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Nigel Farage on Net Zero: “The Whole Thing is about Charging Us More Money”

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From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Farage leads Reform UK, a party which recently pulled ahead of the governing Conservatives in the polls, and stands a real chance of becoming the second largest party in the next British parliament.

From the transcript of the video;

Alan Miller (Interviewer): So we’re here at Rev’d up Cafe and we’re joined by Nigel farage.

Alan Miller (Interviewer): Hello Nigel good to be here uh lots of bikers here they’re very concerned, a million and a half votes around the UK many in your constituency where you’re standing. We’ve been speaking to people this morning you got a lot of support here. Some people want to know that what’s just from the kickoff what’s your view on both the ICE ban for bikes and for cars in the UK

Nigel Farage: Well I’ve got form on this because, as a member of the European Parliament of course, regulations on motorbikes were coming from Brussels. And so I’ve met you know motorcycle Action Group Etc many times over the years. Now of course you’d have thought with Brexit now we’re in control it’ll be less of a threat, but it’s not and that’s because of the Whole Net Zero agenda that’s being pursued.

Boris [Prime Minister Boris Johnson] went absolutely full pelt for it. Labor are still on that track. Tories [British Conservatives] are now saying well we won’t do it all tomorrow we wait to a day after.

Frankly the whole thing is about charging us more money. The whole thing is about controlling our life and our behaviors, and in terms of the environment it makes absolutely almost no difference whatsoever.

So look you know bikers want the freedom to ride their bikes, and pursue their hobby. They should be allowed to do that without interference. I do worry that with the Labour government which we’re going to get, I mean think about rules, think about all the different things that have been done low traffic neighborhoods, etc. I suspect for bikers it’s going to be difficult under a Starmer government [Keir Starmer, Labour Leader].

And so what you’re going to need need is a voice of opposition standing up and saying you know please leave these people alone. I did it when I was an MEP I’ll do it when I’m an MP. There’s one other little aspect of this that perhaps people haven’t thought about yet, which is this that the European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that Switzerland had to obey by its Net Zero legislation. So this court that I’ve been complaining about in terms of borders and who stays and who do doesn’t has actually involved itself in this issue as well, and you know I’m very clear about it we should leave the ECR, so you know I think bikers have a right to be concerned, have a right to be worried.

And I’m not just standing here because I’m running for election in a few weeks time, I’ve got a long history of Defending personal freedoms, and in the end Allan that’s what it’s really all about isn’t it.

It’s about individual choices, it’s about people making up their own minds and living their own lives.

So we got 37 million car drivers as well in Britain, as you know. I’ve been on, on when you were doing a show. I’ve been on that talking about what you’ve just mentioned, ULEZ [Ultra Low Emission Zone], LTNs [Low Traffic Neighbourhoods], many people are concerned about the lack of openness and scrutiny from the point of view of Net Zero.”

Alan Miller (Interviewer): Just just remind us what Reform is saying, what you’re saying about it for if you were to be elected?

Nigel Farage: Yeah I mean, look you know I mean Labour are talking about decarbonizing the grid by 2030. Impossible and would cost a fortune, and of course who pays those, at the lowest end in society pay the most percentage of their money on fuel on heating the house and all cooking. All of those sort of things. The Tories are now saying 2035.

What we’re saying is the Whole Net Zero needs a complete rethink. We produce less than 1% of the world’s CO2. China are building about 80 new coal fired power stations every single year.

And the other point about it is that you know of course I want us to be environmentally friendly as much as we can the answer to that above all is nuclear energy if you really want low carb generation of reliable energy that I think you know to me nuclear would be the right way forward.

But either way, either way you know I would always stand up for individual liberty against the state and and it’s been so bad under the Conservatives.

It’ll be worse under Labour, but we all have to accept they’ve won the next election. It’s done, it’s a question of who’s the voice of opposition going to be, and I’m standing up and saying look I’ve got a track record.

I fought the European Union, I fought the banks, I fought many other people over the years and I’ll do the same in Parliament.

…Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcfcoQ6IX7A

Alan Miller is co-founder of Together, a British pro-freedom group which is standing up for the livelihoods and dignity of the British people.

If you read my pieces you will already be aware I’m a major fan of Nigel Farage. I once had the privilege of talking to Nigel Farage over a beer for 20 minutes one on one – he is exactly the same in person as he appears on his videos.

