Climate pledges vanish in Europe

h/t GWPF  NetZeroWatch

The Greens must be having apoplexy.  In Glasgow last year everyone was signing climate agreements with no idea that by June they would be signing 15 year new deals for gas with the U.S., the Middle East and Africa. Germany is pouring $3b into floating LNG import platforms. The Germans are also suggesting that the G7 now allow funding for fossil fuel projects, presumably to allow new gas or even coal projects to solve the energy crisis. Meanwhile Boris Johnson is cutting net-zero targets and  suggests maybe in the face of food shortages we should feed food to people instead of cars. Starving people to save the world was never going to sell well. Especially when the UK was getting 20% of the ethanol for the biofuel program from Ukraine.

The squeeze is everywhere. Hydrogen targets are being reconsidered or adjusted down, while still other commitments may become “voluntary”, and some start dates are being pushed back by a year. It was only March when Germany agreed to phase out the sale of new fossil fuel cars by 2035. Now in June, Germany has rejected the EU ban because suddenly there are niches where combustion engines are useful.

Some of these changes, like the gas contracts and national security issues, are going to leave a mark for years, but back-flipping again on things like biofuels and combustion engines will be done in a flash if they can get away with it. The pushback is coming.

Germany pushes for G7 reversal on fossil fuel funding 
Bloomberg, 25 June 2022 

Germany is pushing for Group of Seven nations to walk back a commitment that would halt the financing of overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. That would be a major reversal on tackling climate change as Russia’s war in Ukraine upends access to energy supplies.

A draft text shared with Bloomberg would see the G-7 “acknowledge that publicly supported investment in the gas sector is necessary as a temporary response to the current energy crisis.”

The whole world wants coal now but there is no spare capacity anymore, so coal shortages are not going away

The price is record high for coal but investors don’t have faith that there will still be a market in five years time, so there is little investment. Meanwhile in South Africa people have stolen and vandalized the rail lines so it’s hard to move coal. Australia has had flooding which has slowed production, Colombia has elected an anti fossil fuel leader, and India and China are both digging as much out of the ground as they can already.

Climate pledges abandoned as Putin sparks global coal crunch
The Daily Telegraph, 25 June 2022

The long-term pressure to move away from coal also means there is limited spare capacity, and investors are unlikely to try and pump cash into alleviating what may only be a short-term demand surge.

“Coal markets have been burned so many times [..] and you’ve still got a very drastic retirement schedule in Europe,” says Natalie Biggs, global head of thermal coal markets research at Wood Mackenzie. “What’s the purpose of opening new mines and rushing out into the market when that market disappears in the next five years?

Europe is scrambling to set up gas infrastructure to replace the Russia piped supplies, but these new capital project come with long term contracts that are making the greens very nervous:

Europe’s Search for Natural Gas Runs Up Against Climate Goals

Kim Mackrael, Wall Street Journal

Plans for more than 20 liquefied natural gas import projects have been announced, relaunched or sped up across Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a recent analysis by FTI Consulting. Analysts said those projects have the potential to contribute an additional 128 billion cubic meters in natural-gas import capacity over the coming years, roughly the equivalent of 83% of the EU’s total 2021 imports from Russia.

Germany, which didn’t have any LNG import terminals before the war in Ukraine began, is taking some of the most aggressive steps to develop new infrastructure. The German government recently passed legislation to fast-track LNG developments, and pledged 2.94 billion euros, equivalent to about $3.09 billion, to put several floating terminals into operation.

The French utility Engie SA in May announced a 15-year contract to buy LNG from an export facility under construction in Brownsville, Texas. That came a year-and-a-half after the company pulled out of talks to buy gas from the project under pressure from environmentalists and the French government.

Boris Johnson suggests maybe in the face of food shortages we should feed food to people instead of cars. Starving people to save the world was never going to sell well:

Boris Johnson hits the brakes on biofuel as he slashes net-zero targets to tackle cost of living crisis

Boris Johnson has slashed his net-zero targets in a bid to tackle the cost of living crunch – by reducing the amount of biofuel produced in the UK. The Prime Minister has hit the brakes in the push for green fuel, citing concerns that the drive may contribute to spiralling inflation.

The PM will call on G7 leaders to review their biofuel use, arguing that it could help mitigate the global food crisis and supply chain issues exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There are a big suite of carbon market rules and laws being tweaked right now:

Countries seek to weaken climate proposals

Euractive

EU countries and the European Parliament are currently negotiating a huge overhaul of the carbon market and laws on energy, transport and forestry, with the aim to bring them in line with the 2030 target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% based on 1990 levels.

For instance, a draft proposal on carbon market reforms would delay the launch of a new market for buildings and transport by a year. Meanwhile, there are moves to lower the ambitions of the energy efficiency directive by demoting one of the binding targets to an indicative target.

Countries are also considering weakening the target for how much of industry’s hydrogen use should be renewable from 50% to 40% by 2030.

Meanwhile, a binding obligation for fuel suppliers to reach a 2.6% share of renewable fuels for transport by 2030 could become voluntary, diplomats said.

It’s all good but let’s not get cocky.

 

 

9.6 out of 10 based on 93 ratings

179 comments to Climate pledges vanish in Europe

  • #
    Scissor

    GM plans to give you a way to fight high fossil fuel prices in luxury with their soon to be $300,000 Celestiq EV.

    https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a40415518/cadillac-celestiq-price-could-be-high/

    151

    • #
      Jojodogfacedboy

      Latest technological advances is 3D models when it’s hard to find a place to plug it in on a trip…and needs a flatbed truck to tow away. Not exactly chargeable unless you carry a generator or need many hours of parking time to charge.
      Cold and cold weather, not recommended, it takes too much juice for a heater.
      Park and admire…
      Forgotten that it’s also highly flammable and don’t recommend parking near a home or another vehicle.

      411

      • #
        Hanrahan

        I always expected these charge stations to be like modern servos with a coffee shop, racks of magazines, short order kitchen etc but most I see pics of in the US are no more than a roadside charger. Very unattractive.

        150

    • #
      Roger

      Report published in the UK today found that if you need to recharge your EV at a motorway service station you will be paying considerably more per mile than in the same model powered by petrol or diesel !

      560

      • #
        mundi

        What they don’t tell you is that EV rapid chargers are incredibly expensive and high maintenance. Every rapid charger has liquid cooling in the cable and an entire heat pump setup – they have to do this to chill the wiring otherwise the cables would be too thick and heavy for anyone to pick up. The efficiency is appalling as well, as the cable basically acts as a giant resistor. At every super charger look for the fridge sized heat pump which will be placed near the $250,000 transformer, usually they put these “out of site”. Then you need the ac to dc converter which is also mid to high 6 figures.

        Remember all of them at the moment are being installed as loss leaders. If you had to actually commercially install them for profit, you would probably have to charge on the order of $2/kwhour. This is why rapid chargers are mostly only installed by Tesla, and why even Tesla is hesitant to put in more chargers in the trendy holiday areas of eastern california which often have all day queues to charge.

        EV owners are mostly morons though. Look at all the people who spend $1500 to $3000 on Zappi “chargers” for their home. These are not even chargers, all they do is switch 240V power on and off. You can literally get EV owners to buy these over a $50rcbo, $50 contactor and $50 pwm controllers…. why do they spend 10x s as much on everything? I have no clue but all i know is there is big dollars in convincing EV owners to install a “charger” that is really just a computer controlled switch, because they are used to paying absurd prices for everything.

        630

        • #
          David Maddison

          Interesting post mundi. I didn’t know about the cable issue.

          Did you see the video where the US Deputy Idiot in Chief did a photo op where she plugged in an EV and didn’t realise you could let go of the cable? She thought it was like a gasoline pump.

