Bishop Hill
"Mark Lynas has a must-read article about the impact of wind farms on bird populations. This quote from an Oxford biologist is just one of the memorable moments..."
Saturday, 11 June 2011
'Leccy price hike: Greens to blame as well as energy biz . Who's paying for your neighbour's solar panels? You are
The Register
"Why? Because of government regulations imposed on the energy companies, whose effect is to drive up prices and pass the resulting extra cash to the owners of renewable power generators: from massive windfarms to rooftop solar panels on houses.
The first of these schemes is the Renewables Obligation, which compels anyone supplying electricity in the UK to present Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) equal in number to a given percentage of the total 'leccy they supply (in megawatt-hours) each year. This percentage has been steadily climbing since the RO was introduced at the turn of the century: today it is 11 per cent and it will climb to a bit more than 15 per cent in 2015. After that it will persist until at least 2037 - it was supposed to stop in 2027 but the scheme was extended last year."
"Why? Because of government regulations imposed on the energy companies, whose effect is to drive up prices and pass the resulting extra cash to the owners of renewable power generators: from massive windfarms to rooftop solar panels on houses.
The first of these schemes is the Renewables Obligation, which compels anyone supplying electricity in the UK to present Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) equal in number to a given percentage of the total 'leccy they supply (in megawatt-hours) each year. This percentage has been steadily climbing since the RO was introduced at the turn of the century: today it is 11 per cent and it will climb to a bit more than 15 per cent in 2015. After that it will persist until at least 2037 - it was supposed to stop in 2027 but the scheme was extended last year."
The REAL reason fuel bills are going through the roof? Crackpot green taxes you're never even told about
Daily Mail
"But none of them, I'll wager, will mention one of the biggest reasons why our power bills only ever seem to be heading up and up and why — regardless of what's happening in the wholesale energy market — they could easily have doubled by 2020. Spurred by the Government's stubborn but wrong-headed commitment to renewable energy, so-called green stealth taxes are already adding 15-20 per cent to the average domestic power bill and even more to business users.And yet, despite the growing cost of these taxes, you won't find any mention of them at all on your gas and electricity bills.That, of course, suits the Government down to the ground. If it raised the huge sums required to encourage renewable energy and limit carbon emissions through general taxation it would make the Government itself very unpopular.But by doing it through electricity and gas bills, the Government has cleverly ensured that it's the power companies that take the blame.The fact that these taxes currently don't even appear on our gas and electricity bills makes it even easier for the Government to get away with this cunning sleight of fiscal hand.So, what should be appearing on our power bills? First is the so-called Renewables Obligation, which currently requires power companies to buy 11 per cent of their power from renewable resources."
"But none of them, I'll wager, will mention one of the biggest reasons why our power bills only ever seem to be heading up and up and why — regardless of what's happening in the wholesale energy market — they could easily have doubled by 2020. Spurred by the Government's stubborn but wrong-headed commitment to renewable energy, so-called green stealth taxes are already adding 15-20 per cent to the average domestic power bill and even more to business users.And yet, despite the growing cost of these taxes, you won't find any mention of them at all on your gas and electricity bills.That, of course, suits the Government down to the ground. If it raised the huge sums required to encourage renewable energy and limit carbon emissions through general taxation it would make the Government itself very unpopular.But by doing it through electricity and gas bills, the Government has cleverly ensured that it's the power companies that take the blame.The fact that these taxes currently don't even appear on our gas and electricity bills makes it even easier for the Government to get away with this cunning sleight of fiscal hand.So, what should be appearing on our power bills? First is the so-called Renewables Obligation, which currently requires power companies to buy 11 per cent of their power from renewable resources."
Why 'vote blue, go green’ doesn’t sound quite so clever any more
Telegraph
"The problem is made worse by the fact that Britain's targets are more stretching than those of any other country. In one of his last acts as prime minister, Tony Blair defied his official advice and signed up to them, in order to prove how virtuous he was. The estimated bill for that man's moral vanity is a capital cost of £100 billion by the end of the decade.
It also means that we are now, from an energy point of view, the worst country in the world in which to invest. We're not even helping to develop inventive technologies designed to reduce emissions because we are putting so many of our eggs in the frail basket of renewables. We dither over nuclear. We pooh-pooh shale gas. The other day, flying over the English Channel, I noticed offshore wind farms in the waters below. They looked, with their rows of white crosses, like military cemeteries. Mr Blair and his successors are giving the British economy a burial at sea."
