Energy Policy – The Saltbush Club

The Looming Electrical Power Shortage

By Steve Goreham

Originally published in Washington Examiner.

People in developed nations take abundant electricity for granted. When asked where electricity comes from, most will point to their wall outlet. But many states in the US are headed for a serious and prolonged shortage of electrical power not seen in decades, driven by rising demand from the artificial intelligence revolution and mandates to adopt green energy.

For 20 years, US electrical power policy has been dominated by efforts to try to “mitigate” global warming, believed to be caused by human greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, President Joe Biden called for achieving a 100% carbon-free electric sector by 2035. Twenty-three states have enacted statues or issued executive orders to achieve Net Zero electricity generation by 2050.

Exploding Energy Prices in Costly California

By Steve Goreham. Originally published in Master Resource.

Energy prices are skyrocketing in California. The state’s electricity, gasoline, and natural gas prices are amongst the nation’s highest and rising. Green energy policies are the primary cause for high and escalating California energy prices.

California electricity prices increased by 98.2 percent over the last 15 years, the highest rise in the nation. No other state comes close in terms of price increases. US average electricity prices rose 30.6 percent over the same period. California power prices rose to a level that is the second highest in the nation, only lower than Hawaii. In contrast, prices in Texas have actually declined since 2008 due to a focus on retail competition and a decrease in natural gas prices

OKAY TONY, SO WHAT’S YOUR NEXT BRIGHT IDEA?

By Cliff Reece

He’s managed to divide the country in a manner never seen before in Australia’s history but you can guarantee that our illustrious leader, PM Tony Albanese, has many more bright ideas in store for us.

The mess he is making of industrial relations and the economy in general will be ongoing, as you’d expect from a socialist government. But then there’s climate change that he and his little mate Chris ‘Blackouts’ Bowen still have much to work on.

Green Australia: where Industry is on Edge, the grid “precarious” and electricity prices up 25%

By Jo Nova

The land that is the Renewable Crash Test Dummy is holding its breath.

This time last year, the Australian energy market turned into a kind of Hunger Games spectacle with daily feeding-fest at dinner time where prices were so burning hot that unhedged smaller retailers begged their own customers to leave them and then the whole market was suspended. The bonfire was so big we’re still paying for it, and retail electricity prices are set to rise another 25% in a few weeks.

So it’s no surprise that as the cold weather arrives downunder, everyone involved in energy is “on edge”. Suddenly Australian corporate leaders are telling it like it is — the Alinta Gas chief says there is just no way we can build enough renewables in time — he can’t even “see a way” of building enough renewables to compensate for the coal units that are being closed.

The man who used to run the Snowy Hydro Scheme agrees (and then some) — saying we need to build a “Snowy” every year, and we are being lied to (his words) and it will take not 8 years, but 80 years to get there. The head of EnergyAustralia says shutting down the Liddell coal plant means the system is “exposed”. These are people at the top (or formerly) of our biggest energy companies.

How Much Energy Will the World Need?

The Coming Crash of the Climate Cult

By Viv Forbes

The Climate Cult worships two green idols – electric vehicles and wind-solar energy. This is part of a futile UN scheme promoting “Net Zero Emissions” which aims to cool the climate of the world by waging war on CO2 plant food.

Green worship is the state religion of all western nations. It is promoted by billionaires with other agendas, and endlessly repeated by the UN, the bureaucracy, all government media, state education and most big business leaders.

The promotion of electric cars and trucks will cause a great increase in the demand for electricity to replace diesel, petrol and gas. Continue reading “The Coming Crash of the Climate Cult”

Green Propaganda – Senator Gerard Rennick

Listen to Senator Gerard Rennick in the Australian Federal Parliament on “Green Propaganda”.

Ruled by Fools

By Viv Forbes

Australia has become a nation ruled by fools.

We have surrendered power over every aspect of our lives and industry to fifteen debating chambers in eight ruling cities. These assemblies are controlled by lawyers, unionists, centralists, green dreamers, power seekers and tax consumers.

Their direct cost alone is horrendous. There are 837 politicians (ignoring local government). Each has a salary (say $200Kpy), travel and office costs (say $150Kpy), and staff costs (say $200Kpy) – a billion here, plus a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking real money. Continue reading “Ruled by Fools”

Germany’s Energy Catastrophe

Lignite Power Plant in Neurath, Germany. Shutterstock

By Lea Booth

Germany may be the only nation that has based its energy policy on absolution.

Germans call it Energiewende (“energy transition”), and they aim to decarbonize their economy and lead the world by replacing their fossil fuel and nuclear plants with renewable energy. Germany is the first major nation to undertake such an effort, and, as hoped for, their early adoption of renewables has catalyzed a spectacular drop in costs for those technologies. A reporter summed up German attitudes towards the Energiewende, writing, “Germans would then at last feel that they have gone from being world-destroyers in the 20th century to world-saviors in the 21st.”

Continue reading at: https://quillette.com/2022/07/14/germanys-energy-catastrophe/

I’m Fed Up

By P Gosselin

I can no longer stand the people who shout this into microphones and cameras every day or print it in newspapers.

I suffer from having to witness how natural science is turned into a whore of politics.

I am tired of being told what to be ashamed of by abused, pubescent children.

I am tired of being told by some deranged people that I am to blame for everything and everyone – but especially as a German for the past, present and future misery of the whole world.

Prof. Dr. Knut Löschke, Member of the University Council at the University of Leipzig, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences.