Cheap energy might save more lives than expensive “climate-changey” energy?
Researchers looked at 47 major cities in Spain, from 1980 to 2015 and checked 554,491 deaths. Even though temperatures have risen, less people are dying of heat in Spain. Apparently human ingenuity, energy and air conditioners were more than able to keep up with climate change. The population is older but less vulnerable to heat now than it was forty years ago.
Air conditioners rose from 5% of the population to 35% during the study period.
Oh the dilemma — to save lives, should we build more windmills to try to change the global climate or aim to get 100% of households access to an air conditioner?
Welcome to the dire threat of climate change:
The relative risk of death fell as temperatures rose (According to the model used). See the caption below.
From the Discussion in the paper:
The temporal evolution of heat-related mortality risks here found is, in general, consistent with those reported by previous studies in some other countries [12–15], which provide evidence for a decrease in vulnerability to climate warming despite the ageing of societies. For example, in Spain, the proportion of people aged over 64 years increased from 11.6% to 15.0% in men and from 15.9% to 19.6% in women between 1991 and 2011 [40]. The general downward trend in mortality risks has been attributed by some investigators to socioeconomic development and structural transformations, such as improvements in housing and healthcare services [12–15], or even to specific public health interventions [16–18]. The large socioeconomic advances that occurred in Spain during the last decades might have also contributed to this response, thus reducing the effect of mortality risks over time. For example, the gross domestic product (from €8,798 per capita in 1991 to €22,813 in 2009), the life expectancy at birth (from 77.08 years to 81.58), the expenditure in healthcare (from €605 per capita to €2,182) and social protection (from €1,845 per capita to €5,746), and the number of doctors (from 3,930 per million inhabitants to 4,760 per million inhabitants) have all largely increased in Spain [41]. In addition, the use of air conditioning, which has been postulated as a major contributor to the reduction in heat-related mortality in the United States [13], has also experienced a strong increase in Spanish households within the analysed period (from 5.3% to 35.5%) [42].
The researchers are not sure if this trend will continue as the world warms. But if people can afford to run their air conditioners — why not?
Those crashing ratings would change overnight if news networks threw open the doors and pitted skeptics against believers in a real televised form of debate. The spectators would suddenly be able to pick sides — may the best person win. There would be genuine controversy. Sacred cows would be slaughtered, and for a while at least, climate change would rate well.
What stops the media doing this? Most editors are too scared of being called climate deniers if they dare allow the other side to speak. Look at the pushback when the BBC allowed Professor Bob Carter to do one interview:
Here’s a tantalizing bit of gene research. Scientists were able to switch off a central gene in the nucleus of a mouse cell. That in turn meant the mouse’s mitochondria started failing (I’m going to be talking a lot more about these fascinating bits of machinery in our cells). After two months, the poor lab mice were wrinkled, going bald and their organs were aging rapidly, but lo, after the gene in the nucleus was switched on again, the mitochondria were restored, and wow, all the hair and skin grew back to what it had been before.
Mitochondria have their own DNA loops.
Why get excited about mitochondria? These are tiny biological batteries we have inside every cell. The are the mini-factories burning sugar or fat, generating free radicals on a mass scale and churning out the chemical energy that is then used in most of the chemical reactions in our body. They are turning up in every second paper these days related to aging. These little organelles are so important and rule breaking they even have their own DNA loops with 37 genes — this is the only genetic material in us that is not part of the Big 23 Chromosomes.
What this means? Specifically, we can cure one type of artificial aging in rodents. It’s possible this tells us something very significant about our own aging bodies, but it’s also possible we may go bald and wrinkled for other reasons (or multiple reasons simultaneously). It also may not be safe to play games with this gene. But we’ve learnt something that’s important. If we can slow aging itself we also slow all the diseases of aging — cognitive decline, cancer, heart disease, stroke. Mostly we tackle the symptoms of aging, not aging itself. That’s what makes this research so interesting.
