UK: Extinction Rebellion protestors charged as newspaper deliveries blocked in weekend chaos

More than 100 members of the climate action group took part in bamboo lock-ons to block roads outside the Newsprinters' works, at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire and Knowsley, near Liverpool, on Friday evening. This meant some newspaper shelves in shops were left empty on Saturday morning. Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp's titles were targeted, including The Sun, The Times, The Sun On Sunday and The Sunday Times.

The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday were also affected.

Hertfordshire Police said 51 people have now been charged with obstruction of the highway following the protest outside Newsprinters Ltd print works in Waltham Cross.

The statement added two people have been remanded in custody to appear in court on Monday while 49 were released on conditional bail.

Merseyside Police said it had since charged 26 people, aged between 19 and 60, following a demonstration at the "News International premises" in Knowsley on Friday night.

They are due to appear at Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates' Court and St Helens Magistrates' Court on January 8 and 13 next year.

Police said all 26 have been granted bail under the condition they do not enter Merseyside or contact any News International employees.

XR apologised to newsagents for the disruption. But added it would not apologise to Mr Murdoch, calling on him to "stop suppressing the truth about the climate crisis and profiting from the division your papers create".

Home Secretary Priti Patel now wants to take a "fresh look" at how XR is classified under law after a stunt Boris Johnson deemed "completely unacceptable".

He said: “A free press is vital in holding the government and other powerful institutions to account on issues critical for the future of our country, including the fight against climate change. “It is completely unacceptable to seek to limit the public’ access to news in this way.”

The review could lead to XR being treated as an organised crime group.

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PBS Defies UN ‘Consensus’ While Blaming Hurricanes, Wildfires on Climate Change

PBS News Hour attacked climate science this weekend, publishing alarmist claims about hurricanes and wildfires that defy findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In an interview between PBS reporter Hari Sreenivasan and Andrew Freedman, editor of Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, the two journalists blamed global warming for severe wildfires and hurricanes. According to the IPCC, however, there is little or no evidence indication global warming is impacting hurricanes or drought.

The interview’s headline reads, “Climate change is driving wildfires, giving ‘rocket fuel’ to tropical storms.” Sreenivasan prefaces the interview by stating, “[t]he last two decades have seen an increase in the number and intensity of both wildfires–like those currently burning in California and tropical storms, with this year’s hurricane season on track to be one of the busiest on record.”

Freedman agrees, saying, “Climate change is having a very clear and significant impact on wildfire size wildfire patterns … you’re seeing more extreme fire behavior now than you did before.” Regarding hurricanes, Freedman added, “[i]t’s a record season for tropical storm season in the Atlantic already.”

Sreenivasan and Freedman get the facts wrong. IPCC findings, confirmed by meteorological data provided by the U.S. government, show no increase in either the frequency or intensity of wildfires or hurricanes despite modestly rising temperatures over the past century.

Drought is the primary climate component that would affect wildfires. As reported in Climate at a Glance: Drought, the U.N. IPCC reports with “high confidence” that precipitation has increased over mid-latitude land areas of the Northern Hemisphere (including the United States) during the past 70 years. Also, IPCC has “low confidence” about any negative trends occurring globally. Moreover, In 2017 and 2019, the United States registered its smallest percentage of land area experiencing drought in recorded history. Still further, The United States is undergoing its longest period in recorded history with fewer than 40 percent of the country experiencing “very dry” conditions.

Date from federal government sources confirm the IPCC findings. As reported in Climate at a Glance: Wildfires, long-term data from U.S. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) show wildfires have declined in number and severity in recent decades. Using data on U.S. wildfires from as far back as 1926, NIFC reports the numbers of acres burned is far less now than it was throughout the early 20th century. As the Figure below shows, current acres burned run about 1/4th to 1/5th of the record values which occurred in the 1930s.

Globally, the data on wildfires are just as clear. In his book False Alarm, Bjorn Lomborg observes:

There is plenty of evidence for a reduction in the level of devastation caused by fire, with satellites showing a 25 percent reduction globally in burned area just over the past 18 years … In total, the global amount of area burned as declined by more than 540,000 square miles, from 1.9 million square miles in the early part of last century to 1.4 million square miles today.

And the hurricane data are just as powerful, with the IPCC reporting there is, “only low confidence for the attribution of any detectable changes in tropical cyclone activity to anthropogenic influences.”

And, as explained in Climate at a Glance: Hurricanes, hurricane impacts have recently been an all-time low in the United States. “The United States recently went more than a decade (2005 through 2017) without a major hurricane measuring Category 3 or higher, which is the longest such period in recorded history. The United States also recently experienced the fewest number of hurricane strikes in any eight-year period (2009 through 2017) in recorded history,” according to data from the National Hurricane Center. If at the conclusion of this hurricane season, it proves to be busier than average for the year, it would just represent a return to normal from the 1970s and before.

