Amidst the welter of new Executive Orders and statements of intent coming from the White House, there are several aiming to make the USA a global leader in the battle against fossil fuels. President Biden is a carbon warrior. He is cancelling a new oil pipeline, suspending new licences to drill in the Arctic, committing the USA to net zero carbon in power generation as early as 2035, and to complete net zero carbon dioxide output by 2050. He plans to double offshore wind power, promote electric vehicles, and persuade and regulate the oil and gas industry into a major transformation away from their principal business activities. It is a major shift from President Trump’s policy of making the USA energy self sufficient, fostering a large expansion of the domestic oil and gas industries and aiming at re industrialisation based on a plentiful supply of relatively cheap local fuel.
The statements so far are short on the detail of how such a huge transformation will be carried through and paid for. If the country is successful in talking people out of their diesel and petrol cars into electric ones they will need a large expansion of domestic electricity output at the same time as they are closing down all the fossil fuel power stations. There will be a need for substantial investment in new power cables, switching, transforming and relaying to each house. Each home will need improved capacity cables and supply to allow for the heavy demands of recharging electric vehicles. The grid will need access to considerable extra reserves of generating capacity to handle much higher peak demand levels. As much of the additional electricity capacity will be wind and solar there will also need to be substantial back up generators to avoid black outs when the natural power sources fail or go slow. Industrial USA will face Chinese competition which still has access to huge supplies of fossil fuel generated power, as China continues to add to her coal and gas stations. Will the USA be able to compete on price and on reliability of supply in this new world? Will the USA develop massive storage batteries or pump storage schemes to handle variable load power?
It will be interesting to see how far President Biden goes in introducing Federal capital and subsidy to bring about this new power world, and how much he seeks to do it by regulation and requirements onĀ the network suppliers and power generators. He will need plans to make sure the USA does not run out of electricity when undertaking its electrical revolution, to make sure the electricity is affordable, and to ensure that they can arrangeĀ the supply to cater for peaks in demand as more Americans come to depend on electricity for their transport as well as for their space heating and much else.
The Green revolution remains a top down revolution on both sides of the Atlantic. We still await the iconic affordable cars, space heaters and other crucial products toĀ bring this revolution into most people’s homes. Meanwhile governments like the new US one wrestle with how far they should go with laws, bans and subsidies to try to depose King carbon. It looks as if it is going to take a lot ofĀ US law and state spending to bringĀ about this democrat vision in a country where many are committed to their vehicles.
January 29, 2021
Sir John,
After much careful thought about my comment, I came up with this:
‘Utter Stupidity”
At least President Harris will not get a second term.
January 29, 2021
In Politics (like religion) virtue-signalling and irrational emotion usually wins out and Ā£ billions are wasted. Governments care not what they spend (it is not their money) and care not what value (if any positive or negative in this case) they get for these taxpayers.
In the end the laws of physics, energy and nature will prevail – but not until the daft politicians have wasted Ā£trillions showing their āvirtueā. Just 5 MPs voted against the lunacy of Ed Milibandās Climate Change Act.
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.
Richard P. Feynman
Alas it so rarely ever does.
January 29, 2021
Voters vote with their pockets, but for Covid Trump would have been re elected.
If Biden can not make this (at present) impractical and expensive strategy work he will get voted out.
January 29, 2021
Indeed LL.
January 29, 2021
Historic carbon dioxide levels have been much higher than now ‘yet without ice ages’
Sky News Australia
Geologist Professor Ian Plimer says climate change cannot be ādriven by carbon dioxide emissionsā and the study claiming 97 per cent of scientists believe humanity is the cause of climate change is mainly touted by activists over scientists.
āWe happen to be a planet that is in the goldilocks zone and that is where we donāt boil off our oceans and we donāt freeze our oceans, on our planet we have solid, liquid, and vapour water and it is that water vapour in the atmosphere that drives changes in the climate,ā he told Sky News host Cory Bernardi.
Professor Plimer said this process had always been happening and climate change happens for many reasons but there ācannot be climate change driven by carbon dioxide emissionsā.
āClimate is always changing for a great diversity of reasons for pretty well the whole history of planet earth we have had carbon dioxide contents in the atmosphere much higher than now yet without ice ages.
January 29, 2021
This is all well known, but we are dealing with a myth, and common sense, as well as proven science, cannot compete with politicians and myths. Until reality become very, very obvious.
January 29, 2021
@Lifelogic,
In Politics (like religion) virtue-signalling and irrational emotion usually wins out and Ā£ billions are wasted.’
Why bring religion into it?
Sir Isaac Newton was a devout Christian (bible scholar when no need to be) (as was Maxwell, Faraday, Planck, Heisenberg, Mendel, Kelvin, Pasteur, and many others).
Cambridge and Oxford universities established by Catholic Church
Our ancient cathedrals – both brilliantly engineered and beautiful to look at, as well as beautiful cities such as Venice and Florence and Salzburg.
Our great artists and writers from the Renaissance, Dante and so on – devout Christian. And composers – Mozart and Bach.
The Quakers were brilliant in business – both ethical and successful
And all the public virtues that keep our country strong going back to the Christian Middle Ages and before: String Family, Parliament, The Judiciary, Grammar Schools, Guilds, Patriotism, and so on.
Don’t know why you’re picking on religion. But if you do, please provide an objective argument.
January 30, 2021
And although a ‘pagan’, Cyrus the Great brilliantly captured the spirit of Christianity in the best way he knew how.
So Cyrus the Great, Sir Isaac Newton, Bach, Mozart, Michelangelo, Quakers in Business, ‘Be joyful at all times’ (Thessalonians) (which also includes being cheerful / witty / merry / full of joys of life etc), ‘Love thy neighbour’ (not soppy, wet love – but ‘tough’ love and soft love), strong family values, responsibility for self and not depending on state, patriotism etc – all at heart of traditional Christianity.
January 30, 2021
Lastly, if more people were plugged into Traditional Christianity, I am quietly confidently sure that:
– Taxation would plummet (because people wouldn’t rely on state, they would be more responsible for their work and health – both mental and physical etc, more productive).
– We’d have far more happy neighbours and families and communities and less crime / dysfunctionality in general.
– We’d have far more businesses and companies that people really felt part of and stay longer with, leading to much higher productivity. And people creating far more interesting brands to export
– We’d have far more interesting and compelling Arts & Architecture.
And so on. This isn’t just what I want or idealise, we’ve seen how Traditional Christianity can really impact a country for the better (sure religious people can be hypocrites and heretics as well – but this isn’t real religion but a perversion of).
Best
January 29, 2021
Seconded. The Americans are the most wasteful animals on the planet.
Utter nonesense by a silly old man.
I bet there’s some investment bankers behind this.
Doomed fail probably by his own party.
January 29, 2021
Pom, read Guido what U.K. Representative said our priorities were: climate change, UN Global goalsgender equality! Audie’s thought it was a trade deal!
What on earth are our taxes being wasted on people like this? So it is fake Tory govt JR should be focusing on. Utter madness.
January 29, 2021
Pominoz, Indeed. You can see the headline: “Carbon based lifeform tries to eliminate carbon”.
January 30, 2021
I came up with this in a few seconds. Joe sounds as daft as Boris.
January 29, 2021
Complete insanity from Biden and indeed here at home from the now potty alarmist Boris and his Queen Carrie. One of the many great potential advantages of leaving the EU was to have cheap, reliable energy with a sensible science driven energy policy. But is seems not.
The war on plant food agenda will deliver expensive energy, huge economic damage, a loss and exportation of jobs & whole industries. No significant worldwide CO2 savings at all anyway from this either. Most of the proposed solutions, wind, solar, walking, cycling, public transport, electric cars, heat pumps, hydrogen and the likes will make little or no difference even to atmospheric CO2. The much now talked about hydrogen is not a source of energy but a very expensive, inefficient, dangerous and very wasteful way of storing energy.
Anyway a bit more atmospheric co2 plant food is not some looming catastrophe. It is, on balance, a net positive. Greening the planet very nicely, increasing crop yields, food for humans and animals and tree and plant growth. CO2 is just one of millions of factors affecting the climate and far from the main one. Indeed it is not even the main green house gas ( which is water and water vapour). For this reason alone it was a greet shame Trump did not prevail. Without Covid he surely would have done so.
