What could happen if we just stopped oil? Six billion might die - "Many of us have been exasperated by the antics of Just Stop Oil protesters. Now, I believe that these are well-meaning and committed to their cause and I am sure that they think that they are trying to save the planet in the best way they can think of – gain publicity, get people talking and influence politicians. But what would happen if we literally just stopped oil tomorrow and did without the natural resources on which the world, its economies and populations depend? The answer: most likely six billion people would die within a year. I am going to assume the “oil” in Just Stop Oil means fossil fuels – so oil, gas and coal. I am also going to assume that we have today’s technological knowledge and infrastructure, so we are talking about stopping fossil fuels now, not at some unspecified time in the future... do the nice, well-meaning people of Just Stop Oil understand how the world works, or not? If they do, they are nihilists; if they don’t, then why are they disrupting the smooth running of our society, promoting an extreme course of action of which they have no understanding? If, by the way, my analysis is wrong, they should enlighten us on how an immediate ban on fossil fuels will allow civilisation to continue and flourish. To be clear I am not suggesting that the world is forever in the grip of fossil fuels. Far from it. History tells us that human civilisation is a story of constant change. Humans are inventive and adaptable, and fossil fuels are also finite. So in due course new, cheap, non-fossil-fuel energy sources will be developed, new ways of storing and transporting energy will be perfected, and fossil fuel use will slowly become a thing of the past; a transition from one world to another – abetter one. But I suppose the slogan, “Stop oil when the technological and economic conditions allow it, consistent with an improvement in human wellbeing and that of the planet” is not such a catchy phrase."
Tony Heller on X - "The first Winter Olympics was in 1924 and had very little snow. For the next 40 years, almost all Winter Olympics suffered from a lack of snow. History has been rewritten to erase the warmth of the past. #ClimateScam"
Eva Vlaardingerbroek on X - "🇩🇪 ALL EYES ON GERMANY I’ll be traveling to Berlin next week as the German Farmers have announced that they will launch a protest “larger than the country has ever seen before” on Monday, January 8. Multiple farmers' associations, the train drivers’ union and the trucking industry have announced they’ll be mobilizing against the federal government's plans to cancel for agricultural diesel, cut vehicle tax exemptions and increase truck tolls and carbon taxes. There are also countless calls on social media for a general strike against the federal German government - demanding they step down. Mark my words: There is no doubt that if all of these sectors hold their ground and do not back down as a result of the establishment’s usual intimidation tactics, that they have the power to completely paralyze the country and finally demand change. This wouldn’t be a turning point just for Germany, but also for the rest of Europe. #nofarmersnofood #Bauernprotest"
The left encourages protest, until it clashes with their agenda
Oli London on X - "German farmers are currently taking part in a massive protest against farming tax hikes by the German government. The mainstream media is hardly reporting on it."
James Melville on X - "The German farmers protest is being manipulatively smeared as “far-right”. It isn’t. It’s people fighting for their livelihoods and standing up against the government - the very things that left-wingers used to show solidarity towards."
mirax on X - "The msm blackout of these protests is interesting too. I have been tracking the coverage or lack thereof since Jan 4. Compare to global coverage of Indian farmers' protests with celebs like Rihanna giving their 2 rupees' worth."
