Posts Tagged ‘European Union’
September 26, 2012
Not that there is anything wrong with using coal when it makes commercial sense. The demonisation of carbon dioxide is a religion built on a hypothesis which in turn is based on “it must be the cause of global warming” and not on any evidence whatever. In consequence the world-wide drive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is an unnecessary, expensive and ultimately pointless exercise.
The religious and thoughtless opposition of the “greens” to any use of fossil fuels has led them – especially in Europe – to trying to block exploration, production and exploitation of shale gas. But as with so many “environmentally correct” decisions it turns out to be counter-productive to their own misguided objectives. In Europe this together with the availability of cheap US coals has only served to promote the greater use of coal and an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. The blind pursuit of renewable energy in Europe has already given the highest electricity prices in the world. While the increased emissions of carbon dioxide through greater coal use does not itself matter, the consumer will have to pay even higher electricity prices than would prevail if shale gas were exploited.
Reuters reports:
BRUSSELS/LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Shale gas has jolted traditional roles in the planet’s climate drama, giving cleaner fuel to the United States, whose displaced coal has headed to Europe to pollute the old continent.
It is an ironic twist for the European Union, whose energy policy is largely based on promoting renewables and a target to cut emissions b y 20 percent by 2020. The U.S. did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol to combat global emissions and its national goals are far less ambitious than Europe’s.
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Tags:European Union, Kyoto Protocol, Shale gas, United States
Posted in Alarmism, Energy, Europe, US | Comments Off on Opposition to shale gas and cheap US coal only leads to greater use of coal in Europe
September 22, 2012
The costs of coal fired power generation in Europe have been artificially inflated for some time now by the imposition of various forms of carbon taxes. These taxes and penalties – which are quite arbitrary – serve political and electoral goals and generally pander to the alarmist view of climate change. The electricity consumer has taken the hit.
Bloomberg reports:
Coal Era Beckons for Europe as Carbon Giveaway Finishes
European utilities are poised to add more coal-fired power capacity than natural gas in the next four years, boosting emissions just as the era of free carbon permits ends.
Power producers from EON AG to RWE AG (RWE) will open six times more coal-burning plants than gas-fed units by 2015, UBS AG said in a Sept. 5 research note. Profits at coal-fired power stations may more than double by then, according to a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. report published on Sept. 13.
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Tags:carbon credits, coal-fired power generation, Electricity generation, European Union
Posted in Alarmism, Energy, European Union | Comments Off on In Europe, coal now offers both lower prices for electricity consumers and higher profits for utilities
June 18, 2012
Football as the indicator for politics??
Greece and the Czechs stay in but Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Poland, the Netherlands and Russia are already out. Germany stay in comfortably while Portugal scrape through.
Today’s matches will probably see Spain staying in and Italy may edge out Croatia while Ireland are already out.
And tomorrow France and England will probably confirm that they stay in and the second host nation Ukraine will also probably crash out.
A football match is a great leveller.
And so is the European Union – but unfortunately it levels down to the Lowest Participating Economy (LPE). How the profligacies of the tiny economy that is Greece can shake the mighty European Union is still a mystery. But the Greek voters seem to have realised that remaining subsidised by the Eurozone is probably their best option. In the long run however it is probably best for the Euro that the Eurozone shrink and for any monetary union to wait for a true fiscal and political union – which is at least some 200 years away.
Cristiano Ronaldo
The useless trappings of the bureaucracy in Brussels and the pig-trough that is the European Parliament need to be dismantled. Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain need to to leave the EMU. Sweden and Denmark and Finland need to get out from under the weight of oppression of Brussels. Poland and the Czech republic would grow faster without the shackles of the EU. There is no flair or brilliance on display in European politics which is suffocating, smothered by “consensus” and political correctness. Individualism and excellence have become “undemocratic”. Unlike politics, football still allows for excellence and flair and individual brilliance — a la Cristiano Ronaldo and Mario Gomez.
Tags:Cristiano Ronaldo, Euro 2012, European Union, football, Lowest Participating Economy - LPE, Mario Gomez
Posted in Football, Politics | Comments Off on Greece stays in the Euro! Football or is it the state of the European Union?
