Back in the early 1990s, copper wire theft was a real plague around here. As Bulgaria embarked on its journey to a transition — hehe — from totalitarianism to democracy — hehe again — there were suddenly many poor people who either liked the easy way of making money or had no other option.
We apparently also have math challenged people in the solar and wind industries who calculate their power costs per unit using asset lives that are quite long. Except that they decide to spend more money to "repair" or "renovate" their equipment much sooner, say 10 years instead of a 20 year purported lifespan. It turns out this is to get more tax credits. Savvy investor and apparent government subsidy fan Warren Buffett was quoted as saying that wind projects wouldn't pay out without credits. Is his investment strategy really based on free market capitalism these days?
In Spain, I recall, there was the curious case of the solar panel array that generated in the night. (A case worthy of Sherlock Holmes to investigate.) It transpired that the operator in question found the feed-in price he received from the grid was much higher than the price supplied by the grid to power the arc-lights over the solar panels to produce current at night.
As for being paid not to produce things, this is a long tradition in the EU, as illustrated by the following letter to The Times newspaper some years back. It could easily work for not producing electricity from wind and solar.
Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Secretary of State,
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR
16 May 2007
Dear Secretary of State,
My friend, who is in farming at the moment, recently received a cheque for £3,000 from the Rural Payments Agency for not rearing pigs.
I would now like to join the “not rearing pigs” business.
In your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on, and which is the best breed of pigs not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy.
I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type you want not rearing, I will just as gladly not rear porkers. Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots, or are there too many people already not rearing these?
As I see it, the hardest part of this programme will be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven’t reared. Are there any Government or Local Authority courses on this?
My friend is very satisfied with this business. He has been rearing pigs for forty years or so, and the best he ever made on them was £1,422 in 1968. That is – until this year, when he received a cheque for not rearing any.
If I get £3,000 for not rearing 50 pigs, will I get £6,000 for not rearing 100?
I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 pigs not raised, which will mean about £240,000 for the first year. As I become more expert in not rearing pigs, I plan to be more ambitious, perhaps increasing to, say, 40,000 pigs not reared in my second year, for which I should expect about £2.4 million from your department. Incidentally, I wonder if I would be eligible to receive tradable carbon credits for all these pigs not producing harmful and polluting methane gases?
Another point: These pigs that I plan not to rear will not eat 2,000 tonnes of cereals. I understand that you also pay farmers for not growing crops. Will I qualify for payments for not growing cereals to not feed the pigs I don’t rear?
I am also considering the “not milking cows” business, so please send any information you have on that too. Please could you also include the current Defra advice on set aside fields? Can this be done on an e-commerce basis with virtual fields (of which I seem to have several thousand hectares)?
defra cow
In view of the above you will realise that I will be totally unemployed, and will therefore qualify for unemployment benefits.
I shall of course be voting for your party at the next general election.
I’ve got a better idea - let’s save a ton of money and just quit the nonsense - electrify what the individual can afford - solar on their rooftop and backyard, wind on their roof top and backyard, small scooters instead of real cars (or bicycles for all of those bike only lanes being retrofitted to streets), and then disconnect them from the grid so no juice from the public supply.
There’s a price to the transition to being a greenie.
Copper thieves will get the app to bring the chargers down the pole, (or just climb the poles) and of course the copper cables will have to come down along with the chargers...
Sorry to hear the rain in Spain that falls mainly on the plain has not been showing up lately.
The Seattle overlords should watch those videos and see how fast those kids with battery powered sawzalls can cut through an exhaust pipe. They’ll bring down the charger poles in 2 minutes.
The wind producers gaming the system is a family tradition in the renewable community. The bureaucrats make rules, the capitalists figure out how to beat them. The governor of California once said it was like sister Murphy’s third grade basketball team against the LA Lakers
The funniest (and saddest) part of this is the fantasy about wind being the cheapest form of generation. Obviously it's not even close to competitive. Like the football team who claims "We're not big, but we are slow", wind might be expensive, but at least it is unreliable. And so we can layer uneconomic backup generation onto the already high cost of wind power.
You should start a substack. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. It could be just a couple paragraphs, once a week - even once a month to start. Why not? Substack automatically does the basic formatting for you - all you need to do is give it a title and write down your thoughts. You could start short and simple, and as you have time, expand it later. It's easy!