With major hurricanes at historic lows and wildfires numbers and scope well below the 20th century average, PBS is inventing fake news by claiming climate change is pouring “rocket fuel” on wildfires and hurricanes.

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The Saline County (Nebraska) Planning and Zoning Board approved a four-month moratorium for new wind farm applications

As reported by the Seward Independent, the Board’s action came in response to a request made by a local resident, Jeff Koll, during its August 18 public meeting.

Two industrial wind facilities are currently being developed in Saline County, the 300 megawatt (Mw) Milligan One project owned by EDF Renewables and the 300 Mw Cornhusker Harvest wind facilities owned by Apex Clean Energy. These projects are not affected by the moratorium.

‘Ensure the Safety of Further Development’

In the light of the significant wind projects already under construction, Koll said the board should update regulations before allowing further industrial wind farms in the county, “to ensure the safety of further development.”

A majority of the board agreed with Koll’s position, with six members of the zoning board voting to approve a moratorium on accepting new wind farm applications until December 31. One member voted against the moratorium and the zoning board President abstained. During the discussion of the moratorium members of the planning and zoning board noted they had been debating whether imposing limits on noise and lighting from wind facilities, and establishing set-backs from businesses, homes, and other infrastructure, would be justified to protect public health and property values, since July 2019.

If the moratorium agreed to by the planning and zoning board is approved by the Saline County’s Board of Commissioners, project developers will still be allowed to request applications for new wind farm permits, but they would not be accepted for consideration by the board. Whether or not the board ultimately acts to impose new regulations on wind facilities, the moratorium would lapse on January 1, 2021.

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Coal's rapid decline won't cripple future energy grid: Australian study

What a laugh!  This is just a call to replace coal with natural gas  The Greenies won't be happy at all.  Natural gas is also a "fossil" fuel that gives off CO2!

Natural gas does tend to be cheaper than coal but that is subject to supply and demand.  On the East coast at the moment only Queensland mines it and their producers have long-term contracts with overseas customers.

It would certainly be cheap if NSW and Victoria relaxed their bans on gas mining but that seems a long way off.  An unholy alliance between Greenies, Nimbys and farmers is standing in the way so far


Coal’s rapid exit from the energy grid can run smoothly and governments won’t need to intervene in the market to keep the lights on.

The future energy market can serve consumers well without big government subsidies despite the unprecedented disruption in the shift to renewables, said Energy Security Board (ESB) chair Dr Kerry Schott. The ESB is proposing a range of market reforms in a new study released for consultation on Monday.

Established by the Commonwealth of Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Council in 2017 the ESB advises on the unprecedented market transition so it can deliver “security and reliability to drive better outcomes for consumers” in the national electricity market.

“Governments are pretty nervous about big coal plants exiting the grid, and old gas plants for that matter, and I can understand why they want to intervene,” Dr Schott said.

“But if we can get the market measures in place outlined in the report, governments may not need to intervene at all. But comprehensive change to the market design is needed “

The ESB’s Post 2025 Energy market design report found “the exit of generation is not in itself a problem” if forward-looking reforms are made.

It’s seeking feedback on a suite of policy proposals to manage prices and encourage private investment in not just large scale power generation but also firm dispatchable resources like hydro power, batteries and fast-start gas plants for when the sun isn’t shining or wind isn’t blowing.

Over the next 20 years 61 per cent of Australia’s ageing and increasingly expensive coal fired capacity is set to be shut down and mainly replaced by cheaper renewable energy with dispatchable back-up that can enter the grid as required at short notice.

The national energy market in the past year comprised 74 per cent coal, six per cent gas, 4 per cent solar, 10 per cent wind and 5 per cent hydro. This is changing rapidly.

The ESB noted governments have reacted to the volatility in consumer electricity prices with a wide range of uncoordinated policies that “do not align with incentives to encourage investment in the amount and type of resources that would meet consumer and power system needs”.

“What we’re trying to do with our reform options is to have a market for the essential services that firm and dispatchable power provides. We want companies bidding those services into a market that is properly valued so the Australian Energy Market Operator can stop intervening to ensure those services are available - which is currently very expensive,” Dr Schott said.

The ESB also emphasised the need for new market rules to harness the benefits of what’s known as the distributed energy resources - that is the two million households and business with rooftop solar panels that can feed power back into the grid, and store power in batteries.

The CSIRO has found a two-sided energy market, where households pay for using power supplied from the grid and are also paid for the power generated on their premises and demand savings they make, could earn up to $2.5 billion a year, or an annual electricity saving of $414 to an average household.

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