Monday, May 01, 2023
Europe backs off climate push as voters rebel
Europe is beginning to back off its aggressive carbon-zero policies. Why? Because consumers are balking. European Union administrators have gone too far, too fast, and the citizens of France, Germany and the Netherlands, among others, have had enough.
There is a lesson here for President Biden. Unfortunately, he and his White House climate zealots are unlikely to learn from what is going on across the Atlantic.
Ironically, it is the French Green Party that most recently tried to block plans pushed by the European Parliament to put a carbon tax on fuel used in heating and transport. Its members fear that the measure will reignite the protests of the Gilets Jaunes, the yellow vest group that emerged overnight to oppose a proposed carbon tax on diesel fuel and whose protests all but shut down France.
It is not that the Greens have gotten realistic about the need for oil and gas as a bridge fuel, or have suddenly recognized the economic risks of betting on unreliable renewable fuels; rather, they worry that, as one legislator put it, “in a few years’ time, people will hate climate policies. People will go to the far-right parties.”
The proposal to force businesses to buy emissions allowances on fuel and heating would increase household costs by an estimated 50 percent — too much to be politically acceptable. Nonetheless, the EU Parliament approved the measure, which will not go into effect until 2027 and could be postponed if energy prices increase.
The squabble is a follow-on to the German government’s fight against the EU’s proposed restrictions on auto emissions, which would essentially ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines after 2035. Similar to Biden’s recent tailpipe emissions diktat, which would squash sales of gasoline-powered cars in the same time frame, the EU wants to force automakers to reduce new car emissions 55 percent by 2030 compared to 2021 levels and 100 percent by 2035.
In Holland, meanwhile, the government’s proposal to force a significant portion of the country’s livestock farmers out of business (and reduce the number of cows, pigs and chickens in the nation by one-third) to lower nitrogen emissions led to riots last summer. It also led to a surge in the popularity of the nascent Farmer-Citizen Movement, which came from nowhere to win 15 seats in the upper house of the Dutch national parliament last month, putting the populist group on par with other important voting blocs.
Here at home, as it barrels toward a fanciful green economy devoid of gasoline-powered cars, the Biden White House is ignoring polling that shows decidedly tepid enthusiasm for electric vehicles.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a new directive on tailpipe emissions that would effectively require that 67 percent of new cars and light pickup trucks and 46 percent of medium-duty trucks sold in the United States by 2032 be all-electric.
This goal is a significant step up from Biden’s earlier target of 50 percent new cars being EVs by 2030 and would require a massive investment by automakers; it would also require a monster build-out of our electric grid, significant expansion of available battery materials and huge number of new charging stations. Last year fewer than 6 percent of all new cars were electric; the proposal is so extreme that he faces serious push-back even from his pals in Big Labor.
According to The New York Times, the stricter emissions standards were originally to be rolled out in Detroit, home to the U.S. auto industry, but pushback from the United Auto Workers was such that the announcement was moved to EPA headquarters in Washington, and boycotted by union reps.
It’s no wonder. Manufacturing an electric vehicle requires fewer than half the number of workers that are required to produce an internal combustion engine. Not only will the industry’s workforce shrink as car makers switch to EVs, but most of the new plants making the electric cars and batteries are located in right-to-work states, where the costs are lower.
Why would Joe Biden put his excellent relations with organized labor at risk? Because desperate times call for desperate measures. President Biden wants very much to run for a second term, but he’s buried under low approval ratings and a darkening economic outlook. He is desperate for a win.
That’s why he’s doubling down on policies that he and his managers think appeal to groups absolutely critical to his campaign: climate activists and young voters. A poll last summer showed a shocking 94 percent of voters between the ages of 18-29 wanted someone other than Biden to be the Democratic nominee in 2024. That reading lit a fire under Biden’s camp, prompting, among other things, a renewed push to cancel student loan debt, even though his program would cost an estimated $450 billion and has been criticized as unfair to the majority of Americans who do not attend college or who have already paid off their student loans.
In seeking the youth vote, climate is key. A recent Economist poll shows climate to be one of the top three issues for people under the age of 29; for no other age group does it rank so high. But the effort to win over environmentalists is not only an appeal to Gen X — it is also about money. The 2020 election established climate activists as a significant new source of Democrat funding, contributing some $50 million to Biden’s campaign. Joe needs that backing.
Biden especially needs to re-energize climate voters since he did the unthinkable and allowed Chevron to drill on Alaska’s North Slope. Greenlighting the Big Willow project breached the president’s campaign promise to halt drilling on federal lands and marred his almost perfect anti-oil record.
Before Biden proceeds further down the new green road, he should consider that his aggressive (some say impossible) and expensive proposals could cost the climate effort significant popular support. It is happening in Europe, and it could happen here.