May 9, 2012
Finally, David Cameron actually voiced what all politicians in Europe know but will not voice publicly. And they will not voice it publicly because a single European Government – in the current state of European politics – would be a many-headed monster – of bureaucracy, of over-represented fanatic fringes, of minority oppression, of waste, of scams and inefficiency.
Reuters:
A successful euro zone requires a single government if it is to work properly, British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday.
“There’s nowhere in the world that has a single currency without having more of a single government,” Cameron told Britain’s Daily Mail.
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Tags:David Cameron, Euro, European Union, Eurozone, Single currency, Single European government
Posted in Behaviour, European Union, Politics | Comments Off on “Single currency needs a single government” and a single European government would be a monster
February 11, 2012
zu Guttenberg is back and has friends in high places. Baron Cut and Paste rides again.
This might be considered ironic but being the European commission I put it down to plain stupidity. To have a plagiarist who was brought down by net activism but who then bought his way out of criminal prosecution (by paying €20,000) as a special advisor on net activism illustrates the stupidity and the corruption at the centre of the European Commission.
Stupid is as stupid does.
From TechDirt:
European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes has invited Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a former Federal Minister of Defence, and of Economics and Technology, in Germany, to advise on how to provide ongoing support to Internet users, bloggers and cyber-activists living under authoritarian regimes. This appointment forms a key element of a new “No Disconnect Strategy” to uphold the EU’s commitment to ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected both online and off-line, and that internet and other information and communication technology (ICT) can remain a driver of political freedom, democratic development and economic growth.
Of course, that’s rather rich coming from a region where France already allows disconnections as punishments (HADOPI), and where the UK has legislation in place that will allow it to do the same (Digital Economy Act). But it turns out that the ironies are even deeper.
The reason that Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg — once seen as a likely successor to Germany’s current Chancellor, Angela Merkel — is no longer the Federal Minister of Defence, and of Economics and Technology, is that he resigned when it emerged that he had plagiarized significant parts of his doctorate.
After initial denials, Guttenberg was forced to admit the extent of his plagiarism thanks largely to a crowdsourced wiki called GutenPlag (original German) offering “collaborative documentation of plagiarism”, which went through his thesis searching for passages taken from elsewhere without acknowledgement. In total, it claims to have found “1218 plagiarized fragments from 135 sources, on 371 out of 393 pages (94.4%), in 10421 plagiarized lines (63.8%).” There’s even an interactive, color-coded visualization of what happened where.
A petition against this stupidity can be found here: zu Guttenberg must leave the European Commission
Tags:corruption, European Commission, European Union, Germany, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Neelie Kroes, Plagiarism
Posted in Corruption, Ethics, European Union, Germany | Comments Off on Plagiarist zu Guttenberg invited to join the European Commission
November 23, 2011
The Carbon Trading scams around the world are coming undone (though Australia in it’s wisdom and its noble efforts to single-handedly save the world has just introduced a carbon tax). The Swiss Bank, UBS has produced a report for its investors with a devastating indictment about carbon trading “waste” in Europe and its bleak future.
The Australian:
SWISS banking giant UBS says the European Union’s emissions trading scheme has cost the continent’s consumers $287 billion for “almost zero impact” on cutting carbon emissions, and has warned that the EU’s carbon pricing market is on the verge of a crash next year.
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Tags:carbon trading scams, carbon trading waste, Emissions trading, European Union, UBS, UBS Investment Research
Posted in Alarmism, Business, Climate, European Union, Fraud | Comments Off on Europe has “wasted” €210 billion on carbon trading for almost zero impact
November 8, 2011
The Russian gas pipeline bypassing all transit countries to Germany by being routed under the Baltic Sea goes live today.
RT: After 13 years of planning and two years of construction, the Nord Stream pipeline will deliver its first supplies of Russian gas to an estimated 26 million homes in the EU on Tuesday.
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Tags:Baltic Sea, Dmitry Medvedev, European Union, Gazprom, Germany, Nord Stream, Russia, Vladimir Putin
Posted in Business, Energy, Gas, Germany, Russia | Comments Off on Nord Stream gas goes on-line today
November 7, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Il Cavaliere , Sylvio “bunga-bunga” Berlusconi is 75 years old, has a personal fortune of some $9billion, and has been Italy’s Prime Minister for longer than anyone else. He is clinging desperately to power as Italy slides towards a Greece-like crevice and it is not apparent as to why he bothers. Whereas the Greek debt is only about 4% of Eurozone debt, Italy’s debt is closer to 20%. Italy’s public debt in 2010 was 118.4% of GDP. The annual budget deficit was 4.6% of GDP. Italy’s public debt-to-GDP ratio is the second highest in the euro zone after Greece’s, while its debt in absolute terms, which stood at 1.84 trillion euros at the end of 2010, is second to Germany’s.