          410

        • #

          Thanks Mundi, I had worked out myself that rapid chargers are either a recipe for high temperature burns or fires, or some very costly work around.

          But what about in the vehicle itself? The wiring from the point to the battery must have the same heating effect, even if they used silver (best conductor) for the lines.

          This is a complete accident waiting to happen, and a complete waste of time.

          EVs are NOT ready to take over at all. ICE still have plenty more innovations that can be deployed to reduce consumption further. Pre combustion chambers, electric superchargers (allows for higher pressures straight off from low revs) and variable compression being three that immediately come to mind.

          Here we have, just like with renewables, know-nothing activists and green cheerleaders advocating solutions that do not work and are a catastrophic waste of money. Its the Left in all its glory with “settled science” and attacks/deplatforming of those they do not want to hear to the fore and engineering and commonsense completely abandoned.

          The chickens will come home to roost and people will look back on this period of madness and wonder how sane people could have been hoodwinked by utter rubbish that does not work….

          300

      • #
        OldOzzie

        ‘Shocked’: The extortionate cost of charging EVs at motorway service stations laid bare

        CHARGING an EV at a service station can be far more expensive than filling up.

        New figures have revealed the alarming cost of charging an electric vehicle at a motorways service station, with many outlets charging as much as 8p more per mile than the equivalent filling up on petrol or diesel.

        The research by Which? saw testers plugging two EVs into rapid and ultra-rapid public chargers to establish how much it costs per mile.

        They looked at running costs of a family Hyundai Kona and a more powerful Mercedes-Benz EQC.

        With a 55p per kwh ultra rapid charger, the EQC cost 24p per mile. It was 16.2p for the petrol equivalent and 19.5p for diesel.

        The Kona cost 14.8p per mile using an ultra-rapid charger, compared to 13.6p for the petrol, reported The Mirror.

        EVs are usually far more expensive to buy compared to traditional models.

        Home chargers are typically £700 to £1,500 – but are then cheaper to run if slower.

        Which? found the EQC cost as low as 3.3p per mile and the Hyundai Kona just 2p when charged off-peak overnight at home.

        “Only two-thirds of homes have off-street parking, meaning drivers reliant on public charge points need to shop around.

        “Throw in the rising cost of energy – and the government’s desire to recoup the money lost from declining fuel duty revenue – and drivers considering battery-powered might need to look at their sums.”

        The Government wants to stop sales of new fossil fuel powered cars by 2030.

        220

      • #
        Rupert Ashford

        Surprised?

        50

    • #
      Graham Richards

      From dreams to wet dreams. It will become very messy!

      171

    • #
      David Maddison

      their soon to be $300,000 Celestiq EV.

      That’s exactly what poor people need to help fight energy poverty caused by the Left.

      252

      • #
        Graham Richards

        We can help Europe.

        We have a “climate minister” in our new administration we can sell to you. We’ll let you have him at a good price. In fact we’ll pay you $$$$$ millions just to take him off our hands.

        A couple of $$$$$hundred million will be a lot less expensive than keeping him in Australia with huge plans to do even more damage than he can imagine.

        Anyone interested?? Thought not!

        160

    • #
      another ian

      Bumped

      A mid range EV –

      Mid range fire spectacle between a Tesla and a bus

      91

  • #
    Tim Spence

    China is digging up more coal than the rest of the world combined, and importing more to cover their needs. So if a coal shortage went worldwide it might signal big problems for China.

    230

    • #

      Yes, China is already struggling to ramp up coal production, as is India.

      271

      • #
        Hanrahan

        Explains why the Indians were so resolute getting the Adani mine up.

        Maybe I need to explain to non locals that Adani is an Indian company that has been through years of lawfare by greens and government to open a mine in Queensland.

        210

        • #
          GlenM

          Having to contend with dopey rope-heads hanging about Bowen was a bit too much for the locals. Told a few eco zomboids camping in their vans at Queens beach to p.ss off back to the city. Stop wasting space.

          30

          • #
            Hanrahan

            Bowen is a friendly little town. Did business there for a few years and the Bowen Bowls Club in particular was welcoming of the grey nomads.

            But anti development types, be it Abbot Pt or Adani were told they were unwelcome.

            10

            • #
              GlenM

              Considering Bowen’s traditional status as a port for raw materials. Bowen is prospering big time.

              20

  • #

    I am enjoying the global energy show, with no end in sight.

    451

    • #
      Rafe+Champion

      This would be hilariously amusing if it was not going to have a catastrophic impact on so many lives.
      The worry is that instead of learning what they should have known years ago the political classes will panic and do equally stupid things to get out of the mess.
      Still we can now talk to the ordinary folk about things that they both care about and can understand, like wind droughts, the lack of storage and the environmental impact of climate policies.

      551

      • #

        Here we have the ….. ‘hey presto’ energy crisis, with a pretty much extreme lack of electrical power.

        Wait till they find out it takes five years (if all the ducks line up perfectly) to construct a new power plant, any power plant of any type, even renewable.

        Waiting waiting waiting.

        Tony.

        320

        • #

          Tony,
          A ship would be the best emergency power source. I was told by the former Federal member for Brisbane that during the last big S.A. blackout they were close to using the shore power link of an American nuclear submarine that happened to be nearby but didn’t need to when the crisis passed.

          R.K.

          42

        • #
          Ted1

          That is why they must not be allowed to demolish any more coal fired power stations until alternative supplies have been secured.

          90

          • #
            Sceptical+Sam

            Either that or have a rolling program of contiguous visits by American nuclear powered submarines.

            20

    • #
      John Hultquist

      Many of us knew this show was coming and brought in a stockpile of popcorn. With movie theaters back and fertilizers more expensive, expect availability to decrease and cost to climb.

      270

  • #
    David Maddison

    I would rather them not give in just yet.

    They need to properly learn their lesson.

    If they are really to learn from their Green-Left insanity they must first suffer very badly and freeze in the dark. That’s the only way they’ll learn the usefulness, necessity and genuine low cost of coal, gas, nuclear and proper hydro.

    Plus they mocked and ignored Trump when he warned them. They must suffer for that as well.

    There is no sign of Australia having any common sense about the matter. In fact, Australia is more committed than ever to the unreliables madness.

    580

    • #
      Simon

      Surely the lesson is to never have a fossil fuel dependency on a country with an authoritarian regime?

      847

      • #
        b.nice

        Great to see Simon agreeing with Donald Trump. 🙂

        Germany should never have gone down the “unreliables” path and shuttered their coal and nuclear energy.

        Also great to see him suggesting that Australia needs to become self-dependent on fossil fuels.

        New oil drilling and refineries, must be the next suggestion.

        After all, we all know that the “unreliables” are well… unreliable… and cannot be relied on.

        We shouldn’t be dependent on solar and wind infrastructure, or many other things, from an authoritarian regime either.

        So Simon is saying that we need to start bringing manufacturing to Australia, (rather than driving it away)

        The only way we can do that is by significantly increasing our coal and gas electricity supply options.

        Maybe Simon is finally seeing the light !

        681

        • #
          another ian

          The renewable power industry has actually been up-front honest – just that we got the emphasis wrong.

          The plant has to be renewed about every 15 – 20 years regardless of any electricity produced

          450

      • #
        David Maddison

        Surely the lesson is to never have a fossil fuel dependency on a country with an authoritarian regime?

        Exactly. That was exactly the point President Trump was trying to impress upon them.

        I’m glad you are having a reality check at last, Simon.

        581

      • #
        James Murphy

        Singapore is an authoritarian regime. Australia relies on them for fuel now that we have shut down almost all refineries. I guess we should build new refineries, and fix the ones we have left. We should probably drill for more oil too.
        (finally a) good idea from Simon.

