Prepare for a Jolt to Your Power Bill
It gives us no pleasure to say it, but de Maistre was right: We Americans are getting the government we deserve.
Mencken, too, was right when he said we deserved to get it “good and hard.”
We’re getting it good and hard all right, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the realm of energy, where Joe Biden continues to make all the wrong moves. This time, it involves a cockamamie process called carbon capture. As The New York Times reports:
President Biden’s administration is poised to announce limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that could compel them to capture the pollution from their smokestacks, technology now used by fewer than 10 of the nation’s 3,400 coal and gas-fired plants, according to three people who were briefed on the rule.
If implemented, the proposed regulation would be the first time the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, which generate about 25 percent of the planet-warming pollution produced by the United States. It would also apply to future plants.
Why, you ask, are fewer than 10 of our nation’s 3,400 fossil-fuel power plants using this technology? Answer: because it’s ungodly expensive. And guess who’ll be on the hook for that added expense? Yep, you.
Robert Zubrin, an aerospace engineer by trade, does a lot of number crunching to determine that, if implemented, Scranton Joe’s latest “green energy” regulations “would increase the overall cost of electricity in the United States by at least 50 percent, with that portion of the bill being sent to the taxpayers.”
At least fifty percent. If kilowatt hours are your thing, knock yourself out. Like a good mathematician, Zubrin shows his work.
All of this is compliments of Biden’s diabolically laughably named Inflation Reduction Act, which provides $135 in tax credits (read: taxpayer credits) to utility companies for every ton of CO2 they capture. If we assume no growth in U.S. electric production — which, let’s face it, seems overly optimistic — the total taxpayer bill for these carbon-capture credits would be around $246 billion per year.
But wait: That’s just the taxpayer subsidy. And the subsidy won’t fully cover the cost incurred by these utility companies. “If it were,” Zubrin notes, “utility companies would be rushing to take the [Inflation Reduction Act] subsidy and implement carbon capture technology now, without any new EPA regulations forcing them to do so.”
Zubrin continues: “Between the tax subsidy and rate increases, the Biden initiative could multiply the cost of American electricity as much as fourfold. This would represent a massive, highly regressive tax not only of the American public, but also upon U.S. industry, accelerating the deindustrialization of America, costing millions of jobs, and critically weakening our defense-industrial base.”
Have a nice day.
It’s indeed a fine mess those, ahem, 81 million Biden voters have gotten us into, but there is a way out: nuclear energy.
As our Nate Jackson noted last week, we Americans get 60% of our electricity from the aforementioned coal- and gas-fired power plants. The idea that we could, at any time in the foreseeable future, replace three-fifths of our energy supply with the Left’s twin fantasies of wind and solar is lunacy. But with nuclear, it’s entirely doable — if only we can summon up the collective will.
“Democratic administrations from FDR though LBJ,” notes Zubrin, “had a leading role in creating and expanding nuclear energy. But since the 1970s, the Democratic Party policy has been to try to kill it through hyperregulation and obstruction on every front. In the ‘50s and '60s, they supported nuclear power because it reduces air pollution.”
Since then, of course, the Left has targeted the nuclear industry for destruction, filling gullible folks’ minds with thoughts of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl instead of the other-worldly energy density of nuclear and its carbon-free footprint. Thus, the Democrats have all but forbidden the building of any modern nuclear plants for the past half-century.
And Joe Biden has been there to witness it all.
If the Democrats really do believe, as Zubrin argues, that carbon emissions pose an “existential threat” to humanity, then their resistance to nuclear power is even more unforgivable.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/96979-prepare-for-a-jolt-to-your-power-bill-2023-05-03
************************************China's manufacturing wobble may drive coal use even higher
China is already on track to emit the most coal-fired power emissions in history in 2023, but may now push coal use up another gear after the manufacturing sector unexpectedly contracted in April following a strong start to the year.
The softer manufacturing data is expected to trigger fresh stimulus measures designed to spur increased industrial output, as well as steps to help the country's ailing property sector, which will lead to greater energy use throughout the world's largest manufacturer, exporter and polluter.
In turn, power producers are expected to increase use of high-polluting but cheap coal as the main source of power generation, as the tentative nature of the economic recovery means that authorities will be keen to ensure that power costs are as low as possible for businesses and industries.