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India's power generation grew at the fastest pace in over three decades in the just-ended fiscal year, fuelled by coal
Intense summer heatwaves, a colder-than-usual winter in northern India and an economic recovery led to a jump in electricity demand, forcing India to crank up output from coal plants and solar farms as it scrambled to avoid power cuts.
Output from plants running on fossil fuels rose 11.2%, the quickest growth in over three decades, thanks to a 12.4% surge in electricity production from coal, the analysis showed, offsetting a 28.7% decline in generation from cleaner gas-fired plants as a global spike in LNG prices deterred usage.
In the new fiscal year that began April 1, Indian power plants are expected to burn about 8% more coal.
The rapid acceleration in India's coal-fired output to address a spike in power demand underscores challenges faced by the world's third largest greenhouse gas-emitter in weaning its economy off carbon, as it attempts to ensure energy security to around 1.4 billion Indians.
Total power supplied during the last fiscal year was 1509.15 billion kWh, 8.4% higher than a year earlier but still 6.69 billion units short of demand, the widest deficit in six years.
Electricity generated from coal rose to 1,162.91 billion kWh, the data showed, with its share in overall output rising to 73.1% - the highest level since the year ending March 2019.
India's Central Electricity authority estimates that 1 million kWh of power produced from coal generates 975 tonnes of carbon dioxide, while the same amount of power generated from gas produces 475 tonnes. A plant fired by lignite, known as brown coal, emits 1,280 tonnes to produce equivalent power.
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South Africa’s Energy Chief Opens Coal Mine as Blackouts Persist
South Africa’s energy minister attended the opening of a new coal mine, promoting use of the dirtiest fossil fuel as the government struggles to control an energy crisis.
Africa’s most industrialized nation has been subjected to controlled blackouts almost every day this year to prevent a total collapse of the grid as state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. fails to meet demand. The outages have the potential to deepen during the winter, and officials and lawmakers have been meeting to consider alternatives to bolster the electricity supply.
One option would be to extend the life of Eskom coal-fired plants that were due to be retired over the next few years, but that would undermine South Africa’s plans to transition to cleaner forms of energy — a process that rich nations have pledged $8.5 billion to help fund.
“Coal is going to be here for a long time,” and clean-coal technologies could help prolong its use, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe said Friday while touring Seriti Resources Holdings Ltd.’s Klipspruit Colliery in the coal-rich Mpumalanga province. A video of his remarks was posted on his Twitter account.
Mantashe, a former mine worker and labor union leader, who has previously said he doesn’t have a problem with being identified as a “coal fundamentalist,” has overseen a stop-start program to boost renewable power generation. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as electricity minister earlier this year and tasked him with overseeing the government’s response to the blackouts, but has yet to clarify what powers he will have.
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Carbon dioxide shortage threatening supply of key consumer goods
A strange irony here. Where's all that CO2 that the Greenies have "sequestered"?
There are growing concerns within the supermarket, food, grocery and beverages industries that a carbon dioxide shortage might threaten the supply of hundreds of consumer products – from baby food to packaged meat – highlighting once again the fragile state of Australia’s food supply chain.
The tightening supply of manufactured carbon dioxide was revealed by Coles chief executive Steven Cain on Friday and acknowledged by Ritchies supermarket boss Fred Harrison, as well as the nation’s largest chicken producer, Inghams, a host of beverage companies including Coca-Cola, and a range of grocery manufacturers contacted by The Australian over the weekend.
“Some of the (supply) challenges are ongoing, some of them are returning. There is now a CO2 shortage again, and that is impacting obviously carbonated drinks and a few other products as well,” Coles boss Steven Cain said on Friday.
“Obviously, things that are carbonated are in short supply. I understand there is more CO2 heading our way but there’s just two main suppliers in the world … and I think there is just a shortage caused by the environment at the moment.”
Already the supply issues for carbon dioxide have left Woolworths desperately short of its private label soda water and mineral water products, with many stores sold out for weeks. Many of its shelves are also showing thinning supplies of branded soft drinks.
“Due to challenges in the supply chain, we do have lower volumes of our own-brand carbonated beverages than we would like but we expect supply to get back to normal in the next few weeks,” a Woolworths spokesman told The Australian.
Mr Harrison, the boss of one of the nation’s largest independent supermarket chains, Ritchies, said the CO2 shortage was a growing concern within the industry.
“The further we moved away from Covid you would have anticipated that these sorts of issues are going to go away, but right now there is a major issue around CO2 and I think this could be a threat to industries such as the carbonated soft drink category … it is a high risk and I think some companies have tried to anticipate this and tried to order but there is a shortage of getting product into the country.”
It isn’t just the fizzy drink sector that is being hit by a shortage of carbon dioxide, with CO2 used in the production of hundreds of consumer products such as packaged meats, baby foods, fresh foods and baked products. It is also used for dispensing drinks in pubs and in a number of medical procedures. CO2 is used as a pure gas or in mixtures with other gases for anaesthesia, stimulating breathing and sterilising equipment.
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