Three Million UK Households Already In Energy Debt Ahead Of Winter
In this newsletter:
1) Three Million British Households Already In Energy Debt Ahead Of Winter
Energy Live News, 16 October 2019
2) On Your Utility Bill, The Soaring Price Of Green Gesture Politics
Andrew Montford, The Conservative Woman, 15 October 2019
3) 'Can You Afford the Green New Deal?'
PJ Media, 15 October 2019
4) Conservative Alliance Targets Climate Alarmists Down Under
The Australian, 16 October 2019
5) Global Boom In SUVs Is Guzzling Up The Fuel Savings Made By Green Cars, IEA Report
Car Advice, 15 October 2019
6) Russia Considers Banning Foreign Companies from Renewable Energy Projects
Moscow Times, 16 October 2019
7) Climate Crisis? What Climate Crisis? Brazil Set To Post Record Harvest
Argus Media, 10 October 2019
Full details:
1) Three Million British Households Already In Energy Debt As Winter Approaches
Energy Live News, 16 October 2019
These fuel-poor households collectively owe nearly £417 million to their suppliers, with the year’s coldest weather soon to arrive.
Three million households are already in energy debt ahead of the winter.
Auto-switching service Migrate has revealed these fuel-poor households collectively owe nearly £417 million to their suppliers, with the year’s coldest weather soon to arrive.
Around 12% of people are currently in debt to their energy supplier, with customers owing an average of £124 each – this is likely to worsen as energy demand ramps up to keep homes warm during winter.
Full story
2) On Your Utility Bill, The Soaring Price Of Green Gesture Politics
Andrew Montford, The Conservative Woman, 15 October 2019
In the murkiest depths of an official release of financial data lurks some fascinating information about just how much the political class’s obsession with renewable energy is costing us.
In a blog published yesterday by the Global Warming Policy Forum, my colleague John Constable outlines the contents of Supplementary Table 2.7 of the Office of Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook for March 2019.
The table shows that the cost of the main bungs to the renewables industry – the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs, Contracts for Difference and so on – has now reached £9.6billion a year, or £340 per household. Some of this goes directly on to bills, but a large share is passed on to industrial users, who then claw it back from consumers via higher prices. Either way, you pay.
Constable’s figures are only part of the picture. Vast expenditure is required on upgrades to the electricity grid to accommodate renewables, and a whole lot more needs to be spent on dealing with their intermittency. Not the least of these interventions are so-called ‘constraints payments’, when wind farms (typically in Scotland) are paid to switch off because the grid can’t get the electricity to where it is needed (England). In these circumstances, you pay three times over: once to get the wind farm to switch off, again for the electricity it didn’t produce, and then a third payment is required to get somebody to generate electricity where it is required. It’s fair to say that this is not a cheap intervention. One estimate reckons costs will soon be another billion pounds per year.
And it’s going to get worse. Reading between the lines of the OBR figures, Constable projects that £9.8billion figure rising to £12billion a year by 2023. With grid costs rising too, the figure could easily reach £500 per household.
It’s worth remembering why we are doing this. It’s certainly not going to make any difference to the Earth’s temperature: our carbon dioxide emissions are a tiny fraction of the global total, and smaller than annual increases in China and India. No, we are doing this as a gesture: a way to show our leadership on climate change, setting an example to the rest of the world.
Full post & comments
3) 'Can You Afford the Green New Deal?'
PJ Media, 15 October 2019
CEI ad on the astronomical costs of the Green New Deal -- click here or on image above to watch video ad.
On Tuesday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) will run a powerful ad against the Green New Deal during the fourth Democratic debate. The ad asks Americans, "Can you afford the Green New Deal?"
"You have a choice," the ad begins. "Common-sense energy policies. Under forty dollars to fill a car. Low gas prices, easy to visit family, run errands, grow a business."
"The other option?" the narrator continues. "Alarmism. Doomsday predictions from politicians. A so-called Green New Deal. The truth is: Skyrocketing gas prices and electric bills; the economy, strangled; government in every part of life."
As the narrator describes this situation, the screen flashes with images of gas sold at high prices and the American Action Forum's estimate for the cost of the Green New Deal as proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.): a whopping $93 trillion.
"When you hear about the Green New Deal, ask yourself: Can you afford it?"
This is an excellent question, although if the ad were longer, CEI could have driven the point home a bit stronger.