Farage has been utterly consistent when it comes to protecting ordinary people from political attacks on personal freedom, including pointless and painful cost of living hikes caused by Nut Zero policies.

Who can forget the immense outrage and hilarity Nigel Farage caused, when he appointed Lord Monckton as his climate spokesman, back in the UKIP days?

I’m not suggesting rolling back Net Zero is Nigel Farage’s top priority. But I think you can tell from the interview above that rolling back green attacks on the cost of living is important to him.

As Nigel Farage pointed out, it’s now virtually impossible that Labour will lose – they have an overwhelming lead in the polls. But voting for Reform sends a message, the only kind of message some politicians care about. The more votes Farage’s reform receives, the more timid Labour will be about imposing yet more green energy price hikes on the long suffering British public.

POLITICO: ‘Europe’s Greens take a beating at the polls. Is the US next?’

From Climate Depot

By Marc Morano

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2024/06/10/europes-greens-take-a-beating-at-the-polls-is-the-us-next-00162541

By JOEL KIRKLAND

Climate action on the other side of the Atlantic flourished after the “green wave” and “quiet revolution” of the 2019 elections elevated the Green Party into a force in the European Parliament.

Five years later, a reversal of political fortunes in Europe could upend the move to zero-carbon energy and a hard shift toward electric cars by 2035.

In a continent-wide election that ended Sunday and left Europe’s political establishment in tatters, political support for green policies was undercut by the rightward tide. The center-right European People’s Party will have the highest number of seats in the European Parliament, while far-right parties gained significant ground. Green parties lost almost a quarter of their seats, and support cratered in France and Germany.

Our reporting team in Brussels noted it marked a reversal after climate activists marched in the streets before the last election.

Parties on the left are sure to come to the defense of climate policies. But a fight among factions on the right could also be on the horizon if far-right politicians attack the European Green Deal and its goal of zeroing out climate pollution by 2050.

EPP leader Manfred Weber told POLITICO the European Union’s ban on the sale of combustion engine cars after 2035 was a “mistake” and promised the party would discuss rolling it back in “upcoming days.”

That would mean a split with his party’s lead candidate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has backed the ban on the campaign trail.

Sound familiar?

Other than the parliamentary aspect, this all might strike a chord.

In November, American voters face a similar choice: Endorse four more years of a clean energy-driven U.S. industrial policy that took shape under President Joe Biden that aims for a zero-carbon economy in 2050, or return Donald Trump to the White House. If Trump is elected and the federal government takes a far more skeptical viewpoint of the climate problem, hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy technology could wither on the vine.

To get in front of this new wave beating against the political establishment, Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron are taking dramatic steps, John Harris and Alexander Burns write. On Sunday night, after the strong showing of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party in France, Macron called for snap parliamentary elections. Sunak has also called for a new U.K. election in early July to shore up support for his beleaguered Conservative government, if possible.

And Biden, who’s struggling to get a handle on worrisome poll numbers, got Trump to agree to the earliest-ever general election debate, scheduled for June 27.

For climate and energy policy in the United States, instability is par for the course.

Sobering Up? EU May Scrap Its Plans To Ban Internal Combustion Engines By 2035

From NoTricksZone

By P Gosselin 

After vote in Brussels last Monday evening, a majority of the European Parliament favored a Commission proposal that would no longer automatically classify electric cars as climate-neutral vehicles.

Image cropped here.

In the proposal, the CO2 emissions of electric cars would depend on the electricity mix used to charge the car, meaning electric cars would not necessarily be classified as “electric only”.

The EU plans to reassess the phase-out of combustion engines, based on the latest data and developments.

So what has brought on this sudden episode of political sobriety in Brussels? Probably a good dose of reality. Here are 4 possible reasons behind the EU’s new position:

1. China

The automotive industry and many EU states warn of the economic and social consequences of a ban on combustion engines.

Electric car production in Europe cannot compete with the far lower costs in China. Europe’s car production would move overseas, and thus result hundreds of thousands of lost jobs –  and lots of social unrest.

Currently Europe is already gripped by social unrest as farmers and truckers protest in the streets against radical green policies.

2. E-car emissions cheating

Currently, electric cars in the EU are given a CO2 emission rating of zero grams! This zero emissions claim is a lie in most cases as the calculation doesn’t take true electricity generation mix into account. Fossil fuels are still widely used in Europe to produce the electric power.

