Category: Alternative Subsidy

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy 23 Comments

Why the public isn’t buying electric cars

I also suggest you consult the experts on this matter: automotive journalists. A quick scan of car publications might give the impression that journalists unanimously adore EVs – that battery power is the best thing to happen to cars since heated seats – and that the only question left is which of these wonderful machines you should buy.

But beneath the glowing reviews and breathless prose that mark the launch of every new EV SUV, a different picture can be glimpsed. And it’s one that can be unveiled by asking any car journalist a simple question: do they have an EV themselves?

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Bricks

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 36 Comments

Edmonton Journal;

Three-quarters of the city’s 60-bus electric fleet is in the garage with poor immediate prospects for parts to fix them.

Proterra, the American company the city purchased the electric buses from between 2019-2022, is in Chapter 11 filing for bankruptcy protection. Edmonton’s on a list of creditors, seeking $1.3 million and fulfillment of service and warranties. […]

While the website touts mileage up to 340 km on a charge, on Edmonton streets the stylish bus is a sluggish employee. It has a range of up to 117 km, which gets it on the streets from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. before it has to hit the charger, and then gets back out from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Tax Bonanza

Alternative Subsidy entitlement generation Media 13 Comments

What productive business wouldn’t like a 35% tax credit for each employee they hire? Oh, wait, that’s a perk reserved for truly unproductive businesses. It’s the modern day equivalent of subsidies for the buggy whip industry, primarily designed to pay off Justin’s water carriers.

The government’s fall economic statement announced an increase to the Canadian Journalism Tax Credit, a refundable tax credit allowing qualifying news outlets to claim up to 35 per cent of up to $85,000 in salary for a qualified employee.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Great Reset 27 Comments

CNBC: Ford to scale back plans for $3.5 billion Michigan battery plant as EV demand disappoints, labor costs rise

Ford said Tuesday that it is cutting production capacity by roughly 43% to 20 gigawatt hours per year and reducing expected employment from 2,500 jobs to 1,700 jobs. The company declined to disclose how much less it would invest in the plant. Based on the reduced capacity, it would still be about a $2 billion investment.

The decision adds to a recent retreat from EVs by automakers globally. Demand for the vehicles is lower than expected due to higher costs and challenges with supply chains and battery technologies, among other issues.

Reductions at the Marshall, Michigan plant are part of Ford’s plans announced last month to cut or delay about $12 billion in previously announced EV investments. The company will also postpone construction of another electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy The Libranos 34 Comments

“… a $43.6 billion extravaganza of corporate welfare and environmental virtue signaling”

The federal and Quebec governments have pledged up to $4.6 billion in production subsidies for Northvolt. This decision, made with the kind of cavalier attitude toward public funds that’s become a hallmark of Trudeau’s governance, assumes a best-case scenario break-even timeline of 9 years. However, the PBO, injecting a dose of reality, estimates an 11-year break-even timeline based on Northvolt’s projected production schedule. That’s over a decade of waiting and hoping for a return on investment.

But wait, there’s more. Volkswagen is receiving a $13.2 billion production subsidy, with a projected 15-year break-even timeline. Stellantis-LGES tops the charts with a $15.0 billion subsidy and a jaw-dropping 23-year break-even timeline. These aren’t just optimistic projections; they’re a leap of faith with taxpayer money.

[…]

Volkswagen’s move to scale back EV production due to slowing demand is a clear signal that the EV market isn’t as robust as some would have us believe. This isn’t just a temporary glitch; it’s a symptom of a larger issue within the industry. For a leading automaker to take such a step indicates a significant mismatch between the hype around EVs and the actual market demand.

Y2Kyoto: State Of Anorexia Envirosa

Alternative Subsidy The Deplorables Y2Kyoto 33 Comments

If a frog is put suddenly into freezing water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then cooled slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be frozen to death.

In 2019, then-President Donald Trump mocked the idea of powering our society on unreliable wind and solar power by joking, “Darling? Darling? Is the wind blowing today? I’d like to watch television.”

