Sunday, 20 November 2016
The Human Cost of the Energy Transition
An 81 year old Spaniard has died from suffocation after she resorted to using candles due to being unable to afford to pay her electricity bill. Spain has one of the largest renewable energy sectors in the world. Last year, total investments came to € 5 billion and most recently George Soros was looking to get a piece of the action. At the same time, Spain ranks as having the 4th most expensive electricity in EU, just behind Ireland. Der Spiegel reports that according to a study 7000 Spaniards died in 2014 due to the effects of energy poverty. These unnecessary deaths come at a time of record low oil and gas prices.
Yet somehow, the media narrative is that the people questioning the Energy Transition are bad people, while the people who have no problem with sacrificing old people to the green altar are inherently good people.
Everybody knows that if they used a fraction of the money being spent on renewables and more electricity generation on insulating people's homes, there would be far less deaths. But of course in the EU, lobbyists must get their way.
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If my memory serves, governments in times past would look after the housekeeping. There was a lot of corrupt accommodation of their donor's lobbying requests, but they managed to ensure the basic assets, needs and requirements of citizens were protected.
ReplyDeleteEconomists, health experts and good old common sense were employed to plan for the future. In Ireland we would hear a lot about the book of estimates, civil servants would spend hours counting up all the statistics in relation to each department. Each government department carefully monitored private service providers such as the insurance industry and transport and public service law enforcement, health and education. Where there was a monopoly, government stepped in to protect consumers. An example was when Irish Distillers bid for the fledgling Cooley Distillery with the intention to close it down. Minister Mary Harney prevented the deal and to day that Cooley distillery is thriving under different ownership.
Today, if an unpopular government is approaching an election, it will try to leave a mess for their replacement. Modern governments seem to be completely deaf to the warnings of those who see disaster ahead. On energy, we have had a 6 year campaign of meeting politicians directly, we have economist Colm McCarthy giving warning on energy which are completely ignored. He was once employed by government to identify areas where cut backs could be made. Last week at an anti wind protest in Dublin (outside government buildings) a prominent Fianna Fail party political said that placing a moratorium of the wind programme was impossible. This is an admission that the Irish government is powerless to act to stop an energy policy which is actually killing its citizens.
Is it any wonder, that Brexit happened , Donald Trump was elected and Marie La Penn is doing well in France? Something has changed. I suspect the EU, Irish and many elected governments just see ordinary people as a nuisance.
I wonder if "energy cruelty" would be a better name than "energy transition." Last week Nicholas Sarkozy, former French Prime Minister said that if elected again, and America failed to honour its commitments to pay into the Paris Climate fund, he would impose a carbon tax on American goods entering France. Yesterday, having been defeated in his party's primary election he announced he had decided to quit politics altogether. I always said, the the Green agenda will destroy the careers of all politicians who follow it. Chris Huhne, Ed Davey, Natalie Bennett, Irish Greens lost 4 out of 6. Hillary Clinton was big into it. Many Many more.
ReplyDeleteI always said there was always a huge section of society who cannot count, however I would add that while a large section cannot count, all can suffer. No one can escape suffering except by death. So while only a small number of us protested at the climate / energy hysteria. Only the rich and well heeled can escape the suffering caused by this hideous hysterical adventure.
ReplyDeleteThe commie, green liberal celebrity left, cannot escape the fact that, the rich and better off have to be fewer in number, ( a smaller section of society.) Suffering, (the cost of greenism) provokes the rest to vote their way out. They unwittingly voted themselves into it and they can wittingly vote themselves out of it. Brexit contained a huge energy factor, Trump based a large part on his campaign on energy. This started with Al Gore's film, the Inconvenient Truth in 2006 and I believe it peaked in 2013 and will dissipate with Brexit/ Trump. About 2022 some new scare will arrive on the scene and climate will go back to being "the weather" .