Paris Fallout: “Radical” Climate Bill Stuns German Industry …Warn Of “Catastrophic Consequences” And “Climate Dictatorship” …”A Poison List Of Draconian Measures”!

Here’s the latest on plans by some overly overzealous German government leaders to get the country to commit economic suicide through de-carbonization, at least that’s what German industry believes.

Online German national daily Die Welt has a piece by Daniel Wetzel titled: German Economy Fears Eco-Dictatorship.

welt

Screen shot of Die Welt report

In the wake of the lofty declarations made at the Paris Conference to roll back global CO2 emissions, a number of high level Environment Ministry bureaucrats in Germany’s government have been eagerly concocting a “radical bill” dubbed “Climate Protection 2050” – designed to make Germany almost carbon-free by 2050.  Already the bill’s extremism and disconnect from reality are coming under heavy fire.

High costs would devastate the poor

In the wake of Paris, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks has put together a “catalogue of measures” which she and her Ministry hope will be passed into law by early summer.

Should the proposals be enacted, Wetzel writes that it would mean “higher rental prices for apartments, higher taxes, mandatory renovations by building owners, speed limits and massive cost hikes for industrial enterprises“.

The proposals call for the mandatory, comprehensive renovation of buildings that owners would be forced by law to carry out. Such huge costs of course would have to be passed on to the occupants who rent or lease the buildings.

Wetzel writes that Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks is moving rapidly to get the bill enacted before summertime. Industry warns of “catastrophic consequences” should the CO2 restricting proposals be adopted. The catalogue of measures designed to lead Germany to a near zero-carbon society by 2050 has the industry spooked. Wetzel writes of an “urgent letter” by leading industry trade groups addressed to the Environment Ministry – one that uses uncharacteristically harsh terms such as “threatening ecology or climate dictatorship“. Copies of the letter were also sent to the heads of other German federal ministries, such as the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry Of Commerce.

“Poison list of draconian measures”

According to Wetzel some of the proposals include severe tax penalties for owners of “energy inefficient” buildings should they refuse to implement costly renovation works. The catalogue also calls for excruciatingly high taxes on heating oil and natural gas. Wetzel quotes Andreas Lücke of the German Heating Industry Association (BDH) who calls the “Climate Protection Plan 2050” a “poison list of draconian measures.”

The catalogue of climate measures also calls for the heavy taxation of coal power plants, which thus would put tens of thousands of coal mining and power sector jobs in jeopardy. Also the catalogue calls for a speed limit of 120 km/hr on the country’s famed autobahns and a snail-like speed of 30 km/hr. within all city limits.

The proposed climate protection bill also calls for eliminating fossil fuel combustion engines in motor vehicles by 2050, which means no internal combustion engine cars will be sold after 2030. Already today Germany’s plan to get one million cars onto the streets by 2020 is only some 2% fulfilled, as no one is interested in electric cars. Wetzel writes:

When the German government foresees the death of the combustion engine within the next 14 years, even though electric cars have failed to sell so far, it shows us the newly acquired level of radicalism that their climate-political demands and expectations have taken on”.

When examining the catalogue of measures proposed in the Environment Ministry’s bill, one has to wonder if the German government has any remaining connection left to reality. If this bill does not get watered down severely – very severely, then Germany may find itself needing a wall to keep the citizens and companies in – and not refugees out. It’s mind-boggingly radical and extreme. Germany’s Ministry Of Environment obviously does not have a balanced panel of advisors, but rather one likely made up of only extreme environmental activists.

Wetzel writes of requests being made by the WWF, which is calling for a transition over to the full electrification of the entire transport sectors, industrial processes and heating, and away from fossil fuels altogether. This, the WWF feels, can be accomplished with sun and wind. They also call for the end of coal power by 2035. However, the WWF gave no specifics how this should be accomplished.

From an energy engineering standpoint, little of what is proposed by the catalogue can be done without major sacrifice. So, it’s little wonder the government has already realized this and rightly scaled back on renewable energies over the past couple of years. But when the bill reaches Parliament in early summer, nothing can be excluded. Yet, we should give them the benefit of the doubt. Expect the highly corrosive measures to be severely watered down.

