Trump's Tariffs On EU Trade Are More Political Than Protectionist

 

 

Last Friday, (May 23) US President Donald Trump slapped a staggering 50% tariff on European Union goods, which will take effect from 1 June 2025, unless the EU agrees to significant changes in its trade policies. The escalation has kicked off  and a diplomatic crisis destabilised financial markets.

Trump’s proposal aims to reduce the EU’s huge trade surplus with the /USA ($550 billion in annual exports to the US, compared to $351 billion in US exports to the EU in 2022) which as has long been acknowledged, is mostly due to unfair trade barriers and protectionist policies operated by the EU to restrict inward trade to the bloc. Trump's outrageous tariff given his style of politics is probably a stunt which aims to force Brussels to renegotiate its terms for trading with the USA. 

The announcement is the latest in a list of aggressive trade rhetoric, where tariffs are proposed but sometimes softened when the target nation agrees to negotiate. The EU, the world’s largest trading bloc and an important ally of the US, now faces a reckoning over it's trade policies.

Typically EU leaders responded in their usual arrogant manner, announcing that Brussels is preparing for retaliation. Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, emphasised a commitment to a “deal based on respect, not threats”. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin called the tariff threat “enormously disappointing”, arguing it undermines a vital trading relationship and global economic stability. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned that such tariffs would harm both economies and urging the EU to preserve market access.

An EU press release states the bloc has already drafted $108 billion in retaliatory tariffs, targeting US goods like agricultural products and machinery. The EU counter measures include tariffs on US steel and aluminium and levies on American whiskey and motorcycles whuch show the usual bureaucratic ineptitude, while the EU, due to its 'net zero' obsession has to import metals thus EU based buyers will just have to swalllow the cost of tariffs, US exports of whisky and motor cycles are insignificant.

Trump is right when he says the EU has been engaging in unfair trade practices for decades. Since the turn of the century the European Unionhas suppressed domestic demand through policies of austerity, fiscal restraint and wage compression as well as running import policies that make selling goods to member nations very difficult for US companies. This deflationary tactic along with the euro’s inherent deflationary bias) has been a deliberate strategy aimed at bolstering price competitiveness on the global stage, while at the same time reducing imports.

In effect, the EU has embraced a hyper-mercantilist, export-driven growth model, prioritising trade surpluses over internal economic development.Rather than get into a trade war with the Trump2 administration EU economists need to ask themselves what exactly is so very wrong about an “export led economic model” ?

If you are able to successfully export your goods, it is because you are producing either better goods than other countries and/or producing them at lower prices. These are precisely what Lord Young used to call “the problems of success”.

There is of course nothing wrong with an export led economic model, provided that there is also a willingness to embrace free trade as the sine qua non for making such a model sustainable in the long run. 

The problem with the EU is that it is a customs union and doesn’t believe in free trade, even frankly within its own borders (for example there has never been an effective single market in services, with all manner of national protections and barriers still in place). If you take a look at the tariff structures of the EU you’ll find that they tend to benefit the economic bases of the four biggest players; Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. 

It also doesn’t believe in entrepreneurship or free market capitalism preferring instead corporatism and excessive, stifling regulations to sustain that. The consequence of this being aside from agricultural, basic commodity and legacy goods, the EU is getting left behind the rest of the world in terms of developing new technologies (EV’s, batteries, silicon, gene editing, AI, communications, electronics etc etc) and its becoming increasing hard to maintain any competitive advantage in the areas where it does export. 

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The Approach May Have Been Simplistic But Trump Was Right To Impose Tariffs

Donald Trump claimed he was being “kind” when he announced the biggest shift in US trade policy in a century. It was typical Trump bullshit of course, there's nothing kind about a kick in the bollocks, which is what he has delivered to world trade.

But was he right as the headline says? For decades the liberal democracies have been obsessed with free trade and globalisation. Tariffs drag us back to the days of expensive imported goods, long customs delays and obstructive regulations. So how can the move be positive?

The US president said reciprocal tariffs of 20pc on the EU and 34pc on China were the result of carefully calibrated calculations based on “the combined rate of all their tariffs and non-monetary barriers” such as currency manipulation.

A White House official said the calculations encapsulated “the sum of all cheating”.