Currently intermittent and subsidised Solar and Wind provide just 1.5% of mankind’s energy use.
January 29, 2021
Apart from China, the world’s output and activity has been massively curtailed this year. Has it made any difference to the carbon levels? I think not so the answer to man made impact is now proven without modelling.
Reducing pollution and improving air quality seem noble aims but this drive for zero carbon is frankly a losing battle as environmental factors outweigh humanity’s contribution and probably a false god.
January 29, 2021
Also a lots of fossil fuels are used to make, install and maintain wind-farms, electric cars, new railways and solar panels. Often saving no CO2 at all when all fully considered.
January 29, 2021
US President Trump managed to create peace in Middle East because it was self- sufficient on energy. Energy and industry also makes it a super power. Getting rid of its self sufficient entry policy will cause economic catastrophe only helping Russia and China! Which appears to be Germany’s intent. We read how Merkel is happy to stand by China, be dependent on Russian gas and now undertake a joint venture with Russia on finding a,vaccine formChinese virus. The world should worry. Where is the alleged EU unity?
January 29, 2021
Hope, Boris is in the process of destroying individual liberty. He takes China as the model of governance.
January 30, 2021
With events in South Pacific Sea, land grabbing and Hong Kong, Germany might consider its responsibility as a NATO member rather than Merkel claiming not to stand behind US! Worse she does not pay her commitments to NATO, yet half wit Johnson has decided UK should pay billions for EU army under Horizon Europe! I am convinced Johnson has lost the plot.
January 29, 2021
Hope.. but that’s the future..you don’t think the world is going to stand still at this.. some can see a united ‘Northern Hemisphere’ for many reasons that will encompass the EU Russia Japan Korea and China.. think I’m joking?
January 30, 2021
MiD,
I think the globalists have another plan. The comments this week emanating from Davos types have no public mandate but they keep steam rolling on. Delingpole article yesterday spotmon the money. Top down authoriataeian control telling us what will be imposed upon us!
January 29, 2021
Meanwhile China builds 300 coal fired power stations and Germany 28 this year alone.
January 29, 2021
Our largest reserve of coal is I believe in the North East. I have heard that it is possible to bore into the coal seam, extract fuel gas, and return the CO2 from the process to the coal mine. We then need to burn the gas in an envitonmentally acceptable way.
January 29, 2021
Here here, a well written summery of the loony direction our non technical PM is pushing.
January 29, 2021
The USA has one or more advantages over us in this plan to go green. Their peaks of demand can travel east to west. The southern half of the country has reliable sunshine for solar and the country as a whole has more potential for hydro electric storage.
I would prefer, as I would in the UK, that we concentrated on engineering and science (E&S) that have the potential to negate the bad effects of using fossil fuel. You could not have a better example of the potential of E&S than our response to Covid. Politicians are there to indicate direction not detail, because they don’t on the whole understand detail. Political photo opportunities in white coats look ridiculous. Witness German and EU politicians trying to get the EU vaccinated which has descended into a political shouting match.
I would rather the USA and UK concentrated on cleaning up the environment, but again direction not detail. Secondly they should look at what can be done to protect against climate change, an historical and natural process that has occured over the life of the Earth. However my expectations are low. Politicians can see people dying rapidly of Covid but not of slower acting lung and heart diseases, so they get diverted by vanity projects like HS2.
January 29, 2021
Our response to Covid has not really followed the science and logic very much the current lockdown is surely doing more harm than good. Also it is clear that sixty five year old woman has the same risk from Covid as a sixty year old man and yet JCVI have not adjusted for this in their vaccine priority orders. Just doing this would make the initial vaccine shots about 10% more effective – saving several hundred lives in the UK and many thousands worldwide – given the rather short initial supply.
JCVI is stuffed with professors and PhDs and yet basic A level logic & maths sums seems to be beyond them. They and the Vaccine minister and Health Sec. have been told this but do not even bother to reply. It seems they would prefer these extra deaths and active anti-male discrimination rather than have a superficial (but not actually real) appearance of anti-female discrimination. That or they just cannot admit they got such a basic thing so badly wrong and will therefore not admit to it or change it.
I hope the many relatives of the extra hundreds people killed by this negligence will be more understanding than I would be.
January 29, 2021
+1
January 29, 2021
OOPs meant for agricola reply
January 29, 2021
China must be laughing. Theyād certainly rather Biden focuses on identity politics and green crap, than eg, the threats to Taiwan, trade cheating and IP theft, the illegal crushing of Hong Kong, and of course the CCPās appalling human rights abuses, reportedly amounting to genocide.
Iād be delighted to see net zero, or even absolute zero, with electric cars and electrically powered industry, transport, home heating etc. But Iād really like to see a plan for how thatās to come about. How will all the electricity be generated using windmills and how will it be distributed, and at what cost? Itās the same here.
January 29, 2021
Good morning.
Why does everything have to be a battle or war with [insert here] ? The Left is consumed with conflict and angst. Some very unhappy and troubled people on that side of the politics.
And.
OK. This is on topic but you are going to have to go with me on this.
A little while ago I was listening to a, James Delingpole podcast featuring a well known Australian Socialist. The topics discussed were wide ranging and, naturally, his views somewhat questionable but ! On one topic he got my attention. It was so ‘Left-field’ that I recognised that it was the one thing he had about right and, this was to do with the USA and China. He mentioned that ALL Empires collapse and that the transition of power is done violently. This is not always true as the British Empire slowly wound down with little conflict and the USA and the US Dollar assumed the role of World Leader.
So what am I saying. I am saying that the Left in the West is aiding and abetting the transition of power from the West, and in particular the USA, to China and that this is being done in many ways. One way is through Global Institutions such as the UN. Another is securing minerals and materials essential for manufacturing. Yet another is removing competition in both technology and the need for fossil fuels to power industry. They also ‘influence’ world media and social media platforms. It is, to put it simply, ‘War by other means’. We just have not realised it yet and the Fifth Columnist standing before us.
That’s my take.
Oh. And President Biden has only 4 years to revert the USA back to a time before Christopher Columbus. Them Americans do like their cars and planes š
January 29, 2021
and massive food consumption, and gun ownership per capita.
January 29, 2021
Weāve just had 12 months of massively reduced carbon producing cars, trains and planes and manufacture ā however the carbon levels havenāt reduced accordingly ā¦.can only concluded that transport etc isnāt the issue just the target
January 29, 2021
The carbon levels you refer to are World carbon levels. It does not hang about over the UK waiting to be measured.
January 29, 2021
Them Americans do like their cars and planes- yes, but remember for all of their wealth and might they are grounded just like the rest of us because of the war on the virus
January 30, 2021
Oh, Mark B, Iām so disappointed, you should have used the proper time scale, before 16,000 BP and the Beringia Land Bridge. At least that way you would have made sense.
January 29, 2021
One of the ironies of the failed Trump administration is that, during its tenure, America massively accelerated its green shift. Whilst the federal government left the stage, state governments stepped up. Many met their Paris commitments anyway.
Hopefully what President Biden will bring will be the global leadership which has been lacking since 2016.
As for here, figures for 2020 show that renewables now produce more of our electricity than fossil fuels. Your lights still work. Amazing, eh?
The biggest barriers to personal adoption of things like electric cars and heat pumps remains high prices and poor government policy – not a lack of consumer interest. Sort out the policy and help consumers with the prices – it is not rocket science. Time for you all to save the planet for your grandkids.
January 29, 2021
āHelp the consumers with pricesā how exactly? With even higher taxes on these same consumers I assume. Take an extra Ā£10,000 of tax off people then waste perhaps 50% in collection and admin then give them a voucher for Ā£5,000 they can only spend on certain products. How will that help anyone but bureaucrats?
January 29, 2021
The weather yesterday – pretty average conditions for January – enabled solar power to generate less than 1% and wind power around 11% of our total electrical power needs. For some inexplicable reason, between dusk and dawn overnight solar farms produced nothing useful at all. But we mustn’t let facts get in the way of the green script, I suppose.
January 29, 2021
Electricity generation is approx 20% of total energy consumption. Almost all the rest is fossil fuels. Thatās the problem. If industry, transport and homes are all to go electric, we will need 4-5x the generation we have now. The only low carbon options based on current technology are nuclear – which greens oppose – and natural gas.
