Green Energy is Part of the Past, not Fuel for the Future

The growing failure of green energy in Europe should warn Australia to abandon bi-partisan policies dictating targets, mandates and subsidies for “green” energy.

I grew up at the end of the last green energy era – solar energy powered our growing crops and dried the washing, but it was weak in winter and ceased under clouds and at night; wind energy pumped water, but only when the wind blew; draft horses powered farm machinery, but they had to be fed whether they were working or not; wood gave us home heating and cooking, but it consumed energy to collect and chop it up; kids walked to school or rode bikes or ponies and ladies took the horse and sulky.

Our only help from carbon energy was kerosene for the kitchen lamp and coke used to smelt and forge the metals for farm tools and machinery.

We also practiced “sustainability” – we purchased little, and most of the farm produce was consumed on the farm by family, farm labourers and draft horses.

We were rescued from this life of sustained labour by carbon energy – a kerosene-powered tractor, a petrol-powered truck, and coal-powered electricity for lighting, heating, cooking, refrigeration, milking machines and pumps. The horses and farm labour were no longer needed and, for once, the farm produced a decent surplus of food for the growing cities.

Wind, solar, wood and muscle power are tools of the past and they work no better now than they did then. Forcing people to use these ancient technologies will just return us to laborious poverty on the farms and hunger in the cities.

Green energy should not be forced on consumers – those who want it should pay for it.

Green energy will eventually be abandoned, but the cost rises for each day’s delay.

For those who would like to read more about the green energy disaster in Europe:

http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=c920274f2a364603849bbb505&id=4a8f8201ec&e=e1638e04a2
http://www.cfact.org/2013/08/13/europeans-learning-the-hard-truth-about-wind-and-solar-energy/

More, as well as:

• Green Energy Twins are Parasitic Power Producers
• Abolish Renewable Energy Targets
• “The Oceans Ate my Global Warming”
• Election Day – “Put every Labor/Green candidate last”

Read the full report: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/green-energy-folly.pdf [PDF, 48kB]

Keywords: Green energy, wind power, solar power, renewable energy targets, global warming, computer model failures, oceans warming, election advice, how-to-vote, Labor, Greens, LNP, no-carbon-tax-party.

By Craig Rucker

So-called “renewable energy” is not clean, renewable, reliable, affordable or sustainable.

“Renewable energy” is a sexy term used to drive public policies and spending The Obama Administration and like-minded Green zealots have said repeatedly that they are waging a “war on coal,” intend to bankrupt coal-based power plants, and delay or block oil, natural gas and nuclear projects – while fast-tracking and subsidizing ethanol, wind and solar programs

Another apostle of the renewable energy, anti-hydrocarbon movement is Senator Harry Reid. The chief organizer of and keynote speaker at this week’s falsely named National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Reid is a true believer in destroying conventional energy through subsidies, regulations and strong-arm tactics. He even wants to shut down every coal power plant in Nevada.

Senator Reid may believe that compelling and subsidizing increased renewable energy use, while undermining and even outlawing conventional energy, is the way to economic growth and energy independence. In reality, this reckless scheme could easily cause the collapse of our energy grid, job creation, economy and living standards, just as it is already doing in Europe.

Unfortunately, Reid and his allies could get away with it, because “renewable” confers an almost Holy Grail status that ensures widespread political, media, public and corporate support (for a lot of wrong reasons). That lofty status, however, ignores two fundamental facts:
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Combined climate and econometric computer models produce any desired result.

Ronald Bailey | August 2, 2013

… “In an incisive new study, Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Robert Pindyck rips the social cost of carbon estimates derived from integrated assessment computer models to pieces. In his National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, “Climate Change Policy: What Do the Models Tell Us?,” Pindyck concludes that the models all “have crucial flaws that make them close to useless as tools for policy analysis: certain inputs such as the discount rate are arbitrary, but have huge effects on the social cost of carbon estimates that models produce.” Pindyck adds that the “models’ descriptions of the impact of climate change are completely ad hoc, with no theoretical or empirical foundation; and the models can tell us nothing about the most important driver of the social cost of carbon, the possibility of a catastrophic climate outcome.”…

Full article: http://reason.com/archives/2013/08/02/the-social-cost-of-carbon-garbage-in-gar

Killing Australia’s carbon tax is a good idea but it should happen immediately, not later.

But replacing it with an ETS is a very bad idea and should never happen.

The carbon tax is a known amount, simple in principle, needs no bankers or brokers, and all receipts end up in Australian hands. And it is easy to abolish at any time.

The ETS is a variable and unpredictable carbon tax. It creates business uncertainty, is complex in operation, encourages brokers, lawyers and speculators and it will drain our money to middlemen and into the European carbon credit casino. And it will create a growing army of vested interests who will forever oppose its abolition.

Neither the fixed tax nor the vacillating tax will have any beneficial effect on climate.

The carbon tax should be axed, but replaced with … NOTHING.

