In this newsletter:
1) Switzerland looks to ban use of electric cars over the winter to save energy
Hot Air, 1 December 2022
Hot Air, 1 December 2022
2) Dunkelflaute in Germany: Lack of sunshine and wind lull reveals renewables' worst nightmare
Die Welt, 1 December 2022
3) France refires coal plant amid energy woes
Associated Press, 30 November 2022
4) European grid operators sounding the alarm over coal supplies in Germany and Poland
Bloomberg, 1 November 2022
Die Welt, 1 December 2022
3) France refires coal plant amid energy woes
Associated Press, 30 November 2022
4) European grid operators sounding the alarm over coal supplies in Germany and Poland
Bloomberg, 1 November 2022
5) Macron says US climate law risks ‘fragmenting the west’
Financial Times, 1 December 2022
6) Total pulls investment from North Sea in response to Sunak’s windfall tax
The Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2022
Financial Times, 1 December 2022
6) Total pulls investment from North Sea in response to Sunak’s windfall tax
The Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2022
7) Tilak Doshi: King Coal: Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated (with apologies to Mark Twain)
Forbes, 1 December 2022
Forbes, 1 December 2022
8) Francis Menton: The Manhattan Contrarian energy storage paper has arrived
The Manhattan Contrarian, 1 December 2022
9) Rick Amato and Ronald Stein: Renewables have become the West's new blood diamonds
The Washington Times, 30 November 2022
The Manhattan Contrarian, 1 December 2022
9) Rick Amato and Ronald Stein: Renewables have become the West's new blood diamonds
The Washington Times, 30 November 2022
Full details:
1) Switzerland looks to ban use of electric cars over the winter to save energy
Hot Air, 1 December 2022
Hot Air, 1 December 2022
The European Union jumped on the electric vehicle craze well ahead of other parts of the world, particularly after the Paris climate accord. But in typical socialist fashion, they weren’t content with simply encouraging people to switch to EVs.
Many European countries almost immediately started making plans to ban gas-powered cars and trucks and make EVs mandatory. Lots of Europeans wanted to get out ahead of the curve and began snapping the newer models up. But then came the start of the war in Ukraine, cutting energy supplies just as Europe was trying to wean itself off of fossil fuels.
Now, in a rather embarrassing reversal, Switzerland is considering legislation that would ban people from driving electric vehicles except in urgent conditions over the winter because there simply might not be enough juice on the grid to recharge them. (From Der Spiegel. Original is in German but Google Translate can convert it for you.)
Many European countries almost immediately started making plans to ban gas-powered cars and trucks and make EVs mandatory. Lots of Europeans wanted to get out ahead of the curve and began snapping the newer models up. But then came the start of the war in Ukraine, cutting energy supplies just as Europe was trying to wean itself off of fossil fuels.
Now, in a rather embarrassing reversal, Switzerland is considering legislation that would ban people from driving electric vehicles except in urgent conditions over the winter because there simply might not be enough juice on the grid to recharge them. (From Der Spiegel. Original is in German but Google Translate can convert it for you.)
"Switzerland could be the first country to impose driving bans on e-cars in an emergency to ensure energy security. Several media report this unanimously and refer to a draft regulation on restrictions and bans on the use of electrical energy. Specifically, the paper says: “The private use of electric cars is only permitted for absolutely necessary journeys (e.g. professional practice, shopping, visiting the doctor, attending religious events, attending court appointments).” A stricter speed limit is also planned highways.
Most of the electricity in Switzerland comes from hydropower. However, the country also imports electricity from Germany and France. If there are bottlenecks there, electricity could also become scarce in Switzerland. Energy security in Europe is considered endangered because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine."
Switzerland has various “escalation levels” for its energy crisis. The ban on recharging electric vehicles would only go into effect when they reach level 3 according to the draft copy of the legislation that reporters obtained. Prior to that, the government would impose limits on how hot the water can be in washing machines (yes… seriously) and they would ban the use of leaf blowers and seat heaters in chair lifts. Bizarrely, they will also limit videos from streaming services to only be shown in SD resolution. (Huh?)
Full story
Most of the electricity in Switzerland comes from hydropower. However, the country also imports electricity from Germany and France. If there are bottlenecks there, electricity could also become scarce in Switzerland. Energy security in Europe is considered endangered because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine."
Switzerland has various “escalation levels” for its energy crisis. The ban on recharging electric vehicles would only go into effect when they reach level 3 according to the draft copy of the legislation that reporters obtained. Prior to that, the government would impose limits on how hot the water can be in washing machines (yes… seriously) and they would ban the use of leaf blowers and seat heaters in chair lifts. Bizarrely, they will also limit videos from streaming services to only be shown in SD resolution. (Huh?)
Full story
2) Dunkelflaute in Germany: Lack of sunshine and wind lull reveals renewables' worst nightmare
Die Welt, 1 December 2022
Die Welt, 1 December 2022
It is the worst case imaginable for the energy-transition nation Germany: Because of a cloudy November dims the sun and a lull in wind it is primarily coal-fired power plants that have to make up for the energy shortage.
The first winter crisis since the outbreak of the Ukraine war has not even really begun. But it is already clear how serious the consequences are for Germany's energy supply - and CO2 emissions - especially in the dark winter season. Since Tuesday, the first real dark calm of the year has prevailed in Germany: There is hardly any sunlight at the end of November while at the same time there is almost no wind. It is the worst case for a country that wants to focus primarily on renewable energy sources.
Gas and coal-fired power plants then have to compensate for the small amounts of wind and solar power. But because gas is a scarce commodity this year and probably next year, more coal-fired power plants (which emit even more CO2 than gas power plants) have been fired up again.
According to "Electricity Maps" which collects and compares electricity generation data from around the world Germany ranked 160th out of 177 global regions in the past few days in terms of CO2-Emissions per kilowatt hour. On Wednesday morning the value was 726 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour of electricity in Germany, only one European country had an even worse balance: Poland. There is even more reliance on energy from coal, which drove CO2 emissions to almost 950 grams per kilowatt hour.
The first winter crisis since the outbreak of the Ukraine war has not even really begun. But it is already clear how serious the consequences are for Germany's energy supply - and CO2 emissions - especially in the dark winter season. Since Tuesday, the first real dark calm of the year has prevailed in Germany: There is hardly any sunlight at the end of November while at the same time there is almost no wind. It is the worst case for a country that wants to focus primarily on renewable energy sources.
