It’s not even winter yet but suddenly all eyes are on the gas prices
Gas through the roof…
Thanks to fear of climate change voodoo many nations in the EU have effectively stopped exploring for gas and decided not to frack their shale deposits to get cheap gas too. (In Australia too). Vainglorious governments aimed to change the weather instead of having cheap electricity and lo, wind-towers were built everywhere.
What could possibly go wrong? Nearly everything.
Even the massive size of the European market hasn’t saved them from price rises so large that retail suppliers are collapsing, and fertilizer factories are closing.
Its a great way to give your enemies the upper hand
The wind drought in spring and summer meant that wind farms failed. Then the Russians squeezed gas supply in to the EU looking suspiciously like they were hoping to push up prices and pressure Germany into approving the controversial Nordstream 2 pipeline. Now the Kremlin is suggesting a quick approval will alleviate the gas shortage (they’re just trying to help). In the latest news one large interconnector between the UK and France has suffered a fire and broken down and won’t be restored til March next year.
The GWPF points out that gas prices in Europe are three times higher than in the USA “where fracking is widely used and shale gas is cheap and abundant.”
Power prices soar after key electricity cable between UK and France catches fire
British electricity prices jumped by 19 per cent to £475 per megawatt hour on Wednesday. A key electricity cable between Britain and France has been shut down after a fire, sending wholesale prices soaring. The fire will reduce imports from France until the end of March 2022, the National Grid has warned.
The bad news starts to unfold. With fertilizer factories closing, there may be food shortages:
In the UK two energy suppliers have collapsed under the price surge:
Sept 8th, 2021: The record energy market surge has claimed its first casualties after two UK suppliers collapsed, leaving almost 100,000 customers without an energy supplier. PfP Energy and MoneyPlus Energy both ceased trading as the UK’s gas market reached a fresh record high on Tuesday while electricity market prices surged to levels not seen since 2008.
Fertilizer factories have been shut due to the high gas prices:
Record energy prices have forced two fertiliser plants in the north of England to shut down and brought steel plants to a halt, in some of the clearest signs that the energy crunch engulfing Europe could deal a blow to the UK’s economic recovery.
UK’s meat industry warns CO2 shortage could hit food supplies within two weeks
LONDON – Britain’s meat industry on Friday warned that an impending shortage of carbon dioxide (CO2) could cause massive disruption to food supplies within two weeks. The gas is used to stun animals before slaughter, in the vacuum packing of food products to extend their shelf life, and to put the fizz into beer, cider and soft drinks. Britain’s food supply chain, already creaking from an acute shortage of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) drivers and the impact of Brexit and COVID-19, is heavily reliant on fertiliser producers for CO2 which is a by-product of their production process.
Energy bills will soar by hundreds of pounds within weeks after dozens of cash-strapped suppliers withdrew their cheapest deals from the market because of soaring wholesale prices. Suppliers pulled their cheapest fixed-rate offers yesterday… So few cheap deals are available that Compare the Market, which specialises in comparing cheap deals, temporarily closed its energy comparison service last night.
Suddenly energy self sufficiency is looking appealing
Gas prices are rising in the US as well, and even the US is paying attention.
Europe’s Climate Lesson for America
As wind power flags, energy prices are soaring amid fuel shortages.
Wall Street Journal
Electricity prices in the U.K. this week jumped to a record £354 ($490) per megawatt hour, a 700% increase from the 2010 to 2020 average. Germany’s electricity benchmark has doubled this year. Last month’s 12.3% increase was the largest since 1974 and contributed to the highest inflation reading since 1993.
European natural-gas spot prices have increased five-fold in the last year. Some energy providers are burning cheaper coal, but its prices have tripled.
The U.S. is the world’s largest gas producer, but it isn’t immune from turmoil in energy markets. Natural gas spot prices in the U.S. have doubled over the past year in part because producers have increased exports to Europe and Asia. Exports are up more than 40% during the first six months this year over last.
Guess who benefits if the US adopts “low carbon” anti gas policies? Russia, Iran and China,
This underscores how fossil fuels are a U.S. economic and strategic asset. The Biden Administration’s plan to curtail oil, gas and coal production by regulation would empower adversaries, especially Russia, Iran and China, which are the world’s three largest gas producers after the U.S.
Americans are already feeling the pain of rising energy prices. Electricity and utility gas prices were up 5.2% and 21.1%, respectively, over the last 12 months in August.
Anacortes Refinery, Washington, by Walter Siegmund
As I said in June, the EU was already being forced back to burning coal because no one was building gas plants because the experts all said they’d be stranded assets:
God’s joke on governments that try to control the climate with their electricity grid:
Europe talks itself out of building gas plants in order to stop global warming, then after an extra cold winter, they also run out of gas, and now they have to go back to burning coal.
Spooked investors weren’t funding many gas plants now that the glorious renewable era was here and policy makers were all wearing their Hydrogen badges, and waving their carbon capture wands. In the last year all the geniuses of the European Investment Bank, the IEA, the European Commission were saying “gas is over” and it would be a stranded asset.
“In the UK, for instance, coal and oil generating capacity has dropped from 29 GW to just 6 GW in the last decade. To put this into perspective, UK demand peaks at around 50 GW, so we have lost half of this. Gas was supposed to make up those losses but Gas power capacity is no higher today than it was in 2010. Because of the obscene subsidies paid to renewable generators, as well as rising carbon prices, new CCGT gas power plants are simply not economically viable. We still have 35 GW of gas capacity, the same as ten years ago.”
So they’ve started up their remaining coal fired plants but these are going to shut down soon. They haven’t got any new CCGT capacity, nor any new nuclear generation either. They were expecting to rely on imports except that other countries are now starting to stop exports as they try to stabilise their own supplies e.g. Ireland has shut down exports because wind energy has dropped due to the weather, as it has across Europe as well. Somehow no-one has blamed Climate Change – yet.
So the UK will have to rely on their ’emergency’ diesel generators and (higher emissions) Open Cycle turbines. Much the same as South Australia where wind hasn’t been kind but at least they have solar some of the time.
Truly a country with a billion (or more) tons of coal, and lots of natural gas that cannot be used, is a country led by donkeys!
730
We have two coal fired power stations left in the UK. One was fired up last week due to little wind power. They are both supposed to close down by 2023 .
Good job we have lots of ultra reliable wind and solar power, the sun being especially powerful this far north. What could possibly go wrong?
Must pop out for a few hours and make some sacrifices to the weather gods. They are capricious characters and don’t always do what our elite expect them to.
601
TonyB, I’m hereabouts in central Scotland and long enough in the tooth to see where a former net energy exporting country used to be, over fifty decades – or two ‘lifetimes’ ago. Scotland elec supply was never in doubt given pumped hydro storage (and key ‘black start’capability) – and nuclear via Hunterston A and B and Torness – and former coal big shoving it out at near 2GW – a third of Scottish needs. Guess where the plant got shipped to and re-incorporated: Germany.
All part of the EU LCPD (Large Combustion Plant Directive) when invoking the most recent ‘carbon’ taxation levy, formerly 18 from a week ago but now about $54/tonne.
For sure,
40
Still, you have all those lovely swathes of wind turbines. Looking in my weather diary the last month (south Coast) there has been barely a day when they would have provided worthwhile energy.
We are making our first visit to the North of Scotland for 25 years next week. Looking forward to it very much. I doubt we will see any turbines in the Cairngorms.
50
“a country led by donkeys!”