More, as well as:

• The Heavy Cost of Climatism
• Who’s Afraid of a Bit of Warmth?
• Warmists should Go the Whole Hog
• “Taxing Air” by Bob Carter, John Spooner and friends
• Stop the Greens who Gamble with our Future

Read the full report: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/replace-ctax-with-nothing.pdf [PDF, 41KB]

Keywords: Carbon tax, Emissions Trading, corruption, speculation, Kyoto failure, ice ages bad – warmth good.

The Australian Climate Commission says Australia needs to reduce emissions “to nearly zero by 2050”.

Such a reduction can only be achieved if the Climate Commission has a secret plan to use nuclear power or for a massive expansion of hydro power.

If they do not have such a plan, their “nearly zero” emissions target would force the shut down of most of the energy, transport and industrial infrastructure developed since James Watt invented the steam engine.

Imagine Australia with “zero emissions” – which means zero production of carbon dioxide from human activities and industries.

This would mean zero usage of coal, oil, petrol, diesel or gas, zero production of cement or steel and the shut-down of 92% of Australia’s electricity generators.

Sunbeams and sea breezes cannot supply 24/7 electricity – the only feasible non-carbon options for Australian grid power are nuclear or hydro. Has the Climate Commission joined the nuclear power lobby? Or do they have a secret plan for big hydro developments on the Snowy, the Franklin and the Tully-Millstream?
And how do we keep our diesel-fuelled transport fleet operating? Using big, big batteries and even more nuclear or hydro power to recharge them at every roadhouse in the outback? (But once they eliminate our grazing animals and their emissions, we will not need road trains.)

And how do we keep planes operating? Are they suggesting that we divert most of our sugar production to producing power alcohol?
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We are told, incessantly, that carbon dioxide is the main cause of global warming – it is not.

The primary source of surface heat is radiant energy from the sun. Minor heat comes from geothermal energy from volcanoes and hot rocks. Trivial quantities of local heat are brought to Earth’s surface by humans using stoves, cars, boilers, engines and factories powered by mined fuels such as coal, oil, gas and uranium. Even using “green” energy such as ethanol, wind or wood has a tiny temperature effect by transferring solar energy from farms and forests, to be released eventually as waste heat in cities.

Solar energy is more concentrated in equatorial areas and is moved pole-wards by the circulation of air (99.9% nitrogen, oxygen and argon), and by water and water vapour via evaporation, condensation and ocean currents. These processes are all driven by conduction, convection, latent heat and Earth’s rotation, not carbon dioxide. They are the major forces creating weather. Variations in solar cycles and cloud cover control longer term climate change.

Carbon dioxide plays almost no part in any of these dominant weather processes. Moreover, it does not burn, nor is it radioactive – it cannot produce heat.

More, as well as:

• Spinning Carbon Scare Stories out of Nature’s Tornados
• Europe’s Green Hell
• Sunset for Solar Subsidies
• The Green Kiss of Death

Read the full report: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/gas-of-global-warming.pdf

Keywords: Global warming, carbon dioxide, solar cycles, tornados, green energy in Europe, solar subsidies, renewable energy targets, blackouts, energy policy crisis, Green poison.

Vincent Gray is a Wellington scientist with a long career in research who has specialised in climate science for over 20 years. He has submitted comments on all of the Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1,898 for the last one. He has published critiques on many of the issues involved and has concluded that carbon dioxide has a beneficial effect on the climate and not a harmful one.

Here are his conclusions on the effects of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere;

• All plants depend on carbon dioxide, which is also the source of much of that other life-supporting gas, oxygen.
• There is no correlation between variations in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and surface temperature.
• The increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is wholly beneficial. There is no evidence it causes harm.

Read more: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/gray-carbon-dioxide-beneficial.pdf

Wind energy is expensive, unreliable, kills thousands of rare birds, lives on subsidies, increases the risk of blackouts, annoys neighbours and devalues their property, messes up the environment and does not reduce the production of carbon dioxide. Check out this encyclopaedia of wind energy failings: http://www.akdart.com/wind.html

Carbon Dioxide is plant food. Earth is currently in a “CO2 famine”. The geologic record reveals that ice ages have occurred when CO2 was at 2000ppm to as high as 8000ppm. In addition, peer-reviewed studies have documented that there have been temperatures similar to the present day on Earth when carbon dioxide was up to twenty times higher than today’s levels. And, a peer-reviewed study this year found that the present day carbon dioxide level of 400ppm was exceeded – without any human influence – 12,750 years ago when CO2 may have reached up to 425 ppm.

It is thus good news that carbon dioxide levels have reached 400ppm and the greening of planter earth can continue. Read more:

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/05/14/global-warming/

Tornadoes are a fact of life in USA, and the recent Moore, Oklahoma tornado is not unique – there have been many of similar strength and causing greater loss of life. For a summary on the statistics, politics and science of the latest American tornado see this report by Geoff Derrick using data from http://wattsupwiththat.com/.

More: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/newcastle-moore-tornado.pdf [PDF, 1.1 MB]