Australia fires: PM rejects ‘reckless’ calls to limit coal industry

Lots of coal in Australia

Evidence that at least one national leader understands that winding down the economy to impress shouty ‘activists’ is not a sensible policy, despite the current emergencies.

Australian PM Scott Morrison says he will not make “reckless” cuts to the nation’s coal industry, despite criticism of his response to climate change and a deadly bushfire crisis.

Australia is being ravaged by bushfires which have killed nine people and razed hundreds of homes since September, reports BBC News.

As the crisis escalated last week, Mr Morrison faced a backlash for deciding to take a family holiday to Hawaii.

On Monday, he reiterated he would not adjust his policies through “panic”.

Coal demand to remain stable amid climate concerns: IEA

Credit: Coal India Limited

As the COP 25 summit ends in disarray, all attempts to stoke up fears of a man-made ‘climate crisis’ are not going well, in some parts of the world at least. Hard to see developing countries turning away from reliable and affordable energy any time soon.

The demand for coal will remain steady over the next four years due to demand from Asia, which comes despite fears of the climate crisis, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday.

Coastal areas across Southeast Asia have already seen major floods and seawater incursion linked to climate change, claims Phys.org.

“Global coal demand has rebounded since 2017,” the IEA said in a report.

Claim: fossil fuel divestment will increase CO2 emissions, not lower them

So what, you may say. But it shows up some of the woolly thinking of so-called climate activists. Lacking viable alternatives, the major role of fossil fuels in the global economy is bound to continue so suppliers will have their market. Believing that trace gases can somehow disturb the climate in a negative way isn’t going to change that.

A global campaign encouraging individuals, organizations and institutional investors to sell off investments in fossil fuel companies is gathering pace. According to 350.org, US$11 trillion has already been divested worldwide.

But, while it may seem a logical strategy, divestment will not lower demand for fossil fuels, which is the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In fact, it may even cause emissions to rise, argues The Conversation @ Phys.org.

Paris accord pie-in-the-sky ‘climate targets’ undermined by reality

Coal-hungry China [image credit: democraticunderground.com]

Hard to say which is the greater fantasy: the belief in human-caused climate change due to trace gases, or the prescribed attempts to ‘tackle’ the imagined problem. Demand for energy is rising worldwide, meaning attempts to restrict its supply look doomed. One analyst says: “Despite more than two decades of climate policy making, fossil fuel production levels are higher than ever.”

There’s a huge gulf between ambition and reality, reports DW.com.

The world is on track to produce far more fossil fuels than permissible to meet its target of limiting global warming to at most 2 degrees Celsius, and ideally 1.5 degrees C.

That’s the conclusion of the Production Gap Report, created from leading research institutions together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Prof. Ian Plimer: Earth is ‘not in a period of extinction’

‘Belief is in politics and religion, not science…follow the money’, says Professor Plimer.

Geologist and earth scientist Ian Plimer says the globe is not facing a climate emergency, telling Sky News Australia that “we are actually still living in an ice age.”

Professor Plimer’s comments come after Extinction Rebellion protesters have been calling on the government to declare a climate emergency – something the scientist said isn’t necessary.

“We live in horribly boring times,” he said.

A Call To Arms: Can This World Survive Without Fossil Fuels?

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One for the climate hotheads (and others) to ponder: ‘From one 42-gallon barrel of oil only about half is for fuels while the rest is used to manufacture the chemicals and by-products that are part of our daily lifestyles.’

PA Pundits - International

By Ronald Stein ~

“God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the Courage to change the things I can change; and the Wisdom to know the difference.”

The afore-quoted Serenity Prayer came to mind while I was writing this because it seems applicable to the world’s citizens who are trying to attain the leadership roles in the save the environment movement before understanding the complexities of the energy picture depicted in the book Energy Made Easy and the advantages energy as a whole has provided humanity for the last couple of centuries.

Because developed countries have accomplished much in the last few centuries, they have a responsibility as caretakers for the only planet we live on right now. Understandably, it’s hard to imagine the billions of people in underdeveloped countries who have yet to experience anything like the industrial revolution and who are surviving without…

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The Green Paradox: Why Europe’s climate policies increase global CO2 emissions

German coal operation

H/T The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)

Government attempts to interfere in power generation markets can and do have unintended consequences, including undermining their own intentions. The expert interviewed here says ‘eight times as many wind and solar power plants as today’ would be needed in Germany by 2050, to meet policy targets. Many of the obstacles that lie in the way also apply to other countries that want to pursue the ‘CO2 controls climate’ delusion.

German economist Johannes Bachmann explains the so-called ‘Green Paradox’ — when unilateral climate policies accelerate the worldwide extraction of fossil fuels and global CO2 emissions.
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Yesterday, 20 September, the so-called “Climate Cabinet” of Germany’s federal government met to set the course of German climate policy for the coming years. Christoph Kramer spoke with Johannes Bachmann about the so-called Green Paradox and the economic concepts that fuel it.

