The Price of Energy is the Beginning of Wisdom!

Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Foundation Reports:

UK Climate Minister Voted Out, Green LibDems Wiped Out  

 

Britain’s Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey has lost his seat to the Conservative party, in an election night that has seen the Liberal Democrats presence in the House of Commons decimated. --The Mirror, 8 May 2015

David Cameron has won the general election with an outright majority after Labour was virtually wiped out in Scotland and the Liberal Democrat vote collapsed. Mr Cameron hailed the "sweetest victory" as his party secured the 323 seats needed to form a government without needing to go into coalition. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader. Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor was the biggest scalp of the night, losing his Leeds seat to the Tories. --The Daily Telegraph, 8 May 2015

The Prime Minister has pledged to stop future government funding to windfarm projects including the delayed inquiry and to give local people the final say – if he is re-elected today. Mr Cameron pledged to stop the windfarm project and any other on-shore windfarms within Montgomeryshire if he was elected to take a second term in Government. He said: “I want to make it clear that if there is a Conservative Government in place we will remove all subsidy for on-shore wind and local people should have a greater say.” --Ben Goddard, County Times, 7 May 2015

Speculation is growing that energy and climate change department’s days of independence could be numbered. A government source said that if David Cameron is re-elected, he is likely to fold it into the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, where the government has more staff with commercial experience. --John Collingridge and Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times, 5 April 2015

New government will have to address capacity shortfalls to avoid blackouts. Avoiding a power blackout will be one of the first priorities for whoever forms the next government, a leading consultant has suggested. Critics argue that a focus on renewables has left Britain’s power network now dangerously short of spare capacity. --Andrew Critchlow, The Daily Telegraph, 8 May 2015

 

The Conservative Party’s victory in the UK General Election means that it will be able to put its own man in at the top of the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The result of the election should help to move forward the establishment of an onshore shale gas industry in the UK as the Conservatives are fully behind drilling for shale gas in the country. --Jon Mainwaring, Rig Zone, 8 May 2015

 

David Cameron’s 2014 commitment to go ‘all out for shale gas’ may have been a controversial one, but now he has secured power this could be huge news for the oil and gas industry in the UK. --Oil Voice, 8 May 2015

 

A key part of our long-term economic plan to secure Britain’s future is to back businesses with better infrastructure. That’s why we’re going all out for shale. It will mean more jobs and opportunities for people, and economic security for our country.—David Cameron, 10 Downing Street, 13 January 2014

 

The Conservative Party manifesto 2015 says it will continue to support shale gas in Britain. It says that its tax cuts have encouraged “the birth of a new industry, shale gas, which could create many thousands of jobs.” It promises to continue supporting the safe development of shale gas, and ensure that local communities share the proceeds through generous community benefit packages. It also commits to the creation of a Sovereign Wealth Fund for the North of England, so that the shale gas resources of the North are used to invest in the future of the North.—OESG News, 14 April 2015

 

A majority government is an opportunity to fix Britain’s broken energy department. Forget ill-conceived green commitments. Our economy will wither and die unless we find a way to harness our onshore fossil fuel resources. The jobs and industrial growth created by shale in the US should be enough motivation to exploit our own resources. The country cannot afford to fall into the trap set by the climate change zealots who would see our great oil and gas companies bankrupted on the evidence of some questionable scientific assumptions. --Andrew Critchlow, The Daily Telegraph. 9 May 2015

 

I want to make it clear that if there is a Conservative Government in place we will remove all subsidy for on-shore wind and local people should have a greater say. This would end the growth of on-shore wind and if that’s what you care about you must vote Conservative. –David Cameron, County Times, 7 May 2015

Would you believe it was eight years ago today that the United Nations predicted we only had “as little as eight years left to avoid a dangerous global average rise of 2C or more.” This failed prediction, however, has not stopped the U.N. from issuing more apocalyptic predictions since. --Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller News, 4 May 2015

 
 

The Silliness Of Tesla’s Green Battery

Last week, Tesla introduced a 10kWh home battery pack for back-up use only. It will cost $7140 installed, will be dead in fewer than five hours, and can’t run an entire house or central air conditioning or charge an electric car. In other words, this new back-up battery from Tesla is just another attempted Musk distraction from a core auto business that I expect in this week’s Q1 earnings report will show record GAAP losses and the company’s lowest gross margin in at least a year. --Mark B Spiegel, Seeking Alpha, 3 May 2015

So how much is that battery power going to cost? Adding together your 15 cents per kwh for solar power plus the 15 cents to cycle a kwh in and out of the battery, and you’re looking at 30 cents per kwh for electricity. I think 30 cents per kwh is bonkers. At my home in Texas I pay 10 cents per kwh to Reliant Energy for electricity that is mostly generated by natural gas burning power plants. And here’s where the economics of the Powerwall break down. If you do not have a big enough solar system to get your home entirely off the grid, then there is simply no point whatsoever in paying 30 cents per kwh to get electricity via the Powerwall. At night, when you’re not generating solar power, you could simply get your electricity from the grid. For 10 cents a kwh. --Christopher Helman, Forbes, 1 May 2015

Antarctic Sea Ice Expands To New Record

Time to take a quick look at the sea ice situation down under, as I must have missed it on BBC News. According to NSIDC, a new record high has been set for April, beating last year. Ice is above average virtually all around the continent. Meanwhile, according to Bob Tisdale, Southern Ocean surface temperatures continue to plunge. It really does not take a genius to add two and two together. --Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 3 May 2015

Falling oil and gas prices have short-circuited rollouts of renewable energy and alternative vehicle use, setting back progress toward reaching climate goals, the world’s top energy body said Monday. Many analysts had been hopeful that renewable investment could withstand the price drop brought about by America’s shale oil and gas boom. But the IEA says it’s not happening. --Rob Wile, Fusion, 4 May 2015

What I would like to emphasize is that human actions have very large effects on the ecology, which have nothing to do with the climate. Carbon dioxide is what we’re producing in big quantities and putting into the atmosphere. This happens to be a very good fertilizer for all kinds of vegetation, good for wildlife, good for agricultural production, so it has many benefits. And this is something you have together with the climate effects, which are much less certain, so it’s a question of drawing a balance. I’m just saying I don’t understand it and neither does anybody else. I’m skeptical because I don’t think the science is at all clear, and unfortunately a lot of the experts really believe they understand it, and maybe have the wrong answer. --Freeman Dyson, National Public Radio (NPR), 2 May 2015