Getting Ready For The European Elections

June 03, 2024 Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

The Global Warming Policy Foundation 2024 American speaking tour is now set for next week. Dr. Benny Peiser, Director of the GWPF, and I will be speaking at three events on June 11, 12 and 13 on the topic of “Europe’s Net Zero Rebellion, European elections, and the coming U.S. reckoning.” My piece is the “U.S. reckoning,” while Benny will cover the backlash against Net Zero currently beginning to boil up in Europe.

The June 11 and 12 events are public and all are welcome to attend. On June 11 we will appear for a luncheon event at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, Texas. The in-person event will be at the TPPF building at 501 Congress Avenue in downtown Austin, 11:30 AM to 1 PM. This event will also be live-streamed for those who cannot attend in person. If you would like to attend this event remotely, go to this link. The following day’s event on June 12 will then be at the 3 West Club, 3 West 51st Street in Manhattan, at 6 PM. (The June 13 event will be private.)

All the events will follow immediately after the European elections, which will have taken place on Sunday June 9. These are not the national elections of any country, but rather the elections for members of the European Parliament. The European Parliament has substantial authority in some areas, and not so much in other areas. One area where it has substantial authority is climate and energy policy, so that has become a big issue in these elections, indeed maybe the biggest issue.

Benny is the expert on the current politics of the so-called energy transition in Europe. I’m looking forward to learning from him much more about the particular political situations in the various countries, and also to hearing his post-mortem on the elections.

Meanwhile, take note: there is clearly a political earthquake gathering force in Europe against the green energy takeover. Exactly how much force it has gathered so far is something we will learn much more about after June 9. But whether the shift in this election is small or large, either way it will be significant. That is because until now there has been in Europe essentially an all-party consensus on the necessity, if not moral urgency, of abandoning fossil fuels as soon as possible and replacing them with “zero emissions” alternatives, mainly wind and solar generation of electricity. Up until just now, all political momentum pushed toward the suppression of fossil fuels and the development of subsidized wind and solar replacements. Now, we are looking not just at a slowing of this momentum, but rather reversing it. Reality has set in.

To whet your appetite for our programs, consider just a few data points:

An Australia-based energy realism site called Stop These Things has a report from the Netherlands dated May 31, headline “Grand Energy ‘Transition’ Unravels: Power-Starved Dutch Ditch Renewables & Go For Gas.” You might think that the Dutch are the ultimate virtue signalers and groupthinkers on matters of green energy, but it looks like even they have their limits.

[L]ike most of their European neighbours, the Netherlands has squandered billions of subsidies on chaotically intermittent wind and solar, with little to show for it – other than ruined landscapes and unliveable homes. Now the hard cold reality of sunshine and/or weather-dependent power generation is starting to bite. Various provinces simply can’t keep the lights on, and have called timeout on the grand ‘transition’ to sunshine and breezes.

STT cites a Belgium-based source called the Brussels Signal reporting that the Dutch province of Utrecht has been forced to revert to electricity generation from natural gas because the wind and sun are insufficient and unreliable:

The outgoing Dutch Climate Minister Rob Jetten, leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, along with local grid operators, announced a set of measures to fight the power-grid overload in Utrecht province. It is expected to be the first of many regions in the country that will have to take action to avoid future problems. To maintain electricity provision to the public and businesses in Utrecht, there will be a switch back to gas. At moments of peak demand, the local Government will deploy gas generators.

And this, citing the Dutch public service broadcaster nos: 

nos reported that the projected shortage equals the needs of 125,000 homes in Utrecht. . . . Without implementing appropriate measures, the province is forecast to experience frequent electricity blackouts, which would jeopardise the construction of new housing and industrial complexes, nos said.

Wait until they figure out that if natural gas is the backup, you must maintain natural gas generation capacity equal to the entirety of peak usage to account for a worst-case wind/sun drought — even though the natural gas plants may run infrequently. This is a great way to double and triple the cost of electricity to consumers.

And then there’s more of same from Scotland, again seemingly a home of ultimate climate virtue signalers. Scotland by its Emissions Reduction Targets Act in 2019 adopted the most aggressive of all emissions-lowering targets among the countries of the world, a mandatory 75% reduction in emissions (relative to a 1990 baseline) by 2030. On April 18 that all fell apart. From Reuters, April 18:

Scotland on Thursday scrapped its target of cutting climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030, blaming the central British government, but said it still intends to meet a 2045 net zero target. The move came in response to a critical report published last month by the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), which said Scotland was so far behind what was needed to meet the 2030 target that it was no longer credible. Mairi McAllan, the Net Zero Secretary for Scotland's devolved government, . . . said Scotland was constrained by cuts to the capital funding it receives from the British government and an overall weakening of climate ambition by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Or in other words, the plan was to do this with other people’s money, but now that that is not forthcoming, never mind.

And don’t forget the major watering-down of emissions reduction goals by the UK itself that took place last fall. From CNBC, September 20, 2023:

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday said his government would take a new approach to meeting its emissions targets as he announced a delay on the ban on the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars. The ban will move from 2030 to 2035. . . . Sunak [also] said people needed more time to make the transition away from gas boilers and that households in some areas would get a delay on existing targets for the ban on new fossil fuel boilers.

All these moves result from political push-back from the masses as the costs of the supposed green energy transition increasingly manifest themselves. Lots more of this is coming, as it inevitably must. Come to our events (or tune in) to learn much more.