Beijing has already taken several steps to restore China's economy to a growth path in 2023, following a COVID-19-hit 2022 that curtailed industrial activity and goods production.
The stimulus measures included financial support for export-oriented manufacturers and the easing of movement restrictions so that workers and goods could move more freely, and seemed to have had the desired effect by generating strong growth over the opening three months.
Output of a slew of key appliances including refrigerators and air conditioners, and industrial materials such as crude steel, also increased sharply since late 2022 as the revival measures took root.
However, there are signs that momentum slowed in April after an official measure of manufacturing activity receded into contraction territory due to a patchy global consumer marketplace that could not economically absorb the flood of goods and materials emerging from China's re-invigorated plants.
To combat any further slowdown, Beijing unveiled fresh supportive measures last week, including plans to boost auto exports through cheaper financing, and is expected to drive fresh investment into the country's property sector, which has historically been a key pillar of the Chinese economy.
The combination of new incentives for large manufacturers alongside anticipated support for the construction and property markets will result in greater total power consumption in China over the coming months, and in turn even higher emissions.
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Survey: Growing portion of US shoppers are rejecting EVs
Despite strong EV sales growth, the ratio of U.S. car shoppers uninterested in buying an EV is increasing, according to a new J.D. Power survey.
"Top-line metrics on overall EV market share, availability and affordability have been on a long-term upward trend," J.D. Power said in a statement, "but beneath those headline numbers we are starting to see some consumer behaviors that suggest a possible bifurcation of the automotive marketplace."
J.D. Power's data show the number of shoppers "very unlikely" to consider an EV purchase in the next 12 months reached 21% in March. That's up 2% from the month before and the highest "very unlikely" response J.D. Power had ever seen.
Price and charging were the biggest reasons survey respondents rejected EVs. Of those "very unlikely" and "somewhat unlikely" to consider an EV, 49% cited both "lack of charging station availability" and "purchase price" as reasons for their disinterest in EVs. "Limited driving distance per charge" and "time required to charge" were also frequently cited, with 43% and 41% of respondents, respectively, listing them as factors in avoiding an EV purchase.
On pricing, J.D. Power pointed to the continued confusion over the federal EV tax credit and its tighter requirements, which the firm argues impacts affordability but reduces the number of qualifying EVs. EV prices themselves are also quite volatile at the moment, which could also be dissuading consumers.
On charging, J.D. Power has found in previous studies that customers are much more satisfied with the Tesla Supercharger network, although they've soured a bit with home charging due to surging home electricity prices, mainly in the Northeast.
However, it's worth remembering that these findings come in the context of strong EV sales growth. EVs represented 7.3% of all U.S. new-car sales in March, according to J.D. Power. That's down from 8.5% in February, but still a big increase from EVs' 2.6% market share in February 2020.
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Australia: New Hope’s New Acaland Stage Three Coal mine finally opens 16 years after first mining application
Huge delay mainly due to Greenie opposition
Sixteen years after it began its mining application one of Australia’s most scrutinised mining projects officially opened on Wednesday morning, with the Queensland Government declaring its full backing for a coal mine set to re-invigorate the south east’s economy.
The New Acland Stage Three Project owned by New Hope has survived six prime ministers and four state premiers across 16 years of environmental scrutiny and legal challenges, one of which reached the Australian High Court.
Queensland’s Resources Minister Scott Stewart, who was on hand on Wednesday to cut the blue ribbon, was unequivocal in declaring the State Labor Government’s full support for the project.
“I can bring it down to three words,’’ Mr Stewart said, referring to the long struggle to get the mine up and running. “We did it.’’
Mr Stewart said kids sitting in schools across the Darling Downs would be the major beneficiaries of the project whether as miners, tyre fitters or hairdressers, and all could stay within the community they grew up in.
The mine hires almost its entire workers from the surrounding community, and pours back in millions of dollars in corporate sponsorship to local clubs and organisations.
New Hope Group CEO, Rob Bishop, said the first coal would be extracted well before the end of the year while the company would be continuing to hire for the construction phase.
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http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
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http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
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http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
1 comment:
The electric car industry is in trouble because all the people who wanted them have either got one or have given up expecting them to ever reach down to where they can afford one.
The reason the industry hasn't collapsed completely is that they are so troublesome that many of those who still believe in them are replacing their defectives (with more defectives).
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