Reducing European taxes will not increase oil prices substantially, especially if it's a capping mechanism at a "high" price, since most of the demand is elsewhere. If the capping was done at a price high enough to reduce demand, with some mechanism to slowly raise the cap in the future, it mightn't be a bad idea, cushioning the blow in the EU.
Likewise subsidies for hard-hit producers, assuming there is a plan to reform the industry away from dependance on fossil fuels.
assuming there is a plan to reform the industry away from dependance on fossil fuels.
Oh my aching sides.
Are there any plans, anywhere in the world, to switch industries to strategic sustainability?
I suppose Scandinavia might be thinking along these lines, perhaps. But most of the core Euro zone is still partying like it's 1999.
The mood in the UK is exactly along Sarko's lines - kick the politicians to lower taxes, and hope the problem goes away.
I'd agree in the short term - make some token cuts to shut everyone up, start using fuel duty to develop a crash program of viable transport alternatives, and ride herd on the main infrastructure companies to push their prices down to more realistic levels so delivery becomes more likely.
Not gonna happen here though.
Are there any plans, anywhere in the world, to switch industries to strategic sustainability? I suppose Scandinavia might be thinking along these lines, perhaps. But most of the core Euro zone is still partying like it's 1999.
- Jake Ceterum censeo Chicago esse delendam
ind Power Could Make Norway "Europe's Battery" OSLO - Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge sea-based wind parks costing up to $44 billion by 2025, Norway's Oil and Energy Minister said on Monday. Norway's Energy Council, comprising business leaders and officials, said green exports could help the European Union reach a goal of getting 20 percent of its electricity by 2020 from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro or wave power. "Norway could be Europe's battery," Oil and Energy Minister Aaslaug Haga told Reuters after she was handed the report, which will be considered by the centre-left government in coming months. "The thinking is that Norway is blessed, is lucky, to have big energy resources. There is undoubtedly a large potential for wind power," she said. Norway says it has the longest coastline in Europe, from the North Sea to the Arctic Barents Sea. The 30-page report, mapping out a big shift for the world's number 5 oil exporter, said: "Norway ought to have access to up to 40 terrawatt hours of renewable energy in 2020-2025, of which about half would come from offshore wind power." Sufficient wind parks -- totalling 5,000 to 8,000 megawatts installed capacity -- would cost between 100 billion Norwegian and 220 billion Norwegian crowns ($43.89 billion) assuming prices of 20-28 million crowns per installed megawatt. The energy would be equivalent to up to about eight nuclear power plants. Norway pumps about 2.2 million barrels of oil per day -- $44 billion represents the value of about half a year's output.
OSLO - Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge sea-based wind parks costing up to $44 billion by 2025, Norway's Oil and Energy Minister said on Monday.
Norway's Energy Council, comprising business leaders and officials, said green exports could help the European Union reach a goal of getting 20 percent of its electricity by 2020 from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro or wave power. "Norway could be Europe's battery," Oil and Energy Minister Aaslaug Haga told Reuters after she was handed the report, which will be considered by the centre-left government in coming months.
"The thinking is that Norway is blessed, is lucky, to have big energy resources. There is undoubtedly a large potential for wind power," she said. Norway says it has the longest coastline in Europe, from the North Sea to the Arctic Barents Sea.
The 30-page report, mapping out a big shift for the world's number 5 oil exporter, said: "Norway ought to have access to up to 40 terrawatt hours of renewable energy in 2020-2025, of which about half would come from offshore wind power."
Sufficient wind parks -- totalling 5,000 to 8,000 megawatts installed capacity -- would cost between 100 billion Norwegian and 220 billion Norwegian crowns ($43.89 billion) assuming prices of 20-28 million crowns per installed megawatt.
The energy would be equivalent to up to about eight nuclear power plants. Norway pumps about 2.2 million barrels of oil per day -- $44 billion represents the value of about half a year's output.
And yesterday I was listening to the audio book version of the memoirs of the former soc dem prime minister who, just in passing, mentions that global oil extraction has probably peaked.
Yes, that's right: <head explodes>
Oh, and Carl Bildt mentioned peak oil on his blog a few weeks ago, when oil hit $119.
They know. But they can't act without being thown out of office by the angry masses. Our mission is to educate people so the politicans are empowered to act. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