        460

      • #
        Leo G

        Surely the lesson is to never have a fossil fuel dependency on a country with an authoritarian regime?

        Conversely, never opt for unreliable energy dependency without a dependable backup source of reliable energy.

        171

    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      Here is that link to the German reps demeaning President Trump. Geoff S
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfJv9QYrlwg

      80

    • #
      LG

      A really bad energy crisis where there’s blackouts and lots of people suffer might just “inoculate” the public against the renewable fantasy just like suffering under communism for decades inoculated many eastern Europe nations against socialism/communism.

      30

    • #
      Binny Pegler

      The problem is the political class will ‘burn down the house to keep warm’
      In short they will take power from industry to keep the light on in their electrets.
      So by the time ‘The lights go out’ for the average voter the economy will be ashes.

      30

  • #
    David Maddison

    If Europe or anyone else see the insanity of solar and wind unreliables they will then have to quickly get up to speed with proper power generation.

    A full size coal, gas or nuclear power station has an extremely long lead time, mostly due to the Green Tape designed to stop development.

    The Chicomms can build an ultrasupercritical coal plant in about 18 months to 2 years however. But not in the West unless it was a declared national emergency or genuine “existential crisis”.

    Hydro is out of the question because most of the good hydro sites have already been utilised in Western countries.

    That leaves only:

    1) Small modular nuclear reactors. There are plenty of commercial designs but none in operation except the Russian one built on a barge, the плавучая атомная теплоэлектростанция малой мощности, ПАТЭС ММ with 70MW electrical output.

    2) Small gas turbine generators such as those based on aero jet engines as offered by GE but these are costly to run and buy.

    Plus all the contracts for the unreliables subsidies would have to be paid out at huge expense.

    There is no simple or cheap way out of the insanity.

    Pehaps those who voted for and supported unreliables can voluntarily make a sacrifice and use no electricity, there is a lot of them, so that the rest of us may live.

    450

    • #
      yarpos

      Its one thing to be able to build things quickly, its another to have it operating reliably decades later.

      Time, cost, quality. If you dream you can really push on one without affecting the other two, in most cases you are dreaming.

      181

    • #
      OldOzzie

      German Vice-Chancellor “Drastically Reduces” Time In Shower To Cope With Energy Crisis

      German Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck spoke with Der Spiegel magazine about the need for German citizens to shower less to overcome the worst energy crisis in a generation.

      When asked by Der Spiegel about “saving energy in our day-to-day lives,” Habeck responded by saying to shower less.

      “I have drastically reduced the amount of time I spend in the shower, but I am a poor example. As a minister, I earn a salary that others can only dream of. Plus, I come home late, get up at 6 a.m., and am out of the house again by 7. With such a schedule, it’s not necessary to heat in winter. For people working from home, retirees with small pensions, and families, it is a different story.

      “My counterpart from the Netherlands recently told me proudly that they had launched a campaign intended to cut the average showering time from 10 minutes to five. I had to laugh. I have never showered for five minutes in my life. I shower quickly,” he said.

      In another question about his energy savings campaign, the minister said, “We don’t have to completely punish ourselves. But we also can’t act as though everything is just fine.”

      No matter if everyone in Germany stopped taking showers at the request of the government to save energy, the largest European economy and the entire continent faces a severe energy crunch as Putin could any day pull the plug on NatGas flows that would trigger an economic collapse. CEO of Germany’s multinational BASF SE, the world’s largest chemical producer, warned of that in April.

      100

      • #
        Leo G

        No matter if everyone in Germany stopped taking showers at the request of the government to save energy, …

        Of course, the German government will continue the rollout of high speed EV charging stations, each rated up to 350 kilowatt, on public lands. At present they are building 250 a week with plans to increase that to 2000 a week to meet their 2030 target of 1 million charging points.

        100

      • #
        Hanrahan

        This is like saying if you turn off the tap while brushing your teeth they will be able to water the desert. It is all OUR fault you know.

        140

      • #
        Zane

        When I was young there was a campaign to save water and they touted quick showers, showering with someone else, etc. Come to think of it only a couple of years ago the Andrews government was running TV ads along similar lines to get Victorians to save water. Two minute showers. It’s always the same tired old tropes. I made a joke that the Water Stapo would be sent around by Dandrews to time everyone’s showers and issue on the spot fines to water gluttons. Not everyone saw the humour in it.

        Even in SE Asia where people earn a dollar an hour, they can take their showers. Of course the Indonesian mandi system is quite water saving, and traditional Lao, Thai, Burmese, and Khmer washing practices using a small scoop are similar.

        Nobody wants BO issues.

        90

        • #
          another ian

          When reference to “showering with a friend” was useful.

          Way back when that saying was new and risque some friends were renting a house and the hot water system sprang a leak. Repairs were not forthcoming until one of them reported yet again – this way’

          He to receptionist

          “Have you heard about save water – shower with a friend?”

          She with a giggle “Yes”

          He “Well the hot water system is broken and the birds are complaining”

          00

      • #
        John in Oz

        In the navy we would be in trouble with the engneering staff who made fresh from sea water if we ran the shower continuously.

        Get in, get wet, get out, soap up, get back in to rinse.

        At times there was no water available for showers as the steam turbines were more important.

        2 minute conyinuous showers – luxury

        50

    • #

      Option 2) is actually a disaster in that it entrenches inefficient power generation. We need combined cycle plants with high 60%s efficieny. Not the cheap jet turbines that are around half as efficient…

      40

  • #
    John Hultquist

    In the USA, there is a plethora of pernicious problems – – P3™
    Along with Europe, the US thought it wanted to abandon carbon based fuels. That’s not working out well.
    Century Aluminum Company, the largest producer of primary aluminum in the US with 600+ workers, has announced it will temporarily idle its smelter in Hawesville, Kentucky, as a direct result of skyrocketing energy costs. This orderly shutdown will take weeks, and it may not reopen.
    I’ll not mention the other problems, as most are US issues only. They are in the news.

    341

    • #
      David Maddison

      Tragically, it looks like the plans of Biden’s handlers to de-electrify, de-energise, deindustrialise, demilitarise, de-democratise, destroy and demoralise the United States are working.

      450

    • #
      RickWill

      Idling is risky business. If it it goes cold, it could take a year or more to restart. Also keeping it warm is not trivial as that alone consumes a lot of energy.

      90

  • #
    Penguinite

    Obviously, Aussie Albo hasn’t caught up with the news?

    260

    • #
      James Murphy

      Give him a chance, he’s probably having enough trouble understanding where France and Spain are at the moment.

      210

    • #
      It's all BS

      Nope, Aussie Albo will lead the charge to remind all other nations to wind back after the crisis is over. We are now world leaders which he will spruik at the next International.

      He needs to watch Jurassic Park. The Germans have discovered what Dr Hammond knew all along when he asked Mr Muldoon to take “a petrol Jeep and rescue my grandchildren”

      120

    • #
      yarpos

      We dont appear to learn much from the mistakes of others, we prefer to go and make them again.

      240

    • #
      • #
        • #
          OldOzzie

          Meanwhile – Tanya and Labor send $80M borrowed taxpayers money to the Global Environment Facility

          From the Comments

          Ahhhh come on man. Get with the “fashionable vibe”, This gift is only money, there’s lots more where it came from. Just smile and think of the applause we will get from the rest of the world for our virtuous act, foresight and dedication to the cause.

          50

          • #
            OldOzzie

            Meanwhile Their ABC News helps China with the propaganda – make benefit for glorious nation.

