EU outlines plan for clean tech future boosted by subsidies

The European Union pushed forward on Tuesday with a major clean tech industrial plan which not only should keep the continent in the vanguard of plotting a greener future but also guarantee its economic survival as it faces challenges from China and the United States.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the outlines for her “Green Deal Industrial Plan” that will make it much easier to push through subsidies for green industries and pool EU-wide projects that are boosted with major funding as the EU pursues the goal of being climate neutral by 2050.

“We know that we have a small window to invest in clean tech and innovation to gain leadership before the fossil fuel economy becomes obsolete,” von der Leyen said. […]

Von der Leyen used a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos to say that on top of feeding its own industry, the 27-nation bloc will become much more forceful in countering unfair trading practices, if they come from Washington, or more importantly, Beijing. …

FTA “”boosted by subsidies””

I remember a ‘solar’ company near my office outside of Sacramento, Kalifornia. I would drive by their office/workshop at least twice a day, sometimes much more on days I was out in the field. They strongly advertised State and Federal $$$. About a week after the $$$ ended, there was no trace of the company; no signs, no cars, trucks, vans. It was as if they never existed. Without State and Federal $$$, it would never had existed in the first place. There was/is no ‘market’ for this without taking $$$ from the private sector. All of us paid for the few that bought into this insanity. Just look down the street where you live. Everyone paid for a few to have it. When the solar panels fail, or just need service, will the few visit their neighbors and demand more $$$. The company that, for a while, existed, is not there. Whoever benefited from the State and Federal $$$ is probably in the Bahamas, and the Oval Office

We have only drilled a few miles into the Earth. We already know of many hundred years of oil, coal, and natural gas. Every year, in country after country, we discover more and more huuuuge deposits of hydrocarbons. Germany is dismantling a wind farm because underneath the windmills is a large amount of coal. In the dead of winter, whether or not the wind is blowing, coal can provide direct heat, and electricity.

The Sun provides direct heat in the summer. It can provide some electricity during daylight, as long as clouds stay away. Several times in the past volcanoes have blocked the Sun for 1-2-? years. Even in the dark we can drill for oil and natural gas. Not very long ago Chicago and New York were under a mile of ice. The Great Cold will return. The Earth has been in a pattern of long periods of cold, with shorter periods of warmth. The best questimates are 100,000 years of cold, with 10-15,000 years of warmth. There is nothing we can do to stop the cold, but we can adapt. The more we drill, the more hydrocarbons we find. The deeper we drill, the more we find.

**I used the term ‘questimate’ above on purpose. We humans live such short lives, we do not have exact data on this long-cold/short-warm pattern. Ice core samples let us know that this pattern is a fact. The exact length of the cold and warmth is not known today. It may be that each warm period is not exact, but the great cold will return.

As we spread out into the cosmos we will use the hydrocarbons on planets, moons and asteroids. The moon Titan orbiting Saturn has oceans of hydrocarbons. In the first Alien movie, the space vehicle Nostromo was depicted towing an enormous refinery. They had mined hydrocarbons on planets and asteroids. Science fiction will become science fact, as long as the Fauci’s and AlGore’s are kept away.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.