 

56 responses to “Paris Fallout: “Radical” Climate Bill Stuns German Industry …Warn Of “Catastrophic Consequences” And “Climate Dictatorship” …”A Poison List Of Draconian Measures”!”

  1. Michael Martin-Smith

    It has been obvious to me, at least, that measures taken “to Save the Planet”- which is not in danger would be more destructive to humane civilisation than steps imposed on millions of people to combat “Climate Change”. All physicians undertake, as a minimum to “do no harm”.
    The same principle should be made to apply to Governments and other self-serving elites

    Given their track record, the battle against Climate Change by so-called Friends of the Earth, will bring on an Ice Age if we are lucky, and the decimation of Humankind as well, if we are, as seems probable, unlucky.

    However, we can be sure there will be enough bureaucrats to burn if other sources of energy are successfully removed by their meddling!

    1. Sceptical Sam

      Michael, Let the German people feel the pain of eco-socialism. Let them vote for it. Let them destroy their economy, their society and their childrens’ future.

      They will then understand that eco-socialism is just another fascist nightmare. They’ve been there before. They need a repeat dose before they truly understand that extremists deliver nothing.

  2. R2Dtoo

    Reading this article and the one from the UK, it appears to be time for the citizens of Europe to stand up. I’m not sure if Germany has a mechanism for plebiscites, but what has to happen is for the electorate to push through a plan that would require all “green” organizations, all government buildings, all members of government and the wealthy bankers and EU groups that support such stupidity to be the first to be cut off from power when the inevitable blackouts occur. Make them put their money where their mouth is – this also could happen here in Canada.

  3. Harry Dale Huffman

    You don’t get it even yet. This is a war–for now, a political war–on the part of the radical, “progressive” Left–what I, who voted Democratic through 8 straight U.S. presidential elections before Obama ran and won, call “the Insane Left”–against not just their political rivals on the Right, but Western civilization itself. But with half of the people suborned into believing the now-thoroughly-radical Left’s message, thus intractably dividing our people, it MUST end in real war. As the Left is trying to force everyone into following THEIR rules (they obviously want to get these laws in place before Obama has to step down from the U.S. Presidency, as he, a man totally without character, wants this for his “legacy”) so it will take force to stop their version of religiously-prosecuted jihad (i.e., it’s not even JUST a war on their part, but a religious war, for “social justice” supposedly, but really for nothing more than tyrannous control, in the name of revenge for past real and imagined sins.) They refuse to realize they are really only being self-destructive.

    And there ARE NO “ice ages”, as the science behind that idea is also wrong. (My discovery, of the design of the Earth and solar system and its shattered remembrance in all the “ancient mysteries” of man on Earth, which neither side of the “climate” debate wants to hear, introduces a new scientific paradigm, which requires the rethinking of all the earth and life sciences.)

    1. Lawrie Ayres

      One thing we know from history and certainly from those who are the current leftists; if it comes to war the conservatives will win handsomely. I spent many years in the military and I did not see one lefty unless they were demonstrating against the forces. They are inherently cowards and have never faced anyone pushing back. When the crunch comes the left will fold like an old newspaper. They should then be ground to dust as they have been trying to do to us for the past fifty years.

  4. John F. Hultquist

    … 30 km/hr. within all city limits.

    Tally the costs of this.
    Don’t forget the lost sleep!

    Besides, were I to live to 2050 (not likely; I’d be over 100) I’d expect to see a new miracle energy source and ‘Elonian Hyperloops’ providing transport.

    1. AndyG55

      “… 30 km/hr. within all city limits.””

      Wow.. that’s a BIG increase. !!!

      1. Richard

        LOL, the average speed in london is 8mph,

  5. Doug Proctor

    Why do we tolerate employees who craft impossible and destructive proposals that need to be “watered down”?