            Monday, 27 June 2022

            Ambassador X@ao said that ABC is an Australian media organization with important international and regional influence, and it is also a witness and recorder of the exchanges and cooperation between the people of China and Australia. It is hoped that ABC will give full play to its unique advantages in information dissemination, introduce and report China-Australia relations more rationally and objectively, and make positive contributions to enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

            50

          • #
            David Maddison

            How about they do something about those Australians suffering energy poverty, unable to keep warm at home or to afford petrol to drive.

            This is a priority over borrowing $80 million to give to people we don’t know, who don’t care about us and who probably hate us and are double dipping with the Chicomms anyway – like the Solomon Islands.

            140

          • #
            Ross

            We got off lightly, Boris Johnson just sent £372m of “UK aid” which will support the UN’s emergency response in the countries who are dealing with “acute hunger” as a result of climate change. Plus, he has already sent £500m to the Ukraine. Where’s all this money coming from?

            120

            • #
              David Maddison

              Where’s all this money coming from?

              And beyond that, where’s it going?

              Not to the people who are its intended recipients I bet!

              30

              • #
                KP

                “And beyond that, where’s it going?”

                To the Ukranian Parliamentary Undersecretary’s wife who was asked to open her suitcases at the Hungarian border and it was found they were full of millions of dollars in cash….

                60

              • #
                Hanrahan

                KP that needs a reference.

                10

  • #
    R.B.

    Tomorrow’s people: why we must act now to ensure a future for the next generation

    We’re already feeling the impacts of climate change. How can we protect future generations from succumbing to its extremes?

    And picture of a bush fire. This has to be goading of today’s idiots to cause grief to this generation.

    170

    • #
      David Maddison

      For my response I searched for bushfire data for Australia by year, but I suspect that has all been fiddled with as well to provide an alarmist and warmist perspective.

      Can anyone point to a source of uncorrupttd bushfire data for Australia?

      I know Tony Heller had similar problems when he looked for honest forest fire data for the US.

      My understanding is the extent and severity of fires is now generally less due to better detection and firefighting methods, balanced against increased fire risk because green types like to live in heavily wooded areas without proper forest litter clearing or clearing trees close to houses.

      220

    • #
      b.nice

      To ensure a future for next generations we must make sure that they are not plagued by electricity and other energy shortages and intermittency.

      All of western society depends on reliability of supply.

      This reliability can only be achieved using coal, gas and nuclear..

      There is no viable alternative.

      340

      • #
        David Maddison

        And proper hydro where available.

        Not Snowy Hydro 2 which is a net energy sink (400MW of waste assuming 80% round trip efficency) and there will probably not be enough coal power to pump water uphill to recharge it. I don’t know where they’ll get the power. It will probably spend most of its time empty.

        200

        • #
          Ronin

          Regards Snowy 2, we won’t see it in operation until at least 2030, and it is calculated to cost up to 7 times the original estimate done on the back of an envelope by Melvin Trumble, with a bit of luck wiser heads will shut the project down before it drags us under.

          170

        • #
          b.nice

          I was referring mainly to Australia.

          In Australia, here are very few places with the terrain and rainfall/snowfall needed to make hydro a 24/7, 100% reliable system.

          40

        • #
          Evo of Gong

          I have figures that show that the round-trip efficiency of Snowy 2 to be, at best, about 60% not 80%. It is a large, but inefficient, battery

          30

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Being a simple man I would suggest one of the best things we can do for the young and not yet born is NOT to leave them hopelessly in debt to people who believe white eyes are of a lower caste.

      30

  • #
    Robber

    Meanwhile in Australia, full steam (or rather wind) ahead.
    Labor’s back-of-the-envelope 43 per cent reduction target should have been subjected to rigorous scrutiny before the election – but the only opposition came from Teals and Greens who wanted even bigger targets.
    “Victoria’s Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has denied that the state will face energy shortfalls and blackouts amid the continuing energy crisis, saying new offshore wind projects will “blow any shortfall out of the water”.
    Please repeat after me: “the best and most reliable form of new energy is renewable energy” (new Federal Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen)
    How can intermittent energy be reliable without 100% backup that has not been costed or required of any renewable supplier?
    Yet Alba(un)nese has promised lower energy costs – when will they be held to account?
    Perhaps after a year of high inflation, gas shortages, and the next coal generator closure.

    230

  • #
    David Maddison

    Outstanding Steve Hunter cartoon.

    A reality check for EU, USA, Japan and Australia.

    Thanks to their Slave Army of Useful Idiots of the Left embedded in Western countries the Chicomms can do as they please.

    http://stevehunterillustrations.com.au/_Media/shut-them-down2_2290.jpeg

    271

    • #
      Neville

      Great cartoon David and their totally clueless IPCC and the semi literate Greta loony putting the boots into Aussies, while China laughs all the way to their banks.
      Gotta luv it.

      170

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Rafe Champion Posted on June 26, 2022 Is this the energy crisis we had to have?

    This is the first note for the new Federal Parliament. It is not time to start writing to members in the House of Reps because our mailman has yet to update the list to allow for the changes caused by the election.

    22.6-Is-this-the-energy-crisis-we-had-to-have DOWNLOAD

    Current Page 1 of Download

    Is this the energy crisis we had to have?

    Briefing Note 22.6
    June 2022

    Dear

    This is a reminder that the transition from coal to wind and solar power will be extremely difficult and most likely impossible in Australia with existing storage technology.

    Since March 2020 the Energy Realists of Australia sent a series of briefing notes to all sitting MPs in the country and to many journalists to signal the danger of eliminating coal power stations before adequate substitutes are in place.

    The major parties all pressed on with aggressive policies to eliminate coal and so all must share the responsibility for the current crisis. Moreover, the press corps neglected to inform the general public about the issues and voters sleep-walked into the last election without understanding the energy policy issues at stake.

    SOME OBSTACLES TO THE GREEN ENERGY TRANSITION – ICEBERGS IN THE PATH OF THE RENEWABLE ENERGY TITANIC

    Wind droughts. There are frequent and prolonged “wind droughts” when there is next to no wind across the whole of SE Australia for many hours and even days at a time.

    The “gap in the fence” factor. The grid needs a continuous input of power to meet 100% of demand all the time. The lowest level of RE input is the critical indicator of the sustainability of the system, not the installed capacity, the high points or the average performance of the solar fields and the wind fleet. Hopes are sustained by the high level of RE penetration on good days but that is like building a boundary fence that is high in some places (sunny Sunday afternoons) but missing elsewhere (windless nights.)

    Australia is an island. Almost every other place in the developed world has access to neighbours to supply power from many sources when domestic RE is in short supply.

    Lack of grid-scale storage.

    Recommendation.

    That these critical issues be discussed in the party rooms, in the media and among the general public.
    That regular news and weather bulletins on radio and TV report the amount of power that is being provided by the wind at the time.

    Pages 2-5

    SUPPORTING INFORMATION

    110

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Getting to the grassroots

      Rafe Champion
      Posted on June 26, 2022

      The Energy Realists of Australia are about to progress the program that started three years ago with a series of briefing notes to 800+ state and federal members. Some will recall the letter-writing campaign that was a part of the program, whereby volunteers would write to their local member at their electoral address to follow up the mass mail and ensure that the member was aware of the note that was probably buried by his green minders in the Canberra office.

      It turned out to be too hard to get useful interactions happening with the local members and the letter-writing stopped.

      One aim was to put the pollies in a position where they could never say that nobody gave them good advice to avert disaster, we did not expect very many to change their minds, and certainly not to admit that in public.

      That is a very minimal aim and more is required to get a shift in the public mood about energy policy. Hence the plan.

      We are now aiming to get more support in local electorates so the members become aware of a groundswell of public opinion in their own electorate.

      The thing is to get out of our own bubble .

      The first thing is to recruit letter-writers to cover all the Federal representatives. Of course writers will be invited to get to their state member as well. We don’t expect them to take any notice but the point is to put them in a position where they can never say that they were not given access to information that they needed to be realistic about energy policy.

      The next thing is to recruit people to be more active, ranging through different levels of commitment to the pinnacle where some people are working practically fulltime.

      80

  • #
    Neville

    Perhaps we should ask the delusional left wing climate extremists to take the Co2 Coalition Quiz?
    The Albo loony and his Labor party combined would probably stumble and fail every question.
    Of course I easily passed the test and scored 100% and so would most of the bloggers on Jo’s site.
    And I’m not a scientist and I’m not tertiary educated, but I am a very sceptical bloke and I couldn’t care less about being PC or offending any of these delicate petals.

    https://co2coalition.org/quiz/polar-bear-populations-are-in-decline/

    100

    • #
      David Maddison

      Excellent quiz. I got 100%.

      I will send it to my local state parliamentary “representative” a supposed Liberal but a true believer in the anthropogenic global warming fraud.

      70

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      Good work. My only suggestions would be to first find good clean hits on a few questions. For example “pacific islands are shrinking”. The answer is “some are increasing”. That is not a good clean hit because it leaves a gap for allegations of charry picking.

      Secondly I’d encourage a few propositions like “solar panels work at night” and “wind turbines work on still days” or maybe “solar panels and wind turbines need backup to provide continuous power”.

      50

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Speaking of delusional left wing climate extremists I see someone drove their (petrol) car down from Lismore and blocked the harbour tunnel in peak hour. How to win friends and influence people.

      “The southbound entrance to Sydney Harbour’s Tunnel was blocked by a white car on Monday morning, after the female driver from Lismore, in the state’s Northern Rivers region, locked herself to the steering wheel by the neck.
      The woman, identified as Mali by Blockade Australia, live-streamed her protest.”

      50

      • #
        KP

        Huh? If she was parked in a “Clearaway 4pm” zone she’d have been towed in 5minutes!

        Any competent towie could whip the steering wheel off and toss her out with it still around her neck.

        10

  • #
    Ronin

    With the rollback of green targets and the recent abortion rollback in the US, it’s not a easy time to be green or left.

    40

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      Greens and teals need to recharge their rage from time to time. They are only happy when they are on an unwinnable crusade.

      50

  • #
  • #
    Philip

    So basically, to move away from fossil fuels requires world peace. How will that go ?

    80

    • #
      Philip

      Interesting that the West chose war over green energy and saving temperature increase. To hell with the climate, this is war. Says something.

      80

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Along with getting rid of Fossil Fuels – Their doing this on purpose ! They literally want us eating bugs 🐜 !

      ANOTHER CLOSURE: One of the Largest Chicken Producers in the U.S. Announces Tennessee Plant Shutdown

      Joe Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ is not working as planned… Or is it?

      One of the top ten largest vertically integrated chicken producers in the US, supplying a broad range of quality poultry products, announced that it will be shutting down one of its plants in Campbell County, Tennessee.

      Below is the updated list of 100 U.S. plants that have been destroyed, damaged or impacted by “accidental fires,” disease, or other causes.

      From the Comments

      Their doing this on purpose ! They literally want us eating bugs 🐜 !

      60

  • #
    Neville

    That King island meter AGAIN is like a Banshee on steroids.
    Battery flat, Diesel jumping from 60% to 100%, Wind from 7% to 60% and Solar 0 to 1%.
    And according to the Albo moron this will save Australia and also provide much cheaper energy.
    Can anyone tell us why you would want to inflict this misery on any OECD country?

    https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island

    150

    • #
      Ronin

      Yep, both King and Flinders Islands are on 80% diesel, great experiment, shows us unreliables are living up to their name, well done.

      120

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      The King Island “success story” provides an important lesson for those not wearing teal blinkers.

      1. Intermittent energy sources need 100% backup.
      2. If you have 100% backup you don’t need intermittent sources.

      190

      • #
        ozfred

        Well if the backup is adequately variable you probably would save some fuel costs by accepting the RE inputs.
        Just get someone else to pay for the installations

        10

        • #
          Philip

          IT always adds to the cost when you inject RE, always. When you have 100% coal power, it is cheap. We know, we had it for a long time. The experiment has been done.

          20

        • #
          LG

          Not necessarily, because a lot of efficiency is lost by having to quickly ramp fossil fueled plants up and down, meaning more fuel is consumed to generate less electricity.

          10

        • #
          Forrest Gardener

          You would think so ozfred but the reality is that the cost of reliable energy increases as unreliable energy cannibalizes the market. And that is where the world is now.

          10

    • #
      David Maddison

      Unreliables can’t even be made to work on two isolated islands with small populations, the very places where even rational thinkers would agree they might possibly be suitable.

      So how much worse are they for a large mainland population with a theoretically practically unlimited supply of inexpensive coal or gas for proper power stations?

      20

  • #
    Neville

    Here are 30+ facts about co2 and Earth’s climate that we should understand.
    Let’s wake up and only build RELIABLE, BASE-LOAD energy to service our future needs.
    We would save the endless WASTE of TRILLIONs of $ and prevent the TOXIC pollution of our environment both ABOVE and BELOW the ground.

    https://co2coalition.org/facts/

    30

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      I’m more than happy to have distributed energy sources with the proviso that they must be able to tell us several months in advance how much power they’ll be supplying on each and every given day.

      I’m also happy for businesses to supply solar powered solutions for specific applications like solar powered air conditioning. Just don’t expect the grid to be there for free when your application doesn’t work.

      60

  • #
    Ronin

    It would seem that ‘climate change’ has not caused anywhere near the problems the moron who believe in it have.

    80

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    European climate pledges?

    Here in Australia we need more climate pledges now.

    Following a prompt from David I was brought to realise that in Aus even the ground is aflame; it’s that bad.

    https://joannenova.com.au/2022/06/germanys-green-made-gas-crisis-warnings-of-rationing-and-lehman-brothers-style-financial-collapse/#comment-2561715

    Yesterday I drove up to have a look.
    Truly frightening, someone should alert the UNIPCCC.

    50

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      The extent of the coal industry in Australia needs to be seen first hand to get some idea of what supports our nation now that we have been otherwise de-industrialised.

      Going through Muswellbrook – Scone area yesterday we noted three heavily laden coal trains heading for Newcastle, all in the space of half an hour.

      Mining and haulage is big.

      60

      • #
        David Maddison

        The train tracks support coal trains up to about 1.6km (1 mile) long.

        Sadly, Australia is not allowed to use most of that coal, it goes to other countries to make steel and cheap electricity.

        70

  • #
    Peter Garlick

    So here we have the Hydro bragging about the success of the King Island hybrid energy solution.

    To quote from their website:

    “The King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project (KIREIP) provides a glimpse of what’s achievable in renewable energy.”

    It sure does. Customer demand around 2200kW. Wind negative, battery flat, solar negligible, and thank goodness for diesel generation.

    180

    • #
      GERARD BASTEN

      The only thing you can say about KIREIP is that it lowers (I think) the total cost of diesel fuel that would otherwise be needed to keep the lights on. You cannot say that it is a successful renewable energy program. Far from it. It demonstrates the need to have diesel in remote communities in the first place.

      20

      • #
        LG

        But when you factor in the capital cost of the wind, solar, batteries etc I wonder how long it would take for the savings on diesel fuel to recoup that capital cost?

        00

  • #
    Zane

    They better hope it’s a mild winter.