“We will charge them approximately half of what they have been charging us,” President Trump told an audience in the Rose Garden of the White House.

The Trump administration published what looked like a complex-looking but rather theatrical algebraic formula complete with Greek letters to explain its rationale. But in the end, the tariffs boil down to simple maths, casting doubt on the idea that Sir Keir Starmer’s lobbying efforts in the US had any influence on the outcome.

The reciprocal rates are simply based on each country’s goods trade surplus with America relative to how much they send to the world’s biggest economy. Nothing more, nothing less.

On paper global free trade under World Trade Organisation rules looks a great idea, but free trade involves everybody playing according to the same rules. And some nations are notorious for making u their own rules as they go along.  I'm sure it would be superfluous to name the main culprits, but it is not a new game and the current rule benders not originate this technique for boosting their economy. 

While the USA has suffered somewhat, as issuer of the main reserve currency Washington has been able to protect US interests by manipulating exchange rates. Ironically this is one of the sins they now accuse China of. But don't feel sorry for China, in collaboration with Russia, Iran and a few other eastern nations thy have been working for years to dislodge the US dollar from its dominant position.

In a sense, Trump has already won his trade war, as the Cinese Communist PartyCCP) has massively expanded “export subsidies” to favoured manufacturers so that they dont have to pass Trump tariffs on to customers. In the first two months of this year export subsidies have already amounted  to the billions of Yuan. So the people who toil away in CCP controlled factories for CCP mandated wage rates are directly subsidising the western consumers as will their children with the epic CCP central bank expansion in money supply, to keep the CCP command economy above water.  

WTO rules exist to ensure subsidies do not distort international competition or confer an unfair benefit on domestic producers. These rules are ultimately about protecting free and fair international trade and competition, so that one country's exports do not hold an unfair advantage over another. 

 In attacking Trump tariffs the TDS sufferers in Europe and around the world are missing the point. The EU, for example, is a vast protectionist regime with EU-wide and state subsidies distorting the actual price of its goods. For example, the CAP, the devaluation of the Deutsche euro as a currency for Germany, the subsidies to steel and other industrial goods, the EU tariff regime per se. This has allowed EU goods to be sold at reduced prices and has allowed the EU to accumulate a trade surplus with the USA. Are Trump's tariffs not a corrective measure and a negotiating starting point? 

Same goes for China, their mssive subsidies to industry plus low labour costs because the government (The Party) controls wages and prices because as the leadership has made blatantly clear, China intends to dominate world trade in the not too distant future. 

In view of these considerations Trump's impostion of tariffs are understandable and if (it's a bif IF,) they have the long term consequence of persuading all parties to observe the WTO rules by complying to, rather than bending them, it could benefit us all.

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Thousands Of Tractors Blocks Berlin Traffic Over Plan To End Diesel Subsidy

 

Thousands of German truck drivers, farmers, and agricultural workers parked in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin yesterday as another massive protest over the government's 'green' plans to end tax breaks on diesel fuel and subsidies to farmers prevented from getting the best out of their land by loonytoons EU 'rewilding' policies.

(Liesa Johannssen/Reuters)

 Tractors and other farm vehicles started to arrive for the protest on Monday and by Tuesday 3000 were within Berlin city limits according to police, who said that another estimated 2,000 were on their way in the biggest display of disaffection with the government so far after a week of protests. Berlin Police Chief Barbara Slowik told municiplal leaders that a total of 1,300 officers were engaged in crowd control.

Major disruption to local bus and train services reported by Berlin's public transit agency, after around 10,000 people registered for demonstrations against the plan by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to cut subsidies.

As if trying to provoke escalation of the protsts to civil disobedience, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (Green Party) told crowds of farmers that the country has run out of money for further subsidies. The government announcement is part of a plan to try and fix a 17-billion-euro (US$18.6 billion) hole in Germany's 2024 budget, AP reported last week.

"I can’t promise you more state aid from the federal budget," he said, adding "But we can fight together for you to enjoy more freedom and respect for your work." It was not what the farmers wanted to hear.

The head of the farmers union, Joachim Rukwied, snatched the microphone from Lindner to ask the crowd to stop booing, telling them: "I have respect for every politician who is prepared to come to us ... The finance minister is here, it makes no sense to boo him."

