The Night the Lights Went Out in Europe
Politico Europe, a publication marinated in green politics, has named Russian President Vladimir Putin as one of its "power players of the year" -- for, in the publication's words, "advancing Europe's green agenda."
"By invading Ukraine and manipulating energy supplies to undermine European support for Kyiv, Putin has achieved something generations of green campaigners could not -- clean energy is now a fundamental matter of European security," the news outlet explained approvingly.
It went on to note that Putin "invaded Ukraine after the EU had spent two years laying the foundations of its Green Deal program for zeroing out emissions by 2050. That meant the policy machinery for a total remake of the European energy economy was already moving. All it needed was a nudge."
You would have to be pretty severely afflicted with Climate Change Derangement Syndrome to celebrate a silver lining in Putin's murderous attack on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Europe has sprinted so far ahead of the United States in its quest to end the use of fossil fuels that many U.S. politicians, environmentalists and media voices look on with envy.
But how is Europe's Green New Deal going now that Putin has given it "a nudge"?
So far, the results are, to say the least, unencouraging. Euroland has been thrust into an epic energy crisis with electricity rationing, power outages, $10 a gallon gas and citizens encouraged by governments to use candles for lights and burning wood for heating purposes. Germany is reopening shuttered nuclear plants to avoid perpetual blackouts. It's a return to the Dark Ages in Europe -- and the climate change lobby is loving the return to chaos and mayhem.
This might be a slight exaggeration, but not much of one. The government in France has now warned of acute energy shortages this winter with drastic steps to conserve. As one publication put it, Paris, the City of Lights, may have to turn off the lights in the weeks and months ahead if it's a cold winter.
Officials in Paris have decreed that local authorities must prepare power outage plans "that would reduce consumption of electricity by up to 38%." Wait, there's more: "The French government said it was working alongside the Ministry of Education to develop plans to close schools in the mornings if the area is to be impacted by rolling blackouts." It sounds to me like climate change is the new COVID-19 for militant lockdowns and curfews.
Germany's energy shortage is so severe that one of the fastest-growing energy sectors is coal. That's because the Germans have declared war on natural gas, so because of the self-inflicted energy crisis, they are forced to use an energy source that emits more greenhouse gases. Wood is also becoming a major source of heating homes. The Dark Ages are back.
Then there is the calamity that is unfolding in Switzerland. This is a country that is anything but a heavy-handed socialist state, but now thanks to the "energy state of emergency," which is the norm in Europe, the Swiss government has announced it will ban the use of electric cars for "nonessential" journeys. At the same time, it is encouraging people to take the train to shop for their groceries, but it has admitted that train service may also be disrupted.
That's not all. The government is also drawing up plans for dealing with blackouts that include reducing store hours by up to two hours per day, heating systems in nightclubs to be turned off and other buildings to be heated to no more than 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Online streaming services and game consoles could be banned. Christmas lights might be turned off, and all sports stadiums and leisure facilities could be closed.
Is Europe turning into a third-world banana republic?
All of this brings us to a stark reality. Europe has gone all-in on wind and solar power, and the experiment has failed miserably. These fringe energy sources don't work and aren't scalable for industrial economies. And the more it doesn't work, the more it requires police state interventions with fascistic controls over the economy and personal behavior. All of these assaults on freedom and prosperity are in the name of saving the planet. One wonders if this is the real endgame objective. The old saying that the greens are the new reds (communists) is proving to be all too true. It's a future that only tyrants like "man of the year" Putin could love.
Worst of all, President Joe Biden's administration and green groups look to Europe as a sterling silver model for America. Biden's climate henchmen even want to move to the left of Europe on climate change controls on our economy. Biden boasted at the climate conference in Egypt last month that he wants the U.S. to sprint ahead of the Europeans on climate controls as if there is virtue in imposing pain and lowing living standards on the public.
In other words, we are speeding over the same cliff of energy poverty, power outages and climate lockdowns that have crashed and burned everywhere else. The calamity is staring in front of us. And the Biden administration is saying faster, faster.
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Electric car demand falls for first time since pandemic as electricity prices soar
Demand for electric cars is falling for the first time since the pandemic as soaring electricity costs make the vehicles increasingly costly to run.
Fewer than one in five car buyers were hunting for an electric vehicle in November, according to data from AutoTrader, down from 27pc in June.
Interest is waning as petrol prices fall and surging energy bills make the cost of running battery powered vehicles more expensive.
The Government has also withdrawn subsidies for electric cars. In June, ministers scrapped a £1,500 grant and in November Jeremy Hunt announced that EVs would be subject to road tax from 2025.