"The problem is made worse by the fact that Britain's targets are more stretching than those of any other country. In one of his last acts as prime minister, Tony Blair defied his official advice and signed up to them, in order to prove how virtuous he was. The estimated bill for that man's moral vanity is a capital cost of £100 billion by the end of the decade.
It also means that we are now, from an energy point of view, the worst country in the world in which to invest. We're not even helping to develop inventive technologies designed to reduce emissions because we are putting so many of our eggs in the frail basket of renewables. We dither over nuclear. We pooh-pooh shale gas. The other day, flying over the English Channel, I noticed offshore wind farms in the waters below. They looked, with their rows of white crosses, like military cemeteries. Mr Blair and his successors are giving the British economy a burial at sea."
Vote Blue, Go Green, Ruin Britain
Telegraph
"That issue, of course, is “Climate Change”. Never before in history, I doubt, has so much money ever been squandered, so much suffering and poverty exacerbated, so much economic damage been inflicted, so many lies promulgated and so much environmental destruction wrought in order to deal with a problem so microscopically miniscule. Really, if Barack Obama were to declare war on Belgium because he’d always found Tintin Au Congo offensively racist, or if David Cameron were to launch a nuclear strike on Mykonos because all those white-painted buildings were “way too gay”, you still wouldn’t be even half way close to equalling the quite breathtaking stupidity, purblind ignorance and suicidal wrongheadedness of the disasters currently being inflicted on the world by our boneheaded political and administrative classes on their holy mission to “combat climate change.”
Let’s concentrate on the British example since, thanks to Cameron’s determination to lead the “greenest government ever”, we’re further down the road to Eco Hell than most, and let’s look at the reasons behind those electricity and gas price rises."
"That issue, of course, is “Climate Change”. Never before in history, I doubt, has so much money ever been squandered, so much suffering and poverty exacerbated, so much economic damage been inflicted, so many lies promulgated and so much environmental destruction wrought in order to deal with a problem so microscopically miniscule. Really, if Barack Obama were to declare war on Belgium because he’d always found Tintin Au Congo offensively racist, or if David Cameron were to launch a nuclear strike on Mykonos because all those white-painted buildings were “way too gay”, you still wouldn’t be even half way close to equalling the quite breathtaking stupidity, purblind ignorance and suicidal wrongheadedness of the disasters currently being inflicted on the world by our boneheaded political and administrative classes on their holy mission to “combat climate change.”
Let’s concentrate on the British example since, thanks to Cameron’s determination to lead the “greenest government ever”, we’re further down the road to Eco Hell than most, and let’s look at the reasons behind those electricity and gas price rises."
Britain cannot afford this green madness
Daily Mail Comment
"Already, the cost of what Lord Turnbull calls the Government’s ‘global evangelism’ is plain to see: with households paying an extra £200 a year in hidden green charges on their gas and electricity bills and power companies being forced to scar the countryside with 10,000 ineffective wind turbines. The cost to the fragile economic recovery could be even greater, with advisers warning David Cameron that the move to a low-carbon economy will cost 1 per cent of GDP, or £13billion a year. Worse, we are the only country in the world to have imposed on its economy a strict,anti-competitive and legally-binding requirement to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2025. China (whose annual increase in emissions is greater than the UK’s total emissions), India and the U.S. are all refusing to commit to significant reductions – rendering our own efforts as futile as they are foolish."
"Already, the cost of what Lord Turnbull calls the Government’s ‘global evangelism’ is plain to see: with households paying an extra £200 a year in hidden green charges on their gas and electricity bills and power companies being forced to scar the countryside with 10,000 ineffective wind turbines. The cost to the fragile economic recovery could be even greater, with advisers warning David Cameron that the move to a low-carbon economy will cost 1 per cent of GDP, or £13billion a year. Worse, we are the only country in the world to have imposed on its economy a strict,anti-competitive and legally-binding requirement to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2025. China (whose annual increase in emissions is greater than the UK’s total emissions), India and the U.S. are all refusing to commit to significant reductions – rendering our own efforts as futile as they are foolish."
It's time this Government grew up over climate change, says Nigel Lawson
Daily Mail
"Lord Lawson, one of the most respected Tory figures of recent decades, accuses the Prime Minister of risking Britain’s economy to make a ‘symbolic’ point.In a devastating verdict he writes: ‘The Government’s highly damaging decarbonisation policy, enshrined in the absurd Climate Change Act, does not have a leg to stand on. It is intended, at massive cost, to be symbolic: To make good David Cameron’s ambition to make his administration “the greenest government ever”.
‘My dictionary defines green as “unripe, immature, undeveloped”.’
