JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
Yesterday I mentioned that the UK Solent CCS project died a death.
Today Labour pours more money down the drain on CCS projects that will never deliver.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4301n3771o
230
How on earth did this Starmer Wally get to be a ‘Sir’? Let alone a PM. What a Plonker. Once Great Britain going round the S bend..
350
In any septic system the big lumps always float to the top.
And politics and power mongering are about as septic as systems get.
230
And as I reported yesterday, Starmer just gave away more UK sovereignty.
140
But it is not their money …
Auto
20
The Labour government, now under Ed Milliband, are working through their bucket list of projects that they have been mulling over for the past 14 years while in opposition. They now have access to funds to try them all out without investigating the economic and social effects of their projects.
The list seems endless with wind generators placed anywhere on and off land, CCS, solar farms and battery storage, along with the massive expansion of the grid network with associated pylons.
All contributing to the industrialisation of the landscape.
One side effect seems to be that many voters are suffering from buyers remorse now that they see what “Milliband Unleashed” is resulting in, as well as removing the Winter Fuel Allowance from 4 million pensioners, while caving in to pay demand from their financial backers.
It has been interesting to see the reaction of our local ‘greenies’ to the solar farm that is planned for the beautiful valley that their homes look out onto. The landowners live well away in their own mansion surrounded by secluded parkland. Maybe I should comment in response to the planning application that their parkland might be a better site for the solar panels?
Interesting times! I believe that an ancient Cinese curse was ‘may you live in interesting times.’
40
No need to bury CO2 underground or anywhere else wasting Taxpayer money. Just let it roam freely in the atmosphere and the Oceans will take care of it. Although Greenhouses could use more to grow bigger vegetables and fruits and Coopers Pale Ale (Green label) needs plenty of CO2 for the bubbles.
450
Precisely.
As even the CSIRO and others admitted after the 2019 bushfires, because it was so obvious. CO2 is plant food and the biggest forests in the world are really in the ocean surface. They explode in quantity with extra dissolved CO2. Although the CSIRO put it down to tiny amounts of Iron ‘fertilizer’ as if the very soluble CO2 has no part to play.
You only need three things for photosynthesis to produce carbohydrates/sugars. Sunshine, water and CO2. Forget this ‘fertilizer’ nonsense.
251
My composted waste added to the Garden soil also helped. Loads of earth worms proved how good the soil was. They loved it.
60
And just this phrase ” leading to a significant increase in carbon uptake by phytoplankton”. Now bushfire CO2 is in the air. Phytoplankton are in the water. How do you increase carbon(dioxide) uptake if it does not vanish quickly into the ocean?
Everyone seems to avoid saying that CO2 is the most soluble common gas, 30x more soluble than O2. We are supposed to believe fossil fuel CO2 hangs around in the air for ‘thousands of years’. That’s absurd.
70
A little bit of chlorophyll on the side helps.
10
actually as soon as it gets in the sea it is eaten by the phytoplankton and ends up as fish biomass or in shale for the world in the future.
250
And the photoplankton bloom very rapidly. Exponentially. Life cycle of days, not months like other plants.
130
Three-quarters of the CO2 taken up by plankton is released as oxygen for worldly use in the present.
60
I have read estimates that half of the world’s O2 comes from phytoplankton. Which makes sense as we needed oxygen in the air before we could leave the water. Land based plants came much later. And then animals filled with salt water and with lungs to get O2 and output CO2. Every living thing has this gene for burning hydrated carbon dioxide, carbohydrate.
110
450
Note to pollies and health experts:
These boots are made for walking
And that’s just what they’ll do
One of these days these boots
Are gonna walk all over you
161
Love Nancy!
60
And the boots will be on the feet of “The Men Who Want to Be left Alone”
00
Rado’s description of his reaction following a CoV2 vaccine is familiar- two in our household suffered a similar reaction to the second Astrazeneca jab.
In our case the vaccine induced beriberi symptoms which we were slow to recognise as such. We are each susceptible to thiamine deficiency, one from bariatric surgery treatment of a stomach ulcer, the other a SLC gene defect.
Once we did recognise the connection, we soon found that the symptoms responded to a stricter thiamine treatment regime.
60
Australians, enjoy your share of total Local, State and Federal Government debts of $1,973,000,000,000.
They are spending like drunken sailors on shore leave. But at least the sailors have a limit because they stop spending as soon as their money runs out, unlike the Government.
http://australiandebtclock.com.au/
And no faction of the Uniparty has a word to say about it.
390
Drunken sailors eventually run out of money.
Governments just print their own… sorry….just implement Quantitative Easing.
200
Or in the clink/guardhouse/chain locker.
70
Here is a video about traffic lights in Victoriastan, Australia.
Victoria has a lot of very old historic traffic lights that are still in service. And if they work, why change them? It’s a rare case of Government not wasting money.
https://youtu.be/ykqaXJAeIqI
60
On the topic of waste and traffic signals. There is a famous bit of road near us commonly called the Black Spur. Its a windy section of road through towering gums and tree fern forest. The powers that be decided to erect an active sign that sensed your approac speed to a corner and flashed up a display telling you to slow down.
All fine, I suppose, except that it’s solar powered in a dense forest, so the inevitable happened. It now sits rotting by the guardrail doing nothing. Considering design, build, transport, remote install and traffic control I would be surprised if the whole adventure cost less than $100k of wasted taxpayer dollars.
200
Can’t wait for the LGBTQ+-×÷ lights.
Red – stop
Green – go
Amber – go through if you’re close enough or impatient
Pink – used to be blue but had 2 nuts and a bolt removed. Works unreliably and is troublesome.
Blue – used to be pink but had 2 nuts and a bolt added. Works unreliably and is troublesome.
Orange – haven’t decided the colour but will never be white.