A true accounting would include the CO2 emissions of the electricity used to charge electric cars and make them look less attractive.

3. Climate-neutral fuels (e-fuels):

Efforts are being made to run combustion engines on climate-neutral fuels (e-fuels), which are produced from renewable energies and are thus CO2-neutral.

The EU Commission wants to examine whether newly registered vehicles with combustion engines that run on e-fuels can be registered from 2035. This would effectively suspend the ban on combustion engines, as e-fuels can be used emissions-free in practice.

4. The 2024 European Parliament election

It is scheduled to be held on 6 to 9 June 2024. So now is not the time to upset voters with unpopular legislation. The Brussels bureaucrats probably just want citizens to think they are being pragmatic and will not take a radical course after all.

In summary, the EU may be realizing that banning internal combustion engines, and replacing them with e-cars, is going to cause a lot more damage than good.

Farmers are in revolt and Europe’s climate policies are crumbling. Welcome to the age of ‘greenlash’

Brussels is ditching green measures as EU leaders panic over rural protests, upcoming elections and the threat of the far right.

Ursula von der Leyen surrendered to angry farmers last week faster than you could shake a pitchfork or dump a tractor-load of manure outside the European parliament.

The European Commission president, expected to announce her candidacy for a second term heading the EU executive next week, told lawmakers that the commission was withdrawing a bill to halve the use of chemical pesticides by 2030 and would hold more consultations instead. The Guardian has the story.

The proposed measure was a key plank in the commission’s European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork strategy, intended to make the EU carbon-neutral by 2050, make agriculture more environmentally friendly and preserve biodiversity.

Von der Leyen’s sudden U-turn on one of her signature policies was not just an attempt to defuse a spreading continent-wide rural revolt over rising fuel costs, burdensome environmental regulations, retailers’ price squeezes and cheap imports. It was also a sign of growing panic among the EU’s mainstream parties over the seemingly inexorable rise of far-right nationalists ahead of the June elections.

Von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, is vying to lead the centre-right European People’s party’s campaign for the elections even though she is not herself seeking a European parliament seat. Her coronation at a party congress on 6-7 March as the EPP’s Spitzenkandidaten (lead candidate) to run the commission from 2024 to 2029 is a formality, since there is no other contender. But she has had to water down her green policies to placate a party so spooked by the “greenlash” against net zero legislation that it is rushing to reposition itself as the voice of gradual adaptation at a pace that citizens can accept and afford.

EU leaders tried to take another contentious issue off the table by agreeing in December on a long-stalled migration pact that includes stricter external border controls, faster procedures for processing asylum seekers and expelling those whose applications are rejected, and sharing the burden of the refugee crisis among EU countries. But populists such as the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, continue to rail against being forced to choose between admitting unwanted migrants and paying for other countries to take them in under the new system.

I have seen unpublished opinion polling conducted for the European parliament in January that showed Eurosceptic, sovereigntist or populist parties have taken the lead in eight of the 27 EU members, and are in second place in four more. Moreover, the countries where the far right is polling most strongly include those with the most seats in the legislature – Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania and the Netherlands.

This is getting scary, and events such as the farmers’ furore are playing into the hands of populists such as France’s Marine Le Pen, Germany’s Alice Weidel and Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, who thrive on grassroots grumbling against the metropolitan elites.

“The (pesticides) proposal has become a symbol of polarisation,” von der Leyen admitted to parliament in Strasbourg. “To move forward, more dialogue and a different approach is needed.” She may have been slamming the stable gate after the horse has bolted.

Farmers have traditionally voted for mainstream conservative and Christian Democratic parties, while the socialists and social democrats had their bastions in industrial urban areas. Remember former president Jacques Chirac, the Gaullist farmers’ friend, jovially slapping the hindquarters of cows in his southwestern Corrèze constituency or at the annual Paris agricultural fair. Nowadays, those voters are more likely to vote for Le Pen’s National Rally, recent polls suggest.

In France, the centre-right Republicans, Chirac’s heirs, are polling at barely 8%, while the National Rally stands above 30% in latest surveys, and anti-Islam ideologue Éric Zemmour’s even further right Reconquest! bags another 6-8%. Le Pen’s list is led by the charismatic 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, already an MEP and party president, while Zemmour’s is topped by Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal, 34, a favourite of US far-right political strategist Steve Bannon.

