EU Green Deal Consultation

Pat Swords responds to the EU on their Green Deal Consultation:

Link to Consultation - https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12382-Revision-of-the-guidelines-for-trans-European-Energy-infrastructure


The Commission is already aware of recent drafting findings and recommendations against it at the UNECE Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, see attached in relation to Projects of Common Interest and Communication C96, in that it discriminated against non-native English speakers by not conducting such public participation exercises falling under Article 7 of the Convention in all the official languages of the EU. This TEN-E Regulation is a programme related to the environment and is the subject mater of Communication C96. The Irish grid, on an isolated island, is a small microcosm of those in the EU. Of its nineteen power stations, the oldest and largest is coal fired and to meet EU renewable targets in the period 2012 to 2018, half its output was ‘replaced’ by the output from 1,100 new wind turbines, each costing €4 million to install. Electricity generation, in modern Irish gas turbine power plants, emits 40% the CO2 arising from generation with more difficult to combust carbonaceous coal. In 2012, gas generated half of Irish electricity, as it did again in 2018, but this time with a significantly higher gas consumption. When your car comes off the motorway and goes into ‘stop start’ urban driving it burns more fuel, just like power plants forced into such operation, as more and more intermittent wind energy pours on and off the grid. The extra gas combusted was well capable of supplying Ireland with 4% of our electricity. Simply switching this coal generation to natural gas and running Irish plants efficiently could have realised over 70% of the emissions savings claimed for renewables. In fact, this is what the USA did in the period 2008 to 2017 and obtained a 27% reduction in CO2 emissions from their power generation sector. If instead of spending a trillion Euros on wind turbines and PV solar panels, a budget of €10 million was provided each day to sprinkle around the EU like ‘pixie dust’ for the ‘common good’, the trillion would run out in 274 years. Equally, it would have paid the majority of the EU’s total food and drink bill in 2018 of €1.1 trillion. Instead, we got EU power sector emissions to decrease 28% in the period 2008 to 2018. The EU publishes an energy price report every two years. Last year of ‘full data’ is 2016; circa €400 billion bill for energy sources, €212 billion being imported fossil fuels, plus an additional tax squeeze of €280 billion. €76 billion in subsidies for renewable sector equating to €208 million per day or €150 from each citizen. €48 billion paid direct to wind and solar generators on top of market price for 13% of EU’s electricity. Market price plus tax paid to gas and solid fuel generators for 41% of electricity, whose fuel costs were same €48 billion. Furthermore, the WTO is totally agnostic about whether countries (parties) want to allegedly save the planet or not. Such considerations can only be brought into WTO trade disputes, if both parties have in fact ratified specific environmental agreements, such as with UNECE and its Aarhus Convention. Hence, compliance with international law, e.g. UNECE Aarhus Convention, is important. For example, the EU could have put tariffs on goods coming from other countries, which have ratified the Aarhus Convention, as a tax to fund renewables, e.g. takes an awful lot of electricity to smelt aluminium, hence a tariff on cheaper aluminium coming from Norway or Azerbaijan. Except there are legal rulings that the EU didn't comply with the Convention in the manner in which it implemented its renewable programme, which it is refusing to comply with since 2012. So it would be unlawful for the EU to do this. EU chemical firms have invested many billions in new manufacturing capacity in the USA, these more modern and efficient plants with lower energy costs will flood the EU with products undercutting EU facilities and putting them out of business, under WTO rules the EU cannot lawfully apply tarrifs against the USA.