Gas and coal-fired power plants then have to compensate for the small amounts of wind and solar power. But because gas is a scarce commodity this year and probably next year, more coal-fired power plants (which emit even more CO2 than gas power plants) have been fired up again.
According to "Electricity Maps" which collects and compares electricity generation data from around the world Germany ranked 160th out of 177 global regions in the past few days in terms of CO2-Emissions per kilowatt hour. On Wednesday morning the value was 726 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour of electricity in Germany, only one European country had an even worse balance: Poland. There is even more reliance on energy from coal, which drove CO2 emissions to almost 950 grams per kilowatt hour.
At the same time, other countries, especially in Scandinavia, generate their electricity in a much more climate-friendly way. Sweden, for example, only came up with a value of 21 grams per kilowatt hour. In addition to a lot of energy from hydropower, the country's nuclear power plants also contributed more than a quarter of the required amount of electricity.
In Germany, too, the three remaining nuclear power plants deliver more than 3.8 gigawatts on Wednesday morning, and thus not just more than five percent of the total electricity. Due to the dark doldrums, more nuclear power was produced in Germany than with solar panels and wind turbines. During the same period, wind energy only supplied 3.3 gigawatts, while solar energy contributed 3.1 gigawatts to the German electricity mix.
The last three nuclear power plants are to be shut down by April next year at the latest, so the lack of energy during such dark wind lulls next winter would have to be compensated for by even more electricity from gas and coal-fired power plants, and CO2 emissions could increase accordingly.
The role that the weather currently plays is also shown by how little of the maximum available capacity of the wind and solar energy systems could be used. The German wind turbines were actually able to generate just five percent of the maximum capacity, and the share of solar energy was just under five percent.
Translation Net Zero Watch
3) France refires coal plant amid energy woes
Associated Press, 30 November 2022
In Germany, too, the three remaining nuclear power plants deliver more than 3.8 gigawatts on Wednesday morning, and thus not just more than five percent of the total electricity. Due to the dark doldrums, more nuclear power was produced in Germany than with solar panels and wind turbines. During the same period, wind energy only supplied 3.3 gigawatts, while solar energy contributed 3.1 gigawatts to the German electricity mix.
The last three nuclear power plants are to be shut down by April next year at the latest, so the lack of energy during such dark wind lulls next winter would have to be compensated for by even more electricity from gas and coal-fired power plants, and CO2 emissions could increase accordingly.
The role that the weather currently plays is also shown by how little of the maximum available capacity of the wind and solar energy systems could be used. The German wind turbines were actually able to generate just five percent of the maximum capacity, and the share of solar energy was just under five percent.
Translation Net Zero Watch
3) France refires coal plant amid energy woes
Associated Press, 30 November 2022
SAINT-AVOLD, France -- The end of France’s coal era seemed so certain last year that the operator of one of the country’s last coal-burning plants posted an upbeat educational video on YouTube titled “Let’s visit a coal plant that's going to be destroyed!”
The plant in the northeastern town of Saint-Avold indeed halted coal production as scheduled earlier this year — but not for long. This week, its workers were back at the controls, transporting coal from storage heaps and refiring furnaces, as part of emergency efforts to keep the heat and electricity on this winter.
The energy crisis across Europe unleashed by Russia’s war in Ukraine has paved the way for coal’s comeback in some regions, to the dismay of politicians and activists who warn this endangers climate goals, the climate itself and public health.
“Working here we know the negative impact of the coal plant, but nonetheless we see it as a necessary evil," said shift supervisor Thomas About at the Emile-Huchet Power Plant in Saint-Avold.
“Given the current state of the electrical network, I nonetheless fear greatly that this production tool is necessary in the medium term," he told The Associated Press.
Nearby, wheel loaders scooped mounds of coal and dumped it onto conveyor belts, and gray fumes rose from the plant's smokestacks.
In France the return to coal is surprising because the country started phasing it out decades ago and relies heavily on nuclear power instead. But this year, on top of Russia largely cutting off natural gas to Europe, nearly half of France’s nuclear reactors shut down for maintenance or corrosion and other problems.
Facing a worst-case scenario of rolling power cuts to households, the government issued a decree in September to allow Saint-Avold to start again and continued activity at another coal plant in western France, citing the “exceptional” and “unforeseeable” context of energy supply challenges.
President Emmanuel Macron had initially vowed to close all coal-burning plants in the country by the end of this year due to climate-related concerns.
The impact of the backtrack will largely be felt locally, since coal plays only a minor role in France's energy mix nationwide. The two coal plants produced a maximum of 3% of France's electricity Tuesday, according to the national grid operator, compared to some 60% from nuclear plants.
Full story
4) European grid operators sounding the alarm over coal supplies in Germany and Poland
Bloomberg, 1 November 2022
The plant in the northeastern town of Saint-Avold indeed halted coal production as scheduled earlier this year — but not for long. This week, its workers were back at the controls, transporting coal from storage heaps and refiring furnaces, as part of emergency efforts to keep the heat and electricity on this winter.
The energy crisis across Europe unleashed by Russia’s war in Ukraine has paved the way for coal’s comeback in some regions, to the dismay of politicians and activists who warn this endangers climate goals, the climate itself and public health.
“Working here we know the negative impact of the coal plant, but nonetheless we see it as a necessary evil," said shift supervisor Thomas About at the Emile-Huchet Power Plant in Saint-Avold.
“Given the current state of the electrical network, I nonetheless fear greatly that this production tool is necessary in the medium term," he told The Associated Press.
Nearby, wheel loaders scooped mounds of coal and dumped it onto conveyor belts, and gray fumes rose from the plant's smokestacks.
In France the return to coal is surprising because the country started phasing it out decades ago and relies heavily on nuclear power instead. But this year, on top of Russia largely cutting off natural gas to Europe, nearly half of France’s nuclear reactors shut down for maintenance or corrosion and other problems.
Facing a worst-case scenario of rolling power cuts to households, the government issued a decree in September to allow Saint-Avold to start again and continued activity at another coal plant in western France, citing the “exceptional” and “unforeseeable” context of energy supply challenges.
President Emmanuel Macron had initially vowed to close all coal-burning plants in the country by the end of this year due to climate-related concerns.
The impact of the backtrack will largely be felt locally, since coal plays only a minor role in France's energy mix nationwide. The two coal plants produced a maximum of 3% of France's electricity Tuesday, according to the national grid operator, compared to some 60% from nuclear plants.
Full story
4) European grid operators sounding the alarm over coal supplies in Germany and Poland
Bloomberg, 1 November 2022
European grid operators are sounding the alarm over coal supplies in Germany and Poland as the continent heads into the winter.
