State enforced poverty on the way
Leo Varadkar has said that in the next budget the carbon tax will have to increase to meet our climate change obligations. At the same time, he said that there would be increases in social welfare expenditure further contributing to our unsustainable government spending and debt bubble.
The carbon tax rate is currently €20 per tonne, the Unelected Citizen's Assembly have called for it to be raised to € 70. It will lead to an increase in heating and motor costs at a time when electricity bills have also increased and are among the highest in Europe, hitting the poor the most. In essence, this is the Irish government enforcing poverty on the Irish people through constant meddling in the energy market with taxes and levies, in defiance of the Irish Constitution which states that :
The State pledges itself to safeguard with especial care the economic interests of the weaker sections of the community, and, where necessary, to contribute to the support of the infirm, the widow, the orphan, and the aged.
Varadkar says he will implement "complimentary measures" for those worst effected by the carbon tax. A case of the government trying to solve problems that itself has created, at the expense of the taxpayer, of course.
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At the same time, they are hypocritically backing the push from big corporations for power guzzling data centres which ESB Networks recently said would lead to a significant surge in demand for electricity generation :
"over the past five years new users - largely data centres - have used capacity on the network that historically would have catered for 30 years load growth. To put it in context, the current load in Dublin is around 1,200MW with potentially more than 1,000MW of data centre requirements to be connected".
The Grange Castle area in West Dublin has seen a raft of applications for data centres. To power them, at least two gas power stations are planned for Grange Castle and Clondalkin which will drastically increase emissions.
The Climate Change Advisory Group which includes economist John Fitzgerald of ESRI claim we need to reduce emissions by 1 million tonnes of carbon per year. This is impossible with the planned data centres in the pipeline.
Last year, total CO2 emissions from power stations in Dublin were 2.1 million tonnes (EPA). Using the above ESB figures, this means that an extra 1,000MW of data centres would lead to additional emissions of 1.8 million tonnes. The current generation fleet in Dublin is all gas powered, and it is assumed that the new generators would also be gas powered (one of the planned generators in West Dublin has said they will convert to biogas in 5 years - lets see, why not commence with biogas and save conversion costs?).
So everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room and acting like a carbon tax will have an impact on our emissions, when in fact a limit on the number of data centres would have the most significant impact on reducing emissions. Our government somehow manages to worship at the alter of multinationals and genuflect to the climate god at the same time.
There are currently no politcal parties that I know of who oppose the carbon tax. Surely a great political opportunity to be had.
From the Sunday Times:
• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/dublins-big-data-centres-devour-all-the-power-tbq3xdfh2
CO2 is not the exclusive result of the combustion of fuel. It is produced by all mammals when they exhale and plants by respiration at night, although some carbon is retained in their structure. CO2 is a by product of the fermentation of sugars in the production of alcohol. Preventing people from burning fossil fuel is being highly selective. Why not ban alcohol? Who has made these imaginary goal posts that things need to be done by a certain date? When was this ever part of an election manifesto? Maybe Trump is correct and climate change is not a priority, he was duly elected and has kept his promise.
ReplyDeleteIreland has a department of climate change, but does not have any department tasked with ensuring that election promises are complied with or that citizens get value for money. The Irish Greens have 2 TDs elected out of 158 and in Britain there is just one MP out of 650. Yet their policy is center stage. There is no mandate for this.
Being on low income myself, I cannot see the sense of imposing this tax and refunding it again. More Jobs for the boys. Why is Ireland being the big man here. There is nothing to replace fossil fuels and thus is going to cause us to be cold in our homes. It won't effect the rich. Most people have no money as it is and this will add to poverty. I cannot understand why the media don't highlight this.
The media have grown accustomed to gathering news by handout and tweets. Investigative journalism died years ago - don't expect to find another Bob Woodward in 2018!
Delete22% of the Irish people have trust in the Irish media.Their fake news has been seen through years ago.They know what is going on but say nothing.
ReplyDeleteGood piece; there is a neat sleight of hand whereby the data centres can purchase "Green Electricity" such that they have no carbon footprint whilst the remainder of the population consumes fossil-fuelled generation. This is construed to mean that the data centres have no impact on CO2 emissions. Is this the ultimate Pinnochio?
ReplyDeleteNah, the DT person rejects carbon footprints outright!
DeleteMy point exactly, Puzzled Electron! The "100% renewable" claim is based solely on the data centre's electricity supplier acquiring "Guarantees of Origin" at auction at a measly price of 35 cents/MWh (last time I checked). The energy itself costs 50 euros/MWh. These so-called "GOs" are supposed to be energy "labels" that document how, where, and when the electricity was produced. But the systemic flaw is quite evident when you read the language of the Renewable Energy Directive itself, which states: "A guarantee of origin can be transferred, independently of the energy to which it relates." Wha???? Imagine if the label off of a bottle of Ballygowan Spring Water could be transferred independently of the actual water. What could you do with it? Perhaps you would fill a bottle of R. Liffey water, slap the Ballygowan label on it, and sell it as spring water? That is exactly what is happening in Ireland. For 35 cents/MW hour, a supplier can magically claim that energy from Moneypoint or Edenderry is "guaranteed to originate" from Nordic hydro power plants. Somebody should take one of these data centres to court to expose this farce.
