A study in useless

nuary 22, 2009

A study in useless

Reuters has been busy on the carbon emissions front, retailing another delightful story which should bring tears – of laughter – as it confronts the total ineptitude of the EU's grandiose plans to save the planet.

European factories, the agency tells us, "are cashing in on an unexpected benefit from wilting output, selling surplus carbon emissions permits worth about €1 billion to raise funds on the carbon market." 

What has happened is that the recession in Europe has dragged down industrial output so fast that it has dropped well below the EU’s calculated level of activity – and therefore CO2 production, leaving many firms with a massive surplus of permits. Particularly flush are steel and cement makers. 

Thus, in a canny but entirely unpredicted (by the EU) wheeze, these firms are selling off their surplus credits, and making a tidy euro into the bargain. In so doing, they are depressing the price of “carbon” and completely defeating the whole object of the EU's scheme.

"This was not designed as a scheme to give corporates cheap short-term funding options in the face of a credit crunch meltdown where banks are not lending," said Mark Lewis, Deutsche Bank carbon analyst. "But that appears to be what's happening."

You don't say.

What was supposed to happen what the number of credits issues was supposed to be less than actually needed, driving up the price and thus forcing companies to look for alternative technologies and strategies, in order to reduce the burden of paying for "carbon". The carbon prices now, says Reuters, could collapse, dropping as low as €5 per ton, from a peak of €31 last summer. 

Like everything else the EU touches in the real world, this has thus turned out to be disaster. Nothing the EU ever does actually works, and the sooner this is realised, the better. But, at least the low price should stuff Brownnicely, and save us all a load of money.

The other joy is that those who have invested in carbon credits have been well and truly burned. The credits are one of the worst investments so far in 2009, falling more than almost any other energy commodity or index of global stocks. 

There is a God in heaven.

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What's with these people?

I have to ask this: are there any normal people working for the UN? And if there are, do they ever get beyond the tea-making status? Another cute little scandal brewing up or about to be hushed up, depending on how cynical you are.

The police source seems to be quite cynical: "Yeah sure. It's always research." Definitely above tea-making status, methinks.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

We have a problem

Well, to be quite precise, Netherlands has a problem but as we are all one big happy family these days, what affects them, affects us. Maybe. I hope not.

Geert Wilders, the Dutch parliamentarian and general troublemaker, of whom we have written before, is to be prosecuted for anti-Islamic statements in his film "Fitna" (here is what we wrote about that) and articles in the newspaper De Volkskrant. It seems that he linked Islamism with terror and violence and there were more than 40 complaints. Not, I assume, from the victims of that terror and violence, most of whom are Muslims.

Last July we wrote that the Dutch prosecutors sensibly took the decision not to prosecute him. Now the Court of Appeals has overthrown that decision.

The Court of Appeal said it "considers criminal prosecution obvious for the insult of Islamic worshippers" after Wilders compared parts of their faith with Nazism. The ruling, posted on the court's Web site today, overturns a decision by the prosecutor last year not to charge Wilders.

I am looking forward to the prosecution of all those who compare Israel to Nazi Germany, the fighting in Gaza to the Holocaust and all Jews to members of the SS, as well as the prosecution of all those who scream that Hitler's work must be finished and all Jews should be sent back to the gas ovens. But I will not hold my breath.

Michelle Malkin wants to know where President Obama stands on this. I am more interested to know where Prime Minister Brown stands, since he is here. Come to think of it, where do other European leaders who are endlessly extolling "European values" stand?

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