And populated by asses. Why are politicians expected to be smarter than the people who put them there? Tony Abbott lost his job for saying Climate Change was Crap.
It’s an utterly unbelievable scam but the most successful scam in human history. And real scientists kept quiet, for fear of their jobs. And crooked scientists rose to the very top. Only old retired scientists spoke out and a few younger ones who did not fear for their jobs. It was nonsense they said, but the journalists knew better. And they marched the people over the cliff.
As communist Greens leader Adam Bandt said to me, you tell people what they want to hear and when we get power, we do what we like. Lying to people is very successful for politicians. The German people never received their promised cheap mass produced Volkswagens nor their annual beach holidays. But they believed Adolph until the land of the supermen was laid waste and even then some believed.
There’s a good chance the coming Northern winter will be one of the worst in living memory. Climate extinction is right. Global warming is heading for extinction. But to the asses that would be Climate Change. To admit you have been duped is harder than to keep believing.
710
“They were expecting to rely on imports …
Truly a country with a billion (or more) tons of coal, and lots of natural gas that cannot be used, is a country led by donkeys!”
The country’s political ‘elites’,(and this includes most TV pundits, celebrities, actors/actresses, lawyers, clergy (because it’s a moral issue 🙂 ) and other self proclaimed experts), have contempt for basic STEM knowledge and experience. Their solution is to find a supplier, preferably from outside the country, whether it’s French EPR nuclear reactors or Polish plumbers. Yet, devoid of any knowledge or experience, they believe the Marketing hype and are unable to manage the process. (At least the plumbers did an OK job.)
The result is being played out, just in time for COP26 in November. Who would want to be Alok Sharma MP, the COP26 president?
After decades of of living in Clown World, I am relieved that this catastrophe is arriving: the best thing to be happening, and long overdue. Nothing else is going to force a change in direction. And the longer it takes, the worse it will be.
And all the while, those who saw Science and Engineering as a way for individual and national improvement, are dismissed as irrelevant and too expensive, not only financially, but in time, the amount of concentration required, and the attention to detail and planning. Yes, who in their right mind would gather all the relevant information together, and plan, especially for a set of interrelated projects costing £Trillions?
170
A wind drought in the UK during COP plus the French holding on to their power because the UK did the dirty with the US and Aus over the subs and a gas shortage: shivering attendees working in the dark to promote some way to cool the world. Monty Python could not dream of such a script. Who declared that the West won the cold war? The old regimes are laughing at our stupidity. I must agree with TdeF above that the only reason our leaders are donkeys is because we put them there. When the smartest men in the room are Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd we really do have a problem. Then there is Senile Joe in a league of his own.
100
In (reluctant, very reluctant) defence of the French, they’ve had a fire in one interconnector to England which means it will be out of service until March. On top of that they have the Germans wanting more electricity because output from their wind turbines has dropped (along with other reductions due to coal & nuclear shutting down and CCGTs and pumped storage not available as no longer profitable).
Then Belgium, possibly The Netherlands, Italy and Spain would all be keen on reliable (and fairly cheap) nuclear electricity. On top of that, the French have had problems in their ageing nuclear plants and the replacement by wind turbines isn’t going well.
That they were itching to express their displeasure with the British would also have contributed, and they are doing no more than Ireland is doing, looking after their own.
The UK is going to have problems this coming winter unless the wind starts blowing a bit more. The trouble might be if they get back to the weather conditions in previous cold cycles. A repeat of the 1890’s (let alone the little Ice Age) could start a revolution.
40
All those “stranded assets” seem very busy and profitable. Its almost like they aren’t really stranded at all.
80
In reply to:
“They haven’t got any new CCGT capacity, nor any new nuclear generation either.”
Combined cycle natural gas power plants require 20 hours to start up and reach peak efficiency and hence cannot run start/stop.
The problem is green on/off electrical ‘power’. There is not and will never be a magic battery. The UK is installing more and more, wind turbines, so when the wind blows more and more of the natural gas power plants must be stopped.
The owners of CCGT power plants (60% efficiency) which are twice as expensive as single pass natural gas power plants (40% efficiency) must be able to run their power plant 24/7 to pay for it.
What happens is utilities are forced to install single pass natural gas power plants to back up the green power.
60
The idea dreampt up in Ireland was to use Combined Cycle gas (lowest emissions) with wind turbines for a solution.
What then happened was that the CCGTs had to reduce their output whenever the wind blew. Thus they became Open (single pass) turbines with higher emissions and costs per MWh. There was also much expense due to thermal stress cracking due to frequent changes in output (have you ever noticed that aeroplanes start their engines slowly and have them warmed up before increasing output?).
So Ireland got the worst of outcomes, higher costs, higher emissions and unreliability of output.
In Germany several CCGT plants were dismantled and moved to other countries.
And, as noted, nobody wants to build CCGTs in the UK as they would lose money.
Incidentally I saw that the latest CCGT plant efficiency was 62% and while GE claim 40% for their singe pass unit it depends on continuous running. On/Off operation means higher emissions (and maintenance costs). In South Australia – world leader in blackouts- there has been high gas usage recently due to poor (very) output from wind turbines. The State at times runs only with 90% gas generation. The local single pass units are said to be 35-36% efficiency.
70
Good point re South Australia, especially as solar is no use for breakfast and dinner in the winter months. Have a look at the week-long wind drought not long ago.
They were importing power at breakfast and dinner every day for a week, and on working days they were importing at lunchtime as well!
And today with the wind below the average rate (29% of installed capacity), three states NSW, Victoria and South Australia were in deficit at breakfast, lunch and dinnertime.
30
What are the chances 1) none of this will hit the news in Australia, and 2) we will blindly go forth, where no one else will dare to tread, into energy Armageddon.
590
100% certain!
220
[Off Topic]AD
30
As I write, wind is only 7% of UK supply. Gas 54%
The unsuitability of wind for grid supply has always been one of intermittency.
It also makes it hard to maintain other more reliable supply sources.
What a huge waste of money it has been.
A “train-wreck” just waiting to happen.
610
Reminds me of a story when French first started their railway. They realised that the last train carriage always falls off the tracks. In their wisdom they decided to remove the last carriage.
120
Sat 18 Sept 2:30 AEST UK wind is now just 4% of supply
90
Co2 shortage in Britain! Couldn’t make this stuff up! Pun intended.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/other/meat-industry-warns-production-could-be-hit-by-co2-shortage/ar-AAOyAR3?ocid=msedgntp
250
Where’s Alanis when you need her?
40
Why, again, are we going to rely on these same politicians to fix the damage?
Power generation and distribution turns out to be far to important a task to be left to
the government; which insisted on replacing cheap, reliable, 24/7/365 private commercial power
with far superior public sector electrons.
What will be the critical mass of failure by government, at all tasks, that will cause replacement?
They are probably worried, as the EPA has a paralimitary 75 million dollar police force, as do the departments
of HUD and Education.
The power going out does get folk’s attention; and its not good if they look toward the homes of the elite and the lights are still on there.
280
I dont know, I recall long periods of stable cheap power when State Govts were just left alone to get on with it
Fast forward a few decades and the bright ideas boys, the wokesters and the virtue signallers have pooled resources to make energy both more expensive and less available and reliable. Quite a feather in their cap.
140
For a good while I have contended that we will not get any change in energy policy until the lights go out. This gas catastrophe may prove to be the first trigger. We shall see.