Of course, the government also justified the cuts as 'required' after the country's highest court annulled an earlier decision to redirect nearly US$66 billion originally meant to mitigate fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic in order to combat climate change and modernize the country.

According to a press release from the office of Chancellor Scholz, "we took the farmers’ arguments to heart," adding that he thinks the government has arrived at "a good compromise."

Not according to the farmers they didn't.

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German Farmers' Day Of Protest Causes Chaos Nationwide

Farmers' tractor protest blocks the road through the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Germany's government district (picture via DW)

 

As yesterday's Boggart Abroad story predicted Greman farmers today launched a week of protest when hundreds of tractors and agricltural vehicles invaded the city and blocked streets and main roads in protests against proposed cuts to the agricultural budget which would been reduced subsidies to farmers. The farmers piled on the misery for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's fragile coalition coalition as it struggles to hold together a fragile coalition which includes the Green Party who want to abolish farming altogether and go back to a hunter - gatherer economy (that may be an exaggeration, but only a slight one,) and the Free Democrats, a pro - business party which supports market economics and unrestrained capitalism.

The government is also trying to contain the burgeoning popularity of the AfD (Alternatif fur Deutschland,) and anti - open borders and EU sceptic party, having failed to dent AfD's ride by smearing them as 'far right'. The calition's latest move it that they have, somewhat idiotically, put in motion moved to have AfD banned as a danger to democracy, thus identifying the governing coalition itself as a danger to democracy.

Convoys of tractors and trucks today gathered on roads around Berlin and most of the 16 federal states, in sub-zero temperatures in while protesters clashed with police and senior politicians warned that the unrest could encourage extremism.

The protests have so far forced Scholz's deeply unpopular government into promising policy changes to head off further unrest on the unrest while sticking to fiscal discipline after a constitutional court ruling in November threw its spending plans into disarray.

Needless to say these protests have been played down by German mainstream media and hardly reported outside Germany except by the alt_news community

"No beer without farmers," read one protest banner, while another tractor had a poster from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party that read "Our farmers come first."

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, who was prevented from leaving a ferry as he returned from holiday last week when furious farmers tried to storm the vessel he was on, warned in a video message on Monday that farmers' right to protest could be exploited by fringe groups but thus has become a regular theme from EU member state governments facing mass dissent as they try to impose the extremist policies imposed by Brussels.

Farmers called the protests in response to the government's decision to phase out a tax break on agricultural diesel as it tries to bring its 2024 budget over the finish line while complying with the constitutional court ruling.

"For a farm like mine, I would lose about 10,000 euros," said a farmer from Bavaria, Ralf Huber. "For our businesses, it's a catastrophe."

The AfD party, preparing to launch campaigns in a string of federal state elections later this year, is supporting the protests, claiming it proves German voters dissatisfaction with current government and hoping to make enough gains to be able to force the Scholz administration to resign.

Hermann Blinkert at the German Institute for New Social Answers (INSA) said the government was in deep scheiss because will look weak if it u-turns on cutting farm subsidies, but will appear to have lost control if the dispute continues.

"The government has the problem that it has already gambled away the trust of the population," Blinkert said.

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On Wednesday this week Germany's coalition government approved putting coal power plants back online until the end of March 2024 to ensure energy security when natural gas supplies cannot meet demand. Though Germany has for at least a decade vied with Britain to claim leadership of Europe's ill - advised push for net zero, the Berlin government has been forced into this move

"It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.'—Henry Kissinger, February 1999" That is very significant quote by , or attributed to, Henry Kissinger and it is interesting that former Uk Prime Minister Tony Blair used a very similar line when selling his 'New Labour' schtick to British voters. No coincidence of course that both these figures have close links to the World Economic Forum. It has always been the case that perception overrides actuality, were it not so there would never have been any empires, religions or political parties.

From COVID To Climate Change: Vehicles For Global Authoritarianism
As I have noted in the past, the western world came within a knife’s edge of being completely subjugated and placed under perpetual medical tyranny by a coalition of government officials, globalist interests and corporate partners. Liberty movement analysts have talked often of “open conspiracy,” but it was not until the pandemic response that we truly witnessed the mask come off and the greater agenda revealed.