"Lord Lawson, one of the most respected Tory figures of recent decades, accuses the Prime Minister of risking Britain’s economy to make a ‘symbolic’ point.In a devastating verdict he writes: ‘The Government’s highly damaging decarbonisation policy, enshrined in the absurd Climate Change Act, does not have a leg to stand on. It is intended, at massive cost, to be symbolic: To make good David Cameron’s ambition to make his administration “the greenest government ever”.
‘My dictionary defines green as “unripe, immature, undeveloped”.’
Friday, 10 June 2011
Stop hiding green fuel tax, firms told as pressure to come clean on global warming levies intensifies
Daily Mail
"Power companies were under mounting pressure last night to come clean about the green ‘stealth levies’ secretly added to fuel bills – and tell customers exactly how much they are paying for Britain’s climate change revolution. Consumer groups and MPs say energy suppliers should be forced to lay out on household bills how much customers are paying to subsidise green power and to end the UK’s dependence on coal, oil and gas. The call for greater transparency follows claims that global warming policies are adding up to £200 a year to the electricity and gas bills of millions of cash-strapped families.
"Power companies were under mounting pressure last night to come clean about the green ‘stealth levies’ secretly added to fuel bills – and tell customers exactly how much they are paying for Britain’s climate change revolution. Consumer groups and MPs say energy suppliers should be forced to lay out on household bills how much customers are paying to subsidise green power and to end the UK’s dependence on coal, oil and gas. The call for greater transparency follows claims that global warming policies are adding up to £200 a year to the electricity and gas bills of millions of cash-strapped families.
The answer, my friend, ain't blowing' in the wind
Daily Mail
"Following the revelation that we’re all paying a secret stealth tax to subsidise so-called renewable energy sources, it seems like a good time to check out exactly what we are getting for our money.At midday yesterday, wind power was contributing just 2.2 per cent of all the electricity in the National Grid. You might think that’s a pretty poor return on the billions of pounds spent already on Britain’s standing army of windmills.But it’s actually a significant improvement on the last time I checked the wholesale electricity industry’s official website. At the turn of the year, the figure was 1.6 per cent. During the cold snap the turbines had to be heated to stop them freezing and were actually consuming more electricity than they generated. .....Why should British householders, uniquely, be forced to pay higher gas and electricity bills to disfigure our green-and-pleasant with hideous War Of The Worlds windmills, simply so politicians like Huhne can preen themselves at international ‘global warming’ conferences? It is suicidal to load unnecessary financial burdens on British businesses, which are trying to compete with cut-price Chinese products produced in factories powered by cheap electricity."
"Following the revelation that we’re all paying a secret stealth tax to subsidise so-called renewable energy sources, it seems like a good time to check out exactly what we are getting for our money.At midday yesterday, wind power was contributing just 2.2 per cent of all the electricity in the National Grid. You might think that’s a pretty poor return on the billions of pounds spent already on Britain’s standing army of windmills.But it’s actually a significant improvement on the last time I checked the wholesale electricity industry’s official website. At the turn of the year, the figure was 1.6 per cent. During the cold snap the turbines had to be heated to stop them freezing and were actually consuming more electricity than they generated. .....Why should British householders, uniquely, be forced to pay higher gas and electricity bills to disfigure our green-and-pleasant with hideous War Of The Worlds windmills, simply so politicians like Huhne can preen themselves at international ‘global warming’ conferences? It is suicidal to load unnecessary financial burdens on British businesses, which are trying to compete with cut-price Chinese products produced in factories powered by cheap electricity."
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Ministers Fall For Climate Folly, Warns Ex-Civil Service Chief
WUWT
"The Government has to come clean and force the power companies to make their bills fully transparent. Only then, will those facing spiralling power bills have all the information required to make the appropriate decisions. Only then, will it be possible to see if a power company has been raising its prices unfairly and change supplier. And only then will the true cost of the Government’s mad rush towards renewable energy become clear, allowing voters to back or sack those who formulated the policy. "
"The Government has to come clean and force the power companies to make their bills fully transparent. Only then, will those facing spiralling power bills have all the information required to make the appropriate decisions. Only then, will it be possible to see if a power company has been raising its prices unfairly and change supplier. And only then will the true cost of the Government’s mad rush towards renewable energy become clear, allowing voters to back or sack those who formulated the policy. "
Hidden green tax in fuel bills: How £200 stealth charge is slipped on to your gas and electricity bill
Daily Mail
"Hidden green taxes now make up a fifth of every household’s gas and electricity bills, energy campaigners warned last night.Cash strapped families pay an average of £200 a year in stealth levies to subsidise Britain's massive expansion of wind farms, solar panels and 'environmentally friendly' heating schemes.Yesterday outraged campaigners called for an end to the secret subsidies and demanded power companies reveal how much their customers are paying for climate change policies . ......The typical UK household spends £608 a year on gas and another £424 on electricity. Dr Peiser says green stealth taxes make up between £154 and £206 of that bill. For couples with large families - and large fuel demands - the figure is far higher.
