Earlier this summer, Sweden’s government ditched plans to go all-in on “green energy,” green-lighting the construction of new nuclear power plants. Shortly afterward, fossil fuel giant Shell announced it was scaling back its energy transition plans to focus on . . . gas and oil!
Last month, specific wind farm projects are began to topple due to strong economic headwinds, because the cost of the electricity to be generated was deemed too high.
Now, The Washington Post has begun to notice what we have already observed at Legal Insurrection: The green energy dominoes are beginning to fall.
. . . . Britain and the European Union have pledged to go “net zero” by 2050, with steep cuts by 2030. But across Europe — where this summer has brought brutal heat waves and raging fires in the Mediterranean region—a backlash is simmering against some of the world’s most ambitious green targets.Last week, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak traveled to Scotland to announce with a big splash his decision to open the North Sea to more oil and gas drilling.. . . . Sunak’s gambit to commit to more domestic drilling was inspired in part by the results of a one-off parliamentary election in the London suburbs—for the seat that former prime minister Boris Johnson abandoned when he quit the House of Commons. There, voters signaled they were opposed to the pollution charges ordered up by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, from the opposition Labour Party, to limit the number of petrol cars allowed into the central city.
Furthermore, a group of European nations are banding together to push back against the “Euro 7” regulation, which tightens vehicle emission limits on nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide from 2025.
. . . . The proposed Euro 7 regulation was “clearly wrong” and not even helpful from an environmental pint [sic] of view, said Italy’s Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League coalition party in Italy’s right-wing government.”Italy, with France, Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary, has the numbers to block this leap in the dark,” Salvini said during an automotive dealer conference in Verona.”We’re now a blocking minority, we want to become a majority,” he added.European carmakers have been fighting back against the proposed emission regulations they argue are too costly, rushed and unnecessary. The European Commission says are needed to cut harmful emissions and prevent a repeat of the Dieselgate scandal.
Even the French President Emmanuel Macron is surrendering to reality, and asked for a “regulatory pause,”
[T]o speed up industrial processes and achieve the objectives already set, Macron called for “a European regulatory pause” on environmental constraints.“We are implementing what we have decided, but we must stop adding to it,” the president said in a speech on Thursday.“The risk we run is, basically, of being the best performers in terms of regulation and the worst performers in terms of financing,” he added.
Meanwhile, the American press is touting how much the U.S. is “investing” in green technology, courtesy of Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act.”
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by US president Joe Biden last August, established the US’s largest-ever climate investment aimed at decarbonising the US economy and boosting jobs in green industries.. . . . [F] figures from industry body Cleantech for Europe show the EU has fallen behind in funding for early-stage clean technologies, with a total of $8.7bn worth of investment going towards start-ups in areas such as carbon storage, electric vehicles and clean power in the year since the IRA came into force.By contrast, more than $21.7bn has been committed to similar projects in the US, although the EU pulled ahead in energy and transport investments in the second quarter of this year.
Europe may have the last laugh, especially since the U.S. inflation rate just ticked up based on increases in rent.
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