Before the Obama administration charges blindly into a European-style feed-in act to promote renewable energies, they may want to look at what experts in Europe are saying about how well their own feed-in efforts are actually doing.
All pain and no gain – certified flop
An independent committee of expert advisors to the German government is recommending in a report that the country’s once highly ballyhooed EEG renewable energy feed-in act be scrapped altogether because it is 1) “not doing anything for the climate”, 2) “not promoting inn0vation” and 3) driving up the cost of energy.
The report will be officially presented to the government today.
In summary, the once highly touted German EEG renewable energy feed-in act has been all pain and no gain, and the experts see no reason to continue it.
$30 billion a year…yet “does not provide more climate protection”
According to the online Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeiting (FAZ) here, the Research and Innovation commission of experts assigned by the German government says in its report that “there is no longer any justification for continuing the EEG Act.”
The experts cite “additional costs of 22 billion euros [$30 billion] per year” and conclude that the renewable energies have an “exaggerated impact on climate change“. Also the reports says the Act has not measurably boosted innovation.
“No measureable impact on innovation”
The results of the experts’ report are damning in the harshest terms. The FAZ writes, quoting the report:
The conclusion of the expert commission is devastating: ‘The EEG act in its current form is not justifiable from an innovation-political view.”
The report also writes that “there has been no measureable impact on innovation“.
Well, why innovate if profits are guaranteed by massive subsidies?
The most damning text in the FAZ article probably is (my emphasis):
That’s why the EEG’s initiated expansion of renewable energies has led to no additional avoidance of CO2 emissions across Europe, rather they have only been shifted elsewhere. ‘The EEG Act thus does not produce more climate protection, rather it just makes it considerably more expensive.'”
Green energy proponents and lobbyists will certainly move quickly to ferociously attack and dismiss the report. The FAZ writes, however, that the expert recommendation is the latest in a series of expert reports that have reached the same conclusion. But the FAZ does not expect the government to follow the recommendations.
But the pressure on the German government to radically scale back the EEG act is mounting as citizens struggle with skyrocketing electricity prices. Germany has also come under heavy fire from other European countries who accuse the German government of misusing the feed-in act in ways to provide competitive advantages to certain companies.
Surprise, surprise!! ( not that the whole EEG is not working, but that the experts are allowed to say so!! )
Indeed. Dissent may now have a purpose and serve to help get them out of an embarrassing jam.
Yes. The “experts” are as usual the sockpuppets to justify a foregone conclusion. Politicians move responsibility to “experts”.
Just as well. Stein’s Law – what cannot go on forever, will stop.
We will of course continue paying about 22 billion EUR a year to the owners of the existing renewable contraptions, as the payments are guaranteed for 20 years, and the capacities have been growing exponentially, so most of the capacity is relatively new.
Don’t bet on it. What the lawmakers give they can also take away. Also, if the stone goes dry, you can’t squeeze any more blood out of it.
See Stein’s law, above.
Too much money in Germany, Ed. Principle of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimate_expectation
State has assured 20 years of payments; can and will get sued if violated.
Yes, in a crisis this could fall by the wayside. But not under normal conditions. If the EU collapses, all bets are off anyway.
And many government officials and reps have invested extensively in the no-risk scheme they’ve set up. They are not about to kill this nice little cash cow of theirs.
Also notice that this announcement comes just in time for the EU parliament elections. CDU will declare their determination to reduce price rise. (SPD is currently in an artificially induced coma after having been found in a railway station loo with an overdose. Doctors hope they can bring them back without lasting brain damage.).
SPD is desperate for votes; copying an electioneering practice from its kindred spirit in Australia (the Australian Labor Party) in adopting the colour scheme of an opponent on its election material, etc. to garner more votes. By “accident”.
I’m not going to document this assertion, but: If one were to go back and read NTZ posts, all of the “pain with no gain” statements with appropriate reasoning and factual support will be found therein.
NTZ deserves a round of applause and a gold medal.
“Before the Obama administration charges blindly into a European-style feed-in act to promote renewable energies, they may want to look at what experts in Europe are saying about how well their own feed-in efforts are actually doing.”
Obama does not care if a particular policy works, or if it is too costly. There is not a pragmatic bone in his body. The only thing that matters to him and his supporters is progressive ideology.
Example: ObamaCare. The rollout of the program has been a disaster, the cost has sky-rocketed, health care costs in the US are going up, millions have lost their existing coverage, and even the most optimistic forecast has roughly the same number of uninsured American as before this monstrosity was passed. But for Obama and his supporters ObamaCare is an ideological triumph – not a fiscal or political one – and the fact that it has made things worse concerns them not at all.
There is zero doubt that Obama and his supporters will go all-in on green energy (no matter how bad things get) since it will represent another ideological triumph.