Now, wind and solar advocacy groups are advocating for this exact policy, but instead of being honest with the public about their desire to curb your electricity use when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, they use innocuous-sounding words like “demand response” and “load flexibility” to hide their true intentions from ordinary people.

For example, Fresh Energy, a wind and solar special interest group located in Minnesota, says the grid of the future will need to be balanced not by building enough reliable peaking power plants to make sure the lights stay on but by charging people more to disincentivize them from using power during times of peak demand and otherwise controlling or rationing power to keep wide scale blackouts from occurring.

Don’t expect sanity to intervene in Minnesota any time soon.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 20 Comments

Fire departments across the United States face a unique challenge with the growing prevalence of electric vehicles (EVs). EV fires, unlike traditional gas-powered vehicle fires, are more difficult to extinguish, last longer, and have a higher tendency to reignite. These distinct characteristics necessitate a deep understanding and the development of specific strategies to ensure public safety.

The complexity of EV fires lies in the use of lithium-ion batteries, known for their high energy density. Poorly designed or damaged, these batteries can undergo “thermal runaway,” leading to the release of flammable chemicals that can cause unexpected reignition. EV fires also emit toxic fumes, posing risks to both firefighters and bystanders, and necessitating careful handling.

In response to the challenges posed by EV fires, some fire departments are reconsidering their approaches. For example, firefighters in Franklin, Tennessee, used an enormous 45,000 gallons of water to extinguish an EV fire, compared to the standard 500 to 1,000 gallons for a gasoline-powered vehicle fire. This has led to a potential strategy of letting future EV fires burn out naturally.

Naturally.

Temporary relief

Alternative Subsidy Great Healing Forward 28 Comments

I’m all for tax cuts, but I really can’t see the point of cutting gasoline taxes for a period of six months. Does the Manitoba NDP believe that the trend towards rising living costs is going to reverse by then? I’d like to know what crystal ball they’re looking at.

In any case, 14 cents per liter in gas tax revenue is roughly what the Manitoba government devotes to road maintenance and construction. If Wab is anything like his predecessors this move leads me to believe that they’re going to cut the highways budget. They always do.

The tax cut is to remain in place until inflation subsides, although the government has not yet determined how low inflation would have to fall before reinstating the tax. The tax holiday would last at least six months, Sala said, and could be extended depending on economic circumstances.

Grifting along

Alternative Subsidy Gain of Function The Libranos 15 Comments

You can add this fiasco to the Arrive Can file.

…the press secretary for Health Minister Mark Holland, Chris Aoun, said the government made a $150 million non-refundable advance payment to Quebec-based Medicago early in the pandemic to fund development and reserve a number of doses of its eventual COVID-19 vaccine.

Then in February, the company’s owner Mitsubishi Chemical Group announced it was shutting the company down in light of “significant changes” to the vaccine market three years into the pandemic.

Aoun said that Medicago met all the terms for the $150 million non-refundable advance payment but that the contract was eventually terminated “by mutual consent” and that “Medicago was released of its obligations” in the advance contract.

We Don’t Need No Stinkin Giant Mirrors

Alternative Subsidy More Money Than Brains 26 Comments

Investors sour on solar as free money dries up;

Home solar companies in the US dialed back their outlooks this week amid a pileup of challenges that are dragging the sector down. Investors took notice.

Sunrun Inc., SunPower Corp. and SolarEdge Technologies Inc. reported weaker-than-expected sales in the third quarter. The key culprits: higher interest rates, an oversupply of equipment and sharply reduced state-level incentives in California — the most important domestic market.

“This has been a volatile time,” Mary Powell, Sunrun’s chief executive officer, said on an earnings call

Her comments came shortly after Sunrun revealed that a drop in its stock price prompted the company to take a $1.2 billion charge to write down the value of its 2020 purchase of rival Vivint Solar.

It’s a surprising bout of turmoil for a renewable sector that rode a wave of enthusiasm for sustainable investing since before President Joe Biden’s election. But economic headwinds and California’s slashed rooftop subsidies have recently outweighed the generous incentives bestowed in the landmark climate law that Biden signed just 14 months ago.