Full story
4) Conservative Alliance Targets Climate Alarmists Down Under
The Australian, 16 October 2019
The new voice of Australia’s conservative movement has vowed to go after radical left-wing groups in a national campaign against “climate alarmists”, after accusing members of activist group Extinction Rebellion of being criminals who pose a menace to society.
‘They are a menace to society’: new Advance Australia boss Liz Storer in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Chris Pavlich
Liz Storer, a 36-year-old former Liberal councillor and ministerial adviser, will be announced on Wednesday as the new national director of centre-right campaign machine Advance Australia, which has positioned itself as the political counter to GetUp.
Her appointment comes as GetUp’s national director, Paul Oosting, fronts the National Press Club on Wednesday amid internal inquiries into its failed campaign to unseat a list of targeted conservative MPs at the May election.
But Ms Storer said while GetUp was on her radar, her first campaign would be aimed at Extinction Rebellion, which has risen from obscurity to prominence in the past week by closing down traffic in the CBDs of Brisbane and Melbourne.
These people are seriously unhinged,” Ms Storer said. “They are going to be one of our first campaigns … These guys are very strategic but the truth is they are not a climate change action group.
They may market themselves that way. They are hell bent on deconstructing society as we know it … they operate on a manifesto of delusions based on a rejection of European colonisation and traditional values that most mainstream Australians hold dear.
“They are a menace to society … We saw last week the Victorian police saying they had to stop normal policing to deal with them. ER are proving to be the real criminals …. Gluing themselves to streets (and) hanging from bridges.”
Ms Storer, who has a masters degree in human rights and was elected to the suburban Perth council of Gosnells before becoming an adviser to conservative federal Coalition senator and assistant minister Zed Seselja, said the militant advance of climate activism had not been effectively challenged and that Advance Australia’s mission was to be the voice of “mainstream Australia”.
It would also run counter campaigns against MPs with “radical agendas” and run lobbying and public campaigns against state governments over activism in the education system.
“A mate of mine called me this morning to tell me his daughter had texted him from school to tell him that her teacher said a third of their class would be dead by 2050 because of climate change,” Ms Storer said. “Climate anxiety is becoming a real thing.”
While Advance Australia is heavily outgunned by established groups such as GetUp, it quickly raised $2.5m in donations with a 45,000-strong supporter base in its first 12 months of operation since being formed in November last year with the backing of prominent businessmen including Maurice Newman and James Power of the Queensland brewing dynasty.
Full story ($)
5) Global Boom In SUVs Is Guzzling Up The Fuel Savings Made By Eco Cars, IEA Report
Car Advice, 15 October 2019
The global boom in SUV sales has soaked up the fuel-saving measures of smaller and more efficient cars, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.
This is going to make uncomfortable reading for a lot of mums and dads on the school run – especially as Australia is front and centre in the global boom in SUV sales.
A report by the International Energy Agency released overnight says the massive growth in SUV sales around the world is offsetting the fuel savings being made in the latest small cars.
Sales of SUVs overtook passenger cars in Australia two years ago, in 2017, and account for 60 per cent of new passenger vehicle sales both here and in the USA. (In Australia so far this year 365,000 SUVs have been sold versus 246,000 passenger cars).
The International Energy Agency report said that, on average, SUVs consume about a quarter more energy than medium-size cars.
“As a result, global fuel economy worsened caused in part by the rising SUV demand since the beginning of the decade,” the report said.
This was despite figures showing efficiency improvements in smaller cars "saved over 2 million barrels a day, and electric cars displaced less than 100,000 barrels a day".
In fact, the report said SUVs were responsible for "all of the 3.3 million barrels a day growth in oil demand from passenger cars between 2010 and 2018, while oil use from other type of cars (excluding SUVs) declined slightly".
The International Energy Agency warned if buyer tastes for SUVs continues to grow at a similar pace seen in the last decade, “SUVs would add nearly 2 million barrels a day in global oil demand by 2040, offsetting the savings from nearly 150 million electric cars”.
Full story
6) Russia Considers Banning Foreign Companies from Renewable Energy Projects
Moscow Times, 16 October 2019
Russia is considering banning foreign companies from taking a lead role in designing and building the country’s green energy infrastructure, Russian daily Vedomosti said on Wednesday.
New proposals currently being discussed would block contracts for new wind and solar farms, along with other renewable energy production projects, from being awarded to non-Russian entities.
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