In the Netherlands, farmer discontent over curbs on nitrogen emissions led to the sudden rise of the Farmer-Citizen Movement, a party that came from nowhere to win the most votes in regional elections last March. Many of those protest voters have since switched to Wilders’ Freedom party, which topped the poll in a general election in November and has gained more ground since then.

Appeasing rural revolt may stop farmers blockading motorways or burning bales of hay outside government offices, but it is unlikely to herd them back towards the mainstream centre-right, given the depth of their discontent.

Read the full story here.

EU mulls emergency aid for collapsing solar producers

The European Commission will make a statement Monday as state-backed Chinese competition fuels a wave of bankruptcies in Europe.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is in early-stage talks on emergency measures to buoy drowning EU solar manufacturers who say Chinese subsidies are suffocating the industry, according to two people familiar with the matter.

On Monday, the Commission will make a statement on the teetering sector at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, while MEPs are also expected to debate ideas to prop up the industry. Politico has the story.

Possible options could include direct support or trade defense measures, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. The Commission, the EU’s executive, did not confirm whether it was considering a bailout or trade defense measures.

The talks come as the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC), the body representing photovoltaic producers, this week sent a letter to Brussels appealing for “urgent” measures including a swift, EU-led buyout of their inventories.

The group argues that subsidized Chinese mass production of solar modules — which currently sell for half the price of their EU equivalents — paired with an oversupply of panels in the bloc makes it impossible for the bloc’s manufacturers to shift their stocks.

“We’re really seeing a wave of bankruptcies” in Europe, said ESMC Secretary General Johan Lindahl, citing recent insolvencies including Dutch panel producer Exasun and Austrian module manufacturer Energetic. Germany is also currently in 11th-hour talks with Meyer Burger after the Swiss solar firm said it would halt production of modules in the country as early as April.

“Everything points to the fact that Chinese manufacturers are selling below their production cost,” Lindahl said, and now the result is “very, very worrying … We’re about to lose the industry in Europe.”

Read the full story here.

Europe’s solar panel manufacturers ask EU for emergency support

BRUSSELS, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Europe’s solar panel manufacturing industry has urged the European Union to step in with emergency measures to avoid local firms shutting down under price pressure from Chinese imports, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

Multiple European solar manufacturers have announced plans to close factories in recent months, citing pressure from a flood of imports and an oversupply of solar panel parts that have piled up in European warehouses and pushed down prices. Reuters has the story.

In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, industry group the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) warned that without rapid help, the EU risked losing more than half of its operational solar photovoltaic module manufacturing capacity within weeks.

“Over the next 4–8 weeks, major EU PV module producers and their European suppliers are poised to shut down manufacturing lines unless substantial emergency measures are promptly implemented,” said the letter, dated Jan. 30.

ESMC asked the EU to launch emergency measures including a scheme to buy up excess inventories of EU solar modules to ease the oversupply, and change state aid rules to boost government support for local solar producers.

If those measures cannot be done rapidly, the EU should also consider “safeguard” measures that could include tariffs and quotas to counter a surge of imports, the letter said.

Read the full here.

THE WHOLE TRUTH LAID BARE – Tell the WHO TO GO TO HELL!

On September 13 in the EU Parliament, another set of presentations were made at the invitation of MEP Christine Anderson of Germany and some of her colleagues, listed below, who have been doing a sterling job of alerting the EU public to the tyranny that has been going on. The video of the presentations is found above.

————

Dr. Peter McCullough (2:36 minutes to 18:45)
There have been 2 waves of injury to the world (SARS-CoV 2 & the vaccine) – the role of the WHO appears to be adverse in both of these cases;

WHO is part of a globalist NGO-govt. syndicate (actors are all named); many of these conspired in 2020 to cover up what they knew;

WHO has deceived the world and impeded doctors’ ability to treat patients effectively;

we’re going on 3 years now and there is nothing to relieve human suffering on this; most deaths were preventable;

the vaccines have ‘ravaged the population in the world’ (2/3 of the world took them);

the genetic design of the vaccine has been a disaster; everyone agrees about the heart damage done by them – many young people are having cardiac arrests ‘due to the vaccine until proven otherwise’;

neurological damage is the 2nd domain;

3rd, blood clots ‘like we’ve never seen before’ which won’t dissolve up to 2 year with conventional blood thinners;

4th, immunological disorders; cardiac arrests have happened up to TWO YEARS after the shots; 74% of deaths after vaccination are due to the vaccine;

in myocarditis cases, 100% of deaths are due to the vaccine; there have been 3 false narratives,

the latest being that it is Covid, not the vaccine, that is killing people; vaccines are ‘causing this enormous wave of illness’;

one study says that 30% of vaccinated people have experienced NO side effects; less than 70% are getting some symptoms, with a small percentage getting dramatic illnesses – some batches are ‘high risk’ (small % estimates range thus,

4.2% – 7.7% – 15%); no-one should take another shot – they should be removed for ‘excess risk of death’ – many groups are coming out, based on the evidence, saying this; they are not safe for human use;

yet WHO is still standing behind these vaccines; all major stakeholders should pull out of the WHO.

