Coal Boom Clouds Europe’s Green Image

For the December-January-February period as a whole there is a slight signal for below-average precipitation. --Met Office forecast, 21 November 2013

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Met Office researchers have confirmed England and Wales are suffering from one of the wettest winter periods since rainfall records began in 1766. --Click Green, 6 February 2014 The European Union sees itself leading the world in curbing carbon-dioxide emissions and doing more than any other region to mitigate climate change. But it is also increasing the share of electricity being generated by the most carbon-intensive energy source of all: coal. Coal-fired electrical-generation plants are being started up in Europe—and comparatively clean gas-fired generating capacity is being shut down. That is hardly what the climate doctor ordered. --Stephen Fidler, The Wall Street Journal, 7 February 2014

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The media aren't paying much attention, but in recent weeks Europe has decided to run, not walk, as fast as it can away from the economic menace of green energy. Brussels calls this new policy "flexibility." Right. More like "never mind," and here's why: The new German economic minister, Sigmar Gabriel, says green energy mandates have become such an albatross around the neck of industry that they could lead to a "deindustrialization" of Germany. What's amazing about this story is that so few American politicians get it. President Obama talked in his State of the Union speech about doubling renewable energy output over the coming years. Mr. President, these are exactly the goals the Europeans are abandoning. Why chase the losers? --Investor’s Business Daily, 5 February 2014 The Spanish government said it plans to end all price subsidies for wind capacity online before end-2004, while slashing remuneration for younger capacity. The summary alone, nonetheless, discloses an act of institutional “retroactive looting”, Spanish wind association AEE told Windpower Monthly. Investors behind all of Spain’s 22.6GW of online wind capacity were drawn by the state’s promise of maintaining feed-in tariffs for 20 years. Just over 8.4GW was online by end-2004. Under the new regulation, all that capacity will now only receive the wholesale power market price. --Wind Power Monthly, 4 February 2014 One of the biggest challenges to the new German government will be to put the energy transition back on track, according to a recent study. Negative trends persist as Germany's domestic energy prices rose to 48% above the European average. The index value for industry energy prices has "drastically worsened", according to the McKinsey study. German industry prices are around 19% higher than the EU average. This translates to an increasing competitive disadvantage for German industry compared to European competitors, the authors of the study Thomas Vahlenkamp, Matthias Gohl and Michael Peters wrote. --EurActiv, 7 February 2014 Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder does not believe that all nuclear power plants will be shut down by the planned phase-out date in 2022. He believes that the German energy transition will fail. --Short News, 1 February 2014 Coal still has a “long-term future” as a source of energy to keep Britain’s lights on if carbon capture technology being piloted in Yorkshire proves a success, senior Government officials have said. Energy Secretary Ed Davey told the Liberal Democrat party conference last year that the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions means “the days of coal-powered electricity are numbered”. But appearing before the Commons energy committee yesterday, Mr Holyoak said carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology offers a glimmer of hope for the coal industry. --Jack Blanchard, Yorkshire Post, 5 February 2014 Queensland’s largest power generator will today declare that Australia is one of the world’s most expensive countries for energy and warn that the electricity market is being distorted by the carbon tax, mandatory renewables target and solar-rooftop subsidies. After Stanwell took the extraordinary step yesterday of announcing it would mothball its biggest gas-fired power station and resurrect a coal facility built in the 1980s – sparking predictions that gas-fired power plants would be withdrawn in other states – it will today call for a scaling back of the renewable energy target. --Annabel Hepworth, The Australian, 6 February 2014 All these endeavours are at the forefront of the growing cult of green investment. And what they all have in common, aside from a focus on ridding the planet of fossil fuels to save the world from climate catastrophe, is that they are fundamentally uneconomic. In the cult of green investment, capitalism is turned upside down. From the World Bank’s international divestment movement to the Toronto Zoo poo bond scheme, these are all wealth-destroying ventures. --Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, 6 February 2014

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