    50

  • #
    Rupert Ashford

    Hang on a minute. So they’re talking about finding alternative sources to get gas and that impacts their goals? Still gas isn’t it? So how are these goals calculated? The biggest joke here is that “Scotty from Marketing” must be smiling (or maybe crying) in his morning coffee every day – he was the one who advocated for keeping most of these goals aspirational and only adopt as suitable technology and solutions became available – now it seems everybody EXCEPT Australia is buying into that idea.

    40

    • #
      Ross

      But that was ScoMo’s ( and the LNP) problem- they wanted to appeal to the Green leftie voters by declaring targets and going to Glasgow etc. Then, in order to placate traditional LNP voters ( and others) they made those targets aspirational. But, most people didn’t hear the “aspirational” bit and then saw LNP as being no different to Greens, Teals and Labor. They were trying to be too cute. The message should have been clear- No Net Zero for Australia. If he’s crying in his coffee, its his own fault.

      70

      • #
        Ronin

        “they wanted to appeal to the Green leftie voters by declaring targets and going to Glasgow etc. Then, in order to placate traditional LNP voters ( and others) they made those targets aspirational. But, most people didn’t hear the “aspirational” bit and then saw LNP as being no different to Greens, Teals and Labor.”

        They then lost their traditional support and the lefties went somewhere else.

        20

    • #
      Rupert Ashford

      Guys, I hear you re “No Nett Zero”. But the world in which we live was at a stage where trading partners started forcing you to have these goals otherwise they’d not trade with you – LNP had to play in that world hence the “aspirational” part. We as voters need to be vigilant as to what the globalists require as well and read our political system. We cannot be naïve.

      00

      • #
        KP

        Get on the side of the winners or collapse in the future! Dump America & Europe, trade with China, Russia, India & South America.

        MOST of the world doesn’t give a s*** about global warming or the morals of their trading partners, they just want to trade. We are blinded by our own cultural norms.

        00

  • #
    Neville

    BTW here’s the Aussie fire data since 1900 and since 2000.
    IOW Aussie fires have a lower trend in both cases , see his graph.
    This is according to Lomborg’s research during his interview on Sky News.

    https://www.climatedepot.com/2020/02/14/bjorn-lomborg-debunking-australias-fire-myths-globally-wildfire-burns-less-land-than-it-used-to-surprisingly-this-decrease-is-even-true-for-australia/

    40

    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      what does this have to do with the topic. Obviously something but what is it?

      By the way – that fire data is pretty much worthless, better to look at the ecology of the local biota to determine what the fire regime should be.

      29

      • #
        David Maddison

        How would anyone know what the fire regime should be Peter?

        Indigenous inhabitants practised “firestick farming” for thousands of years, thus burning to extinction all non-fire-resistant species.

        The Australian ecology is not natural, it is an entirely artificial construct. It has no natural fire regime.

        100

        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          Coastal banksia (Western Australia), “The vegetation studied appeared to be little affected by humans historically and to have burnt only at intervals of 30–60 years or more. Consequently, although all three species needed fire to regenerate, management of fire regimes needs to allow adequate intervals between fires for the replacement of their canopy seed banks. Indeed, all three Banksia species studied were extinguished from one area burnt twice at an interval of 9 years” (Australian Journal of botany)

          Alpine Ash – Since 2002, most of the bioregion has been burnt by several very large fires, in line with the regional trend of more frequent extreme fire weather. High-severity fires have removed 25% of above-ground tree biomass (leaves, branches, bark) and killed adult trees, triggering mass regeneration
          in alpine ash forest. When two severe fires occurred in quick succession, 97% of the highly flammable regenerating young trees were killed in the second fire.
          Alpine ash typically need around 20 years fire free to reach maturity

          So each species in each region will have a different frequency requirement for fire (intensity is also an issue).
          Now Banksia first appeared 65 million years ago, and the indigenous have records for 60 thousand – which is going to tell you more about fires?

          15

          • #

            Bjorn Lomborg’s Australian historical fire data is not ‘worthless’ ..That is your opinion – which is indeed worthless as it is not buttressed by any evidence or intelligent deconstructive argument . So instead Peter Fitzroy sneakily resorts to the Moving the Goalposts fallacy – inevitably kicking an own goal in the process – to : ” better to look at the ecology of the local biota to determine what the fire regime should be ”

            A ‘fire regime’ is an incomplete measure the burned landmass chronology as it precludes naturally ignited wildfires . For example , it is estimated that 145 million hectares annually, burned on average across North America during the pre -industrial period [ 1500 – 1700 CE ] despite traditional burning techniques routinely practiced by Native Americans . Only a small proportion of this figure burns each year across continental North America in the modern era and the individual floral species burned are meaningless. This is a useful cross comparison study for Australia as the annual burned area would have been much greater before European settlement and native burning methods do not necessarily mitigate bushfires during overwhelming hot dry blustery conditions. How would isolating sequoia stands or aspen trees in the United States be anymore significant than the fire history of Huon pines, alpine eucalypts or banksias ? What a ridiculous deceitful “divert and obfuscate” argument. And of course the removal of fuel load suppressing cattle grazing in alpine bushland reserves has nothing to do with the severity of alpine region fires . Surely not . Furthermore there is no identifiable dated source for his ‘Australian Journal of Botany ‘ passage .Where are these “60 thousand ” year indigenous records of ‘Banksia’s Peter Fitzroy? ..Another one of your preposterous fabrications . How might an indigenous folklorist or ethnographer accurately date an aboriginal tribal record of Banksia’s to 60 thousand years let alone 20 thousand years ? The very notion is absurd . The fact is burned area is a more authentic and reliable fire metric. The record Australian fire season stands as 1974- 75 [ 117 million ha ] during the ‘global cooling ‘climate crisis’ following the wettest year in the 1900 – 2021 BoM rainfall series. By contrast the supposedly ‘ unprecedented ‘ Black Summer’ of 2019 -20 fires burned an estimated 28- 34 million hectares ..

            30

          • #
            MP

            “Now Banksia first appeared 65 million years ago, and the indigenous have records for 60 thousand – which is going to tell you more about fires?

            And these records are recorded on what exactly, and as they had no written language, how!

            It’s called the dream time for a reason, they just dream this s#it up. Welcome to country.

            40

        • #

          NASA Observatory’s satellite fire data is not ‘worthless ‘ either . NASA researchers have ascertained that globally between 2003 and 2019 ” the total number of square kilometers burned each year ” has decreased by approximately 25% . Quite how a decline in the number of fires and burned landmass can be commensurate with the ‘worsening’ effects of climate change is anyone’s guess Some NASA scientists however cannot resist the climate change virtue signaling sophistry . Take Mr. Randerson for instance :

          ” There are really two separate trends ” said Mr Randerson . Even as the global burned area… has declined because of what is happening in savanna’s ,we are seeing a significant increase in the intensity and reach of fires in the western United States because of climate change ”

          No it is not just “what is happening in savanna’s ” and the “two separate trends ” are a figment of his imagination or he being deliberately misleading .The incidence of fires and burned landmass has decreased – or exhibit no trend – in the forested regions of the Russian Far East , the Amazonian basin and Indonesia this century. Why did Randerson omit this information ? Here are the respective satellite datasets in this 2019 BBC report [ see link below ]. Furthermore Randerson must be aware of the United States Forest Service fire chart that shows a huge proliferation in fires during the 1920’s 30’s and 40’s thereafter declining in the ensuing decades The ” increase in intensity and reach of fires in the western United States ” is only apparent after 1980 if one uses the chronologically truncated data . There were numerous megafires affecting the western United States during the Little Ice Age that had nothing to do with the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or temperature . They generally coincided with the Palmer Drought Severity Index and ENSO oscillations just as they do in the present era https://bbc.com/news/world-49515462 https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145421/building-a-long-term-record-of-fire

          10

      • #
        Ronin

        “better to look at the ecology of the local biota to determine what the fire regime should be.”

