The livelihoods of millions have already been sacrificed
After a decade of financial austerity, is Europe now on the brink of a new age of energy austerity? The city of Hanover has recently introduced strict energy-saving rules that include cutting off the hot water in public buildings, swimming pools, sports halls and gyms, banning mobile air conditioners, fan heaters or radiators, switching off public fountains, and stopping illuminating major buildings such as the town hall at night.
African nations expected to make case for big rise in fossil fuel output
Leaders of African countries are likely to use the next UN climate summit in November to push for massive new investment in fossil fuels in Africa, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
New exploration for gas, and the exploitation of Africa’s vast reserves of oil, would make it close to impossible for the world to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
However, soaring gas prices have made the prospect of African supplies even more attractive, and developed countries, including EU members, have indicated they would support such developments in the current gas shortage.
Meanwhile in Germany … Germany puts coal power plant back on network after gas supply cut
A coal-fired power plant that had been mothballed has become the first of its kind to be put back on to the network in Germany, as debate rages over how Europe’s largest economy will cope without Russian gas.
The facility in Lower Saxony, which is owned by the Czech energy company EGH, has received emergency permission to run until April in an attempt to boost energy production.
The energy situation in Germany hasn’t made much sense this year. The country was set to shut down its remaining nuclear power plants this year as part of a long-term push by the Green party to get rid of them. And given that the Green party is currently part of the governing coalition in Germany it seemed nothing would stop that plan.
A proposal to transport clean hydropower from Canada to the state of Maine has created enough “hoohah” to launch a fierce court battle – possibly signalling trouble for the future of green energy projects across the US.
New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) was supposed to be an industry-leading project, transporting 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts across 145 miles (233 km) of transmission line, and eliminating over three million metric tonnes of carbon emissions every year.
The $1bn (£840m) project, funded by utility company Hydro-Quebec and Central Maine Power (CMP), which is owned by the Spanish energy giant Avangrid, received final approvals, including a Presidential Permit from the US Department of Energy. Construction began in January 2021.
The chits for years of inflationary green energy policies are coming due to record-high energy prices and unreliable electrical grids.
Average national gasoline prices have soared to a record high of $5 a gallon. The price of natural gas, which heats many homes in America, has roughly tripled over the last year. And electric grid monitors nationwide are warning of blackouts and brownouts this summer. These effects on ordinary residents’ living standards require an immediate national environmental policy rethink, reflecting a new appreciation of cheap, reliable energy.
No matter where you live, if you own a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine, you are currently getting walloped with the highest gasoline and diesel prices ever seen in the history of Canadian motoring. Mere months ago, the prospect of $2-per-litre gasoline was unspeakable. Now, major Canadian cities are spending weeks on end with prices north of $2.25.
Link fixed.
Never in history has a civilization willfully embarked on destroying its own material foundations.
This year will graphically demonstrate the malign consequences of the misguided efforts to replace cheap, reliable fossil fuel energy with unreliable, inefficient “renewable” energy like wind and solar. Never in history has a civilization willfully embarked on destroying its material foundations, based solely on a hypothesis rather than scientifically established fact.
The first red flag alerting us to this feckless policy appeared during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Much of Europe––the most aggressive nations in replacing fossil fuels with wind turbines and solar panels––has grown dependent on Russian exports to make up for the energy lost from shutting down nuclear and coal-fired power plants. Since directly helping Ukraine by fighting is politically impossible, sanctions were imposed on Russia’s oil and gas industries.
… The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has released its latest reliability assessment for the summer of 2022 and, to put it mildly, the news is not good. In far too many states, the power grid is already nearly at full capacity, and in the next few months, that capacity will be exceeded. This isn’t a question of “if” or really even “when.” It’s just a fact.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the Biden administration — and Lord knows there are a lot of things that infuriate people about them — is the way the U.S. went from a net energy exporter to record high gas prices and a reliance on oil imported from other countries.
Thanks to hasty closures of fossil-fuel and nuclear plants, coupled with shortfalls in renewable-energy production, Americans will face increasing power outages.
Soaring gasoline and electricity prices may turn out to be only part of Americans’ energy woes this summer. In recent months, a host of power suppliers have issued warnings that millions of residents could endure rolling blackouts because of the growing inability of America’s evolving energy infrastructure to meet power needs. From western states like Utah, Colorado, and California to midwestern states like Illinois, energy providers have cautioned that rising prices, shortages due to the closure of some coal and nuclear plants, and the unreliability of renewables like wind and solar have reduced energy surpluses. That’s left some places with little margin for error during peak usage times in mid-summer—potentially prompting the kind of blackouts California saw last year. The warnings have spurred calls to slow down climate-change-driven efforts to retire nuclear and fossil-fuel generating plants. They have also emerged as an issue in local elections this November.
WASHINGTON – Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson is doubling down on Canada’s assertion that the continuing operation of the Line 5 pipeline is “non-negotiable.”
Wilkinson made the comments Friday in the House of Commons as Opposition MPs seized on media reports that the controversial cross-border pipeline is facing yet another court challenge.
On top of efforts by the state of Michigan to shut down Line 5, an Indigenous band in Wisconsin is now asking a judge there to do the same.
I thought Junior was besties with Biden?
As Europe turns from its masochistic energy dependence on Russia, and the potential blackmail that came with it, will it now fall into the open arms of other dictatorships that stand ready to pump gas into its markets, such as such as Algeria? Even more dangerous might be a new partnership formed between Germany and Qatar. They have just agreed on a huge long-term energy partnership to reduce dependence on Russian gas, according to German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who last month visited the Persian Gulf and met with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Italy was the first to negotiate with Qatar, a country that, according to Freedom House, numbers 25 out of 100 on its the freedom score, only slightly above Russia, at 19.
Qatar is now saying that it stands “in solidarity” with Europe.
Without re-examining its uranium supply chains, the U.S. energy market will be vulnerable similarly to Europe’s present situation.
Europe’s fragile energy markets vulnerable to Russian interruption may soon be uncomfortably similar to the American power grid if policymakers aren’t careful about pushing a low-carbon future.
With a third of European oil and more than 40 percent of its gas provided by Russia, President Vladimir Putin has threatened to shut off the lights across Europe in an effort to counter western sanctions imposed in retaliation for the Kremlin invasion of Ukraine, demanding payment in Rubles instead of Euros.
President Joe Biden is desperate to increase oil imports from Canada as the nation continues to struggle with high fuel prices — but is determined not to resurrect the Keystone XL pipeline, whose permit Biden canceled on his first day in office in 2021.
The Liberals are either governing in a fantasy universe or they are being deliberately reckless. How else do you explain that, in the same week our European allies were preparing to ration energy, being held hostage as they are by a murderous tyrant wreaking havoc in Ukraine, our government announced a dramatic acceleration of its plan to hobble the oil and gas industry?