The Arc Of The Renewables Universe Is Long, But It Bends Toward Bankruptcy

Alternative Subsidy 13 Comments

WUWT;

Ørsted, a major player in the offshore wind development sector, has decided to pull the plug on its Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 projects off the coast of New Jersey. Citing “escalated financial difficulties and supply chain issues”.

Ørsted’s decision brings to light the tumultuous waters that renewable energy projects are now starting to regularly encounter.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy Great Moments In Socialism Great Reset 18 Comments

“The future is batteries”, they said. “We’re going to store the wind in ginormous batteries the size of Pluto“.

Mining remains a deeply divisive industry, as manifested by the explosion of popular rage that’s paralyzed Panama in recent weeks.

After spending the best part of a decade and more than $10 billion building one of the world’s biggest copper mines, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. now finds the project hanging in the balance.

The country’s president this weekend caved to pressure and agreed to hold a referendum on its future, sending the Canadian company’s stock plunging the most on record.

While Panama’s electoral court has since offered a lifeline, saying such a vote can’t proceed without congress first passing legislation, prospects for development look deeply uncertain.

The drama in Panama highlights a growing global trend. Many people don’t want new mines built, judging the environmental impact to be too great despite the boost to jobs and local coffers.

Yet mining has never been more important. It’s impossible for economies to decarbonize without hundreds of millions more tons of metals such as copper, nickel and lithium being pulled from the earth.

In the past decade, the industry has transformed the way it engages with those on the receiving end of massive mining upheaval. Aware of the need to have a social license to operate, companies have gone to great lengths to win over community leaders and politicians.

But they still often fail to garner wider public support. Some of the world’s most crucial new mines are currently stuck in limbo in the face of local opposition.

The development of Europe’s biggest lithium deposit was brought to a sudden halt last year after thousands of protesters took to the streets of Belgrade, Serbia. In the US, what would be the country’s largest copper mine has been stalled for years.

Give the people more stuff. Ban all the things.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy Cronies Great Reset 13 Comments

The arc of the renewable universe is long, but it bends toward bankruptcy.

Wind companies losing billions, prompting fears a federal bailout could be coming […]

Mounting financial losses in the wind industry over the last few months are taking a toll on the Biden administration’s clean energy drive. Despite the billions in subsidies that came down the pipeline in 2022 before the Inflation Reduction gave away even more money, energy experts don’t expect that the need for more money will deter the nationwide momentum to build more wind and solar farms.

Writing in his “Energy Absurdity” Substack, David Blackmon, an energy analyst with over 40 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, said that the lobbying for more renewable energy dollars is likely near.

“Everyone should prepare themselves to see an effort in Washington, DC to allocate billions more dollars to bail out Big Offshore Wind developers soon,” Blackmon wrote.

Since the Obama administration, the federal government has been pouring billions into projects to meet environmental goals, only to have the companies go bankrupt.

In 2009, the Obama administration co-signed $535 million in loans to solar panel manufacturing startup Solyndra. Two years later, the company went bankrupt, laying off 1,100 workers.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Cronies 34 Comments

Western Standard;

Despite a common perception that electric vehicles are cheaper to own and operate than their internal combustion counterparts, a Texas think tank says the true cost is the equivalent of USD$17.33 per gallon — or CAD$6.32 per litre — over the life of the car, after factoring in subsidies and incentives.

The calculations were based on full cycle costs, including charging equipment, associated incentives and both direct and indirect subsidies in the form of avoided fuel taxes, averaged over 10 years and 120,000 miles.

And that’s not even factoring in emissions.

“Setting aside some of the questionable assumptions used in deriving such favorable economics for EVs, no one has attempted to calculate the full financial benefit of the wide array of direct subsidies, regulatory credits, and subsidized infrastructure that contribute to the economic viability of EVs,” wrote Brent Bennett and Jason Isaac on behalf of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

“It is not an overstatement to say that the federal government is subsidizing EVs to a greater degree than even wind and solar electricity generation and embarking on an unprecedented endeavour to remake the entire American auto industry.”

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