As I’ve been saying for twenty years, within all our cells are the same genes that we had when we were young. If we can figure out how to switch on the right ones at the right time, and correct errors, in theory we can restore body parts from within using our own genes. That’s when everything changes. — Jo
The Sun:
“This mouse model should provide an unprecedented opportunity for the development of preventive and therapeutic drug development strategies to augment the mitochondrial functions for the treatment of ageing-associated skin and hair pathology and other human diseases in which mitochondrial dysfunction plays a significant role.
“It suggests that epigenetic mechanisms underlying mitochondria-to-nucleus cross-talk must play an important role in the restoration of normal skin and hair phenotype.”
In other words, the research suggests the mitochondria plays an important role in the ageing process and should be investigated further to determine new ways of reversing ageing.
———————————————————————
Scientists reverse aging-associated skin wrinkles and hair loss in a mouse model
A gene mutation causes wrinkled skin and hair loss; turning off that mutation restores the mouse to normal appearance.
Researchers have reversed wrinkled skin and hair loss, hallmarks of aging, in a mouse model. When a mutation leading to mitochondrial dysfunction is induced, the mouse develops wrinkled skin and extensive, visible hair loss in a matter of weeks. When the mitochondrial function is restored by turning off the gene responsible for mitochondrial dysfunction, the mouse returns to smooth skin and thick fur, indistinguishable from a healthy mouse of the same age.
The same mouse, left to right — before treatment, then after mitochondrial function was switched down for two months, then finally one month later after mitochondrial function was restored. Credit UAB.
Wrinkled skin and hair loss are hallmarks of aging. What if they could be reversed?
All those billions we spent and yet at 6pm, many days coal, gas and hydro provide 98% of the power Australia needs. Wind and solar are our spare bikes, the third ski, the Banana-Slicers of the National Grid (read those reviews). Just what would we do if wind and solar were all we had? — Jo
At peak time intermittent renewables often make less than 2% of total Australian electricity
When power is required the most, wind and solar are missing almost entirely. This isn’t cherry picking of one time — peak time is the most important time on the grid, when the most power is required. The almost non-existent contribution from renewables is so common it has occurred now for seven days out of the last 14 days.
I’ve been doing a series on the Australian generation and demand curves on a daily basis for seven weeks, the totals are settling down, so that now the percentage changes are only in tenths of a percent, and consider that when it comes to total power and coal fired power, a tenth of one percent is 600MegaWattHours, so at that end of the scale, small is actually large, if you can see that.
At the moment, after 10 weeks, coal fired power is delivering 72.37% of all power, and wind is delivering only 6.16% of all generated power. I have all the percentages, but those two are the ones of most importance. Wind power has just had a very good week (for wind), but in the end, coal fired power is still delivering more than 3 times the total for every renewable power source in the country.
You might wonder why I haven’t mentioned solar power here, because ALL the solar plants, (not rooftop solar) only generate 0.38% of the required power, so just a tick above nothing at all.
….
The main evening peak occurs at 5.30 to 6PM, when power consumption is always at its greatest when people come home, cook dinner, throw on the washing and have showers. (Note here the time, 5.30/6PM, so the Sun has set and there is ZERO power from any solar power plant, and also ZERO power from any rooftop solar installation as well). It’s that one point in time when a large supply of power is at its most critical, so now look at this data for seven days of 14 days in the middle of winter. Wind has had a poor time of it lately, due to those High Pressure weather systems hovering over the area where there is the largest concentration of wind plants, hence very little pressure gradients for wind, and they are in South Australia and Victoria.