110
WE can only pray that it happens shortly and frequently. Nature has a habit of asserting it’s supremacy over men.
40
Italian energy prices to rise 40% this year after 20% rise last year
https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2021/09/13/electric-bills-set-to-go-up-40-cingolani_1baea0da-0cd0-4dda-9037-d18abf181ae7.html
210
no, I think it’s happening because you’ve invested in religion instead of real science.
270
Most of the horsemen of the apocalypse are now saddled . Welcome to the New World Order . I’m hopefull that sanity can be restored , but I see that most of the world’s population believes blindly in what the media feeds them . Jo – please keep shining a light on the facts and the truth because its vital for us to get ourselves out of this mess.
510
Yes they are saddled but facing the horses ass.
10
There is only one way out of this mess but it will take time. The GSM due later this decade will save the day. We are about to experience back to back La Nina’s (2020/21 & 2021/22) and don’t be surprised if there is a 3rd La Niña in 2022/23 especially given the very prolonged SC trough still being experienced between SC24 & SC25. Despite what the IPCC claim, low solar activity results in La Nina’s and GC. Imagine what a “Maunder-type GSM” persisting through most of the rest of the 21st century (- 2030 onwards) will achieve – yes a very prolonged MIA and a scenario in which RE’s become totally impotent, especially in mid/high latitude nations, thus resulting in the loss of human lives. Has the IPCC factored in that scenario with its “AGW Ideology”?
60
Can’t wait to see the biggest ever energy failure. It needs to be so serious that governments will fall due to rioting in the streets & armed mobs threatening politician lives,
The only way to turn this insanity around is revolution on a big scale & get rid of the problem at its source, Socialism, the UN & the ideology of one world government. A large dose of common sense would help enormously!!
Let’s hope sanity returns in time to save Australia before our own grid collapses into a smouldering heap!!
560
I have been getting panicky about the threat of NWO and surveillance of everything, the idea that communists may think they can get over the calculation problem now that there is so much computing power, but then I thought of electricity and power. The same agenda has been destroying power supply. Maybe a self limiting disease? If the iphones dont work and the networks go down and the power is off the wonderful electronic jail we would have to live in wouldnt work. I have always seen this Global Warming climate change agenda as one of depopulation. Just the logical consequence of all that they are screaming for. Collective governments around the world have either gone insane, or totally evil over the last 2 decades. It is use of power that has allowed the human population to increase. Get rid of modern power and the human population has to decrease. Simples. The Environment movement in its current for is anti human, anti “The Environment” and evil. So either the Climate change agenda is going to work first – and all the grids go down and so does electronic surveilance, or the NWO is going to electrify and transhumanise us using widespread power that they are going to keep going – or they are going to kill off so many of us that a widespread power supply wont be needed to control what is left of us.
361
The populace need to get the tar and feathers and pitchforks out and go on a rampage.
150
Yep. That’ll fix it. There’s no problem which cannot be fixed by an angry mob.
60
The mod doesn’t fix the problem, it merely cleanses the canvas and readies it for repainting.
30
CO2 shortage! The very gas that Green activists are attempting to convince us is controlling global temperatures is now in short supply, but only in the Western World. It doesn’t seem to affect the weather in China and Russia. The cupboard is now bare as are the promoters of deleterious climate change. Looks like Carbon Neutrality has cum early!
300
The Chinese and Russian climate models run colder. The Euro models run the warmest hence they have the greatest concern.
The Australian BoM and CSIRO take great pride in the fact that their Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS) climate model runs middle of the road. So they firmly believe they are closet to the right answer.
When you sit in an air-conditioned office and use models to show you what the climate is doing you do actually live in a fantasy world that depends entirely on electricity – real stuff not the make-believe stuff that comes from random energy generators.
121
They are playing Pac Man with their modelling.
Modelling is what caused the Texas disaster last February – from weather forecasts to maintenance to demand, the models were all wrong. The law of unintended consequences prevails and a lot of people freeze in the dark –
60
Us climate/RE sceptics have been warning about this for years and climate alarmists have been ridiculing those warnings for years. Now the scam has been laid bare for all to see. RE doesn’t fit into a grid and expensive batteries with limited lifespans that can only store a few minutes of grid capacity will not solve that problem. Now that the entire scam is unraveling it will create enormous economic and social problems and those responsible need to be held to account. It’s not as though those providing the warnings were not qualified, many were very experienced engineers and scientists. The problem lies with lobby groups within universities, the media and left-leaning politicians who kept pushing, followed by ignorant and power hungry politicians and public servants who are and paid to ensure this doesn’t happen. In the case of GB, they need to initiate a Royal Commission ASAP, but this can only happen after a change to a responsible government that cares, and that might take a while with both major parties involved in the same crime. The people who made these decisions to destroy the energy grid need to be prosecuted for their crimes against humanity, else there will be no deterrent for the crimes to continue.
350
Serge:
They won’t change government but I wouldn’t wager a brass razoo on Boris being P.M. in a year’s time.
110
Graeme
I would have said that a week ago but since then he has dropped vaccine passports, reasserted britains determination to stand with its allies against china and promised to make a bonfire of hated Ezu rules , ensure the European court of justice does not have primacy over our laws and may even make pounds and ounces legal measures again.
If he follows through then he may last the year. Mind you his net zero policies will become increasingly unpopular.
Let’s see what happens after cop26 when he may start to row back on net zero policies
151
Tony – What Boris is doing is like virtue signalling. He has not addressed the big issue of how the UK is going to keep the lights on and as you pointed out net zero is suicidal. Talk is cheap and actions are what matter and so far all he has done is talk. I am getting so cynical in my dotage…
150
Australia’s Peter Dutton was a contender for the Prime Minister’s job when ScoMo was elected. Since then he has been appointed Defence Minister and I expect was instrumental in the AUKUS alliance. He is gaining increasing support within the government and the public as he is viewed as a hard nut – he was in the police force.
Dutton is from Queensland and the State relies heavily on coal exports and coal fuelled generation. Queensland dispatches reliable power into NSW on a daily basis. Labor did not win the last Federal election because they polled poorly in Queensland due to their uncosted RE targets.
Dutton is not involved in the energy portfolio but he is an influential member of cabinet and I expect was supportive of the “Coalkeeper” subsidy that ensures the viability of ageing dispatchable generators.
I will be surprised if Australia signs off on any COP26 agenda that locks in a time-frame on net-zero despite some wavering. The idea is fanciful and will condemn the government to the opposition. Labor are even walking away from net-zero tangible target.
Much of Australia can actually get by without household heating or cooling. Both make living comfortable but it is not essential. The Northern Hemisphere is moving into ever-colder winters for the next 12,000 years. Heating is a matter of life and death now and will get even more extreme. A power outage across Europe in January would be devastating – that is probably closer than many think. Things are stacking up badly for this year already.
The ultimate failure of random energy is not good for Australia because it has underpinned high demand for Australia’s iron ore and coal.
