THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 139, May 29, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FROM THE BRITS
By Dennis T. Avery
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES IN BRITAIN & THEIR IMPACT ON THE BRITISH ECONOMY: THE IDEOLOGICAL
ASSUMPTIONS & POLITICAL POWER & INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS & GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS IN THE
UNITED
KINGDOM -- THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT'S PLANNED EFFORTS TO DRASTICALLY REDUCE CARBON DIOXIDE & OTHER
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS INTO THE ATMOSPHERE & TO RELY MORE HEAVILY ON RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES --
HOW IMPLEMENTATION OF SUCH PLANS CAN BE EXPECTED TO AFFECT EMPLOYMENT, ENERGY PRICES, & OTHER LIVING
COSTS -- THE PROBABLE IMPACT ON BRITISH POLITICS
FULL STORY:
My colleague Bennie Peiser, of Britain’s Global Warming Policy Foundation, offers some of his latest man-made global
warming news:
The Sunday Times noted on May 22 that the United Kingdom government has agreed to cut its greenhouse gas
emissions 50 percent by 2027. As a result, “Tata Steel last week announced it was cutting 1,500 jobs at its Scunthorpe
and Teeside plants. The company, which employs 21,000 in Britain, has held high-level talks with government in recent
weeks over its energy plans. . . . Ineos Founder, Jim Ratcliffe, warned that he could be forced to shut the firm’s Runcorn
chlorine plant, a big energy user . . . and employer of more than 1,000 people. According to Civitas [the think tank] . . .
total energy bills . . . could rise by 141 percent by 2020.”
The Henley Standard said May 23 that houses and business premises, as of 2016, must qualify for at least an “E”
energy rating. At least 682,000 properties will need to be improved — and “this will radically increase rental costs, as
landlords withdraw their properties from the rental sector.”
Homeowners will also have to retrofit their houses with required energy-saving features such as double-glazed windows
and more insulation, said The Guardian May 19. “The householder pays nothing up front, but the equipment and
installation costs will be added in installments to the household’s energy bills for years.” At the moment, says the
Guardian, householders will be charged market interest rates, which could mean 8 percent annually. Germany has
attracted homeowner cooperation with subsidized loans as low as 2.65 percent — but the British government probably
can’t afford to offer that.
The Sunday Telegraph of May 22 says the Welsh Assembly faces “the biggest consumer demonstration so far
in Britain,” if it goes forward with a plan for 800 giant new wind turbines on mid-Wales hills. In the Welsh Parliament,
Glyn Davies said “the two-megawatt turbines would cost at least [$2.7 billion, plus another $500 million] for the
infrastructure.” In contrast, a far bigger gas-fired power plant near Plymouth will produce power without subsidy at one
fifteenth the cost — and without disfiguring the Welsh hills. “How many of those Assembly members,” he asked, “will
manage to step outside the bubble of illusion surrounding wind power?”
David Rose in The Mail on Sunday, May 22, reported a remarkable meeting of climate skeptics and “warmists.”
He asked John Mitchell, of the British Meteorological Office, how long the planet’s non-warming would have to
continue before [Mitchell] would start to question the computerized climate models. Mitchell replied, “People
underestimate the power of models. Observational evidence is not very useful.” In other words, don’t doubt the
coming disaster of man-made global warming just because the planet has stopped warming.
Henrik Svensmark, of the Danish Space Institute, told the meeting, “a key determinant of climate is the level of cosmic
rays from outer space that hit the earth: these high-energy particles ‘seed’ the clouds. . . . More rays mean more clouds,
and, in turn, a cooler climate.” Svensmark has demonstrated that “quite small variations in the amount of cloud cover
have a big effect on temperature, leaving only a “small ‘residual’ role for man-made CO2.”
Finally, Briton Matt Ridley in the May 21 Wall Street Journal reported, “Haiti meets about 60 percent of its
energy needs with charcoal produced from forests. Even bakeries, laundries, sugar refineries and rum distilleries run on
the stuff. Full marks to renewable Haiti, the harbinger of a sustainable future! Or maybe not: Haiti has felled 98 percent
of its tree cover and counting. . . . Haitians are now burning tree roots to make charcoal.”
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Britain -- The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland:
Mother Country & Close Ally of the United States of America
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable
Global Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. Readers may write to him at PO Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 2442; or
may send him email at cgfi@hughes.net or visit our website at www.cgfi.org
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity