"Green" policies are destroying this country

I read all the parties "manifestos". Only Sinn Fein seem to have put serious effort into theirs. All political parties are business as usual on the energy front, they do not intend to change the current course. All political parties repeat what the wind and solar industry lobbyists have told them. Energy policy in Ireland is total groupthink. All political parties promote the delusion that unreliable generation is cheaper and they can control electricity prices by decree by simply reorganising various state boards.

Not the end of the story. It's US chapter 11, this is bankruptcy protection from creditors and reorganisation. As well as Volkswagen who have their own problems, there is a pension fund caught up in this as well. All this green funds may be bad for your retirement.

Northvolt, whose motto is "make oil history", has received more than $10 billion in equity, debt and public financing, and counts Volkswagen, with a 21% stake, and Goldman Sachs, with a 19% holding, as its biggest owners. source

A startup in the UK, Britishvolt collapsed last year, as did AMTE Power in Scotland. Hertz gave up on EVs. EVs will continue to be a niche market. The carnage of net zero mandates has spread to the UK, Stellantis are not prepared to sell petrol/diesel vehicles at a loss, because of ZEV fines, they shuttered their Vauxhall plant. You would wonder what the unions role these days is, no doubt pressure will be bought to bear on the UK Labour party.

Given that we continue to import cheaper GB and European wind, even during the occasional high wind days here, I can't see too many of those current proposals going ahead.

Actually, I should rephrase that - we shouldn't see too many going ahead (but the ridiculous requirement to pay for oversupply even if we don't need it, means we'll have a scheme like the cash for ash up North, so who knows?).

Incredible that an article with so many untruths can be published.

Punitive cigarette taxes never eliminated smoking in Ireland, the taxes have reduced tobacco consumption, chain smoking become very expensive. The rise of the mobile phone and social media has probably had the greatest impact on people not starting the habit, much discretionary cash that teenagers have goes on mobile phone. That behaviour change in the 90s may be showing up in the lung cancer rates for women. Complicating analysis has been the pricing of alcohol and shutdown of social outlets like pubs. Drug use (not counting caffeine) has become more widespread especially cannabis and cocaine but a myriad of other narcotics are abused on top of prescription abuse. In 2024, it is cheaper to get wasted on cannabis, than go out for pints. Smuggled cigarettes are the most profitable narcotic due to the markup imposed by taxation and vape shops are widespread. Has the ban on smoking in public places reduced smoking rate or have people adapted and adopted other bad habits? No one can rightly answer.

Cigarette consumption is a discretionary habit. Energy consumption is a different matter entirely, the cost of energy has a direct impact on the cost of living for everyone. Carbon dioxide and other environmental taxes are embedded in everything we buy, somewhere along the distribution chain diesel is used to produce and ship the product to you. The reason governments can get away with such high duties on energy is entirely down to the productivity enabled by burning these fuels. On top of everything else these taxes are chipping away at heavy industry which tends to use a lot of energy, those companies move their operations outside the EU.

We must eat and drink, additionally in Ireland we need to stay warm, these are not optional. For the regular Joe, the most noticeable effect of carbon taxes happens at the margins of Irish society, anyone on low income gets hammered by the cost of living.

The rising costs of energy prices continue to disproportionately impact households in the bottom 20% of the income distribution who spend a larger percentage of their income on energy as those on low incomes are placed under the financial burden of heating often inefficient homes. source

All taxing carbon dioxide is doing is adding to misery, while energy intensive industries may the first move away, the service industries that depend on them will likewise move and shutdown locally.

Energy poverty at highest recorded rate

Energy inflation between January 2021 and April 2022 increased the cost of estimated households’ consumption by €21.27 per week, on average: This rises to €38.63 per week when motor fuels are included. Should energy prices rise by a further 25 per cent, we estimate this would increase by an average of €36.57, excluding motor fuels, or €67.66 if they are included.                                                                                                                

There is a strong income gradient in the impact of energy price increases: we estimate that recent increases in energy costs (including motor fuels) amount to 5.9 per cent of after-tax and transfer income for the lowest-income fifth of households compared to 3.1 per cent for the highest income fifth. This is because a larger share of lower-income households’ spending is on energy, particularly home heating and electricity.

People on high income may have enough discretionary income that they are willing to pay more environmental taxes. That willingness disappears as the rising cost of living est their income as well. Sinn Fein seem to be more aware of this among their constituency, whereas Fianna Fail are full steam ahead with environmental taxes, we will see how that works out after this weekend.

Imagine it like this, you get a telephone survey asking about how much you rated the "problem" of climate change and if you would be willing to pay €1 per year to reduce greenhouse gases? Most people might be like "Feck it, it's just a euro, grand so". However, if the surveyor followed up and asked would you pay €100,000 to achieve that same objective? Most of us would be like, "Jaysus I don't have that sort of cash, if I ever did, I'd find better things to do with it".

Like most people you have a preference for the environment causes that works out somewhere between between €1 and €100,000 and there is a decreasing willingness to pay as the price goes higher.  You got other more important things to do, like get your children through schooling. Likewise with taxes, there is a limit to environmental taxes. Across the EU and Britain we are watching the largest energy consumers either shut production or move away to other jurisdictions, the costs are too much. Those burdens work their way down the chain.