UK court allows Drax gas power station appeal

Drax power station [credit: drax.com]

The climate-obsessed BBC frames this as a hard luck story for a charity. But for energy consumers it will be the biggest gas power station in Europe if/when built, providing on-demand power to help replace the many coal-fired plants closed in recent years.
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An environmental charity has lost a High Court challenge against a government decision to approve a new gas-fired power plant, reports BBC News.

ClientEarth had argued the decision did not take enough account of environmental targets at the Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire.

But the judge Mr Justice Holgate, said the targets were outweighed by other “public interest issues” involved.

The charity is now considering an appeal against the decision.

Heathrow gets permission for Supreme Court appeal over block to third runway

Heathrow airport

Coronavirus has obviously reduced the pressure on the airport for quite a while, at least. Restricting Heathrow capacity would mean some flights going somewhere else, but little likely effect on total air miles.
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The case will now be heard by the UK’s highest court as the airport tries to overturn campaigners’ earlier victory, reports Sky News.

Heathrow airport has been given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against a block on its plan for a third runway.

Judges said Heathrow could appeal against a February ruling which said the government’s airports policy was unlawful as it failed to take into account climate change commitments.

HS2 set for green legal challenge following Heathrow ruling

That didn’t take long. Are these challengers aware the Heathrow decision was about a legal technicality, with the judges specifically saying they weren’t trying to halt the project?

A legal challenge against the construction of HS2 is to be launched by broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham over claims the project is incompatible with the government’s net-zero carbon emissions target, days after the High Court ruled against Heathrow expansion, Construction News reports.

The move comes as Heathrow Airport warned that the government’s decision not to appeal its legal defeat last week – over a failure to comply with planning policy, as it did not take into account terms included in the Paris Agreement on climate change – could mean the scrapping of housing and roads plans.

The Netherlands faces pressure as global ‘test case’ for deep emissions cuts in 2020

They are up against it. Governments are now finding themselves increasingly boxed in by their own climate ideology. From the report below:
Richard Tol, professor of the economics of climate change at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, said it is “highly unlikely” that the Netherlands will rise to the challenge, saying a [extra] 10% emissions reduction by the end of 2020 would “require shutting down a substantial part of the economy”.

But what options are there? Nuclear power is unpopular and can’t be built quickly anyway, while wind and solar power are part-time, intermittent, and relatively expensive. No viable ‘off-the-shelf’ way exists to store electricity on a massive scale. Awkward.
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The Netherlands is under pressure to slash emissions in sectors such as power generation and agriculture in 2020 after a ruling by a top court made the government a reluctant ‘test case’ for tougher global climate policies, says Climate Home News.

The government of conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte is working out new measures after the Dutch Supreme Court in December ordered it to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by the end of 2020, compared with 1990 levels, as its fair share to combat climate change.

Britain’s Economy On The Brink As Climate Lawfare Threatens Infrastructure Projects

Heathrow expects… [credit: your.heathrow.com]

This may all be a bit of an over-reaction, as a legal appeal is pending. Even if the appeal fails, it’s not clear what taking the Paris agreement into account really means, as far as the courts are concerned. Having said that, some cages must have been rattled at the prospect of various projects being undermined.

Dozens of airport, road and energy projects have been thrown into doubt after judges delivered a crushing blow to plans for a third runway at Heathrow over its impact on the environment, reports The Times (via The GWPF).

The Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that the government’s policy on expanding the airport was unlawful because ministers had failed to take proper account of how it affected Britain’s climate commitments.

A refusal to properly consider the UN Paris agreement, which limits rises in global temperatures, when approving the third runway was “legally fatal”, the judges said.

The government said it would accept the ruling, striking a severe blow to plans for the runway.

Climate campaigners win Heathrow expansion case

Climate paranoia has hit the UK courts big-time. It now seems illegal not to obsess over trace gases in the atmosphere, due to the Paris climate agreement.

Heathrow Airport’s controversial plans to build a third runway have been thrown into doubt after a court ruling, reports BBC News.

The government’s Heathrow’s expansion decision was unlawful because it did not take climate commitments into account, the Court of Appeal said.

Heathrow said it would challenge the decision, but the government has not lodged an appeal.

The judges said that in future, a third runway could go ahead, as long as it fits with the UK’s climate policy.

Massive UK gas power plant project facing legal action

Drax power station [credit: drax.com]

Once again climate scaremongers will attempt to overthrow the political decision of a democratically elected government in the courts. An irony in this case is that Drax already burns imported woodchips for power generation, producing vast amounts of carbon dioxide, but this is ignored by alarmists.