151
I agree that the new US-UK-AU alliance looks good on paper but consider the more recent facts regarding the Democrats and their deep state supporters. If General Milley wants to reassure China that he would warn them of an impending attack, then would he take action against China if they invade Taiwan or Australia ?. This Democrat/Milley China love follows their stoic rejection of the Wuhan lab leak theory and not to forget Obama’s gift to China of unlimited CO2 until 2030, whilst they dismantle their own economy. If Nancy Pelosi is calling the shots for General Milley during a Trump presidency then it makes sense why they put Biden in office, to allow a continuation of the same behind the scenes deep state leadership but made easier without Trump. One gets the sense that the new Marxist Democrats are now in full rejection of their own democratic state and seek to destroy their economy in order to move to a global Communist government with China. If this is the case then Australia is in real trouble as such a global deal would hand us over to China. Basically do you trust Pelosi, AOC, Milley and co to support the liberal western democratic cause ?. In my opinion these people are as bad or even worse than the CCP and if Fauchi has been funding a new virus with China, did the Democrats deliberately release this with China to bring down Trump and make possible their own Marxist state ?.
Basically we might be more stuffed than we realise and this new alliance might be just a sham deal by the hard left Democrats to control the outcome. In my opinion we need 4 years of Trump followed by 8 more years of centre right GOP government in order to completely rid the US security and military bodies of Marxist / China sympathisers, along with big tech, big media and the learning centres that have become propaganda arm for this new Marxism.
40
I think you mean Carrie Symonds won’t still be PM in a year’s time.
90
Exactly the line of my thoughts; I’d go further and suggest a divorce is in the offing.
40
It’s only called a scam if people know about it and sure as, the media will ignore it. What a shambles.
120
In 2008 the UK appointed an independent group the CCC (Climate Change Committee) to oversee and advise the government on how to prepare for the forthcoming climate disaster.sarc
We all know what that advice was and now the country is having to face up to the consequences of having destroyed a perfectly good electricity supply grid and replaced it with renewables in the form of unreliable wind. They are now having to live through a potentially freezing winter with an inadequate and depleted energy grid. Costs are skyrocketing and supply is failing. Poor people will freeze in their homes and on the streets and life will become distinctly unpleasant.
But if you ask any of them they will tell you that it has to be done in the name of climate change and to save the planet. Od luck I say.
GeoffW
140
Can you imagine what the great Winston Churchill would be thinking of the UK’s current “RE” fiasco – “economic “hari kari” – no doubt he will be rolling around in his grave – 24/7 I would suggest.
70
does the CCC have a president, I wonder… and do they get called the CCCP?
10
This problem is coming to Victoria very soon.
Victoria’s Coal Keeper rejection sparks criticism.
“The Victorian government has been criticised after opposing “Coal-Keeper” subsidies to extend the life of plants using the fossil fuel just months after hatching a secret deal providing financial backing to keep EnergyAustralia’s Yallourn coal plant open until 2028.” “Victoria is the pre-eminent place for investment in the new zero emissions energy capacity and we don’t want to see investors lose confidence.”
At least there has been some criticism allowed.
The real problem is that subsidised solar has been enjoying lunch at the expense of reliable generators, with feedin tariffs of 6-8 cents/kWhr, while the spot price of wholesale electricity during the middle of the day is now often going negative because of surplus solar, forcing big cutbacks in coal and gas generators output, and hence impacting on their cash flow.
Just look at this roller coaster ride that is now required of baseload generators in Victoria. When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, thankfully we still have reliable coal, gas and hydro. But for how much longer?
Can anyone propose an economic solution when Victoria’s coal-fired electricity generators are gone?
230
Emigrate to Western Australia and pray the AEMO never reaches it.
50
We are thinking of moving to TAS, it was line ball when we retired and many years earlier we also looked at an opportunity to change lives and move down there. Another term of Labor may just be the crisis tipping point moving apocalypse.
30
Biofuel!
10
Related to fertiliser/food shortages …
Sri Lanka bans “synthetic” pesticides & “chemical” fertilisers causing a food shortage, failing to notice everything is a chemical and that synthetic chemicals are produced by living people.
“Organic farming” is a marketing term. All food is organic.
All Organic Agriculture? Sri Lanka Cripples Farmers and Sparks Food Shortage
https://www.acsh.org/news/2021/09/09/all-organic-agriculture-sri-lanka-cripples-farmers-and-sparks-food-shortage-15796
h/t: patrickmoore
220
This should be interesting, like watching a slow motion train crash, it will be an object lesson to the rest of the world, just like the UK will be this winter for renewable/unreliable electricity.
190
Does not seem to be slow motion either. It has happened very quickly, as one would expect.
20
So far, when the grid has failed in a spectacular way (Texas, and South Australia for 2 examples), it has been explained away via some means other than holding “renewables” as responsible as they should be. Nothing has really been learned as a result. I fear some even more spectacular failures will have to happen before anything changes.
Besides, the ever present bigotry of low expectations in the media will cover up any stupid decisions made by stupid people in power in Sri Lanka.
40
https://theprint.in/world/how-sri-lankas-overnight-flip-to-total-organic-farming-has-led-to-an-economic-disaster/728414/ was posted here a while ago and is dated 5 September.
At the root of this economic catastrophe is a bizarre overnight flip by Rajapaksa’s government on 29 April to ban the import of chemical fertilisers and any other agrochemicals to make the Indian Ocean nation the first in the world to practice organic-only agriculture.
This peculiarly inspired zealotry created circumstances in which people were already starving two weeks ago when the story was published.
50
Salt is not organic, and neither is water … two very important foods.
20
Europeans are now praying for some global warming as a cold winter will require a return to coal –
Europe could turn to more coal if gas crunch persists
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/europe-could-turn-more-coal-160000490.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr
90
If we don’t (can’t) go nuclear then coal and gas will, for many years, remain the largest source of base load power. If I was younger I would be pegging appropriate mining leases wherever I could.
200
A coal mine is presently for sale in NSW. The South Australian government could do worse (much worse) that put together a consortium to buy it and build at least two HELE coal-fired power plants in their state, one on Torrens Island, the other in the south east linking with Portland. The state, having abundant supplies of reliable electricity, could then begin to reconsider the nature of its economic future.
50
C.P.B.
I think you vastly overrate the intelligence of the SA Government.
Anyway, by the time they’ve finished South Australia will be back using “zero emission” transport (horse drawn) wood fires (believed by greens as not emitting CO2) and candles for lighting.
20
The legal barriers to developing or expanding a coal mine in Australia are insurmountable even for companies with very deep pockets. It took a decade to get the Carmichael up and running. The project went through countless hurdles to get approval. And that is in Queensland where coal is still king despite the Labor State Government.
It will take a big event to rock the resolve of the random energy supporters.
50
Who knows, maybe, just maybe, Labor’s apparent acceptance of nuclear powered submarines may open the door for nuclear power… one day, in the distant future….
10
Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum) and his slave army of useful Leftist idiots will be very pleased.
Incidentally, like most Leftist Elites Klaus Schwab’s background has been mostly sanitised online.
His father has an interesting history you can look up. During the war Eugen Schwab managed a Swiss-German company, Escher-Wyss. The Ravensburg branch of that company was awarded the title of National Socialist Model Company and used slave labour. Later in the 1970’s and 1980’s Klaus Schwab himself also managed that company.
220
There’s an opportunity in NYC for a few dozen Covid Super Spreaders this week:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/vaccines-serfs-no-vaccine-rules-global-elites-un-meetings-week-ny-city/
No vaccine certificates for the elite at the UN meetings this week … it’s an ‘honour’ system.
What an opportunity …
20
In Australia John Howard, a pretend conservative, blew Australia’s gas supply by selling it dirt cheap to the Chicomms.
But hey, the Chicomms gave Australia two giant pandas in return.
Equally disastrous deals were made by the following Labor governments.
https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/how-australia-blew-its-future-gas-supplies-20170928-gyqg0f.html
See link for rest.