Here’s a sample of seven of those 14 midwinter days at 6pm peak power time:
Wednesday 20 June – Peak power – 29680MW. Wind power – 500MW. Total from wind and solar – 1.7%
Thursday 21 June – Peak – 29950MW. Wind – 100MW. Total from wind and solar – 0.33%
Monday 25 June – Peak – 30870MW. Wind – 170MW. Total from wind and solar – 0.48%
Tuesday 26 June – Peak – 30600MW. Wind – 340MW. Total from wind and solar – 1.1%
Wednesday 27 June – Peak – 30480MW. Wind – 340MW. Total from wind and solar – 1.1%
Thursday 28 June – Peak – 30400MW. Wind – 450MW. Total from wind and solar – 1.5%
Sunday 01 July – Peak – 28190MW. Wind – 200MW. Total from wind and solar – 0.7%
There were three other days when it was between 2% and 3%, but these are the seven lowest. This is all wind, as the Sun has set and in winter, solar is useless at 6pm.
So, when power is required the most, wind and solar are missing almost entirely. The point here is that even though the country is consuming the most electricity it actually can consume, on those 14 days, almost ALL OF IT was actually being delivered from coal fired power, natural gas fired power, and hydro power.
From the low point of 0.3% (100MW of that Peak) to the high point of 2%, (600MW) is between one and three units at a gas plant just waiting for the call already to ‘fire up’. The fact that those three main sources have already proved they can handle it is an indictment on the total and utter uselessness of wind power, solar power, and rooftop solar power.
Coal power just keeps going, while hydro and gas are volatile depending on wind generation
In LA temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 32C (90F) on Monday and 36C (97F) on Wednesday. (They call this a heatwave?) But gas is running so short that Californians are being asked to turn off non-essential lights and not use their biggest appliances from 5pm to 9pm.
Welcome to the future, where you need to plan ahead to run your washing machine or oven.
Back in the dark ages when we had coal plants, we just switched these things on hither, thither…
(Reuters) – California’s power grid operator on Monday issued an alert to homes and businesses to conserve electricity on Tuesday and Wednesday when a heat wave is expected to blanket the state.
SoCalGas issued a gas curtailment watch on Monday, notifying customers to be prepared to reduce gas use if needed… the watch would remain in effect until further notice.
The ISO said consumers “can help avoid power interruptions” by turning off all unnecessary lights, using major appliances before 5 p.m. and after 9 p.m., and setting air conditioners to 78 degrees or higher.
By 2020 California may get as much as 33% of its energy from renewables (they are not far behind South Australia). Indeed, the solar sector is on “fire” producing as much as 50% of total demand on at least one day at 1pm last year. Luckily, to get solar to peak at 7pm when it would be useful, they just need to legislate a plus-six-hour daylight savings plan, or keep the same time-zone and move California 90 degrees West.
Huge police numbers were on hand to manage the crowds in London, with only small flare-ups occurring when the demonstrators clashed with pro-Trump counter-protesters outside a pub on Whitehall. Wearing Make America Great Again hats, the small group chanted “USA” and also voiced their support for English far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
But our ABC did feature an interview with a guy wearing a MAGA hat that was there because he “happened across the March”. Obviously the ABC needs more money so it can train staff to use Youtube and teach the Arts grads how to interview leaders of protests instead of anonymous random uninvolved bystanders.
Tommy Robinson seems also to have vanished from mainstream news.
No one needed a smart meter when we had smart baseload. Beware Australians, despite the promises and threats, smart meters may or may not make UK customers a paltry saving. When all is said and done it’s not even clear the benefits outweigh the costs.
Customers have financed the smart meter programme by paying a levy on their energy bills, while suppliers have frequently blamed the levy for rising costs. However, the report claimed most of the eventual savings would be made by energy firms, rather than consumers.
It is an £11 billion programme. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears the country would be richer if the government just gave back £170 to each person instead.
Smart meter looks like a dumb elephant:
The report also said that:
More than half of smart meters “go dumb” after switching, meaning they stop communicating with the supplier
Up to 10% of smart meters don’t work, because they are in areas where mobile phone signals are not strong enough
By the end of the year only 22% of households will have the meters installed, meaning the 2020 deadline is certain to be missed
The eventual cost of the programme could even outweigh the benefits
Remind me why the UK needs them?