    The world is crazy. Only value signaling posturing drama receives admiration. And from Germany!

  6. Germans Worry Climate Dictatorship Will Trash Their Economy | The Daily Caller

    […] (H/T No Tricks Zone) […]

  7. Radical Climate Bill Stuns German Industry | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
  8. DirkH

    Beatings will continue until morale improves!

    1. Duke Silver

      Amen, brother.

    2. yonason
  9. DirkH

    ” Yet, we should give them the benefit of the doubt. ”

    The only doubt I give them is regarding their sanity. It’s nothing new that the SPD is a bunch of loons, they’ve been that way since Schroeder exited, but, the CDU seems to have lost the will to live altogether and lets the SPD loons run the show.

    (For non Germans: Federal government is coalition of SPD(left) and CDU(slightly less left, ex conservative))

    1. yonason

      I’ve had my coffee. I think I’m awake now…

      When I went to the link for the article, I noticed this lurking off to one side.
      http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article153517083/Sarrazin-erklaert-wer-Schuld-an-dem-AfD-Aufstieg-hat.html

      Former SPD pol, turned author, says if you listened to him the AfD extremists wouldn’t have been so successful.

      I ran it through Google Translate, and it seems as if he’s saying that if Germany gives over the task of border security to Turkey, allowing them to use THEIR methods of containing the immigrants, it will eliminate the problem; which is only now seen as a problem because it caused them to lose power, not because it’s the wrong thing to do. The paragraph concludes “‘In this way we can remain elegant and wash our hands of it’, he said.” {“Auf diese Weise können wir vornehm bleiben und unsere Hände in Unschuld waschen”, sagte er.}

      “..if we had the same goals as AfD, but achieved them without the appearance of being involved, we could have kept AfD out.” or, “the end justifies the means.”

      Leftists are such deceitful conniving unprincipled dirt-bags!

      1. DirkH

        Sarazzin is a special case. He got that cynical because he predicted everything that happens now in his book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” -5 years ago or so- and was vilified for years by all parties including his own and by all media.

        1. yonason

          Important lesson. Don’t ever tell the Left the truth about anything.

          Thanks for the backstory.

      2. sod

        Please do some reading on Sarrazin.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thilo_Sarrazin#Immigration.2C_Islam_and_social_welfare_controversy

        He had a coupe of really crazy ideas, like “genes” shared by jews or basques.

        If you want to have a laugh, look at the recipes he wrote (Hartz 4 only shows €3.73 for eating per day). Sarrazin chose the cheapest products he could find at different discounters, completely ignoring package size. With some additional cheating, he made up recipes of stuff that you could barely eat.

        http://tacheles-sozialhilfe.de/startseite/aktuelles/d/n/1544/

        1. yonason

          “Please do some reading on Sarrazin.” – sod

          From your fist link – “He has also said regarding Islam, ‘No other religion in Europe makes so many demands. No immigrant group other than Muslims is so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime. No group emphasizes their differences so strongly in public, especially through women’s clothing. In no other religion is the transition to violence, dictatorship and terrorism so fluid’.”

          Well, that makes perfect sense. Maybe D.W. misrepresented what he said, and he isn’t quite as crazy as I thought. Thanks.

        2. DirkH

          sod 22. March 2016 at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Reply

          “He had a coupe of really crazy ideas, like “genes” shared by jews or basques. ”

          What’s crazy about that? Every isolated subpopulation shares certain traits. You are ALSO ignorant about genetics? Isn’t it very exhausting to be ignorant about so many fields at the same time?

          1. Colorado Wellington

            No, Dirk, on the contrary. Being simultaneously ignorant about all these subjects makes it possible for sod to multitask with ease.

    2. yonason

      “…the CDU seems to have lost the will to live altogether and lets the SPD loons run the show.” – DirkH

      Replace CDU eith Republicans and SPD with Democrats, and you have the situation here in the USA.

      1. yonason

        Furthermore, the Tea Party seems comparable to the AfD. But, whereas the AfD has to operate outside the CDU, the T.P. is a limb of the Republican Party, giving some vitality to the party; which is probably why the Republican leadership and the Media hates it.

