Benny Peiser's
Reports
- Jeb Bush: ‘Hard-Core Left’ Trying To Force Their Way On Climate Issue. (Well, it appears it' true - even a blind monkey can find a coconut! RK)
- Chinese Privatization Plans May Kick-Start Another Shale Revolution
U.S. Republican Jeb Bush said on Wednesday that the Earth’s climate is changing
but that scientific research does not clearly show how much of the change is
due to humans and how much is from natural causes. While President Barack Obama
and many scientists believe humans are largely to blame for climate change,
Bush said the degree of human responsibility is uncertain. The former Florida
governor challenged Obama’s determination earlier in the day that climate
change is now a threat to U.S. national security. --Reuters,
21 May 2015
The problem is climate change has been co-opted by the hard-core left and if
you don’t march to their beat perfectly then you’re a denier. --Jeb Bush, The Daily
Signal, 21 May 2015
In his frantic search for something positive for us to remember him by,
President Obama has lately turned to “climate change,” casting it in recent
weeks as a matter of health, of environmental protection, of international
obligation, even as a matter of his daughter’s health. She suffered an asthma
attack as a child, and he thinks the changing weather had something to do with
it. Nothing has worked so far to persuade the public that everyone is doomed
unless the government steps in to change the weather. President Obama is likely
to find that manufactured climate hysteria won’t work. --Editorial, The
Washington Times, 20 May 2015
With six months to go until the next global climate treaty talks in Paris,
environmentalist and former US vice president Al Gore has declared that ‘the
future of the world depends’ on their outcome. Lord Nigel Lawson, former energy
secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s government, delivers his assessment of the
prospects of the world reaching a new climate deal. --Australian
Broadcasting Corporation, 21 May 2015
Spiegel journalist Axel Bojanowski calls it the “big climate show”. Although
big declarations are being made, behind the scenes “creative steps” and
“tricks” are the real order of the day. One example of trickery comes from Russia,
Bojanowski writes: Although Russia has announced it wants to reduce emissions
25% by 2030 compared to 1990 – this is in fact trickery. Because of the
collapse of its industry during the 1990s, the country is emitting only half as
much CO2 as it did in 1990. That means with respect to climate targets, Russia
intends to emit more CO2 in the future.” And not less! In Paris
do expect the signing of a “binding international treaty”, but one that will be
chock-full of non-binding requirements. The circus (which no one takes
seriously anymore) thus will continue. --Pierre Gosselin, No
Tricks Zone, 20 May 2015
Cold weather kills 20 times as many people as hot weather, according to an
international study analyzing over 74 million deaths in 384 locations across 13
countries. The findings, published in The Lancet, also reveal
that deaths due to moderately hot or cold weather substantially exceed those
resulting from extreme heat waves or cold spells. According to Dr Gasparrini,
“Current public-health policies focus almost exclusively on minimizing the
health consequences of heat waves. Our findings suggest that these measures need
to be refocused and extended to take account of a whole range of effects
associated with temperature.” --Science
Daily, 20 May 2015
Balkan countries and Ukraine are making “substantial investments” in polluting
coal power stations to sell cheap electricity to the European Union, as the
bloc searches for new suppliers to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. EU
officials appear reluctant to use energy negotiations next month, or trade law,
to force higher air pollution and environmental standards, despite the risks
the rush poses to EU climate change and enlargement policies, and to finances
and public health in the Balkans. --EurActiv,
19 May 2015
Germany is planning to soften the 2020 reduction targets for CO2 emissions by
coal power plants, after opposition to the plan. As per the previous plan, the
coal-based power plants need to cut down their emissions by 22 million tonnes
by 2020, but the revised plan could bring it down to 16 million tonne, Reuters
reported. The country’s plans to impose a levy on the ancient and polluting
energy generating facilities didn’t go well with the industry. German power
developer RWE has warned that enforcement of the levy would lead to immediate
shut down of their lignite-fired power units. --Power
Technology News, 19 May 2015
Germany's largest power producer RWE has rejected a softened proposal by
Germany's economy ministry under which coal-fired power plants would have to
lower their CO2 emissions by less than previously planned. Thousands of coal
workers marched in Berlin last month to protest plans to impose a levy on the
oldest and most polluting power plants, which unions say could put 100,000 jobs
at risk. RWE warned the measure would lead to the immediate closure of its
lignite-fired power plants. --Reuters,
19 May 2015
A future German power market without nuclear power and significantly reduced
coal-fired power capacity – both according to government plans – and topped
with the shutdown of modern gas-fired power plants – an unintended consequence
of increased renewable energy integration – may eventually lead to something
resembling the ‘Morgenthau Plan.’ Except in this scenario Germany’s destruction
would be implemented by the German government itself via German energy sector.
