Around 700,000 households in Ireland are now in energy poverty as a result of the ongoing European Union gas crisis, MPs have claimed.
Elected representatives from the Rural Independent Group have claimed that 700,000 households have been put into energy poverty, with TDs — the Irish equivalent of MPs (Members of Parliament) — claiming that the government’s continued implementation of carbon taxes and failure to implement any sort of caps have dramatically worsened the situation.
Germany, like the rest of Europe, needs gas, but cannot get enough of it without violating its own “moral standards”
Sportswise, things didn’t go very well for Germany, but the Germans have already secured the title of world champions in moral and double standards. The political establishment in Berlin went crazy after FIFA banned the pro-LGBT ‘One Love’ headband from the World Cup in Qatar. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Green Party told the German national team that they had to wear the armband anyway. Various government officials protested, including Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who wore the “One Love” armband at the opening match in Doha.
But immediately after the “scandal”, Germany proudly announced a new mega deal on gas with none other than Qatar, an agreement that Minister Habeck described as “super”. Bayern Munich loves Qatar’s money, and German soccer stars Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer have never publicly made a speech against sponsoring Qatar Airways.
Related … Israel’s natural gas windfall in Europe is bad news for Palestinians
A week ago the Biden administration announced that it had approved an expansion of the license to Chevron so they could resume oil production in Venezuela.
This was a surprise given the administration’s hostility to fossil fuels in general and oil from Venezuela in particular.
The sad truth is that you can’t throw this in Justin’s face as the latest addition to his long list of failures because he considers it a victory whenever an ally gives up on Canada as a source of secure energy and instead opts to take their business elsewhere even if that means making a deal with a totalitarian regime.
The air is warm and buttery as workers knead mounds of raisin-flecked dough inside the Kexerei bakery in Dresden. This is the busiest time of year but, like every other business and household in the country, the firm’s bills are going up, diminishing the festive cheer.
“Wages have increased drastically, energy costs have risen, as have the prices for our ingredients – butter has doubled in price,” says owner Matthias Walther. “I can’t pass all that on to the customers.”
It’s an issue that preoccupies the German government too. Wary of the impact on the economy, it’s spending around €300bn ($310bn; £260bn) on measures aimed at shielding people and industry from higher prices, particularly soaring energy bills.
Switzerland will ban the use of electric cars for ‘non-essential’ journeys if the country runs out of energy this winter, the government has announced.
Emergency plans drawn up in the event the Swiss are hit by blackouts also call for shop opening hours to be reduced by up to two hours per day, heating systems in nightclubs to be turned off, and other buildings to be heated to no more than 20C.
Crisis measures could see streaming services and games consoles banned, Christmas lights turned off, and all sports stadiums and leisure facilities closed.
h/t Mauser
After an energy-hungry Germany was snubbed by Canada, Berlin has instead gone all-in on a gas contract with Qatar, the small, autocratic nation currently hosting the World Cup.
This week, German firms announced a 15-year contract to buy roughly two million tonnes of LNG per year of Qatari natural gas.
In the real world, as opposed to the fantasy one which too many Canadian politicians inhabit, oil and natural gas are going to be major sources of Canadian and global energy for decades to come.
The federal government’s Canada Energy Regulator projected in 2019 that Canada’s oil sector will grow by almost 50%, and the natural gas sector by 30%, from 2018 to 2040.
SAINT-AVOLD, France (AP) — The end of France’s coal era seemed so certain last year that the operator of one of the country’s last coal-burning plants posted an upbeat educational video on YouTube titled “Let’s visit a coal plant that’s going to be destroyed!”
The plant in the northeastern town of Saint-Avold indeed halted coal production as scheduled earlier this year — but not for long. This week, its workers were back at the controls, transporting coal from storage heaps and refiring furnaces, as part of emergency efforts to keep the heat and electricity on this winter.
Slashing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions to 40 per cent to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050 is no small endeavour. Think long electricity transmission lines, carbon pipelines, hydrogen facilities and new critical mineral mines. The green shift will require hundreds of billions of dollars in new investments across the country.
Oil and gas are cheaper & far more reliable than green pipe dreams.
The German government has decreed that office temperatures should be limited to a maximum of 19 degrees C. But was this overhasty? It’s already clear that many employers and office workers need to turn the heating up.
In the southwestern German city of Ludwigsburg, the thermometer has recently been registering just 6 C (42.8 F) in the morning. But it isn’t a whole lot warmer inside the local branch of the savings bank.
Here, in this town of 90,000 just north of Stuttgart, the bank clerks are serving customers in a room heated to a bracing 19 C (66.2 F), the temperature that, for several weeks now, has defined German working life.
Since September 1, the whole country has been turning down the heating to save energy. Measures will remain in place until February 28, and people are getting creative in order not to freeze. This Ludwigsburg bank equipped its 500 employees with gray fleece jackets; black woolen gloves complete the look for the well-swaddled bank cashiers at the counter … Welcome to Germany’s new winter reality.
As Highway 27 winds around Calcasieu Lake in southwest Louisiana, massive storage tanks tower over the wetlands in what is shaping up to be a new global epicentre for exports of liquefied natural gas.
Near the town of Hackberry, Cameron LNG is eyeing expansion of its already-huge terminal, which opened in 2019.
No surprises here. Canada gives in to a few eco-fanatics every time.
Nearly 10,000 pubs and restaurants have cut trading by at least two days per week to cope with rocketing energy bills even before the start of winter.
A fifth of food and drink firms have reduced their trading hours while 6pc have closed for two days a week – more than any other sector, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Hospitality industry experts warned that pubs and restaurants could choose to shut their doors temporarily for weeks early next year to counteract a period of slower trade and heavy energy usage.
A temporary tax cut intended to help Ontario residents save money at the pumps will be extended for another year, Premier Doug Ford announced on Sunday.
Ford said his government intends to table legislation that would leave the tax break that cut gas prices by 5.7 cents a litre in place until the end of 2023. The cut first went into effect on July 1 and was originally due to expire on Dec. 31.
A diesel shortage south of the border could trickle to Canada causing price spikes combined with an overall rise in prices, says Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, and an 18-year veteran of the House of Commons.
A diesel supply shortage has been gripping the United States of late, with the White House declaring on Oct. 23 that reserves are down to 25 days of supply.
A major fuel supply company has issued an alert about upcoming diesel fuel shortages in several East Coast states.
States that are expected to experience shortages include Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina, Mansfield Energy said in an alert last week.