Pandemic Preparedness And The Road To International Fascism
The World Health Organization's broad definition of health embraces physical, mental and social well-being. Expressed in its 1946 constitution alongside concepts of community participation and national sovereignty, it reflected an understanding of a world emerging from centuries of colonialist oppression and the public health industry's shameful facilitation of fascism. But somewhere along the way those high minded ideals were lost ...

German MP Vows To End WHO / Billionaire Psycopaths Influence On Government Policy
German Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Christine Anderson last week delivered a speech to the Citizens Initiative in which she excoriated the World Health Organization, calling it a group of "globalitarian misanthropists" who she - and a group of seven other MPs, have vowed to dismantle in order to oppose the WHO supplanting democratically elected governments.

French President Macron Narrowly Survives Confidence Vote Over Dictatorial Pension Reforms
Riots erupted agross France again today after French President Emmanuel Macron pushed through his pension reform act, raising the retirement age without bothering to present his proposal to the National Assembly so representatives could vote on bit. The public backlash has exceeded even the most pessimistic predictions, and there is now a good chance that a no-confidence vote this week could collapse his government.

More Globalist Psychopathy: How the Merging of Humans and Technology Will Define The Furure
A presentation at the World Government Summit (WGS) last week in Dubai, unveiled the conference organizers agenda for a Brave New World. Titled “Government in 2071 initiative" the plan was described as a roadmap for governments to interact with “citizens and stakeholders” in effecting dramatic changes in the way the world is governed and societies are organised. Drivers of these radical changes in the way we live will be Artificial Intelligence, robotics and climate change.

Is Switzerland About To Become First Country To Outlaw A Cashless Society?
As in neighboring Germany and Austria, cash is still king in Switzerland albeit a much diminished one. But the Swiss will soon have the chance to vote on whether to preserve notes and coins indefinitely.

[ Food crisis ] ... [ New World Order ] ... [ Agenda 21 ] ... [ Black hat biotech ]

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The Crippling Cost of Green Energy Subsidies

 

Authored by Jonathan Lesser via RealClear Wire,

The green energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have been justified by the Biden Administration as a booster of U.S. economic growth and jobs.  But when the subsidies are tallied and the overall impacts evaluated, the IRA is a job and economic growth killer. 

Under the IRA, the lion’s share of subsidies will be paid to wind and solar developers.  The subsidies will not expire until electric industry carbon emissions fall by at least 75% below 2005 levels, after which they will gradually decrease.  Even the most optimistic forecasts prepared by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that this will not occur until at least 2046.  Thus, the subsidies for wind and solar will continue unabated for decades.  In total, the subsidies will far exceed what the U.S. government spent in today’s dollars to combat the Great Depression.

The single largest subsidy is the federal investment tax credit (ITC).  Most wind and solar projects will be able to claim a minimum 30% ITC, plus be eligible for an additional 10% credit if the projects rely on domestic manufacturing for components.  

The EIA’s optimistic forecast projects about 900,000 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaics, 350,000 MW of onshore wind turbines, and 24,000 MW of offshore wind by 2046.  If all of this generation is built, it will result in direct ITC subsidies totaling between $500 billion and $1 trillion, depending on construction costs.  The greater the costs, the larger the subsidies.  Although wind and solar proponents still claim costs are falling, the reality is the opposite. ... Continue reading >>>

RELATED:

 

[ Climate change ] ... [ Climate lies ] ... [ Net Zero reality ] ... [ Wind turbine truth ]

UK Households Are Paying Wind Turbine Owners To Not Generate Electricity

 

by Xavier Connolly, 30 July 2022

 

 On another near windless day here in the United Kingdom, Boggart Blog came across a very interesting piece if news. According to figures published by the business and management consultancy LCP, british taxpayers have been paying operators of wind turbines farms for the time their windmills were NOT generating electricity increased to record levels last year as the UK’s cable network and storage capacity struggled to keep up with the amount of electricity generated at times of optimum wind conditions.

Bill-payers were forced to shell out £650m last year (2021) alone to cover the costs of switching off turbines when it is too windy for either the national grid or the turbines themselves to handle and bringing online natural gas powers generators instead. 

