Friday 31 March 2017

BBC PUTTING OUT MORE GW PROPAGANDA

This piece gives the details. It's a pity that our BBC has lost its reputation for impartiality so easily over this issue. In the linked article there is strong evidence that the problems of Florida are not a result of any recent change in climate, but instead a long term result of the melting ice sheet that was laid over the north of America. 

Thursday 30 March 2017

USA FRACKING PRODUCES PROFITABLE OIL AT $20 A BARREL

Shell’s New Permian Shale Play Profitable At $20 A BarrelOil Price, 24 March 2017

Rakesh Upadhyay
 
OPEC’s worries about the booming U.S. oil production have increased significantly with the big three oil companies’ interest in shale. 2017-19 is likely to see the largest increase in mega projects’ production in history.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and Chevron Corp., are planning $10 billion of investments in shale in 2017, a quantum jump compared to previous years. All the naysayers who doubted the longevity of the shale oil industry may have to modify their forecasts.

OPEC lost when they pumped at will as lower oil prices destroyed their finances, and now they are losing their hard-earned market share as a result of cutting production. Shell’s declaration that they can “make money in the Permian with oil at $40 a barrel, with new wells profitable at about $20 a barrel” is an indication that Shell is here to stay, whatever the price of oil.

The arrival of the big three oil companies with their loaded balance sheets is good news for the longevity of the shale industry.

The oil crash, which started in 2014, pushed more than 100 shale oil companies into bankruptcy, causing default on at least $70 billion of debt, according to The Economist. Even the ones that survived haven’t been very profitable, according to Bloomberg, which said that the top 60 listed E&P firms have “burned up cash for 34 of the last 40 quarters”.

Therefore, during the downturn, the smaller players had to slow down their operations, but this will not be the case with the big three.

“Big Oil is cash-flow positive, so they can take a longer-term view,’’ said Bryan Sheffield, the billionaire third-generation oilman who heads Parsley Energy Inc. “You’re going to see them investing more in shale,” reports Bloomberg.

The majors are attempting to further improve the economics of operation. Shell said that its cost per well has been reduced to $5.5 million, a 60 percent drop from 2013. Instead of drilling a single well per pad, which was the norm, Shell is now drilling five wells per pad, 20 feet apart, which saves money previously spent on moving rigs from site to site.

Shell is not the only one—Chevron expects its shale production to increase 30% every year for the next decade. Similarly, Exxon plans to allocate one-third of its drilling budget this year to shale, and it expects to quadruple its shale output by 2025.


A little known miner has gained access to the world’s most valuable copper land package which could soon turn this company into the next big thing for investors.
“The arrival of Big Oil is very significant for shale,” said Deborah Byers, U.S. energy leader at consultant Ernst & Young in Houston. “It marries a great geological resource with a very strong balance sheet.”  [...]

“2017-19 is likely to see the largest increase in mega projects’ production in history, as the record 2011-13 capex commitment yields fruit,” the U.S. investment bank said in a research note on Tuesday, reports Reuters.


So much for the end of fossil fuels!

Wednesday 29 March 2017

CHINA TO MOVE SOME MANUFACTURING TO THE USA

Cheap Energy & New Technology: China Sees A Manufacturing Future — In AmericaThe Wall Street Journal, 21 March 2017

Andrew Browne
 
DONGGUAN, China—Glen Lin is struggling to keep his shoe company competitive on the world’s factory floor in southern China. Wages are shooting up 15% each year. Taxes are high. Shipping is exorbitant, and slow. So, as fast as he can he’s automating production, while planning an escape to his largest market—the U.S.

The vice general manager of Dongguan Winwin Industrial, a Taiwan-owned company, is scouting for a location in America to move his newest machinery that turns out high-quality sneakers and casual shoes. Most likely, he’ll end up near one of his main customers: Skechers, based in California, Crocs in Colorado, or Nike in Portland, Ore

In global manufacturing, fortunes are starting to shift in America’s favour.
That’s despite Donald Trump’s angry election rhetoric about China “raping” the U.S., and his threats to forcibly bring home manufacturing jobs by slapping across-the-board tariffs of 45% on Chinese imports.

The trends were clear well before Mr. Trump started rallying his blue-collar base with alarmist messages of protectionism. In fact, China’s trade challenge peaked years ago: Exports to the U.S. surged in the immediate aftermath of the country joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, throwing several million U.S. assembly workers out of a job, but they have since flattened out.

Nowadays, the exit of U.S. factory jobs from the country is roughly matched by posts coming in, according to the nonprofit Reshoring Initiative, which encourages companies to bring production back to the U.S.

Job-creating investment from China is booming in particular. Last year, it tripled to $45.6 billion from a year earlier, according to the Rhodium Group.