Business and Energy Secretary Andrea Leadsom gave the go-ahead for Drax to convert its coal-fired units in North Yorkshire to gas generation last October, reports Energy Live News.

A legal challenge has been launched at the High Court by ClientEarth against the UK Government’s decision to approve what would be the largest new gas power plant in Europe.

Business and Energy Secretary Andrea Leadsom gave the go-ahead for Drax to convert its coal-fired units in North Yorkshire to gas generation last October, on the grounds gas would emit less carbon than coal and some fossil fuel capacity would be needed to provide backup for intermittent renewables.

Environmentalists lose new Norway lawsuit over Arctic oil

Norway’s Goliat oil platform [image credit: T3n60 @ Wikipedia]

Another attempt to use the courts to impose the will of climate alarmists bites the dust, at least until the next and final appeal, if it happens. When are they going to take Russia to court over Arctic drilling? Too risky perhaps.

A Norwegian court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by two environmental groups which had sued Norway for granting new oil licenses in the Arctic, reports Phys.org.

A Norwegian court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by two environmental groups which had sued Norway for granting new oil licenses in the Arctic.

Greenpeace and Natur og Ungdom (Nature and Youth) had called for the cancellation of exploration licenses granted in May 2016 to 13 oil companies in the fragile Arctic region, saying the concessions violated the Norwegian constitution which since 2014 guarantees the right to a healthy environment.

They argued that new oil activities in the region would be contrary to the 2016 Paris climate accord, which seeks to limit average global warming to under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and which Norway has signed.

Terrorism police list Extinction Rebellion as extremist ideology: But soon back down

After their unlawful antics costing taxpayers millions of pounds and disrupting thousands of people trying to go about their daily lives, anti-terrorism police included XR in a booklet they send to statutary partners.

The human cost of the EV revolution

Child exploitation claims are casting a large shadow as a new case goes to court. Looking the other way won’t do any more, at least not if these major firms lose the legal argument – which would mean higher product prices. Not what the so-called ‘EV revolution’ needs, with high prices and other issues already deterring buyers.

Cobalt is one of the most important metals in the tech industry, but the use of child labor in cobalt mines in the DRC is a major problem for Big Tech and electric car manufacturers, says OilPrice.com.

There’s a chance that the iPhone you’re about to get for Christmas contains cobalt mined by a six-year-old. There’s also a chance that that six-year-old has been killed or maimed in the processes of mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the lion’s share of the world’s cobalt comes from.

Or, maybe, for those whose Christmas lists are more upscale, you’ll be driving around in a new Tesla next week, with a battery containing cobalt from that same mine.

Our luxuries are necessarily someone else’s sacrifice – and sometimes that sacrifice is the ultimate one.

Netherlands told by court to cut greenhouse gases further

Dutch Parliament buildings [credit: Wikipedia]

The descent into a climate fantasy world continues apace. Who’s next?

The highest court in the Netherlands has upheld a ruling requiring the government to slash greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% of 1990 levels by the end of next year, reports BBC News.

The case was brought six years ago by the Urgenda environment group in a bid to force ministers to go well beyond EU targets.

However, the chances of the government reaching the target look slim. By the end of 2018, emissions were down only 15% on 1990 levels.

Police accused of ‘losing control’ of climate protest as Government urged to step In

UK politicians don’t seem to have worked out yet that their almost unanimous support for the notorious 2008 Climate Change Act, and lately their risible ‘climate emergency’ declarations, have a lot to do with the street chaos they are suddenly complaining about.

Cressida Dick was today accused of allowing Extinction Rebellion protesters to take control of the police, reports the Telegraph (via The GWPF).

Members of the House of Lords urged the Government to step in and take urgent action as protesters disrupted Westminster for a second day, pitching tents and gluing themselves to buildings.

The former speaker of the House of Commons, Baroness Boothroyd said that she had taken part in demonstrations when younger, but added: “In those days the police were in control of me as a demonstrator.

“Now it seems to me that the demonstrators are in control of the police.”

Italy’s “Lord of the Wind” gets 9 years for financing mafia

[image credit: beforeitsnews.com]

Everything was definitely not clean about this major renewable energy operator. One report said that ‘crime and corruption crept in at several levels’.

Italy’s “Wind King”, or the “Lord of the Wind” Vito Nicastri has been sentenced to nine years in prison for channeling profits from his wind power business to the Cosa Nostra, says OilPrice.com.

The Guardian reports that Nicastri was stripped of his companies and property back in 2013 during an investigation into his ties with the Sicilian mafia. The assets that prosecutors seized were worth about $1.7 billion (1.3 billion euro).