How 'greenlash' is forcing Europe to scale back ambitious net zero policies
Meme - "If this bird was covered in oil, this photo would be posted everywhere *dead bird and wind turbines*"
Robby Starbuck on X - "In 1873 the US government killed 1.5 million buffalo to starve natives so they’d be more dependent on the US government. Now governments all over the world are killing livestock to "meet climate goals". There’s a lesson here. 👀🧐"
Ford is losing $32,000 on every EV sale
The EV Backlash Builds - WSJ - "The Biden Administration keeps throwing around billions in subsidies for electric vehicles, and the press corps keeps hailing them, but consumers don’t seem to want them. The evidence is building that this green industrial policy is a bust... A Consumer Reports survey in November found that new EVs have 79% more problems than internal-combustion cars... People want safe, reliable cars—who would have thought?... None of this is stopping the Biden Administration, as this week the Environmental Protection Agency sent its final rule on auto greenhouse emission standards to the White House for review. This back-door EV mandate will punish Ford and other auto makers if they respond to consumer demand by selling more gas-powered cars. It will also compel the companies to roll out EVs before technological and engineering kinks are worked out. This is a recipe for making EVs less popular, not more. Amid the private jet-set at Davos this week, Biden climate czar John Kerry attributed consumer resistance to EVs to “disinformation.” That’s hilarious. The automobile press couldn’t be more in the tank for EVs. We’ve got nothing against electric vehicles if consumers want them. But the Administration is trying to force them on the public with mandates and subsidies. This misallocation of capital harms consumers and workers. Mr. Biden’s green industrial policy isn’t failing because of bad marketing. It's failing because Americans don’t like the product."
Hertz Is Walking Back A Big Bet On EVs. Here's What's Really Going On - "The company says that it is "rebalancing" the numbers in its fleets, which means selling off a third of its EV fleet and replacing those cars with ICE models... Hertz said that it expects to sell off 20,000 cars in its EV stock, and that process already started as early as last month. The cash generated from the sales of its EV fleet will be pumped back into meeting demand for rental ICE vehicles. This comes on the heels of Hertz’s October announcement that it would be scaling back its EV operations, citing high repair costs and reduced residual value compared to the rest of its vehicles as reasons why its EV rental operations weren’t going so well."
Greedy companies are more evil than greedy, which is why they want to destroy the planet even though electric vehicles are superior and make them more money
Justin Trudeau's naive EV plan hands the keys to China - "Among auto giants, General Motors has been among the truest of believers. For chief executive Mary Barra, EV constitutes the first two letters in evangelism. Don’t let doubt get in the way, just put your faith in faith. But there’s trouble in Motor City. GM has backed off a pledge to sell 400,000 electric vehicles by the middle of 2024. It’s also abandoning a US$5-billion joint plan with Honda Motors to develop more affordable EVs. It’s delaying the start of production on electric trucks at a Michigan plant, and bought out half its 2,000 Buick dealerships after they declined to make the investments needed for an all-EV future. GM suspended operations at its self-driving Cruise unit and is diverting US$10 billion to share buybacks to appease nervous investors. Meanwhile, EV sales are rising, but not at the pace anticipated, resulting in huge backlogs of unsold cars. Ford is either chopping or delaying US$12 billion in EV investments and scaling back a planned battery plant in Michigan. USA Today reported that EV inventories were up 506 per cent from a year ago due to high prices, slowing demand, range anxiety, lack of charging stations and buyers’ growing awareness that EV repair costs can be significantly higher than those for fossil-fuelled cars. U.S. reports show demand heavily concentrated in a few regions, generally well-off populations in urban areas. According to CarGurus Inc., while prices are falling thanks to excess supply, the average new EV still costs 28 per cent more than an internal-combustion rival, and will sit on the lot 24 per cent longer than a year ago. Even Tesla, the overwhelming market leader, felt the need to slash vehicle prices to keep them eligible for government subsidies. While the auto giants can retrench, the little guys are getting creamed. A Wall Street Journal analysis of EV startups found that of 43 companies launched between 2020 and 2022, five have gone bust, and at least 18 others are likely to run out of money by the end of 2024. The remainder includes firms strictly focused on the luxury market, well beyond the reach of most buyers. For reasons left unexplained, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals chose this moment to unveil Ottawa’s new Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, mandating that, as of 2035, all new vehicles sold in Canada must be electric. Only about one Canadian in 10 now owns an electric vehicle, amid signs of waning interest. That