White – solar powered. Works on sunny days.
Needs to be located separately from pink, blue and orange.
References:
Same sex traffic lights, Melb.2017
Diversity traffic lights, London 2016
60
Shades of Grey – wind powered. Works best when the wind is just right.
30
For driverless cars…. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/02/traffic-signals-self-driving-cars/
00
When the propaganda DOESN’T go as planned…
The host panics and tries to block.
Video 1 minute 34 seconds
https://youtu.be/Fqy4S-omSaE
180
Government assisted suicide aka “UK Push Towards Government-Sanctioned Assisted Dying Moves Ahead”. Youththanasia already established via Social media
80
All Leftist Governments are increasingly promoting suicide/euthanasia. In Canada 4.1% of deaths are due to euthanasia. People are encouraged to kill themselves for often trivial reasons.
50
The Powerhouse Museum in Sydneystan, Australia, has the world’s oldest remaining working rotative Boulton and Watt steam engine on display.
It was installed in a factory 1785 and remained in service until 1887.
SEE https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/7177
Frankly, I am surprised that this item remains on display and hasn’t been scrapped by the wokesters (like they tear down statues) because it is representative of the Industrial Revolution and coal that they hate so much. It must be so “triggering” for them.
290
Fascinating stuff. I have always been in awe of people that saw the “first” concept of anything. From Heros Engine in Ancient Rome to hugely complex engines (for the time) like Watts. The problem with so many ideas being converted to reality was a lack of machinery to make the parts to make the machinery. Relatively easy to improve on a design invented by someone else, not so easy to imagine something never before seen.
The next step for engine efficiency may well have been Ramsbottoms invention of the piston ring!
100
No doubt it is ‘sexist’ for just existing.
30
Paper about ridding the body of mRNA from defective covid “vaccines”. See link for full text. Full text PAYWALLED.
70
“overcoming previous obstacles such as mRNA instability and immunogenicity.”
That’s a broad brush to use, they didn’t do much of a job overcoming immunogenicity!
So we get injected with a mRNA toxin to wind up our immune system, then go back the next week to get injected again to neutralise the shot we had last week.. That pretty well sums up modern medicine all at once!
60
“the vaccines were not safe” just opens up the next round of snake oil sales…
00
If it works, this could be very useful for those subject to the jab mandates.
00
FWIW
“Hard times hiding in plain sight”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/10/hard-times-hiding-in-plain-sight.html
40
It is proof that no one can run an economy on wind and solar. All the money being spent on WDGs is a drain on resources but not contributing to productivity.
The USA and UK vehicle mandates has killed the automotive industries in these nations. Henry Ford proved that if you make cars for the masses that they can afford then the masses buy cars. Souped up golf buggies are a waste of resources. They are beyond the reach of the masses who need something more useful than a golf buggy with self-immolation a feature..
It is all the government subsidies coming home to roost. If the government incentivises low productivity investment then the economy eventually becomes a low productivity economy.
Most of Australia’s wealth is derived from high productivity natural resource extraction and export. Governments are working hard on demonising these activities.
250
Jane Caro has a fat clone. She was at the Nat Press Club this week blaming everybody except the parents for yoof crime and justice. She even spoke to 150 people who weren’t likely to rob her. Having failed with the 2022 report with the philosophy
they’ve come up with another catchphrase – Help Way Earlier
In a near 60 minute address and questions she didn’t say “parents” once, despite alluding to “neurodevelopmental” issues multiple times. And all the poor people who are paid to deal with the offspring of alcoholic mums are baddies who need more training. Roundly applauded by a gaggle of wymmins who have left their superior suburbs for the day, adorned in virtue she’s come up with more bureaucracies –
Me? I’d have come up with mandatory depo provera until sobriety. After all, mandatory injections are safe and effective. Right?
Fat Jane Caro clone has a background in psychology.
130
https://principia-scientific.com/the-green-new-deal-will-end-in-disaster/
Bjorn Lomborg succinctly sums it up!
“across Europe and North America, single-minded zealots who were born of a world of relative calm of the 1990s continue to push for deindustrialization and immiseration to tackle climate change – including for the world’s emerging economies.
This attempt is doomed to failure, not least because carbon reductions need to be sustained across decades and through shifting majorities. The economics of strong climate action was always deficient – and today this is blatantly obvious.
More politicians are realizing what former UK energy and net-zero secretary Claire Coutinho acknowledged: ‘you cannot heap costs onto struggling families to meet climate targets.’”
150
All well and good, except that carbon dioxide is not a problem.
One day Lomborg might have enough gumption to wake up to that little fact.
I suppose the “belief” in it does keep him in a job, even if he is at odds with those self-same “single-minded zealots” he decries.
150
I often wonder how many luke-warmers are walking a fine line because their income depends on it.
I also wonder how long before academia realises additional CO2 is solely beneficial.
I will not get to see it but I forecast the the rate of snow accumulation in the northern latitudes will test the ability of humans to adapt as well as the inevitable decline in sea level. Maybe Putin’s science advisers are doing a better job than the IPCC in forecasting what the world will be like in a few millennia.
160
Something that is not going quite to plan for the alarmist is permafrost. The linked paper provides data on permafrost measurements in Canada:
https://www.permafrost.org/wp-content/uploads/ICOP2024_156_Duchesne_4D.pdf
Table 3 shows the trend in active layer thickness is variable with both increasing and decreasing trends. This is not what what the climate catastrophists want to see. They project that the ALT will universally increase and melting permafrost will release cop[ius amounts of methane and carbon dioxide. The methane from exposing rotting matter that was buried before the ice came.
