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Energy as a Weapon of War: Russia, Ukraine, and Europe in Challenging Times | 17 comments (17 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
archived (none / 1)
H.R.5376 - Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (2022);
Applicability of Buy American Act With Respect to European Community (1993), alt citation;
and
41 U.S. Code Chapter 83 - BUY AMERICAN (1933)

I've read 'em. Evidently, the current cohort of the College of Commissioners have not, thereby contradicting present affectations of outraged international rules and norms, restraint of trade, pillars of freedom, "level fields" of "protectionism" and competition, and honor among thieves.

by Cat on Mon Dec 19th, 2022 at 09:17:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: archived (none / 0)
Exactly ... f*ck the EU ... f*ck the WTO ... it's MAGA all the way!

Biden's 'Multilateralism' Amounts To AmericaFirst!! | March 25, 2021 |

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

by Oui on Mon Dec 19th, 2022 at 09:45:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) (none / 1)
From your archived post ...

Renewable Energy Directive (RED, RED II)
2020 framework targets

Renewable energy directive from 2009 (2009/28/EC) was supporting on overall policy for the production and promotion of energy from renewable sources in the EU. It predicted at least 20 % of EU's total energy to be filled with renewables by 2020, mainly to be achieved through the national targets of the member states. All EU countries must also ensure that at least 10 % of their transport fuels come from renewables by 2020.

[🔴 No longer in force, Date of end of validity: 30/06/2021; Repealed by 32018L2001 . Latest consolidated version: 05/10/2015]

Lost me quite easily ... Brussels myriad of bureaucracy.

5 Key Updates to the Renewable Energy Directive II (REDII) | Aug. 2021 |

In July 2021, the European Commission (EC) unveiled its proposal for the Fit for 55 legislative package. This package aims to set Europe on course to become the first carbon neutral continent by 2050. Fit for 55 is an extensive set of new strategies and updates to existing energy and climate legislation.

Fit for 55 Package | PWC publication |

The EU aims to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, and reach climate neutrality by 2050.

On 14 July 2021, the European Commission presented the Fit for 55 Package with proposals aiming to deliver the 2030 CO2 reduction target and to pave the way to become the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

The Fit for 55 Package is an impressive 12,000 page legislative proposal effectively codifying the principles laid down in the EU Climate Law.



Amnesia and Gaza Genocide
by Oui on Tue Dec 20th, 2022 at 01:01:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
archived (4.00 / 2)
LQD 12:45 - 18. dec. 2009 v.2
Turfin' Todd Stern seminal REDD primary and secodary carbon credit trading substitute for absolute GHG emissions reduction and "reparations" paid by "developed countries" to "developting countries".

reference
History of REDD policy

...REDD is the idea of creating an international framework to halt deforestation. ...
clima.md | How Climate-Change Negotiator Todd Stern Mastered His Diplomatic Skill
a syllabus
Copenhagen global warming talks suspended over rich-poor
"Inside, the key bone of contention is over whether to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, under which most industrial nations promised to curb their greenhouse gas emissions, with a more robust agreement that would also include emissions reduction targets for poorer nations."
PRESS CONFERENCE BY TODD D. STERN, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Mr. Stern: The U.S. has been clear sort of forever on this issue. We're not going to agree to a weakening of intellectual property rights and we actually think if there was a single thing you could do that would be most wrong-headed in this world it would be to do that and it would be wrong-headed for China, India and everybody else who more and more are becoming innovators....
US chief climate negotiator Todd Stern:
"I actually completely reject the notion of a debt or reparations or anything of the like...Let's just be mindful of the fact [that] for most of the 200 years since the Industrial Revolution, people were blissfully ignorant of the fact that emissions cause the greenhouse effect. It's a relatively recent phenomenon. It's the wrong way to look at this. We absolutely recognise our historical role in putting emissions in the atmosphere that are there now. But the sense of guilt or culpability or reparations, I categorically reject that."
G7 value system
Mitch Rutte: "For a long time, I didn't think it was possible to take responsibility in a meaningful way for something that was so long ago and that none of us were part of." So.
Accept this apology in lieu of $100B p.a. to repair 400 years of loss and damages
"Today I apologize," Rutte said in a 20-minute speech that was greeted with silence by an invited audience at the National Archive. Ahead of the speech, Waldo Koendjbiharie, a retiree who was born in Suriname but lived for years in the Netherlands, said an apology was not enough.

"It's about money. Apologies are words and with those words you can't buy anything," he said.

Are ["]We["] Using the Right Date Range for ["]Pre-Industrial["] Climate Records?
by Cat on Tue Dec 20th, 2022 at 06:32:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
post-FIT "green" technology (4.00 / 2)
The EC is PROBING a path through US tax credits and sales rebates combined with "market correction mechanisms" [read: punitive trade sanctions against third-countries] to secure "carbon-neutral" industrial "ecosystem" exports and profits, while reversing European FDI in US, where fuel, regulation, and labor are cheap.

euractiv | Germany and France seek to match US green industry subsidies, 19 Dec

The subsidies [sic], which are part of the American Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), have raised concern amongst EU institutions which fear that the policy could incentivise [read: reward] European companies to relocate to the US.
[...]
In a paper published on Monday, the two ministers for economic affairs of France and Germany, Bruno Le Maire and Robert Habeck, laid out their vision for maintaining the EU's attractiveness for industry.

"Our common ambition is clear: to have the EU gain indisputable leadership on green industry," Le Maire said in a statement. "Our industrial policy should not only help to deliver innovation and jobs but also to preserve our independence."