        1. DirkH

          Well the AfD currently has more vitality than the SPD… The German system is not a first-past-the-post system so we regularly get new upstarts. Most vanish after a few years but this time it looks pretty serious. Last time this happened was the Greens ca. 1980.

  10. Blackbeard

    I, for one, am encouraged to see this development. We should all hope that the eco-left enacts every one of these provisions.

    The eco-left’s current strategy, which we have to admit has so far been a brilliant success, is to claim, on the one hand that certain disaster will soon befall us if we do not repent our ecological sins and, among other things, abandon fossil fuels. On the other hand, they say, this transition will be easy, even pleasant. Build windmills, put solar panels on the roof, burn biofuels (wood pellets actually), install LED lights, etc., and all will be well. This is deeply dishonest of course, but, with the enthusiastic support of the media, the typical low information voter is fooled. As long as they gradually implement these steps the plan is that the voters will get used to the “new normal” and not rebel.

    Therefore our goal should be to encourage them to go faster. After all the survival of the human race, if not the Earth itself, is at stake. This is no time for half measures. By all means ban cars, shut down coal plants, raise unemployment, drive out industry, etc. Let the foolish voters freeze in the dark!

    Perhaps that will wake the voters up. I am not optimistic but what other hope do we have?

  11. Miner49er

    German business leaders acquiesced to the radial agenda of eco-extremists for far too long. They, and most German workers, are now basically screwed.

    Unless German stakeholders are willing to risk a great deal of dissension in the near term, they are doomed to ride this death spiral to its logical conclusion.

    Then, Germany will be nothing but a textbook case study for the rest of the world, of how NOT to manage its energy infrastructure.

  12. Sam Pyeatte

    Well, Germany tried to commit suicide once before in WWII. If this insane garbage is implemented, make it suicide II.

  13. Stephen Richards

    It seems that watering down will not be sufficient to save Germany. It would have to be scrapped and I can’t see that happening because it would mean the end of the enviro-ministry.

    So, he he, the end of the EU gets even closer. I thought I might last until 2040 but not with this bill.

  14. Dan Pangburn

    Objective analysis reveals CO2 has no significant effect on climate.

    A simple conservation of energy equation, employing the time-integral of sunspot number anomalies and an approximation of the net effect of all ocean cycles achieves a 97% match with measured average global temperatures since before 1900. Including the effects of CO2 improves the match by 0.1%. http://globalclimatedrivers.blogspot.com

  15. handjive

    2050? Twaddle.

    I’m sticking with the climate scientist Bob Geldof’s prediction of 2030 or before.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/bob-geldof-the-world-could-end-by-2030-8864186.html

  16. Robert Christopher

    Germany is behind the curve 🙂

    Daily Telegraph: Forget your gas cooker – we’re headed for ‘zero carbon’ Britain
    by Christopher Booker, on 20 Dec 2014

  17. Jarmo Puntanen

    Tesla will have to be prepared to pay huge liabilities for the burned-down buildings and their deceased residents. There can be no way those kind of energies could be contained without a steel or concrete bunker preferably with an inert gas system.

  18. 4TimesAYear

    Somewhere someone will be singing “We’re in the money…”

  19. sod

    Daniel Wetzel is an extremely conservative economics specialists at an extremely conservative paper. You will love all the articles he wrote in the past:

    http://www.welt.de/autor/daniel-wetzel/

    The real world is a different one. What the article basically says is simple: So far, we have mostly relied on the industry to simply work towards the targets, without enforcing any laws. It is obvious, that this approach is failing. So now we will enforce, what the industry promised to do.

    Look at cars: the plan was, to have 1 million electric cars by 2020 and to have them carbon neutral by 2050. And here the facts kick in: with a 20 years lifetime for cars, the change MUST happen till 2030, if we want to stick to the plan.