It’s a pity people aren’t clever enough to see the rather obvious consequences of what’s going on. Some people have to learn the hard way, I guess.
Don’t know about Germany but here in the UK abolition of FITs would end up in court. Perhaps the EU will actualy declare these subsidies illegal, not holding my breath though
http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/national-news/122786-friends-of-the-earth-confirm-court-action-after-feed-in-tariff-deadline-passes.html
It’s happened before.
Contract’s a contract, and they have to be honoured. Anything else is anarchy and fraudulent. The contracts will be honoured. But of course they will look for way to pick the money from another pocket.
That is what happened here in the Australian state of NSW. When the new conservative government was elected in 2011 one of the first things they tried to do was to cut the existing extremely generous FIT’s right down.
There was an immediate political backlash as all the people with roof-top solar PV started writing letters to their MP’s. Thousands of them. And the legal wording of the contracts were so tight that if a law was passed to reduce the FIT’s the state government would have to compensate the people for the difference. Which defeated the purpose of the law.
So they dropped the idea and just lowered FIT’s for all new installations. The very high FIT contracts fortunately expire by 2018.
Feed-in tariffs in Australia
“It’s a pity people aren’t clever enough to see the rather obvious consequences of what’s going on. Some people have to learn the hard way, I guess.”
Pierre: I couldn’t agree more…..:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF-fgRNmatI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8p52cBstlk
Buddy….:)
Yes, Buddy, you need to talk to them about that. They are melting the Arctic! (With soot.)
Well, ultra environmentalist and climate alarmist Maurice Strong is in China. Buffy, what have you to say. What’s up with your lord god Maurice Strong?
Dirt: I love it when you talk dirty coal to me….it melts me:)
Love….Buffy:)
See a doctor. You are sick!
Ed:
Down boy….down. You’re going to have a heart attack. You can continue to call people names if you like. Personally…I think it is funny and it shows the weakness of your side on the issue of global warming.
But hey….if you want to call me names….please go right ahead:) I’ll have some fun with it…
But here is some more research for you if you wanted to look at facts and science instead of protecting your fossil fuel overlords:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140226165305.htm
Boy…and that Arctic. Going to be another rough year for the Arctic melt Ed. And a likely El Nino is building as well.
You fossil fools (fossil fuels:) are going to have a busy year ahead of you.
Cheers mate…:)
“But here is some more research for you if you wanted to look at facts and science instead of protecting your fossil fuel overlords:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140226165305
”
So the government “scientists” move the goalposts; instead of average temperatures, they now look at “the extreme hot end of the temperature range”?
Why weren’t they able to predict that BEFORE they decided to cherrypick it? Scientific method doesn’t say you make your prediction after the fact. That’s not how science works.
Not that you would understand or care, Buffy; as for you, it is about control, not about science.
I didn’t call you a name, I described your condition. It might be rabies. You seem to foam at the mouth a lot.
Keep hoping for that El Niño. Sooner or later it will happen. But so far all we see is La Nada.
We will just have to wait and see on the arctic melt.
As for extremes, most of them happened in the 1930’s.
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/noaa-inverts-reality/
This Buffy is really priceless!
Buffy. Why doesn’t Maurice Strong do anything about pollution in China. Could it be that he doesn’t give a flying shit? Like all the other warmists? That it is indeed all about control, and not about that stupid warmist lie of a warming planet?
I don’t agree with Pierre. It has not much to do with cleverness but with autonomy, as Patrick Moore may tell you. Often people live in a mental prison and the worst they can imagine is losing the companionship of their fellow prisoners, by leaving even if the doors are wide open. This is the hard way.
Laws vary by country and across the US by State. Currently the once large city of Detroit has shrunk both in industry and residents. Lights are out both literally and figuratively in large swaths. Pensions are being reduced and creditors getting shafted. Only lawyers and courts are busy. Soon they will be knocking houses down and plowing fields in what once were vibrant neighborhoods. Bankruptcy allows for some to get paid and for others to lose all; it is now happening.
The City’s “art” will be sold to help pay. Private investors hope to keep most of it in the area but I don’t know if that is guaranteed. Some deep pocket companies are buying land and buildings for 10% of what prices were a few years ago.
[…] in Germany are recommending cancellation of their "equivalent" […]
But they can’t stop now!
Think of the future generations!
Think of your children, granchildren and their grandchildren!
Just think of them living with all that hatefilled CO2 atmosphere that you have foisted on them, allowing them to keep warm in winter and cooler in the summer. All that CO2 fueled technology allowing them to have affordable transport, affordable medication, affordable communication and so much more.
Think of those sea-levels rushing over the land mm by mm! As the summers get hot, or windy, or rainy, and the terrifying spectacle of cold, stormy,
snowy, err, no snowy winters that swelter in the frost.No, this has to stop!
Future generations deserve less than us, and it is our duty to give it to them because the planet needs it.
🙂