Dr. David Martin (30:24 minutes to 54:56)

👉🏼👉🏼 ‘For 110 years, we the people of the world have been lied to …’
👉🏼👉🏼 ‘I’m done being polite’
👉🏼👉🏼 ‘This (WHO) is a criminal cartel’
👉🏼👉🏼 ‘We did not have a pandemic, we had genocide’

MEP Christine Anderson concluding remarks (1:12:28 to 1:18:25)

Fritz Vahrenholt: After the heat pump disaster, the insulation hammer

From  KlimaNachrichten Redakteur

By Fritz Vahrenholt

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

In May 2023, the deviation of the global temperature from the 30-year average of satellite-based measurements from the University of Alabama (UAH) rose to 0.37 degrees Celsius as a result of the El Niño approaching in the Pacific (see chart above). The average temperature increase per decade since 1979 is only 0.13 degrees Celsius.

After the heat pump disaster comes the insulation hammer 

On March 9, 2023, the world was still in order for Robert Habeck. His state secretary was still called Graichen and the anger of the citizens over the minister’s encroachments on German boiler rooms was not yet noticeable. At that time, he announced the second attack on the German homes and houses. In his workshop report “Renewing prosperity in a climate-neutral way”, he announced that “the EU Buildings Directive, in particular the minimum efficiency standards contained therein, will be implemented quickly”. What is it all about? The European Parliament has decided by a majority that from 1 January 2030 all buildings must achieve energy performance class E and from 2033 efficiency class D.

This means that there is an obligation to renovate 6 million houses in Germany by 2033, as MEP Pieper (CDU) reported. “The savings in energy bills do not even come close to compensating for the renovation costs,” says Axel Gedaschko, President of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW): “The investments due would amount to at least 125 billion euros annually.” One thing is undeniable: this would once again make housing considerably more expensive, but also make investments in new housing less economical.

One really wonders what moves the political forces involved: in a blatant energy price crisis, in a dramatic housing shortage with persistently high uncontrolled immigration pressure, to massively increase the price of home ownership under the banner of climate protection – this can only be explained by an incredibly wide distance from the problems of the citizens of one’s own country.

Habeck and the EU do not even take note of the fact that Germany has one of the best energy efficiency standards of the housing stock in Europe. But the standards are different. What corresponds to an efficiency standard G in Germany is a C in the Netherlands and a D in France. So Germany would have to do more than other countries, even though it has the better standard. But German CO2 – as we have learned in the meantime – is much worse from a green point of view than CO2 from other countries, be it from the Netherlands or from China.

The justification for regulating the CO2 emissions of apartments through drastic bans and commandments comes from the Green side with the following hypocritical argument: they want to protect consumers through insulation and heat pump regulations, as CO2 prices will rise sharply. Costs of € 16,000 for gas heating of a 4-person household are painted on the wall by the Green parliamentary group. In fact, the EU is also planning CO2 emissions trading for buildings and transport from 2027. However, the EU has taken precautions to ensure that the levy will not rise above €45 per tonne of CO2.

So far, only a few countries have their own CO2 levies for buildings and transport, including Germany and Austria. The CO2 levy is currently capped at €30 and is expected to rise to €2025/tCO45 by 2. It is hard to imagine that Germany wants to demand more from its citizens in the future than the European standard prescribes for 2027. The levy currently charges natural gas at €0.54ct/kWh. In the long term, this will be more like €0.8ct/kWh – annoying enough, but not even an additional burden of 10% of today’s gas price. So there is no reason to frighten citizens and threaten them with gas bills of €16,000 per year, especially since the CO2 price is in the hands of the federal government. What is such political communication called? Sanctimonious? Or rather, sneaky? In any case, I have ordered a brand new gas condensing boiler for my house in the past few weeks and thus avoid more CO2 in winter than the CO2-polluted heat pump from Robert Habeck.