Chinese social-media sites were abuzz last year when the auto-glass tycoon Cao Dewang announced he was moving part of his production empire to Ohio. Some commentators denounced him for “running away.” He insisted he could make more money producing for the U.S. market from Ohio than China.

Although U.S. wages are still higher than those in China, the gap is rapidly narrowing. Andy Gu, vice president of international business for Midea, a massive home-appliance maker also based in southern China, says a competent engineer now demands up to $50,000 a year. Ordinary workers get about $600 a month, with food and lodging on top.

Moreover, industrial land in the U.S. is often cheaper than in Chinese coastal cities. The shale-gas revolution has dramatically lowered U.S. energy costs.
But the real key is technology: Advanced manufacturing is leveling the playing field.

Tuesday 28 March 2017

UK'S LARGEST UNDEVELOPED OIL FIELD DISCOVERED OFF THE SCOTTISH COAST

Hurricane Energy has made a further oil discovery west of the Shetland Islands days after Royal Dutch Shell and BP won exploration licences in an area the UK is counting on to breathe new life into its struggling oil and gas industry. The latest find adds to a series of successful wells drilled by Hurricane in a geological formation that analysts say looks likely to be the biggest new oil discovery beneath UK waters this century. Hurricane is expected to announce that initial data from its Halifax well indicates the presence of a 1km-deep oil column and that, crucially, it appears to be part of “a single large hydrocarbon accumulation” connected to the company’s adjacent Lancaster field. This would increase confidence behind the London-listed explorer’s claim to be sitting on the largest undeveloped discovery on the UK continental shelf and aid efforts to attract investment in the field from international oil majors.

Monday 27 March 2017

FALSE CLAIMS ON LOW CARBON ENERGY ARE DAMAGING THE UK

This article explains how the so-called independent Climate Change Committee is making false claims about renewable energy. A public body, funded by the taxpayer to the tune of £3.8m a year, discharging such a crucial role requires competence, honesty and objectivity.


The committee’s recent report on energy prices is deficient in all three, instead displaying similar ethical standards to Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth. Yes, low carbon electricity is more expensive than burning fossil fuels, the report conceded, but overall, low carbon policies were making people better off because energy efficiency policies meant that people were consuming less electricity.

This would only be true if everyone upgraded all their electrical equipment cost, which of course they don't do. But if they did they would still not see any real savings as they would have spent a lot of capital in the upgrading. For example the old candescent light bulbs cost around 20 or 30 pence, whereas the new lower energy ones cost around 200 pence.

Sunday 26 March 2017

EU COUNTRIES ABUSING CLIMATE LOOPHOLE

This report explains what has been going on. It is not surprising that they are finding ways around these costly rules, but what it also shows is the impossibility of nations working together to prevent a world disaster - should one ever materialise.

Saturday 25 March 2017

DID YOU MISS EARTH HOUR? - SO DID I.

Apparently it was earlier this evening. Oh well perhaps next year!

WILL TRUMP REMAIN IN THE PARIS CLIMATE DEAL AFTER ALL?

This piece suggests that President Trump may fall short of taking the USA out of the Paris climate deal. Instead it suggests that he might remain in it subject to certain conditions. This would be a pity.

Friday 24 March 2017

UK STARTS DRILLING FIRST FRACKING WELLS

This article gives some details of the latest situation. We are still at least 5 years away from commercial extraction but it is at least a move in the right direction. The new age of cheap gas is dawning. 

Thursday 23 March 2017

UK ENERGY POLICY TO BE ABOUT CUTTING COSTS, NOT EMISSIONS, SAYS gOVERNMENT CHIEF

This article explains the long overdue re-think. A spokesman said  the previous energy policies, which focused on balancing a trilemma of reducing energy emissions, cutting costs and delivering energy security, ‘had been the result of tensions’ between two Government departments. The current view now is that decarbonisation has a cost to domestic users and businesses and the focus now is on ‘how much can industry bear before it is too much, and decides to go elsewhere?’ So it seems that the penny has at last begun to drop and not before time!

Wednesday 22 March 2017

THE USA BIO FUEL NIGHTMARE

This article looks at the effect of the bio fuel mandate requiring bio ethanol to be added to gasoline for motor cars. This causes increased prices for both gasoline as well as crops. A lose-lose scenario. 

Tuesday 21 March 2017

USA CLIMATE FUNDING GOES UNDERGOUND TO ESCAPE TRUMP'S AXE

This article gives the details of how the Obama administration tried to hide away the billions of dollars earmarked to "fight climate change" so that Trump's people would find it very hard to get it back or even stop the flow of future funds.

Monday 20 March 2017

THE COST OF GOING GREEN HIDDEN IN THE BUDGET

This piece shines a light on the hidden cost of the UK government complying with the Climate Change Act. This is a timely reminder of what the true cost is of following this path. I am sure other nations will be wary of doing so.