Poland faces greater risks toward the end of the season, European grid group Entsoe said in its winter outlook published on Thursday, suggesting that coal stocks there should be carefully assessed throughout the winter and not overused.
Germany has also been burning more coal for electricity lately -- due to low wind generation -- and the country will need to depend on coal even more after April, when it will completely turn off its nuclear plants. Even before that point, nuclear capacity will decline as fuel elements become exhausted during extended operation, Entsoe said.
Europe’s fragile energy systems are seeing their first winter test as colder weather kicks in. Leaders have been urging consumers to conserve energy in an effort to get through the season, and for now gas stockpiles are still close to full, despite a few weeks of net outflows. Entsoe hadn’t identified the risk to coal in a preliminary report in October.
In one of its scenarios, Entsoe expects an increasing share of electricity supply to be provided by gas-fired plants. It also said that net power exports from Poland may be limited during the winter due to the limited supply of coal.
The main system test, however, remains in Ireland, France, Southern Sweden, Finland, Malta and Cyprus, according to the European grid group. The European network will face the most stress in January and February, but France and Ireland could see issues before that, Entsoe said.
The slow revamp of nuclear capacity, mainly in France, but also a loss of nuclear capacity in Sweden and Finland, is challenges those countries’ power supply. However, France has lately been able to gradually bring back some of its reactors.
Poland faces greater risks toward the end of the season, European grid group Entsoe said in its winter outlook published on Thursday, suggesting that coal stocks there should be carefully assessed throughout the winter and not overused.
Germany has also been burning more coal for electricity lately -- due to low wind generation -- and the country will need to depend on coal even more after April, when it will completely turn off its nuclear plants. Even before that point, nuclear capacity will decline as fuel elements become exhausted during extended operation, Entsoe said.
Europe’s fragile energy systems are seeing their first winter test as colder weather kicks in. Leaders have been urging consumers to conserve energy in an effort to get through the season, and for now gas stockpiles are still close to full, despite a few weeks of net outflows. Entsoe hadn’t identified the risk to coal in a preliminary report in October.
In one of its scenarios, Entsoe expects an increasing share of electricity supply to be provided by gas-fired plants. It also said that net power exports from Poland may be limited during the winter due to the limited supply of coal.
The main system test, however, remains in Ireland, France, Southern Sweden, Finland, Malta and Cyprus, according to the European grid group. The European network will face the most stress in January and February, but France and Ireland could see issues before that, Entsoe said.
The slow revamp of nuclear capacity, mainly in France, but also a loss of nuclear capacity in Sweden and Finland, is challenges those countries’ power supply. However, France has lately been able to gradually bring back some of its reactors.
5) Macron says US climate law risks ‘fragmenting the west’
Financial Times, 1 December 2022
Financial Times, 1 December 2022
Emmanuel Macron warned that the US risked “fragmenting the west” with a climate law by subsidising American companies to the detriment of European industries.
Macron’s criticism on the first day of his state visit to Washington underlines the growing anxiety in Europe over the so-called Inflation Reduction Act and its $400bn worth of incentives to fund green transition. EU member states have been particularly exercised by subsidies for electric cars manufactured in the US and tax credits to promote industries such as renewable energy and batteries.
While its objectives of helping companies and consumers move to green technologies were laudable, the law would have negative repercussions for Europe by making it less attractive for companies to invest there, Macron said.
“The choices of the past few months, in particular the IRA, are choices that will fragment the west,” Macron said at the French embassy in Washington on Wednesday evening. “We need to co-ordinate and re-synchronise our policy agendas.”
Earlier on Wednesday at a closed-door lunch held at Congress with executives and lawmakers, Macron called the IRA “super-aggressive for our companies”, according to a person who attended the event. “Perhaps this law will solve your problems but it will make mine worse,” the French president said, adding that many jobs would be destroyed.
The issue is expected to weigh on the discussions between Macron and Joe Biden, who are also due to talk about the war in Ukraine, its economic fallout on Europe, and relations with China.
French officials said discussions were under way with their US counterparts about possible remedies that would help avoid distortions in sectors such as electric cars and renewable energy.
One option would be for the US to add the EU to the list of countries whose products can qualify for subsidies, similar to how Mexico and Canada are treated because of existing trade agreements, the officials said. But it has proven difficult to get the US to change its approach given that Congress has already passed the law.
The Biden administration has defended the IRA as necessary to boost the electric cars sector and help fight climate change in the US. It has called on Europe to come up with its own subsidy regime in response.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said there had already been “very productive discussions” on the IRA and that “the team here is exploring options”. He declined to say whether concrete proposals would be made during Macron’s visit. The US has a task force with the EU on the matter, and it would continue discussions, he said.
Macron has also called on the EU to pass a so-called “Buy European Act” that would offer similar subsidies to local industries. Other countries such as Germany are less supportive of the idea. On Thursday the EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager expressed caution about it because it would take time to implement.
“Since we need to take action within a reasonable timeframe, we try to see how we can best use the tools that we have,” she said at a press conference in Paris.
6) Total pulls investment from North Sea in response to Sunak’s windfall tax
The Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2022
French oil giant TotalEnergies has become the first major North Sea operator to cut investment as a direct result of Rishi Sunak's windfall tax.
The €157bn (£134bn) company is to reduce planned spending on new wells by a quarter next year as the levy forces drilling businesses to reexamine their plans.
Its decision will be regarded as a blow for the Prime Minister, who said earlier this year that it was “vital we encourage continued investment by the oil and gas industry in the North Sea” to help protect energy security from competing foreign powers.
Total is understood to be pulling planned investment worth about £100m - 25pc of previously planned spending - with proposals now axed to drill an additional well at its Elgin gas field about 200 kilometres east of Aberdeen.
The Paris-based business is the North Sea’s second largest operator, with fields sprawled from its centre up to the Shetland Isles.
One industry source said this evening that while the Elgin well project in itself was relatively small, the decision by Total was a “big deal… and something the government should be very worried about”.
Jean-Luc Guiziou, Total's UK country chairman, said the windfall tax punishes short-cycle investments such as these additional “infill” wells, which are a vital tool to sustain production at existing fields.
He said: “A competitive and stable fiscal and regulatory regime is vital to investment in critical energy and infrastructure projects that will support the UK’s security of supply and net zero ambitions."
The windfall tax was first introduced in May when Mr Sunak was chancellor, and was increased at the Autumn Statement in November after he became the Prime Minister.
