Subsidising net zero type so-called climate policies in the US is not only enormously expensive but globally disruptive as well, it seems. Climate protection becoming climate protectionism?
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Joe Biden’s flagship green energy policy risks plunging the world into the economic “dark ages”, Jeremy Hunt has warned.
The Chancellor urged world leaders not to put up trade barriers after the US President passed a $369bn package of subsidies to support climate and energy businesses, reports The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has drawn an estimated $200bn in investment since it was passed last year, according to estimates from the Financial Times, and both the EU and Britain have been forced to draw up responses of their own.
It has sparked fears of a new era of protectionism, where economies are closely managed through tariffs and subsidies.
Mr Hunt said the British Government would provide “some” support for businesses to stop investment fleeing overseas but said it would be measured.
The Chancellor told Sky News: “First of all it’s wasteful to spend money subsidising factories that would have been built anyway.
“Secondly, when you take subsidies away, you can end up with a business that’s not viable.”
“If we were to turn our backs on free trade, that will be a disaster for the world economy. We will enter into a dark ages period. We do not want to move to protectionism.”
His comments came after British battery maker AMTE Power said it was considering moving investment to the US because of its generous subsidies for green technologies.
Separately, Mr Hunt has been boosted by new forecasts showing Britain’s economy is on track to not only avoid recession this year but grow.
The British economy will defy gloomy predictions and emerge slightly larger at the end of this year, according to one of the City’s most closely watched forecasters.
Full report here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Gloomy prediction is -0.1%
Boosted forecast is +0.1%
Smoke and mirrors.
It is important to remember that the US President cannot spend a dime from the public trough. That is the purview of the Senate.
Second, it is important to remember that “wasteful spending” is the purpose of government.
Let businesses move. New ones will come in, provided you have a competitive tax regime…..oh, yes I’d forgotten the very same Hunt had made sure investors viewed the UK as a poor place to invest.
Biden is Osama bin Laden’s dream president.
Reblogged this on Utopia, you are standing in it!.
Reblogged this on Climate Collections.
Subsidies and money-printing seem to be all the rage these days 🤔
Next step for Big Green – the big land grab?
JP Morgan CEO Calls On Governments To Seize Land For Wind And Solar
Wed 04/12/2023
Jamie Dimon, CEO of Wall Street investment behemoth JP Morgan, is calling on governments to use the power of eminent domain to seize private property for wind and solar farms, as a means to reach the goal of net-zero emissions.
“The Chancellor told Sky News: “First of all it’s wasteful to spend money subsidising factories that would have been built anyway.”
It seems to have escaped Hunt’s notice that nobody is going to have to build a factory in a country where the taxation is so punitive that it is unprofitable and in any case the energy and materials are so expensive it can’t afford to manufacture anything in the first place.