    The industry has been promising progress but mostly has been cheating (VW diesel scandal) and lying (electric cars do not work. Hello Tesla!) and in the meantime done nothing. This will have to change soon.

    And this is not a stupid green idea, but to the benefit of the industry. If we do not change soon, future cars will be build by Tesla, google and by chinese companies.

    1. yonason

      “So far, we have mostly relied on the industry to simply work towards the targets, without enforcing any laws.” – sod

      The only “law” applicable here should be that of “supply and demand.” Forcing businesses to NOT obey THAT law is fascist folly, and will either destroy the business in question, or require massive subsidies pilfered from citizens to pay the shortfall. THAT is how the “real world” works, sod. Your idyllic Communist utopian central planning demented fantasy has always failed, and always will.

      1. sod

        “The only “law” applicable here should be that of “supply and demand.” Forcing businesses to NOT obey THAT law is fascist folly, and will either destroy the business in question, or require massive subsidies pilfered from citizens to pay the shortfall.”

        Yeah. Supply and demand worked great at the Duke energy coal ash spill.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_River#Coal_ash_spill

        Or at the Flint water crisis:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

        1. David Johnson

          That has nothing to do with the laws of supply and demand. I refer you to huge ecological devastation caused by socialism in the old Soviet Union and it’s satellites

          1. yonason

            He must have found his stash of whatever it is he’s smoking, because he’s been having a lot of basic concept issues lately.

        2. DirkH

          “Yeah. Supply and demand worked great at the Duke energy coal ash spill.”

          Duke Energy is a state-sanctioned local monopolist, you economic expert.

        3. Colorado Wellington

          “the Flint water crisis”

          A corrupt, mismanaged and bankrupt blue model municipality is a proof of the failure of the free market supply and demand principle?

          The depth, sod, the depth …

  20. ClimateOtter

    sod? Nothing to say?

  21. John F. Hultquist

    All major car companies are about to announce new and improved electric (& hydrogen) power. The carbon credits and subsidies (for Tesla) that have been legislated, demand they do this as part of their fiduciary duty. As these vehicles enter the market there will be significant competition with massive marketing (backed by research and innovation) that will destroy Tesla’s current advantages. The vehicles that actually make a profit, such as Ford’s F150**, will (then) not support Tesla’s subsidized business plan. Like the DeLorean Motor Company, Tesla Motors, Inc. will be come a footnote.

    **Best selling Pickups

    1. sod

      “The vehicles that actually make a profit, such as Ford’s F150**, will (then) not support Tesla’s subsidized business plan. Like the DeLorean Motor Company, Tesla Motors, Inc. will be come a footnote.”

      I am ready to bet against this.

      But again, there are the facts: The plan in Germany is, to have million electric cars by 2020 and no emissions by 2050.

      The one million electric cars is no invention by me or some green extremists. This was a promise by the car industry (which is part of the national platform electric (NPE).

      They broke their promise. And they are asking for massive subsidies now. So there are two options now: Hand the industry a subsidy gift so that they can keep their promise or enforce the promise by law.

      Which option do you like better?

      1. John F. Hultquist

        Note I did not say that (someday) there will not be 1M electric cars. What I said was most of them will not be Teslas.

        1. sod

          “Note I did not say that (someday) there will not be 1M electric cars. What I said was most of them will not be Teslas.”

          a 50% market share would be utterly extreme anyway.

          And Tesla will stay at the “high end” of the car market.

          Let me also repeat my point again: The car industry promised 1 million electric cars. They do not deliver and now face enforcement. What is wrong about that?

          1. DirkH

            Wha? Now you blame the industry for people not buying expensive useless products?

            Are all people in the Freiburg area like that? Dreadful, dreadful.

          2. DirkH

            “The car industry promised 1 million electric cars. They do not deliver and now face enforcement. ”

            Let me make my point a bit clearer: You say they don’t deliver. That is a lie. They deliver. IF. YOU. ORDER. ONE. They would be very happy if 1 Million Greens would buy one noddycar each thank you very much, as they calculate the price such that they make their profit.