It would be interesting to observe snowfall trends in these regions. Snow starts its life as ocean evaporation. Warmer oceans produce more evaporation and that ultimately results in more snow over colds land. There are still a few places on the globe where the snow fall is outpacing the snow melt such as Antarctica, Greenland and the Himalayas. But there are a few northern slopes in the Arctic that is also gaining ice. The ice starts at elevation and progresses down the northern slopes then the southern slopes and into the lower elevated land.
100
Judith Curry (Climate Etc) is another lukewarmer, but leans more to our way of thinking.
10
“across Europe and North America, single-minded zealots…”
I am currently reading a book about the philosophical underpinnings of National Socialism and came across this quote which struck me as being similar to the thinking of many of todays Climate Alarmists:
Joseph Goebbels: “Hear nothing that we do not wish you to hear. See nothing that we do not wish you to see. Believe nothing that we do not wish you to believe. Think nothing that we do not wish you to think.”
100
FWIW
“No Time Like the Present for the UK to Give Away *gulp* Diego Garcia…UPDATE”
Check the update!
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2024/10/03/no-time-like-the-present-for-the-uk-to-give-away-gulp-diego-garcia-n3795360
Gibraltar next?
70
FWIW
“The Remdesivir Papers: Did Service Members Deserve to Die?”
Check the numbers!
“Although the investigational drug was developed by Gilead Sciences as a treatment for the Ebola virus in 2017, it was subsequently proven to be lethal in human patients with the virus in 2018. Curiously, in February 2020, remdesivir – despite its deadly history – was approved for use in clinical trials to evaluate its efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19.
Published by The New England Journal of Medicine in November 2019, the use of remdesivir resulted in the highest mortality rate among participants in a trial of four investigational therapies for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Despite the deaths of 93 out of 175 (53.1 percent) of patients, the broad-spectrum antiviral was eagerly considered for a possible COVID-19 treatment.”
More at
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/remdesivir-papers-did-service-members-deserve-die/
Did the TGA approve this?
120
Fauci described Remdesivir as the gold standard for Covid treatment. This is the same man who screamed down the TV cameras that “I AM THE SCIENCE”. It was also discovered that several members of the health panel that recommended Remdesivir for Covid had financial interests in Gilead Sciences, the developer of the (very expensive) drug, at something like $3000 per treatment as against $20 for a course of hydroxychloroquine. ToM
80
Remdesivir was recommended of covid treatment in Australia. It possibly still is?
30
Greta Thunberg rumoured in secret Brussels ‘civil disobedience’ plans
https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/10/exclusive-greta-thunberg-rumoured-in-secret-green-civil-disobedience-plans/
30
Too much to hope that these Green attention seekers will block one of the canals by standing on the bottom.
20
“The Tragedy Unfolding in North Carolina”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/10/04/the-tragedy-that-is-western-north-carolina/
And “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”
““My Blood is Boiling”: Furious Elon Musk Goes Off on FEMA for Blocking SpaceX Engineers from Assisting — FEMA Actively Seizing Shipments and Blocking Critical Goods and Services”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/my-blood-is-boiling-furious-elon-musk-goes/
“David Axelrod Says the Quiet Part Out Loud as Biden Blocks Ongoing Rescue Efforts, Claims Hurricane Helene Victims in North Carolina Are Mainly Trump Voters Who Will Find it Hard to Vote”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/david-axelrod-says-hurricane-helene-victims-north-carolina/
More “fusters” if you go looking
130
FWIW – the latest Kunstler
“October Surprise”
Looks at North Carolina and Israel –
“The blob, McCormick says, has to ask itself: does it help rig the election for Harris or stand down on all its ballot harvesting and other trickery and actually allow a real election to roll out? Surprise! ”
More at
https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/october-surprise
50
Is your “private” VPN service controlled by Israel?
The group Palestine Declassified has put together a video report explaining that many of the world’s top VPN (virtual private network) services are controlled by a Zionist-controlled company called Kape Technologies.
The report suggests that Israel exploits technology used by millions of people, i.e., VPNs, to target individuals and conduct mass surveillance. What you think is private may actually be getting tracked by the Israeli government, according to the accusations leveled in the report.
Concerning Kape, the following “top brands” are listed on the company website as falling under the same umbrella of control:
• ExpressVPN
• Private Internet Access
• CyberGhost VPN
• Intego Antivirus
• Webselenese
https://x.com/Tracking_Power/status/1840056527677239797
NOTHING is untrackable.
42
Thanks for that.
I am relieved, I thought it was all controlled by the CIA.
10
Have any of you come across this “service”?
I recently went through a ID verification process with a financial institution on their website. Once finished, I receive a “Welcome to ItsMe” email, which included the following text:
“ItsMe is an identity verification service that enables you to centralise and manage your identification details across several online services. Once you have completed registration with ItsMe, you can authorise us to use your ItsMe account to verify your details when proof of identity is required”
So apparently you are supposed to respond to an unsolicited email, with all your ID info for future convenience. Sure.
150
just the latest way to milk cash from consumers by making it compulsory if you want to deal with some companies… It will all crash under hack attacks within a few years and the start-up CEOs will vanish with the money. Copycat companies will shoot up acting as data-gatherers for the dark web.
It centralises your whole ID in one hackable location. I avoid them at all costs!
80
For the first time in maybe 10 years I might have to buy the paper form of The Australian. There’s an article by Chris Uhlman ( ex Ch9, ex ABC) about the absurdity of burning biofuel for power generation. Then, in other news the EU has imposed tariffs on Chinese made BPV’s. Hopefully, the day just keeps getting better.😊
100
I have bitten the Bullet, Subscribed for a year – as my wife says, now she can read The Australian, the Best Newspaper in Australia
Paul Kelly today – Australia is not the same country — but too many are in denial
Since the October 7 attacks, Australian values have been traduced. What is happening affects the entire country and the collective impact is profound.
