Another reason for ABC - by Richard... Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Another reason for ABC - by Richard... Wednesday, April 28, 2010

"There'll be no delay in pushing through a green energy revolution if the Conservatives win power, senior shadow cabinet figures tell me," writes Geoffrey Lean.

Greg Clark, the Tories shadow energy and climate change minister, has won an undertaking from David Cameron and the party leadership that an energy bill will be included in the first Queen's Speech, delivered within a month of the new Government taking office.

The bill will meet manifesto pledges to entitle each household to £6,400 for energy saving measures, set up a Green Investment Bank, reform the Climate Change Levy to provide a floor price for carbon, and reform the energy regulator, Ofgem. 

CLIMATE CHANGE – NEW THREAD

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What is the problem? - by Richard...

US generals have been given a baffling PowerPoint presentation (pictured above – click to enlarge) to try to explain the Afghanistan mess, reports The Daily Mail.

They are, we are told, struggling to understand it – and that is really worrying. From the look of it, this is the over-simplified version, for military use. The reality is much more complicated. Mind you, if the authors believe this is an accurate - much less complete - representation of the problem, then we are really in trouble.

COMMENT THREAD

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Let not man put asunder - by Richard...

The Eurozone is on its deathbed, writesGerald Warner, articulating that which many have predicted, even if the collapse has been a long time coming.

Ambrose is equally pessimistic, but then he always is - although the OECD secretary general is now comparing the crisis to the Ebola virus. Clearly, virology is not his strong suit.

Moi, I'm a little more cautious. Having myself predicted the demise of the single currency, only to see it rise again from the dead, one really does wonder what it will take to kill off this zombie.

However, it is marginally entertaining to see that the country which is squawking loudest about the Germans needing to do something is France ... which happens to have the largest national exposure to Greek debt.

If it is the Franco-German motor which has kept the "project" together, it will be hugely ironic if stresses over Greek debt tear the partners asunder.

GREEK THREAD

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Closing down Britain - by Richard...

Aluminium, then steel and now ... cigarette filters. Not in quite the same league, but it is still 460 jobs as the American owners of the Derbyshire plant of Celanese Acetatehave decided to close it down, blaming – according to a local media report "soaring UK energy prices".

A spokesman for the company – which prides itself in delivering "sustainable value" - said: "A lot of work was carried out to reduce costs but there was no way to make any inroads into reducing our fundamental energy costs, which are much higher in the UK than overseas," then adding: "The biggest differential in costs between ourselves and other sites in the group is the price of energy."

UK energy prices had "skyrocketed" by 16.7 percent in the last year against an average increase of just 3.8 percent in the European Union. A large amount of heat and steam is used in the chemical process that turns wood pulp into acetate flake. More steam is required in the production of cigarette filters, Celanese Acetate's core product.

The company does, however, manufacture a variety of other products, including acetate film and, when the business was acquired in 2007 by Dallas-based Celanese Acetate, it was thought to be of "sufficient mass to generate high investment to sustain future growth and compete effectively against other films in a highly competitive and fast moving market." Sadly, that was not to be.

The move brings to an end almost 100 years of acetate production at the factory (pictured) and is the final death knell for an iconic city business which once employed 20,000 people. Celanese Corporation is aiming to concentrate production in Belgium, the US and Mexico, where power costs are cheaper.

There may be little sympathy for the producers of this particular product, although one doubts that even the most crazed anti-smoking zealot would have us going back to smoking Capstan Full-strength, without tabs. But this closure is typical of what we have seen elsewhere.

George Cowcher, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive, notes that, "Our energy prices are substantially higher than in France, Germany and Belgium." He worries that global companies operating here are comparing costs and if the UK operation is the most expensive it will be the one that goes. "The concern is that other multinationals will do the same," he says.

Conway Standing, the managing director of Derby-based commercial energy broker Utility Exchange Online, has another "take" on the situation. "Most of Britain's energy companies are owned by German, Spanish and French companies," he says. They "have kept any increases lower in their home countries but allowed the prices in the UK to remain high."

But, as always, the situation is slightly more complex than is painted. Jens Kurth, head of European communications and public affairs for Celanese, said demand for its products is expected to continue to shift to Asia, especially China, where new factories are being developed.

Thus, he says, "Celanese expects to meet customer commitments under this proposal by optimising its global acetate production network, which includes facilities in Belgium, Virginia and Mexico, as well as the company's acetate joint venture facilities in China." In other words, the work is going to where the business opportunities are most promising.

But, if there are no tears shed (apart from in Derbyshire) for the loss of cigarette filter manufacture, spare a thought for what is happening in our premier construction plant manufacturer, JCB.

Last week, Digby Jones, who is on the advisory board of the company, was complaining that only 36 percent of today's JCB digger components are manufactured in Britain. In 1979 that figure stood at 96 per cent.

