different by the end of 2024.
    Mr Clark shows that, in the face of voter unrest, targets are being watered down, delayed and discarded, as he catalogues examples from around the world. And he argues that this is the start of a long road back to rational policymaking”

    https://www.visionnews.online/post/retreat-from-net-zero-is-under-way

    Ahh…2024…what do you have in store for us…

    50

  • #
    John Hultquist

    The period 2023.5 through 2024.5 shall become the year of “The Great Pivot” or some such catchy phrase.
    Of course, we could all die before July 1st, and then we won’t care.

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    Even though the worst and wokest of governments such as Australia’s are fanatically committed to providing the subsidy harvesters with as many subsidies as they can harvest, there is still a limit to how much wealth can be sucked out of the wallets of ordinary working people.

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  • #
    Neville

    Here Dr Pielke jnr provides a lot of food for thought about some of the data over the last couple of years.

    “What the Media Won’t Tell You About” . . .

    Wildfires

    Hurricanes

    2023 Edition

    2022 Edition

    U.S. Heat Waves

    Drought in Western and Central Europe

    Floods

    Tornadoes “

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Present company excepted, most people, including Uniparty politicians, don’t understand that:

    1) The whole purpose of the anthropogenic global warming fraud is for the excuse of installing “renewables”.

    2) The whole purpose of “renewables” is to perform a huge transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich Elite owners of the wind and solar plantations, via government-enforced subsidies payable by the poor and transferred to the rich.

    And many of those subsidy harvesters are the Elites who fly their private jets into WEF Davos and climate crisis meetings.

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      TdeF

      I see my input as science.

      The fundamental fairy story is that the CO2 increase since 1750 is man made. And very slow growing CO2 (0.2% a year)(50% in 250 years) is very dangerous, an existential threat to humans. Anyone else would see that as almost zero change. You would have to redefine fast to make that scary. It’s not just the 36 years since man made Global Warming was announced in 1988 by Al Gore, but the fact that this rapid dangerous tipping point Armageddon has been happening for 250 years? Really?

      Even the word anthropogenic is made up to convey some sort of phoney authenticity to man made CO2! And the Holocene is not far behind, as if it is a really different time. It isn’t. Just another interglacial period.

      And by radio(active) carbon dating, you can show the fundamental statement of man made CO2 is wrong. The actual fossil fuel component by direct measurement is only 3.0%. It was almost the first thing checked with this new technology where CO2 was strangely radioactive with a relatively short half life (5740 years) isotope of Carbon, something which was prima facie impossible. And Dr Fergusson confirmed in 1958 published in the Royal Society when they did science and not politics, that the roughly 5 years half life for swapping out all the CO2, so there could be no build up.

      Fergusson 1958 Royal Society

      There are another 36 papers with roughly the same conclusion of 5-10 years to replace half to most of the CO2.
      And subtly, if the exchange is so vast and fast, how is it that CO2 stays almost perfectly constant year to year across the globe. That alone debunks the whole idea. There is no evidence of volcanoes, bushfires, lockdown, the explosive growth of China, the growth of trees as CO2 goes up (NASA 14% from 1988 to 2014 alone).

      And now we have the head of the gigantic and out of control UN with its 40,000 full time people and 40,000 contractors and volunteers, a giant alternative world government saying ‘the era of global warming is over. The era of global boiling has begun.’ This is an old socialist politician from South America, the land of reliable politicians and real democracy. He doesn’t even pretend to be a scientist. And the IPCC do not say that.

      My big disappointment is Bill Gates, a brilliant creator over 50 years of so much progress in the world of automation and now up to his neck in fake vaccines, fake food and even Jeffrey Epstein’s fake island of happiness, something like the island of bad boys in Pinnocchio where they turn into donkeys. He will go down in history like Henry Ford, a genius who changed the world but thought Hitler and the NAZIs were worth supporting and training in mass production.

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        Honk R Smith

        For me the disappointment is that humanity appears to insist on being ruled by ‘fairy stories’.
        I suppose for those of us that remember the 20th century well, there was that short magical era when we thought we had evolved beyond superstition.

        I just uncomfortably learned that Robespierre ran the ‘Committee of Public Safety’.
        At least 17,000 people lost their heads for ‘public safety’.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Public_Safety

        I wonder how many have died for ‘public health’?
        Of course, meteorology is no longer a matter of science but of ‘public health’.

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    Dennis

    I have retired from manufacturing industry in Australia, reporting to a public company board of directors for half of my final twenty five years at my last place of employment as managing director, and when I read stories about what I believe are examples of woke stupidity behind business decisions I wonder how shareholders can have confidence in companies they choose to risk their money buying shares.

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      DOC

      Dennis, imo the hype that there’s huge profits to be made by those investing early has always attracted the punters. The wise await the high share prices, sell early and run. The laggard managers and shareholders stay put for more and lose. Isn’t that the tulip lesson? Unfortunately, with Bowen as THE MAN, that’s exactly where Australia seems to be headed as even the Europeans
      run.

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    Neville

    Here’s a very recent talk by Mark Mills and he says there will be no energy transition from fossil fuels to the TOXIC W & S lunacy or EVs. In fact it’s an impossibility and he actually tells you why “charging up your EV” will require at least 10 times the size of a normal filling station.
    If you can’t watch for 41 minutes just watch the last 20 minutes of his talk about charging a typical EV and the sheer size of the service stn business required.
    I’m sure some of his DATA will blow your mind and I’m going to watch his video again and take some notes when I have the time.
    Trust me you will learn a lot if you watch even the last 20 minutes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huyNfNP0K7A

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    MP

    You can click on the …more and transcripts on these videos, copy and paste. It is AI they say, but talk to text quality, so!

    so I want to talk about energy uh for obvious reasons because it’s become a uh
    0:05
    extraordinarily important subject and begin with an observation given what’s going on in in world events today will
    0:12
    context why excuse me I’ll tell you in advance is a spoiler alert what I’m
    0:17
    going to say you won’t be surprised to know that I’m going to tell you that there isn’t an energy transition
    0:24
    underway and this is not a political observation the politics I’ll talk about in a minute uh like to deal in in data
    0:31
    and facts and U I also happen to think words matter I write a lot I’ve written a number of books I write a I write a
    0:38
    column I I I’m habituated to writing as a more of an obsession than a calling
    0:44
    but I’ve always liked to write and you learn as a writer that words words matter words are powerful but the
    0:50
    definitions matter a transition is as a word has meaning it means we’ve leaving something going to something else so I’m
    0:57
    going to show you by way of facts and numbers and I guess I guess I should apologize for at at lunchtime using data
    1:02
    and facts and numbers but they they they kind of matter I’m not going to use slides so I’m going to spare you that
    1:09
    the powerpoin ification of a speech but I use them a lot with audiences because the the data are important on all this

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    Rod W

    At times like this I wish there were an elegant English translation for “schadenfreude”.

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    DOC

    Not far around AI – the intelligence one – but one could see it as the doomsday weapon for the climate change debacle, provided software and data are not corrupted. No doubt the pro-AGW theory people and governments are well aware of this and will already be planning to obstruct it for 50 years on being applied to climate theory, just as the official data on the COVID-19 is locked away for 70 years by governments. Would love to ask Albo and Bowen about when they see AI being applied to Climate theory, just to see how their minds are working currently.

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      DOC

      Big companies, like BP reducing risk on bad investments as determined by a huge swathe of data they gather to make decisions, must feel like a dagger in the heart for Green activists and obsessive governments like ours. For our socialist, business neophytes it’s-one-in-all-in. The wealth costs / the national economy count for nothing when trying to prove Jim Chalmers’ twisted idea of ‘a new way of governments and investors working together doing business!’

      What could look more likely to roll over into a corrupted system? Imagine! Unions, governments and Big businesses all working as one. Hang on! Isn’t that what we have now, where the middle classes are being smashed by COL rises and getting Marie Antoinette’s cake to stop complaining? Unions get 25% wage rises for well paid workers. Big businesses getting big profits and governments scheming for ever higher personal tax takes by bracket creep?