Dr Bachmann is an economist and a member of the Hayek Society. Two years ago he received his doctorate from Michael Bräuninger, a Hamburg economist and former research director of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI). In his dissertation Bachmann dealt with the effect of climate policy measures on CO2 emissions.

Christoph Kramer: Mr. Bachmann, if one looks into your dissertation as a layman it’s all Greek to me. Could you please briefly explain exactly what the thesis is about and what methodology you used?

Johannes Bachmann: I can well understand that. On the one hand, there are quite a few technical terms in the work, and on the other, there are many formulas. It is a typical dissertation: a work by an academic for academics.

The aim of the thesis was to examine the effects of climate policy measures on the supply side of fossil fuels. To this end, I calculated how owners of raw materials adjust their production quotas as a result of CO2 taxes or subsidies for renewable energies in order to continue generating as much revenue as possible. Why did I focus on the supply side of all things? The answer is: the quantity of fossil fuels that is extracted from the earth is also consumed.

The Dutch import story behind Britain’s no-coal record

Dutch coal power plant

So Britain’s recent ‘coal free’ spell of electricity generation turns out to be somewhat fake news. The exaggerated claims made for renewables – mostly wind power – in this period are therefore largely undermined.

Between May 17-31, Britain saw its first two-week period without domestic coal-fired power stations generating electricity since the 1880s, says PEI.

However, modelling carried out by energy market data analyst EnAppSys shows that power generated from coal has been imported from abroad over the same period – with the most coming from the Netherlands.

Big Green, Inc. : The money fuelling the environmental left

H/T The GWPF.
A database listing $4.2 billion worth of grants represents a small fraction of the total financial investment and is just the tip of the iceberg, says the Institute for Energy Research.

Today’s environmental movement is fueled by a group of interconnected, left-leaning foundations that are seeking to disrupt the development of America’s energy resources.

In order to understand how these groups work together and where the environmental movement’s funding originates, IER developed Big Green, Inc., a database that tracks environmental grants stemming from 14 foundations and directed to over 1,900 grassroots activists groups and totaling more than $4.2 billion.

Our key findings include:

U.S. energy use rises to highest level ever

In terms of original power sources (i.e. not electricity), the runaway leaders were petroleum and natural gas which between them took over two-thirds of the total share. Coal and nuclear were a distant third and fourth. Best of the rest was biomass at just over 5% of the total, easily more than wind and solar combined.

Americans used more energy in 2018 than in any other year, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Overall total energy consumption rose to 101.2 quadrillion BTU (or “quads”), reports TechXplore. The prior record, set in 2007, was 101.0 quads.

Energy use went up by 3.6 percent from 2017, which also is the largest annual increase since 2010.

‘Extraordinary increase’ in global energy demand

US coal train [credit: Wikipedia]

In the real world, concerted attempts to instil fear of a supposed man-made climate ’emergency’ seem to be having little effect on the popularity of large-scale fuel-burning.

Energy demand worldwide grew by 2.3 per cent last year – its fastest pace this decade, reports PEI.

And nearly 70 per cent of that demand growth came from China, the US and India.

Approval for £175m Cumbria coal mine

An artist’s impression of Woodhouse Colliery (Credit: West Cumbria Mining)

The ‘new-found energy realism of Cumbrian councillors’ has been praised by the GWPF and others, but has predictably dismayed hardline climate miserablists..

Cumbria County Council has backed plans for a £175m metallurgical coal mine on a brownfield site near Whitehaven with work set to get under way by the end of the year, reports Place North West.

The plans by West Cumbria Mining cover mineral extraction over 50 years over a 689-acre site running to and beyond the St Bees coast, along with associated development such as the refurbishment of two existing drifts leading to two new underground drifts; coal storage and processing buildings; office and change building, an access road, ventilation, power and water infrastructure and landscaping.

Australian court rejects coal mine on climate grounds

Lots of coal in Australia

Are some judges being tempted into overstepping their roles in cases like this? If they are ‘calling climate scientists to testify’ as the report says, which climate scientists get invited? The ruling could yet be appealed.

An Australian court on Friday delivered a landmark ruling by rejecting plans to build a coal mine on the grounds it would worsen climate change, reports Phys.org.

Chief Justice Brian Preston said a planned open cut coal mine in a scenic part of New South Wales state would be in “the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Asia coal plants worrying for climate targets: IEA

[image credit: Pakistan Defence]

They need to find something else to worry about. Renewables are simply too feeble to take the place of coal and gas power generation, even if such were desirable, and restricting power usage is not a credible option. Quite the reverse in fact – everyone wants electricity, and more of it as time goes by.
H/T Phys.org

Coal-fired power plants operating and under construction in Asia pose a threat to achieving the goal of halting global warming, the head of the International Energy Agency told the Financial Times on Wednesday.