January 29, 2021
Check your privilege Andy – not everyone is a middle-class resident of the leafy home counties who can pretend to be an eco-warrior because they are very rich (you were boasting only yesterday about how much tax you pay) and so will not be impacted at all by green policies which will make the already poor much poorer.
Still, I liked your idea about having to pay for NHS services that you also floated yesterday, so maybe there is some hope for you.
January 29, 2021
“Your lights still work. Amazing, eh?”
I think he word I’d use is ‘Surprising’ Andy – they may work at the moment but the margin of error in terms of combinations or demand and weather have decreased. So my lights still work – at the moment – fingers crossed.
January 29, 2021
Andy
“…..[EV’s] not a lack of consumer interest”
……it isn’t the price, it’s more the fact that they’re not real cars, they have limited range and always will. Also consumers know of the planned obsolescence trap with these things i.e. batteries tired tired out – replacement batteries priced to force purchase of a new vehicle.
They’re a con & just not worth it.
January 29, 2021
“Hopefully what President Biden will bring will be the global leadership which has been lacking since 2016”
Words fail me, Andy
January 29, 2021
Pominoz
Quite right it would seem that Andy lives in a parallel universe. Trump achieved more than previous presidents collectively in the Middle East. He tried possitively with North Korea too. His main problem was a communication one. I thought he was in need of a good PR manager. One could not ignore the contrast when Nigel Farage spoke at his meetings. Biden has to realise that he has to carry the electorate with him, it cannot be done by presidential order.
January 29, 2021
I agree with your assessment of Trump. He just wasn’t smooth enough, and clearly enjoyed the rough and tumble. Awful shame that the one man with the right instincts was not more sophisticated.
January 29, 2021
As I write this, the total demand in the U.K. is 37.3GW.
Renewables provide 13.3GW of this.
Andy, you must avoid telling fibs, itās very naughty!
January 29, 2021
So on a cold windless day in January – the sort of days you are all worrying about – 35% of our electricity is already generated by renewables. The target is for it to be 100% renewable by 2050. Easy.
In 1950 – when most of you were kids – half of British homes did not have indoor bathrooms. How many of you are still going to loo in the garden?
Progress is swift when a country puts its mind to it and when it is competently led. One out of two aināt bad.
January 29, 2021
Andy
“How many of you are still going to loo in the garden?”
Well I sometimes do. I still have an outside Khazi, It’s a very serene experience in the dead of night in there with a paraffin lamp. I have indoor bathrooms of course but keep the outside loo for sake of originality.
January 29, 2021
There you go again Andy, you can’t resist a little ‘ageist’ comment, can you? My mother was only three in 1950.
I am happy for progress to be made in renewable energy, just let’s not put all the poor people out of cars and without decent low-cost energy to benefit the few, just like covid lockdown policies seem to lock up the many so that the few celebs can jet around enjoying a number of holidays each year, continuing with their ‘important’ work like super modelling. We must get the technologies up and running quickly in the UK and not rely on anyone else but our own ingenuity to succeed quickly.
As you say after the war great leaps were made in improving housing, vehicles and industry. This covid is a little like a war and hopefully it will give everyone a kick to make the changes to benefit the many.
January 29, 2021
Progress is swift when people are offered something they actually want or need Andy.
So called “Smart” meters being an excellent example….
January 29, 2021
Andy, You’re not very good with figures, are you? If there is no Wind, and at night no Solar for 12+ hours during winter, the only possible “renewables” are biomass (ie: wood burning – which is not exactly renewable in less than about 50 years) at a maximum of about 3GW, and Hydro (max c1GW). That is about 10% at best. Not 35%.
Your lights are kept on by CCGT. That’s Gas, a fossil fuel, by the way. Amazing, eh? But that’s Gas – not only the cleanest fuel, but the cheapest to run, and the most flexible. Flexible enough to pull your ridiculous renewables out the mire. Regularly.
January 29, 2021
Ever considered that the lights work, why? Could it just be that the large manufacturing industries that China, Germany, USA still rely on don’t exist here in UK?
January 29, 2021
And we actually rely on their industry, since our own has shrunk so much.
January 29, 2021
Andy – “Sort out the [government] policy and help consumers with the prices”.
So what should this policy be?
I’m always confused as to what the Green’s actually want in the government policy. I also think that the UK government should trial a lot of these suggested schemes in the area that elected a Green MP.
Are you backing more on land windmills if so where? More solar panel fields? Where would we buy low cost solar panels from and why aren’t the Chinese who are building new cities all the time not putting this new electricity generation into them from the start if they want to take over World leadership positions.
Are you backing more cheap cars to be produced? If so made by whom and built where? Imports from lower cost Asia?
January 29, 2021
a-tracy
“Iām always confused as to what the Greenās actually want in the government policy”
They just want to stop people having cars – because they don’t have the intelligence to maintain them and they ‘re too sissy to get their hands dirty & bruise their little knuckles, and most of ’em don’t know what a spanner is.
They want to make it as difficult as possible to heat your home for a reasonable price – because they’re jealous of anyone owning a home.
They want everyone to wear woolly rainbow coloured bobble hats – because they abhor conformism. Anyone not like them must be a fascist.
January 29, 2021
” renewables now produce more of our electricity than fossil fuels.”
Occasionally. Fifty percent of that story was down to hydro-power and biomass, which isn’t really renewable anyway. There have been many days over the winter where coal generated power has been higher than wind and solar combined. Today there is wind and sun. Wind plus solar are currently providing 25% of supply against 44% hydrocarbon, (5% from coal and 39% from gas), not forgetting 14% from nuclear. A few days ago, wind plus solar was 6% against coal on its own of over 6%. How can an economy function like that?
January 29, 2021
How much electricity came from inter-connecters from the continent? And how much of that was generated by Russian Gas. Germany is still building coal fired power stations because Merkel panicked over nuclear after the Japanese disaster so they have been importing electricity from France who generate a lot of base load from nuclear still.
January 29, 2021
I believe one of the big users of electricity in the US is air conditioning, without which a large part of the South would become uninhabitable with the current housing stock.
January 29, 2021
Air conditioning is needed in places and at times that the sun shines strongly.
That is the only application that solar power is good for.
January 29, 2021
Less inhabitable still, with ongoing global heating, yes.
January 29, 2021
Martin, We don’t get heated by the “global”, we get heated by the sun. The USA has a continental climate, so even the North can be uncomfortably hot in the summer. And yes temperatures have recovered slightly, by about 1degC, from the Little Ice Age – otherwise we’d still be in it.
January 29, 2021
Will Air Force One and the Beast be replaced with electric vehicles, or is this just a good idea for the proletariat?
January 29, 2021
I think we all know the answer to that, a case of do as we say not as we do. Boris Johnson tweeted an ecstatic reply to Biden’s green zealotry. Though our leaders, what these politicians don’t do is lead the way, they don’t give us an audit of their carbon footprint, and don’t detail out how they personally are going to live carbon zero lives to show us plebs how it is done, and lead us to this carbon zero nirvana. All the MPs who are voting this stuff on us would run a mile if required to live the lives they are trying to impose on us.
I saw it mentioned that John Kerry, the lead man in Biden’s green stuff, has an extensive portfolio of mansions, yachts, cars and an executive jet . A bit like Al Gore , where it was found his mansion guzzles more energy in one year than the average American family uses in 21 years.
January 29, 2021
They are all hypocritical charlatans who know they won’t suffer the consequences of their ridiculous policies.
January 29, 2021
Iain Moore
“and [they] donāt detail out how they personally are going to live carbon zero lives to show us plebs how it is done”
Oh it’s simple Iain, Boris is going to ride his bicycle 50 miles a day to get to and from work, come rain or shine.
January 29, 2021
The latter, in the Prince Charles ldo as I say not as I doā mode. Winsor castle and Buck Pal. would need very large heat pumps.
I assume the US Navy, Airforce and Army will all go for battery trucks, missiles, tanks, & fighter jets but warships will clearly have to go back to sail. Range anxiety in military aircraft is however even more of an issue than it is in cars though. But with good batteries we might get a range of perhaps as much as 10 miles for a supersonic fighter jet and in ten years perhaps even 15. With New batteries needed every three years or so.