140
With that in mind, how do we think we’d go in a war against them, we are dreaming.
80
” A Gold Medal performance”, yes, for China.
40
It’s curious isn’t it. John Howard was arguably the most capable individual after Sir Robert Menzies to become prime minister in Australia. Yet his is a remarkably sanguine mind. Outside parliament I heard him speak twice, once at a book launch in 1995 and his command of Australian history was distinctly notable. The second time was a few months after he lost his seat. The subject was Australian foreign affairs. His comments regarding China were almost startlingly optimistic. Given his experience naïve seems an unlikely description but such it was. Worrisome.
70
I would hazard that Howard, being a statist himself, has more than a little admiration for the “mechanics” and “style’ of Chinese politics.
His is, after all, a lawyer.
10
It’s easy to forget how benign China seemed to be before the coming of Xi. The political problem came about because our politicians and msm are so naive and lost all sense of awareness of the risks they were taking. For example, just consider the Labor Party, Dastyari and the professor Premier of NSW at the time.
Those in the community that tried to warn of risk were vilified as racists, and our biggest companies – now thinking they can be an unelected power that can control the working plebs that staff them or buy their goods – shipped much of their production to ‘low cost’ China for the profits.
Howard was merely a reflection of the West in general, thinking it had brought China into the cooperative world of trading nations. All western democracies did the same and put their necks onto Xi’s chopping block – just as they have done the same thing with the EU/UN AGW theory. It took a few poor devils, who were in China for their companies, to be tossed into gaol, and the obvious appearance that China’s justice system was no such system at all, before the pennies dropped. It took the strong actions of the non politician, business hardened President Trump to call out the traps, to back out of the free wheeling China arrangements by forcing US companies to return to USA soil or risk tariffs on their Chinese produced goods.
Frankly, today, I would question every dealing the USA makes with China, due to the alleged Biden – China dealings, and the actions of the FBI against Trump but protecting the Biden laptop for several years. Joe can be as loud in his protests against China as those that serve him allow him to be, but, from the Trump experience over the last 5 years, when it came to facts and accusations by the Democrats and media, we should all have learned, messages over bullhorns aren’t necessarily truth, nor – as with the Southern border – indicative of anything the government actually is interested in doing.
The same people that fell for the AGW disgracing of science are the same people who refused to believe any mention that they need be careful of China. In these political matters, all similar in the way as to how one might expect the endpoint to be, I find it very hard to assess the motives behind those political voices that cajole us to move our democracy in so many directions that it ends up no longer being a democracy at all. The climate, China trading, BLM, gender reconstructions, racism, breakdown of law and order, destruction of primarily Western democracies’ energy systems, destruction of history (national or climate?)all seem to end in the same place for the people.
Everything can be sold as logical, but the most logical end point of all is destruction of our national order, unravelling to a million separate interest groups and totalitarianism. John Howard had it easy. Our problem now is to find our Churchill, or Trump or any strong person with the national interest heart to start calling out the bilge and evil intensions of what we are caving into. We elect politicians to run our nation. We don’t expect them to concentrate on saving the world as they are directed to do by foreign powers such as the EU, the UN nor Biden’s USA.
20
Jo keep up your good work and let’s hope their self inflicted energy crisis throws another big spanner in the machinery of this religious cult’s next meeting in Glasgow COP 26.
Meanwhile Antarctica is not helping their religious cult and the latest Zhu study has found that there has been significant cooling over the last 40 years.
And the Zhu slight warming at the Ant peninsula is disputed by the UK BAS Turner study that found cooling there since about 1998. Here’s the Zhu 2021 abstract and link.
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/2/217/htm
“Abstract
“The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) released its latest reanalysis dataset named ERA5 in 2017. To assess the performance of ERA5 in Antarctica, we compare the near-surface temperature data from ERA5 and ERA-Interim with the measured data from 41 weather stations. ERA5 has a strong linear relationship with monthly observations, and the statistical significant correlation coefficients (p < 0.05) are higher than 0.95 at all stations selected. The performance of ERA5 shows regional differences, and the correlations are high in West Antarctica and low in East Antarctica. Compared with ERA5, ERA-Interim has a slightly higher linear relationship with observations in the Antarctic Peninsula. ERA5 agrees well with the temperature observations in austral spring, with significant correlation coefficients higher than 0.90 and bias lower than 0.70 °C. The temperature trend from ERA5 is consistent with that from observations, in which a cooling trend dominates East Antarctica and West Antarctica, while a warming trend exists in the Antarctic Peninsula except during austral summer. Generally, ERA5 can effectively represent the temperature changes in Antarctica and its three subregions. Although ERA5 has bias, ERA5 can play an important role as a powerful tool to explore the climate change in Antarctica with sparse in situ observations."
40
God helps those that help themselves.
there is plenty of info out on the internet to make diesel, I know about using wood fumes to run engines just wondering is there a way to run a petrol engine with alcohol as the base without burning all the valves etc?
Thanks.
10
UK green idiots spouting off about going coalless for 3 days in August, how’s that looking now, clowns.
230
A universal energy crunch.
‘China is staring down another winter of power shortages that threaten to upend its economic recovery as a global energy supply crunch sends the price of fuels skyrocketing.
‘The world’s second biggest economy is at risk of not having enough coal and natural gas — used to heat households and power factories — despite efforts over the past year to stockpile fuel as rivals in North Asia and Europe compete for a finite supply. Demand for heating will jump when temperatures turn colder over the next few months, which could trigger power rationing similar to those seen last winter and over the summer.’ (Bloomberg)
80
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving pack of……….
50
When it comes to coal and gas, Australia holds the whip hand.
51
We should tell the chicomms, no gas for you, since we are virtually giving it away.
10
This is no time to play hardball, iron ore is on a slide.
12
Yes lets encourage them to just come and take it
10
Their property bubble is about to burst and they have no need for iron ore at the moment.
11
Don’t Leftists keep telling us that Random Energy is the best and cheapest ever and can operate without subsidies?
Why then is the world so short of real energy from fossil fuels?
Windmills and solar panels are being installed at a rapid pace without restriction so there couldn’t be a shortage of those. And there is no disincentive to install them because of the subsidies they harvest
170
There are no ‘government’ subsidies. Nothing comes out of our taxes. Just check. All the cash is buried in our electricity bills, which is utterly illegal except that it is law. You are forced to pay double for wind and solar while coal and gas wither away. That was the whole idea. Theft.
However the gas and coal people are waking up. If people really do not care about their electricity costs, just withhold the power. Pelican Point in Adelaide is an example. They closed. Now they get paid a premium to fill in the gaps when the wind doesn’t blow. At extortionate prices. But again, if you have something people desperately need, they will pay the cost.
But the same Weatherill government did not like blackouts, so the public servants have their own diesel generators at Elizabeth. Why should the people who devastated the State be deprived of power? It’s unthinkable. They have a very important job to do. Tax everyone else.
170
“Why then is the world so short of real energy from fossil fuels?”
Because random energy is a crock and our govts have bought into it lock stock and barrel.
50
When Greenpeace outrageously ‘banned’ Chlorine, they banned an element in the Periodic table. They are still fighting for bans on Chlorine. Chlorine makes salts. Like the salt Sodium Chloride in all the world’s oceans, the salt that makes you blood salty and is used to conduct the electricity of your brain and muscles and nervous system. Sure, just ban chlorine. And stop chlorine compounds like PVC used for plumbing around the world.