Maybe I’ve missed it Irina, but don’t recollect seeing any mention on your blog of climate scientist Prof Michael Man wining a million-dollar verdict against right-wing bloggers. That doesn’t by any means mean I see you as a right-wing blogger Irina. Prof. Man’s reasons for pursuing his clams were over defamation of character involving his scientific work on climate change. His decisive win has resulted in a multi million-dollar payout and marks it as a significant victory over a wave of attacks against himself and other scientists working on climate change and environmental issues. Prof. Man had this to say of the verdict:
“I hope this verdict sends a message that falsely attacking climate scientists is not protected speech; “It’s a good day for science.”
I can accept your amusement at EV’s and their charging idiosyncrasies, but the fact remains that excluding climate change we’re heading for a time when Flammable Fossils (FF’s), in particular Oil, will no longer be cheap or in the quantities required to maintain our present lifestyles and civilisation. You can argue that you, and I include myself, most probably won’t see that day, but a child born today will.
As yet there’s nothing remotely in sight that comes anywhere near to replacing the energy density or mobility of Oil, Gas and Coal, and now made doubly difficult with the elimination of human made CO2. I accept so called Green Rebuildables (Renewables) (WTs, PVP’s etc. including Nuclear, won’t provide a like for like energy replacement (but they will lead to “The Great Simplification”) but if nothing else Green Rebuildables are showing just how difficult an energy transition is without FF’s🤔
Then I apologise for upsetting you Irina, but like it or not, in my 3 score years and 10 that I’ve inhabited this planet I’ve never known a time that I’ve felt so uneasy about the future for my grand and great grandchildren, even the Cold War Cuban missile crises and past oil embargo’s were nothing like what’s happening, it’s building up to a tsunami of meta and poly-crosses.
Decades ago when CC came to the fore, but before AGW was in vogue meteorologists pointed out we would experience rapid changes in temperature, and extreme weather events. Whilst I’m a wildlife and weather watcher I don’t keep weather records but my does, and has done for many decades, her records reflect what I’ve seen. I don’t argue with anyone for or against AGW, I just say: where I’ve lived for decades we had proper winters, winters that my forbears could relate to, then from the 1970’s they became progressively unpredictable until seven years ago, they stopped being winters, more like spring and autumn, by spring of this year it’ll be 8 years since we had any proper snow, that’s snow that stays with us more than two days. Air frosts are now a rarity and ground frosts are few and like the snow rarely last a day.
The village I live in is rurally situated and sits in the knee of forest, a forest which covers an of area around 36 square miles. It’s a privately managed forest going back hundreds of years. There are a number of public rights, footpaths and bridle ways within it. Several years ago noticed more trees than normally were being harvested, a few months later saplings were planted. Coming across one of forest managers, asked why are so many trees being harvested. He told me they were suffering from lack of water, mature trees taking up more water than saplings. But we’ve been having downpours of rain I said. He smiled it’s not the downpours it’s the water table that’s the problem, it’s dropping dramatically. Is that anything to do with CC I asked, partly he said, explaining: that farmers were using more water, the surrounding towns and villages have grown in population and lifestyles result in using more water, and the water supply mainly comes from boreholes and the water system now feeds other areas (I knew all this), and whilst we do have downpours we don’t get the annual rainfall we used to🤔
That's okay, Barry, you haven't upset me. Yes, the climate is changing and the weather is becoming less predictable but fear won't help any of us. This is what makes the fearmongering coming from political and activist circles so abhorrent -- it is deliberate and its purpose is not to equip us better for tackling a future will less predictable weather. Also, anyone believing that if we reduce the amount of a trace element in the atmosphere the weather will return to being predictable is in for a big disappointment. Adaptation is the only way forward, for me.
In the main I agree with you Irina. But why is it when I glance over my last reply I see errors: poly-crosses should read: polycrisis; I don’t keep weather records but my does, should read: I don’t keep weather records but my wife does. Sorry, senior moments, must pay more attention🤔
"Crime don't climb" is the phrase used by elites living on hilltops.
Great article.
Re green hydrogen sham you might get a kick out of Porsche's activities off the Coast of Spain :
"Porsche's Green Fuel Gambit Keeps Gas Powered Cars on the Road"
https://tucoschild.substack.com/p/porsches-green-fuel-gambit-keeps
You've done a wonderful job detailing the e-fuel story, thank you!