didn’t stop Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault from insisting that if someone builds them, buyers will come. Who knows, he may be right, but if so there’s a real chance the factory producing the cars and the batteries that run them will be from a plant located or controlled somewhere in China... In addition to cheap labour and manufacturing capacity, China controls much of the cobalt and rare earth minerals essential to producing EV batteries. About 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the globe’s poorest, most corrupt and unstable countries. Of 19 Congo cobalt operations, 15 are owned in whole or part by Chinese powers. So harsh are conditions that mining operations sometimes require military protection. Beijing works hard to protect and expand its dominance, recently imposing a ban on the export of technology for processing rare earth minerals, another vital battery input it dominates... A 2023 CSIS report warned that gains for China in global EV markets represents a threat to jobs and industrial competitiveness in Europe and North America. “Increased dependencies on China carry risks,” it noted, given China’s record of using its economic clout “to punish countries that challenge its position in international affairs.” As well, China is by far the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter and continues to burn vast amounts of coal. Data group Global Energy Monitor calculates China is building six times as many new coal plants as the rest of the world combined. Flooding the world with EVs produced by burning coal hardly helps fight climate change. Maybe it won’t happen — maybe Europe or the U.S. or even Canada will find new sources of vital minerals and develop the means and technology (not to mention environmental approval) to extract them competitively with China’s vast low-wage population. Maybe prices can be lowered so people with lower incomes can also buy vehicles after 2035. Maybe someone will sort out how millions of people in high-rise condo towers and apartment blocks will all be able to power their vehicles without individual power stations. In any case, the Trudeau government says it must happen within 12 years. If it doesn’t, we have no known Plan B. And should the new dawn prove to be beckoning just beyond a cliff? The Liberals are telling us to just have faith in faith."
Interest in EVs is down as Canada aims to increase sales: AutoTrader - "AutoTrader, Canada’s largest automotive marketplace, released a search data report that shows only 56 per cent of car shoppers who do not own an EV are open to purchasing one for their next vehicle, down from 68 per cent in 2022... The top reasons Canadians gave for refusing to consider going electric are all economic. “EV prices generally tend to be 15 to 20 per cent higher than a comparable gas-powered vehicle,” said AutoTrader editor-in-chief Jodi Lai. “That extra cost is not something that a lot of Canadians can stomach right now.”"
Tesla drivers can't charge their cars because stations have frozen over - "After temperatures of -18°C moved into the windy city, photos showed many of Elon Musk’s vehicles stranded with dead batteries outside of charging stations. Tesla recommends maintaining a charge level above 20% when not plugged in to minimize the impact of cold temperatures on the battery. But many of the vehicles waited so long in line for a functional charger that their batteries died in the frigid conditions. Tesla has come under criticism in the past for failure to operate in cold conditions, with many of the vehicle doors freezing shut. Electric car batteries generally don’t fare too well in the cold, with experts recommending heating up the vehicle’s interior while the battery is recharging... TikTok user Domenick Nati showed his dashboard listing the temperature as -7°C and 19 miles remaining until the battery dies. When Nati tried plugging his car into a charging station by Lynchburg Regional Airport in Virginia, the vehicle’s screen read: ‘Battery is heating – keep charge cable inserted.’ Two hours later, the same message remained. During Christmas in 2022, Teslas in Hertfordshire were lined up for hours waiting to charge their cars."
Electric cars 'the best vehicle' in frigid temperatures, Sask. advocates say
Fast chargers stop working in Yellowknife due to cold weather
EVs Lose 30% Of Their Range On Average In The Winter Vs. Ideal Conditions
If you don't support electric cars, you hate the planet and are a science denier
EV defenders claim that ICE cars lose range in the cold too, but according to the US department of energy going from 25 degrees (celsius) to -7 degrees only reduces mileage by 15% - half that of electric cars (plus for EVs, that's at 0 degrees vs ideal conditions, so at -7 it will be even worse)
Steve Milloy on X - "The WaPo reports that the "clean energy" political problem for Biden is that there is a "lack of public awareness of how these technologies work." I don't know how many billions of dollars of Inflation Reduction Act money have been wasted so far, but I can tell you: 1. The EV industry is failing. 2. The offshore wind industry is flailing. 3. The electricity grid is becoming more unstable. 4. Emissions have increased. 5. The weather has remained the same. There is no awareness because these "technologies": don't work as advertised."
