From Mish Shedlock at MishTalk.com:
Eurointelligence reports Swiss Reject Climate Change:
After Switzerland dropped its negotiations with the EU, the country has now rejected a climate-protection law in a referendum. Concretely, they rejected all three parts of the law in separate votes: on CO2, on pesticides, and on drinking water.
We agree with the Swiss journalist Mathieu von Rohr that this failure is not merely important in its own right, but symptomatic for the difficulties facing Green politics in general. It is one thing for people to pretend they support the Green party, especially when it is cool to do so. It is quite another to make actual sacrifices as the Swiss were asked to do.
But what is particularly interesting about this referendum is that the strongest opposition came from young people. 60-70% of the 18-34 year old voted No in the three categories.
Each country is different, but the big yet unanswered question is whether people elsewhere would agree to make personal sacrifices for the greater good. The Swiss referendum tells us we should not take this for granted. The German elections will be the next big test.
The referendum Failed 51-49. And it took a crushing rejection by Zoomers and millennials to do it.
Where is the CO2 Coming From?
If the US cut its emissions to zero (assuming everything else stayed the same) it would not make much of a dent.
Of course, everything else would not stay the same. If the US cut emissions to zero, the world economy would crash along with food production with obvious ramifications.
$66 Billion Spent on Renewables Before the Texas Blackouts
After $66 BILLION spent on intermittent renewable, just a few weeks ago, residents of Texas were AGAIN asked to reduce electricity consumption due to power shortages during a hot spell. This follows the disastrous failure of (renewable) power generation in February where the entire ERCOT (Texas) grid nearly failed catastrophically and put millions of Texans in a deep freeze with no water for days or even a week. See my post Wind Failed the Stand-Alone Texas Grid
RealClear energy asks Why Was $66 Billion Spent on Renewables Before the Texas Blackouts?
Because Big Wind and Big Solar Got $22 Billion in Subsidies!
For every dollar spent by the wind and solar sectors in Texas, they got roughly 33 cents from taxpayers. By any measure, this is an outrageous level of subsidization. And Texans are learning that the tens of billions of dollars spent on wind and solar are not translating into reliable electricity.
On the graphic below, which I retrieved from ERCOT’s website on Wednesday, the black line shows electricity demand. The green line is wind output. On Monday, when demand was hitting 70,000 megawatts, wind output dropped to about 3,000 megawatts. On Tuesday, as power demand was again approaching 70,000 me
As I showed in my April 26 article for Real Clear Energy, the Texas oil and gas sector pays about 54 times more in taxes per year than the wind and solar sectors. According to the Houston Chronicle, the oil and gas sector paid about $13.4 billion in state taxes and royalties in 2019. By contrast, the wind and solar sectors are paying roughly $250 million per year in state and local taxes.
The bottom line here is obvious: If Texas is serious about increasing electricity reliability and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it should be building nuclear plants, which proved to be the most reliable generation during the February freeze. For $66 billion, the state could have added another 6,000 megawatts or more, of new nuclear capacity. Alas, that’s not happening. [Doug here: see my post: NuScale SMR Modular Nuclear Power: The Future of Carbon Free Energy??]
Adding more wind capacity to the Texas grid won’t do much to help meet demand during hot summer days.
The ERCOT grid shows that tens of billions of dollars in tax incentives have resulted in the addition of tens of thousands of megawatts of generation capacity to the Texas grid that does precious little to provide power during periods of peak electricity demand. That’s a bad outcome.
The idea we could have done something 10 years ago or even 20 years ago that would satisfy the the Greens, at an affordable price (most likely any price), that would have changed anything happening today is total nonsense.
China is still the elephant in the room.
Meanwhile, wind and solar technology is getting better and electric cars will be the norm within a decade. [Doug Here: Sounds good, but will the Texas and National grids provide sufficient power?]
To the extent there is a problem that can be solved at all, the free market will find it, not government bureaucrats
The Zoomers in Switzerland made the right choice.
“ But what is particularly interesting about this referendum is that the strongest opposition came from young people. 60-70% of the 18-34 year old voted No in the three categories. “
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PART 1
I read an article about this in the financial times last week and I wish I would’ve kept it now. Because it pertained to this generation on why they came out against it so strongly. In the article also had pictures of large crowds of this generation that turned out holding “TEA-PARTY”
Size RALLIES / VENUES.
In Zurich, Basel, Geneva, Lausanne, & Berne & Lugano. The thing about Berne & Lugano both, is both of these towns have been for the past 150 years the equivalent of our heavy blue-collar Pittsburgh / Cleveland & most definitely, Clairton Pennsylvania.
And large crowds of youth in this age group / age range came to both towns to stand in solidarity during marches with the age group that would be considered their parents and definitely their grandparents age group. Young Hipsters, if you will, went and marched
Campaigned with Boomer age and older blue collar workers.
