- Another letter from the Earth: The Epoch Times notes that “UN Says Melting Arctic Ice Is Key Indicator of Climate Change – But It’s Not Melting”. We say do not worry. A bit of time in the lab tinkering with the models and lack of melting Arctic ice will be a key indicator of climate change. And The Guardian asks “Pumped up: will a Dutch startup’s plan to restore Arctic sea-ice work?” No. Of course not. But in any case it’s restoring itself, so what’s the point?
- We have noted the problem with imposing quotas for sales of EVs: what are manufacturers and retailers to do if customers won’t buy? And now from the UK, via the Wall Street Journal, we get an interesting example from the vaunted “heat pumps”. After a plan to flat-out ban gas water heaters (“boilers” to Britons) was quashed by angry citizens, the government required that heat pumps had to replace 4% of annual boiler sales or companies would be fined £3,000 per “excess” boiler. But (for once) industry fought back, warning consumers that they’d end up paying a premium as the fines were absorbed and added to the price of boilers. And after lashing out at firms for being economically rational, the “conservative” government caved in. Stand by on car lots… though Western carmakers are already finding dealers very uneasy.
- Government to the rescue… thud! Blacklock’s Reporter announces that in Canada “A federal climate program to phase out oil furnaces has seen only 80 homeowners convert to greener energy nationwide, records show. Cabinet had pointed to the program as justification for a billion-dollar carbon tax break for Atlantic electors.” Yes, the replacement was meant to be heat pumps… again. Indeed “the purchase and installation of a new electric cold climate heat pump, save thousands of dollars annually on heating bills and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” according to federal cabinet propaganda. Except nobody did. Yet these politicians still think they can change the weather worldwide at a bargain price.
- Even though, again from Blacklock’s, “Small business has yet to see billions in promised carbon tax rebates, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said yesterday. The finance department in 2019 said it was “developing the specifics” for payouts.” Designing a tax handout? Indescribably hard and slow. Fixing the planet’s weather? Dead simple.
- Trust the state broadcaster to toe the state line: Canada’s CBC says “Alberta gives cold shoulder to wind and solar industry, as the rest of the world is clamouring for more”. Boo Alberta. Yay wind and solar.
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Tidbits
06 Mar 2024 | News Roundup
Heat pumps are all well and good so long as the temperature is high enough for there to be any heat to "pump" inside. Below a certain temperature heat pumps are lousy for home heating. When out AC went tits-up we bought a nice, modern, Energy-Star Compliant system with a heat pump for heating. There were a couple of times in 2023 when it got cold enough to make the system struggle. NOT FUN! Even though we are old (72 & 70) - or perhaps because we are old - we keep the thermostat down around 66 degrees F (18.8 deg C) and sometimes just turn off the heat. We both have sweats, long sleeved shirts and wool socks.
Now I hear that China is going to flood the market with cheap EV's,great.Well,I won't be buying an EV,regardless of where it is built.Sales are fluctuating
at best,some places showing increases,some places sales are down.Heat pumps are only suitable in warmer climes than most of Canada.
One of the tidbits reminded me of the fact that corporations don't PAY taxes, they COLLECT taxes and add it to the cost of their products or services. Consider the Carbon Tax. It adds cost in every leg of the supply chain. Consider food. First, added cost for the Farmer, for transportation to the packager/processer/manufacturer, for transportation to the distribution hub, then yo you local store. The the government threatens to punish (fine/ tax) grocers for raising prices, pretending not to know they are causing inflation.
Apparently as the cold war was winding down, there was a meeting at Iron Mountain of high level government and military officials, trying to figure out how to keep the population concerned about something to convince citizens that the government and taxes were still needed. Along came 'global warming' (AKA 'climate change' which is hard to deny given we all know about ice ages). And then Covid-19, a much more imminent threat, requiring much more drastic action.