North Sea oil and gas profits are being taxed at 75pc until 2028, up from the normal level of 40pc, as ministers attempt to claw back what companies make from higher wholesale prices so they can fund help for households.
The FTSE 100-listed business Shell last week said it was reviewing plans to invest £25bn into Britain’s energy system, ranging from renewables to oil and gas projects. David Bunch, Shell’s UK chairman, said the tax “brings a strong headwind".
Full story
Macron’s criticism on the first day of his state visit to Washington underlines the growing anxiety in Europe over the so-called Inflation Reduction Act and its $400bn worth of incentives to fund green transition. EU member states have been particularly exercised by subsidies for electric cars manufactured in the US and tax credits to promote industries such as renewable energy and batteries.
While its objectives of helping companies and consumers move to green technologies were laudable, the law would have negative repercussions for Europe by making it less attractive for companies to invest there, Macron said.
“The choices of the past few months, in particular the IRA, are choices that will fragment the west,” Macron said at the French embassy in Washington on Wednesday evening. “We need to co-ordinate and re-synchronise our policy agendas.”
Earlier on Wednesday at a closed-door lunch held at Congress with executives and lawmakers, Macron called the IRA “super-aggressive for our companies”, according to a person who attended the event. “Perhaps this law will solve your problems but it will make mine worse,” the French president said, adding that many jobs would be destroyed.
The issue is expected to weigh on the discussions between Macron and Joe Biden, who are also due to talk about the war in Ukraine, its economic fallout on Europe, and relations with China.
French officials said discussions were under way with their US counterparts about possible remedies that would help avoid distortions in sectors such as electric cars and renewable energy.
One option would be for the US to add the EU to the list of countries whose products can qualify for subsidies, similar to how Mexico and Canada are treated because of existing trade agreements, the officials said. But it has proven difficult to get the US to change its approach given that Congress has already passed the law.
The Biden administration has defended the IRA as necessary to boost the electric cars sector and help fight climate change in the US. It has called on Europe to come up with its own subsidy regime in response.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said there had already been “very productive discussions” on the IRA and that “the team here is exploring options”. He declined to say whether concrete proposals would be made during Macron’s visit. The US has a task force with the EU on the matter, and it would continue discussions, he said.
Macron has also called on the EU to pass a so-called “Buy European Act” that would offer similar subsidies to local industries. Other countries such as Germany are less supportive of the idea. On Thursday the EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager expressed caution about it because it would take time to implement.
“Since we need to take action within a reasonable timeframe, we try to see how we can best use the tools that we have,” she said at a press conference in Paris.
6) Total pulls investment from North Sea in response to Sunak’s windfall tax
The Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2022
French oil giant TotalEnergies has become the first major North Sea operator to cut investment as a direct result of Rishi Sunak's windfall tax.
The €157bn (£134bn) company is to reduce planned spending on new wells by a quarter next year as the levy forces drilling businesses to reexamine their plans.
Its decision will be regarded as a blow for the Prime Minister, who said earlier this year that it was “vital we encourage continued investment by the oil and gas industry in the North Sea” to help protect energy security from competing foreign powers.
Total is understood to be pulling planned investment worth about £100m - 25pc of previously planned spending - with proposals now axed to drill an additional well at its Elgin gas field about 200 kilometres east of Aberdeen.
The Paris-based business is the North Sea’s second largest operator, with fields sprawled from its centre up to the Shetland Isles.
One industry source said this evening that while the Elgin well project in itself was relatively small, the decision by Total was a “big deal… and something the government should be very worried about”.
Jean-Luc Guiziou, Total's UK country chairman, said the windfall tax punishes short-cycle investments such as these additional “infill” wells, which are a vital tool to sustain production at existing fields.
He said: “A competitive and stable fiscal and regulatory regime is vital to investment in critical energy and infrastructure projects that will support the UK’s security of supply and net zero ambitions."
The windfall tax was first introduced in May when Mr Sunak was chancellor, and was increased at the Autumn Statement in November after he became the Prime Minister.
North Sea oil and gas profits are being taxed at 75pc until 2028, up from the normal level of 40pc, as ministers attempt to claw back what companies make from higher wholesale prices so they can fund help for households.
The FTSE 100-listed business Shell last week said it was reviewing plans to invest £25bn into Britain’s energy system, ranging from renewables to oil and gas projects. David Bunch, Shell’s UK chairman, said the tax “brings a strong headwind".
Full story
7) Tilak Doshi: King Coal: Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated (with apologies to Mark Twain)
Forbes, 1 December 2022
Forbes, 1 December 2022
It falls upon King Coal to continue serving the basic needs of over three quarters of the planet’s population. It is hardly likely that policy makers in China, India and the other populous countries of Southeast Asia and Africa will forsake the fuel.
President Biden said recently that “we’re going to be shutting [coal] plants down all across America and having wind and solar.” West Virginia’s Democrat Senator Joe Manchin, representing a state that gets 90% of its electricity from coal, scathingly called Biden’s comments “outrageous … offensive and disgusting” which “ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs”.
Senator Manchin had extended legislative support for President Biden’s so-called “Inflation Reduction Act”, laden with pork for wind and solar, in return for a “nebulous ‘deal’ with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to pursue the passage of language designed to streamline federal energy permitting processes”.
But the bottom line remains in Senator Manchin’s favor, even if he was played by the Democrat establishment: King Coal is making a comeback all around the world. West Virginia’s coal miners may well lose their livelihoods to the renewable energy diktats of the progressive Green Democrats in charge at Washington D.C. but King Coal runs supreme where it matters. After decades of energy policies in the West which sought to eliminate coal use in the global economy, it seems that King Coal is living through a 2nd Renaissance.
Asia Leads: Making A Comeback
Obituaries for coal have been announced ad nauseam, most recently at last year’s UN climate change COP26 summit in Edinburgh. Yet we saw the eight-fold price surge in coal since September 2020 to over $430 per ton two years later from prices that ranged between $50 - $150 a ton through the past decade. This was led by a resurgence of demand after the pandemic lockdowns – especially in China and India, the world’s two largest coal consumers accounting for two-thirds of the world total — but also in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the US.
According to the BP statistical review, global electricity demand, which grew at an average of 2.5% in the decade to 2021, expanded by 6.2% in 2021. In Asia, electricity demand grew even faster at 8.4%. Global coal power generation, the world’s biggest fuel source of electricity, set a record in 2021. While it grew at 1.2% annually over the past decade, it surged by 8.8% in 2021 over the previous year. The trends suggest that coal will be enjoying at least a few more bumper years yet.