Smart meters are supposed to play a major part in the UK’s clean vehicle revolution by allowing electric cars to charge overnight when wind power is strong, demand is low, and energy is cheap. — Read it all at the BBC News.
Another hidden cost of wind and EV’s.
Note the advertising spiel — every dumb program has the word “smart” in the title.
Stephen Harper must have watched the Tony Abbott win, the Trump win, and the Doug Ford win in Ontario. He gets the message. When will Australian conservatives? Fully 48% of Australian’s are happy to pull out of Paris. Plus 14% more are undecided, there for the taking — convince them.
Trudeau’s aggressive climate action plan appears dead
As that [carbon] price is about to take effect, growing opposition has put Trudeau on the defensive and has provincial governments rolling back other measures, raising questions about the appetite of this oil-exporting country to tackle climate change.
Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said Thursday it would join a legal challenge against Trudeau’s carbon pricing. Polls suggest Alberta, the center of Canada’s oil and gas industry, will soon elect a government that opposes the plan. And Trudeau’s own chances of reelection next year have fallen, as his opponents seize on public resistance to carbon pricing.
How quickly things have changed. It seems hard to believe now, but just over a year ago, nine provinces agreed to Trudeau’s plan to usurp provincial jurisdiction and mandate a national carbon tax. At the time, only Saskatchewan opposed the Trudeau carbon-tax grab.
This week, going into the meeting of the premiers, the number of provinces supporting the Trudeau carbon tax looks like it’s down to five — or maybe even four. Soon it could be down to three.
Things are looking so bleak that Ian Brodie, onetime chief of staff to former prime minister Stephen Harper, stated on Twitter recently: “The carbon tax is politically dead and won’t survive the end of (the) Trudeau prime ministership. Everyone knows this but not everyone will admit it.”
What a difference a year makes. It wasn’t long ago that the pundits and so-called experts said a carbon tax was unstoppable in Canada.
Canadians are sick of high electricity prices, and carbon taxes and former PM Stephen Harper says any conservative can win “on that issue alone”:
Support for Trudeau’s Liberal Party has fallen, putting it in a rough tie with the rival Conservative Party. Trudeau’s chief opponent in next year’s federal election, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, has said one of the first things he will do as prime minister is eliminate the carbon tax.
Stephen Harper, the Conservative who governed Canada from 2006 to 2015, also sees a political opening. “Let the other guys do a carbon tax because we can all win the next federal and provincial elections on that issue alone,” he said in a recent closed-door speech, as reported by Maclean’s magazine.
How big was that Ontario win– the ruling greener Liberals were crushed, losing 48 seats and even official party status
I’ve never seen a win and wipe-out as big as the June 7 Ontario elections. Mark it up in the history books. The Conservatives went from 27 seats to 76. The Liberals went from 55 seats to just 7. They can fit their MP’s in a mini-van. It was their worst result in 161 years. The third party is now The Opposition. Seismic is the word.
Ontario’s election last week was a humiliating and crushing defeat for Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, which went from being in government to losing official party status overnight. Peter Shawn Taylor wrote in the Financial Post on Tuesday that the election was a revolt over high energy prices caused by poor government policy. — IPA Newsletter
UPDATE: To clarify It was specifically Kathleen Wynne which suffered the crushing defeat (not Justin Trudeau). From reader Joey: Kathleen Wynne was the liberal premier (and was leader of the Ontario provincial liberal party) that conclusively lost the election (she has subsequently resigned as party leader). The federal and provincial liberal parties are affiliated but have different leaders. Justin Trudeau is the federal premier (and leader of the federal liberal party). There is a reasonable chance that the federal liberals could lose the upcoming federal election next year. Then the carbon tax will be truly dead.
As Al in Cranbrook BC says: “Jason Kenney’s Conservatives in Alberta, by every indication, will demolish the NDP (socialist) government in 2019.”
It’s hard to believe, but voters don’t seem to want to pay more for electricity to change the weather in 2100 by an amount too small to measure.