It is a 70pc jump on the previous year, according to LCP, the organisation which calculated the figures. And this does not include subsidies paid to wind farm operators as compentation for the appromimately 25% of the time the wind is not blowing strongly enough to turn the tubines.

Turbines are turned down or off completely if they are generating more electricity than than the electricity grid can carry at the time. It should be noted that as wind is an unpredictable resource, wind speeds can vary enormously in a short time. The figures, and what they reveal about wind power, highlight the complications of managing the electricity grid at a time varied sources of energy including intermittent and unreliable sources like wind and solar power.  

This appalling waste of taxpayers money is blamed on the fact that the UK's limited storage capacity throttles wind power as energy bills surge, which is bollocks. 

The question that should be asked is: "What storage capacity?" As things stand there is no technology capable of storing excess energy that is capable of powering a large city (or even a small to middling town,) for a significant time.

Elon Musk's idea for vast arrays of Lithium Ion batteries to power cities proved way too costly when trialled in Australia (and that was before the price of battery quality refined lithium rocketed to approx $75,000 a ton,) while pumped storage such as the Dinorwyg scheme in Wales in which surplus energy is used to pump water to a high level reservoir at low demand times to be released through a hydro electric generator system at peak times only showed that it takes a lot more energy to get the water to the top of the mountain that is generated from letting it run down again.

The only other idea I've heard of is vehicle to grid (V2G) storage in which people charge up their electric cars overnight and discharge them into the grid during peak demand hours. Which is fine until owners want to drive their electric cars.

None of it inspires confidence really. 

The other point the LCP report does not address is what happens when wind turbines are not genreating because the wind is not strong enough or too strong. The range of wind speeds within which these over - hyped contraptions can generate current is surprisingly narrow, between around 8 mph and 23 mph. There are 4 large wind farms within 10 miles of my home, and another 2 in are planning/ in development. They do not work in storm/still air conditions, meaning in the period April2021/April2022, there were 83 days when they were not producing energy, although of course, we paid for 365 days. All we can learn from this is the people in government and the academic community pushing the 'net zero' agenda know nothing at all about electrical engineering and even less about running a solvent business.

The LCP report comes as household energy bills which have soared in the past year  are spiralling higher every day due to the mismanagement of energy policy over the past twenty years by governments in the developed nations with the recent spike also, but not entirely because of sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its Ukrainian invasion. These have been the main factors in triggering the highest price inflation and worst cost of living squeeze in a generation, and driving many families into fuel poverty.

The UK Government is making a big deal of introducing a windfall tax on oil and gas producers to help ease the pressure on households, and is considering extending this to electricity generators but that is going to take time to filter down while the needs of families are immediate.

 Nor should you assume the people who compiled the LCP report have any solutions or even understand the problem. Chris Matson, an energy industy expert with LCP, said growing wind power was essential for climate targets and energy security. In fact the obsession with wind power, far friom being the answer is at the root of the problem.

Matson added: “And yet because investment in the infrastructure needed to support this expansion [in wind power] has not kept pace, wind curtailment is costing the consumer and the environment. Every pound spent on curtailing wind power is a pound wasted.” 

Wind curtailment means that in optimum generating conditions (see above) wind turbines have to be decoupled from the grid because too much current is going in. There is currently no way to balance the output from wind turbines, when there is suitable wind they generate, when there is no wind, or too much wind, or the wind conditions are unstable (gusty) and the turbines are producing no electricity the surpluss from more productive times cannot be stored efficiently so gas fired turbines have to be brought online. The figure of £78 mn in constraint payments quoted by LCP is a gross understating of the true position and is what happens when you believe a report from a part of an industry that is a report on that industry.

Over the last 10 years the wind industry has received over £1bn and in 2020 Scottish onshore wind alone it received £243 mn and in 2021 £107 mn when there was a weak wind system most of the year.

https://www.ref.org.uk/ref-blog/371-constraint-payments-to-wind-power-in-2020-and-2021

Without massive subsidies which are added to our bills, no wind turbine would ever be built, they are just not economically viable.

The report LCP's figures are quoted in was commissioned by FTSE 250 power company Drax, which is seeking Government investment to extend its  pumped storage hydropower scheme in northern Scotland which it claims will act as a giant battery to store electricity. 