After droughts and heatwaves led to power shortages in China and India last year, both countries have accelerated the building of coal mining and coal power generating plants despite climate policy ‘commitments’ for attaining net zero emission targets by 2060 and 2070 respectively. China is expected to approve 270GW of new coal power plants by 2025, larger than the entire US coal fleet. At the COP27 summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, India’s coal minister Pralhad Joshi said that coal will play an important role “until at least 2040 and beyond”. He continued, “Thus, no transition away from coal is happening in the foreseeable future in India”.
At last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, it was no surprise that India, China and several other developing countries created a last-minute objection to language that called for the “phase out” of coal. To the emotional regret expressed by a tearful Alok Sharma, host and President of COP26, the final text of the Glasgow Agreement called only for the “phase down” of coal. At the COP27 negotiations just concluded in Sharm El Sheikh, India demanded that coal not be “singled out” in the final agreement and that “all fossil fuels” be treated as equals.
It is apparent that neither China nor India – in common with many other developing countries dependent on coal — will compromise on energy security and economic growth objectives, least of all during globally turbulent times in the wake of the pandemic lockdowns and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Europe Lags: Back To The Past
While the juggernaut of Asian coal demand will roll on for a few more decades at least, coal’s comeback is even more remarkable in Europe. This is the same Green Europe that boasted of its dismantling of coal and nuclear power plants while imposing financial embargoes on multi-lateral development agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for fossil fuel development in developing countries.
Let’s start with Germany, the epicenter of Green Europe. Among the more recent energy news headlines in that country is this one: “Germany dismantles wind farm to expand coal mine”. And another one is on “Germany Re-Opens Five Lignite-Fired Power Plants”. Readers might note that lignite coal is about the dirtiest form of fossil fuel to generate electricity from, but we live in strange times.
At the end of June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition gave the green light to restart 27 coal-fired power plants until March 2024. That is quite a turnaround for a country that shunned all fossil fuels for the last three decades, shutting down its nuclear plants after the Fukushima incident as well as its coal and natural gas plants for their high carbon footprints.
Heavy dependence on Russian piped natural gas prior to the Russian sanctions — up to 60% of total gas demand — did not register on Germany’s “carbon sin” audit books, so that was fine. So long as Germany was not dependent on European-origin fossil fuels – God forbid depending on your own fracked gas or on North Sea oil and gas – it passed the “fighting climate change” virtue test. But Russian gas supplies progressively shrunk, as the EU sanctioned itself from Russian gas after President Putin ordered Russian tanks into Ukraine in late February. First were the blockages by Gazprom, on some technical ground or another, and then the sabotage of both Nordstream pipelines in mid-October which led to a de facto cutoff of Germany and Europe from the bulk of Russian gas supplies.
While unsuccessfully seeking quick replacements of natural gas imports from Canada to Qatar, Germany faces the prospects of a winter with mandatory gas rationing for households, even planning for fuelwood for home heating. It is already witnessing the decimation of German energy-intensive industry from petrochemicals to wood, paper, glass, aluminum and steel.
In the EU, Austria, France, Italy and the Netherlands have announced plans to extend or restart coal power plants to survive winter. Like Germany, these countries see the move back to coal as “temporary”, to avoid blackouts, unemployment and mass unrests during winter as recession strikes. Putting a fig leaf on the energy crisis brought about by Europe’s quixotic green policies, an energy analyst at the European think tank Bruegel cast this choice as “very occasional, for one or two winters at the most, and in small doses.” Yet it is hardly plausible to suggest that Europe’s energy crisis will be sorted out in a couple of years: the Financial Times, for instance, warns that the crisis will “linger for years”.
King Coal’s Strengths
Coal is one of the most energy-dense fuels of nature formed from deposits of animal and vegetable matter deep in the ground at conditions of high pressure over a few hundred million years ago. To illustrate coal’s energy density, a Tesla battery that weighs over 500kg and takes 25-50 tons (i.e. thousand kgs) of minerals to be mined, processed, and transported, can store the same energy as a mere 30kg of coal.
Via the Industrial Revolution, coal brought forth the trains, steamships and factories of the modern age, though British coal had been used in antiquity by the Romans for iron foundries and heating bathhouses. From the almost complete dependence on traditional biomass (wood, charcoal, dung, straw, etc.) prior to 1800, it took coal a century to account for half of global primary energy consumption. Energy transitions take an awful long time, as the work of Vaclav Smil has exhaustively surveyed.
Last month, Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs’ Head of Commodities Research, provided testimony to this, stating in an interview: "At the end of last year, overall fossil fuels represented 81% of energy consumption. 10 years ago, they were at 82%...$3.8 trillion of investment in renewables moved fossil fuels from 82% to 81% of the overall energy consumption." It is apparent that renewable energy is not going anywhere fast.
But perhaps the least appreciated aspect of coal-based energy is its geopolitical significance. Often considered a “non-political” fuel, coal is the most abundant energy resource known. It is relatively cheap to mine, transport, and store. Its presence in considerable quantities in populous countries such as China, India, Indonesia and South Africa – apart from the resource-rich countries of the U.S., Russia and Australia – makes the fuel of vital significance from an energy security perspective. The same populous countries are otherwise starved of the other fossil fuels - oil and natural gas - which are a major burden on their balance of payments.
Ambient air pollution in both urban and rural areas in developing countries is a major public health problem but ‘belching’ coal power plants are not the major cause as commonly thought. It is primarily due to the indoor burning of solid biomass in cooking and heating. An estimated 30% of the global population does not yet have access to clean cooking technologies. The World Health Organisation reports that close to 4 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to indoor air pollution each year. The use of fuel wood, dung and crop residues within households is caused by the lack of access to cheap, coal-based grid electricity and modern fuels such as LPG.
Long vilified for being the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, coal is to the contrary a modern technology-success story. Key pollutants from coal combustion in power generation plants have fallen dramatically with technological improvements over the past several decades with the development of ultra-supercritical, high efficiency and low emission plants. These have drastically reduced emissions of pollutants that adversely affect human health which include carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOX), ground level ozone and particulate matter (PM). A new pulverized coal plant with flue gas scrubbers, fabric filters, catalytic reduction and other control equipment and processes, reduces NOX by 83%, SO2 by 98% and PM by 99.8% compared to a similar plant without such pollution control features, according to the US Department of Energy.