It might seem to be just a powerful politician in denial of the approaching flames when Berlusconi declares that “Life in Italy is good. The restaurants are full. It’s difficult to get a seat on a plane they’re so busy; holidays are all booked up”.
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Tags:Bunga bunga Berlusconi, European Union, Eurozone, Greece, International Monetary Fund, Italy, Silvio Berlusconi
Posted in Economy, Ethics, European Union, Italy, Politics | Comments Off on Berlusconi bungas while Italy burns
October 24, 2011
While European leaders are struggling to put together a rescue package for Greece which will not have a domino effect for Italy and Spain or drown too many European banks, David Cameron is facing renewed opposition to membership in the EU from within his own party. But it is not only in the UK that opposition to the growing exercise of powers by Brussels is increasing. Almost every EU member which has not adopted the Euro (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the UK along with some of the newer members) has rising voices calling for the limitation of European power and a return of powers to the country parliaments. Voices against the Euro can even be heard in Germany where there is a widespread feeling ( not entirely wrong) that German taxpayers are paying twice for the spendthrift ways of Southern Europe; first directly by subsiding these countries and secondly by the devaluation of their savings in Euro. The Swiss are just thankful that they were never a part of this experiment.
In hindsight, what has become obvious is that the Euro-zone has few built in sanctions to prevent the profligacy of some countries which has to be paid for by others. What is also becoming clear is that without a fiscal uniformity – which would seem like being taxed from Brussels – the possibility of “bad” members being spendthrift will always remain.
France has always seen the Euro as part of a long-term move towards a European political and fiscal uniformity in which France would be the centre of political power. A return to the glory days of the Holy Roman Empire which lasted over 800 years, except of course that the centre would be in France rather than in what today is Germany. Sarkozy could certainly see himself as the first Emperor.
Yesterday, as the Telegraph reports:
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Tags:Brussels, David Cameron, Euro, European Union, Eurozone, Nicolas Sarkozy
Posted in European Union, France, Global economy, Greece, Politics | Comments Off on Sarkozy attacks Cameron – much to Cameron’s delight
October 10, 2011
Stupidity (in introducing cabon trading in the first place) and greed among the carbon traders and speculators reigns supreme.
No surprise!
Reports calls for tougher regulation on carbon trading scheme: image clickgreen.org.uk
Clickgreen reports:
Finance sector lobbyists are pushing the European Commission to block tighter regulation of the EU’s carbon market, a new report from Corporate Europe Observatory and Carbon Trade Watch, published today, reveals.
The Commission is currently reviewing regulation of the market following a number of fraud cases and leaked documents suggest that it will include carbon trading under the revised Market in Financial Instruments Directive.
But according to Letting the market play, lobbyists from the International Emissions Trading Association – the main body representing carbon traders – and BusinessEurope have sought to minimise new regulations, with BusinessEurope claiming “no further regulation” is needed.
Report author Oscar Reyes said: “Carbon markets are a playground for fraudsters and speculators. Financial regulations are the Commission’s belated attempt to trim the excesses, but the problems lie at the core. Handing over environmental policy to traders has done nothing to address climate change.” ……..
The report shows that while IETA has blamed a “lack of action from the side of the regulators” for the cases of carbon fraud, its lobby strategy has been driven by a desire to find new opportunities for speculation by whatever means are necessary.
In January 2011, the European Commission halted trading on a key part of the carbon market after the latest in a series of large fraud cases was uncovered. According to Carbon Trade Watch, less than a month later and with the suspension still partly in place, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA, the main carbon traders’ lobby group) was privately insisting to Brussels officials that “there might be no need to regulate this market”.
Tags:carbon dioxide, Carbon Trade Watch, carbon trading fraud, Emissions trading, European Commission, European Union, global warming
Posted in Alarmism, Behaviour, Fraud, Politics | 1 Comment »
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