LCP said long duration storage such as Drax’s hydropower project was a “particularly attractive” way of dealing with the current problems, but stressed that such measures “would not necessarily mean that all of the cost of curtailment can be avoided”.

Were the report being entirely honest it would acknowledge the failure of previous attempts to store energy by pumping water to a high level reservoir using surplus power and releasing it through hydroelectric turbines when there is a shortfall.

Britain’s wind power industry has grown rapidly over the last decade, with 25.7GW installed capacity now compared to about 5.4GW in 2010, enough to provide power for about twenty million homes.

Much of this is located in Scotland owing to its weather as well as available space both on land and around the coast. However, the cables that transport electricity around the country can only handle so much at a time, meaning that wind farms are paid to cut output when needed. 

These costs, in addition to those that ensure electricity supply and demand is matched every day, are met by National Grid but ultimately recouped via a levy on consumer bills. 

“In many instances [..] wind generation must be turned down in certain locations and high-carbon gas must be turned up in other locations,” it said.

LCP estimates that Scottish wind power accounted for 94pc of the total amount of wind generation curtailed in 2020 and 80pc in 2021. 

Many more wind turbines are set to be built in Scottish waters following a recent leasing round. The Government wants to increase offshore wind capacity five-fold to 50GW by 2030. But we wil still have to keep gas, coal and nuclear power stations running for those times when the wind suddenly stops blowing.

RELATED:

MORE posts on Net Zero - The Idealogues Attack On Civilisation, bowse this catalogue of our posts on the disastrous 'net zero' policy promoted by the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. The pseudoscientific theory that Carbon Dioxide emitted by hunan activities is alone responsible for climate change and the consequent shift to obtaining electrical energy from unreliable, intermittent, 'sustainable' sources is causing the collapse of the global economy.

"Our Country Is Facing The Biggest Crisis The Crisis We Ever Had": German Employers' Association Warns Over Russian Gas Cut
With the Nord Stream 1 pipeline closed for maintenance, with the possibility that President Putin will not allow it to reopen at the end of the scheduled 10 days downtime in retaliation for the EU's continued support or Ukraine in their conflict with Russia, Germany is facing an unprecedented crisis that could erase the prosperity Germans have grown accustomed to, warned Rainer Dulger, head of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations.

Net Zero Is A Dangerous Fantasy, But Scientists Believe In Fairies It Seems
With oil and gas prices rocketing and the highly propted sustainable energy sources performing way befow expectations the energy crisis currently gripping Europe (with worse to come as food shortages start to bite, polticians still seem more intent on pandering to the green lobby and chasing the dream of a fossil fuel free world rather securing the energy and food supplies needed by the people they serve.

A Mostly Wind- & Solar-Powered US Economy Is A Dangerous Fantasy
When President Biden and other advocates of wind and solar generation speak, they appear to believe that the challenge posed is just a matter of currently having too much fossil fuel generation and not enough wind and solar; and therefore, accomplishing the transition to "net zero" will be a simple matter of building sufficient wind and solar facilities and having those facilities replace the current ones that use the fossil fuels.

Europe's biggest economy would suffer a 6.5pc contraction if Russian energy is suspended, experts warn 
Even though the sanctions already imposed on Russia in respondse to the invasion of Ukraine are hitting the nations that imposed then harder that their intended target, the EU is preparing to committ economic suicide in an orgy of virtue signalling ...

We need energy security – not Net Zero
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a major rethink in the West. We have suddenly found ourselves vulnerable not just to rising prices in oil and gas, but also to inflation in other commodities – such as food and fertiliser. Of all these problems, the security of our energy supply has most exercised minds.

Net Zero Gone With The Wind - Boris Johnson Plans Seven New Nuclear Plants And Shelves Wind Expansion
Reports in mainstream media suggest Boris Johnson has done a U turn on his recently announced massive expansion of wind powered generating capacity. Sources in Westminster claim Boris has shelved his masterplan for a giant, floating wind farm in The North Sea and the government will reconsider plans to double or even treble the number of wind turbines in the countryside and approve plans for up to seven new nuclear reactors instead.