Long Live King Coal
The climate industrial complex has long vilified fossil fuels in the name of a presumed impending climate apocalypse. It deprived the oil, gas and coal sectors of capital investments and diverted trillions of dollars of public funds to subsidize wind, solar and electric vehicle industries. Due to coal’s relatively high carbon-dioxide emissions upon combustion, the fuel has been cast as arch-villain by the climate alarmists. Yet it falls upon King Coal to continue serving the basic needs of over three quarters of the planet’s population. It is hardly likely that policy makers in China, India and the other populous countries of Southeast Asia and Africa will forsake the fuel and risk the well-being of their aspiring citizens on the urgings of Western climate ideologues.
President Biden said recently that “we’re going to be shutting [coal] plants down all across America and having wind and solar.” West Virginia’s Democrat Senator Joe Manchin, representing a state that gets 90% of its electricity from coal, scathingly called Biden’s comments “outrageous … offensive and disgusting” which “ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs”.
Senator Manchin had extended legislative support for President Biden’s so-called “Inflation Reduction Act”, laden with pork for wind and solar, in return for a “nebulous ‘deal’ with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to pursue the passage of language designed to streamline federal energy permitting processes”.
But the bottom line remains in Senator Manchin’s favor, even if he was played by the Democrat establishment: King Coal is making a comeback all around the world. West Virginia’s coal miners may well lose their livelihoods to the renewable energy diktats of the progressive Green Democrats in charge at Washington D.C. but King Coal runs supreme where it matters. After decades of energy policies in the West which sought to eliminate coal use in the global economy, it seems that King Coal is living through a 2nd Renaissance.
Asia Leads: Making A Comeback
Obituaries for coal have been announced ad nauseam, most recently at last year’s UN climate change COP26 summit in Edinburgh. Yet we saw the eight-fold price surge in coal since September 2020 to over $430 per ton two years later from prices that ranged between $50 - $150 a ton through the past decade. This was led by a resurgence of demand after the pandemic lockdowns – especially in China and India, the world’s two largest coal consumers accounting for two-thirds of the world total — but also in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the US.
According to the BP statistical review, global electricity demand, which grew at an average of 2.5% in the decade to 2021, expanded by 6.2% in 2021. In Asia, electricity demand grew even faster at 8.4%. Global coal power generation, the world’s biggest fuel source of electricity, set a record in 2021. While it grew at 1.2% annually over the past decade, it surged by 8.8% in 2021 over the previous year. The trends suggest that coal will be enjoying at least a few more bumper years yet.
After droughts and heatwaves led to power shortages in China and India last year, both countries have accelerated the building of coal mining and coal power generating plants despite climate policy ‘commitments’ for attaining net zero emission targets by 2060 and 2070 respectively. China is expected to approve 270GW of new coal power plants by 2025, larger than the entire US coal fleet. At the COP27 summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, India’s coal minister Pralhad Joshi said that coal will play an important role “until at least 2040 and beyond”. He continued, “Thus, no transition away from coal is happening in the foreseeable future in India”.
At last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, it was no surprise that India, China and several other developing countries created a last-minute objection to language that called for the “phase out” of coal. To the emotional regret expressed by a tearful Alok Sharma, host and President of COP26, the final text of the Glasgow Agreement called only for the “phase down” of coal. At the COP27 negotiations just concluded in Sharm El Sheikh, India demanded that coal not be “singled out” in the final agreement and that “all fossil fuels” be treated as equals.
It is apparent that neither China nor India – in common with many other developing countries dependent on coal — will compromise on energy security and economic growth objectives, least of all during globally turbulent times in the wake of the pandemic lockdowns and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Europe Lags: Back To The Past
While the juggernaut of Asian coal demand will roll on for a few more decades at least, coal’s comeback is even more remarkable in Europe. This is the same Green Europe that boasted of its dismantling of coal and nuclear power plants while imposing financial embargoes on multi-lateral development agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for fossil fuel development in developing countries.
Let’s start with Germany, the epicenter of Green Europe. Among the more recent energy news headlines in that country is this one: “Germany dismantles wind farm to expand coal mine”. And another one is on “Germany Re-Opens Five Lignite-Fired Power Plants”. Readers might note that lignite coal is about the dirtiest form of fossil fuel to generate electricity from, but we live in strange times.
At the end of June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition gave the green light to restart 27 coal-fired power plants until March 2024. That is quite a turnaround for a country that shunned all fossil fuels for the last three decades, shutting down its nuclear plants after the Fukushima incident as well as its coal and natural gas plants for their high carbon footprints.
Heavy dependence on Russian piped natural gas prior to the Russian sanctions — up to 60% of total gas demand — did not register on Germany’s “carbon sin” audit books, so that was fine. So long as Germany was not dependent on European-origin fossil fuels – God forbid depending on your own fracked gas or on North Sea oil and gas – it passed the “fighting climate change” virtue test. But Russian gas supplies progressively shrunk, as the EU sanctioned itself from Russian gas after President Putin ordered Russian tanks into Ukraine in late February. First were the blockages by Gazprom, on some technical ground or another, and then the sabotage of both Nordstream pipelines in mid-October which led to a de facto cutoff of Germany and Europe from the bulk of Russian gas supplies.
While unsuccessfully seeking quick replacements of natural gas imports from Canada to Qatar, Germany faces the prospects of a winter with mandatory gas rationing for households, even planning for fuelwood for home heating. It is already witnessing the decimation of German energy-intensive industry from petrochemicals to wood, paper, glass, aluminum and steel.
In the EU, Austria, France, Italy and the Netherlands have announced plans to extend or restart coal power plants to survive winter. Like Germany, these countries see the move back to coal as “temporary”, to avoid blackouts, unemployment and mass unrests during winter as recession strikes. Putting a fig leaf on the energy crisis brought about by Europe’s quixotic green policies, an energy analyst at the European think tank Bruegel cast this choice as “very occasional, for one or two winters at the most, and in small doses.” Yet it is hardly plausible to suggest that Europe’s energy crisis will be sorted out in a couple of years: the Financial Times, for instance, warns that the crisis will “linger for years”.
King Coal’s Strengths
Coal is one of the most energy-dense fuels of nature formed from deposits of animal and vegetable matter deep in the ground at conditions of high pressure over a few hundred million years ago. To illustrate coal’s energy density, a Tesla battery that weighs over 500kg and takes 25-50 tons (i.e. thousand kgs) of minerals to be mined, processed, and transported, can store the same energy as a mere 30kg of coal.
Via the Industrial Revolution, coal brought forth the trains, steamships and factories of the modern age, though British coal had been used in antiquity by the Romans for iron foundries and heating bathhouses. From the almost complete dependence on traditional biomass (wood, charcoal, dung, straw, etc.) prior to 1800, it took coal a century to account for half of global primary energy consumption. Energy transitions take an awful long time, as the work of Vaclav Smil has exhaustively surveyed.