Albanese government accused of abandoning Israel
Labor stands accused of abandoning Israel in a historic betrayal of J@ws, the national interest and the ALP’s best traditions, in an anguished intervention from two prominent J@wish leaders: Mark Leibler and Josh Frydenberg.
Ben Packham
The real-life horror movie our politicians refuse to see
Raw footage, running for about 45 minutes, captures the unspeakable horror of October 7: innocent people being murdered, beheaded, hunted down, r@ped, kicked, bashed, burnt alive. Here’s what Australia’s leaders had to say when I asked if they had seen it.
Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist
Leaders wave white flag in terror propaganda war
October 7 has changed everything, even here in Australia. Social cohesion is under threat and anti-S@mitism is undisguised.
Chris Kenny
Associate Editor (National Affairs)
1418
The Australian Cartoon Today – Johannes Leak
1011
We live in strange times indeed.
In Victoriastan I can be arrested and prosecuted for using a salute and symbol that a certain dictator used 80 years ago, the dictator dead for about this same amount of time.
The government however is absolutely powerless to prevent “protests” favouring declared terrorist organisations where, up until quite recently, their leaders were alive and well, advocating the same sort of destruction that the long dead leader wanted to accomplish. All the symbols, all the slogans for the current batch of “dictators” is somehow O.K., the long dead bloke can have me thrown in the slammer!
106
It’s a great article Ross. I’ve kept it for the info on how many balsa trees are being cut down in Ecuador just to build wind turbine blades.
40
For a discussion on biofuels, see the WUWT article “Biofuels” by Andy May, 13 March 2020: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/03/13/biofuels/
Also a very good PDF is “Twenty-first Century Snake Oil – Why the United States should reject biofuels as part of a rational national energy Strategy” by Capt. T.A. “Ike” Kiefer, January 2013. Definitely worth a read.
40
I would recommend it too. Chris Uhlman won’t be getting a Christmas Card from Dimwit Bowen.
10
So, the EU slaps an additional 35% tariff on Chinese EVs, on top of the current 10%. What? I thought they wanted a rapid transition to EVs. What happened to all the climate hand wringing?
50
Haven’t you every wanted to have your cake and eat it too? The unelected bureaucracies of this world sure do!
50
They still want Europeans to buy EVs. It’s just that they want them to be Renaults, VWs or Fiats.
10
“Just about everyone who has ever had small dogs can relate to this.
https://img.patriotpost.us/01J98BF4DQP9W3AAFG7TW56KH5.jpeg?w=1024&dpr=1&q=75 ”
A comment at Chiefio
IMO – “Size” is not a word in a small dog’s dictionary!
40
Love this blokes rants. He should be a comedian.
Car manufacturers admit that customers don’t want EVs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KioQifKXzBc
Duration 10 minutes
50
Customers just lack climate ambition. The government needs to step in to close the ambition gap.
I would need to effectively fire isolate my garage before contemplating a BEV. So substantial cost involved even if the car was a give-away.
50
No way will I ever have an EV.
I think we will have to wait another 15 – 25 years before the EV cultists will be forced to face the facts about fires and EVs.
By then we will have a sizable number of EVs that are over 20 years of age. We should have enough data about fires in EVs versus fires in ICE in relation to the age of the vehicles.
Get the popcorn ready.
60
“By then we will have a sizable number of EVs that are over 20 years of age”
Lol! No evidence of that at all! They probably will be gone by 10years old and certainly by 13 or 15.
Already the local wrecker has perfectly undamaged Camrys in there, all signwritten as taxis, the inverters failed and those parts are no longer available.
40
My locked garage is part of the house. Were I to buy an EV I should park it outside in which case the insurance rises. If I continue to park it within the house my house insurance goes up. You know it makes sense.
100
Agree. Lets have a closing the EV gap program and tip in say 40 billion a year to make it happen.
20
1600 jobs slashed as ‘green revolution’ stalls at Northvolt
A major company was supposed to spark a “green revolution” and wean the world off oil and Chinese imports, but it is not going to plan.
Things can change an awful lot in just three years.
Back in 2021, the opening of a giga factory in an icy city near the Arctic Circle was hailed as the starting point of a “green industrial revolution” that would change the world.
The factory was opened by an exciting and rapidly-expanding business called Northvolt that had a mission to build “the world’s greenest battery” to power electric vehicles.
Sweden’s then prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said the opening of Northvolt’s base in Skelleftea held huge significance in the transition away from oil and imported batteries from China — not just for Europe, but for the world.
His optimism did not seem misplaced at the time. Northvolt had attracted billions of dollars of investment from Wall St giants like Goldman Sachs and Blackrock and orders from the world’s biggest car companies including Volkswagen, BMW and Volvo.
But, in more recent times a far more sobering reality has emerged.
Last week, the beleaguered electric car battery maker revealed it would cut a quarter of its staff, as it struggles with strained finances and a slowdown in demand.
The brutal cuts in Sweden come as electric car sales slump in Europe and the continent lags far behind China in battery production. The company employs 6,500 people, according to its website. A staggering 1,600 of those will lose their jobs.
It comes as global car companies, including Northvolt’s biggest investor, Volkswagen, have had a tough time selling EVs, with some posting losses from their electric divisions.
A major problem for Northvolt is that as demand for EVs has softened, the demand for the cells that power them has followed suit.
Even the most well-established battery-makers like South Korea’s SK On and LG Energy Solution have seen profits take a big hit — and the Swedish company has fared even worse.
Northvolt lost $1.74 billion last year — that’s four times its loss in 2022.
Calls to rethink petrol-powered car ban timeline
Northvolt’s problems could become even more concerning given the bleak situation for the European EV market right now.
Last week, the European auto industry called for “urgent relief measures” as electric car sales plummet in the region. It said there was a “continual downward trajectory” in EV sales.