        No Peter, no, the local biota has been modified over the millennia by our nonreflective cousins and their firestick farming, it bears no resemblance to what would have been ‘natural’.

        51

        • #
          another ian

          For the mulga region, of which I have some knowledge, I have been trying to explain that that most of the modern “pristine sites” are about as pristine as a recycled virginity.

          And the official management philosophy is based on Clementsian succession which might be fine for a Kansas tall grass prairie but rather lacks in an area of ecology at dis-equilibrium and state and transition

          20

  • #
    another ian

    Something else that “did the varnishing trick”

    A reminder from “these prosperous times” (/s)

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2022/06/26/up-from-the-memory-hole-4/

    “Making the Most of the Coming Biden Boom”

    https://archive.ph/2022.06.22-205815/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/opinion/joe-biden-economy.html#selection-315.0-315.40

    Comments seem to nominate Paul Krugman for “The World’s Wrongest Economist”

    60

  • #
    Zane

    Don’t forget the big miners are loving this climate shuffle. Wind turbines and solar farm cabling requires truckloads of copper, steel, and other metals and materials. No wonder BHP and Rio Tinto are going green. It’s cash in the bank.

    60

    • #
      Dave in the States

      Don’t forget the concrete. And remember concrete gasses out as it cures.

      30

      • #
        MP

        And remember concrete gasses out as it cures.

        CO2 is generated during the cooking of CaCO3, curing is about keeping the concrete wet.

        00

  • #
    Peter

    Also South Korea is cutting back on its pledges. President Yoon (elected about two months ago) is going to reduce the percentage of renewable from 30% (goal from his predecessor) to 20% in 2030. The difference will be made up by more nuclear.
    Also note that both percentages (20% and 30%) are NOT the percentage of the entire energy mix. It is the percentage of the electricity production only, which includes gas for heating, gasoline for cars, coal for steel mills, …

    50

  • #
    Hanrahan

    How long will this energy poverty have to persist before those who don’t need to live in the cold big cities decide to move to regional towns in more temperate climes? You drive less, you spend less on heating and casual clothes are cheaper than suits and the associated dry cleaning. I have a big 5 br house in a desirable suburb you could buy for $400 k.

    I’m not suggesting the tropics for everyone but there is an awful lot between Melb and Cairns that is still “civilised”.

    70

  • #
    • #
      Dave in the States

      LOL! Interesting that you can’t really tell the gender of the woke progressive in the art work. It’s Unisex, befitting the Uniparty.

      30

    • #
      David Maddison

      Good find.

      There’s a lot going on in that image.

      A genuine artwork to make you think, unlike the usual woke Leftist garbage, utterly lacking in merit and discussed in this video: https://youtu.be/lNI07egoefc

      10

  • #
    RoHa

    “The whole world wants coal now …”

    I seem to recall, from my far-off schooldays in Adelaide, that there was a country not a million miles away from me that produced plenty of both black and brown coal. Perhaps that country could step up production a bit.

    60

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Our Russia strategy has backfired

    Biden is more likely to be toppled

    Whatever the origins of the Ukraine war, the West and Russia are now engaged in a broader confrontation that is not confined to the military struggle: the war has become a competition in pain-tolerance.

    This is, as Thomas Schelling wrote, “a conscious process of dirty bargaining”, whereby each side tries to inflict pain and suffering on the other side until one or both yield. Put simply, the West and Russia are playing a violent version of the schoolyard game Mercy. The centrepiece of the West’s effort to inflict pain on Russia is what the historian Nicholas Mulder has called “the economic weapon”, which has been deployed at unprecedented scale. The centrepiece of Russia’s effort to inflict pain on the West is the commodities weapon. In this competition in pain-tolerance, it is not immediate whether the West or Russia has the upper hand.

    The West unleashed the economic weapon with considerable fanfare. Russia, with a GDP smaller than South Korea, was treated not as a great power adversary but as a rogue stake akin to Iran — a nuisance that could be rather effortlessly strangled through the unrestrained use of Western sanctions. Great hope was placed on the idea that these sanctions would inflict such catastrophic pain on Russia as to undermine the Putin regime.

    These hopes and expectations were based on wishful thinking. Non-Western powers — China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa — simply refused to play along with the West. They appeared more worried by the West’s weaponisation of the dollar system than by Russian aggression against Ukraine. Even more importantly, Western leaders were gravely mistaken in their idea that Russia was a second-rate power that could be simply crushed with the economic weapon.

    Russian GDP may be small, but Russia is, together with the United States, one of the only two states in the international system that can survive relatively unscathed in complete autarchy. Indeed, Russia is not dependent on the world for hard-to-replace stuff — the world is dependent on Russia. It supplies a significant fraction of the world’s energy, metals, fertilisers, and food.

    The contrast with the West couldn’t be starker. The Biden administration and the Democrats look set to crash and burn on the shoals of inflation. The president’s approval rating has sunk below 40%. Democrats will almost surely lose control of Congress come November. Of course, other issues condition Democrat fortunes. But it can hardly be denied that the greatest threat to the Democrats is inflation. And inflation is at least partly under Putin’s control — he can turn the knob up and down to maximise the delivery of pain to the West.

    Again, we must be clear-eyed: the source of the problem is Western misperception of Russian weakness. American Russia policy is based on the assumption that Russia is weak and the West strong. But, as we’ve seen, this assumption is unwarranted. In terms of what we can dish out to him and what he can dish out to us, it is Putin who has the upper hand.

    51

    • #
      Zane

      What middle class Russians most liked doing on the weekend was driving to the mall and spending most of the day inside IKEA. IKEA is now closed. But that’s okay, they can sit at home and watch black & white speeches of Kruschchev on TV and old Soviet war movies and drink some vodka and forget about IKEA.

      21

    • #
      Dave in the States

      “Russian GDP may be small, but Russia is, together with the United States, one of the only two states in the international system that can survive relatively unscathed in complete autarchy. Indeed, Russia is not dependent on the world for hard-to-replace stuff — the world is dependent on Russia. It supplies a significant fraction of the world’s energy, metals, fertilisers, and food.

      The contrast with the West couldn’t be starker. The Biden administration and the Democrats look set to crash and burn on the shoals of inflation. The president’s approval rating has sunk below 40%. Democrats will almost surely lose control of Congress come November. Of course, other issues condition Democrat fortunes. But it can hardly be denied that the greatest threat to the Democrats is inflation. And inflation is at least partly under Putin’s control — he can turn the knob up and down to maximise the delivery of pain to the West.”

      This situation was entirely preventable. This situation was brought on by green energy policies and the hysteria over co2. biden/Merkel/BoJo.. are among biggest fools to ever. The only rational move the biden illegitimacy can make at this point is throw over board their entire energy/climate policy agenda. But they won’t.

      When biden was in Japan there he was mumbling on about some “great transition.” What a fool!

      51

  • #
    David Maddison

    A nice way to make money, don’t do any work, just get politicians to give you taxpayer’s hard earned money.

    https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/forrest-lng-venture-to-seek-government-help-says-squadron-s-new-ceo-20220624-p5awd9

    Forrest LNG venture to seek government help, says Squadron’s new CEO

    Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Senior resources writer
    Jun 27, 2022 – 12.00am

    Andrew Forrest’s LNG import venture in NSW will seek federal and state government help to bring customers on board as it seeks to lock in a floating LNG terminal that is being eyed by rivals in Germany, says the new CEO of the iron ore billionaire’s private energy company.