Key components like hydraulic pumps are made in Spain, Sweden and Germany. Axle components are sourced from nine countries including China, India and Slovakia. The proportion of UK components in some sub-assemblies has fallen even more sharply. Digger axles, for example, contain less than ten per cent British-made parts, as measured by cost, compared with 75 percent in 1989.

This haemorrhage of jobs – and skills – cannot continue. After all, if all those civil servants and climate change co-ordinators are going to be fired, there must be some jobs for them to go to. They can't all be employed building windmills or as domestic insulation installers. Somebody actually has to be making something useful.

COMMENT THREAD

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They can't leave well enough alone - by Richard...

As if the Large Combustion Plant Directive isn't doing enough damage, the "colleagues" are now working on a revision 
to the infamous directive on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC), which they are now calling the Industrial Emissions Directive.

The directive applies to virtually all production processes, including electricity generation plants, the revision taking the "opportunity" to ramp up the emission requirements.

Originally set to apply to existing plants from 2023, it now appears that the luvvies in the EU parliament are pushing to have them included by 2016, which means that up to 14 power plants could close, putting energy security at risk.

The CBI has woken up to the danger and has put out a warning, prior to the parliament vote on 4 May ... two days before our general election, when no one will be taking a blind bit of notice.

The CBI is calling for power plants to be given until 2021 to prepare for the proposed changes which, it says, "will allow other low-carbon forms of energy to be built to replace the lost capacity and ensure a smooth transition."

I have no means of knowing which way the EU parliament will vote, but even if the original text is approved, it is still bad news for us all, as it will significantly add to costs – not that you would glean this from the fawning CBI press release.

The EU parliament voted this through the first reading on 10 March which means that it is up for its second reading on 4 May. If the amendment is then endorsed, the measure goes for conciliation, where the Council of Ministers – which has agreed the 2023 transition period – will have to give ground or the measure will fall (and is thus likely to give ground).

The best bet, therefore, is for this to be stopped on 4 May, but with attention elsewhere – not least on the deteriorating Greek situation - sod's law could apply and the thing might slip though without any real drama.

If that happens, there is a good chance that the lights will go out on or around 2016. That will be the parliament after next in the UK. Whoever is then prime minister of our provincial government will have the dubious pleasure of explaining to us all how lucky we are to be in Europe but not ruled by Europe. If there was any justice, it would be that idiot Cameron, forced to eat his words, but he may be political history by then.

COMMENT THREAD

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More for our masters - by Richard...

While every one of the 27 EU member states is looking to cutting public expenditure – some more than others – the EU is demanding a £6.3 billionincrease in its budget to bring its spending "into line with its new powers under the Lisbon Treaty."

So much for the claim that Lisbon was a mere amending treaty, but then the "colleagues" always have lived on a diet of lies, confident that when the chips are down, they can still hold out their hands and the member state governments will come rushing to throw money at them.

In the 2010/11 financial period, British taxpayers will have to hand over £7.9 billion – that is £7,900,000,000, or more than £400 for every household – to keep the "colleagues" in the luxury they most certainly do not deserve, while the EU enjoys a budget of £113 billion for its 2011 financial year (which coincides with the calendar year).

This situation is beyond irony as the commission has been urging on member state governments cutbacks in their own finances, and – according to Bruno Waterfield - is calling for a six percent cut in British public spending by 2013.


At the same time, we are continually assailed by EU laws and requirements which further add to the cost of governance and daily life, all promulgated by institutions where profligacy is their middle name. And to this, we append our now ritual question – and the reason we do not rise up and slaughter them all is?

The question becomes less rhetorical with each passing day – the pics are of the Résidence Palace in Brussels, that £280 million monstrosity to house the European Council, symbol of being "in Europe but not ruled by Europe," as that idiot Cameron would have us believe.

COMMENT THREAD

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Whatever happened to the internet? - by Richard...

This was supposed to be the internet election and, for once, The Daily Telegraph has asked an intelligent question ... what happened?

Unfortunately, the paper then asked Iain Dale to answer the question, a prominent member of the political claque who has done more than most to emasculate political discourse on the blogosphere, treating it as if it were a soap opera.

Most probably the reason why the election has not set the "new media" on fire is the same reason people aren't talking about it in pubs or elsewhere – the sheer tedium and artificiality of the contest. None of the real issues are being entertained, as the politicians try to dominate and limit the debate, confining it to the "safe" issues that they are prepared to discuss.

As it stands, I could get more interested in writing a lengthy discourse on the behavioural dynamics of brush-applied coatings on timber in domestic environments than explore Mr Cleggerown's latest vapourings.

But that does not mean that people, or the blogosphere for that matter, are not interested in politics or the election. It's just that there is a limit to how many times you can write or say that they're all a bunch of low-grade drongos with not a fag-paper between them, and that you'd sooner stick your head in a vat of boiling oil than vote for any of them.

Thus it is that the "new media" is alive and kicking, as active and vibrant as it has even been. The fact that it has not followed the election is not its failure – the failure is of the political system that cannot even hold our interest.