--Roman Kilisek, Breaking
Energy, 11 May 2015
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande staked
out their countries’ claim to global green leadership today with a joint
statement pledging to phase out fossil fuels and “decarbonise” the global
economy by the end of the century. By choosing to shutter its nuclear reactors
as part of its Energiewende, Germany rid itself of a fleet of
zero-carbon baseload power sources. And so, enter coal. Germany hoped to teach
the rest of the world something about energy policy. It should be seen as a cautionary
tale for policymakers about the dangers of letting politically
expedient and nice-sounding green rhetoric cloud sound judgment, because this
“green” strategy has somehow managed to increase the country’s reliance on coal
while raising
electricity costs. --Walter Russell Mead, American
Interest, 19 May 2015
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande jointly
pledged Tuesday to do their utmost to ensure an “ambitious” UN deal to combat
climate change is reached this year. In a joint statement at informal
international talks in Berlin, the European Union’s two biggest economies also
urged other countries to do their part in helping achieve a global push to cut
emissions. France and Germany have “firmly decided to take all efforts to reach
an ambitious, comprehensive and binding UN climate agreement by the end of this
year,” Merkel and Hollande said. --AFP, 19
May 2015
China is aiming to take private investment freedom one step further and allow
foreign firms to secure oil and natural gas blocks in some areas and operate
them themselves. Beijing is considering the establishment of a shale
demonstration zone in an area roughly the size of Germany where it will auction
off rights to private companies in land currently administered by state-owned
companies Sinopec and CNPC. --Stratfor Global Intelligence, 18 May 2015
The U.S. is about to change the global LNG market forever. When the first
tanker carrying liquefied natural gas from shale fields leaves the Sabine Pass
terminal in Louisiana in December, it will turn consumers into traders with
more bargaining power. That will transform a market dominated by long-term
contracts into one where spot trading gains prominence, similar to crude oil...
because gas from the Bakken and other fields will transform the U.S. into the
third-biggest exporter by 2020. --Anna Shiryaevskaya and Isis Almeida, Bloomberg, 19 May 2015
Europe’s oil capital is a victim of the sharp drop in oil prices since last
year. More than 1,000 oil workers have been laid off since the downturn began.
“It’s like waiting for a tsunami: You can see the wave coming and prepare
somewhat, but it’s ultimately going to hit you,” said Colin Welsh, chief
executive of Simmons & Co. International Ltd., an energy-focused investment
bank based in Aberdeen. But Aberdeen has something else to worry about: Oil in
the North Sea is running out. Production has been declining since 1999, and
while experts estimate that it still has billions of barrels of oil, sucking
them out of the seabed is getting costlier. --Georgi Kantchev, The Wall Street Journal, 15 May 2015
The election of a Conservative government has led to a big change in personnel
at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) – one of the few Liberal
Democrat run departments in the previous Parliament. Now, this fresh team has
an opportunity to get a grip on the many challenges facing the UK’s energy
policy – most of all, restoring a policy that champions the consumer, rather
than the interests of energy lobbies. The first and most urgent priority is to
speed up the exploration of shale gas, which offers huge economic potential.
Shale gas development could create tens of thousands of jobs in the North and
boost industries – not least those in the energy-intensive sector, helping the
government to achieve its northern powerhouse strategy. --Benny Peiser &
Daniel Mahoney, City A.M.
19 May 2015
Local residents will be able to block all future onshore wind farms under new
measures to be fast-tracked into law, the new energy secretary has announced.
“It will mean no more onshore wind farm subsidies and no more onshore wind
farms without local community support.” In an interview with The Sunday Times
Amber Rudd also said the Tory government would kick-start a shale gas
revolution and loosen rules so it could be extracted from under national parks.
--Tim Shipman, The
Sunday Times, 17 May 2015
The European Union is increasing pressure on Washington to include an energy chapter in a planned trans-Atlantic trade deal that would allow U.S. exports of natural gas and oil and reduce the bloc’s dependency on Russia. The U.S. has so far resisted an energy chapter in TTIP, but the shale-gas boom in the U.S. and the EU’s trouble with Russia have pushed the issue into focus. --Gabriele Steinhauser, The Wall Street Journal, 18 May 2015
The Indian Government today said investments worth $ 250 billion are planned
over the next five years in coal, power and renewable energy and it is looking
at opening 40-50 new coal mines in 18 months. “The Power, Coal and Renewable
energy sectors have plans to invest nearly USD 250 billion in the next five
years…. In the coal sector we are looking at opening nearly 40-50 new mines in
the next one and half year,” Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said at a
seminar here. --Press
Trust of India, 13 May 2015
China and India have issued a rare joint statement, demanding to know when the
$100 billion green money they were promised [by President Obama] is going to be
delivered. --Eric Worrall, Watts Up
With That, 16 May 2015
Of course, divestment represents an admission that fossil fuels are not going
to run out, as was commonly believed until the shale bonanza began. The
governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, seems sympathetic to the argument
that climate change policies will soon make fossil fuels unburnable and that
oil reserves may become “stranded assets”. So sell your BP shares before the
company’s raison d’etre vanishes in a puff of non-smoke. It’s all mad.
Divestment won’t work, is unethical, hypocritical, aimed at the wrong target
and based on flawed premises. --Matt Ridley, The
Times, 18 May 2015
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