To come out against it. And of course you will not ever see any of this on any news stations over here. After reading the article in the financial times I did try to find it on any news here and the only outlet I found was the OAN = ONE AMERICA NEWS Channel that did. They did a good job because they have a small European Department-based in all places, definitely the equivalent of one of our blue collar towns over here, and it is “ Leverkusen.”
in so many times one article will lead me to researching another article and then another and another. Because a certain name will Pike my attention. And in this case it was the name of this town. That grabbed my attention. So I had to look up everything I could find about it practically. Because as much time as I spent in Germany, for the life of me I had never heard of it!!! and I traveled all over Germany off & on, on Germany’s wonderful outstanding passenger-rail-system.
And let me tell you, it is outstanding. As a matter of fact, nearly all of Western & Eastern Europe has absolutely outstanding passenger—rail—system!! The Bulgarian’s in our country must be rolling over in their graves when they see what little bit of passenger rail system we have here. And that is something else I’ve done over the years. And that is, I have rode Amtrak all over our beloved Nation. And there’s not many places that Amtrak goes that I haven’t been.
I have circled the United States completely 3 times. I, well 2 times me and One of my long-term girlfriends rode it twice all the way around the United States. We got on in New Orleans and went up to Chicago. And from there we went west to Seattle. And then down to Los Angeles and from there, we went straight across to Jacksonville Florida. And from Jacksonville down to Miami which is as far as it goes nowadays. It used to go to Key West but this was before I was born.
And from there we got off and we spent a week in Coconut Grove staying with an Aunt & Uncle of mine that was recently retired. On a sidenote My Uncle retired as a Captain, from, APL. AMERICAN PRESIDENT LINES. https://www.apl.com/about-us/company-overview 38 YEARS. My Aunt Qupadean went with him after my 1st cousin Johnny Ray Sessions II was born & raised. And once he hit 12 years of age. Back in those days a Captain could take his wife and children up to a total of 3 kids.
PART 2
ReplyDeleteAnd, each one had to be 12 years of age. His sister, Betty Ann, was already 19 and in college. So Johnny was raised on board all over the world. Needless to say when he got to be old enough to go to college he chose to go to the way I did. To KINGS POINT. Our Nations United States Merchant Marine Academy. In Kings Point New York. https://www.usmma.edu/ When you have time scroll down to where you see the words, “ REGIMENTAL LIFE.
WHATS IT LIKE TO BE A MIDSHIPMAN.” and click on the picture you see. It will open up another page and I think everything you will see you may find very interesting. It’s a 4-year Academy. It’s pattern along the lines of Annapolis. And I wouldn’t take anything for my four years and then my 28 years of going to Sea / Shipping-Out!!!!
You don’t know how many times I wish my dad had went to KINGS POINT. Or at least to one of the 3 other MARITIME ACADEMIES MY FRIEND!!!!! Like CAL MARITIME. At Vallejo California, https://www.csum.edu/ (they have an outstanding video on their homepage.
Advertising the Academy and it is definitely worth watching.
King’s pointe is the only federal maritime academy and you have to obtain a “Congressional Appointment,” just like you have to at West Point or to go to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, or the Air Force Academy at Golden Springs Colorado, etc etc.
Or NEW YORK MARITIME AT FORT SCHUYLER. https://www.sunymaritime.edu/about/visiting-maritime/maritime-museum/about/fort-schuyler-history
Here is a very interesting article pertaining to the town that I had never heard of a little alone ever been to.
ReplyDeleteBlue-collar aristocrats’ thrive in German economy
In a sprawling chemical plant in the town of Leverkusen, in northern Germany, Bayer trains thousands of students every year to become future employees.
Roger Heps, 19, is one of those trainees. He’s learning to run the plant where the primary ingredient in aspirin is manufactured. Heps is in a classic German apprenticeship. It includes on- and off-the-job training, while he studies at a technical college.
Germany’s tracking system divides children up at a young age, placing them on different paths; some students are selected for eight years of university prep school, others for six years leading to an apprenticeship instead of college.
The German apprenticeship system provides for a well-trained workforce, but also gives many young Germans a ticket to the middle class. Youth unemployment in Germany is currently 8 percent, half of what it is in the United States.
https://www.marketplace.org/2015/04/07/blue-collar-aristocrats-thrive-german-economy/
( In my opinion our nation needs something very similar to this. We definitely need several different nationwide blue-collar apprentice programs.)
So right about the need for apprenticeship programs and vocational schools! We need trade schools for those that are not "college-bound." Trump mentioned that a few times, but anything he suggested was immediately rejected. Because white supremacy.
ReplyDeleteBtw, Trump's family came from Kallstadt in western Germany. It's still is, but the Heinz family came from that same small village. You know Heinz ketchup?
From wikipedia's, at least one of the Heinz family ancestors in Germany married a Trump family member.
Kallstadt is still a small village
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