Thread by @energybants on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Incredible: German electricity demand has fallen to the lowest levels since before reunification in 1990, as its economy falters. Germany intentionally turned off its extraordinarily cheap and reliable baseload nuclear power, rapidly, during a generational energy crisis. Putin didn't make them do it. America didn't make them do it. Even German public opinion has turned dramatically back in favor of nuclear. German leaders made this choice, to turn them off and keep them off. Look at these graphs of annual electricity. It's like Germany is committing WW2-style bombing raids against its own infrastructure. If Germany were electrifying, for either climate or growth reasons, then we would expect electricity demand to grow, not fall. We should be seeing all time records in electricity production and demand, not the lowest numbers in over three decades. Now electricity is too expensive for many industries to justify using for expanding or even maintaining production, so electricity demand is dropping. But Germany's own generation of electricity is plunging even faster than its demand is, turning Germany from a net exporter to a net importer of power. Many commenters have celebrated the falling energy costs in Germany for this year and next. But those falling costs are coming along with falling demand for power, not increasing demand. And costly renewable subsidies are no longer paid directly on power bills, but instead from the national budget, lowering the apparent cost of power even further, which should be stimulating demand. Yet electricity remains so persistently expensive relative to pre-crisis years that, in combination with expensive natural gas, it just isn't worth it for Germany's major energy consumers. Germany's courts have, for now, rejected adding more and more subsidies for energy production infrastructure to be paid for by national debt. Even though this is a crisis for Germany, the courts seem wise in rejecting subsidies for expensive new energy when cheap nuclear plants could just be turned back on. Leading opposition parties have already stated their intention of restarting Germany's nuclear plants should they win power. This would take about a year each, but each nuclear plant would prop up a meaningful fraction of Germany's bleeding industrial sector. In my view, there is no longer any other budget-neutral or budget-positive energy move available to German leaders, without destroying Germany's climate agreements to turn on lignite coal full blast.
I have to keep writing this over and over and over again: France badly mismanaged its nuclear fleet as it tried to foolishly ape German energy policy. France has had some of worst nuclear fleet availability on Earth. Germany had among the highest. I've been yelling about France's energy self-sabotage for years. I used the phrase "Vichy Energy" to describe France's policies in this podcast warning about France, Germany, and Nord Stream, from more than a year before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. How fascinating, two countries that spent years sharing Germany's idiotic energy plan, who started ripping out their own nuclear fleets despite having a much higher reliance on nuclear, are struggling like Germany? What an astonishing coincidence"
Borislav Boev on X - "Textbook deindustrialization. They destroyed their conventional energy sources, not only nuclear, but also coal and gas, which provided energy security and stable prices for the industry."
All the nuclear haters have a lot of interesting copes in the replies. But degrowth is popular among the left, after all
Persephone on X - "GERMANY - oops… German Energy grid operators are given legal powers to restrict power to heat pumps & EV chargers from 2024. To preserve energy. At this point Net Zero is beyond a joke. Stuck in cold houses & with no transport. This is a vision of your future. Reject it 🔥"
James Lindsay, anti-Fascist on X - "Degrowth means starving while you freeze to death in the dark."
Will We Learn from the Deindustrialization of Germany? - "Some people will blame Germany’s need to return to coal mining on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but that isn’t the case. Germany’s downward spiral began in 2011, when, in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant meltdown in Japan, then-Chancellor Angela Merkel opted to phase out Germany’s nuclear power stations (as well as its coal-fired power stations). “Now we have to stop using gas cookers after 5 p.m.,” my German friend tells me. “Never in my lifetime have we had to do this before. And this is in the south! What happens when the last three reactors close?”... Research institutes are predicting factory closures caused by the ongoing energy crisis, and the state-owned bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau has warned that Germany faces “an era of declining prosperity.” The head of the German Trade Union Confederation, Yasmin Fahimi, warns of deindustrialization and significant layoffs. Few are mincing their words. Power tools entrepreneur Nikolas Stihl warns that “the danger of de-industrialization cannot be dismissed out of hand.” German industry has been struggling for some time, and it may never recover. Thanks to soaring energy prices, 530 workers at the ArcelorMittal steelworks in Hamburg have been working reduced hours since October 2022. That was just the beginning. Head of the German chemicals trade body Verband der Chemischen Industrie, Markus Steilemann, has commented that Germany risks “turning from an industrial country into an industrial museum.” This was the dream: Energiewende, or “energy turnaround”—Germany’s plan to run on only renewable energy by 2038. Integral to this was complete closure of nuclear power plants, because the German Greens don’t like them. Problems were identified along the way. In 2016, an analysis by Agora Energiewende found that the aim of a 55–60 percent share of renewable energy in gross electricity consumption by 2035 was “unachievable” with the plans for renewables expansion. Germans were advised that they would likely miss their own Energiewende targets. A study in 2019 asserted that “Germany can still prevent 16,000 deaths and 1100 MtCO2 emissions by 2035 by reducing coal instead of eliminating nuclear as planned.” But they blundered on. Germans’ commitment to close nuclear power stations was actively harming their climate ambitions. Still, they continued to shut down reactors and send nuclear energy workers home. In 2019, Germany’s Federal Court of Auditors criticized the €160 billion cost of Energiewende over the previous five years, stating that the expenditure was “in extreme disproportion to the results.” At that point, the cost of electricity to the German consumer was almost double that of French electricity, where nuclear energy provides the bulk of their supply. German electricity prices were among the highest in Europe. Another study found that if Germany had postponed the nuclear phase out and phased out coal instead, it could have saved 1,100 lives a year, and $12 billion in social costs... Many Germans remain hopeful that renewables will fill the energy gap. Yet the wind industry itself has admitted that Germany will need to erect six wind turbines a day to meet its 2030 goal. That would require as much as 3,300 metric tons of steel per day (almost half an Eiffel Tower). At the moment, the country erects less than one wind turbine a day. Hoping and dreaming are not enough. Data clearly show that no industrialized nation in the world has been able to decarbonize without nuclear energy, except where there is a geographically available abundance of hydropower. The focus of much of the world over the past year has been on energy: sources, availability, and rationing. But when humankind is energy-poor, we lose out in other ways too... Germany’s biggest mistake was ignoring the data along the way because its leaders had wedded themselves to wishful thinking and ideology, which made them blind to negative results. Politicians could not accept that their experiment had failed. In this way, they rejected the learning process that science can offer us, just as they rejected clean energy because they don’t like it."
Clearly they need even more renewables
De-industrialisation in Germany dramatically reduces emissions in 2023 - "the headline reduction in emissions has more to do with Germany’s economic slowdown than successful implementation of green policies... Accounting for about a quarter of German GDP – twice the level of other large European powers – some 10% of heavy industry has been forced to close down or dramatically reduce production. German chemical companies are now very cautious when it comes to investing at home: around 40% of them will reduce their investments in Germany in 2023 and 2024, according to recent industry survey. However, the majority of companies are planning to increase foreign investments or leave completely. Up to a third of Germany’s heavy industry is either planning to move, or has already started the process of moving, abroad to lower-cost markets. The biggest hope for the chemical industry is China, where almost half of global chemical demand already comes from. The German industrial lobby has said that German heavy industry should start recovering in 2025, but that assumes energy prices will fall to previous levels. A recent IMF white paper concluded that the higher prices, caused by the remake of Europe’s energy markets and the end of cheap Russian gas imports, means the higher energy prices are likely to be a permanent change that will fundamentally affect Germany’s business model."