            Now. You are very happy that a completely insane government wants to ENFORCE this. Now this doesn’t make the COST go away. Guess who will pay for it? YOU! Via your taxes!

            It is so amazing to hear this never-ending stream of wishful thinking by you and your ilk.

            BTW this leads me of course to the Laffer curve – we are probably past the maximum revenue point already so if the completely insane government lasts long enough to REALLY do what they claim to want they will find themselves with total and absolute wreckage of their own tax revenue as people like me will simply decide that it’s far better to go about our business say a hundred kilometers to the South where the government might be slightly less insane.

          3. AndyG55

            “The car industry promised 1 million electric cars”

            Only the most moronic of industries attempts to deliver things are NOT wanted.

            Nobody wants them, because that are waste of time, resources and energy.

            Very few rabid greens ever bother buying electric cars. The really rabid far-left, like DiPaprio, tend to buy mega-yachts and massive CO2 producing mansions instead.

            Do you own an electric car as your only car?

            Do you rely purely on solar/wind, with no connection to the coal powered grid?

            Do you only eat carbon-free food?

            Or are you the massive waste of carbon hypocrite you seem to be, come on sob. !!!

    2. sod

      Forgot to add the link to my last post:

      “Eine Million sollen es sein. Eine Million Autos auf deutschen Straßen, wiederaufladbar an der Steckdose, gespeist aus Batterie statt Benzintank. Und das schon 2020. So hat es sich die Nationale Plattform Elektromobilität (NPE) 2010 als Ziel gesetzt, so hat es die Autoindustrie der ebenfalls an der NPE beteiligten Bundesregierung versprochen. ”

      http://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/autoindustrie/million-elektroautos-in-deutschland-bis-2020-nur-noch-utopie-a-1025227.html

      1. DirkH

        “so hat es die Autoindustrie der ebenfalls an der NPE beteiligten Bundesregierung versprochen. ””

        (engl: the car industry has promised 1 million EV’s to the government)

        And you think that because some journalist writes that sentence, the car industry is now legally bound to deliver 1 million EV’s for free, right? Oh do I have a bridge to sell to you you’d be simply amazed…

        1. yonason

          How do they figure it was the auto industry making the promise? In America it was Obama’s infantile “I can make anything happen” bluster.
          http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/01/electric-cars-another-failed-obama-campaign-promise-and-thats-a-good-thing/

          “While campaigning in August 2008, President Obama called for one million plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles (EV) on the road by 2015.

          Once in office, he backed that up with a March 2009 executive order that offered ‘$2.4 Billion in Funding to Support Next Generation Electric Vehicles’ to ‘help meet the President’s goal of putting one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015’. He continued the electric-car drumbeat in his January 2011 State of the Union Address: ‘We can break our dependence on oil…and become the first country to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015’.”

          NOTE_1 – It was supposed to happen by 2015. Now in that article it’s 2020. When 2020 gets close, it’ll be 2025, etc.

          NOTE_2 – In Germany, it looks like it was the NPE, an advisory board of the German government, which made the promise, NOT the auto industry there.
          https://www.cleanenergywire.org/experts/npe-german-national-platform-electric-mobility

  22. Tom Anderson

    I can only commend reading Martin Durkin’s three essays recently cited by Mr Gosselin, which Durkin posted in 2014, on the historical roots of Nazi environmentalism. This amalgam of sanguinary Nazi enthusiasms bears a chilling resemblance to today’s green movement and suggest its recrudescence today. That is, there might be more than childish innocence in all that tree hugging. The essays, about 25 pages total, are at:
    http://www.martindurkin.com/blogs/nazi-greens-inconvenient-history
    P.S. What is Mr. Durkin doing now? He seems to have pulled off the remarkable feat of disappearing entirely from our current haze of un-private connectivity.
    P..P.S. I don’t have a web address http://n/a. Web address = n/a., not applicable.

    1. DirkH

      Looks like He’s busy making a film about the Brexit.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrEImFVdjxA

  23. Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #220 | Watts Up With That?

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