“Net-Zero Tyranny”

Russian threats to attack British factories producing drones and missile components for Ukraine are a reminder that the industrial base is once again becoming part of the battlefield.

In a way, this has always been the case. In an attritional conflict, the ability to produce, replace and sustain military capability matters as much as the weapons a country starts with. Military power has always depended on productive force. It was Paul Kennedy who documented the relationship between economic power and military power across five centuries of great-power competition in his magnum opus, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. In December 2024, John Bew, former chief foreign-policy adviser to No10, gave this logic a new name – ‘machinepolitik’. He argued we are returning to an era of ‘raw power’ in which the ability to harness productive force, from armaments to energy to technology, will increasingly determine which countries shape events.

It was only a few years ago when the climate change alarms and green energy fad were all the rage at the White House and corporate board rooms. Former President Joe Biden’s policies were all tilted to ending fossil fuels, and many of America’s biggest corporations embraced the concept of net-zero fossil fuels. This was the movement during the Biden years to eliminate virtually ALL oil, natural gas and coal production, and replace these energy sources with windmills, solar panels and electric vehicles.

The federal government says it’s committed to protecting the endangered southern resident killer whale population while also fast-tracking a new West Coast oil pipeline and other infrastructure projects that could threaten the orcas’ survival.

And the British Columbia government has said it recognizes, along with Ottawa, the need to protect these whales when it dropped its opposition to the pipeline last month.

“Long-time readers may remember a piece I wrote two years ago on how Schleswig-Holstein sold their reliable diesel ferry for a song, spent 3.3 million Euro for a new emissions-free solar ferry that doesn’t work and increased carbon emissions on top of it all.”

h/t handy n handsome

Heat pump households face winter warmth rationing as the drive to net zero raises increasing fears of blackouts.

By the end of next year, electricity suppliers will be able to remotely turn down heat pump central heating to help Britain’s energy system cope with high demand.

Suppliers are expected to do so on the instructions of the quango responsible for coordinating the grid, which is overseen by Ed Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

Of course Carney is BIG on Heat Pumps.

Ten years on from the referendum, the Brexit debate is mostly about what it has or hasn’t already delivered. Rupert Darwall argues that its greatest prize still lies ahead. Net zero and Brexit were always linked. Because the EU is an administrative state built to regulate and unable to deregulate, its member states are locked into net zero by treaty and court. Britain, having left, can repeal its commitment to net zero with a single Act of Parliament. That, Darwall contends, is the biggest Brexit benefit of all – and the example that might yet rescue Europe from itself.

h/t handy n handsome

The west needs to have a denazification program for Net Zero fanatics like Carney.