Further over your head than the ISS

Welcome to last weeks news! told you it was about money despite your post of "PC Nonsense" that you couldn't substantiate.

Now what was that you said about Straw Man arguments?.

It's the pub on a Monday night, so anything goes.

There was a very brief news item over the weekend to the effect that driverless cars will be permitted on UK motorways next year - the thin edge of a very big wedge.
Nothing more than that was said - nothing about the insurance aspect for example.
I can imagine motorcyclists having some fun with driverless cars.

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Dave

It must just be the Guardian that is regurgitating old news, each and every day of the week.
Hinkley Point branded potentially risky for EDF by French auditor | Business | The Guardian


Monday 14th March, and they are still spreading the FUD with their continuing analysis of the current UK energy policy:
Hinkley Point is a costly mistake, but only France*can pull the plug | Simon Taylor | Opinion | The Guardian
A very brief asbstract:
"So this is the dilemma: Britain needs the project cancelled, but that cancellation must come from France. We are relying on the French and EDF, which has already spent £2bn on the project, to do the right thing"

The UK current energy policy remains under control of the French government via its' 85% ownership of EDF.

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Dave

mmm and article from last week, sounds like last weeks news too me.

Well 50% accuracy on you post is an improvement I suppose

Weren't me guv, it was that Amber bird over there in the govn chair.
EDF chief executive predicts green light for Hinkley Point - FT.com

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Dave

It's very good to learn that there will be criminal prosecutions in the USA for those who, alledgedly, are complicit in the water supply issues of Flint, Michigan.

Do you want justice in Flint?

It is a step that remains highly unlikely to occur in the UK; the prosecutions that is.

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Dave

Current Brit Energy Policy – a short critique.
You would need to be a politician to have belief in this.
Based on the unproven, crackpot hypothesis of CAGW, the UK decided to provide itself with one of the most expensive sources of electricity yet devised – so called renewable energy, exemplified in the wind farm.


Massive subsidies for the wind farms are necessary for them to be brought into production else they are utterly uneconomic; such subsidies are paid for by the UK taxpayer.
The cost of producing a unit of electrical power by wind power is far more than that of traditional methods and the wind farm industry has been guaranteed returns thereby denying the possible utilisation of alternate technology – that single fact in itself is a disgrace and even the MSM aren't buying into the concept any longer.
The usual decision tools, such as cost-benefit analysis, don't enter into such politically inspired policy.


The traditional forms of UK energy generation have been closing down on the understanding that carbon-free generation will replace those methods – but this isn't proceeding as intended e.g. implementation of new major nuclear power plants in particular is a tad problematic.
This link provides a potted recent history of the fated Hinckley Point C project.
With Hinkley Point, squandermania has reached dangerous new heights | Simon Jenkins | Opinion | The Guardian


Alternatively, the previously coal powered Drax power station in the UK now ships wood “biomass” across the Atlantic ocean from the forests of the USA to fuel the boilers, on the grounds that it is using a sustainable resource, the forests of north America 1000s of miles away; the law of unintended consequences in action.


The high cost of such electricity leads to the loss of jobs in the UK: any UK industry that uses a lot of power, such as steel manufacturing, is at a decided disadvantage compared with other countries.
Hence, as a general rule, they are inclined to close down production and concentrate it elsewhere.
This will generate more of the CO2 emissions that the environment lobby loves to hate, with steel production in, say, China, powered by electricity from coal fired generation stations (or even lignite powered new-build stations in Germany).
You really do have to be a politician to think this one through.


So, the UK government and its' agencies, such as Ofgem, have developed plans to deal with the potential shortfalls in electricity generation that are increasingly likely during periods of high demand such as during winter.
What are these solutions?
On the supply side, it is to pay for existing systems of generation to remain in mothballs against the possibility of being brought on stream in extremis; some of the methods of earlier generating capacity are to remain available, but doing nothing useful, thereby requiring maintenance and oversight against the future possible intervention requirement, but only in times of emergency.
Stand by mobile generating capacity should also be held “on call” under retainer type contracts from those who specialise in such.


On the demand side, the intention is to pay large consumers of electricity to lower their use of electricity at peak periods; in other words, to stop productive work in UK factories to save the grid from cutting supplies of electricity to the general population – a rationing system, funded from taxation, via buying off the large consumers.
By this logic, and as a dooms-day type scenario, employees on zero hour contract conditions could have to go into their place of work on a windy winter day in order to harness the electricity generated in real time and remain laid off at peak demand times when the wind is not blowing.


Then there is CCS which is the carbon capture and storage nascent technology contained in government planning assumptions for national policy, but the research and pilot programmes have now been shelved, perhaps rightly so; but it remains a planning assumption by a current government that won't be around to either see the results of those plans or the consequences.


The economics of the madhouse, driven by the falsehood, and continually perpetrated by the political elites of the UK, anointed by the European Commission to be our new-age-green-religion mentors and masters.

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Dave

Disregarding the futile attempts to perpetuate a debate everyone got bored with sometime ago, the real cause of global temperature increases is in actual fact directly linked to the decline in the Pirate Population. Clearly demonstrated by this data from a credible internet source

https://weather.com/news/climate/new...ch-global-2016

More conspiracy theory?

EDF Again Backs Away From Hinkley Point C Decision - News - Nuclear Power News - Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Plant News, Jobs, and Careers
"The project that is expected to supply electricity for more than 6 million homes – about 7 percent of Britain's electricity generation – remains in limbo even though its original completion date has come and gone."

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Dave

Ironically, the founder of the weather channel says it is. Watch doomsday called off.

Most sensible governments are thankfully starting to act. So now it really seems to be a question of just how severe the change will be and how much can be done to mitigate the worst of the effects. I'm not sure it will go through but the Netherlands is trying to pass a law which will effectively ban the sale of liquid carbon cars by 2020. That's fantastic hopefully they succeed.

It would be more logical, to a politician, to ban motorcycles first - they are an easier target being a minority interest.
This gets the public used to the concept of "no use of petroleum products".

It would also make sense, again to a politician out for votes, to "deal with" old vehicles on our roads - such as by one of those scrappage schemes of a few years ago whereby old crocks would be traded in for better crocks of newer design that are fitted with all the bells and whistles of printed circuit boards, electronic brains et al.

Meanwhile, the french government and the french trade unions still have the UK national energy policy by its' balls.
Hinkley Point: French unions put nuclear plant's future in doubt - BBC News
(this project was supposed to come on stream next year).

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Dave

still prolonging debates with old and irrelevant posts I see

CO2 turned into stone in Iceland in climate change breakthrough
The way forward will be for countries such as India and China to build more coal-fired power stations while this and similar technologies are used by other nations to "bury" the CO2.

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Dave