All potential battle areas land and sea will need to be preprepared with charge points in advance and fighting must stop at night for recharging. They could play football at night with the enemy perhaps during charge up times. Should be just great!
January 29, 2021
Amazing ministers still not using cycles or electric cars, personally or professionally.
January 29, 2021
Great post L/L.
January 29, 2021
The Air Force One replacement project looks like coming in at over $4 billion. I’m guessing that Biden won’t be cancelling it.
January 29, 2021
But will John Kerry be giving up his private jet?
P.S. It seems that we’ll be getting the Full Crazy from Biden & Harris. The politics-watcher in me suspects his approval ratings will be firmly around the 40% mark for his entire presidency.
January 29, 2021
Yes, a lesson in how to make enemies without really trying. All those who work in or who have invested in those industries he is targeting. All those in the USA who drive and that means just about everyone. All those who work and invest in industries whose products are suddenly not selling and are not exportable because energy costs make them uncompetitive. Every household that buys energy. One wonders if he has done the maths or realises how short a time four years is. This dose of economic castor oil will not endear him to the electorate.
January 29, 2021
Electorate? That’s people who vote and elect, isn’t it? Not relevant any more.
January 29, 2021
John C. +1
Climate = Control
Covid = Control
The salivation of the left is more to do with the helplessness of the voters/people and not the ‘control of the virus’ or ‘saving the planet’.
January 29, 2021
Let us pay lip service to President Joe’s notions if we must but let our Government prioritize energy and food security over green agenda measures. With China pumping out ever increasing CO2 and being on the same planet whatever we do on climate will make no discernible difference.
January 29, 2021
Mr Redwood has told the Express Remainers need to ācheer upā because Brexit is going to supercharge the UK.
The reality is that my rights have been stolen, my children have fewer opportunities and it is harder and more expensive just to buy and sell stuff from abroad.
There are no upsides to Brexit. The only the thing to cheer is that Brexit is even more disastrous than we predicted so it will be undone more quickly.
January 29, 2021
@ Andy – “..my children have fewer opportunities..” – I very much hope they have not yet rebelled against your message to them that their futures are blighted now and remain hard at work to benefit me and my fellow baby boomers?
With luck no educator will offer them illumination along the lines of the future is driven by what the individual makes of it, that opportunity is grasped by those with a prepared mind, and in an ever changing world, there are always new prospects to enjoy.
January 29, 2021
Just what you had planned to do this year but now can’t (because of Brexit)? Be specific.
January 29, 2021
Yes you specifically need to cheer up and stop spreading the poison of misinformation you tbrive on. None of your rights have been stolen unless you are intent on spreading Covid at home or abroad. Equally your childrens opportunities are still there, though they might have to leave home to realise it. We only get your negativity in this blog, I fear for those around you who must get it daily as a drip feed. Think positively, if you cannot buy from and sell to the EU you won’t have to pay the enormous tax bill you boast of. Your disaster is joy to many.
January 29, 2021
Andy – you predicted food shortages and civil unrest in Bristol due to Brexit. Still waiting for those. On the other hand, thousands of lives saved due to Brexit vaccine policy.
January 29, 2021
Andy
“The reality is that my rights have been stolen”
…..so what ? Somebody stole my pliers a while back. Far more serious.
“so it [brexit] will be undone more quickly.
………try it and see what happens. Besides, how you going to undo brexit when the EU has
collapsed ?
January 29, 2021
” it is harder and more expensive just to buy and sell stuff from abroad. ”
Well, I didn’t know you operated an Import/Export business Andy – but never mind!
And by “abroad” I guess you mean the EU ( ?? ) I’ll let you into a little secret, you have been selling into a fairly small (and declining) market and there are other places “abroad” that you don’t seem to know about.
Lift your eyes a bit and look further afield (sorry “abroad”) – the prospects are much brighter elsewhere and the rules and regulations there haven’t changed a bit. There are lots of others who have already discovered this and more will join them given time…
After all, why take chances dealing with people who don’t know what “Best Endeavours” means? š
January 29, 2021
Lovely to read such an uplifting message.
January 29, 2021
Come on, Sir John. I thought you were going to clear out provocative trolling? This is just Andy playing his old tune. I’m sick of hearing it.
January 29, 2021
Andy, No one has “stolen your rights”. It’s just that you are now prevented from bullying helpless Italians into having to accept you whether they like it or not. On top of that we have regained the right to decide how many foreigners to accept on our shores – a much more important right.
January 29, 2021
What is it about those annointed with power that makes them believe they can beat nature; they all appear bewitched by mad scientists. Why don’t they do something useful with their powers like pressing for alternatives to the plastics that have made manufacture cheap and profits high, but passes the true cost onto the consumer and planet? It’s a by-product of oil, of course, is suffocating the planet and is at least potentially, achievable; but no, the consumer is expected to pay the price (again) for green ideology. The public are being held to ransom; where will it end?
Off topic, I’m delighted that Mr Johnson’s trip to Scotland went ahead and was a success, but it was incredibly disrespectful for Ms Sturgeon to publicly declare it was “non-essential travel” for Mr Johnson (technically, her boss) to carry out his legitimate duties. Strange, too, that officials from 18 EU countries attended a SNP-organised boozy Burns Night soiree at Scotland House in London. Didn’t it count as high risk because it was exported beyond her fiefdom? Hypocrisy seems to ooze from every pore.
January 29, 2021
The consumers response will be telling, especially when they come to vote in the mid term elections. In the UK we lack a political party that challenges the arrogance of those that claim to be able to control global temperatures via CO2 suppression and capture. Johnson’s declared aims are a menace to national prosperity. We need an alternative.
January 29, 2021
oldtimer
More like Boris doesn’t have the guts to cease trade with China……by far the biggest single contributor to fossil fuel byproduct emissions.
January 29, 2021
Cease trade with China? That means, cease trade!
January 29, 2021
He has also turned the UK Green . The UK is currently waiting outside the Oval office with begging bowl having left our own domestic market and earned the loathing of most of our neighbours. We compounded the error by grovelling around the worst President in history , whose name is now a synonym for the 7 deadly sins .
Johnson and indeed Redwood , are always up for a bit of credit ( for me ) now ( you ) pay later and so so it is no surprise to find him in his greenery trying to hop into Biden`s lap . Oh how easy to set a target now . Stick it on the kids tab.
Biden`s task is to try to bring the US up to the speed of the developed world , the UK admirably represented by the Eton Mess just says any old thing ..next week its off to China to agree with them
I simply burst with pride
January 29, 2021
“earned the loathing of most of our neighbours.” How the heck have we ‘earned’ ‘loathing’ seriously? How? We are still projected to pay them Ā£39bn! Did Ireland get ‘loathed’ when they went independent from the United Kingdom? Did America get ‘loathed’ when they got their Independence from the UK? What about India, Africa? We gave everyone from the EU settled status. We will still have free movement just not free benefit movement.
January 29, 2021
I have a friend who lives in California. They have switched so much to renewable sources there that he has fairly frequent power blackouts, just like 3rd world countries and the old Soviet block – to counter this he has bought a big diesel generator. So hardly a great success for green policies. I expect the non-Democrat states will be able to bypass Biden’s nonsense on this issue to a large extent.
January 29, 2021
Indeed. Southern Scotland experiences many power cuts since so many enormous wind farms have been erected. The stupid thing is that with millions being paid to switch off they are still erecting more. Not sure whether to laugh or cry.
January 29, 2021
Given that the USA is a huge Country people tend to travel long distances, and the battery range for most vehicles on average is what ?
Hybrid about 30 miles.
Full electric about 150 miles.
Seems to me like a lot of development and modification of infrastructure will be required in rapid time.
Batteries for commercial vehicles whilst running refrigeration units will be how far ?
January 29, 2021
Sir John.
As usual words , words little to no substance on the when, how and who is going to pay for it. Talk is cheap. Sounds familiar to the energy advice being given to our politicians.
President Biden I think is playing a very dodgy hand. He has 74 million people in his country that are not going to go away and all these cancellations of projects are going to cost jobs Thousands of them. The fuel cost in all areas is going to rise and the US has totally different peak demand to the UK and the impact on domestic and commercial markets will explode. No leader wants millions of people rising up against his policies and his own supporters all of them are not going to be blinded by the green lights and sermons when it impacts on their life style and wallets. If jobs start getting lost attitudes change.