To that end, France and Germany aim at a change of the EU's state aid rules, which at present limit [not really] EU member states' capacity to subsidise companies, with the aim of preventing distortions in the EU single market.

enc: "For a European Green Industrial Policy"
[...]
President Biden's recent statements offering a perspective to make the IRA compatible with the European interests is a welcome first step. We can benefit from each other's strengths and jointly contribute to a new era of green manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic. Under the leadership of the European Commission, we will work closely with our American partners to operationalize such a proposal along the following lines:
• The exceptions made in the IRA for countries with a free trade cooperati should cover partners and allies like the European Union.
• For tax credits conditional on US local content: use exception clauses to waive local content criteria so that European products [sic] are eligible for tax credits in the same way as American products [sic].
• Ensure mutual ex-post transparency on a regular basis on public support for transformation technologies.
[...]
We propose to allow experimenting targeted subsidies and tax credits using fast-track and predictable umbrella schemes for key industrial sectors. They would rely more on ex-ante criteria in a clear and targeted framework and on the notification of general national support schemes. To put these schemes into action, we will mobilise all relevant national and European tools and instruments.
[...]
emphasis in original

NB. In IRA, a tax credit rewards taxpayers by deduction of a specific amount spent on covered good and service from taxable income; a rebate is partial refund of wholesale price redeemed by an authorized seller (not a retail buyer) dependent on sale of a covered good; a grant, gift or subsidy, is a sum of money awarded to anyone by a grantor. Unlike loans to commercial and residential borrowers, which gov appropriations fund, grants are not repaid. I remind, because it's not obvious what US "subsidies" Le Maire and Habeck expect either to duplicate or litigate. Nor is it obvious how  statutory US subsidies derogate EU "products", except for that dust up a month ago when Congress disagreed the extent to which the Jones Act applied to offshore wind projects crewed by foreign labor.

by Cat on Tue Dec 20th, 2022 at 10:54:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]
post-FIT "green" technology PROBE (none / 1)
euractiv | EU welcomes correction to US green subsidies act, 30 Dec low expectations
"EU companies that provide their customers through leases [?] with cutting-edge clean vehicles can benefit from the incentives under the IRA," the Commission said. Companies will "immediately benefit from the new guidance," the statement added. But a separate segment of the act involving clean vehicle credits continues to contain "discriminatory provisions," the EU Commission said. In documents published Thursday [29 Dec]
Treasury Releases Additional Information on Clean Vehicle Provisions of Inflation Reduction Act
  • FAQs for consumers
  • A notice on the "incremental cost"
  • A notice of intent to propose regulations
the Treasury Department outlined electric vehicle models that could qualify for a tax credit of up to $7,500 starting 1 January.
• Audi of America, LLC
• Ford Motor Company (including Ford and Lincoln brands)
• General Motors, LLC
• Kia America Inc.
• Mazda Motor of America Inc.
• Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC
• Nissan North America
• Proterra Operating Company Inc.
• Rivian Automotive, LLC
• Stellantis N.V. (including Chrysler and Jeep brands)
• Subaru of America Inc.
• Tesla Inc.
• Volkswagen Group of America
• Volvo Car North America, LLC
Officials laid out how parties can comply with requirements on critical minerals [raw goods] and battery components [intermediate and finished goods], although saying the final rules would only come into play in March.
[...]
In a white paper also released Thursday, Treasury officials signaled that more countries producing [intermediate and finished goods containing] critical minerals could be considered eligible suppliers under the rules.
Critical mineral requirement
Once applicable, the critical mineral requirement will be met if the percentage of the value of the critical minerals in the vehicle's battery that were extracted or processed in the United States, or in any country with which the United States has a free trade agreement ["not defined in the Inflation Reduction Act (or in any other statute)"] in effect, or recycled in North America, is equal to or greater than 40 percent for a vehicle that is placed in service in 2023 after the date on which Treasury and the IRS issue proposed guidance. This required percentage increases annually to 50 percent in 2024, 60 percent in 2025, 70 percent in 2026, and 80 percent after 2026.

Identifying the activities that constitute the extraction, processing, and recycling of critical minerals and where those activities occur will be vital to certifying compliance with the critical mineral requirement. Our current intention is to propose defining some of the key terms relevant to such identification as follows ...

"Treasury and the IRS expect to propose that the secretary may identify additional free trade agreements for purposes of the critical minerals requirement going forward," the document said.
[...]
good luck wit dat.
by Cat on Fri Dec 30th, 2022 at 07:42:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
[INCONTINENCE ALERT] (none / 0)
Politico.eu.com | Brussels incensed as US spurns global trade rules (yet again), 23 Dec really?
[...]
"The USA's reaction of simply rejecting the ruling is incomprehensible," said Bernd Lange, who chairs the European Parliament's international trade committee. "We have to have an honest discussion with the U.S. if they are moving away from a rules-based trading system, and if and how we can rescue the existing system," said Lange, of the center-left Socialists & Democrats [Price Cap Coalition]. Washington also slapped similar tariffs on EU producers, but the two sides struck a partial truce back in 2021.
[...]
For the Europeans, Tai's comments add insult to years of injury. Tai -- who represents the country that single-handedly tore down the WTO's Appellate Body in 2019 under TRUMP and has refused to restore it ever since -- said that the ruling "really challenges the integrity of the system."
[...]
Brussels had hoped that Washington's bullying of the WTO would come to an end when President Joe BIDEN, a Democrat, stepped into the White House in January last year. But that didn't happen: The Biden administration also questions the relevance of the multilateral trade forum because of its ["]systemic rivalry["] with China, which is also a WTO member.
[...]
by Cat on Fri Dec 23rd, 2022 at 06:22:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Energy as a Weapon of War: Russia, Ukraine, and Europe in Challenging Times | 17 comments (17 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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