"Green" policies are destroying this country

We used to call it antiestablishmentarianism. The FT are using a new marketing slogan. Most political parties across Europe have adopted green policies, there is little to distinguish one from another. The crux of the matter is that anything green is seen as a costly elitist plot against working people and with establishment is fully onboard with green policies, anyone who opposes them is against the status quo. It's not just greenlash, there are several issues combining.

• High cost of living driven by the previous decades central bank monetary policies, on top of covid lockdown policies created a phenomenon of too many people chasing too few goods, i.e. governments prevented people working, this stopped production and investment across many countries and at the same time many governments took on huge debt, which few could spend. When the lockdowns ended, a wall of money was released, however, production and investment timelines where out of sync due to lockdowns and prices went skywards.
  
• Included in the high cost of living is cost of energy. The price of diesel works its way into everything we do. Green policies make energy less available and more expensive. The logical outcome of net zero policies is to cut energy consumption in very short timelines while mandating energy production from expensive and unreliable energy collectors. People in countries who pursue this route have the highest electricity costs, with no prospect of price reduction in future.
  
  Carbon taxation first hammers people at the margins of society on low incomes hardest, it spreads to the middle class as the cost of energy leads to more business closure. Carbon credits are fraudulent, these insert rent seekers in the middle who add no value and drive up the cost of transactions.
  
  Consider this, the previous electricity demand records in Ireland have been set during Dunkelflaute, when unreliable generation failed. Green policies mandate heat pumps and electric vehicles - are we building new power plants to meet this extra load? No, we are building extension leads to out neighbours, meaning we pay the highest prices when we need electricity most. Or neighbours are pursuing the same policy, who will be carrying out the generation?
  
  
• Shortage of affordable accommodation. This is not just an Irish problem, this impacts multiple countries. Companies that can obtain finance (pension funds) and debt (hedge funds, investors) cheaply are out competing young people who cannot obtain cheap finance. This is combined with a massive regulatory framework that has caused specification inflation (you cannot build the house your father built, green policies have changed construction standards and obstructed the timelines for delivering new developments (bats in Killarney) + plus there are infrastructure bottlenecks (electricity, water and roads) plus the usual Nimbyism. The upshot being young couples (including native Irish) delaying family formation, reducing the number of children and migrating out of the country because they have no future prospect of achieving their life goals. This is creating huge social pressure, think about it you need to have your act together by age 28 if you want to start a family otherwise that window is closed for many people.
  
• Mass immigration. Nothing to do with green policies, add it to the anti-establishment pile.
  
• Freedom of speech. Again nothing to do with green policies, but everything to do with political suppression.
  
• War. Nothing to do with green policies. Israel/Gaza, Ukraine/Russia, Syria, various African countries, some with elements tied to the Ukraine/Russian war (Wagner group).
  
• Green policies trajectories are unaffordable and undesirable, for most people, they can sense pursuit is an economic dead end. Look to the biggest proponents here in Europe, Britain and Germany where net zero policies and mandates are driving the cost of production limiting availability of energy leading to de-industrialisation and mass unemployment.

If you want to read something that appears from a dystopian novel, see Germanys Energy Efficiency Act (2023)

For the period after 2030, the federal government is aiming to reduce Germany's final energy consumption by 45 percent compared to 2008 to 2045. The Federal Government will check the energy savings sizes according to sentence 1 in 2027 and present a report to the German Bundestag to update the energy efficiency goals for the period after 2030. (google translate)

Given it is German elections today, if your want to read more about the above see The craziest traffic light law goes unnoticed (google translate)

With lies and deception, hardcore green ideologists pushed through a law that is leading Germany into the abyss. Apparently neither the CDU/CSU nor the AfD discovered the time bomb. It is a kind of hunger law.

If you think that is bad, our neighbours the UK have put laws in to restrict how much water their residents can use in teh future, see Net 110, 2050.

Much is said about Net Zero (Carbon dioxide) 2050 but another 2050 target appears to have gone largely unnoticed; The Environment act 2021, and subsequent updates, has set limits for water consumption of 122 litres per person per day by 31 March 2038 reducing to 110 litres per person per day by 2050. source

Now that’s something i can get behind. Can you imagine all the FFG quangos trying to justify what five things they did last week. 😝

How about stop moving parliament from one town to another once a month. Mind-blowing waste 🤯

Our ruling establishment generally lacks vision and adopts a policy of go along to get along, especially with the EU. This is the "best boys in Europe" policy. That LNG terminal comes across more as an Irish solution to an Irish problem, we are completely dependent on gas and will for decades to come. The problem with their "solution", it is a very expensive way to buy energy, when you need it you have to bid against everyone else who needs it.

The complaint about nuclear being expensive to implement, well, we are paying the most expensive electricity prices, may as well bite that bullet and at least have stable baseload power in the next decade with predictable pricing to offset the extreme pricing volatility due to the current trajectory.


On a related note, the EU's Net Zero policy has failed, rather than openly admit it and move on, the EU commision are digging a deeper hole, proving former US president Reagans mantra "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it".

Keeping the Green Deal Alive: €100 Billion Pledged for ‘Clean Industry’

In her Wednesday Antwerp speech, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged the severity of the situation:

Production costs have increased, especially for energy-intensive industries. Demand for green products has dropped, and some investments have relocated to other regions.

However, instead of correcting a clearly failing energy policy, the EU insists on more subsidies and compensation mechanisms that fail to address the core issue.

At some point, the cumulative damage and decline will be sufficient to cause the public to vote for politicians who will drop Net Zero insanity. When that happens, it doesn’t mean the decline stops. A lot of the damage is systematic, it continues to destroy for a long time and so it takes time to impact and the decline continues. So, we will be taking the hit from Net Zero for decades.

I see Net Zero as one component among other damaging actions, the electric car (EV) fiasco, declining production from the North sea, massive sovereign debt, lack of trust in the Western financial system (seizure of Russia assets, swift system lockout and use of insurance as a weapon) , mean as soon as feasible those parties more their money elsewhere.