Last month, Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs’ Head of Commodities Research, provided testimony to this, stating in an interview: "At the end of last year, overall fossil fuels represented 81% of energy consumption. 10 years ago, they were at 82%...$3.8 trillion of investment in renewables moved fossil fuels from 82% to 81% of the overall energy consumption." It is apparent that renewable energy is not going anywhere fast.
But perhaps the least appreciated aspect of coal-based energy is its geopolitical significance. Often considered a “non-political” fuel, coal is the most abundant energy resource known. It is relatively cheap to mine, transport, and store. Its presence in considerable quantities in populous countries such as China, India, Indonesia and South Africa – apart from the resource-rich countries of the U.S., Russia and Australia – makes the fuel of vital significance from an energy security perspective. The same populous countries are otherwise starved of the other fossil fuels - oil and natural gas - which are a major burden on their balance of payments.
Ambient air pollution in both urban and rural areas in developing countries is a major public health problem but ‘belching’ coal power plants are not the major cause as commonly thought. It is primarily due to the indoor burning of solid biomass in cooking and heating. An estimated 30% of the global population does not yet have access to clean cooking technologies. The World Health Organisation reports that close to 4 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to indoor air pollution each year. The use of fuel wood, dung and crop residues within households is caused by the lack of access to cheap, coal-based grid electricity and modern fuels such as LPG.
Long vilified for being the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, coal is to the contrary a modern technology-success story. Key pollutants from coal combustion in power generation plants have fallen dramatically with technological improvements over the past several decades with the development of ultra-supercritical, high efficiency and low emission plants. These have drastically reduced emissions of pollutants that adversely affect human health which include carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOX), ground level ozone and particulate matter (PM). A new pulverized coal plant with flue gas scrubbers, fabric filters, catalytic reduction and other control equipment and processes, reduces NOX by 83%, SO2 by 98% and PM by 99.8% compared to a similar plant without such pollution control features, according to the US Department of Energy.
Long Live King Coal
The climate industrial complex has long vilified fossil fuels in the name of a presumed impending climate apocalypse. It deprived the oil, gas and coal sectors of capital investments and diverted trillions of dollars of public funds to subsidize wind, solar and electric vehicle industries. Due to coal’s relatively high carbon-dioxide emissions upon combustion, the fuel has been cast as arch-villain by the climate alarmists. Yet it falls upon King Coal to continue serving the basic needs of over three quarters of the planet’s population. It is hardly likely that policy makers in China, India and the other populous countries of Southeast Asia and Africa will forsake the fuel and risk the well-being of their aspiring citizens on the urgings of Western climate ideologues.
8) Francis Menton: The Manhattan Contrarian energy storage paper has arrived
The Manhattan Contrarian, 1 December 2022
Today my long-awaited energy storage paper was officially published on the website of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
Here is a link. The paper is 22 pages long in the form in which they have published it plus another few pages for an Executive Summary and table of contents. They have given it the title “The Energy Storage Conundrum.”
Most of the points made in the paper have been made previously on this blog in one form or another. However, there is a good amount of additional detail in the paper that has never appeared here. I’ll provide one example of that today, and more of same in coming days.
The main point of the paper is that an electrical grid powered mostly by intermittent generators like wind and sun requires full backup from some source; and if that source is to be stored energy, the amounts of storage required are truly staggering. When you do the simple arithmetic to calculate the storage requirements and the likely costs, it becomes obvious that the entire project is completely impractical and unaffordable. The activists and politicians pushing us toward this new energy system of wind/solar/storage are either being intentionally deceptive or totally incompetent.
If you follow the news on this subject at a general level, you might find this conclusion surprising. After all, there are frequent announcements that this or that jurisdiction has entered a contract to purchase some seemingly large amount of batteries for grid-level storage. The Report cites data from consultancy Wood Mackenzie as to announced plans or contracts for storage acquisition in all major European countries, and cites other reports as to announced plans from California and New York in the U.S. The title of the April 2022 Wood Mackenzie paper on Europe certainly gives the impression that these people have the situation under control and know what they are doing: “Europe’s Grid-scale Energy Storage Capacity Will Expand 20-fold by 2031.” Impressive!
But this is one of those subjects on which you have to look at the actual numbers to evaluate whether the plans make any sense. In this situation, you need to compare the amount of energy storage that would be required for full backup of an almost-entirely wind/solar grid (with fossil fuels excluded), to the actual quantity of grid-scale energy storage being acquired.
Consider the case of Germany, the country that has gone the farthest of any in the world down the road to “energy transition.” My Report presents two different calculations of the energy storage requirement for Germany in a world of a wind/solar grid and no fossil fuels allowed (both of which calculations have been previously covered on this blog). One of the calculations, by a guy named Roger Andrews, came to a requirement of approximately 25,000 GWh; and the other, by two authors named Ruhnau and Qvist, came to a higher figure of 56,000 GWh. The two use similar but not identical methodology, and somewhat different assumptions. Clearly there is a large range of uncertainty as to the actual requirement; but the two calculations cited give a reasonable range for the scope of the problem.
Full post & comments
9) Rick Amato and Ronald Stein: Renewables have become the West's new blood diamonds
The Washington Times, 30 November 2022
Wealthy nations abuse poorer nations' workforces and environment
The Manhattan Contrarian, 1 December 2022
Today my long-awaited energy storage paper was officially published on the website of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
Here is a link. The paper is 22 pages long in the form in which they have published it plus another few pages for an Executive Summary and table of contents. They have given it the title “The Energy Storage Conundrum.”
Most of the points made in the paper have been made previously on this blog in one form or another. However, there is a good amount of additional detail in the paper that has never appeared here. I’ll provide one example of that today, and more of same in coming days.
The main point of the paper is that an electrical grid powered mostly by intermittent generators like wind and sun requires full backup from some source; and if that source is to be stored energy, the amounts of storage required are truly staggering. When you do the simple arithmetic to calculate the storage requirements and the likely costs, it becomes obvious that the entire project is completely impractical and unaffordable. The activists and politicians pushing us toward this new energy system of wind/solar/storage are either being intentionally deceptive or totally incompetent.