DeleteCharlie Weston reports in today's Indo that official figures reveal that householders in Ireland are paying some of Europe's most expensive energy prices, with the second most expensive gas in the European Union and domestic electricity prices the fourth highest in the union.
ReplyDeleteFigures from statistical body Eurostat show that at more than 20 cents per kilowatt hour, only Belgium, Denmark and Portugal have higher electricity charges in the EU and prices here are also far higher than in non-EU countries such as Iceland and Norway.
Denmark is the model that our experts aspire to. It seems that we need to tighten our belts as we approach Danish nirvana, and that is before we get slapped with an increased carbon tax.
For over a hundred years the world’s universities taught economics, including the impact of taxation. Two pillars of their doctrine was that direct taxation must be politically acceptable by being based on the ability to pay and that taxation on goods and services must be limited to luxury goods like tobacco, alcohol and cars. In 1982, the then Irish Fine Gael lead government introduced VAT (sales tax) on children’s footwear. The media joined with the Fianna Fail opposition in such condemnation that it brought down the government. The tax was relatively minor compared to the carbon tax first introduced in 2010 on a phased basis.
ReplyDeleteThe 2nd pillar was that goods and services subject to excise duties or special taxes must be inelastic. This means that there must be no substitute good or service and the good or service must be one which cannot be easily dispensed with. In Ireland there is VAT (sales tax) on most hardware and white goods and tools, but not on food or clothes. Of all the products sold, fossil fuel was regarded as the most inelastic of all. There was no substitute. No active business or individual can avoid using it. It is essential for employment and job creation. Taxes were confined to fuel for road use, not for agricultural, construction or engineering use.
Along came the green agenda which removed any possible criticism by the Irish media and has removed any parliamentary opposition. Not only that, but it effectively declared the concept of inelastic goods obsolete. The stated purpose for these taxes is not to raise money, but to reduce consumption of carbon based fuel. An inelastic product cannot become elastic unless a substitute has been invented. The only substitute claimed by government is wind energy. There has been none since the 25th May this year and wind companies are facing bankruptcy. Whether the government knows it or not, there is no substitute for fossil fuel and if Ireland stopped all its burning it would not make any difference to the concentration of co2 in the atmosphere.
Sherlock Homes said when you remove every other reason, the one that is left must be the real one. One sixth of all wind farms are on the market. The state wants to buy them. The cost as shown on this blog will be equal to half each household electricity bill annually. Such hikes in electricity prices will prove politically unacceptable, the only way is to raise the money is on some planet saving green scheme and use that source to buy them out. This extra taxation will further erode the competitiveness of any remaining manufacturing industries at a time when they are being revived in America. Another bazaar twist to this story is that the Irish Prime Minister flew to California earlier this year to beg Apple Corporation to set up more and more data centres in Ireland. The targeted amount would increase co2 emissions from power generation by 25%.
Bazaar is the only word for such conflicting policies, but there is one feature of Irish politics which is inelastic. Voter patterns show no sign of changing in line with the popular revolt in other countries. The hidden function of all Irish governments is to help the citizens create wealth and when created to hand it to someone else who did not earn it.
The announcement in July 2018 that a carbon tax is planned is bazaar. There is already a carbon tax these past several years. It amounts to 54 Euros on a tone of coal and applies to all fuel other than peat and wood. The existing tax and the new extra tax upgrades fuel to a luxury good and the government says it understands it will effect the poorer members of society.
Whereas Irish governments have for almost 100 years regarded fossil fuel as inelastic, they now tell us that the intention of the tax is to persuade a movement away from such fuel. Either the world’s universities had got it wrong or the government is wrong in this case. The effect of climate change is they can do anything they want until some calls a halt.
So idiot politicians think that building horribly inefficient wind farms in the Irish Midlands will economically power the Irish Economy.
ReplyDeleteLike Mount Lucas 10 times more capital intensive than a combined cycle gas plant .
Capacity Factor for 2017 14.1% or Sliabh Bawn capacity factor 14.8% in 2017 or Knockacummer loosing between €2m and €3m per year. It will never be profitable. ignoring their dodgy accounting. These piles of junk will produce sufficient carbon free electricity to enable us to meet these absurd targets. They will be rusting hulks of junk in 8 to 10 years. Varadkar enforced poverty for this incompetence and corruption.
What is actually happening here is that in the name of climate change, every restraint on politicians goes out the window. Politicians used to be firmly nailed down on tax increases and stealth taxes. Once climate change is placed on the table, there are no constraints at all. Politicians love to tax and that is exactly what they are doing and will do. Its an incredible departure from reality. Its incredible to think that trade unions used to claim every cent and euro they could get for their members. That is all gone except for Ryan Air.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, not one Irish politician drives a fully electric car. All fly around the world in fossil fuel powered aircraft. All state vehicles are fuel powered. There has been no increase in welfare benefit to compensate for the already high energy costs.
Not a work from the media, an unreal situation
The Paris Climate Accord did not aim to stabilize or limit Co2 emissions, it aimed to redistribute wealth between favoured and unfavoured nations. Those with a high ratio of wealth to population were expected to reduce emissions and pay into the fund while those with a low wealth to population ratio were allowed to continue to emit and be the recipients of the fund. It was a simple socialist mechanism to drive manufacturing out of the USA and Europe into China and India. The fact that the same and even increases emissions would result was simply ignored.
ReplyDelete