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Green Energy Cost May Accelerate Europe’s Decline

Poland And Czech Republic Ban Germany’s Green Energy



Germany considers itself the environmental conscience of the world: with its nuclear phase-out and its green energy transition, the German government wanted to give the world a model to follow. Blinded by its own halo, however, Germany overlooked that others have to pay for this green image boost and are suffering as a result. Germany’s ‘eco-miracle’ simply used the power grids of neighbouring countries not only without asking for permission but also without paying for it. Now Poland and the Czech Republic have pulled the plug and are building a huge switch-off at their borders to block the uninvited import of green energy from Germany which is destabalising their grids and is thus risking blackouts. --Daniel Wetzel, Die Welt, 28 December 2012
On Dec. 19, Voestalpine, an Austrian maker of high-quality steel for the auto industry, announced that it would build a plant in North America that would employ natural gas to reduce iron ore to a kind of raw iron that would then be used in the company’s European blast furnaces. Asked whether he had considered building the plant in Europe, Voestalpine’s chief executive, Wolfgang Eder, said that that “calculation does not make sense from the very beginning.” Gas in Europe is much more expensive, he said. --Stanley Reed, The New York Times, 27 December 2012 We embarked on a big transition to a low-carbon economy without taking into account the cost and without factoring in the competitive impact. I think there will be a critical review of some of these policies in the next few years. -- Fabien Roques, The New York Times, 27 December 2012

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Europe risks losing new petrochemical investments to the US and other countries because of its reluctance to embrace shale gas, the head of the industry’s biggest company has warned. “Some European countries already made the decision not to go into shale gas, so naturally when they do that there will not be development,” said Mohamed al-Mady, chief executive of Saudi Arabia’s Sabic, the world’s biggest petrochemical group by market value. “I think the trend you will see [is] more investors going to North America, China and the Middle East.” --Pilita Clark, Financial Times, 27 December 2012 Silicon Valley’s investment wizards are fleeing the so-called green economy, and not a moment too soon for American prosperity. As painful as the era of enviro-investing has been for taxpayers and shareholders, there’s an emerging silver lining. It’s likely that in 2013 fewer people will spend their time trying to turn political projects into companies. --The Wall Street Journal, 28 December 2012 And if the government need inspiration they should look to the good news story of 2013: the recovery of our old ally, the U.S. It is a very lucky country. Just when you think the price of oil is too high to sustain their standard of living, shale gas promises an energy boom. We’re not just talking cheaper prices; suddenly the U.S. is set to become the world’s largest energy exporter. --David Miliband, Mail on Sunday, 30 December 2012 Rural communities hit by proposed new wind farms, fracking sites and even nuclear power stations could receive millions of pounds in compensation from energy companies. Under a government plan, branded “bribes for blight” by critics, the payments would be used to cut local people’s energy bills, provide bursaries to pay their children’s university fees, build village halls and carry out home improvements. The extra cost of the “community benefits” scheme would be passed on to customers through higher energy bills. The aim is to open up the countryside to developments including the 6,000 additional onshore wind turbines planned by the government. --Jonathan Leake, The Sunday Times, 30 December 2012 As we all know, the global political branch of the United Nations climate machine — the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — froze up in the deserts of Qatar earlier this month. So how is the science branch of the United Nations climate machine — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — making out? Judging by the firestorm blowing around the IPCC’s next report, the science of climate change is about to get its own major workout. A week ago Friday, a draft of the IPCC’s next science report was leaked by U.S. climate skeptic and anti-regulation crusader Alec Rawls. Known as a “First Order Draft” of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), the 1,000-plus-page document comes with a warning on every page: “Do not cite, quote or distribute.” Too late for that, because the AR5 draft is being cited, quoted and distributed all over the globe, creating a new climate science freakout, with skeptics and alarmists at one another’s throats. For those of us who are non-scientists, the result can only be beneficial. --Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, 22 December 2012

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