California Global Warming Bill is a "Power Play"

California Global Warming Bill (AB 32) Takes Power From Cities to Choose Energy Suppliers - Could Result in Doubled Electricity Prices if Energy Contracts Aren't Extended by January 2007

(Comment below from a California reader:)

A number of California cities, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Riverside, and Anaheim, are rushing to extend long-term contracts with energy suppliers before California's Global Warming Bill (Assembly Bill 32 - AB32) takes effect and their electricity bills could double. AB 32 is a "power" grab which takes away from cities their independence to choose the mix of energy sources for their customers (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear, or "renewables"). If these cities are unable to extend their current long-term contracts before January 2007 the State may be able to dictate that they go off coal, gas, and nuclear-powered energy "cold turkey" and switch to all or mostly "renewables" (solar, wind, landfill gas, etc.), which are double to quadruple the price. On the other hand if the contracts can be extended to 2050, this might be enough time for the junk science behind global warming to be exposed and before it has detrimental impacts on the elderly, low income persons, and other vulnerable population segments, as well as costing jobs. Of course, the mainstream media such as the Los Angeles Times is casting this as a move "to extend dirty power contracts"

(Another comment on the above matter here)






A PESSIMISTIC EMAIL TO BENNY PEISER:

By John A [climateaudit@gmail.com]

Without wishing to diminish Bob Carter's excellent overview of the Stern Report, I would counsel a note of caution on the Stern Report being "the last hurrah for those warmaholics who inhabit a world of virtual climate reality that exists only inside flawed computer models". Those computer models have yet to be debunked, because they predict (or reinterpret) the past (including the very recent past), but no climate modeller is going to put his pension on predicting so much as the next El Nino. Climate models are in constant change, and testing one and finding it wanting in no way concerns the modellers who are constantly "moving on"

Unfortunately, scares like the current one tend to persist for rather a long time. I predict many more "last hurrahs" to come before we all come to our senses (or we run out of money, whichever comes first). The Witchcraft Mania of the 15th-18th Centuries did not suddenly end - rather it receded from public consciousness in the background to more pressing economic and social concerns, until it could be seen for what it was - a religiously-inspired hysteria. (The last witch trial in England was in 1712 but the last one in Scotland was in 1944). I also predict more "the science is settled/done/complete/unquestioned/over" statements as well in response to dreadful rubbish like the Stern Report. Next up, the lurid headlines of IPCC 4AR.

Similarly, while the world's economy is doing reasonably well, the concerns that around the corner lurk hidden cataclysms because of our current prosperity will continue until there is another imaginary hobgoblin to frighten the public with.

At the moment, with Global Warming becoming mainstream and increasingly unfalsifiable with quiet hurricane seasons being now described as when "natural variation temporarily overwhelms greenhouse warming", it seems certain to me that alarm about climate will continue for quite some time, as it has on and off, for thousands of years.

Incidentally we may in the first climate hysteria over a warm period rather than a cold one. In the 1970s climatologists made the implicit assumption that warming brought prosperity and cold brought blight, poverty and social unrest.

We may be the first generation where climatologists fear longer growing seasons, increased rainfall and economic prosperity especially in developing countries. I'm sure we all share the horror.





INDIA REBUFFS EUROPE: "IT'S FOR THE WEST TO ACT"

When India's government tried to persuade cabbies, lorry drivers and auto-rickshaws to use 'green fuel', there was intense opposition. Eventually the courts stepped in and soon major cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai had a majority of public vehicles run on compressed natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas instead of highly polluting diesel oil and petrol. In December 2002, Delhi became the world's first capital to have converted its entire public transport fleet to CNG, making the state-owned Delhi Transport Corporation the largest CNG operator in the world.

Almost six years later, India, which has refused to make any commitments on climate change, has joined the Asia-Pacific Partnership for promoting clean energy technologies. The country has set up eight joint public-private sector panels in areas such as cleaner fossil energy, renewable energy and distributed generation, power generation and transmission, steel, aluminium, cement, coal mining, and building and appliances. The aim is to encourage clean energy technologies and reduce carbon emission.

But India has stayed away from making any undertaking at international forums. 'Any commitment at this point would mean a compromise on current economic growth,' says an environmental analyst at the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment. 'Developed countries are responsible for the entire global warming so far, hence it is for them to reduce their large carbon emissions. We will demand further cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries.'

Subodh K Sharma, adviser at the ministry of environment and forests, agrees: 'We do not want to make any commitment. India is on a growth path, and per capita consumption is still low. India is going to demand strengthening of the commitment by the developed countries at the UN Nairobi Climate Change Conference [from tomorrow to 17 November].'

But he says it is unfair to call India irresponsible: 'Our obligations and approaches are clearly stated in the national environment policy 2006. We are active on the clean development mechanism front, with 353 projects currently endorsed by the government.'

Industry officials point out that corporate groups and companies such as Tata, Birla, Reliance and Suzlon Energy are already employing clean energy technologies and taking adequate steps to minimise carbon emissions. 'The government and green activists are vigilant in India, and any violation of the existing rules under national environment policy will not be tolerated,' says an environment analyst in Mumbai.

India, which has an independent ministry for renewable energy, has taken a giant leap in wind and solar power. For instance, Suzlon Energy, the world's fifth-largest manufacturer of wind turbines, has been endorsed by the environmental ministry for clean development mechanism projects.