We apparently also have math challenged people in the solar and wind industries who calculate their power costs per unit using asset lives that are quite long. Except that they decide to spend more money to "repair" or "renovate" their equipment much sooner, say 10 years instead of a 20 year purported lifespan. It turns out this is to get more tax credits. Savvy investor and apparent government subsidy fan Warren Buffett was quoted as saying that wind projects wouldn't pay out without credits. Is his investment strategy really based on free market capitalism these days?
Oh, yes, the "repairs and repower" story. Thanks for reminding me about it. It's truly obnoxious.
In Spain, I recall, there was the curious case of the solar panel array that generated in the night. (A case worthy of Sherlock Holmes to investigate.) It transpired that the operator in question found the feed-in price he received from the grid was much higher than the price supplied by the grid to power the arc-lights over the solar panels to produce current at night.
As for being paid not to produce things, this is a long tradition in the EU, as illustrated by the following letter to The Times newspaper some years back. It could easily work for not producing electricity from wind and solar.
Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Secretary of State,
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR
16 May 2007
Dear Secretary of State,
My friend, who is in farming at the moment, recently received a cheque for £3,000 from the Rural Payments Agency for not rearing pigs.
I would now like to join the “not rearing pigs” business.
In your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on, and which is the best breed of pigs not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy.
I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type you want not rearing, I will just as gladly not rear porkers. Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots, or are there too many people already not rearing these?
As I see it, the hardest part of this programme will be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven’t reared. Are there any Government or Local Authority courses on this?
My friend is very satisfied with this business. He has been rearing pigs for forty years or so, and the best he ever made on them was £1,422 in 1968. That is – until this year, when he received a cheque for not rearing any.
If I get £3,000 for not rearing 50 pigs, will I get £6,000 for not rearing 100?
I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 pigs not raised, which will mean about £240,000 for the first year. As I become more expert in not rearing pigs, I plan to be more ambitious, perhaps increasing to, say, 40,000 pigs not reared in my second year, for which I should expect about £2.4 million from your department. Incidentally, I wonder if I would be eligible to receive tradable carbon credits for all these pigs not producing harmful and polluting methane gases?
Another point: These pigs that I plan not to rear will not eat 2,000 tonnes of cereals. I understand that you also pay farmers for not growing crops. Will I qualify for payments for not growing cereals to not feed the pigs I don’t rear?
I am also considering the “not milking cows” business, so please send any information you have on that too. Please could you also include the current Defra advice on set aside fields? Can this be done on an e-commerce basis with virtual fields (of which I seem to have several thousand hectares)?
defra cow
In view of the above you will realise that I will be totally unemployed, and will therefore qualify for unemployment benefits.
I shall of course be voting for your party at the next general election.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Johnson-Hill
Legend
Based
I’ve got a better idea - let’s save a ton of money and just quit the nonsense - electrify what the individual can afford - solar on their rooftop and backyard, wind on their roof top and backyard, small scooters instead of real cars (or bicycles for all of those bike only lanes being retrofitted to streets), and then disconnect them from the grid so no juice from the public supply.
There’s a price to the transition to being a greenie.
Copper thieves will get the app to bring the chargers down the pole, (or just climb the poles) and of course the copper cables will have to come down along with the chargers...
Sorry to hear the rain in Spain that falls mainly on the plain has not been showing up lately.
There's zero thought going into these possibilities. It's quite sad.
The Seattle overlords should watch those videos and see how fast those kids with battery powered sawzalls can cut through an exhaust pipe. They’ll bring down the charger poles in 2 minutes.
The wind producers gaming the system is a family tradition in the renewable community. The bureaucrats make rules, the capitalists figure out how to beat them. The governor of California once said it was like sister Murphy’s third grade basketball team against the LA Lakers
Laws to keep people from committing a crime. It's like no guns on school grounds keeps people from school shootings.
Maybe we should outlaw EV vehicles then no one will take copper from charging stations.
The funniest (and saddest) part of this is the fantasy about wind being the cheapest form of generation. Obviously it's not even close to competitive. Like the football team who claims "We're not big, but we are slow", wind might be expensive, but at least it is unreliable. And so we can layer uneconomic backup generation onto the already high cost of wind power.
Well said.
Love your phrase "wind might be expensive, but at least it is unreliable". What's your substack, so I can credit you when I borrow it?
Thanks Don't have a stack yet. I'm too busy reading others thoughts. Feel free to use that!