Now they have effectively banned Carbon. It’s black. It’s pollution. And carbon is unavoidable in most chemistry as only element number 6. The whole field of Organic Chemistry is about one element, Carbon. Along with element 1 Hydrogen and element 7 Nitrogen and 8 Oxygen, the living world is made. The heavier elements form rocks, metallic oxides, the planet earth.
Ammonium based fertilizers are made from Ammonia and the energy to do so and the hydrogen to do so comes from gas, methane and ethane.
Ban the lot. And all metals require the removal of oxygen by carbon, so you get carbon dioxide. Lead, Iron, Copper,.. A world without metals.
So in this new world we have no life forms (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen), no metals, no plumbing and no dams to catch water. All thanks to the Greens, the new Eloi, the indulged unthinking, science ignorant classes. And the same groups who have given themselves pay rises in the middle of pandemic while they ‘work’ from home with total job security.
If there is a major problem, it is the public servants who vote for a world where they stay home and get paid and buy everything over the internet with money they have not earned and goods they could not make without carbon. A world without carbon. Buy everything from China.
Because it’s now an emergency. The real emergency is the existence of a vast self indulgent lazy bureaucracy which lives off the hard work of everyone else and demands windmills and solar panels and denies the basic science which created their world of unearned luxury.
Go ahead, ban Carbon. And then we have our real Climate Emergency, the devastating religion of Climate Scientology and a pervasive Climate of utterly indulgent stupid*ty.
260
In addition to those elements you mention they also want to ban fluorine (typically added to water supply as fluorosilicic acid or sodium fluorosilicate), uranium and plutonium and a number of other elements.
I never ceased to be amazed how the Left keep referring to “carbon pollution” or “carbon emissions” when what they mean is carbon dioxide. Even the supposedly scientifically trained ones make this mistake.
The lack of scientific literacy in Australia and throughout the West is staggering.
210
“In 2018, the most popular fields of education (FOE) for domestic undergraduate students were society and culture (25 per cent), health (18.7 per cent), management and commerce (16.5 per cent) and natural and physical sciences (10.6 per cent).”
Within that 10.6% enrolments in harder core science like Physics and Chemistry are plummeting. While Earth Sciences, as epitomized by Tim Flannery are increasing. His first degree was a very low TER in English at La Trobe because he could not get into a science course. His is science without mathematics, physics or chemistry, science by essay and consensus and opinion. Quantitative fact free. Like James Cook ‘University’ and their cheating scientists, a real Pier group. Why else spend millions of our money trying to destroy and so silence their long term Head of Physics for telling the truth?
While it is not a bad thing that not everyone does hard science and frankly there are no jobs at all in Australia for scientists, we have an explosive growth in science journalism and science opinions among people who know no science at all, particularly lawyers and politicians. And they believe and trust the IPCC, which is a purely political body within the United Nations where 40,000 full time people plot the growth of their World Government. For them the destruction of Western Democracies is a priority. And once again the EU wants their own army, under the control of unelected bureaucrats.
Climate Change is all about destroying Western Democracies. It does not exist anywhere else. Nor does MeToo, BLM, AntiFA, White Supremacy, Systemic Racism, sexual equality, the Patriachy. Try to tell India, Japan, Russia, China and Indonesia or any Arab Countries or Pakistan about Climate Change or MeToo or any of these fashionable fables. It’s laughable but so serious.
260
Dwelling on pedantry serves no purpose. Everyone knows what they mean and they control the language. If you want to sit n the sideline being correct that’s fine but it doesn’t lead anywhere
30
As I keep saying the Left are terrified of new ideas, hence there can be no progress under their pre-Enlightenment ideas.
This insanity is so extreme.that in Vicdanistan there was even a constitutional amendment that banned fracking. I kid you not.
https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/enshrining-victorias-ban-fracking-forever
90
It would make for interesting circumstances were a government elected which worked to repeal Part VIII of the constitution. This claims permanency, which, on the face of it, is absurd. It was created by an act of Parliament so, surely, can be repealed by act of Parliament.
90
What was worse about the fracking ban in Victoria was that the Libs/Nats supported it.
90
Ross; It’s NaffDanistan; What else could you expect?
Sadly, the infection is now well entrenched across the entire penal colony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjSshSvQWQA
“Forget it Jake; it’s Chinatown.”
10
In America after decades and decades of energy dependency, Trump got us to energy independence. Then a bunch dumb donkeys came along and stole an election and threw it all away in a manner of weeks. When people look at the gas pumps perplexed one might be tempted to say to them: “Well you voted for it.” But they didn’t. This is a minority forcing their views on everybody else.
It’s also the Democrats and the swamp giving the people of middle America a great big middle finger. They are thoroughly enjoying it. One could say that its just incompetency, but it’s unlikely that they are so catastrophically wrong on every single thing. This all by design I’m afraid.
310
I agree Dave. It is far worse than incompetency. To destroy things so badly and so quickly requires a plan.
160
The successful (and fast) retreat from Kabul was secretly planned. None of it was leaked to either NATO allies, or the Taliban. The first-ever unarmed insurgency of January 6, 2021 was carefully planned.
Nancy Pelosi promotes conspiracy theories.
10
Dave, you got it bang on. In 8 months, gasoline has gone up 40%, propane up 35%, food up 20%.
Electricity is going up an additional USD 25/mo for anyone served by AEP. That’s about 20%.
Insulin is up by 1200% if you might depend on that to live. Inflation is running at least 8% overall.
Now Bitem is proposing to raise taxes by about 20% to fund his 6 Trillion USD spending spree.
Lenin said: “The way to crush the working class is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
This is an ongoing nightmare. There won’t be a soft landing.
180
Eventually it starts to get VERY expensive to power things using fossil fuels. That is inflationary across the entire economy.
USA enjoys the unique privilege of creating the world currency. It is the only country that can run a massive current account deficit without the debt ever being called in or fear of default. I expect that China and Russia will eventually become wary of holding more US debt as inflation makes it increasingly worthless. That will be interesting times.
20
Looking at the US current account deficit over 10 years shows Trumps efforts early in his term was going in the right direction – before China unleashed Covid on the globe:
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/current-account
(Select 10Y to get the trend line)
70
The Chinese government has already floated the idea that the “reference” currency should be THEIRS, not the US Dollar.The usual suspects think this is a great idea.
10
G’day Dave. You may be correct, but when the pain is shared around, who WON’T be on the receiving end of it? Have a guess. And I bet it will all be Donald’s fault. Still.
Cheers,
Speedy
120
Speedy:
… then you will appreciate this for the UN meetings in NYC this week:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/vaccines-serfs-no-vaccine-rules-global-elites-un-meetings-week-ny-city/
It just needs a few Super Spreaders among the serfs delivering food and drink and it would be a rather large spike …
especially Delta variant 😀
10
The Americans still have the luxury of turning themselves into pretzels over energy policy.
For Europeans, time is up. This gas/electric/oil crisis will be the fracturing crunch. Cop 26 will force them to consider more renewables and simultaneously retch at the implications.
Americans are pulling up on strategic assets, defense and manufacturing. That trend will continue
COP 26 might end up in shambles but the world and environment will be a better place for it. Real change is coming and not a moment too late.
Net zero is a crazy idea. Cannot get there directly from here. Requires circuitous route
63
Book burning times again.
‘People on the poverty line will be forced to choose between heating and eating this winter because of a triple whammy in the cost of living, the government is being warned.