Net Zero Is A Dangerous Fantasy, But Scientists Believe In Fairies It Seems
With oil and gas prices rocketing and the highly propted sustainable energy sources performing way befow expectations the energy crisis currently gripping Europe (with worse to come as food shortages start to bite, polticians still seem more intent on pandering to the green lobby and chasing the dream of a fossil fuel free world rather securing the energy and food supplies needed by the people they serve.

New UN Report on Climate Change – Nothing New, Nothing True
The latest United Nations (“UN”) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) report, published this week, once again, in scaremongering tone and the language of the panic stricken, claims that the planet is in peril (we are facing climate disaster, the clock is at one minute to midnight, we must take urgent action to destroy civilisation if we are to save the planet, the usual over - dramatised guff designed to spread fear and panic,) basically the same claim as they have been making at least twice a month for the past 20 years.

We need energy security – not Net Zero
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Net Zero Gone With The Wind - Boris Johnson Plans Seven New Nuclear Plants And Shelves Wind Expansion
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Climate Change Research Paper Censored by The British Hydrological Society For Telling The Truth
The Daily Sceptic today published an article by retired research scientist James Dent, whose specialist field was hydrology and meteorology. Mr. Dent was involved in research projects aiemd at understanding the factors influencing climate, and their effects on environments, [ ... ] he was the World Meteorology Organisation Chief Technical Advisor to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Bangladesh, a low lying nation especially prone to flooding ....

Freak Weather Around The World Begs Questions
With Britain and other parts of northern Europe basking in unseasonably warm temperatures which are forecast to last for a few days, while parts of the USA gring to a halt under a blanket of snow dumped by freak storms are, accoring to climate scarmongers, a signal that irreversible warming had arrived, it is perhaps timely for a hot topic from ten years ago, geoengineering came under the microscope again. This report from Global Intel Hub seems a good way to kick off the debate. ... Continue reading >>>

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When President Biden and other advocates of wind and solar generation speak, they appear to believe that the challenge posed is just a matter of currently having too much fossil fuel generation and not enough wind and solar; and therefore, accomplishing the transition to "net zero" will be a simple matter of building sufficient wind and solar facilities and having those facilities replace the current ones that use the fossil fuels.

Net Zero Gone With The Wind - Boris Johnson Plans Seven New Nuclear Plants And Shelves Wind Expansion
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We Told You So - Government-funded Report Confirms World’s Largest offshore Wind Farm is UnprofitableA report commissioned by the Norwegian government has contradicted Boris Johnson’s recent claim that offshore wind costs have fallen by 70% in a decade. The report also blows a huge hole in Johnson's grandiose pledges to the COP26 conference that offshore wind power would propel Britain to its net - zero target for Carbon Dioxide emissions well before 2050, the target set by the climate conference for achieving that target.
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COP26 Climate Conference - Just Another Elitist Scam To Steal Your Money
If you are one of the people who still relies on mainstream media for information, the 'on - message' news reports coming from the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow this week, and during the build up to the conference, might have convinced you that the entire world (barring a few crazy conspiacy theorists,) is signed up to the 'net zero' agenda and believes that destroying the economies of the developed nations while exporting our jobs, business and prosperity to places like India and China is the only way to save the planet. Continue reading >>>

UK Energy Crisis Deepens as prices and demand skyrocket while supplies shrink to critical levels
It is ironic that in the week world leaders and flat faced Swedeish trolls are gathering in Glasgow for an orgy of virtue signalling that will inevitably drive millions of people in the developed world into fuel poverty and result in more industrial jobs being exported from the west to the world’s major produceres of Carbon Dioxide emissions, China and India, the energy crunch that is affecting the whole of Europe is about to hit the United Kingdom extremely hard. ... Continue reading >>>

[ Climate change catalogue ] [ Energy Green Dreams ] [Wind Turbine Truth ]

4 min ago

****

13 min ago

I suspect that this government is taking us down the road to “third world electrical power status” whereby the nation will have to learn and plan for unexpected and often lengthy power cuts. Personally I rather relaxed at the prospect as I have solar panels with backup batteries and a diesel generator. However, my great concern is for the vast majority who have neither the space or funds to finance a “Plan B”!

 ****

1 hr ago

3 hrs ago

 6 hrs ago

When wind turbines are switched off, the UK burns gas in turbines.

In other words we need to double capital investment (1) in wind, and (2) gas turbines. In the old days, we only spent the money once

By the way, we need this gas in our home gas boilers.