    Eva Hanly, whose appointment as CEO of Squadron Energy will be announced on Monday, said one of her priorities when she takes up the new role on July 4 will be to hold talks with federal and state energy ministers, as well as with the CEOs of energy retailers that are holding off from signing up to use the terminal, as she seeks to move the project in Port Kembla forward.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    21

    • #
      Zane

      I tend to see a silver lining to this cloud. Forrest is a billionaire, alongside fellow mining magnate Gina Rinehart. Digging iron ore out of the ground with heavy machinery would tend to indicate at least a nodding acquaintance with something called reality. Forrest and his money cannot readily be ignored and his company and mining workers pay juicy amounts of tax into government coffers. If Forrest wants an LNG terminal there is a fighting chance an LNG terminal may eventuate. LNG can be used for various things – transportation, cooking, home heating. It can also be piped to CCGT power generators. Since NSW is due to phase out its aging coal plants, the scene is wide open for a new CCGT power station to be built. And that will mean reliable baseload power for the grid in NSW.

      30

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Zane:
        Aren’t you forgetting his obsession with hydrogen? From memory one of his schemes was a hydrogen plant (making ‘Green hydrogen’) in Port Kembla.
        Is his idea to be used to collect subsidies by pretending to be reducing CO2? Well a CCGT would cut emissions over an existing NSW coal plant (possibly 55%) IF run continuously. Adding in 5% hydrogen into the supply wouldn’t reduce emissions much.
        There would be 3 problems
        1. the cost of electricity
        2. the problems caused by forced intermittency trying to accomodate renewables (esp. if Mad Matt gets his big Dubbo project.
        3. that some ignoramus (politician or bureaucrat) would decide to force the CCGT to use more hydrogen (burning out the turbine blades)

        20

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Back in the good ‘ole days Premier Joh would build railway lines for the mines and give them a royalty holiday.

      Long after the holiday is forgotten the mines were still working and QRNational was making a motza haulin’ coal. That would be an anathema to our current Premier

      Sometimes you must cast bread on the water.

      50

  • #
    Doc

    Seems to be the prime moment for governments to switch on a brain wave. One that suggests now to be a convenient hiatus in their move to all out renewables, and have ‘the great rethink’ about whether they really want to induce the real blowout in problems that are suddenly staring them in the face. They are at the brink and now see just what’s coming very clearly if they jump.

    Since the ‘Wall’ came down, they have all been deluded that the war had been won, they were omnipotent and permanent peace in the world was at hand. This delusion removed all prior history of the world being a place of fierce economic and national competition. Defence matters were no longer a concern. A political void existed and into it rode the powerful world of the extreme leftist positions of wokist ideas and the gradual extinction of traditional social and legal principles that had, on balance, produced the most advanced levels of human existence ever experienced. Most people were fed. An extended period of peace over 50years existed. China was joining the world community, pulling its people up by the bootstraps. It was loved and the Western businesses flocked to the cheap production and high profits on offer.

    The West became open to ideas that were attracted by the heart; the head went to sleep. Science became inconvenient and our politicians decided they would decide science, a return to the medieval. In combination, all the cracked ideas, seemingly arising from ‘crack’, have reached a zenith of extreme left influence. We are governed by politicians from anywhere where enforcement of stupidity and belief is accomplished by derision and ruination, and the use of police forces against the people and not ‘for the people’ if necessary. People are not noticing that their freedoms are being removed. Even freedom of thought and opinion! ‘If only we could control what people speak about at the breakfast table’ seemed a funny joke coming from the mouth of a person in charge of our Human Rights organisation. It is now seen as anything but a joke! In being brain dead for 50years, our political class and its mates Big Business now see the train wreck coming our way. Politicians are grabbing for the lifelines. Big Business loudly demands they keep the gravey train of easy profits up and running as they had demanded before they invested in the climate change deal so heavily. China, Russia and North Korea saw the chnange in the West, with its huge pile up of debt becoming ever greater and its desire and ability to reverse course being lost due to hubris and sloth. Suddenly the world of calm and peace has been turned on its head, all because the leadership – and people – of the West became slothful, self satisfied and refuse to see reality.

    I started this diatribe simply on the basis that if ever there was a time for a political awakening, this is it. The next thing to do, having started the cooling off over climate matters, is to review the political interference in science and get the debate on all things climate reopened and publicly, loudly do so in front of the people. There is 50years of extreme left propaganda, beginning at the earliest time a human can think, to be reversed. Get politicians out of the debate because none of them have a qualification to expound on anything ‘Climate’. Let that debate be looked after by people qualified to debate it. That gets it out of every other matter that it infects currently in the mind of the people and the power seekers. Let’s get the West back to what it does best. It improves civilisation, standards of living everywhere and has proven principles that work for everyone. Get it back to aiming for the moon instead of at its feet or worse, agreeing to lash its back on demand from people that would have it on its back to trample all over us.

    101

    • #
      David Maddison

      Well said, Doc.

      31

      • #
        David Maddison

        Here is a shocking video taken at the WEF where the Australian eSafety Commissioner says that a range of human rights, including free speech, have to be “recalibrated”. She was appointed for a second 5 year term earlier this year. She has enormous and unearned power to control and restrict the free speech of Australians.

        https://youtu.be/p9MJ8071l7M

        71

        • #
          KP

          Yes, all too late I think David- The West will never recover the 1960s freedom, enthusiasm and beliefs it had, that all belongs to the non-white races coming up behind us.

          Mars may be colonised,but it will be “New New Delhi” and “New Peking” I’m thinking, probably “New Hanoi” and “New Djakata” too.

          21

    • #

      That was Bob Brown’s fright-bat friend Gillian Trigg’s lamenting that ‘sadly’ people are free to say what they like around the kitchen table at home What sort of intrusive totalitarian bureaucrat would resent
      that basic human right ?… One of the more grotesque appointments in Australian history was Trigg’s as chief commissioner of the Australian Human Rights Commission

      20

  • #
    Brad

    From a personal view, I drive a 2013 Honda Civic Hybrid, averaging around 45 MPG. Being self employed, I charge $0.625/mile. So I get to bill my clients $28/gallon, which is around $5.10/gal currently. My car paid for itself…

    21

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      The purchase price difference between a standard and hybrid currently seems to be about AUD $4,000.

      That has to be considered.

      21

      • #
        Dave

        Amazing the debate among mechanics today.

        What we do when EV’s take over?
        We won’t have a job
        Majority of the EV manufacturers only allow same company service!
        Like Tesla by Tesla.

        An enterprising business up the Sunshine Coast has been buying ICE motors by the hundreds.
        Especially for the biggest sellers at the moment. Toyota, Ranger, which are nearly all V6’s
        Plus a heaps of old V8 engines as well!

        When the RENEWABLE GRID collapses and only EV’s can be sold, OLD ICE cars will be worth a mint.
        Repairs for old garaged ones will need mechanics for the next fifty years at least.

        Then it will turn the full circle.
        ICE will come back in big time and dominate.

        And we won’t have to watch EV car racing with NO SOUND.
        I prefer the old way.

        The smell of burning rubber also.

        21

  • #
    LG

    Does anyone know how many MW of hydro capacity can be generated in Australia without it draining the reservoirs?

    11

    • #
      RickWill

      How long is a piece of string. The question is in that category. It depends on the rainfall and Australia, including Tasmania, ise prone to drought. The installed capacity of hydroelectric generators is 8790MW. The actual MWh depends on the perched water availability and the operation of the pumped hydro. Output in 2019 was 17TWh; abut 8% of total generation.

      30

  • #
    CHRIS

    Rick is spot on. So many variables depend on hydro capacity…just like any other “renewable” energy sources.

    10