New-car registration data reveals European electric vehicle sales fell 45 per cent in August 2024 with 92,627 sales, compared to 165,204 at the same time in 2023, while the market share for battery-electric vehicles has fallen from 21 per cent to 14.4 per cent.
60
Electric cars almost 50 per cent more expensive to insure, study says
New research by an insurance comparison site claims electric vehicles cost a lot more money to insure than their petrol-only equivalents in 2024.
Electric cars are almost 50 per cent more expensive to insure than their petrol-powered equivalents in Australia, new research claims.
A study of 12 insurers carried out by comparison site Compare the Market, has shown the top five best-selling electric vehicles (EVs) are 43 per cent more expensive to cover than similar internal combustion-engined models.
The latest research by the company shows many motorists choosing an EV were facing higher premiums in the first half of this year, based on quotes generated in early September with a 1 October start date.
Across the top five best-selling EVs and 12 car insurance providers, motorists could be spending between $98 to $1788 more to comprehensively insure an EV every year – which may diminish some of the benefits of reduced running costs.
Similarly, the most popular hybrid vehicle are typically 5 per cent pricier for comprehensive car insurance compared to their petrol-only counterparts.
“There are already a number of EVs that are priced on par with some petrol-powered models – but insuring an electric car could cost considerably more than insuring a similar petrol-powered model,” Compare the Market’s economic director, David Koch, said.
According to the study, a Tesla Model Y RWD costs $3434.98 to insure, compared to a Toyota RAV4 Cruiser 2WD which sets owners back $1744.95 – a difference of almost 97 per cent.
Similarly, a Tesla Model 3 RWD costs $3888.55 compared to an Audi A3 35 TFSI sedan which is $2101.04 – a difference of 85 per cent.
60
How Florida Keeps Electricity Plentiful and Rates Low
The Sunshine State has steered clear of green policies that are creating a grid crisis in other states.
Electricity rates in U.S. states have diverged sharply in recent decades. In 2004 residential electricity in the five most expensive states was only twice as expensive on average as in the five most affordable states.
Today it is 160% more expensive.
What explains the difference? State policies. Eight of the 10 most costly states have enacted renewable portfolio standards, “net zero” carbon-emission mandates, and regional cap-and-trade schemes. All eight are controlled by Democrats.
New York gets special honors.
The Empire State has refused to develop the prodigious shale gas resources that have enriched Pennsylvania (For Australia Substitute Labor Victoria). And it has blocked construction of new natural-gas pipelines, depriving New Yorkers—and New Englanders—of affordable electricity.
Among the most populous states, Florida stands out as an island of sanity in a sea of government madness. Under continuous Republican governance since 1999, the Sunshine State took advantage of the shale boom, prioritizing natural gas over renewable energy. That has kept electricity prices low.
Florida relies on natural gas for 75% of its electricity, more than any other large state.
That’s remarkable because of the five largest states, the other four—California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas—all have significant natural-gas reserves, while Florida has none.
Yet compared with Florida, residential electricity is 27% more expensive in Pennsylvania, 60% more expensive in New York and 137% more expensive in California. Even pro-energy, GOP-controlled Texas has more expensive electricity than Florida, partly because of its large renewable energy sector, which makes its grid costly and difficult to operate.
Because it has avoided the misguided climate policies of other states, Florida is better positioned to weather the historic energy-scarcity crisis now bearing down on America’s electricity grid.
40
My new Honda CR-V (ICE 1.5T, 2WD) cost $704 to insure just a couple of weeks ago, comprehensive. It’s also averaging 6.7L/100km over mixed urban/country roads. I got an 8yr warranty inc roadside assistance and the first five services are capped at $250.
On that basis, a similarly-sized EV simply does not make economic sense, especially in light of ever-worsening depreciation as demand for EVs slows down.
130
Interesting to see the numbers, thanks. Unless something changes I cant see EVs making financial sense against comparable mainstream ICE cars.
There are lots of emotional arguments to go that way of course, “saving the planet” ” the end oil oil” ” all those moving parts” etc so stull plenty of fun to be had
20
As far as I can see, a near-equivalent electric SUV would cost at least $20K more and be smaller, with less boot space. $20K buys an awful lot of petrol. Then there’s the extra depreciation, higher insurance premiums and the cost of a home charger (inc installation) are added.
I also read just now that (as an example) a Kia Niro EV capped 5yr service plan costs $1351. Assuming an annual service, that’s $270 per service, $20 more than my ICE Honda. So much for the ‘simpler’ EVs.
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What are talking about? EV’s are great. They have fantastic acceleration and very few working parts so easy to fix. The only problem is that when I go too fast around the corner, they come off the track and get stuck under the couch. 😉
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Fewer working parts and easy to fix? Makes me wonder why servicing and insurance cost are higher 😉
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Hertz bought 50,000 of them. And found service costs were double.
Mainly because of the excessive weight of the cars.
So hard on all the bits. Steering,brakes, suspension, multiple motors. So it’s far past debate. Especially when they found no one wanted to rent an electric car on a critical business trip or holiday.
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And this working parts story? The modern engines and gearboxes are time proven miracles of ultra reliable light weight engineering. And twin turbo has doubled horsepower. So it’s one conventional engine against one or two sealed electric motor drives. Otherwise the number of parts are comparable. We are just learning what can go wrong with with sealed lubrication in electric motors.
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I read a quote by a glider pilot: Friends don’t let friends fly battery powered self-launching gliders. This after a Kiwi pilot died when his battery failed mid flight.
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I thought the battery died in climbing and he failed to land safely, odd as the whole idea of gliding is to land-out safely. Then I looked it up-
“failed”… The lithium battery caught fire filling the cockpit with smoke and poisonous fumes. The 73 year old pilot did a fast decent to the airfield but exceeded Vmax and the wings collapsed, leading to a high-speed impact with the ground..