Today Wind = 11%, gas turbines (ccgt) = 54% (grid watch)

6 hrs ago

When wind turbines are switched off, the UK burns gas in turbines.

In other words we need to double capital investment (1) in wind, and (2) gas turbines. In the old days, we only spent the money once

By the way, we need this gas in our home gas boilers.

Today Wind = 11%, gas turbines (ccgt) = 54% (grid watch)

 

48. 
    

    
    

    8 hrs ago

    The 'Worlds Biggest Liquid Air Battery' would have to be replicated 533 times to supply present day household use for just 24 hours with nary a heat pump or EV in sight yet. Remember that is without a factory, office, hospital, streetlight or anything outside of a house or flat turned on. When the whirlygigs go on strike again putting out just 2 or 3% of their claimed output for days at a time nothing will cover it except gas fired plants (or even coal) necessitating an entire back up generating system in reserve at vast cost which will then have to be used to recharge the batteries (of any ilk).

    Should every household have a heat pump at a conservative 3Kw consumption that would entail a load of some 66Gw which is the equivalent of the output of 22 Hinkley Point Cs at point of generation. When temperatures plummet to minus 5 or 6 and back up heaters compensate the poor output of said heat pumps double that to 44 HPCs. This is clearly impossible; after all how long has it taken and how much has it cost not to build one.

    Then for every home to add an additional 3Kw load which will be turned on at the same time every substation and supply cable in the land will have to be upgraded at vast expense.

    You think electricity bills are high now.......you haven't seen anything yet. But at the end of the day it won't do anything 'to save the planet' as China and India etc. forge ahead doing what they want...... displacing the west as they go along. 

    ******************************************************************** 

 THE SCI FI VIEW

• What the article does not say is that the National Grid (NG) ESO (electricity system operator) is in the middle of a project that will complete by 2025. When it is finished, there will be no need for any active gas plants on the system at all whenever wind, solar, nuclear and other fuels are generating enough to meet demand. This will happen more and more frequently as 4x the offshore wind is installed.

  Currently the grid needs a minimum gas generation active to provide stability services (inertia, frequency stabilisation at various timescales, short circuit current, reactive power). The NG ESO will kick wind off to make room for this minimum gas level.

  The NG ESO has implemented some of the initial contracts to provide these services by other means. Some examples:-

  - Dogger Bank C offshore wind farm onshore equipment will provide reactive power from 2024, whether generating or not.

  - The Cruachan pumped hydro scheme will run one turbine in air to provide inertia and short circuit current when not generating. It provides these services anyway when it is generating.

  - Some gas plans will have clutches fitted so that the fixed connection between the turbines and generators is broken. When not generating, the generator is run up to speed using mains power, then provides stability services - when working in this mode is it known as a "synchronous condenser". Coal plant generators can be converted to synchronous condensers.

  The NG ESO will only have to kick wind power off the grid when there really is too much of it - not just to make way for gas to provide stability services. Surplus wind power can then be exported via interconnectors. There will also be grid batteries to soak it up, and some of it will be used for green hydrogen production. edited

  • 
    

  14 hrs ago

  You are obviously well up on this stuff Peter. Please tell me. This Highview power storage method of cryo storage of fresh air. Is this serious storage that will be mass produced or just a niche method?

  
  

  
  

  14 hrs ago

  Excellent and enlightening comment. Twenty years ago I worked in the industry that manufactures wind turbine blades. Despite this I was of the opinion that because of the intermittent nature of generation, huge pump storage schemes would be needed to compliment them. Politicians who spoke of "XXX Mw of generation CAPACITY" would annoy me. Looks like we have made some leaps forward with much more to come. Thanks Peter.

  
  

  
  

  13 hrs ago

  ‘When it is finished, there will be no need for any active gas plants on the system at all whenever wind, solar, nuclear and other fuels are generating enough to meet demand.’ OK so there must be sufficient back up for when wind and solar can’t supply enough (or occasionally nothing). This has to be paid for and thus when needed the owners need to recoup their costs so the prices will be understandably exorbitant. Batteries are nowhere near capable of supplying large amounts of power over long periods of time and will run down and there will be no power available to charge them.