Jack Mintz: Axe the carbon tax, OK, but keep paying the rebates - "I have always argued that the carbon tax is better policy than the existing pancake approach, which stacks one inefficient, soak-the-poor carbon mandate, regulation and subsidy on top of another until even the relevant ministers forget how many anti-carbon initiatives we have. On the other hand, if our largest trading partner, the U.S., isn’t going to price carbon, maybe axing the tax makes sense. But if we do that, do the rebates have to go, too? Analysis does typically assume rebates go hand-in-hand with the carbon tax. And if you look only at the tax and the rebates, Ottawa is probably right: the rebates in large part offset the tax. But Poilievre takes a broader view. He cites a 2022 Parliamentary Budget Office study that also looked at the effects of the carbon tax on household incomes as a result of economic restructuring. It gives different results. For example, it estimates that for the average Ontario household the fiscal “cost” — carbon taxes and related GST effects net of rebates — is actually a net gain of $113 by 2030-31. But add in the likely economic effects on employment and investment income and that gain turns into a net loss of $1,145 in 2030-31... As of this week, Saskatchewan is exempting all heating from carbon taxation. The federal government could by rights respond by reducing rebates to Saskatchewan households. But with rebates to Atlantic Canadians seemingly unaffected by the heating oil exemption, any such response would be — and would certainly be seen in the West as — regionally unfair. The Trudeau government is not the first to leave rebates alone to avoid upsetting voters. When the GST was originally introduced on Jan. 1, 1991, Ottawa provided a low-income tax credit to offset the impact of a general tax on consumption. Yet, when the Harper government reduced the GST rate from seven to five per cent, it did not lower the credit accordingly. Instead, the credit has been boosted over the years due to restructuring and inflation adjustments... One thought is that they should be continued as an offset to other carbon policies that raise energy costs for households (including in B.C. and Quebec). Though the Conservatives may well axe the carbon tax, they would likely leave in place carbon levies on high-emitter companies that the provinces currently apply... If rebates were targeted to modest-income and rural Canadians instead of all of us, the policy could be much less expensive. Even better: why not integrate the rebate with the GST tax credit to offset both sales, excise and other climate levies, enabling a pool of credits to be income-tested that would reduce marginal effective tax rates on workers with modest incomes?"
FischerKing on X - "Think a lot of what drives climate fanaticism is a desire for control. Leftists, typically atheists, are uncomfortable with the idea of a system so complex and unfathomable that they can’t do anything about it. So they focus on a single variable, CO2, and build entire theories/models around it. Which gives them a mission, a sense of purpose, and the illusion that life and the future are in their own hands. The reality of being always at the whim of forces we cannot direct or understand is too frightening for these people. It’s similar with their attraction for centrally directed economies - their attraction to socialism, Marxism, communism."
Kirk Lubimov on X - "The current temperature in Calgary is -35 in Calgary and -34 in Edmonton. Solar is generating nothing. Wind can't even get above 0.5% capacity only 5 windfarms out of 45 producing anything. I don't think people understand how far we are from be able to rely on "green" energy and how much $ it will take."
The left claim that the problem is that there isn't enough renewable energy in the system
Kat Kanada on X - "Apparently, there is another name for "climate change" and that name is Brian Paré. "Quebec man pleads guilty to starting 14 forest fires" 🚨🚨🚨"
Wilfred Reilly on X - "Remember the "wild conservative claim" that the pattern of the Canadian and PNW forest fires looked a lot like arson?"
Wide Awake Media on X - "Key member of the WEF's 'Board of Trustees' and deputy PM of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, openly declares war on the concept of democracy, in the name of tackling "climate change". "Our shrinking glaciers, and our warming oceans, are asking us wordlessly but emphatically, if democratic societies can rise to the existential challenge of climate change." Democracy is FAR from perfect, and what we have now―globalist uniparties taking turns at implementing the exact same globalist Net Zero/Agenda 2030 policies, while pretending to be political opponents―can barely be called democracy in the first place, but the fact that these globalist puppets now feel brazen enough to openly call for an end even to the façade they claim is democracy, is concerning to say the least."
Why elites love obsessing about climate change so much