If you follow the news on this subject at a general level, you might find this conclusion surprising. After all, there are frequent announcements that this or that jurisdiction has entered a contract to purchase some seemingly large amount of batteries for grid-level storage. The Report cites data from consultancy Wood Mackenzie as to announced plans or contracts for storage acquisition in all major European countries, and cites other reports as to announced plans from California and New York in the U.S. The title of the April 2022 Wood Mackenzie paper on Europe certainly gives the impression that these people have the situation under control and know what they are doing: “Europe’s Grid-scale Energy Storage Capacity Will Expand 20-fold by 2031.” Impressive!
But this is one of those subjects on which you have to look at the actual numbers to evaluate whether the plans make any sense. In this situation, you need to compare the amount of energy storage that would be required for full backup of an almost-entirely wind/solar grid (with fossil fuels excluded), to the actual quantity of grid-scale energy storage being acquired.
Consider the case of Germany, the country that has gone the farthest of any in the world down the road to “energy transition.” My Report presents two different calculations of the energy storage requirement for Germany in a world of a wind/solar grid and no fossil fuels allowed (both of which calculations have been previously covered on this blog). One of the calculations, by a guy named Roger Andrews, came to a requirement of approximately 25,000 GWh; and the other, by two authors named Ruhnau and Qvist, came to a higher figure of 56,000 GWh. The two use similar but not identical methodology, and somewhat different assumptions. Clearly there is a large range of uncertainty as to the actual requirement; but the two calculations cited give a reasonable range for the scope of the problem.
Full post & comments
9) Rick Amato and Ronald Stein: Renewables have become the West's new blood diamonds
The Washington Times, 30 November 2022
Wealthy nations abuse poorer nations' workforces and environment
Wealth, with no ethical or moral standards for those of lesser means, can be dangerous and fatal to the cheap labor of disposable workforces.
We have seen the effects on the disposable workforce when Qatar “needed” to build seven stadiums in a decade to be ready for the 2022 World Cup. The World Cup in Qatar kicked off on Nov. 20 at Al Bayt Stadium, but the “acceptable” toll of more than 6,500 migrant laborers who died between 2011 and 2020, helping to build World Cup infrastructure with a cheap, disposable workforce, will provide viewers and participants with many lingering questions about our ethical and moral beliefs resulting from the grim toll.
Decades ago, it was sweatshops in the textile industry that grabbed the world’s humanitarian attention. Today it is the green movement, which is dominated by poorer developing countries mining the exotic minerals and metals that support the wealthy countries that are going green at a great cost to humanity.
The wealthy countries understand that developing countries have virtually no environmental laws or labor laws, which allows those locations unlimited opportunities to exploit people with yellow, brown and black skin and inflict environmental degradation on their landscapes.
Showing no moral or ethical concerns for the disposable workforce, wealthy countries continue to encourage subsidies to procure electric vehicles and build more wind and solar energy infrastructure. Those subsidies are providing financial incentives to the developing countries mining for those green materials to continue their exploitation of poor people and environmental degradation of their landscapes.
The 2021 Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations” reveals the lack of transparency regarding the green movement’s impact on humanity. Exploitation is occurring in developing countries that are mining the exotic minerals and metals required to create the batteries needed to store “green energy.” In these developing countries, mining operations exploit child labor and are responsible for egregious human rights violations of vulnerable minority populations. These operations are also directly destroying the planet through environmental degradation.
Last month, President Biden provided validation to the book’s message when his administration declared that batteries from China may be tainted by child labor, a move that could upend the electric vehicle industry while giving fresh ammunition to critics of the White House’s bizarre climate policies.
The Department of Labor said it would add lithium-ion batteries to a list of goods made with materials known to be produced with child or forced labor under a 2006 human trafficking law. The decision was based on many batteries using cobalt, a mineral largely mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where children have been found to work at some mining sites. The department released the list in the form of a report that excoriated “clean energy” supply chains for using forced labor. It grouped Chinese batteries together with polysilicon — a key material used in solar panel cells — made in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.
Whatever the plan to satisfy our sports entertainment values and “green” environmental policies, our political leaders best not forget that they have ethical and moral responsibilities to continue to address the quality-of-life needs of those 8 billion on this planet now.
We have seen the effects on the disposable workforce when Qatar “needed” to build seven stadiums in a decade to be ready for the 2022 World Cup. The World Cup in Qatar kicked off on Nov. 20 at Al Bayt Stadium, but the “acceptable” toll of more than 6,500 migrant laborers who died between 2011 and 2020, helping to build World Cup infrastructure with a cheap, disposable workforce, will provide viewers and participants with many lingering questions about our ethical and moral beliefs resulting from the grim toll.
Decades ago, it was sweatshops in the textile industry that grabbed the world’s humanitarian attention. Today it is the green movement, which is dominated by poorer developing countries mining the exotic minerals and metals that support the wealthy countries that are going green at a great cost to humanity.
The wealthy countries understand that developing countries have virtually no environmental laws or labor laws, which allows those locations unlimited opportunities to exploit people with yellow, brown and black skin and inflict environmental degradation on their landscapes.
Showing no moral or ethical concerns for the disposable workforce, wealthy countries continue to encourage subsidies to procure electric vehicles and build more wind and solar energy infrastructure. Those subsidies are providing financial incentives to the developing countries mining for those green materials to continue their exploitation of poor people and environmental degradation of their landscapes.
The 2021 Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations” reveals the lack of transparency regarding the green movement’s impact on humanity. Exploitation is occurring in developing countries that are mining the exotic minerals and metals required to create the batteries needed to store “green energy.” In these developing countries, mining operations exploit child labor and are responsible for egregious human rights violations of vulnerable minority populations. These operations are also directly destroying the planet through environmental degradation.
Last month, President Biden provided validation to the book’s message when his administration declared that batteries from China may be tainted by child labor, a move that could upend the electric vehicle industry while giving fresh ammunition to critics of the White House’s bizarre climate policies.
The Department of Labor said it would add lithium-ion batteries to a list of goods made with materials known to be produced with child or forced labor under a 2006 human trafficking law. The decision was based on many batteries using cobalt, a mineral largely mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where children have been found to work at some mining sites. The department released the list in the form of a report that excoriated “clean energy” supply chains for using forced labor. It grouped Chinese batteries together with polysilicon — a key material used in solar panel cells — made in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.
Whatever the plan to satisfy our sports entertainment values and “green” environmental policies, our political leaders best not forget that they have ethical and moral responsibilities to continue to address the quality-of-life needs of those 8 billion on this planet now.
The London-based Net Zero Watch is a campaign group set up to highlight and discuss the serious implications of expensive and poorly considered climate change policies. The Net Zero Watch newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.netzerowatch.com.
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