The American people are not going to just roll over and take the change to electric transport lightly. Their trucking unions want vehicles that traverse the country quickly, distances between towns can be 90 miles apart. Where is the network of charging stations going to come from, who will finance them? Electric vehicle manufacturers state mileage range but unless you are on vacation the real optimal range is half that stated assuming you want to return home, With air con and other elements being used the technology might be there for fast charging batteries but what life span?
Four years ain’t long enough, and there will always be the spectre of Mr Trump wherever he is voicing his opinions, he will find a way to communicate with not only his believers but the country.
January 29, 2021
Yes John , Biden seems to be as big a nutcase as the Leader of your Party and his current Green lunatic “fiancee “. What can little old you do to talk some sense into him . Nothing I suppose .
What a country , what a useless Parliament .
January 29, 2021
Why no commentary on the behaviour of Brussels over vaccines ???
January 29, 2021
In a situation where speed is important – even if the EU does decide to go ‘legal’, then nothing will happen quickly without the EU really doing something well outside of the normal commercial boundaries – which would have long term implications for them in terms of future commercial partnerships.
AstraZeneca are a very large multinational and I would be inclined to believe that their legal staff are very well versed in areas such as contract law, most particularly that involving pharma products – whereas I doubt that the EU Politicos are quite as specialist in this area.
I’m very sure that the EU will huff & puff to cover their obvious discomfort at being so far behind the game compared to the UK but they do have other vaccine sources and can use them. In the next few weeks the UK will hit it’s ‘over 70’s’ target and start on the next highest priority groups. In other words, the UK will have demonstrated in a very concrete manner that being outside of the EU has its benefits. I’m sure that fact will not be lost on many inside the Union – so this spate with AZ by Brussels is already rather pointless. Better if they tried to assist AZ get their Belgium plant operating at full speed and worked on getting alternative vaccines approved asap – rather than getting into contractual slanging matches.
January 29, 2021
Any decisions taken over exports of vaccines are down to individual member states operating as individual sovereign countries.
Individual countries being able to operate as individual sovereign states while still being members of the EU. Who would have thought it?
January 29, 2021
Not me, Peter – because the EU told its subject states that the EU would handle vaccine procurement.
January 29, 2021
That will be tomorrow’s topic !
January 29, 2021
“He [Biden} is cancelling a new oil pipeline, suspending new licences to drill in the Artic, committing the USA to net zero carbon in power generation as early as 2035, and to complete net zero carbon dioxide output by 2050. He plans to double offshore wind power, promote electric vehicles, ”
……..well that should bring him down hopefully.
January 29, 2021
The thing is, you can’t avoid reality for ever. Soon the whole green house of cards will collapse. I expect Biden will see his time out, though. Quite a few years before reality shatters all this nonsense.
January 29, 2021
JohnC, Yes the whole green house of cards will collapse. But not before it has created mayhem and poverty. And blamed something else for its failure.
January 29, 2021
As one who works in the energy industry Biden’s view, like many on the left, assumes this kind of shift is easy. It is not. The problems with renewable power sources are far reaching and just a little research will show you why. The answer will eventually lie in Hydrogen, but countries are pumping tax payer money into wind and solar and mainly ignoring this. I wont bore you with the half truths, omissions and outright lies told by the green ‘scientivists’ on the IPCC and beyond regarding temperatures, CO2 etc. However, this ‘evidence’ is derived from computer models (there are about 12 different one though), but climate is a chaotic system which has thousands of unknown random interactions and is virtually impossible to model, so they make favourable assumptions that support their case.
In every country I’ve dealt with has had this green vision imposed on them with very few asking for it to be done, save a small contingent of green activists. The public across the world don’t understand the concept of NetZero, they assume it means removing all fossil fuels which is not the case. I suspect our own politicians have the lack of understanding, hence our Lemming-like dash for renewables. The greens say electricity is now cheap and yet our bills continue to rise, because we are still subsidising renewables so that they can been seen to be economically viable.
With Boris saying diesel and petrol cars will stop in 2030 and gas central heating for homes will stop he has bought into the “dream”. Has he cleared this with the PCP and other ministers John ? I suspect not. The party of choice is no longer giving us alternatives, and it looks like we’ve got ‘Starmer lite’ in charge.
January 29, 2021
Where are you going to get all the Hydrogen from?
January 29, 2021
Water, and rubbish, the Japanese are leading on this.
January 29, 2021
the water.
January 29, 2021
You manufacture Hydrogen from a process which leaves water as the only waste product. There are several projects in the UK in the early stages. A Hydrogen Production Unit is a common process plant in a refinery or petrochemical plant so the technology and experience are already there. You can also inject it into the gas national gas supply to reduce emissions. Look up HyNet on the Internet as one of the projects. There is also one in Humberside.
January 30, 2021
You have got your Hydrogen making process backwards. All refinery produced Hydrogen is high temperature steam cracked from natural gas (methane). Which is why the oil and gas industry is so keen on Hydrogen. It knows there will not be enough electric available to electrolyse Water into Hydrogen in large quantities.
January 29, 2021
āThe answer will eventually lie in hydrogenā: only if it the so-called āgreen hydrogenā. There is already some hydrogen capacity around the world but most of it is produced using fossil fuels (so called grey or brown hydrogen), so no actual benefit. Moreover according to a recent Bloomberg NewEnergy Finance report the investment into hydrogen in 2020 was one fifth of what it was in 2019. It was just $1.5bn compared with$139bn for investments on EVs and $51bn on energy-efficient heat pumps.
As for IPCC so called CMIP6 49 modelling groups are involved with results from around 100 models (the same model being able to be run in different configurations in terms of parameters showing large uncertainties).
Then āchaoticā might have a different meaning for a scientist than for the woman on the street. It refers to a system (usually including the solution of coupled non-linear equations) sensitive to the initial conditions given at the start of the modelling exercise.
Weather (atmospheric motions) is chaotic, nevertheless weather forecast models show a reasonable level of success in describing details of the weather over 5-10 days. Climate models being most of them extensions of weather forecast models are likely to show a reasonable agreement on large-scale features on a seasonal scale.
January 29, 2021
Back in the seventies there was an article in the Scientific American magazine on the “Hydrogen Economy”. It was all the rage for a while with graduate engineers, until, it was finally accepted, that the numbers just didn’t add up. They still don’t.
Using “well to wheel” analysis; take a unit of energy generated by a carbon free source, like a solar panel for instance, a battery electric vehicle will lose about 30% of that energy turning it into vehicular motion. A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will lose about 78%. A so called “e-fuel” powered vehicle will lose 87% of that solar panels produced energy.
Spend the money on battery technology, put Hydrogen in the folder with Bitcoins and Dutch Tulip Bulb Mania and similar bubbles/scams.
January 29, 2021
Technology moves on from the 70’s. Batteries with large enough capacity to store energy generated by wind or solar at the ” wrong times” are way off being available.
January 29, 2021
Acorn, Your 30% loss for Solar to motion in a battery electric vehicle is somewhat optimistic. It depends on how fast your charge the BEV, how old the battery is, how you drive, and what the weather is like. And that’s apart from the fact that Solar doesn’t work at all for about 15 hours a day in mid-winter.
Even more – until batteries approach a similar energy density to petrol (inconceivable at the moment, and highly unlikely ever) BEVs will always be heavier and therefore more expensive than petrol cars – and, importantly, cost more to produce in CO2 terms. Many BEV buyers – satisfied with the restricted range of BEVs because they drive few miles – will never pay back the CO2 deficit.
January 30, 2021
Volkswagen are claiming the “well to wheel” energy efficiency of its latest electric SUV will be circa 73%; a 27% energy loss, based on ETSO average data for system losses.
Also, UK grid electricity is estimated at 288 gCO2e/kWh for 2020. Down from 516 in 2016. Such is the penetration of Wind and Solar generation.
January 29, 2021
Zero carbon: as with some other (mostly) well-meaning Grand Plans, such as the NHS or Socialism, the theories turn into religion, where there is a need or compulsion to BELIEVE rather than concentrate on the practicalities of the ‘here and now’. Sceptics and well-meaning and constructive critics are scorned and then often actively harassed.
