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The EU’s Poor Climate Policies Lead to Poor Results

  November 15, 202   Fortunately, the European public is starting to demand a better path forward. A head   of the traditional October summit of EU leaders, Germany’s leading business association, BDI, launched a stern warning that  deindustrialization was no longer a risk but a reality . The association  stated : “Today, this risk [of de-industrialisation] has become a reality in significant parts of the industry.” It is not hard to understand why German industry is struggling. Natural-gas prices in Europe are projected to be five times higher than in the United States in 2025. For energy-intensive industries, this makes it very difficult to compete . But as the BDI made clear, those sectors of German industry that are not as vulnerable to changes in energy prices are also doing poorly. One explanation is the  fracking  revolution in the U.S., which drove down energy prices. By  some estimates , Europe has substantial reserves of recoverable shale gas, but it is hard to know for sure
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Behold Your Green Future in Detail

  Europe’s leaders can’t resist touching the hot (electric) stove again and again. Expensive and invasive policies to tackle climate change scramble one election after another, yet French President Emmanuel Macron thinks his country’s latest climate “roadmap” will be more popular? Maybe or maybe not, but his administration published it anyway. France is subject to the European Union’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and the government periodically issues plans explaining how the country will get there. The theme this year is that net zero is going to touch every corner of life and then some—and will it ever. Paris contemplates regulating delivery and return services for e-commerce to ensure carbon compliance, urging consumers instead to repair defective products rather than replacing them. Fancy a  steak frites  or a duck  à l’orange ? Not anymore: Paris will insist you switch to vegetarian  ratatouille  to limit the carbon footprint of your diet. How the French travel and w
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US onshore wind industry struggling despite government push for clean energy, analyst says

HOUSTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Onshore wind industry investment is struggling despite the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, Geoffrey Hebertson, lead renewables analyst at Rystad Energy, told attendees at an energy conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and Kansas City on Wednesday.   Despite the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which enabled production tax credits and investment tax credits for the next 10 years, the onshore wind industry is struggling to maintain investment levels, Hebertson said.   "We do expect 2024 to be a historically low year for wind and we do not see over the next few years any implications going forward for that to change," he added.   Current installed  wind generation capacity  in the U.S. is roughly 152 gigawatts (GW), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Shortages of parts, jumps in labor costs and drawn-out development timelines have  slowed the pace  of wind-farm construction in the last couple of years.   US onsho
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Repeal the Inflation Reduction Act

November 14, 2024 W ith   the Republican House majority officially secured, Republicans will have a trifecta come January 20. They need to use their newfound power to repeal the  so-called  Inflation Reduction Act  in its entirety . Democrats passed the IRA without a single Republican vote   through budget reconciliation.  Republicans can repeal it without a single Democratic vote  through budget reconciliation. The law never had anything to do with inflation. Immediately after Congress passed it, the media called it what it always was: a  climate and health-care law . Joe Biden himself has said  more  than  once  that the law wasn’t about reducing inflation. Democrats gleefully enriched the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, with $80 billion in additional IRS funding, and the NTEU has been sure to send them a thank-you note  each   year  since, along with the normal 95+ percent of its  PAC donations . Extra revenue raised from tax enforcement is  nowher
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Their Democracy

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Recent events in the State of Washington pit environmentalists against the voting public. Doomberg Nov 13, 2024 ∙    “Don't pay any attention to the critics—don't even ignore them.” – Samuel Goldwyn By nearly all the measures that matter, the State of Washington’s energy mix is about as  green as it gets .  Leveraging the powerful flows of the Columbia River, Washington generates approximately 60% of its electricity from hydroelectric dams. The Grand Coulee Dam is by far the largest hydroelectricity producer in the US and ranks among the top ten globally, generating more than 20 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. The state is also home to the Northwest’s only commercial nuclear energy facility—the Columbia Generating Station—which provides a further 8% of annual supply to the grid, about as much as is currently delivered by wind turbines. The balance of Washington’s generation comes from clean-burning natural gas, and the last of its large coal furnaces is set to close in 2
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Should State Laws Determine National Energy and Climate Policies?

By  Benjamin Zycher   November 8, 2024   All eyes are on the Supreme Court . O pponents   of fossil fuels claim to oppose pollution, but they are all too happy to pollute our legal and constitutional institutions in pursuit of their climate-policy agenda. The latest manifestation of this trend is a litigation campaign against fossil-energy producers in state courts under state laws, alleging that the energy producers “knew” decades ago that greenhouse-gas emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels would create dangerous changes in climate phenomena, and that they failed to warn consumers about those risks. Put aside the reality that most such emissions take place outside a given state’s (or locality’s) borders, which is a huge problem for such litigation as  City & County of Honolulu v. Sunoco LP . Having lost repeatedly in federal court because climate/energy policies are the purview of Congress — see, e.g.,  here ,  here , and  here  — the opponents of fossil fuels are pursui
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Germany Is Dunkelf**ked (In 5 Charts)

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Its coalition government, wind energy output, and industrial base are all collapsing.   Nov 10, 2024 The reliability of Germany’s electric grid depends, in part, on the Garzweiler mine near Bergheim. During last week’s  dunkelflaute , Germany had to ramp up its lignite-fired power plants to keep the lights on.   You gotta love the timing. In mid-October, the German government announced it would provide $17 billion to Germany’s wind energy companies due to concerns that Chinese firms were  “ gaining momentum in the sector .” Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced the subsidies, saying, “We must continue improving conditions to keep this industry competitive and ensure future value creation within Germany and Europe. These measures are a crucial step.” Reuters cited “industry experts” who said that the use of Chinese-made wind turbines was “inevitable to meet the EU’s 2030 renewable energy targets” and that the European Commission has estimated that “at least 37 gigawatts of new wind p
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