Someone tell our MP’s and get us a new P.M., or an old one, any one that is actually not centre left.
Happy to hear from more Canadians.
A populist skeptical rise,
Could give leaders some shock and surprise,
Making governments fall,
If they didn’t play ball,
And cut warmists and Greens down to size.
–Ruairi
Say you want to speak something you believe to be true, but it may offend or upset some people. Violent thugs threaten to turn up. In Victoria the police bills the non-violent speaker — in this case $68,000 in order to keep the peace.
How is this not “protection money” and with the police working in cohoots with bullies?
I am calling out Victoria’s Police and their masters in the Labor government. Why are you cooperating with violent fascists of the Left to stop conservatives or people of the right from holding meetings? This $68,000 bill to protect Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux is a disgrace.
Rather than going after people who actually cause violence, the Victorian police are trying to shut down a legal, law-abiding speaker and prevent her from giving a lecture. Because of threats made by some Marxist thugs.
This goes to the very heart of freedom of speech in Australia. If the police can force someone to pay $68,000 or else be silent, then freedom of speech in Australia is dead. If anything, shouldn’t the people responsible for violence be given the bill? Apparently not in Victoria today.
It doesn’t matter if you agree with Lauren or not – this isn’t about her, this is about the fundamental right to freedom of speech.
In one of the more pointless and inane “scientific” publications of the year, Brulle et al has added up climate lobbying dollars across the years and sectors, but missed the two largest sectors and blended friend and foe unto homogenised pap. Even Brulle admits that gas companies lobby for climate legislation, while coal companies lobby against it, yet Brulle still lumps them all into the archetypal ogre called “Fossil Fuels”. Let’s perpetuate a mindless stereotype, eh?
Was that an accident or an aim?
Thus and verily do “fossil fuels” predictably outspend environmental organisations:
“Unsurprisingly, sectors that could be negatively affected by bills limiting carbon emissions, such as the electrical utilities sector, fossil fuel companies and transportation corporations had the deepest pockets. Their lobbying efforts dwarfed those of environmental organizations, the renewable energy industry and volunteer groups.”
Gas companies benefit from climate change because coal is the enemy, and more unreliable generators means the grid needs more gas or oil. The only reason to blend these together under the block category “Fossil fuels” is to feed the hate-tweet memes. Go Brulle.
Carbon lobbying peak days are over
Peak years were 2009 and 2010.
The two largest lobbyists of all don’t even get a mention.
There was no “financial sector”, no bank mentioned. But then, perhaps Citigroup just spent $100b, but didn’t think to lobby on Capital Hill? Could be…
Banks involved in carbon trading
Which lobbyists are the most desperate?
Perhaps I missed it, but I saw no mention of the desperation levels of the various sides. Those selling an essential commodity have the security of knowing that demand for their products will still be running strong even if the government changes the rules tomorrow. Those selling an uncompetitive, esoteric product designed to change the weather in a hundred years are desperate. It’s do or die for them. When the government changes the rules, their market evaporates.
That’s why, one day when someone does a meaningful study on funds for climate lobbying, they’ll find it stacked heavily for “climate change”.
In this debate there are a thousand vested interests and only a few vested losers. Apart from coal, the losers are export industries and most of the population. Who lobbies for them?
Robert J. Brulle. The climate lobby: a sectoral analysis of lobbying spending on climate change in the USA, 2000 to 2016. Climatic Change, 2018; DOI: 10.1007/s10584-018-2241-z
Our understanding of the sun’s effect of Earth’s weather is so immature
Remarkably, some Japanese families kept weather record diaries in the 1700 and 1800s, and some for as long as 150 years. The connections they reveal are tantalizing but so incomplete. We are trying to fish out primitive signals from murky water. The Sun turns around on itself every 27 days, so these researchers are looking for repeating patterns in lightning that fit, but the poles of the sun spin slower than the equator and the sun spots can take their own time. Hence, it’s not a neat “27” days.