The Stern report has reminded the country of the natural disasters it has suffered in the recent past. 'Among developing countries, India has borne the brunt of a series of natural calamities such as tsunami, floods and droughts. These have already vindicated Stern,' says the analyst. 'The report said global warming and climate change could affect India's growth story unless a range of steps are taken to address increased surface temperature and its effect on monsoon pattern and river flows.

'Experts from the University of Reading have estimated that mean summer rainfall in India will increase by 10 per cent and this will be accompanied by more regional variations. The report further warned that this is likely to affect agriculture and, therefore, GDP growth,' says the analyst, adding that there had been few studies done in India about the possible impact of India's own emissions. However, all that Sharma will say is: 'In Nairobi, we will demand all developed countries to make commitments and pledge measures to reduce their emissions. India will strive to implement better technologies that will ease our emissions.'

Source




KYOTO NIGHTMARE LOOMS: RUINOUS ENERGY POLICY PLUNGES EUROPE INTO DARKNESS

A small outage metastatizes -- showing there is no spare capacity

A power shortage in Germany triggered blackouts across Europe, a German electricity firm said Sunday, halting trains, trapping people in lifts and leaving millions of homes into darkness. Germany and France were badly hit by the cuts late Saturday. Austria, Belgium, Italy and Spain were also affected, though supplies to most regions were quickly restored. There were no reports of injuries. Generator E.On AG said the problems began in northwestern Germany, where its network became overloaded, possibly because it shut down a high-voltage transmission line over a river to let a ship pass safely.

Swaths of western Germany, including the industrial Ruhr region, were without power for a half-hour, delaying scores of trains for up to two hours, Deutsche Bahn spokesman Achim Stauss said.

In France, about 5 million people were left without electricity, including many in the capital, Paris. In all, about 15 French regions were affected, firefighters said. France Info radio quoted French power utility Electricite de France as saying that about 5 million people were still without power early Sunday, and that it was not sure when it would be able to bring consumers back online. Firefighters in Paris said they had responded to nearly 40 calls from people stuck in elevators.

Roberta Vivenzio, a spokeswoman Italian energy company Enel, said the blackout affected areas of Piedmont and Liguria in Italy's northwest, as well as Puglia, the southeastern "heel" of Italy's boot-shaped peninsula. Italian Premier Romano Prodi told reporters in his home town of Bologna that the incident suggested Europe needed to strengthen its coordination of power supplies. "My first impression is that there is a contradiction between having European (power) links and not having one European (power) authority," Prodi said. "We depend on each other with being able to help each other, without a central authority."

In Belgium, the region around the port city of Antwerp was the worst affected. Short power cuts were also reported near Ghent and Liege, Erik Deleye from electricity provider Elia told VRT television. The blackout forced rail companies to use buses and taxis to get passengers stranded at rail stations to their final destinations in Ghent.

Spanish network Red Electrica said areas of Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and the region of Andalucia were similarly affected.

E.On said it had shut down transmission lines in the past without causing problems, and that it was still trying to discover what happened this time. Theo Horstmann, of another German power firm RWE AG, said the shortage had caused substations across Europe to shutdown automatically to prevent further damage.

Source




THE PRICE OF GREEN HYSTERIA: EUROPE FACES THREAT OF POWER SHORTAGES

Europe faces the growing threat of electricity shortages because growth in demand has outstripped investment in new power stations, a leading consultancy has warned. Capgemini, the consultancy, said operating at such low margin levels raised the risk of power shortages, including interruption of supply to large industrial users, "brownouts" - reductions in supply voltage - and blackouts.

Colette Lewiner of Cap-gemini said the study should be a "wake-up call" for the energy industry, governments and regulators. "We are in a dangerous zone now," she said. "We could have power cuts."

The average margin - the excess of available electricity supply over peak-load demand - dropped to just 4.8 per cent in the winter of 2005-06, down one percentage point from the previous year. The UK, France, Belgium and Greece are among the countries with the lowest levels of spare capacity.

Capgemini argued that the more competitive and commercial environment for European energy had in part been responsible for the erosion of the capacity margin. For decades European energy industries maintained high levels of excess capacity. But in the past five years generators in most European Union member states have been failing to invest enough to keep pace with the rise in demand. Spain was the worst case last year, with supply capacity rising by just 8 per cent while peak load demand rose by 15 per cent, but in many other countries the margin has been squeezed. Only Ireland, where capacity rose by 36 per cent, has comfortably increased its margin.

European energy companies' investment as a share of their sales has fallen from almost 18 per cent in 2000 to less than 10 per cent in 2004, although it picked up slightly last year. Electricity generators across Europe have become more exposed to commercial pressures by the spread of liberalisation and private ownership. In the past, the generators could have predicted their future demand with reasonable certainty. They were assured of being able to finance the investment needed to meet that demand with enough of a margin to guard against power shortages. Today they will typically need to justify those investments as commercial decisions.

Capgemini said investment in new power stations was also being hampered by ever more complex planning procedures and by governments' persistent tinkering with the regulatory frameworks. Ms Lewiner said: "How can companies plan for a 10 or 20-year return on investment when governments keep changing the rules of the game?" "It should be for national governments and the European Commission to encourage power investment in the energy industry."

The tight supply position is being exacerbated by hotter summer weather and the growing use of air conditioning, which have shifted the traditional seasonal pattern of electricity demand. In Spain, for example, the peak in demand is now in the summer. In France, generators have been forced to rethink their practice of shutting down nuclear power plants in the summer for maintenance. Many of Europe's recent blackouts have also occurred during the summer.

Source

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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