RWE’s best-kept secret

In my last newsletter I wrote about the fact that with a fraction of the costs that citizens have to pay for Robert Habeck’s heat pump disaster, many times more CO2 could be achieved by CO2 capture in the still existing lignite-fired power plants. With one-twentieth of the costs, five times as much CO2 would be avoided. I wrote about the miracle of Hohenmölsen, where I was informed by a representative of LEAG that the CO2 capture plant in Schwarze Pumpe is still standing.

Now I received another letter – from an RWE employee. I wonder if I had forgotten that RWE has been operating a fully functional pilot plant for capturing CO2009 in a partial flow of the lignite-fired power plant in Niederaussem since the time of Jürgen Grossmann in 2 (I was his managing director for renewable energies at the time). And it is still running successfully. Frankly, I had repressed it. With great fanfare, the Chairman of the Board of Management, Dr. Markus Krebber, had contractually assured Minister Habeck without necessity that the lignite-fired power plants in the Rhenish mining area would be shut down as early as 2030. Every CEO would have taken the opportunity to point out the fantastic development of RWE, BASF and Linde, which makes CO2 neutrality possible for coal-fired power plants, wouldn’t he? The ex-colleague from RWE sent me the impressive picture of the plant. (Source: BASF)

RWE plans CO2 capture – but not in Germany

The development of RWE, BASF and Linde can now be regarded as state of the art : The capture of more than 90 % of CO2 from a partial flow of the exhaust gas has been proven in the long term, the costs amount to an incredible 30 €/t CO2 ( P.Moser, G Wiechers, S.Schmidt, K.Stahl, G.Vorberg, T Stoffregen, VGB Powertech 1/2 , 2018, S43) . The efficiency loss is less than 10 % (i.e. instead of 43 % efficiency: 39 %). Niederaussem is therefore to be shut down in 2030, including the separation plant. The technology could massively reduce the emissions and CO2 costs of lignite-fired electricity ( 30 €/t CO2 instead of 100 €/t CO2 certificates), even if 50 €/t CO2 were still to be applied for injection. Incidentally, the captured CO2 from Niederaussem is so pure that it is used in the beverage industry for soda bottles.
The technology of BASF’s OASE amine scrubbing in Niederaussem has what it takes to become the world’s leading capture technology for solving the CO2 problem – also in coal-fired power plants.

And even RWE wants to apply it – but only in England for the group’s gas-fired power plants there. “In the future, CCS projects could secure electricity generation capacities of up to 4.7 gigawatts and avoid 11 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year,” it proudly states on RWE’s website. We are talking about the Pembroke, Wales and Staythorpe gas-fired power stations. RWE speaks of “green gas-fired power plant projects”. (Image source: RWE)

RWE also wants to use CCS in the Netherlands. According to the press release, biomass power plants are to be operated there with OASE-CCS technology, so that there are even negative CO2 emissions. In fact, however, the power plants in question in Eemshaven and Amer have so far been mixed coal-fired and biomass power plants. But E.ON also relies on CCS. The company recently acquired a stake in the Norwegian company Horisont Energie to take on a leadership role in the field of CCS, as E.ON CEO Leo Birnbaum explained. Apart from the regional newspapers such as Westfälische Rundschau or Westfalenpost, there was no coverage of this sensational development in FAZ, Spiegel, SZ, ARD or ZDF. It’s not interesting for the mainstream media. Our media landscape is terribly party-green.

But there is even better news: Heidelberg-Zement’s cement production facility in Lengfurt is to be equipped with a CO2 capture plant based on OASE technology. 70,000 tonnes of CO2 are to be separated and purified there and, like Niederaussem’s exhaust gases, will be sold in the beverage industry for carbonated beverages.
Who says it to Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister Wüst and the East German Prime Ministers of Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt ?

Al Gore’s prognosis – Arctic sea ice is disappearing

Last but not least, some good news. In 2007, AL Gore predicted that by 2015 the Arctic sea ice would have disappeared in the summer minimum (thick blue line). The sea ice did not comply. Since 2007, it has been surprisingly stable. You could draw a horizontal straight line from 2007 to 2023. Antarctic sea ice is also stable. Since 1979, it has even risen slightly in area.

