Category: Alternative Subsidy

“Mayor Jyoti Gondek” Is Not A Character In A Tim Burton Movie

Alternative Subsidy If Women Ran The World 29 Comments

But she should be.

The company Calgary ordered its electric buses from for a pilot project has gone tits up without delivering a single bus after years of waiting.

A comms flack from the mayor’s office has finally addressed the issue somewhat by saying the city dropped the contact with Vicinity “earlier this year” when it realized the buses are never coming. Earlier this year is a way to sugarcoat saying a few weeks ago. At the end of August even, the city website still just said it was waiting for Vicinity to deliver despite some “supply chain” issues.

On the bright side, the city says they never gave any money to Vicinity.

On the downside, the city spent a lot to build charging stations for buses that don’t exist. They haven’t disclosed how much has been lost there.

Further, the city is saying it is sourcing more electric buses for a pilot despite the first pilot being a total failure.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy Climate Cult Y2Kyoto 50 Comments

Because it’s a scam and voters are catching on.

The future of the clean energy transition is cloudy. It’s well-known that there are disagreements—wide disagreements—between Republicans and Democrats about our energy future. But less well-known is the bedrock of public opinion on America’s energy supply, the importance of a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, and the general salience of the climate change issue.

Findings from a new YouGov survey indicate that most voters’ views differ quite a bit from those of rapid energy transition advocates. These views constitute an ineluctable reality that any transition, on any timetable, will have to deal with. At the same time there is political opportunity here to better align policy priorities with voter preferences.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 23 Comments

NY Post;

The auto industry is big business in Michigan, and a major round of layoffs is revving the election into high gear for industry workers in the critical swing state — who blame the Biden-Harris administration’s heavy-handed electric-vehicle mandates for the painful job losses.

Stellantis, which manufactures Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, announced last month it will lay off 2,450 workers at its Warren plant. While industry jobs in the state have been declining since 1990, Michigan autoworkers explained to The Post why Team Biden’s green-energy rules are at fault this time.[…]

“Listen, you wanna buy an EV car? Great,” she continued. “But the autoworkers, the automakers know that we can’t survive because the infrastructure isn’t there on EVs. Nobody wants to buy them.”

Ford slashed more than 1,000 jobs at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn after drastically scaling back its production of the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric pickup truck.

“It’s the way that the government now wants to go,” Gordon said of the transition to EVs. “And they completely made the wrong decisions on it because if you look, Ford has lost a lot of money.”

Ford reported a $132,000 loss in the year’s first quarter on each of the 10,000 electric vehicles it sold — which was 20% fewer EVs than sold in the same period last year.

Showdown At Volkswagen

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 26 Comments

Zerohedge;

As discussed earlier today, Germany’s economy is slowly but surely sinking, whether or not Mario Draghi’s proposal to flood Europe in new debt is eventually accepted, and nowhere is the pain more tangible than Germany’s iconic carmaker, Volkswagen, which we reported last week was considering its first-ever factory closure amid a dire economic backdrop, and which today took the shocking – for Germany – decision to end job protections for German auto workers as part of its cost-cutting push, setting up a calamitous showdown with unions as the country’s most important industry fights for its future.

This morning, the world’s largest automaker by sales canceled several agreements linked to a three-decades-old pact that was supposed to safeguard employment until 2029, V. […]

VW’s main target is its underperforming namesake passenger car brand, whose profit margins are getting squeezed amid a sputtering transition to EVs and a consumer spending slowdown. Carmakers in Europe are also struggling to compete with Tesla and new entrants from China led by BYDl, which have been selling cars at dumping prices, infuriating Brussels.

Cutbacks at VW are harder to push through than at other companies, especially since half the seats on the company’s supervisory board are held by labor representatives, and the German state of Lower Saxony — which owns a 20% stake — often sides with trade union bodies. The automaker, which employs almost 300,000 Germans, last week defended its plant closure plans, saying flagging car sales have left it with about two factories too many.

h/t MelindaPrevious.

“Mayor Jyoti Gondek” Is Not A Character In A Tim Burton Movie

Alternative Subsidy Canada’s Bolsheviks 33 Comments

But she should be.

Calgary is dumping over $500 million into electric buses.

There was supposed to be a pilot program starting in 2022 with a handful of community shuttles. The purchase was done, but they still haven’t been delivered.

Meanwhile, the city said to hell with the pilot and committed to blowing half a billion on this. They felt that they didn’t need a pilot program because it worked so well in Edmonton. This was shortly before Edmonton’s electric bus fleet fell apart.

This is the next big boondoggle folks.

Showdown At Volkswagen

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 15 Comments

H/T to Melinda, “I think this is a really big deal. If you read between the lines, a tipping point of union power vs ongoing Corporate viability has been passed, and he’s doing something about it. Come hell or high water.”

Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume, already battling slowing demand for electric cars and Chinese rivals, must now put aside his mantle as team player to tackle yet another tough opponent, Germany’s powerful labour unions.

The pressure on Europe’s top carmaker was laid bare this week when Volkswagen disclosed it was not only planning to scrap a 30-year old job security scheme but weighing the closure of plants in Germany.

Moritz Kronenberger, portfolio manager at Volkswagen shareholder Union Investment, dubs these the company’s “two holy cows”.

By taking them on, Blume sets a collision course with one of Germany’s mightiest stakeholder groups, the IG Metall union, whose main goal is to protect jobs and sites and safeguard the favourable working conditions in Europe’s biggest economy.

VW works council head Daniela Cavallo said unions would “fiercely resist” the plans, ruling out any factory closures on her watch. She said a staff meeting on Wednesday, where management will face workers, would be “very uncomfortable”.

Volkswagen has not closed a plant since 1988 when it shut its Westmoreland site in Pennsylvania. In July it said it might close an Audi factory in Brussels citing a sharp drop in demand for high-end electric cars.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Basic Dictatorship 13 Comments

TNC;

Ownership costs for electric vehicles will have to come down by at least 31% if the government wants to reach its sales target of 60% EVs by 2030, according to the latest report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

“Assuming that preferences, technology and policies remain unchanged from a baseline scenario without the standard, PBO estimates that the relative ownership cost of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) would need to decrease by 31% to meet the ZEV sales target of 60% in 2030,” reads the PBO report released on Thursday.

“That is, the ownership cost of ZEVs relative to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in 2030 under the standard would need to be 31% lower compared to the baseline scenario without the standard in 2030.”

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy 27 Comments

As EV sales slump, Volkswagen scales back battery factories

Volkswagen will wait to see what electric car demand is like before building out all six of its previously planned battery factories. Thomas Schmall, VW’s board member in charge of technology, told a German newspaper that “building battery cell factories is not an end to itself” and that a goal of 200 GWh of lithium-ion cells by 2030 was not set in stone.

It’s a bit too simplistic to say that all new technologies conform to the now-infamous Gartner hype cycle, but it’s hard not to think of that squiggly line when discussing EVs. After years of hearing lofty goals of all-electric lineups and an end to internal combustion engines from OEMs, Tesla’s skyrocketing valuation got investors interested in electrification, and for a while, things just went mad.

But the promised fall in battery costs never really materialized, and in the US, EVs still command a price premium, at least for the first owner. The initial hype, coupled with the limited availability of new models, saw dealers load the cars and trucks they could get with hefty markups, further alienating potential customers. And now, when those markups and inventory shortages are mostly a thing of the past, interest rates have soared.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy 11 Comments

Bloomberg;

Just when things were starting to look up for wind power, new troubles are pulling it back down.

In recent years, soaring inflation, supply-chain chaos and rapidly rising interest rates shocked turbine manufacturers and their customers, upending a business model that depended on cheap financing to compete with fossil fuels.

Companies across the industry suffered steep losses and saw investors flee, despite the promise of huge growth as governments try to deliver on pledges to prevent a climate calamity.

This year appeared to promise a return to stability and profitability, with turbines’ main input — steel — getting cheaper, inflation cooling and interest rates starting to fall.

But a recovery is proving elusive. The bad news started in recent weeks just off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, when a turbine blade plunged into the sea, sending debris onto the beaches of the billionaire-inhabited island.

Y2Kyoto: State Of Anorexia Envirosa

Alternative Subsidy Great Reset 22 Comments

Financial Post;

In its monthly update on energy trends, Statistics Canada reported this week that this year, for the first time ever, Canada has become a net importer of electricity. The switchover in our electricity trade balance reveals the shortcomings of an energy strategy that now emphasizes decarbonization over energy security, leaving customers vulnerable to supply shortfalls and higher prices.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 17 Comments

But others disagree.

Firefighters said they received a call about a fire at an unoccupied home on Monday, but upon arriving at the scene, they found that a Tesla was the cause of the fire. They then realized that the Tesla was hooked directly to the nearby powerlines. The illegal connections are a significant problem in the area. People connect directly to the power line or splice into electrical meter wiring to get free electricity, but the resulting power flow is unpredictable and largely unsafe.

No injuries were reported, but EV fires are a big problem for first responders. The firefighters in Tijuana had to build dirt berms around the car to hold enough water to keep it submerged. They estimated that the car could take a few days to completely burn out and said that it couldn’t be moved until they were certain the flames were out.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy Roadkill 17 Comments

@LasVegasLocally;

A crisis situation is unfolding in the California desert. Thousands of people headed to Las Vegas have been stuck on the I-40 for many hours, running out of gas and water. This is all due to the lithium battery truck fire that closed down I-15 yesterday.

@SLCScanner 5:04 PM

#Baker #California I-15 closed near #Baker after a semi-truck carrying lithium batteries caught fire Friday morning. The fire was reported at approx 6:30am. I-15 was closed in both directions by 8:30am.

#CaliforniaHighwayPatrol and the #SanBernadinoFireDept advised the semi-truck overturned while hauling a “connex of lithium ion batteries.”

As of this moment the freeway remains #closed and thousands of people are stuck between #California and #LasVegas. With the current temperature at 108° and all vehicles stopped, people have their pets, elderly family members and they are running out of fuel, battery charge, food, water, medications etc. Some have been stuck since the 0830 closure yesterday morning. They have no update on when it will reopen. I-15 closure and I-40 is at a stand still. The last pic is a screenshot of traffic minutes ago.

Video: KTNV Channel 13

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy 28 Comments

It couldn’t happen to a nicer set of Democrats; *

As additional debris from a damaged offshore wind turbine washes ashore on Nantucket, the town is considering other methods of dealing with the aftermath, including litigation.

Last weekend, a damaged Vineyard Wind turbine sent floating debris and sharp fiberglass across the south shore of Nantucket, angering residents.

In response to the ongoing crisis on the island, the Nantucket Select Board will meet in executive session on Tuesday to discuss “potential litigation in connection with Vineyard Wind” regarding recovery costs associated with the blade failure, according to an online meeting notice.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy 8 Comments

The retreat is everywhere…

“But in the past 12 months, the growth rate of electric vehicle sales has slowed sharply as some car buyers have balked at the high prices of electric cars and trucks and the hassles of charging them, especially on long trips.

The shift in consumer sentiment is now forcing many automakers to pull back on aggressive investment plans, and pivot, at least partly, back to the internal-combustion engine vehicles that still account for most new car sales and a large share of corporate profits.”

Ford pivots from EV plans to heavy-duty trucks at Canada facility

Trump:
“I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one, thereby saving the auto industry from complete obliteration; and savings US customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy 6 Comments

Robert Bryce;

Two of Europe’s biggest energy companies are abandoning the SS Offshore Wind.

In May, Shell, the UK-based oil and gas giant (2023 revenue: $317 billion), announced that it was cutting staff from its offshore wind business because, according to Bloomberg, the company has decided to focus on markets that “deliver the most value for our investors and customers.” Bloomberg also reported that the staff cuts were made after the departures of top executives in the company’s offshore wind and renewable power businesses.

Last month, Murray Auchincloss, the CEO of oil and gas giant BP, imposed a “hiring freeze and paused new offshore wind projects.” According to Reuters, the new CEO is putting more “emphasis on oil and gas amid investor discontent over its energy transition strategy” and that BP (2023 revenue: $208 billion) was cutting investments in “big budget, low-carbon projects, particularly in offshore wind, that are not expected to generate cash for years.”

The moves by BP and Shell are only the latest examples of the troubles facing the offshore wind sector, which has been foundering on the shoals of higher interest rates, citizen opposition, and ballooning costs. Over the past year, numerous projects on the Eastern Seaboard, including Skipjack Wind in Maryland, Park City Wind in Connecticut, and South Coast Wind in Massachusetts, have been canceled due to bad economics. In all, according to data compiled by Ed O’Donnell, a nuclear engineer and a principal at New Jersey-based Whitestrand Consulting, about 14,700 megawatts of offshore wind capacity has been canceled. For comparison, about 15,500 megawatts of capacity is now in development, under construction, or operational.

Of course, those figures don’t jibe with the tsunami of hype about offshore wind energy that has appeared in major media outlets. But the hard reality is that America’s offshore wind sector is a subsidy-dependent industry that is dominated by foreign companies who are in bed with some of America’s biggest climate NGOs, including the NRDC (gross receipts: $555 million) and Sierra Club (Gross receipts: $184 million).

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