I remember that when nuclear power was first being promoted for electricity production, we were informed that domestic electricity would be so abundant and cheap the consumer would quite possibly get it for free!
January 29, 2021
I watch on to view yet another government take the decision that it can understand and run its economy in detail, this time in the USA. With hindsight when we view the Trump and Reagan presidencies we do not see a government adding regulation, or doing a massive amount of work, instead the market is allowed to operate. This works.
I suspect we will watch a cascade of problems occur from this new green initiative with a green fix causing a problem such as unemployment, which causes another fix, which pulls more resources from productive economy causing more problems. At best I suspect we will see economic stagnation, but I fear worse.
I hope the UK can avoid much of this green madness by investing in good quality nuclear supply.
And I must congratulate the government on the excellent work on the vaccine. At the time decisions were made I feared it would go wrong or be unnecessary, in this case the government did fantastically. It seems limiting the government to getting involved in a limited number of things works.
January 29, 2021
Farage is correct. Free markets (human freedom to trade) and free speech are under threat from the Democrats and the British political class. Maybe, instead of Tory Eurosceptics boring us into submission about the EU they should defend the divine right to free expression, expose the socialist plot against liberty and freedom and attack the( xxxx )left who seem intent on destroying our voice
Is it time for your party to decide whose side you are on. The side of freedom or the side of etc
Reply I usually do not post your pieces. If you want them to appear use appropriately critical language about democratic parties and politicians.
January 29, 2021
Reply to our hosts reply.
But would it not be better to state where the conservative party currently stands on freedom, and specifically freedom of speach. We know where the establishment stands and where universities stand under left wing and liberal domination. So how about it.
January 29, 2021
Western countries are committing industrial suicide at the altar of a green religion that is proposing using technology that will not deliver. I see the future whereby only the rich can afford cars and foreign holidays. The rest of us will be confined to our cold homes, just like now. By the time the public wake up to this fact it will be too late to reverse and China will have taken over the World. We will be the enslaved people on bicycles. Some people are making massive amounts of money out of this fraud especially the landowners who set up wind farms. Until we stop the brainwashing of our children and the bias media bombarding us with their propaganda the voter sheep will continue to believe what is fed to them. They donāt understand how fragile our lifestyle is. Iām all for developing a new cleaner energy source but wind power is not the answer. Boris needs to go and soon. These āBuild Back Betterā politicians are all in this together. Expect them all at Davos soon to cement their evil plan. Itās like living in a 007 movie.
January 29, 2021
Christine,
Read what they have been saying this week. Utter despair. Merkel is showing her true menacing colours. It is clear to me her intention is about dominance and reducing the power of the US and western democracies to Russia and China. Perhaps she is showing her hand now she is leaving.
Johnson needs to ousted ASAP before he realises any of his nutty priorities or those he has been convinced to implement by the civil service.
January 29, 2021
You are so right about landowners becoming rich through wind farms. Where we lived it was farmers who were cashing in. Biomass boilers were fitted in barns to claim the subsidies, barn ropes abd spare land had solar panels and if they were really forunate they were offered the chance to have wind turbines too making so much money for doing no work and making all that lived around them poor. It’s all consumers paying for this garbage through their bills no matter how poor. It’s an utter disgrace.
January 29, 2021
That should read barn roofs. Blooming phone.
January 29, 2021
It’s an interesting thought Christine.
I remember China as a land of millions of bicycles, with the only cars being government owned. I wonder if one day everything will be completely reversed, with everyone here riding bicycles and everyone in China driving cars! š
January 30, 2021
In 2018 it was estimated – population 1.4bn, cars 240m.
January 29, 2021
Sir John
It seems that the USA is going down the same lunatic green route that we are. I have yet to meet anybody who wants it. So much for democracy.
Roger
January 29, 2021
Hello Sir John,
You write about the USA approach to Green issues which is completely stupid, but you could write the same article about the UK. Carbon makes up 0.4% of the atmosphere yet the Climate Change fanatics focused on that ignoring the other 99.6%. The CC computer models cannot accurately measure cloud cover yet that is ignored in this mad dash from reality. What is the real carbon footprint of Windpower, electric cars & all the other non fossil fuel ideas. Why do we need the cost of building two systems, one of wind & solar power plus batteries to store energy, & the necessary back up system for when the wind does not blow, probably small nuclear reactors. You are right that this is top down approach & as a result it will fail when the UK & USA governments come up against reality. The problem is how much damage will have been done & how much money wasted by then. Why do our MPs, Civil Service & the Establishment lack basic common sense?
January 29, 2021
By far and away the biggest green house gas is water vapour or ‘clouds’ to you and me, of which we can do nothing about. And yet our green friends keep claiming its CO2.
Now they are on the Methane attack targeting farm animals as major polluters of the atmosphere and the vegan cause is being pushed by the left media. They fail to tell you that Methane is emitted naturally and a huge amount of CO2 comes from the 4000+ volcano’s across the world, both above ground and below the sea.
I expect Boris to decree that Farming will be outlawed in 2030 as his next major announcement.
January 29, 2021
āA CC cannot accurately measure cloud coverā: obviously not it is not a measuring instrument. But various satellites can get a rather good description of the total cloud cover, vertical distribution of cloud layers, cloud ice/water content, or given some radar/lidar measurements some information on the size distribution of cloud droplets and particles.
Given this information most weather forecast models are providing āthe weatherā but also a representation of all these cloud parameters that can be observed and measured.
Furthermore given that extensions to weather forecast models are now largely used for climate simulations, I doubt very much your original assertion of the CC models unable to represent large features of clouds. Last time I look at it, most such CC models are rather good at simulating monsoons, a reasonable number and intensity of tropical depressions/hurricanes, and flooding and/or drought episodes when run as hindcast (= starting with 1980 conditions and running for 40 years and comparing to past yearsā observations).
But who am I to doubt your knowledge of CC-thingies and/or your sincerity?
January 29, 2021
Hefner, GCMs are just that – models. They are actually quite poor at describing the real global climate. The principal reasons include: missing or inadequately represented processes; low resolution; poor representation of the biosphere and its interactions with the climate; boundary imperfections which cause error propagation; imperfect representations of even basic elements such as pressure, wind, clouds.
The plain fact is that the very mild warming since the Little Ice Age has been nothing but beneficial to us. Indeed, geological evidence shows that the Earth, and the life on it, always do better in warm periods (warmer than now). CAGW is a substitute religion, and I was told by one climate scientist that “CAGW was invented by sceptics to discredit the science”. I am happy with that – but when will the climate scientists tell the politicians that CAGW is a hoax?
January 30, 2021
Thank you very much. All the potential deficiencies you pointed out are real and any one model run under such conditions would very likely not provide any useful and reliable results, certainly not reliable enough to base policy decisions on them.
But what about 20+ models developed independently by scientific teams in about as many countries, with likely different approaches in dealing with the various problems you pointed out. What if some models have very high horizontal and vertical resolution (horizontal grid size around 10×10 km^2, 100+ levels on the vertical), what if some models include dynamic global vegetation models that have been shown in hindcasts to reproduce the effect of various types of vegetation on what is important for the atmosphere, ie the fluxes of temperature and humidity (sensible and latent heat fluxes) how they intervene to build up the planetary boundary layer over different types of terrains and orography, …
What if this bunch of 20+ models were run with various mathematical representations of the uncertainties in the representation of physical and dynamical processes, and finally what if all these efforts were converging towards the same result, that indeed humankind is affecting the Earthās climate.
And what if I were to tell you that your anti-CAGW is as much a religion as the one you accuse some scientists of following. A case of straw and beam?
January 29, 2021
“Carbon makes up 0.4% of the atmosphere”. Carbon Dioxide…
January 29, 2021
Actually yes you are correct CO2 historically was/is 300 parts per million, and carbon 0.4%. If we invest in algae this small living organism can remove far more CO2 from the atmosphere than trees
January 29, 2021
300 parts per million is 0.03%. The correct figure is 0.04% carbon dioxide by volume.
January 29, 2021
Carbon dioxide is about 0.04% of the atmosphere.
January 29, 2021
I’ve always maintained that batteries, whether lead acid, alkaline or lithium ion are very nasty chemistry both to make and to dispose of and use several scarce and energy intensive work to secure. A large percentage of them are then shipped around the world, sometimes more than once.