With best wishes
,
Fritz Vahrenholt

+++

Read also Fritz Vahrenholt’s new book “The Great Energy Crisis – and How We Can Overcome It”:

Blurb:

Never before in the history of the industrial age has energy in Europe been as scarce and expensive as it is today. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is only acting as a catalyst, as price explosions on the gas and electricity markets had already indicated the failure of the energy transition and the European “Green Deal”. A wrong energy policy endangers the daily, secure supply of energy, leads to a loss of prosperity for private households and destroys industrial jobs that are in international competition. The answer to the pressing energy issues of our time must be a technological energy offensive in Germany that includes all alternatives, from shale gas extraction to the CO2-free use of domestic lignite to the development of a new generation of safer nuclear power plants.

DAVID BLACKMON: The EU Chief Just Let Slip The Dirty Secret Behind The ‘Green’ Transition

From The DAILY CALLER

By DAVID BLACKMON

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images

In a May 15 speech to an EU-sponsored event appropriately titled “The Beyond Growth Conference,” European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen said out loud what the climate alarm movement has been trying to keep under wraps for a decade: That economic de-growth enforced by authoritarian governments is a fundamental element of its agenda.

Von Der Leyen didn’t blurt it right out, of course: It was all couched in carefully written code words and phrases, but a close reading of her speech leaves no real room for doubt about the message. In her view — and apparently the view of the European Parliament — the time for economic de-growth has come.

“I today want to concentrate on one point, and that is a point that the report got right beyond any doubt: That is the clear message that a growth model centred on fossil fuels is simply obsolete,” Von Der Leyen told her rapt audience, before moving onto a reference to the Club of Rome, and its famous 1972 report titled “Limits to Growth.” That report has served as a basic handbook for the de-growth movement ever since.

“50 years ago,” she continues, “the Club of Rome could not completely envisage, for example, the potential of green hydrogen. It could not envisage that we might drive today’s electric cars. It might not be able to see the future we would have, for example with batteries from which we can recycle 95% of lithium, nickel and cobalt. It is not the daily procedure today, but we are able to do it. But already 50 years ago, the ‘Limits to Growth’ report acknowledged that while fossil-based growth was unbearable for the planet, humanity could devise a different growth model ‘that is sustainable far into the future.’“

Having laid that groundwork, Von Der Leyen then moved into a code-word filled admission that the movement is all about promoting an authoritarian form of socialism, repeatedly referring to what she dubs Europe’s “social market economy,” i.e., an economy that is centrally planned. So intent is she on embedding this terminology into the EU collective’s hive mind that she deploys it five times across roughly 150 words:

“Our compass in this endeavour are the long-standing values – the true values, if you get it right – of the European social market economy. Our social market economy was never exclusively about economic growth. It was always about human development. It never had the sole goal of market efficiency and liberalisation. To the contrary: The social market economy functions in the interest of the worker and the community. It opens opportunities, also to set very clear limits. It rewards performance but also guarantees protection for the big risks in life. Beyond growth, it focuses on public goods such as healthcare, education and skills, workers’ rights, personal security, civic engagement and governance – good governance. Our social market economy, if you get it right, encourages everyone to excel, but it also takes care of our fragility as human beings. The values of the social market economy have driven us since the beginning of this Commission’s mandate.”

But this gets better.

In almost her next breath, she goes onto frankly admit that her government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was not about public health, but about what the World Economic Forum refers to as “The Great Reset,” an effort to transform economies based in free markets to controlled systems managed by authoritarian governments.

“First, when the pandemic hit us. Our Recovery Plan, NextGenerationEU, has focused not only on restarting our economic activities after the lockdowns but also on transforming our economic model. With a push to decarbonising industries, energy and transport. With an emphasis on digital skills and digital infrastructure. With new investments for schools and hospitals. Beyond growth, NextGenerationEU takes care of the next generation’s future.”

See? It isn’t just about an authoritarian group of government central planners managing every facet of your daily lives, it’s about their desire to “take care” of you.

Though couched in carefully-coded language, this speech is a pretty frank admission that what these western governments have put their populations through since 2020 has been about one thing: control, and forcing all of us to live smaller and less prosperous lives under the yoke of an authoritarian system of government. In 2020, the rationale for all of it was COVID-19; today, the rationale is climate change.

Before Monday, de-growth had been the quiet part of the energy transition movement. After Von Der Leyen’s speech, it seems about to become the centerpiece.

What an extraordinary speech it was.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.