Powering Australia: Keeping the Lights On Means Coal-Fired Power For Generations to Come

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Australia fiddles while its own coal burns…elsewhere. That’s exactly it, but what are its apparently confused leaders thinking to allow this to happen?

STOP THESE THINGS

Australia is in the process of destroying what was the world’s most reliable and affordable power supply. The destruction is all down to heavily subsidised and chaotically intermittent wind and solar.

Meanwhile, our major Asian trading partners, China and Japan are chewing up Australian coal and uranium as fast as we can ship it – and building hundreds of new plants to use our high-grade thermal coal: Full-Steam Ahead: China & Japan Snub Intermittent Wind & Solar to Build Hundreds of New-Age Coal-Fired Plants

That a country once renowned as an affordable energy superpower is throttling itself to death with a cocktail of suicidal renewable energy policies, is not just ironic, it is flat out criminal.

Tens of thousands of blue-collar jobs in mining, mineral processing and manufacturing have already been destroyed by rocketing power prices; and tens of thousands more remain under threat. Once lost, those jobs will never…

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Australia’s top scientist calls for hydrogen revolution to replace fossil fuels

An obvious problem with hydrogen is the likely high cost of production. Another one is the vast amounts of renewables needed to make the plan work, or if coal or gas is used, the high cost and doubtful viability of large-scale carbon capture.

Meantime, Environment Minister Melissa Price has rejected the findings of a major climate report, despite not having read it, says the Sydney Morning Herald.

The federal government’s top scientist Alan Finkel says Australia could slash global carbon emissions and create a multi-billion dollar export industry by developing hydrogen as an everyday energy source to replace fossil fuels used in vehicles, homes and industry.

Germany struggles to end coal power as populist AfD challenges green consensus

Hambach surface mine, Germany [image credit: Wikipedia]

To be more realistic, delete ‘struggles’ and insert ‘fails totally’. The bottom line is that part-time unpredictable electricity supplies are of strictly limited use to modern industrial economies dependent on continuous and adequate – preferably affordable – power for their survival and prosperity. Granted, lignite is not a great choice of fuel but something has to be used to keep the show on the road 24/7.

Coal showdown reflects government’s floundering shift to renewable power, says The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF).

Not far from Germany’s Rhine River, a fight to thwart giant excavators from grinding away what’s left of the 1,200-year-old Hambach forest came to a head this month as thousands of protesters faced off with police in a tense, and at times violent, showdown.

Doomsday: New Energy Minister – Angus Taylor Declares War On Subsidises for Wind & Solar

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New Australian energy minister Taylor: ‘Something has gone terribly wrong’. Can’t argue with that.

[Note re. heading: ‘subsidises’ should read ‘subsidies’]

STOP THESE THINGS

Angus Taylor’s elevation to Energy Minister is the beginning of the end for subsidised wind and solar in Australia. And the merry mix of zealots and profiteers that people the anti-carbon dioxide industrial complex, surely know it.

As every history buff knows, the French Revolution kicked into gear when an angry mob overran the Bastille on 14 July 1789. But the fun and games didn’t really commence until Maximilian Robespierre launched his Reign of Terror. ‘The Terror’ was clearly a nervous time for those who had fallen out of favour with Robespierre and his revolutionaries. Old certainties and aristocratic manners gave way to the brutal efficiency of the guillotine, and the public squares in Paris were quickly filled with the panicked screams of condemned ‘aristos’ and anyone else deemed to be an apologist for the Bourbon King’s slights and tyrannies.

Sure, things got out of hand and way too bloody…

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Climate change action off the agenda under new Australian government

Lots of coal in Australia

Disastrous virtue signalling is out and reliable affordable energy generation is in, according to this GWPF report.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has unveiled a new energy policy focused exclusively on reducing electricity prices, in a strong signal the Morrison government will abandon all efforts to lower carbon emissions.

The move comes a week after the issue of climate change precipitated the ousting of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. “My No.1 priority is very, very simple,” Mr Taylor said in a speech on Thursday. “It is to reduce power prices, and to do this while we keep the lights on.”

Ousted Australian PM: This government cannot address climate change

Ex-PM Malcolm Turnbull [image credit: BBC]

Same for every other government. Unless they can change the orbit of the Earth or control the Sun, they are likely to be out of luck.

Turnbull replaced by treasurer who brought lump of coal to parliament, says Climate Home News.

Australia’s governing party cannot agree a climate policy because of anti-science forces within, the outgoing prime minister said just moments after being deposed in a party room coup on Friday.