During periods of high solar activity, they found regular peaks in lightning activity with the right timing, from May to September when the cold Siberian air mass is not so influential.
Other studies we’ve discussed here have investigated long solar cycles on the 11 year or 200 year scales. But here, the researchers are thinking of day to day weather, and looking for a solar influence on timeframe that might improve weather forecasting. Obviously there is a long way to go. As for mechanisms they suspect that it’s the solar wind that is influential, but they don’t know, when sun spots peak there’s also an increase in ultraviolet rays and decrease in energetic particles.
In a paper last year they found the 27 day cycle in modern Japanese records from 1989-2015. Now they have found it in much older and longer records.
The Sun affects Earth in so many ways, through magnetic and electric fields, charged particles at Mach 2000, and wild swings in UV radiation. Climate models treat it as if it were just a ball of light. Imagine if we had spent $100 billion looking at solar influences on the climate. We might have models that worked….
Diary entries dating back to the 1700s could help scientists understand the link between lightning activity on Earth, and the rotational cycle of the sun.
Researchers in Japan have turned to detailed logs kept by farm families and government officials hundreds of years ago, looking for mentions of thunder and lightning events. The study shows this activity lined up with the time it takes sunspots to make a complete rotation, suggesting the cycle plays a ‘very important role,’ in daily weather.
According to the team, this is the same window for a sunspot rotation, and was seen to be especially strong in years with a high number of sunspots.
“It is well known that long-term — centennial to millennial-scale — variations of solar activity influences terrestrial climate,” said Hiroko Miyahara, first author on the paper, and an associate professor of Humanities and Sciences/Museum Careers at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Japan. “However, it is not well established whether the sun influences the daily or monthly weather.”
From the intro to the 2018 paper — this effect also occurs in England and possibly in tropical clouds:
The idea of Pulling out of Paris is barely discussed in Australia. Tony Abbott made it a national discussion for five minutes last week, but apparently that’s all it takes, or even less. After 30 years of non-stop agitprop and years of bipartisan rah, rah, solemn “history in the making” cheer, the truth is Australian’s mostly don’t give a toss. All we had to do was ask them.
It’s a loaded question framesd as “if pulling out could result in lower electricity prices”... Purists may protest that this overstates the result. Not so. If we had any kind of rational national discussion it would be obvious to all that the “could” is a wishy washy misleading and loaded term — seeding the possibility that pulling out might not lower prices. If people knew that no nation on Earth with lots of unreliables also has cheap electricity, even more people would want to abandon Paris.
By more than two to one, people want cheaper power, not Paris points:
Almost two thirds, 63 per cent, of voters also claimed that cheaper power should be governments’ priority with only 24 per cent believing reducing emissions should take precedence.
NewsPoll, Australia out of Paris, July 2018.
In any normal electorate this would be a seismic hot number. Even a quarter of Greens voters are willing to chuck Paris for cheaper power bills. And it’s clearly a dominant issue among One Nation voters. What better way for a rampaging Coalition to steal back centre right voters and win the centre left too? Except they won’t — Turnbull gave up this electoral gift and almost lost the last election, all he had to do was follow Abbott’s lead.
This revealing polling comes from The Australian, under the title:
Trump got the US out of Paris, but US taxpayers are still funding pointless climate-control deals.
The World Bank is supposed to be sorting out poverty. Instead it’s enriching the renewables industry, and keeping the poor stuck on unreliable low grade energy.
The World Bank is spending millions in government funding from various countries, including the U.S., to implement climate mitigation strategies in line with an international agreement to fight climate change — the Paris climate accords.
No other country could sort out the World Bank as quickly as the US:
The U.S. is the World Bank’s largest supporter and shareholder owning 17 percent of organization’s shares. The next largest owner, Japan, owns just under 8 percent. Several bills moving through Congress would grant the World Bank, along with other Multilateral Development Banks, roughly $1.8 billion.