Definitely don’t use lithium batteries anywhere you can’t get away from them immediately!
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H
Having had some to do with gliders I was working on some questions – which were answered by KP
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Judith Curry On Climate Science And Policy (video)
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So far I do not see Judith winning over any governments.
The question for any climate prognosticator is – can CO2 materially alter Earth’s energy balance? If they answer yes then they should be avoided because they are assuming things about the energy balance that are provably wrong. Ice controls the energy balance. We observe it in the atmosphere as cloud and on land and water as snow and ice. As of two years back, Judith would still answer yes or, possibly, – I do not know.
We now have enough radiation data to know that reduction in cloud is the prime factor for current warming. We also can see that the region just north of the Equator has bucked the trend and has increasing cloud. So anyone aspiring to explain how CO2 causes warming, has to be able to explain its connection to cloud and why cloud has reduced at all latitudes apart from a small region of Antarctica and a few degrees north of the equator:
https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-105.png?ssl=1
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This paper became instantly popular in 2019, they argue that an increase in CO2 is impacting stratocumulus clouds and they will soon vanish altogether. The inference being that without the cool cloud earth will practically bake.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1
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FWIW
“Net-Zero Advocates Confronted with Reality | Part 1”
Listen carefully from about 5 minutes on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSpkHneTCr0
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If it was only $60bn for battery then it would be competitive with coal. However Snowy 2 hydro provides 2GW of capacity at a cost now aimed at $20bn. That is not included in the $60bn for batteries. There its around 27,000km of new transmission line needed at a cost of $500/m. So another $14bn in transmission. Then both solar and wind need to be trippled from their existing values. All that rounds up to a $1tr on top of what has already been spent. And once it is all done, it needs to be repeated every 20 to 25 years apart from Snowy2, which will not be completed for another 20 years if the current rate can be doubled.
The writing is already on the wall with the accelerating investment in household and business batteries. Why use the sun up near Seymor to make electricity and transmit it to Melbourne when the same sun is available on every roof in Melbourne.
There will be an incredibly expensive grid powering a few customers left on the grid who are unable to make their own. .Midday today, and 47% of the NEM demand is being supplied by rooftop solar. And, those like me who have off-grid power already, are not being metered or even counted as part of the demand.
Victoria could offer big tech the lowest cost energy source on the globe to power their AI.
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Doubt it. You over estimate those that can both physically install and afford batteries. Just cause you can do somthing doesnt make it a broad consumer option.
BTW its much sunnier in Seymour and further to the north than it is in the coastal strip, especially in winter. Nothing like the same sun or lack thereof on Melb roofs.
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” Why use the sun up near Seymour to make electricity and transmit it to Melbourne when the same sun is available on every roof in Melbourne.”
I would guess it’s all about votes at the next election. Along with solar panels on city roofs, every sky scrapper in the CBD could also have wind turbines installed but the sight of these might offend any delicate Greens voters , so, just move them into the regions that a/ Generally vote conservative and b/ There is not enough voters in Rural Victoria to make a difference to governments anyway. The Winton solar array with thousands of panels over hundreds of acres on both sides of the Hume freeway was opposed by locals so they got it anyway. The federal member for this area, the alleged independent, is a huge promoter of wind and solar and believes all the problems of demand and supply can be overcome with micro grids and big batteries in every town, that will solve the problem.
This federal member is highly educated in Veterinary science and yet believes that CO2 is a problem. I probably wouldn’t take the dog for a consult!
Same deal with a proposed wind factory in the Strathbogie Ranges, opposed by locals but approved by the local aboriginal land council and forging ahead regardless. The amounts of compensation monies being bandied around for the proposed transmission lines through private properties are impressive. The developing company claims all is above board and on going. This is fine until the wind factory is sold off to a new owner who is not obliged to honour any contracts signed by the original owners.
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I’m not sure where your transmission line costs came from, but based on the recent increases to HumeLink costs, which is now looking like $5bn for only 365kms, up from its original estimate of $1bn, giving a line cost of $13.88m/km. At this cost, the first 10,000 kms of line would cost 139bn.
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I was also wondering where the $60bn figure came from – OK, it was Senator Robert’s figure, no doubt taken from the AEMO/GenCost figure of only two hour’s storage backup. The Labour Senator was waffling on about different state requirements, ignoring the fact that the National grid links all these states. So the backup needs to be grid-based, not state-based. While it can and will be built in stages in different states, in the end it has to be a total grid storage system. And two hour’s backup is clearly insufficient when wind dunkelflautes can extend far longer, through cloudy days when solar is also not contributing very much.
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That’s because they have to pay for the environmental reports, the First Nation’s Taxes then reparations and carbon credits for clearing the bush first..
..and it looks like they have a really good union!
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Sounds Like Australia Again!
Behind Today’s Stunning Jobs Report: A Record Surge In Government Workers
And yet, it didn’t take long to find what the BLS did this time to make the jobs appear much stronger than expected, a political imperative for the highly politicized agency tasked with making the Kamala/Biden economy appear stronger than it was exactly one month ahead of the election.
The answer, ironically, was in the number of government workers, which exploded higher, and were not only instrumental in pushing the Household Survey print much higher, but meant the difference between a 4.1% and 4.5% unemployment rate.
Here is what happened.
In September, the number of government workers as tracked by the Household Survey soared by 785K, from 21.421 million to 22.216 million, both seasonally adjusted (source: Table A8 from the jobs report). This was the biggest monthly surge in government workers on record (excluding the outlier print in June 2020 which was a reversal of the record plunge from the Covid collapse months before).
While government workers soared by the most on record, private workers rose by just 133K, a far more believable number, and one which however would indicate that the recent labor market malaise continues.
Why does any of this matter? For several reasons.