‘Experts say that rising energy bills combined with the end of both furlough and the universal credit top-up risk creating a living standards crisis this autumn.’ (Independent)
80
Yes, they are about to repeat 2010. UK pensioners burning books for cheap heating.
https://metro.co.uk/2010/01/05/pensioners-burn-books-for-warmth-13123/
Mills & Boon trash has its uses.
60
AUKUS will torpedo COP 26
20
Going to be interesting sseing the U.S. agree with France, tearing up the rest of fortress Europe in return
Ultimately countries will come out of COP 26 acting in their own interests.
Hight time this comes about
51
The choice of the Anacortes Refinery of Washington State is interesting because as regards electrical energy, the State relies heavily on water power. A photo of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, or several others, would be appropriate. They have an interesting history, but do manage to keep electric costs low.
Also, the UK DRAX power facility uses wood pellets sourced from North America (more CO2 than coal). Trees reproduce so this silliness is considered green. What a bunch of hog slop.
How many of the politicians are immune from these power spikes?
130
Going by the continually increasing price of base load power, it won’t be too long before the nuclear option actually becomes the cheapest. How ironic. I wonder if that’s real agenda. I doubt it as governments are never that clever.
101
The nuclear option will fracture the green cause which will push back accordingly. Interesting thing about nuclear subs is that they do an end run around the evils of nuclear energy.
The fascinating thing about all this is that it’s good old fashioned economics which will drive the West away from globalism and towards local interests. Climate change is just a side show
71
Nuclear suits our strategic needs today and our energy needs tomorrow
Chris Kenny
What is it about submarines that so distorts the imagination of our politicians? In 2015, the late Democratic Labour senator John Madigan said “submarines are the spaceships of the ocean” – and there might be something in this because for the past four decades our politicians have flapped around sub projects like a bunch of space cadets.
We have consistently made the wrong decisions and avoided the best options, condemning ourselves to burdensome costs and sub-optimal defence outcomes. This week’s historic correction from Scott Morrison will embolden and strengthen our defence and security settings for decades to come even though, infuriatingly, it is based on mere acceptance of what has been obvious and logical for decades.
Eventually the Collins class vessels won some praise, and they continue to operate now – some say reasonably effectively – yet the most obvious lessons they taught us were studiously ignored. The entire saga should have demonstrated that designing and building our own adapted submarine design was risky and costly, and denied us the opportunity to procure the best vessels at the best price.
Still, without the sub project, where would the politicians go for all their media events and job creation announcements?
What is worse is that we deliberately limited ourselves to diesel-powered submarines rather than nuclear, knowing this would make them inferior. Labor and Liberal politicians managed to fabricate excuses for failing to embrace the nuclear option – lack of expertise, inordinate costs, insufficient infrastructure – but these impediments were ignored when it came to the diesel boats.
The superiority of nuclear vessels is beyond question. Just ask what type of submarines are used by the most sophisticated navies in the world.
We have now arrived at the right decision, when it is almost too late, and only because the increasingly fraught strategic environment has exposed our vulnerability. It will be decades before we have the submarine capability that we have aspired to since the 1970s – but at least we might finally have it.
Likewise, if an idea or a policy decision is compellingly rational, the political process is likely to end up there eventually, no matter the politicking and diversions along the way. This means that just as nuclear-powered submarines will come to pass, no matter the indolence of our politicians, so too will nuclear energy eventually be developed in this country.
This nation has run a nuclear reactor for experimental and medical purposes safely and effectively at Lucas Heights since 1958; we have mined uranium since Radium Hill in the early days of the federation; we hosted atomic weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s; and we are the world’s third-largest exporter of uranium. Yet nuclear energy is illegal in this nation, and in some states there are laws even against exploring for uranium.
In a world committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero, this madness cannot stand. Neither the world nor Australia will be able to reach net-zero emissions without massively expanding nuclear energy.
The challenge is pretty clear, a global need for more energy, not less, and it needs to be reliable, affordable, and sustainable (or emissions free). There is only one form of energy that meets all three criteria – nuclear.
Morrison and Anthony Albanese both insist we can run nuclear subs but will maintain our resistance to nuclear energy. This is an argument that is all about political expediency and cowardice that eventually will be overwhelmed by reality.
180
Why is our sub fleet based at Stirling when it’s about as far from anywhere as you can get.
23
used to be out of missile range
10
Raving – interesting. I have been wondering at what point the cost of transport will outweigh the savings of overseas manufacturing. The cost of shipping has recently risen considerably and the vunerability of our supply chains may also have a bearing. I we were to go nuclear for our power the economics of manufacturing locally may become compelling. Nah….pipe dream.
40
A look at the supply chain
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2021/09/our-crumbling-supply-chain-and-what-it.html
20
From an agricultural view, the price of gas is having a huge impact on fertiliser prices. In fact such a big effect that you cant get any forward prices on fertiliser at all. Its too volatile. Higher fertiliser prices have 2 effects- less profitable farming and so less farmers. Big issue in the EU not necessarily Australia. Could also impact food prices.
130
French farm protests? ROTFL
24
They could go back to shovelling poo from the stables and cattle sheds.
30
What chance the lefts war on gas has its end result in famines in poor, less fortunate countries.
91
Leftist agendas very often affect the poor and less fortunate more than other people.
Usually because they are unable to think through the unintended consequences of their agendas.
Or perhaps they are intended consequences !
100
The left actually despise the poor. The left are happy to use the poor to push their agendas but they look down on them as surfs. The poor and the middle class can not afford to make the lifestyle choices the left demands so they mandate and take away the poor and middle class’s ability to choose for themselves. Hillary Clinton called them deplorables because they didn’t choose to support leftism and leftist causes like climate change action. The next time around they had their votes canceled.
One reason why the rich support leftists is because socialism stops upward social mobility.
20
The sociopaths want hungry, angry cannon fodder.
Hungry, angry and ill-informed people can easily be manipulated into extreme acts.
Once on the blood-drenched slippery slope, there is NO GOING BACK.
Then will come the “purges” of the “unreliables” (and witnesses. History repeats, usually as tragedy or, occasionally, farce.
Same old, same old.
As the old line goes:
The grass may be greener over the septic tank: But it is greenest over the mass graves”.
40
Its not a left or right thing, there is an inflationary spike in energy prices because of the knock on effect.
‘The energy crunch in Europe is sparking panic among Asian fuel buyers, causing importers from Japan to India to pay a hefty price for supplies.
‘Worried the eye-watering price of natural gas in Europe will spill over, LNG traders in Asia say they’re paying record prices for this time of year. Buyers in China and Pakistan have also pushed up the price of gas, coal, propane and fuel oil in order to compete with the U.K. and Spain.’ (Business Standard)
43
It’s a leftist thing because of the lefts push to shut down reliable coal and gas assets, leaving Europe at the mercy of windmills and snow covered solar panels.
51
Eco Marxists?
Greens enjoy all the benefits of the upper middle class and the workers won’t be joining them in an uprising. Climate change is the root cause of the problem, so until we can convince the authorities that global warming is a myth, we don’t have a leg to stand on.
Saving the planet crosses party lines, think of the grandchildren. An unprecedented freezing European winter would bring an end to the renewable folly.
70
An interesting feature in this is that random energy is forcing gas to displace coal. It is becoming unprofitable to run coal plants because they are best operated under steady state conditions. Coal generators mate well to aluminium smelters that offer a large, stable load.