Demand for electric cars is now falling for the first time since the pandemic, AutoTrader said, declining 12.6pc over the last 12 months.
The drop off in interest comes as National Grid was forced to fire up Britain’s coal power stations on Monday in order to stave off fears of a blackout, highlighting the tightness in the energy market that is driving electricity prices higher.
The grid operator put two Drax coal-fired power stations in North Yorkshire on notice to provide power as snow covered the South East of England. The coal generators were later stood down as the acute crunch passed.
The scramble for power delivered a windfall for power generators and traders. Commodities broker Vitol SA was at one point being paid £4,000 per megawatt-hour in National Grid’s balancing market, Bloomberg reported, compared to around £250 per megawatt-hour paid by the grid this time last year.
Back-up coal plants came close to being called upon for the first time this winter as subzero temperatures led to surging demand at the same time as renewable energy generation collapsed. Wind provided just 2.7pc of the energy produced in Britain on Monday, down from an average of 28.5pc over the past year.
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‘Like an oilwell in your back yard’: Irish people turn to cutting peat to save on energy bills
This was supposed to be the year Ireland got serious about protecting its bogs but some of those hopes are wafting up in smoke as households burn peat to save on energy bills.
The soaring cost of oil and gas has reinvigorated the ancient practice of cutting and burning turf, a fuel that hurts the environment but can save a family thousands of euros, especially as temperatures drop to freezing.
Earlier this year the government introduced curbs to peat cutting to protect Ireland’s bogs – which are important carbon sinks and sources of biodiversity – but Europe’s energy crisis has boosted what is supposed to be an anachronism. It costs approximately €500 to heat a household with peat for a year versus several thousand euros for more climate-friendly sources of energy.
“People are glad to have turf. It’s like having an oilwell in your own back yard,” said Michael Fitzmaurice, an independent member of parliament and chair of the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association. An average household that relies on peat consumes 10 to 12 tonnes per year, he said. “It’s security of energy.”
Niall Ó Brolcháin, a researcher at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at the National University of Ireland, said consumers faced a pinch point. “The financial factor is a much stronger motivation than saving the planet. People are facing an immediate crisis.”
Meanwhile people across Europe are turning to solid fuels, with Germany experiencing a wave of thefts of trees and woodpiles in forests.
In Ireland, anecdotal evidence suggests there has been a sizeable increase in the use of so-called turbary rights which allow people to cut peat, said Ó Brolcháin, a former mayor of Galway city. “In many cases turbary rights had lapsed but people are using them again all of a sudden. There is plenty of evidence of people selling peat door to door. It’s quite understandable, given the economics.”
Ireland’s rural inhabitants survived for centuries by draining bogs and using peat as fuel. A semi-state company, Bord na Móna, cut turf on an industrial scale. Storytelling by a blazing hearth embodied the national identity.
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A Sydney climate protester who halted freight trains by suspending herself above a rail line has had her most serious charges dropped
Emma Dorge was arrested in March after participating in one of a series of unauthorised actions by environmental protest group Blockade Australia to disrupt a freight line to Port Botany.
The 26-year-old was arrested after she suspended herself from a pole above the line to draw attention to climate change.
Police charged the activist on four counts including endangering safety of a person on a railway, inciting others to commit a criminal act, remaining on private land without a lawful excuse and refusing to comply with police directions.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the more serious charges of endangering safety and incitement given the activist pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges, Dorge's lawyer Mark Davis told AAP.
Before her hearing on Wednesday in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, Dorge told AAP she stood by her actions in April and believed the NSW government had passed the "draconian" protest laws as a result of how effective the campaigns were.
"I'm really more concerned about runaway climate change. They can't throw the floods and the wildfires in jail," she said.
"The courts are just another kind of violent mechanism that the state uses to repress us."
Dorge is among a number of climate activists who have faced court this week charged over disruptive actions after the state government passed laws to punish disruptive climate protests earlier in the year.
Activists convicted under the laws face fines of up to $22,000 and two years in prison.
The construction workers' union has announced it will campaign to end the "anti-democratic" laws that criminalise protest in NSW.
"The CFMMEU will not sit by while any government in this country seeks to remove one of the cornerstones of our democracy," union national secretary Christy Cain said in a statement.
"If these laws are allowed to stand no worker, no citizen, no member of the community will be safe from the threat of government overreach."
Dorge's action went viral after Seven Network's Sunrise host David Koch suggested authorities cut the rope while she was suspended from the pole during a live interview.
The case has been adjourned to December 22 and Dorge is out on bail.
https://au.yahoo.com/news/sydney-climate-protester-enters-plea-011237542.html
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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