Britannia Radio

The preferred systems for wasting massive resources in 'Going Green' 
are the totally unreliable and - in practice - worse than useless 
windfarms.  A Severn barrage or reef,  - or Solway Firth, or Pentland 
Firth -  or (more generally) tidal energy could provide enough 
reliable electricity provided it was started soon.  Otherwise we'll 
have blackouts.   In reality new coal burning stations must be built 
but all our politicians believe in this new false religion.

It looks as though Eastern Europe will dig its toes in for,  even 
more than Britain,  it cannot possibly fit into the EU's mad 
straightjacket .  Deutsche Welle [below] sets out the state of the 
argument though it too is infatuated with CO2 theories.

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EASTERN DAILY PRESS   28.11.08
Hidden cost of green energy revealed

TARA GREAVES

An energy bill which commits the UK to investing in renewables was 
due to be given Royal Assent last night , despite a new report which 
says consumers will face costs of an extra £80 a year to make it happen.

The Climate Change Bill, which signs up future governments to cut CO2 
emissions by 80pc from 1990 levels by 2050, was introduced in 
parliament in 2007.

It was expected to be given the Royal Assent and made legally binding 
last night but it comes in the week where a report warns that the 
"dash" towards renewable energy could also lead to an over-reliance 
on generation from intermittent sources, such as wind, which would 
threaten the UK's energy security.

Under EU plans 20pc of Europe-wide power would be generated from 
green sources by 2020.

Lord Vallance, chairman of the House of Lords Economic Affairs 
Committee, said: "We accept that the UK government, along with 
others, must take steps to reduce carbon emissions.  [Why?  Bad 
science. -cs]

"However we are concerned that the dash to meet the EU's 2020 targets 
may draw attention and investment away from cheaper and more reliable 
low carbon electricity generation - such as nuclear and, potentially, 
fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage."

The committee report calculates that the higher costs of renewables 
would increase the costs of electricity by £6.8bn a year, or 38pc 
above conventional power, which translates to an extra £80 on annual 
fuel bills for the average household.

It recommends the government gives a firm lead and a stable 
investment framework for low-carbon alternatives to renewables 
including nuclear and fossil fuel plants which have technology fitted 
to capture and permanently store carbon emissions.

Marcus Armes, from the UEA-based CRed carbon reduction campaign, 
said: "While there are some welcome recommendations in the report 
about developing and enhancing renewable energy technologies I find 
the overall tone rather disappointing.

"Also the costings seem to be based on questionable assumptions, and 
as usual it appears that no real effort has been made to calculate 
the significant cost of decommissioning nuclear plants when comparing 
nuclear with renewables.

"Moreover, it is worth bearing in mind the costs to our economy of 
inaction on the issue of developing low carbon alternatives, and 
these costs were outlined in the much more comprehensive Stern 
Review, which while accepting that there was a cost to decarbonising 
our economy these would be vastly outweighed by the damaging impact 
of climate change if the business as usual model were adopted."

But think tank Open Europe's research director Hugo Robinson said 
against a backdrop of a shrinking economy and rising unemployment, 
the EU plan was an inefficient approach.

He said: "The Lords report is further confirmation that the EU's 
binding targets for renewable energy will force investment towards 
very cost ineffective means of reducing carbon emissions, and will 
damage our energy security."
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DEUTSCHE WELLE   .11.08
Poland: Rich EU States Must Make Climate Concessions

The European Union's richest members must make concessions to their 
poorer peers if the bloc is to agree to a landmark deal on fighting 
climate change, a Polish minister insisted Thursday.

"We are as far from an agreement as we were in October ... It is 
really difficult to understand why a number of the most affluent 
member states ... are not really moving an inch," Polish Minister for 
Europe Mikolaj Dowgielewicz told journalists in Brussels.

Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic states are "refusing 
to recognize" the specific problems that EU climate change proposals 
would cause in Poland, and thereby risk torpedoing negotiations, he 
said.

"A lot of countries which are very strict in negotiations are not 
prepared to work towards the agreement. I will not accept a situation 
where somebody would put the blame on Poland, Bulgaria and Romania 
for the failure of negotiations," he said.

Vital deal under threat due to costs
At present, EU nations are wrangling over a set of legal proposals 
from the bloc's executive, the European Commission, aimed at cutting 
EU emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2, the gas most  [WRONGLY -cs] 
linked with global warming) to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Environmental groups say that a deal is vital in order to galvanize a 
broader international agreement on fighting climate change at a 
conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

But a row between the EU's older and richer members and its poorer 
newcomers over the cost of the proposals threatens to derail talks, 
with both sides insisting that they have "red lines" which they will 
defend with a veto if necessary.

The row concerns the EU's proposal to strengthen a scheme which 
forces industries which emit large amounts of CO2, such as power 
generators, to buy permits to emit the gas -- thereby making it more 
financially attractive for them to invest in low-CO2 technology.

Poland, which generates over 90 percent of its electricity from 
highly-polluting coal, says that it cannot accept the EU proposal 
because it would massively boost power bills in the country and force 
it to become dependent on imports of gas from Russia.
"Do you think we'll turn off the lights and switch to gas? We won't 
do it, this is not a viable political scenario," Dowgielewicz said.

Poland proposes new deal, vows to veto
In mid-November, the French government, which currently holds the 
EU's rotating presidency, offered a compromise allowing coal-
dependent countries to give their power generators half of their 
emissions permits for free until 2016. Warsaw rejected the proposal.

Instead, the Polish government has proposed a system which would give 
free emissions permits to the most efficient power stations but 
oblige less efficient ones to buy some permits, thereby encouraging 
generators to clean up their production.

EU heads of state and government are set to debate the climate 
proposals at their annual year-end summit on Dec. 11-12, with the 
French government lobbying intensively for a deal.

Polish leaders have already said that they will veto the climate 
change package if their concerns are not met.

On Dec. 6, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to meet the prime 
ministers of Poland and eight central and eastern European states 
which support it to try and find a compromise.

That meeting will be "the moment of truth," and will have to make 
"substantial progress" on issues such as electricity prices and 
controls on the price of CO2 emissions permits, Dowgielewicz said.