Sunday 19 March 2017

IS TRUMP GOING SOFT ON OPPOSITION TO THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT?

This article looks at the possibility of the USA staying in the Paris Climate Accord in return for some concessions regarding fossil fuel use. There must be an awful lot of pressure on the President to stay in the climate deal, so I would not be surprised if there was a fudge.

Saturday 18 March 2017

USA PRESIDENT DRASTICALLY CUTS CLIMATE FUNDING IN BUDGET

This article gives the details. It will be interesting to see whether Congress changes these provisions. If not then it looks as though we may have finally started to turn the corner on the most costly policy in man's history.

Friday 17 March 2017

COMMITTEE ON CLIMATE CHANGE PULLING THE WOOL OVER OUR EYES ON COST OF POLICY

GWPF Condemns Misleading Committee on Climate Change Report on Policy Costs

Calls on Government to radically reform unreliable Committee on Climate Change

 

Today’s statement on Energy Prices and Bills by Lord Deben’s Committee on Climate Change confirms growing suspicions that it is neither objective nor reliable as an advisor to the public about the true cost of climate policies.

The CCC’s attempt to reassure the public about the cost impact of climate policies is a misleading whitewash. Contrary to the spin of the CCC, their own figures show that almost all the projected increase in domestic electricity prices between 2016 and 2030 is the result of energy and climate policies.
According to the CCC’s own work (see chart 1.7) energy and climate policies have increased prices to domestic consumers by 33% in 2016. In other words they are 33% higher at present than they would be in the absence of policies. This figure will rise to 40% in 2020 and to over 50% in 2030.
The CCC covers up this large and damaging price increase by claiming that efficiency measures reduce consumption, meaning that the price increases are not converted into rising energy bills. More objectively one might say that government subsidy spending on renewables, and other climate policies, is preventing consumers from reaping the benefits of efficiency measures leading to lower energy bills.
Dr John Constable, energy editor of the Global Warming Policy Forum, said:
“The CCC’s study has the clear hallmarks of deliberate and shameless obfuscation. With smoke and mirrors they attempt to turn additional climate policy taxes and stealth taxes, which the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates at about £7 billion a year at present and £12 billion a year in 2020, into net benefits for energy consumers. This is nothing short of a disgrace to the current committee members responsible.”
The Global Warming Policy Forum is calling on the government to radically reform the selection and workings of the Committee on Climate Change which is misleading the public on the real cost impacts of climate policy.

Contact:

Dr John Constable
john.constable@thegwpf.com 

Thursday 16 March 2017

MORE ARCTIC ICE NOW THAN FOR THE PAST TEN THOUSAND YEARS

That is what This paper  is saying. It is not something you will have heard in main stream discussions on the trends in Arctic ice. Most people would say that Arctic ice is on the decline, but that trend is a very recent one that is starting from a high level of ice. This point needs making to counter the mis-information being put out by climate alarmists.

Wednesday 15 March 2017

SCANDAL OF TAXPAYERS MONEY WASTED ON OVERSEAS CLIMATE CHANGE PROJECTS

The UK government has once again been caught out wasting money on pointless overseas aid projects. This article gives the details. At a time when so many vital services are being cut to the bone it is simply astonishing to see such waste.  

Tuesday 14 March 2017

GREAT LECTURE ON GW BY DON EASTERBROOK

This video was one I was recommended to view and I pass it on to readers as a good overall view of the GW scare  which Don Easterbrook is able to overcome in a very understandable way.

Monday 13 March 2017

GW NOT PRIMARILY CAUSED BY CO2 SAYS USA ENVIRONMENT CHIEF

At last there are senior figures prepared to speak out. How refreshing to see it. This article gives the details. Maybe now that it has started it will lead to other leading figures to follow them.

Sunday 12 March 2017

UK INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY NOT JOINED UP

The House of Commons committee responsible for scrutinising theDepartment of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has just published its first review of the government’s flagship Industrial Strategy. Below is a flavour of the report:

There is a fundamental conflict between security of supply, decarbonisation and affordability  requiring that one or other of these objectives is substantially sacrificed in order to meet the other. Indeed, the Committee must have some inkling of this because elsewhere it expresses the fear that government will, after all, put a “higher priority” on affordability than on “progress against carbon budgets. I

In fact this concern is probably groundless, at least for the time being, since there is every sign that government, or at least Mr Clark, Secretary of State for BEIS, is clinging to the idea that it is possible “to keep costs down for businesses” while decarbonising, and that there are “economic benefits”, rather than net costs, to “the transition to a low-carbon economy” (Industrial Strategy, p. 11). With subsidies to renewable electricity currently running at about £5 billion a year in the UK, and stretching out at this rate for decades, such a view is nothing short of bizarre. Indeed, the committed extra cost will be a grave obstacle to economic stability let alone growth even if the claimed and somewhat implausible capital cost reductions in offshore wind, for example, are supported by dramatic and at present unlikely reductions in the system costs need to address intermittency

Saturday 11 March 2017

DAILY MAIL HAS A THIRD GO AT SMART METERS

This piece is yet again on the issue of so-called smart electricity and gas meters. After this, surely no one will want to risk having one fitted. Even the "industry insider" said "The industry is frantically working to improve the technology, but we don't yet have solutions for all the problems. We need more time. By rushing, mistakes will happen."