As the recent near-record downward revision in employment demonstrated, when some 818K jobs were magically eliminated, economic reports from the Biden admin has become unreliable to the point where even Fed chair Powell was questioning the credibility of BLS data and lamented that had he known how bad the labor market was, he would have cut in July.
So is the BLS now openly political and seeking to game the data to show Biden in a favorable light?
That’s a rhetorical question we leave to our readers.
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So to answer the question: why jam a record number of government workers in the September payrolls report?
Two reasons: Unemployment rate drops to 4.1% instead of rising to 4.5%, assuring the Sahm Rule is indeed triggered and the US is officially in a recession, and also prevent the market from crashing.
Both, one would say, pretty critical narrative pieces exactly one month before the election.
As an aside, those wondering who is paying for all these government jobs, take one look at the US government debt which just soared to a record high, and that should answer all questions.
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‘The Biden/Harris Doctrine’ Has Brought the World Closer to World War III
Despite claims of success, the Biden administration’s national security policy, marked by incompetence and misguided strategies, has increased global instability and the risk of major conflicts.
By Fred Fleitz October 4, 2024
By a strange turn of fate, on October 1, 2024, the day that Iran launched the largest ballistic missile attack ever against Israel, Foreign Affairs magazine published an article by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which he claimed “the Biden administration’s strategy has put the United States in a much stronger geopolitical position today than it was four years ago” and that Iran is being held in check.
A year earlier, Foreign Affairs published another tragically erroneous article by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, which said, “Although the Middle East remains beset with perennial challenges, the region is quieter than it has been for decades.”
Six days after this article was posted, Hamas launched a sneak attack against Israel, massacring more than 1,200 people and maiming and injuring many more.
In a stunning violation of journalistic ethics, Foreign Affairs allowed Sullivan to revise his article after the Hamas terrorist attack. Here is a link to the original version.
In these articles, Biden officials are trying to rewrite history by manufacturing false narratives of a successful Biden national security doctrine that they claim has enhanced U.S. and global security.
This is, of course, preposterous.
Not only has there been a huge increase in global instability since Donald Trump left office in January 2021, the Biden-Harris administration has brought the world closer to World War III because of an increased chance Russia could use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the real prospect of an Israel-Iran War, a new Russia-China-Iran-North Korea Axis, a growing chance that China will attack Taiwan, and other current and potential crises.
If there is a Biden/Harris national security doctrine, it is a doctrine of abysmal failure. There are four reasons for this.
– Incompetence.
– Knee-jerk rejection of Trump and his foreign policy successes
– Naïve globalist and far-left policies.
– Arrogance and lack of situational awareness.
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‘ … Biden-Harris administration has brought the world closer to World War III …’
It has already begun, but its to do with economics and not nuclear war. India has been outed for secretly sending ammunition to Putin, so this is another BRICS partner which Vlad is going to lose. Hyperinflation in Russia is not far away.
Biden has been prudent, in fear of crossing red lines, so the US will probably hold back until after the election. Some NATO members want to send troops, not for the front line but to train Ukraine’s new recruits to be ready for battle. Nothing to trigger Article 5.
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Unless Trump wins. In which case it will be over in 24 hours. Like all wars, it’s about money. Even in the Middle East.
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America has so far allowed “tens of thousands” of illegal, undocumented Haitians into the country, and dispersed them into numerous small towns without consulting those living there.
Meanwhile, this is an extract from Australia’s ‘Smartraveller’, describing the country from which these lovely people originate:
“Violent crime is common in Haiti, including murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, assault, sexual assault and carjacking. The risk increases at night and in isolated areas. Gang violence is concentrated in certain areas. It is escalating in the capital, Port-au-Prince and extends to the Artibonite region. Gangs are increasingly attacking residential neighbourhoods and kidnapping groups of people. Armed gangs control most of Port-au-Prince. Since April 2023, vigilante groups have attacked and killed alleged gang members in some Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods and the provinces. Be alert to your surroundings. Don’t go out after dark.
Kidnappings are common in Haiti. Since September 2020, hundreds of foreign nationals have been abducted. Victims have included missionaries, aid workers and children. Most of the victims have been released in exchange for ransom. In some cases, victims have disappeared or been killed. Be extremely vigilant at all times.”
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Gang attack in Haiti kills 70 people including infants
Scores of people including three infants were killed in a gang attack in central Haiti, the United Nations Human Rights Office said in a statement on Friday.
Members of the Gran Grif gang used automatic rifles to kill at least 70 people on Thursday, including 10 women and three infants, according to the UN.
The attack occurred in the town of Pont Sondé in Artibonite department, a crucial agricultural center about 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince, where gang violence has continued to spread, according to the UN.
At least 16 people were seriously injured in the attack, including two gang members hit during an exchange of fire with Haitian police, the UN said. The gang members also set fire to at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles, forcing some residents to flee.
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In my new theory about global warning it is clear to me now that we need to ban the bubble.
Every day millions of tons of CO2 is released into the atmosphere from fizzy drinks. Surely now we can be sophisticated enough to at least initially have a choice between sugar and sugar free as well as CO2 free beer, Coka cola, champagne, and other fizzy drinks that have been laden with copious CO2.
It should not be difficult to secure government funded research to look for alternative fizzy drink gasses like using nitrogen for instance ?? 🙂
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Not such a new theory ES but still a plausible one as billions of people pop and fizz their way to planetary destruction. I’ll ring the ABC for them to cover the story and to stop demonising fossil fuels.
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Does storing baked bean tins upside down really work? I put Heinz’s theory to the test
Does Heinz’s theory that baked beans are best kept upside down apply to all tinned foods? I put five popular cans to the test
We’ve been storing our baked bean tins wrong all these years.
Or that is what the people at Heinz are saying, and they should know. It seems we need to be putting the tin in the cupboard upside down – with the ring pull at the bottom. I can’t say I pay much attention to which way up my tins get shoved on the shelf. What difference could it possibly make?
