Energy Security

[cute hoor]

Wheteher we have passed peak oil and gas is no the issue.

The issue is that Ireland is about 30 years behind the game and showing very few signs of getting on the bus.

[SPN]

Pledge to treble 'green' power in four years

THE Government has vowed to treble the amount of electricity produced from 'green' energy sources here by 2010.

Environment Minister Noel Dempsey yesterday said it would do all it could to foster an environment where providers could reach the ambitious target of 15pc of total energy production from renewable sources in four years.

It was the government's role to encourage development of renewable energy projects. Mr Dempsey said progress had been made in recent years as he launched the Renewable Energy Development 2006 document.

Renewable energy to be tripled in four years

Mr Dempsey, who has responsibility for the energy portfolio, was launching the publication Renewable Energy Development 2006. The report provides a broad overview of current policies on renewable energy.

At present, 95% of Ireland’s energy comes from fossil fuels, of which 90% are imported.

Labour energy spokesman Tommy Broughan has said Ireland is totally unprepared to deal with the emerging energy gap.

Farmers claim tax puts biofuel projects at risk

BIOFUEL projects now being planned by co-ops and agribusiness companies are being put at risk because of the Government’s insistence on levying excise tax, it was claimed yesterday.


Tommy Cooke, chairman of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association’s rural development committee, said the sector is potentially worth hundreds of millions of euro to farmers and rural people.

But the five-year Government promotion scheme, which is set to deliver 163m litres of biofuel by 2008, is grossly inadequate.

[SPN]

Soaring energy costs 'threat' to all industry

Future investment and job creation could be at risk unless the Government fosters competitiveness in the energy market and produces a long-term plan on energy needs, PCI said.

Investment in biofuels, greater energy efficiency in buildings and tax credits for using environmentally-sound energy sources were needed to show companies that the Government was serious about tackling over-dependency on imported fuels. PharmaChemical Ireland said Irish managers were finding it increasingly difficult to justify energy costs to head office.

[david]

Soaring energy costs 'threat' to all industry

Future investment and job creation could be at risk unless the Government fosters competitiveness in the energy market and produces a long-term plan on energy needs, PCI said.

Investment in biofuels, greater energy efficiency in buildings and tax credits for using environmentally-sound energy sources were needed to show companies that the Government was serious about tackling over-dependency on imported fuels. PharmaChemical Ireland said Irish managers were finding it increasingly difficult to justify energy costs to head office.

I'm broadly opposed to bio-fuels but

greater energy efficiency in buildings and tax credits for using environmentally-sound energy sources

sounds like cranky, lefty, seventies tree hugging.

Oh, hang on, it's mainstream thought now, is it? Well, well...

[SPN]

I'm broadly opposed to bio-fuels but .....

Would you care to expand on that extremely curious statement :

[david]

I'm broadly opposed to bio-fuels but .....

Would you care to expand on that extremely curious statement :?:

Well, without going into too much detail, Ireland would need an area four times larger than itself to supply enough biofuel to replace oil. And we're not a particularly densely-populated country.

Secondly, I'm extremely sceptical about the energy balance. I can't honestly believe that biofuel gives us much more energy than it needs to create it, particularly as the scale of production will favour huge inputs of fossil-fuel-derived fertiliser, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide, suicide etc not to mention the machinery and infrastructure concomitantly required. Plus I believe biodiesel has a lower mpg, but I'm open to correction there.

Just found this:

In terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol
production, the study found that:
* corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced;
* switch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel
produced; and
* wood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel
produced.

In terms of energy output compared with the energy input for biodiesel
production, the study found that:
* soybean plants requires 27 percent more fossil energy than the fuel
produced, and
* sunflower plants requires 118 percent more fossil energy than the
fuel produced.

Thirdly, biofuel is not a replacement for fossil fuel - it's an addition. Cutting use is the only intelligent strategy, not creating more fuel.

Fourthly, I am dead set against GMOs but unfortunately the area of biofuel is one where the pharmers will be getting into big time.

[cute hoor]

Fourthly, I am dead set against GMOs but unfortunately the area of biofuel is one where the pharmers will be getting into big time.

Monsanto have huge ads in the farming supplements for "super"
rape seed oll seeds.

There is a huge amount of contradictory information going around
about biofuel energy balances. I expect SEI and Dempseys civil servants will manage to muddy the waters even more!

[david]

There is a huge amount of contradictory information going around
about biofuel energy balances.

Expound please. Little 'information' these days does not contain a bias one way or the other. However, common sense more or less tells you what David Pimentel and Tad W. Patze (authors of the study I referred to earlier) have actually quantified.

Having said that, I am quite prepared for someone to find out that they were funded by the oil industry in order to discredit biofuel!

[SPN]

Soaring energy costs will add €450 to annual household bill

HARD-PRESSED consumers are facing a winter of soaring energy costs with electricity prices set to rise by almost 20pc in the New Year.

News of the latest price hike comes as householders brace themselves for a 34pc rise in gas prices next month.

The "double whammy", which will add almost €450 a year to the average household energy bill, has prompted the National Consumer Agency to urge the Government to reduce taxes to domestic consumers of gas in an effort to alleviate the burden of proposed 68pc increases in energy costs in just two years.

.....

Consumers Association of Ireland chief executive Dermot Jewell said they were aware of the world energy cost crisis. "But it is impossible for everybody to keep paying increases that they just don't have the money to meet."

There was also criticism from the Irish Dairy Industries Association which said that the proposals for gas and electricity price increases would put an already pressurised sector under intolerable strain.

We're going to get lots more of this sillyness until the penny drops.

Compare and contrast the responses from Ruairi Quinn and Eamon Ryan.

Labour's enterprise spokesperson Ruairi Quinn urged the Government to forfeit the €77m it is due in dividend payments from the ESB this year to reduce the pressure on energy prices.

Green Party energy spokesman Eamon Ryan said the Government should increase fuel allowances to those on social welfare.

Ruairi wants to take money from the Health and Education Departments to subsidise wealthy people with outdoor jacuzzis and patio heaters.

Eamon wants to target relief at people who need assistance.


If we go with Ruairi's subsidy model, when would we stop subsidising the waste of energy? Do we wait until it is almost bankrupting the Country and people are rioting in the streets? This has happened in Asia and Africa whent he subsidy model reached breaking point.

The price of energy is only going one way. Any taxpayers money that is going to be spent should be spent on solutions that reduce the wastage of energy, not on pretending the problem doesn't exist.

[SPN]

Looks like Bertie is paying attention!

Welfare energy top-up

PEOPLE on social welfare payments are to get top-ups on the amount of free gas and electricity they receive from the State.

To cope with crippling increases in gas and ESB rates which are going up by 34pc and 20pc respectively this autumn, they will get about 30pc more free utility units, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced yesterday.

.....

"This Government is committed to ensuring the needs of the most disadvantaged are prioritised. This measure will target precisely those people."

Here's a story David will appreciate. Note also that the world grain harvest has been getting smaller for the last few years. World stocks of grain are currently at their lowest level for a long time, and are getting near critical levels.

Cows now compete with cars for corn

CARS are now competing with consumers for their share of the world's food supplies - and the result could be higher prices.

Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness told the Agriculture Science Association's conference at the weekend that in some US corn belt states, there was an explosion of interest in ethanol distilleries to such an extent that cows were competing with cars for corn.

.....

The US authorities predicted that world grain use would grow by 20 million tons this year - but 14 million tons of that would go into fuel for cars, leaving just 6 million tons to meet the world's growing food needs, Ms McGuinness said.

Of course, if we stopped feeding grain to cattle ........