Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 04/01/2011 1:37:01 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday scrapped the country's proposed carbon tax and reshuffled his cabinet in populist tilt after suffering a crushing electoral defeat over the weekend, when his Gaulliste UMP party lost every region other than in its bastion of Alsace and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
The vote saw a resurrection of both the Socialist Party and the far-Right National Front, showing how the delayed effects of rising unemployment can change the political landscape long after recession has passed. The jobless rate has risen to 10.1pc, up from 8.7pc a year ago. A quarter of those aged under 25 are out of work.
The government said its energy tax was being postponed indefinitely in order not to "damage the competitiveness of French companies", fearing that it would be too risky for France to go it alone without the rest of the EU. Brussels has announced plans for an EU-wide tax, but the initiative already looks doomed
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
hopefully we’re still more scrappy than the French.
ping
Looks like Sarkozy is real nervous about Le Pen.
H/T to a Poster at JoNova on this Story!
Tsk, tsk. The French aren’t good liberals on the whole carbon/global warming issue.
Didn’t they hear Obama say we will bankrupt power companies, stop the rising of the oceans, let the planet heal, etc.????
Didn’t they take to heart Nancy Pelosi’s comments that she has a planet to save????
Plus they have 80% of their power from nuclear...EVIL!
Hey, Sark, how about saving a few jobs by pulling out of that nutty war against Libya? Do you really need that expense, too?
Ha, the rest of the world is waking up... our government... not so much
Touche’!!!
This article was from March of 2010...I assume Sarkozy is staying with it...why the Hell is this nonsense still going on in the UK , Australia and the USA?
Note the date.
Holland slashes carbon targets, shuns wind for nuclear
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In a radical change of policy, the Netherlands is reducing its targets for renewable energy and slashing the subsidies for wind and solar power. It's also given the green light for the country's first new nuclear power plants for almost 40 years.
Why the change? Wind and solar subsidies are too expensive, the Financial Times Deutschland , reports.
Holland thus becomes the first country to abandon the EU-wide target of producing 20 per cent of its domestic power from renewables. This is a remarkable turnaround from a state that took the Kyoto Agreement seriously and chivvied other EU members into adopting renewable energy strategies. The FT reports that instead of the €4bn annual subsidy, it will be slashed to €1.5bn.
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Try winding back wind power when unions super funds are so involved
*******************EXCERPT*******************
Andrew Bolt Thursday, December 09, 2010 at 10:38am
Productivity Commissioner Gary Banks warns we really are in for a “tough time” if commentators are right and productivity reform under Julia Gillard is at a standstill.
He says we’d better free up the workplace laws a bit more and he also seems to warn against adding to the costs of our mining industry (with a new super profits tax?).
But most telling is this, about the ludicrous cost of green power schemes and other government measures to “stop” global warming:
Given the marked asymmetry between the costs and benefits of action by Australia - pending a significant global response - perhaps the strongest economic argument for carbon pricing is that it would displace more costly alternative measures targeted at particular products or technologies. If this were not achieved, the potential value of any new economy-wide instrument would be compromised. Unfortunately, most of the programs in question serve more as industry assistance than environmental assistance, and they will accordingly be difficult to terminate.
How damning that is of the Labor Government, that the best argument for imposing its promised carbon tax or trading system is that at least it might prevent something even worse - like what it’s doing already.
Banks’ is right about the difficulty of winding back some green-power technologies that cost far more than they’re worth. In fact, the problem is even more serious, given that the biggest investors in our wind power - an industry kept alive only by government subsidies, government-mandated green power quotas, and a government ban on cheaper nuclear power - are our union-dominated superannuation funds.
Allowing such huge investments of workers’ super in an uneconomic industry kept alive only by government patronage is the height of political stupidity and irresponsibility, and it will take an exceptionally brave government to wind back the assistance, which costs us so much and gains us so little, when the unions’ members have so much to lose.
(Thanks to reader Professor Frank.)
UPDATE
“Looks like Sarkozy is real nervous about Le Pen.”
Le Pen is mightier than Le Sarkozy (in spite of the moving-to-the-middle trick). Possibly something Le Obama needs to think about.
More from the comments....about a Grand Scheme:
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Austraila has huge resources of solar, geothermal, wind and wave energy.
Properly harnessed, they could power the country. Over time, they could create surplus clean energy for export.
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| A latticework of solar, geothermal, wind and wave energy plants spread around Australia could satisfy the nation's energy needs |
| Source: DESERTEC-Australia |
If Australia grasps the challenge, it could become a 21st Century "Clean Energy Superpower.'
The changes required to meet this clean energy future are huge. So are the benefits.
Few countries have as much to gain from a clean energy future as Australia and few countries have as much to lose from uncontrolled global warming.
To learn how Australia can become part of the solution to climate change, please read on.
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Better Image of the Lattice for Australia at the link!
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See also:
GLOBAL GREEN GRID!
INTRODUCTION
-Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
AUSTRALIA
-Australia's CSP Potential
-CSP's Cost-Effectiveness
-Australia's HDR Potential
DESERTEC-AUSTRALIA STATE ROADMAPS
-South Australia
-Queensland
-New South Wales
-Victoria
-Western Australia
DEEPER DESERTEC:
-Phasing Out Coal
-The Natural Gas 'Bridge'
-HVDC Power
-Electric Cars
-The "Dream of GENI"
-What Others Say
-CSP And Desalination
-Big Projects
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