Category: Alternative Subsidy

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 8 Comments

Bad news for battery plants.

Nikola (NKLA.O) said on Wednesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and would pursue a sale of its assets, the latest electric-vehicle maker to stumble after grappling with tepid demand, rapid cash burn and funding challenges.

The development ends a challenging journey, which included several leadership changes, plummeting share values and short-seller allegations.[…]

Phoenix, Arizona-based Nikola, delivered its first vehicle in December 2021. A series of fire incidents involving its electric trucks in 2023 resulted in a recall of all its vehicles and raised safety concerns.

Nikola ramped up production of its hydrogen-powered trucks in 2024, but still lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on every vehicle sold as fleet operators were reluctant to invest in electric truck adoption amid high borrowing costs.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Children R Our Future 22 Comments

A school district in Democrat Maine got new EV busses through The EPA’s ‘Clean school bus program’…

Made in Canada: Lion Electric has filed for bankruptcy.

Y2Kyoto: Schadenfrozen

Alternative Subsidy Y2Kyoto 6 Comments

Bloomberg (Feb 3): Nordic countries increasingly feel they are paying the cost of a failed German energy policy — one they weren’t consulted on, though it affects them.

Energiewende is the German version of the energy transition championed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel: shutting down nuclear power stations and embracing wind and solar electricity. All were supported by successive right- and left-wing governments with generous subsidies. Dunkelflaute is a period of windless and cloudy weather that reduces renewable production.

The combination of both words means the German electricity grid is today more weather dependent than ever. Without sufficient baseload generation running 24/7 and dispatchable plants, which can be activated on demand, Berlin relies on imports from neighboring countries to fill the gap during long stretches of winter when it’s dark and windless.

In Norway, energiewende and dunkelflaute have collided, pushing up local electricity prices as the country exports a growing amount of power via cross-border cables. Average wholesale power prices in 2023-2024 were more than 50% higher in southern Norway than in the 2010-2020 period. The problem reached its zenith last week when Oslo debated whether to adopt new EU rules, known as the fourth clean-energy package, key to advancing the rollout of renewables.

On Thursday, the euro-skeptic Center Party denied its support to the measures and abandoned the coalition government that’s ruled the country for three-and-a-half years, setting off the leadership spiral. The center-left Labour Party will now go it alone, in the party’s first minority government in 25 years, ahead of elections set for Sept. 8. […]

The collapse of the Norwegian government came months after a spat between Sweden and Germany after Stockholm rejected Berlin’s request to build another cross-border connection. In 2023, Norway rejected a British request for a submarine cable to Scotland. Crucially, whoever wins the next Norwegian election, they are likely to scrap a 50-year-old pair of cables connecting Norway with Denmark. If that happens, it would indicate that other cross-border interconnectors may be in danger when they reach their end of life, and that new projects to replace them — and also expand capacity beyond the current design — may never be built.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy 6 Comments

Dead in the water.

Shell plc is withdrawing from the Atlantic Shores wind project of New Jersey, writing off nearly $1 billion as the energy major retreats from its earlier pivot toward renewables.

In its quarterly earnings report on Jan. 30, Shell disclosed a $996 million impairment associated with Atlantic Shores, planned as a 2,800-megawatt array of 197 turbines off Long Beach Island and Brigantine, N.J.

“We just don’t see that it fits both our capabilities nor the returns that we would like,” Sinead Gorman, Shell’s chief financial officer, said in a call with reporters Bloomberg reported. “So we took the decision to effectively write that off and pause our involvement.”

Obligation To Serve

Alternative Subsidy Ethical Energy Tech 6 Comments

Six Things to Know About Your Electric Utility

Many years ago, a comedy group posted a video featuring actors as average Americans in a slick faux commercial satirizing coal energy. Turns out the coincident target of this mockery was the rest of us and how little we understand about what powers our lives.

“What if the power to sustain your world was right inside a mountain?” asks the narrator. He continues, “What if you could power an entire city for a hundred dollars?” A man in a hard hat says, “Cheap power is clean power. The future is later.” A woman looks soberly at the camera, “Electricity comes from the walls in my home where I live.”

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

47 Alternative Subsidy Trump 31 Comments

Well, there went $52 billion worth of battery factories.

With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers.

In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice. We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago and thank you to the autoworkers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence.

Full transcript here.

Crisis? What Crisis?

Alternative Subsidy Art Of The Deal Canada’s Bolsheviks 62 Comments

If the Canadian government decides to go ahead with plans to shut off the supply of oil to the United States, the bigger crisis will be a financial one, not a national unity kerfuffle. Companies facing bankruptcy when forced to abrogate their contracts will have to be compensated by taxpayers and that bill will be big enough to send us begging to the IMF.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says that if the federal government imposes an export ban on Alberta oil going to the United States as a retaliatory measure against expected U.S. tariffs it would precipitate a “national unity crisis.”

In addition, the United States is probably aware that the petrochemical supply runs both ways in some regions.

In 2023, Canada imported 16.9 million metric tons of crude oil from the United States, which was the largest quantity Canada imported from any country.

Burning Down The House

Alternative Subsidy Climate Cult 28 Comments

There’s more bannin’ to do and time is running out;

The Biden administration finalized climate regulations to ban most natural gas-powered instantaneous water heaters — a move that critics say will drive up costs for consumers.

The Department of Energy—which formally published the rules the day after Christmas — didn’t issue a press release announcing the action, a departure from past appliance regulations. The published rules say the regulations are expected to help the climate by curbing carbon dioxide emissions.

Overall, under the regulations, roughly 40 percent of the new tankless water heaters available in the United States today will be taken off the market by 2029. Experts and industry officials say that will force consumers to purchase either more expensive or less efficient water heater models.

One industry analysis estimates that consumers will pay $450 more on average when purchasing new water heaters thanks to the regulations. And that will impact low-income and senior households, which are most reliant on the models targeted by the Department of Energy.

Y2Kyoto: “Those who rule data will rule the entire world.”

Alternative Subsidy Y2Kyoto 7 Comments

Roger Pielke Jr;

Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son famously said “Those who rule data will rule the entire world.” He was talking about computer chips but might as well have been referring to integrated assessment models (IAMs) used in climate science and policy.1

A new paper — van de Ven et al. 2024 or vdV24 — analyzes thousands of climate scenarios produced by IAM modeling groups over the past three decades as the basis for three recent IPCC reports (AR5 2013/2014, SR1.5 2018, AR6 2021/2022). Today I summarize the significance of the data collected by vdV24 for understanding important biases in climate research.

Specifically, the new paper provides insight into how Europe — with less than 10% of global population and about 15% of global GDP — has come to quietly dominate climate science and policy. It turns out that IAMs are an incredibly important base of soft power. Let’s have a look.

Y2Kyoto: Going Green Coal

AI Alternative Subsidy Y2Kyoto 10 Comments

Will Wade, for Bloomberg;

Something strange is happening with utilities.

For decades, electricity usage in the US has been mostly flat. Even with more people starting to use more power for more things, much of that has been offset as buildings, factories and appliances become more efficient.

But suddenly that’s changing, and the industry isn’t ready. Big tech companies need lots of electricity, for data centers and especially for artificial intelligence. Homes are using more electricity for heating and cooling. Factories need more electricity to shift away from fossil fuels.

And when faced with this sudden increase of load on the power grid, utilities are going to rely heavily on natural gas, and even coal.

“It will be a struggle to meet load growth,” said Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, a Washington-based research company that’s been tracking this trend. He expects US demand to for electricity to climb almost 16% over the next five years, more than triple his estimate from a year ago. Utilities are expecting customers to need as much as 128 gigawatts of new capacity in 2029.

That’s really going to disrupt the green transition. Power providers that have made pledges to cut back or eliminate carbon emissions are now starting to reverse course. Duke Energy Corp. plans to extend the life of its largest coal-fired power plant, which would push aside its goal to exit coal by 2035. Duke has said that its resource plans are not final decisions and are revised regularly.

FirstEnergy also will operate a pair of coal plants, stepping back from an earlier pledge to stop using the fuel by 2030. And energy companies in the US are planning new gas plants at the fastest pace in years.

And all of that is before Donald Trump returns to the White House next month. The president-elect is well-known for his support of fossil fuels and his skepticism of climate policies.

Only Suckers Pay Their Way

Alternative Subsidy Great Moments In Socialism 23 Comments

On fare-dodging progressives, who freeload altruistically:

“I don’t pay,” said a 35-year-old man wearing an orange puffy vest and clutching a beige shoulder bag and a banana. The man said he earns $75,000 working for an Oakland-based climate nonprofit. “Muni should be free, to make it accessible.”

Or, my activist lifestyle should be subsidised by others, the less important.

A 25-year-old research associate for a Google-owned subsidiary who also earns $75,000 a year said she almost never pays the fare. “I’d say 99% of the time, I just walk on,” she said, adding that she saw everyone else doing it when she moved to the city three years ago. “It’s like a San Francisco thing, I guess.”

Ah, that community spirit, a triumph of fairness over selfishness, in a city of good people. Good people who steal as a matter of routine. Because when it comes to paying their way, well, they’d rather not.

Oh, there’s more.

Y2Kyoto: Blunder Down Under

Subsidy Fraud Boy Y2Kyoto 9 Comments

Via Doomberg;

If there is a place on Earth where wind and solar technologies should work, it is Australia. The country’s vast coastline and diverse geography bestow nearly ideal conditions for wind energy turbines, and the sun shines brightly and consistently. According to a detailed country-by-country analysis by the World Bank Group, Australia ranks near the top in global solar potential, and some of its largest commercial solar farms can achieve capacity factors in excess of 40%—roughly four times Germany’s average annual performance. By further comparison, similar facilities in the US average about 25%. […]

Alas, as sure as night follows day, wherever renewable sources of electricity penetrate a grid to any meaningful extent, skyrocketing prices and electricity shortages are sure to follow. No country — not even Australia — holds veto power over the laws of physics.

Sky News documentary (1hr): The shocking truth of the renewable energy push

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 14 Comments

Colby Cosh;

Whirl with me back in time all the way to September 2023, when the federal and Quebec governments announced that they would be partnering with Swedish battery maker Northvolt to plunge headlong into the bright green future. Canada and Quebec would be laying out about $2.7 billion in capital, and more in downstream subsidies, to facilitate the construction of a vast, hypermodern battery plant in the province’s hinterland to help meet the world’s unlimited appetite for electric vehicles, creating thousands of jobs and contributing to global environmental health. “It’s a win-win-win — for workers, for communities, and for the environment,” trumpeted the prime minister. What could go wrong?

Brussels Signal: EU taxpayers set to lose more than €300 million over ‘green’ darling Northvolt’s bankruptcy

Oh and,

Porsche is backing off its most aggressive electrification plans. The legendary German automaker recently said it would continue developing internal combustion engines across its catalog to satisfy customer demand as EV sales take a hit.

Money For Nothing

Alternative Subsidy Climate Cult Gradually Then Suddenly 13 Comments

You’d think a lame duck President would be a little less eager to plant landmines for an incoming administration, but it seems that nothing is off the table at this point.

On Tuesday, the US Department of Energy announced it would offer a direct loan of up to $6.57 billion (including $5.975 billion of principal and $592 million of capitalized interest) to finance Rivian’s EV factory in Stanton Springs North, near the City of Social Circle, Georgia.

As of Monday’s close, [Rivian] shares were down 50% year-to-date, with about 18% of the float short, equal to about 135 million shares.

 

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy 21 Comments

Hertz, donut?

While the company believed it could get out ahead of the competition, the reality was that it was digging its own grave. Bloomberg goes into great detail about how an out-of-touch executive class was utterly convinced that they were ushering in an entirely new way of renting an automobile. Management was positive Certares could solve Hertz software and cloud issues while likewise integrating the many travel agencies it owned into novel money making ventures. Leadership simultaneously touted a keyless future where customers could simply use their phone to locate, unlock, and then drive rental vehicles away. Hertz was even renting EVs to Uber drivers as part of a new partnership program.

There was a lot going on at the time.

But the above ignores the fundamental problems the company was already facing and didn’t make all-electric vehicles any easier for people on vacation to use. The fact of the matter is that not all trips or parts of the country actually work with EVs. Whether on business or pleasure, absolutely nobody wants to take time out of their itinerary to charge an electric car. However, they’re effectively forced to when they’re renting since they cannot charge at home.

It turned out that just getting the EVs into the right regions was a tall order for the company. Many places saw extremely low demand for Tesla and Polestar vehicles, with customers refusing to take them since they didn’t want to go out of their way to charge them. But the places where they became popular likewise became problematic, as customers would often return them low on battery power. Locations often did not have enough charging stations present to ensure the vehicles would be ready for the following day — enraging the limited number of renters who actually wanted an EV.

Tesla rentals were also involved in more accidents (per capita) because those new to all-electric vehicles weren’t familiar with how they operated. Peppy cars that the company originally thought saved them on long-term maintenance (e.g. oil changes) ended up costing more because the repairs were so much more costly and common.

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