If they don't have solutions why on earth are they rushing ahead. This is madness!

It is most ironic that this very week someone (presumably a government agency) has put out TV adverts extolling the accuracy of these meters.

Here is one.

Here is another in the same vein.

Friday 10 March 2017

94 YEAR OLD SCIENTIST LEADS ON NEW BATTERY TECHNOLOGY

This story stood out for me by the remarkable age of the leading scientist who appears to have made a breakthrough in battery technology. Perhaps his long active use of his brain has helped him to keep going. I only hope that if I get to 94 I will still be able to have an active brain. His example is an inspiration.

Thursday 9 March 2017

BREXIT PUTS EU CLIMATE FUNDING IN PERIL

Here's news of a double whammy. Apparently as a result of the UK leaving the EU, the EU will find it very difficult to fund its climate change schemes. What a bonus! We might even have cheaper energy and a more competitive industry too.

Wednesday 8 March 2017

SERIOUS TROUBLE WITH SO-CALLED SMART METERS

This piece in the Mail looks at a study by specialists into the accuracy of the Smart Meters and its findings are very worrying. These meters are so hopeless that they can't cope with such everyday items as low energy light bulbs. Despite this a government spokesman said he has full confidence in them. Says it all, doesn't it? I wonder what the public will say?

Tuesday 7 March 2017

SHALE REVOLUTION DRIVES USA ENERGY COSTS TO RECORD LOW

Record-low natural gas prices enabled consumers to devote “less than 4% of their total annual household spending to energy in 2016,the smallest share ever recorded by the US government. The Business Council for Sustainable Energy, in partnership with Bloomberg New Energy, just released Sustainable Energy in America Factbook The report covers the across-the-board benefits for the rise in natural gas use across the United States, with most notable being the fact that American consumers are now spending less of their incomes on energy than ever before in the modern era Exceedingly low natural gas and electricity prices have helped to reduce costs for industrial players, particularly those in energy-intensive sectors. Despite a surge in the value of the dollar over 2015-16, the United States remains among the lowest cost markets for electricity in the world for industrial customers beating out other large countries such as China, India, Mexico and Japan. The report also highlights the fact that low natural gas prices have allowed the U.S. economy to grow at the same time as reducing greenhouse gas emissions — a previously unheard of decoupling trend. One reason, the report notes, is because of increased natural gas use for electricity generation. In fact, natural gas is now the top fuel source for electrical generation, which has driven U.S. CO2 emissions to their lowest levels since 1991

Monday 6 March 2017

NOT SO SMART METERS SCARE USERS WITH HUGE BILLS

This piece highlights the latest errors causing concern among some smart meter users. If this gets rolled out across the country there will be real anger among the public who are being conned into accepting them.

Sunday 5 March 2017

GERMANY WANTS 100% ELECTRIC VEHICLES BY 2030 BUT THE NUMBERS DON'T STACK UP

This piece explains why Germany's plans for 100% electric vehicles by 2030 will actually increase overall emissions of CO2 in the country. Germany has ambitious plans for both electric cars and renewable energy. But it can’t deliver both. As things stand, Germany’s well-meaning but contradictory ambitions would actually boost emissions by an amount comparable with the present-day emissions of the entire country of Uruguay or the state of Montana.

Saturday 4 March 2017

CLIMATE CHANGE MEASURES INTRODUCED BY STEALTH

This piece looks at the way climate alarmist measures are being introduced under the guise of other headings in order to make them sound more sensible.

Friday 3 March 2017

TECHNOCRACY RISING

This video shows us what is coming in the next decade or two. As the person being interviewed says, global warming is just to soften us up so we are more likely to accept the rise of automation and the restriction on our freedom. This is a very professionally made short video that has a very powerful message. 

Thursday 2 March 2017

BOOKER ON ARCTIC SEA ICE

this piece explains what is really going on in the Arctic - not something you will hear on the TV news! Why aren't there more journalists like Christopher Booker and David Rose?

Wednesday 1 March 2017

SOLAR HOMES USE MORE ELECTRICITY THAN NON-SOLAR ONES

This piece explains the findings. It is simply that the profits they make on selling the solar electricity back to the grid means their bills overall are reduced, allowing them to use more. Simple really.