With RE increasing the variability, coal is finding it hard to make money. Every day this week, the minimum demand in the NEM occurred at midday:
https://opennem.org.au/energy/nem/?range=7d&interval=30m
As more rooftops are subsidised into the supply, the more variation in the dispatchable supply. That variation favours gas generators. So low cost coal is gradually being displaced by higher cost gas. That same trend is occurring across the globe.
60
Can you imagine the embarrassment if COP26 had to be called off mid conference because there was an entire blackout across the UK.
Probably worse than embarrassment!
I wonder if the venue has back-up power. Unlikely all the accommodation would have reliable back-up power.
Late October – early November is probably not the best time of year to run an event in Glasgow.
100
Looking ahead it appears the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation should be holding sway, with atmospheric blocking and cold waves in full view.
41
How great would it be that just as the lead speaker opens his yap to spruik the great work they are about to undertake at COP26, all the lights and power go off, for a week.
20
That surge in gas prices is what a real Hockey Stick graph looks like.
80
The folly has come back to bite them.
‘High global demand, maintenance issues and lower solar and wind energy output have all been blamed on the increased cost of wholesale gas, which in turn has forced much of the UK’s commercial production of CO2 to stop.
‘Two of England’s biggest fertiliser plants in Teeside and Cheshire – which use the gas to produce ammonium nitrate, which is then used by farmers for their crops – have shut down, leaving bosses concerned over the potential consequences for family essentials.’ (UK Mail)
20
Why don’t they just suck it out of the atmosphere if there’s so much of it around, and do us all a favour, so we can have beer that isn’t flat.
20
Major oil companies don’t seem to want to jump back into drilling either:
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/chevron_ceo_warns_of_high_energy_prices-16-sep-2021-166445-article/
10
My city in Colorado has begun closing down coal fired generator stations, opting for solar. Homeowners are contacted almost weekly to purchase solar panels to supplement the grid. The cost of power is going up and is predicted to continue the upward trend. People are installing personal generators at their homes, as brown outs are expected to become the norm. Why would a city council do this to the people of the city? Follow the money. How many of the people making these insane decisions own stock or in some other ways are rewarded by the companies that stand to make millions from this fool hardy move?
80
Europe has been botching up their energy policies for decades. The EU doesn’t know which way to turn. Gas? Nuclear? Fossil Fuels? Renewable Energy? It just seems a bit too complex for the snout-dipping gravy train bureaucrats.
60
EU is run by Socialist Bureaucrats.
A failure just waiting to happen, in every respect. !
30
From the BBC
At the beginning of 2021 there were 70 energy suppliers in the UK. Industry sources say there may be as few as 10 left by the end of the year.
50
All countries pursuing the insanity of renewables will in for a huge shock soon! When all the fossil fuelled generators have been hobbled/closed down the subsidies paid to the renewable energy industries will be withdrawn as the taxes paid by the fossil fuelled generators will dry up.
THAT IS EXACTLY WHEN ELECTRICITY PRICES WILL TREBLE IF YOU ARE LUCKY. MORE LIKELY PRICES WILL QUADRUPLE, PROBABLY MORE!
With fossil fuelled generators gone there will be no “turning the clock back”. So hope you can all afford what little power there will be while the rest live in the dark, cold, backwater, your countries will become!!
80
Same story from another angle. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10003047/Household-bills-soar-1-500-year.html
It will be painful in Europe also. Must be stories there too. Now throw COP 26 on top of all this
50
Germany is having troubles with electricty prices rising and supplies doubtful.
Currently one kilowatt hour of electricity now costs an average of 30.4 cents for private households. = 55c Aus. or $304 per MWh. Quite cheap when compared with the $390 per MWh rate in South Australia.
The wholesale prices for electricity rose significantly in 2021. In January the average price on the EEX electricity exchange was 45.29 euros per megawatt hour (A$ 73) and had already risen to 50.81 euros by July (A$82). This corresponds to a price increase of around 12 percent. The electricity providers are now passing the price increase on to the end consumer.
On supply: Renewable energies delivered significantly less electricity than expected in 2021 due to the weather. That is why the network operators have to import large amounts of electricity from abroad at great expense.
Power supply for critical industrial companies disconnected from the grid On Saturday, August 14th, the network operators disconnected several industrial companies from the power grid in the evening. The electricity generation could no longer cover the current electricity demand in Germany. The power supply was critical and it was no longer possible to secure the supply even by importing electricity.
Therefore, shortly before 8 p.m., loads were shed from larger, energy-intensive industrial plants, such as aluminum and copper smelters. The disconnection of the so-called immediately disconnectable loads took place for the affected companies, however, without prior warning.
20
you write as though you live in Elysium
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This would be an ‘I told you so’ moment, if it wasn’t so dire for large swathes of powerless (no pun intended) people!
There seems to be an increasingly dangerous mindset amongst leftwing apologists who are willing to sacrifice not just the society which gave them their standard of living, but also a section of that society (the majority) who continue to produce the value while being derided as the actual destructive elements and must accept punishment by the removal of THEIR standard of living, while the sanctimonious enlightened remain in comfort. What’s that called again?
Oh yeah, Marxism!
Wake up in the West, the majority has been anesthetized by CO2 rhetoric and our future is in the hands of Marxists and their useful idiots!
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“The wind drought in spring and summer meant that wind farms failed. Then the Russians squeezed gas supply in to the EU looking suspiciously like they were hoping to push up prices and pressure Germany into approving the controversial Nordstream 2 pipeline. Now the Kremlin is suggesting a quick approval will alleviate the gas shortage (they’re just trying to help). In the latest news one large interconnector between the UK and France has suffered a fire and broken down and won’t be restored til March next year.
The GWPF points out that gas prices in Europe are three times higher than in the USA “where fracking is widely used and shale gas is cheap and abundant.””
Nordstream 2 gas is controversial only in US eyes because they would love to export their fracking gas. However, fracking gas has to be liquefied, transported by ship, and then dewatered on arrival in the EU which all drives up cost. Russian gas is therefore cheaper. The contract with Russia is for a specific sum for the long term, no driving up the prices from their end of the deal. The gas shortage has been brought about by overuse during a cold winter and not replenishing reserves for whatever reason during summer. Now gas is low and whenever something is scarce and needed the price goes up. Gas is traded on the EU market and investors are cashing in – nothing to do with Russia wanting more money. Russia is, however, willing to deliver more gas, so they are, in fact, helping. They are pragmatic after all.
This article describes very well what the situation currently is:
https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2021/gaspreis-bei-fast-1-000-dollar-wie-ein-schweizer-gasversorger-seinen-kunden-preiserhoehungen-begruendet/
For people unfamiliar with German, Google translate does an adequate job.
Cheers
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There was something that the EU bureaucrats were trying to pressure Russia into supplying more gas to The Ukraine.
Since the latter has a history of not paying I could see some reluctance on the part of Russia.
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OldOzzie said:
… or dramatically reducing the population.
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[…] “Fossil Fuels are a strategic asset” say people watching UK and EU perfect gas storm […]
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I’ve always maintained that so-called “renewables” are the NEW CAPITALISM. Just who is behind the building of ” planned obsolescence” wind farms, solar panels and batteries?? No prizes for guessing who. (AKA Al Gore, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, George Soros etc etc etc etc).
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[…] UK and Europe are already thigh-deep, struggling with an energy shakedown of their own making. Yet China, with more coal power than the entire rest of the world combined, puts on the […]
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