Editor's Note: As you go through these links please remember that all of this was perfectly predictable, and there were a great many informed people who did predict this outcome. But the media, the arrogant "leaders" and bureaucrats of the EU and many other countries along with the activists ridiculed them. Now Europe has come face to face with the "Inevitability Factor: When Reality reaches its Zenith". The average citizen of the EU is suffering financially as a result of all this insane ‘green’ thinking that has infested their minds. And it goes beyond economics. In a recent winter Eastern Europeans froze to death because of a lack of energy availability. That is what happens when “radical” thinking becomes “mainstream". Remember that this whole thing is predicated on the false idea that CO2 causes climate change and that the world was running out of traditional sources. Both of those two claims have been fully exposed as false. So why is the world still pursuing an insane greenie inspired course based on lies generated by so-called science that has been clearly shown to be blatantly fraudulent?
Europe’s Businesses Urge Political Leaders To Abandon Unilateral Climate Policies
For a growing number of Europeans, their continent’s global warming policies have forced them to decide whether to heat their homes or buy food. In short they must choose whether to “Heat or Eat,” which was the title of a talk by a British climate policy expert delivered in Calgary Tuesday. Benny Peiser, director of the non-partisan, not for profit Global Warming Policy Foundation, laid out in graphic terms how Europe’s climate policies have “failed.” “This is the biggest wealth transfer in the history of modern Europe — from the poor to the rich,” explained Peiser, who spoke to a crowd of 200 at the 10th annual Friends of Science luncheon. --Licia Corbella, Calgary Herald, 15 May 2013
European companies’ competitiveness is hampered by unnecessary burdensome legislative instruments in climate, energy and environment and policymakers must rebalance industrial strategies towards manufacturing, BusinessEurope president Jürgen Thumann said in an interview with EurActiv. The European Business Summit (EBS) begins today (15 May). “European companies are suffering from the negative effects of green tape,” said Thumann, slamming the Commission for its inclination to develop ‘unnecessary burdensome legislative instruments in climate, energy and environment policies.’ --EurActiv, 15 May 2013
The European gas sector is in a disastrous state and without policies to boost investment, the power supply of some countries could be at risk, a top industry official said. Cirelli said gas, which represents a quarter of EU primary energy consumption and is used by 200 million citizens for heating, is no longer competitive in Europe because of the influx of cheap US coal and rock-bottom CO2 prices. As cheap shale gas displaces coal in US power plants, coal exports to Europe rose 23% last year, pushing international coal prices lower. In some EU countries, the amount of electricity generated from coal is rising at annualised rates as high as 50%, Cirelli said. --EurActiv, 15 May 2013
One reason why we in this country are falling behind the growth of the rest of the world is that in recent years we have had a policy of deliberately driving up the price of energy. A nation can compete on the basis of cheap labour or cheap energy but if it has neither then it is likely to be in trouble. So, for the sake of pensioners in fuel poverty, for the sake of small businesses struggling to meet their energy bills and for the sake of large businesses all too ready to leave these shores, let us repeat what our ancestors did in the early 18th century and drive down the costs of energy so that we can drive up living standards. --Viscount (Matt) Ridley, House of Lords, 14 May 2013
Gone With The Wind
British Wind Farm Owners Face Redistribution Of Green Subsidy Profits
The leader of the Scottish Government review of landownership yesterday pledged to examine ways of redistributing the cash wealthy lairds make from wind farms to benefit the less-advantaged. Alison Elliot, chair of the Land Reform Review Group (LRRG), said the issue would be investigated amid concerns that aristocrats are benefiting from the renewables revolution while the poor grapple with fuel poverty. --Tom Peterkin, The Scotsman, 16 May 2013
Critics point out that landowners rent their land to renewable generators, whose wind farms are subsidised by extra levies on ordinary electricity consumers. Tory MEP Struan Stevenson’s estimates suggest that the Duke of Roxburghe could net £1.5 million a year from a wind farm on the Lammermuir Hills. The Earl of Moray is estimated to receive £2 million a year from a wind farm near Stirling. The Earl of Glasgow could be earning upwards of £300,000 a year from turbines on his Kelburn estate. --Tom Peterkin, The Scotsman, 16 May 2013
Wind farm operators in Scotland have been paid nearly £6 million over the past 33 days not to generate electricity, more than was paid out for the whole of last year. Campaigners claim there has never been a longer period of consecutive payments and are continuing to call for the energy regulator to investigate. From April 13 to May 13 this year, some £5.994m was paid out to operators by the National Grid, with all but £2000 going to developments in Scotland. The total for the whole of 2012 was £5.924m. The latest payments bring the total paid since January 1 to £7.8m and this week alone 20 wind farms have shared a total payout of £2.12m. --David Ross, The Glasgow Herald, 16 May 2013
Green energy subsidies will cost every British household £600 a year by 2020, a leading industry analyst warns in a Civitas paper published today. The cost to consumers of pursuing EU renewables targets is set to rise above £16 billion per annum, when VAT is taken into account, Dr John Constable writes in Are Green Times Just Around the Corner? Moreover, these huge costs are making it more, not less, likely that green energy production remains inefficient and a burden on the taxpayer in the years to come, he says. And he warns that the shift to renewables is likely to herald the first long-term decline in living standards since the start of the industrial revolution. --Civitas, 17 May 2013
Viscount Matt Ridley used his maiden speech in the House of Lords to say that jobs lost at a Northumberland aluminium smelter this year would be among many to go abroad if the Government does not bring down energy costs. Lord Ridley, of Blagdon Hall near Cramlington, was elected to the House of Lords in February in a by-election for a hereditary seat. Speaking in the Lords, he made clear the UK economy was at risk if energy costs continued to rise. “Household energy costs have doubled in the past 15 years. In the US, where gas prices used to be the same as they are here, they are now one-quarter or one-fifth of the level here. That is an enormous competitive advantage to the US and a disadvantage to us. A nation can compete on the basis of cheap labour or cheap energy, but if it has neither then it is likely to be in trouble.” --Adrian Pearson, The Journal, 16 May 2013
Business leaders from across Europe met here Thursday to discuss—among other things—a proposal from the European Commission to “reindustrialize Europe.” Some executives at the annual European Business Summit, however, viewed the target as not much more than a vain hope. The real challenge they say is to prevent further deindustrialization of the continent. European companies face among the highest energy prices in the world. Worse still, energy prices in Europe have increased 27% between 2005 and early 2012, more than in most other industrialized economies. --Stephen Fidler, The Wall Street Journal, 16 May 2013
Instead of the blooming green economy promised by political leaders and activists, Europe is facing a competitiveness crisis and an economic nightmare, with almost 27 million people out of work and many countries facing bankruptcy. According to Austria’s energy regulator, European consumers have subsidized renewable energy investors by a staggering 600 billion euros since 2004. In most EU members states, energy prices have skyrocketed while millions of families have been forced into energy poverty. Public protest against the growing cost of going green are forcing lawmakers to renounce support for costly policies that are hurting ordinary families. --Benny Peiser, Calgary Herald, 16 May 2013
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