January 29, 2021
My future voting intentions include voting for any party that is pro fossil fuels and zero subsidies to green energy
January 29, 2021
With you on that Glen. The Climate Change Scam needs to be see for what it is, all based on false and manipulated data. There are real scientists out there who have exposed it but their voices are being suppressed, e.g. McIntyre/ McKitrick and Patrick Moore.
January 29, 2021
Me too.
January 29, 2021
Any party? Show me one when you find it. That’s the problem. We just seem to have one big party, which has varying shades of green.
January 29, 2021
Entirely off-topic, looking down the list of parties to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations:
https://treaties.un.org/pages/viewdetails.aspx?src=treaty&mtdsg_no=iii-3&chapter=3&lang=en
I do not see the European Union included among the 192 state parties.
I see the member states of the EU listed, but not the EU itself.
So when an EU official complains that:
https://www.ft.com/content/644622aa-0bc0-4997-a95a-cb0467f302ca
ā… our EU ambassador is getting a different treatment from his peers in the UK … ”
the answer is that there is no reason why the UK should treat him as the representative of a sovereign state on a par with the ambassadors of any of the other 191 state parties to the convention.
Moreover I point out once again that what the arrogant EU Commission is demanding has already been declared contrary to EU law and international law by the EU court:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_2/13
āā¦ the EU is, under international law, precluded by its very nature from being considered a State ā¦ā
Other governments may be willing to aid and abet the EU Commission in its plan to break the law – that is to say, the EU law which they themselves declare must always be obeyed, certainly within the EU and if they had their way also outside of the EU, as well as general “international law” – but that does not mean our government should follow suit.
January 29, 2021
Yes, a strange assumption by the EU.
If the EU is a Country how come Italy Germany and France are attending the G7 meetings as Countries and so is the EU(So it is also a Country). A meeting of 7, but with 1 of them having 4 voices – strange balance. There are other World Associations and trading blocks bigger than the EU that wont be at the G7 meeting this year.
If the EU is a Country how come all 27 EU States get to compete in the Olympics, while China and the USA and even the UK can only send one team each.
The EU needs to qualify what it is, a Country or an Association(United States of Europe – even) – it can’t have the same standing or assume a position on the international stage until it qualifies its position.
January 29, 2021
Good points Ian.
I also understand that the EU wants diplomatic immunity for ALL of it’s staff – not just named Diplomats (as is normal for other Embassies) . In fairness, I guess they are concerned about the cost of driving and parking in London these days – and they don’t want to pay for wandering into a cycle lane either.
January 29, 2021
The last thimg the Eu wants to do is qualify what it is, because that will also involve confirming that it isn’t a State.
It is just an organisation with delusions of grandeur and a central, strong desire to become a single superstate, a desire that is not shared by a vast majority of citizens and politicians in its member states.
January 29, 2021
It was a good idea, ill conceived in construction through political ambition exceeding practicality. There was never a suggestion that the population should be in agreement with this before enaction. Now with Brexit and the failure of the EU vaccination programme the crevases in this political construct are becoming increasingly obvious.
January 29, 2021
and how come Germany separately orders vaccines (German made) from the combined 27 Order?
Animal Farm all over again.
January 29, 2021
Well spotted.
January 29, 2021
Totally agree with you. However, you seem to forget that the EU is now such a large organisation that it thinks that it can bully anyone and everyone. Let’s hope that our government has the guts not to let them bully us regarding the Covid vaccine(s).
It is claimed by some misguided people that the EU is the reason that there has been no major war in Europe for the last 40 or so years. My fear is that with their bullying attiude, they may well precipitate, not a war, but an awful lot of ill-feeling. It seems to be starting already.
January 29, 2021
Denis, That is why I call the EU an empire. It’s not a single state (yet) but not for want of trying!
January 29, 2021
President Trump left behind 300 judges, besides the ones in the Supreme Court. Texas has already won a case on the Southern border outrage, and no doubt there will be one coming along soon on the Northern pipeline.
The Californian approach to all this seems to have been: in order for us to have clean green energy in California, let us buy wind turbines and solar panels from coal powered China. We will also need rare minerals and metals for our clean green life, so lets buy them from other countries who can devastate their landscapes with open cast mining to supply us.
President Trump had the right idea: self sufficiency is paramount, and gas from fracking and elsewhere is part of that. America went from being a warmonger in the Near East to being a net energy exporter under him – and a broker of peace in the Near East as well.
January 29, 2021
Love the title JR. Yes everyone I know in the USA is green (sick) watching Biden rule by executive order. 37 in 6 days!
January 29, 2021
Indeed not a good look, behind fencing, barbed wire, and 20,000 troops, Biden is busy issuing dictatorial Executive Orders. If anyone has usurped American democracy its Biden and Democrats.
January 30, 2021
Trumpās first 100 days: 24 executive orders, 22 presidential memoranda, 20 presidential proclamations, and 28 bills out of which a dozen were rolling back some of Obamaās regulations.
G.W.Bushās executive orders: 41 in 2001, 22 in 2002, 39 in 2003, 42 in 2004, 26 in 2005, 27 in 2006, 32 in 2007, 29 in 2008, and 4 in January 2009.
Plus ca change, plus cāest la meme chose.
Some people might benefit to learn a bitty more about the USAās presidential system. Mightnāt they?
January 29, 2021
Seems that Biden will be a disaster not just for the US but for the world unless he is constrained or, better still, removed from office.
January 29, 2021
I suspect he will not go the distance and we will have President Harris, to great fanfare.
January 29, 2021
Would Susan Rice allow that?
January 29, 2021
As other have said, ‘Virtual Signaling – because you can’ As with all of the ‘Political Class’ punish the voter! and worry about the next election another day. We are all ruled by numpties
January 29, 2021
Here is an idea! Scotland’s First Minister believes the EU must be made aware of the UK’s vaccination program in detail and in full. Maybe the Scots should vote to hand their allocation of the vaccine to their EU Overlords to share it out in a manor the Commission sees as fit and when it is able to engage in its purpose.
I cant believe the rest of the UK is forcing the Scots to share in the for site of the UK Government decisions that are there for the benefit of the whole of the UK against their wishes.
January 29, 2021
It’s alright for the Scots. There’s only just over 5 million in Scotland. Bearing this in mind they are not concerned about the higher population and the length of time it will take us to vaccinate everyone. I really wish they would go and join their beloved EU and we give notice of WTO. It seems to me everyone is intent on bringing us down.
January 29, 2021
No, not at all, plenty of people in the EU are looking at us and saying, “That could be us”. That is why we are being punished, and treated as no other third country would be, as a deterrent.
January 31, 2021
Yes, āthat could be usā, and thatās why in France now even the Rassemblement National has stopped its anti-EU propaganda. Marine is certainly not as dumb as some had thought and she knows that any future for her party is within the EU in alliance with other EU countriesā right-wing nationalist parties.
January 29, 2021
From what I understand, Biden has just a 100 days to intact all these asperations. If not done with in that period he will have a long protracted fight with vested interests
January 29, 2021
According to you..boo hoo! We’d be waiting a long time before Trump would do something useful..that’s if you could get him off the golf course
January 30, 2021
? what are you on about…. Biden is the President in the US White House – not Trump, that was history and an election ago. All US presidents get 100days to enact most asperation with out a full load of scrutiny, after that it is the House of Representatives and the Individual States that are in charge. That means vested interest has the upper hand
January 29, 2021
So, Andy, you would like to be caught up in backlash of the row VDL is having with the drug companies and join those EU states like Spain who have no vaccine. Bully for you old son!!!
I do wish our politicians would stop being so polite and referring to ” our European friends” as a good many of them in the administration are no more than a bunch of ”two faced twisting b——ds”!!!!! Get tough and explain in simple terms where they can go.
January 29, 2021
Isn’t it a case of “For Brutus is an honourable man;. So are they all, all honourable menā”?
January 29, 2021
The uncosted, hurried actions of Biden are going to cost the USA dearly, and even UK consumers. The global oil price will certainly increase as the USA will no longer be energy self-sufficient.