‘And yet, despite the growing cost of these taxes, you won’t find any mention of them at all on your gas and electricity bills,’ he said.‘That, of course, suits the Government down to the ground. If it raised the huge sums required to encourage renewable energy and limit carbon emission through general taxation it would make the Government itself very unpopular.‘But by doing it through electricity and gas bills, the Government has cleverly ensure that it’s the power companies that take the blame.’
"Hidden green taxes now make up a fifth of every household’s gas and electricity bills, energy campaigners warned last night.Cash strapped families pay an average of £200 a year in stealth levies to subsidise Britain's massive expansion of wind farms, solar panels and 'environmentally friendly' heating schemes.Yesterday outraged campaigners called for an end to the secret subsidies and demanded power companies reveal how much their customers are paying for climate change policies . ......The typical UK household spends £608 a year on gas and another £424 on electricity. Dr Peiser says green stealth taxes make up between £154 and £206 of that bill. For couples with large families - and large fuel demands - the figure is far higher.
‘And yet, despite the growing cost of these taxes, you won’t find any mention of them at all on your gas and electricity bills,’ he said.‘That, of course, suits the Government down to the ground. If it raised the huge sums required to encourage renewable energy and limit carbon emission through general taxation it would make the Government itself very unpopular.‘But by doing it through electricity and gas bills, the Government has cleverly ensure that it’s the power companies that take the blame.’
We must stop pandering to climate scaremongers, warns ex-Civil Service chief
Daily Mail
"Lord Turnbull – who served Tony Blair as Cabinet Secretary from 2002 to 2005 – accused MPs and civil servants of failing to challenge the ‘climate change consensus’.
He suggested that by blindly following the green agenda, the Government had hit hard-working families with a range of costly policies.Lord Turnbull also pointed out that ‘by and large humanity has prospered in the warmer periods’.‘It is regrettable that the UK Parliament has proved so trusting and uncritical of the (global warming) narrative and so reluctant to question the economic costs being imposed in pursuit of decarbonisation,’ he said.‘I am also disappointed that so many of my former colleagues in the civil service seem so ready to go along unquestioningly with the consensus.'From our politicians we need open-mindedness, more rationality, less emotion and less religiosity; and an end to alarmist propaganda and to attempts to frighten us and our children.Lord Turnbull’s unprecedented assault comes in a report The Really Inconvenient Truth for the sceptical think-tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.In it, he describes the Government’s expansion of wind power as folly and warns that Britain was rushing too quickly into a costly low carbon future.He condemned Britain’s self-imposed legally binding climate change targets as ‘unilateralism’ at a time when other countries are doing very little."
"Lord Turnbull – who served Tony Blair as Cabinet Secretary from 2002 to 2005 – accused MPs and civil servants of failing to challenge the ‘climate change consensus’.
He suggested that by blindly following the green agenda, the Government had hit hard-working families with a range of costly policies.Lord Turnbull also pointed out that ‘by and large humanity has prospered in the warmer periods’.‘It is regrettable that the UK Parliament has proved so trusting and uncritical of the (global warming) narrative and so reluctant to question the economic costs being imposed in pursuit of decarbonisation,’ he said.‘I am also disappointed that so many of my former colleagues in the civil service seem so ready to go along unquestioningly with the consensus.'From our politicians we need open-mindedness, more rationality, less emotion and less religiosity; and an end to alarmist propaganda and to attempts to frighten us and our children.Lord Turnbull’s unprecedented assault comes in a report The Really Inconvenient Truth for the sceptical think-tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.In it, he describes the Government’s expansion of wind power as folly and warns that Britain was rushing too quickly into a costly low carbon future.He condemned Britain’s self-imposed legally binding climate change targets as ‘unilateralism’ at a time when other countries are doing very little."
Debate is the enemy of the warmist
Andrew Bolt,Herald Sun (Australia)
"I’ve noticed the same cowardly tactic that Perth radio’s Howard Sattler describes:
THE Gillard Government and its carbon tax supporters are running scared.
How else can I explain the reaction of its chief climate change adviser, Prof. Ross Garnaut, to my request for an interview on the subject.During the negotiations my producer was grilled about my views on the proposed impost and global warming.Told I was a sceptic, the response was:"That changes everything.”Needless to say, the interview did not materialise.
