Category Archives for Transportation
Weekly coal deliveries up
Via Platts, Weekly coal carloads originated by US railroads jumped 4.6% on a year-over-year basis in the week ended May 24, as both BNSF Railway and CSX showed strong gains in weekly coal deliveries, according to data from the Association … Continue reading
EU Changes its tune on CO2 emissions from developing nations
In a dramatic shift away from their 15-year long commitment to the theme of "common but differentiated responsibilities,"EU nations have adopted a position very similar to the American notion that developing countries must commit to specific carbon reduction targets as part of the post-2012 Kyoto agreement.
British court OKs vandalism of UK coal plants
In a September 10, 08 ruling a British jury handed down a ruling that essentially encourages vandalism of the UKs coal-fueled power plants.
UK renewable energy mandates will make for steep energy price hikes
A recent Ernst & Young study is stating that mandates for minimum levels of renewable energy will add as much as 20% — or over £ 200 (approx USD $395) — to annual electricity costs for each home.
Poll finds European and American adults unwilling to pay for CO2 reduction
A February ’08 Financial Times/Harris Interactive poll has found that while many European and American adults are quick to claim that they support for green and renewable energy, when the costs of using that energy are revealed, support rapidly drops off.
Shifting scales make UK carbon emissions reductions claims suspect
Depending on which scale or measurement is being used, the UKs carbon dioxide emissions are much better or much worse than their Kyoto requirements.
Some sources (as well as opposition members in Parlaiment) are saying that the numbers the British Government are using to track its carbon dioxide emissions ignore entire sectors of the economy. They claim that when those sectors carbon dioxide emissions are added onto the UKs total emissions the optimistic reports of Brits having surpassed their Kyoto requirements are not quite accurate.
Europe importing more U.S. coal
The November 6th edition of the Globe & Mail’s Report on Business has an amusingly titled look into the changing preferences of European energy producers.
As the price of oil and natural gas are currently going through the roof and giving no evidence that they will come back to earth in the future, Europeans are being forced to look elsewhere for affordable energy. The natural choice is, of course, coal. For Europeans, however, that can present a bit of a problem as their governments have spent the past few decades working to dismantle their coal industry. Therefore, European coal producers will face an uphill battle with stringent regulations, limited capacity, maturing pits and seams, and difficulty permitting new sources when they see a chance to expand production.
When all of those pressures are piled on top of a strengthening Euro (relative to the U.S. dollar), one needs to look at which side of the ocean they have chosen to locate their offices to determine whether they are enjoying or cursing this trend. As the article describes, U.S. coal producers are happy to step up and help European power generators solve their fuel supply issues.
Czech President questions climate change concerns
Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, questions the conventional wisdom that anthropogenic causes are at the foundation of global climate change in this June 13th Financial Times editorial.
We are living in strange times. One exceptionally warm winter is enough – irrespective of the fact that in the course of the 20th century the global temperature increased only by 0.6 per cent – for the environmentalists and their followers to suggest radical measures to do something about the weather, and to do it right now.
In the past year, Al Gore’s so-called “documentary” film was shown in cinemas worldwide, Britain’s – more or less Tony Blair’s – Stern report was published, the fourth report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was put together and the Group of Eight summit announced ambitions to do something about the weather. Rational and freedom-loving people have to respond. The dictates of political correctness are strict and only one permitted truth, not for the first time in human history, is imposed on us. Everything else is denounced.
Interestingly, he also questions the motivations of many of those who are striving to decrease carbon emissions.
As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism. This ideology wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning.
The environmentalists ask for immediate political action because they do not believe in the long-term positive impact of economic growth and ignore both the technological progress that future generations will undoubtedly enjoy, and the proven fact that the higher the wealth of society, the higher is the quality of the environment. They are Malthusian pessimists. …
I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”.
The remainder of the article is equally interesting. As I am sure the online Q & A, hosted by Klaus will be. Watch for Klaus to field a string of questions from FT readers on June 21st. Continue reading