“Climate change is a threat to the core mission of the World Bank Group,” the World Bank’s 83 page Climate Change Action Plan for 2016-2020 states.
Leapfrog the poor into Neverland:
The World Bank’s strategy, generally, is to leapfrog the fossil fuel rung of the “energy ladder” and construct grids powered by zero-emission renewable energy sources in countries with wide-spread systemic poverty. Wind and solar energy is intermittent power reliant on the weather and energy is produced at a higher cost relative to fossil fuels.
The US could distribute that aid direct to the countries that need it. Imagine what a difference a few reliable coal plants could make in Africa. Last time TonyFromOz looked, 15 million people in Mali used the same electricity as the 40,000 pop. town of Dubbo did. See those African energy use statistics.
Energy Minister Greg Rickford said the move will save provincial ratepayers $790 million — a figure industry officials dispute, saying it will just mean job losses for small business.
In a statement Friday, Rickford said the government plans to introduce legislation during its summer sitting that would protect hydro consumers from any costs incurred from the cancellation.
“For 15 years, Ontario families and businesses have been forced to pay inflated hydro prices so the government could spend on unnecessary and expensive energy schemes,” Rickford said. “Those days are over.”
Opponents complained that this would cost jobs. Obviously they forget the Green job multiplier: for every Green job lost 3 – 5 real jobs will be created.
Renewables fans said this will lead to big lawsuits and called it a war on science. What they did not say was how this was an opportunity missed because all these projects would be profitable selling electricity to local businesses.
If only they could have…
New Greens reason: do it because you’re supporting a big Vested Interest
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the cancellation means the province is turning its back on the global renewable industry, which he said is worth billions and is a proven job creator. Schreiner added the decision also sends a number of negative signals about the province to business.
Because billion dollar industries need all the help they can get, right?
Last week only fringe loonies who were clinging to a dead technology were calling for a coal revival (mock mock mock). But now that the ACCC has spent months investigating and 400 pages reporting, they discovered that Tony Abbott and Craig Kelly and the Monash group were, hey, all right all along.
This is Turnbulls get-out-of-jail card, if he used it as an excuse to be sensible. He has in the past taken those cards and set fire to them. In a best case, he might, with arm twisted in a one-spare-seat-government, “build new coal” sometime in the far distant future, but whatever he does he won’t do anything other than minor hand waving about the Crony Green-Theft runaway train profits.
A proposal for the federal government to financially guarantee the construction and operation of new dispatchable power generation, which could include clean coal-fired plants, is expected to be taken to cabinet with the backing of the Prime Minister.
Malcolm Turnbull yesterday confirmed he would seriously consider the key recommendation of a report by the competition watchdog to underwrite and potentially subsidise new “firm” and cheap power generation for industrial and commercial users.
Signalling a possible end to the energy wars within the Coalition partyroom, the recommendation was immediately endorsed by Nationals MPs, who have interpreted it as a green light for government to intervene in supporting the future of coal generation.
h/t RobK
The government wouldn’t need to buy new coal plants if our market wasn’t so screwed in the first place. But it is screwed, so “OK”. Better would be for the government to get out of the market, stop trying to use our electricity grid as a Global Climate Controller, stop forcing consumers to buy green electrons, stop trying to pick-the-winners in the tech game, stop big energy groups from owning every kind of generator and game the bidding system, stop building transmission lines to Kalamazoo and stop employing green activists to run our national energy market.
No End to the Energy Wars
As for the idea that this “signals an end to the energy wars”… Not A Chance.
As long as customers are being forced to spend money on magical glass panels to stop droughts and save whales, or to subsidize windmills to hold back the tide and stop crocodiles, there will be no end to the energy wars. As long as Chinese Crypto miners can get electricity at a third of the price in Australia that Australian Newsagents can we know we still have a problem. Once the public realizes how fool politicians sold them out to the renewables industry with witchdoctor excuses, there will be hell to pay.
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Trump got the US out of Paris, but US taxpayers are still funding pointless climate-control deals.
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