Snubbing talkback radio commentators who disagree with the Government’s policy is one ingredient in the campaign to derail opposition to the tax.This is a deliberate tactic to avoid awkward questions, marginalise sceptics and pretend there’s no debate. What you should conclude is not just that these people have no real confidence in their arguments.
You should also conclude that every time you hear a journalist interview a government mouthpice or scientist on global warming, that this is one journalist who is trusted not to ask a hard question. "
"I’ve noticed the same cowardly tactic that Perth radio’s Howard Sattler describes:
THE Gillard Government and its carbon tax supporters are running scared.
How else can I explain the reaction of its chief climate change adviser, Prof. Ross Garnaut, to my request for an interview on the subject.During the negotiations my producer was grilled about my views on the proposed impost and global warming.Told I was a sceptic, the response was:"That changes everything.”Needless to say, the interview did not materialise.
Snubbing talkback radio commentators who disagree with the Government’s policy is one ingredient in the campaign to derail opposition to the tax.This is a deliberate tactic to avoid awkward questions, marginalise sceptics and pretend there’s no debate. What you should conclude is not just that these people have no real confidence in their arguments.
You should also conclude that every time you hear a journalist interview a government mouthpice or scientist on global warming, that this is one journalist who is trusted not to ask a hard question. "
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
BREAKING: Leaked Doc Proves Spain’s ‘Green’ Policies — the Basis for Obama’s — an Economic Disaster (PJM Exclusive)
PJM
"Pajamas Media has received a leaked internal assessment produced by Spain’s Zapatero administration. The assessment confirms the key charges previously made by non-governmental Spanish experts in a damning report exposing the catastrophic economic failure of Spain’s “green economy” initiatives. On eight separate occasions, President Barack Obama has referred to the “green economy” policies enacted by Spain as being the model for what he envisioned for America."
"Pajamas Media has received a leaked internal assessment produced by Spain’s Zapatero administration. The assessment confirms the key charges previously made by non-governmental Spanish experts in a damning report exposing the catastrophic economic failure of Spain’s “green economy” initiatives. On eight separate occasions, President Barack Obama has referred to the “green economy” policies enacted by Spain as being the model for what he envisioned for America."
Obama's Bad Policy, Harmful Regulations Add to Gas Prices
USNews
"So far, pushing policies that raise energy costs and bolster the case for currently unaffordable green energy sources is one promise for change that the administration seems intent to keep no matter what it costs. Between February and April of this year, oil spot prices shot from an average $83 per barrel to $110 per barrel. The Energy Information Administration now predicts that average retail gasoline prices will increase from $2.78 per gallon in 2010 to $3.66 per gallon next year. The American people are entitled to the facts about policy decisions that raise energy costs and help the administration push expensive energy alternatives favored by environmental special interests. .........Our economic growth and ability to create more jobs depends on our ability to develop and deploy innovative technologies to harvest our vast oil and gas reserves. The discoveries of enormous recoverable oil and gas in places like Pennsylvania, North Dakota, California, and Oklahoma have made energy independence a real possibility and no longer a distant dream. The United States has approximately 2,552 trillion cubic feet of potential natural gas resources—enough to last 110 years at current usage rates. By 2015, fields in Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, and elsewhere could yield as much as 2 million barrels of crude per day, more than is now produced in the entire Gulf of Mexico. Developing these fields could reduce our oil imports by 60 percent in the year 2020."
"So far, pushing policies that raise energy costs and bolster the case for currently unaffordable green energy sources is one promise for change that the administration seems intent to keep no matter what it costs. Between February and April of this year, oil spot prices shot from an average $83 per barrel to $110 per barrel. The Energy Information Administration now predicts that average retail gasoline prices will increase from $2.78 per gallon in 2010 to $3.66 per gallon next year. The American people are entitled to the facts about policy decisions that raise energy costs and help the administration push expensive energy alternatives favored by environmental special interests. .........Our economic growth and ability to create more jobs depends on our ability to develop and deploy innovative technologies to harvest our vast oil and gas reserves. The discoveries of enormous recoverable oil and gas in places like Pennsylvania, North Dakota, California, and Oklahoma have made energy independence a real possibility and no longer a distant dream. The United States has approximately 2,552 trillion cubic feet of potential natural gas resources—enough to last 110 years at current usage rates. By 2015, fields in Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, and elsewhere could yield as much as 2 million barrels of crude per day, more than is now produced in the entire Gulf of Mexico. Developing these fields could reduce our oil imports by 60 percent in the year 2020."
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