January 29, 2021
People get confused by what the media says about the US and reality. Remember that little old company BP their wind farm capacity in the US is some 1,076 MW. For comparison the UK’s London Array produces 630MW.
The really big difference, is cost, the UK consumer gets penalised(Government imposed) and in the US they get commercially available cheap electricity for domestic and commercial use.
One is playing to ego the other is playing to commercial demand.
January 29, 2021
I can see the sense, in the long-term, of moving away from relying on resources that are finite – especially when these are imported and you do not therefore have security of supply. But to do so in a hurried and uneconomic way is stupid and just puts you at an economic disadvantage compared to your international competitors (a polite word for enemies).
What the US does is up to them and I don’t give a monkey’s, but what eco-nutter Boris does worries me imensely. Why is the government not fully committing to the SMRs (small modular reactors) proposed by RollsRoyce? We are drip-feeding them money instead of going in fully and intensifying the pace. If these are developed quicker we could sell them globally.
And if we are going to commit to ‘net zero’ then we need to make sure that ALL the technology is developed here in Britain. At the moment, for every pound spent on wind turbines only 29p goes to UK manufacturers. And we have a British company (a spin out fom Oxford University) who developed a revolutionary new type of solar panel (a company called Oxford PV) who have been forced to go to Gemany to get it made!
Read this and WEEP: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2021/01/14/british-pioneer-solar-energy-chose-produce-germany/ As I said yesterday, the BEIS is a disgrace. There should be questions asked to ministers about this disgraceful fiasco.
January 29, 2021
Oh God – another day, another pathetic Boris U-turn. Today we learn that Lord Frost will not, after all, be appointed National Security Adviser, but that this role will go to a career civil servant (just as the civil service wanted all along). Franly, who is appointed in this role doeasn’t bother me, but it is yet another example of how weak and useless Boris is – he is unable to impose his will. Look at the history of U-turns under what laughingly passes as his ‘leadership’. Either the initial decisions were wrong – in which case he is incredibly stupid – or he folded under pressure – in which case he is weak. Which is it: is he weak or stupid (or both)?
As we can see in the current vaccine saga, the EU are stupid and incompeent – BUT they have adopted a ver aggressive stance and demanded the vaccines made in the UK. And Boris has capitulated! Or look at the negotiating aggression shown by Barnier, Macron et al. And how Boris capitulated. And that’s the point: to be a successful leader you have to be extremely AGGRESSIVE. Is Boris aggressive? About as much as a bowl of weak custard.
Boris is WEAK. He is pathetic. Look at the way he constantly grovels to our EU enemies, calling them ‘friends and partners’, like a weak and frightened child trying to ingratiate himself with the school bully. Look at the news today that GKN are going to close a huge factory in Birmingham supplying parts to the auto industry, and transfer the work to the EU. And what is Boris doing? Threatening GKN? Blackmailing them? Ordering them to reverse this decision, or else they will face multi-million pound fines or be nationalised without compensation? No. He is doing NOTHING. What do you think EU leaders like Macron would do? They would force the company to reverse its decision.
What we need is a leader with AGGRESSION. And weak, cowardly, pathetic little Boris is not that man.
January 29, 2021
BREAKING NEWS: The EU has imposed a ban on all exports of Cv19 vaccine to the UK, meaning the Pfizer vaccines we have bought and paid are being stolen. Not only that, but the EU have imposed a hard border between Eire and Northern Ireland, to stop vaccines getting across! Yes, this is the same EU who said that a hard border was totally unacceptable. But only if we do it, obviously, because thanks to Boris, we are their vassal state.
So, what will weak and cowardly Boris do? NOTHING. No doubt he will capitulate and give the EU the AZ vaccine – letting British citizens die – and continue calling the EU our “friends and partners”!! The man is betraying Britain and the British people. How much more treachery is required for Conservative MPs to send in their letters to Graham Brady???
January 29, 2021
As an addendum, I see that the UK has pre-ordered 30 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. BUT, this is produced in Belgium – so what guarantee do we have that we will actually get it?
Why doesn’t the government insist that J&J move ALL their European production to the UK – and pay them 100% of the cost of doing so? This would ensure our security of supply – and help our balance of payments – in both the short and longer term, and also give us leverage against the EU. This is exactly what we should have done with Pfizer. I am sure J&J would be happy to have a free, new, state-of-the-art factory, so would agree. But this would require a prime minister that was willing to adopt a strongly nationalistic economic policy and be willing to actually FIGHT the EU, and weak and cowardly Boris will never do this. So once again we will be screwed. Boris, just go.
January 29, 2021
London Nick, I agree with all you say here. Yet more Boris U turns and weakness in defending the UK. If Boris doesn’t believe in the UK, why should anyone else?
January 29, 2021
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is donating $100 million toward a prize for the “best carbon capture technology.” Most of the replies he received were pictures of trees. Maybe he could be persuaded to offer another prize for a new clean energy idea. As the British invent the most new technology Iām sure someone here could come up with something better than wind turbines.
January 29, 2021
The argument about climate change and green energy v fossil fuels, is really an argument young v old. Many old people don’t recognize climate change and the majority of young people are more tuned into it.
To me there has to be an evolution from fossil to green renewable energy and its not going to happen over night, but to me we need to make a start.
I believe countries should not trade with those countries that do not make significant changes to reducing fossil fuel reliance.
I don’t believe in so called free trade at all, every trade deal has conditions, so green renewable should be included. To me its people who are important not wealth we can all live with less money if we work and pay tax. I pay tax and am happy to pay more tax for green renewables, I appreciate I’m probably in a minority here when I say I’m happy to pay more tax.
January 29, 2021
David, The costs of “green” energy (primarily offshore Wind) are being hidden – see the paper by Professor Gordon Hughes “The Costs of Offshore Wind Power: Blindness and Insight”. If you and “the young” want to pay the extra, be my guest.
January 31, 2021
Published by the āRenewable Energy Foundationā as supportive of the renewable energy sector as the āEuropean Research Groupā has been supportive of Europe and Research.
While the paper shows a decent thinking from premises to conclusions it is rather weak at questioning its premises (capex costs of nuclear, coal and LNG plants have not decreased with economies of scale, therefore the situation with wind energy will be the same).
It is so interesting to note that as one enters the universe of the cranks, via one of their beloved topics whether euro scepticism, anti-vaccines, climate scepticism, communism of the US Democrats, … very quickly that person gets themselves twisted together and tangled within the other strands.
But obviously all that in the name of freedom, libertarianism or whatever is claimed to flourish in these little frowsy putrid fish bowls.
A beautiful little book had been published in 2019 by David Robert Grimes āThe Irrational Apeā. But I donāt expect NickC et al. to read it.
January 29, 2021
Engineers are bypassed in all this race to go green. “Green” and Wet behind the ears are old fashioned ways of describing the amateurs.
Green energy thinking is not sustainable!
The holy grail of perpetual energy source, defying basic science remains elusive….
January 29, 2021
Surely the PM has enough ammunition now to free us from the NI protocol? On H and S grounds if nothing else.
January 29, 2021
Think about how much material the Green revolution is providing for future programmes of ‘Abandoned Engineering’.
January 30, 2021
All of this will render the US totally uncompetitive because of high energy costs, unless China is forced to do likewise. China has promised to be carbon neutral by 2060, ten years after everyone else, which shows that they don’t intend to anything any time soon. Measures to coerse China will need international cooperation.
January 30, 2021
The only international measure that will slow their anti-green activities is to stop buying their output. While demand is there they will continue to ruin the planet.
January 30, 2021
The comments above cover the āclimateā insanity very well. Iām an expert. Why hasnāt the Boris government said that they will be banning ICE car imports? (Btw I pay Ā£20 road tax a year for my AdBlu diesel. Clean, eh)
Sir John – Lord Gummer has just lost you the next General Election when the Red Wall finds out they canāt buy sell or mortgage their homes without Ā£60K insulation. And having to turn in their Ā£3000 jalopy for a Nissan Leaf at thirty grand depreciating at Ā£5000 a year. Get rid of the CCC before it ruins the country
January 30, 2021
The Fake Noos is beginning to lose its nerve at the speed with which the Biden/Rice/Blinken regime is autocratically cancelling the status quo ante. They are now discussing it amongst themselves. But yesterday a BBC woman reassured another one: she said “it is just to save time”.