You should start a substack. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. It could be just a couple paragraphs, once a week - even once a month to start. Why not? Substack automatically does the basic formatting for you - all you need to do is give it a title and write down your thoughts. You could start short and simple, and as you have time, expand it later. It's easy!
Maybe I’ve missed it Irina, but don’t recollect seeing any mention on your blog of climate scientist Prof Michael Man wining a million-dollar verdict against right-wing bloggers. That doesn’t by any means mean I see you as a right-wing blogger Irina. Prof. Man’s reasons for pursuing his clams were over defamation of character involving his scientific work on climate change. His decisive win has resulted in a multi million-dollar payout and marks it as a significant victory over a wave of attacks against himself and other scientists working on climate change and environmental issues. Prof. Man had this to say of the verdict:
“I hope this verdict sends a message that falsely attacking climate scientists is not protected speech; “It’s a good day for science.”
I can accept your amusement at EV’s and their charging idiosyncrasies, but the fact remains that excluding climate change we’re heading for a time when Flammable Fossils (FF’s), in particular Oil, will no longer be cheap or in the quantities required to maintain our present lifestyles and civilisation. You can argue that you, and I include myself, most probably won’t see that day, but a child born today will.
As yet there’s nothing remotely in sight that comes anywhere near to replacing the energy density or mobility of Oil, Gas and Coal, and now made doubly difficult with the elimination of human made CO2. I accept so called Green Rebuildables (Renewables) (WTs, PVP’s etc. including Nuclear, won’t provide a like for like energy replacement (but they will lead to “The Great Simplification”) but if nothing else Green Rebuildables are showing just how difficult an energy transition is without FF’s🤔
I break out in hives every time I see the name of that person, which is why I'm not writing about him. I am not any-wing blogger.
Then I apologise for upsetting you Irina, but like it or not, in my 3 score years and 10 that I’ve inhabited this planet I’ve never known a time that I’ve felt so uneasy about the future for my grand and great grandchildren, even the Cold War Cuban missile crises and past oil embargo’s were nothing like what’s happening, it’s building up to a tsunami of meta and poly-crosses.
Decades ago when CC came to the fore, but before AGW was in vogue meteorologists pointed out we would experience rapid changes in temperature, and extreme weather events. Whilst I’m a wildlife and weather watcher I don’t keep weather records but my does, and has done for many decades, her records reflect what I’ve seen. I don’t argue with anyone for or against AGW, I just say: where I’ve lived for decades we had proper winters, winters that my forbears could relate to, then from the 1970’s they became progressively unpredictable until seven years ago, they stopped being winters, more like spring and autumn, by spring of this year it’ll be 8 years since we had any proper snow, that’s snow that stays with us more than two days. Air frosts are now a rarity and ground frosts are few and like the snow rarely last a day.
The village I live in is rurally situated and sits in the knee of forest, a forest which covers an of area around 36 square miles. It’s a privately managed forest going back hundreds of years. There are a number of public rights, footpaths and bridle ways within it. Several years ago noticed more trees than normally were being harvested, a few months later saplings were planted. Coming across one of forest managers, asked why are so many trees being harvested. He told me they were suffering from lack of water, mature trees taking up more water than saplings. But we’ve been having downpours of rain I said. He smiled it’s not the downpours it’s the water table that’s the problem, it’s dropping dramatically. Is that anything to do with CC I asked, partly he said, explaining: that farmers were using more water, the surrounding towns and villages have grown in population and lifestyles result in using more water, and the water supply mainly comes from boreholes and the water system now feeds other areas (I knew all this), and whilst we do have downpours we don’t get the annual rainfall we used to🤔
That's okay, Barry, you haven't upset me. Yes, the climate is changing and the weather is becoming less predictable but fear won't help any of us. This is what makes the fearmongering coming from political and activist circles so abhorrent -- it is deliberate and its purpose is not to equip us better for tackling a future will less predictable weather. Also, anyone believing that if we reduce the amount of a trace element in the atmosphere the weather will return to being predictable is in for a big disappointment. Adaptation is the only way forward, for me.
In the main I agree with you Irina. But why is it when I glance over my last reply I see errors: poly-crosses should read: polycrisis; I don’t keep weather records but my does, should read: I don’t keep weather records but my wife does. Sorry, senior moments, must pay more attention🤔
Auto-complete, perhaps? Not a problem, most of us let their brain fill in the blanks/correct typos as we read. Digital age and everything. :)
OMG this is so great!
Thank you!