“Net-Zero Tyranny”

Green Party political efforts to spin Germany’s ongoing farmers’ demonstrations as solely caused by  profiteering supermarkets have been dismissed as a cheap diversionary tactic.

On a fourth consecutive day of protests, the Green leadership responded to the farmers by blaming the greed of the country’s major supermarket chains rather than the government’s Net Zero-related policies. Green MEP Anna Cavazzini cited “market power” as causing the low prices open to German farmers. This follows crudely engineered media smears tying the demonstrations to the ‘far right.’

Designed by engineers, our electricity grids are remarkable, but finely balanced affairs, being wrecked by the chaotic delivery of wind and solar power.

There are 3 electricity essentials – that the power source and its delivery to homes and businesses be: 1) reliable; 2) secure; and 3) affordable. Wind and solar score NIL on all three counts. Wind is wholly weather-dependent and solar is both weather and sunshine dependent, despite the hype the occasional power they generate can’t be economically stored at any scale. And, adding the staggering cost of the subsidies they attract, cost multitudes more than coal, gas or nuclear power.

h/t DS

He wanted to get away from it all. The splendid solitude of the tiny North Sea island of Hooge was a momentary refuge from the waves of political tumult buffeting his country. But when Germany’s vice chancellor Robert Habeck returned from his holiday on Thursday, a group of furious farmers prevented his ferry from docking on the mainland. Germany’s 2024 began as 2023 ended: with public confidence in the government at a low ebb.

Dutch farmers at the border are ready to support their German colleagues this week. This is what true solidarity looks like. 🇳🇱🤝🇩🇪 https://t.co/FzZ9DO5ot7

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) January 7, 2024

Where do the mountains of broken solar panels and wind turbine blades end up?

The amount of waste piling up from solar panels and wind turbine blades can be measured in tons. And the industry is just getting started.

Almost all spent solar panels in the United States end up in landfills, and many first- and second-generation panels are already tapping out, well ahead of their anticipated 30-year lifespan.

Added to that will be an estimated 9.8 million metric tons of dead panels to deal with between 2030 and 2060, according to a study published in Science Direct.

The analysis tells the story of Great Britain heeding the cries for decarbonization, starting when Parliament wrote an 80 percent decrease in emissions target into law in 2008. They raised it to 100 percent—or “net zero”—in 2019. The results have clearly been catastrophic.

A consultant hired in 2022 to assess production problems at a wind farm owned by the P.E.I. government found severe damage, with turbine units possibly constituting a safety hazard and turbine blades at “high risk of imminent failure.”

Last month, high winds ripped two 56-metre blades off one of the turbines at the facility in Hermanville, near the northeastern tip of Prince Edward Island. For comparison, the province’s tallest building is only 39 metres tall; it’s the 10-storey Holman Grand Hotel in Charlottetown.

h/t VK

OTTAWA — The federal environment minister admits Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives have controlled the narrative on carbon pricing, but promises the Liberals will step up their communications game in 2024.

“The Conservatives have been very good at convincing some Canadians that carbon pricing is responsible for everything that’s going wrong in their lives,” Steven Guilbeault told the Star in an interview.

Guilbeault’s admission comes after a year in which debate over Ottawa’s carbon pricing program has featured prominently in Parliament, and the Tories have routinely blamed the levy for Canadians’ troubles with affordability.

I will be glad to see the back of this commie.