The problem, says Heinz, is that when we tip the beans out into a pan, some stay recalcitrantly stuck at the base. Sure, having to make with a spoon is hardly a tragedy even if that metal-on-metal scraping is tooth-jangling.
On the scale of first world problems, it’s somewhere between a leaking cappuccino lid and a nationwide chia seed shortage.
But if it’s possible to make beans on toast, the definition of an easy supper, even less hassle, why not do it?
The point is that the beans naturally sink to the bottom of the can, sticking together in a gunky mass. By inverting the tin, the beans will settle at the ring pull end – and be easily dislodged once the lid is removed.
It’s important enough that Heinz has released a batch of tins with their labels on upside down, as a sort of bean-based aide-memoire.
And it led me to wonder whether this useful hack is transferable. Should I be storing all my tins upside down?
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Use a can opener on the other end. Problem solved.
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Spoon ?
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Or just turn it upside down a few minutes before you open it.
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“Use a can opener on the other end. ”
Gold!!
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My Irish father-in-law once told me that there are only ever 239 beans in each can, because one more would be too farty.
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“Should I be storing all my tins upside down?”
Well, no. They are NOT tins. They are in fact steel.
The most useless information you never needed to know.
Tin cans is just an aberrant term of what was a system invented in the late 1800’s to preserve food.
This system used “Tinned canisters” that could be hermeticaly sealed, heated to sterilise the contents and thus give the contents a long shelf life.
Tinned steel was used because the ends of the canister could be soldered on with lead/tin solder.
These days many canisters are in fact tin free steel with welded side seams or shallow drawn, without a side seam and made like an aluminium beer can. The “end” whether ring pull or plain is rolled on with a sealing compound in the rim to make the end product air tight.
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More useless information.
Lead/tin solder has been phased out for health reasons over the years and replace with either pure tin solder or welded side seams.
Now tin free steel is coated with varnishes and lacquers to prevent corrosion, and, following the law of unintended consequences. many of these coatings contained Bisphenol A,
you know that persistent oestrogen mimic often referred to as BpA, that also has been linked to many health issues. Apparently a lose lose situation.
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My very first job, at 15yo, was as an apprentice motor mechanic. I spent many hours with my head tucked under wheel arches while I blew ‘brake dust’ (containing asbestos back then) everywhere with an air hose. Cough, wheeze. Overtime was available serving petrol in the evenings and weekends, when I spent more hours inhaling fumes from leaded petrol (fond memories – seriously).
Next I worked as an assembler at ICL, a mainframe computer manufacturer, where I spent most days blissfully unaware that the lead/tin solder I was melting under my nose might not be very healthy.
Then I spent some years assembling mass spectrometers, which involved cleaning parts in acetone, isopronanol and Trichloroethylene. Yummy. Also cough, wheeze.
After being made redundant with a mortgage aged 24, I went to work as a site supervisor at a friend’s roofing business. As I have always been a ‘hands on’ guy, I would often help out on site by cutting up asbestos cement roofing sheets. We didn’t wear masks because this was unnecessary outdoors, apparently. Cough, wheeze, sneeze.
I shouldn’t be here and worry every time I get a cough or have breathing difficulties. I can’t help thinking, “Any day now …”
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I’m from the era of blowing out brake drums with air too but I have never heard of one of our peers getting asbestosis.
Is it possible that asbestos in fibrous form is dangerous but as microscopic dust, not so much?
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It was a case of overreaction. Fibres in the lungs cause damage and eventually repair fails, so you get cancers.
But it was also discovered that the real culprit was ‘blue’ asbestos. Shorter and deadly which gave it the blue colour. Witernoon in WA. We also imported South African blue asbestos. It was great marketing. Victoria’s blue trains were insulated with blue asbestos.
The longer fibre asbestos was not known to be as deadly at all. And that was the bulk of asbestos and all of it in car brakes. I worked in a car brake laboratory. We swam in the stuff.
Which explains why you are alive. And myself. Prior to that a nuclear accelerator. And when the films came out overexposed, they just gave us new films. Problem solved.
The same with lead in petrol. They could have dropped the lead content x4 in a single day. But better to ban it outright
which was a great boon to car companies. We then had pumps where you could select the ratio from a table. And almost no one needed 100%.
Freon as well. And the ‘ozone hole’ which strangely is still there and as big and over the South Pole, not the North pole.
But the money made was fantastic. Like windmills and solar panels. Actual impact on CO2. Zero.
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I also believe there is the same problem with fibre length and fibre glass insulation. But no one says anything because it is green.
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H
IIRC – if it was white asbestos (curly fibre) there was minimal danger. The ones with straight fibres are the problem.
And the triumph of legality over actuality in all those US court cases is that the only time blue asbestos was used in US was by the US Navy for a short time after Pearl Harbour
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Lead / tin solder is still available – https://www.jaycar.com.au/1mm-duratech-solder-500g/p/NS3014 – it’s what I normally use.
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Thousands of Bodies Pile Up in NC as FEMA Fails! Whistleblowers Exposes Cover-Up! (video)
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Taking Our Helicopter Into North Carolina’s Disaster (video)
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The People are Mad as Hell! (video)
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Confiscations, Mines, Military, FEMA…We Are Being Lied To (video)
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“Vaxx Skeptics Need To Be Silenced!” Says Bill Gates (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysFrt3V7nvI
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FWIW – UK
“Massive Electricity Price Rises Expected as National Grid Confirms Gas is the Only Back-Up for Intermittent Renewables”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/10/05/massive-electricity-price-rises-expected-as-national-grid-confirms-gas-is-the-only-back-up-for-intermittent-renewables/
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Tulsi Gabbard: America Is Running Out Of Time (video)
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