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      Mike Jonas

      DOC – If I read you correctly, I think you have it the wrong way round: My view is that pro-AGW theory people and governments are very quietly pushing into AI as hard as they can, especially for climate, because they control it. Or at least, they think they control it. It would be nice to think they could be wrong about controlling AI, but there is no sign of that yet.

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  • #
    TdeF

    So BP lost $1B in wind power. They can afford it.

    But what’s all this costing the country? How many tens, even hundreds of thousands of people are working on the premise that we are going to abandon coal and gas and oil and shale and become an energy superpower and drive electric cars and live with windmills and solar panels and hydrogen for making metal and flying planes?

    Clean Energy Finance Corporation
    We’re Australia’s ‘green bank’, investing in our net zero emissions future. With access to more than $30 billion from the Australian Government

    Australian Renwable Energy Agency
    The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) improves the competitiveness and increases the supply of renewable energy in Australia.

    Clean Energy Council
    The Clean Energy Council is Australia’s renewable energy association. We help residents & industry transform energy systems for a smarter, cleaner future.

    Clean Energy Regulator
    The Clean Energy Regulator is a Government body responsible for accelerating carbon abatement for Australia.

    Energy.gov.au
    Renewable energy sources accounted for 9% of Australian energy consumption in 2021 … energy.gov.au is a Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment

    DCCEEW
    The Australian Government accepts in principle the recommendations to improve community engagement on renewable energy developments.

    Australian Solar Council
    The Australian Solar Council is the peak industry body for the solar industry in Australia.
    It represents companies in solar hot water, large-scale solar thermal concentrating plants, solar PV (at all scales), solar passive design and energy-efficient materials.

    Australian Energy Storage Council
    The Australian Energy Storage Council seeks to advance the uptake and development of energy storage solutions in Australia.

    Solar Energy Industries Association
    The Solar Energy Industries Association was formed in 2007 in response to demand from within the industry.

    Australian PV Institute

    The Australian Photovoltaic Institute comprises companies, agencies, individuals and academics with an interest in solar energy research, technology and policies. Its objective is to support the increased development and use of PV via research, analysis and information

    Climate Change Authority
    The Climate Change Authority provides expert advice on Australian Government climate change mitigation initiatives. The Authority plays an important role in the governance of Australia’s mitigation policies. It undertakes reviews and makes recommendations on the Carbon Farming Initiative and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System. Reviews are undertaken on other matters as requested by the Minister responsible for climate change or the Federal Government.

    Electric Vehicle Council
    This new body (launched May 2017) represents members involved in producing, poweringand supporting electric vehicles.
    Its mission is “to accelerate the electrification of road transport for a more sustainable and prosperous Australia”.

    Australian Solar Thermal Energy Association (AUSTELA)
    Australian Solar Thermal Energy Association or AUSTELA works with other renewable energy organisations to improve investment in solar thermal power generation in Australia.
    Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
    Australia is working with countries in the Indo-Pacific to support deployment of a range of renewable technologies, including solar, wind, hydropowerand biomass …

    Department of Industry, Science and Resources
    Clean Energy and storage technologies

    Jobs and skills Australia

    Clean Energy Capacity study

    Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner

    Australian Energy Council
    We are the peak industry body for electricity and downstream natural gas businesses operating in the competitive wholesale and retail energy markets.

    CSIRO
    As Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO is well positioned to support Australian government and industry in catalysing Australia’s energy transition

    Budget.gov.au
    10 May 2023 — As the global economy transforms to achieve net zero emissions,. Australia can become a renewable energy superpower

    And then all the state equivalents.

    All based on the premise that the tiny 50% increase in carbon dioxide over 250 years is man made and we are facing immediate extermination. Which after an alleged so many years of rapid, tipping point global warming Armageddon has to be the most idiotic belief in the history of mankind. Where is this drowning worlds, species extinction happening, climate migration, global warming, boiling oceans happening? Anywhere?

    BP has it easy! It’s the taxpaying public in Australia with our hides being nailed to the wall by maybe 100,000 public servants tasked with saving the planet. This makes The Rapture seem plausible. And South Seas Bubble just a blip.

    Fake science rules. Fake meat. Fake facts. No manufacturing, no mining, no agriculture, no transport until all is destroyed, with the best intentions. And your rapidly increasing taxes, direct and indirect are paying for it all. Saving the planet is not cheap.

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      Mike Jonas

      One really sad thing about all this is that the Lib-Nat opposition does nothing to stop the rot. We have some minor parties with the guts to speak out, but the major parties won’t listen until they think these are an electoral threat.

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      • #
        TdeF

        The directors of BP are responsible to the people at election time. As are the politicians of Australia.

        The directors of BP who do what they think and expect the shareholders to cop the consequences while management award themselves pay rises.

        No one is accountable. Except at the ballot/election when they must seek reelection.

        And we, the people, have made it clear that we didn’t want a carbon tax. Remember ‘there will be no carbon tax in a government I lead‘.

        But the public servants knew better. And the politicians keep it all quiet.

        Who reading this knows about the “Carbon Farming Initiative Amendment Bill 2014”

        Carbon taxes

        In the last six months 2,000 manufacturing businesses have closed. Because power is too expensive to make anything in Australia and no one can pay the carbon taxes.

        It’s been a long time since we were told the truth about Climate taxes. Or the directors of BP or BHP or Disney or Anheuser Busch really cared what the shareholders OR consumers thought.

        The Safeguard Mechanism 2023 is a 35% tax on all large Australian companies, even the MMBW for sewage. It is a carbon tax on all Australians as ‘biggest polluters’. And it will shut down the country. This has already started, 5% a year for 7 years or pay up.

        BP is more open than our own government.

        We need someone like Matt Canavan to make a stand because the whole of Australia would vote to dismantle this gargantuan money machine which is the Carbon Taxation ripoff based on UN fantasies. The very idea of a renewables superpower is just insane.

        Or do we wait for the tractors to block the streets here too? And the miners and the truckers. Because the people in the cities have no idea what is going on, as long as the lights stay on and the food is delivered, even if it has doubled in price.

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        • #
          Ronin

          The sooner the better for some ‘load shedding’ to occur, in the city mainly, as soon as the idiots have to climb and descend 20 or 30 levels to get to their jobs or apartments, the sooner clarity will appear.

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  • #
    Ed Zuiderwijk

    The wind has gone with the wind. And frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.

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    Serge Wright

    The dumb climate zealots down here just don’t get it. The developing countries have doubled their own emissions since Kyoto and that’s largely been driven by the west’s exodus from industry to meet the climate targets. Since Kyoto, emissions have increased faster than at any time in human history as the migrated industrial output from the west to the developing world drives their economic growth faster and faster. This is why oil, gas and coal demand keeps going up. It’s simply not possible to grow those massive population centres on intermittent low density energy.

    It’s all too obvious what’s happening right now before our very eyes, and that is the west is becoming weak, insignificant and dependent on China and the rest of the world, having surrendered their own industrial capability and global power. The rest of the world are laughing as they watch us disintegrate and are focusing on their own energy and energy security with cheap and reliable fossil fuels and nuclear. Just look at India’s new coal plans. BP can either make a dollar selling oil and gas, or go bust trying to sell “clean” hydrogen that no one can afford and that no one wants anyway due to its transportation problems, hazard risks and limited use cases. China is essentially making solar panels and batteries to sell to the west for large profits, and also as a weapon to destroy our economies. It’s like feeding us chocolate flavoured ratsak. It tastes good at first, but the more you consume the sicker you get until it becomes terminal.

    Once we go under we can expect China to move in and simply take control of the vast shale oil reserves under the Cooper Pedy basin and start up oil extraction under the Barrier Reef and anywhere else they can find energy, including Victoria’s shale gas and the countries coal and uranium reserves. All that energy will be for their own giant empire and one can only guess what will happen to the rest of us. You can picture a few protesters holding up truth and treaty signs as the tanks close in and don’t stop …

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    Gerry, England

    I can only hope that BP’s hydrogen project is funded by taxpayers from my position as a shareholder. Much the same as Shell’s commitment to CCS ended when the taxpayer funding did.

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