Since then, the prosecution has established that Nicastri had “close ties to Matteo Messina Denaro” and other “high-level” contacts in the Sicilian mafia.

World’s leaders turn on Greta Thunberg after she sues France & Germany

‘School climate strike’ [image credit: theglobeandmail.com]

That’s what you may get for years of government climate fearmongering, followed by trying to cosy up to the narrow-minded junior climate fanatics it has generated. These same governments are now reaping what they sowed, and they don’t like it. Bad luck.

National leaders have rebuked Greta Thunberg after the climate campaigner criticised their inaction and started a legal challenge against France and Germany’s environmental policies, reports The Times (via The GWPF).

President Macron and Angela Merkel, who had both previously endorsed Ms Thunberg’s Fridays for Future school strike movement, were stung into reacting to what one French minister termed her “despair . . . verging on hatred”.

Scott Morrison, 51, the prime minister of Australia and a fossil fuels enthusiast, also accused her of stirring up “needless anxiety” among his country’s children.

Wind farm refused over Southern Upland Way impact

Windfarm objection in Galloway

Let’s hope this helps to put wind farm developers off the idea of ruining scenery for profit, as they may end up just wasting a lot of time, effort and money on pointless proposals and court battles.

A wind farm appeal has been refused amid concerns it would spoil the enjoyment of a stretch of a popular south of Scotland walking route, reports BBC News.

Developer Energiekontor wanted to build 11 turbines at Cornharrow east of Carsphairn in
Dumfries and Galloway.

It appealed to the Scottish government over the local authority’s failure to give a decision on the plans.

Police to XR plotters : You’re nicked!

Police on the move

UPDATE: Police jamming drone signals at Heathrow airport

UPDATE 2: Bailed XR leader arrested again – at Heathrow

H/T The GWPF

Drama at Billy’s Cafe. “There we were, innocently having a coffee with the press, as you do. Then next thing you know – out of the blue – we’re getting cuffed and hauled off by the law”…said nobody. Seems like a fair cop.

Heathrow Pause says two of its activists have been “pre-emptively” arrested before they started flying drones as part of a climate protest, reports Sky News.

Activists have been planning to fly drones at Heathrow Airport tomorrow.

US blacklists Chinese nuclear firm involved in UK Hinkley Point C project

Planned nuclear power station at Hinkley Point

Another headache to add to the list for the UK’s struggling nuclear power ambitions, at a time when its coal-fired plants are closing fast.

China General Nuclear Power partnered with EDF to help fund a third of the £20bn cost of the nuclear power plant being built in Somerset, says Energy Live News.

A state-owned Chinese company which is funding part of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in the UK has been placed on a US export blacklist.

The US Department of Commerce has placed China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) to its “entity list”, which effectively blocks US companies from selling products and services to the firm without written approval.

Tesla owner sues company for alleged battery fraud

Tesla model X [image credit: IB Times]

In a world where car makers can remotely change the characteristics of a vehicle after selling it, obviously nobody wants the result to make the car less attractive to own than before. Did that happen here?

A Tesla owner has filed a suit against the carmaker claiming the company used a software update to deliberately reduce the battery range of his vehicle in an attempt to avoid a recall due to faults in these batteries, reports OilPrice.com.

Reuters reports the suit was filed earlier this week, with the plaintiff seeking class action status on the grounds that “thousands” of other owners of older Model S and X cars could have been affected.

In some cases, according to the allegations, the range reduction came in at as much as 40 miles.

CEI files formal complaint regarding NASA’s claim of 97% climate scientist agreement on global warming

Whatever exactly was supposed to have been agreed on, it must be difficult to show 97% support without any actual data to back it up. Is it any more than fake news?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) petitioned NASA to remove from its website the claim that 97 percent of climate scientists agree humans are responsible for global warming, reports The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF).

The petition, filed under the Information Quality Act (IQA), points out the major flaws in the studies cited by NASA to substantiate its claim. 

It requests the agency remove the claim from its website and stop circulating it in agency materials.

Extinction Rebellion prosecutions ‘beggar belief’, says lawyer

Oxford Circus climate demo [image credit: London Evening Standard]

So does the manufactured climate alarm due to a minor trace gas in the atmosphere, but this is the world we find ourselves in.

A lawyer representing hundreds of Extinction Rebellion protesters said it “beggars belief” so many of them are being prosecuted, reports the Evening Standard. 

It comes as two courtrooms are being set aside for a day each week at Westminster Magistrates’ Court for 19 weeks, to deal with Extinction Rebellion protesters arrested in mass demonstrations across the capital.

Around 35 protesters are due to appear at City of London magistrates’ court on Friday, while it is thought more than 50 will be summonsed every Friday in August.