After another round of energy rates rising in Britain, Reuters is reporting that another 300,000 households have fallen into “fuel poverty”. Which brings the number of households in Britain who fall into the fuel poverty, to 6.5 million.
Britain has 26.4 million households as of 2012. source This means that roughly one out of four households in Britain are now fuel impoverished.
How did this happen?
The European Union founded it’s cap and trade system to curb CO2 emissions in 2005. According to Wikipedia:
“The European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, was the first large emissions trading scheme in the world.[1] It was launched in 2005 to combat climate change and is a major pillar of EU climate policy.[2] As of June 2012, the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories, power stations, and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 30 countries—all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein.[3] The installations regulated by the EU ETS are collectively responsible for close to half of the EU’s emissions of CO2 and 40% of its total greenhouse gas emissions.”
An article published on the Yale university website titled: The Flawed Logic of
the Cap-and-Trade Debate states:
“The truth is, however, that neither of these approaches will lead to significant reductions in carbon emissions, and for a basic reason: Both Hansen and those he criticizes focus on pollution regulation and pricing to make fossil fuels more expensive, rather than on innovation to make clean energy cheap. This approach ignores the history of technological breakthroughs, which has primarily been driven by public investment. And public investment in clean energy is what is needed today, because no effort to achieve deep reductions in carbon emissions, domestic or international, will succeed as long as low-carbon energy technologies cost vastly more than current fossil fuel-based energy.”
Here is a spoof commercial from Britain about cap and trade effecting everyday things like heating your home (along with a great playlist of cap and trade information).
Britain has also been investing billions of dollars into wind power, and have been the worlds largest advocate for the energy source. Only to now start back peddling on it.
dailymail.co.uk: Ten years too late, it’s good riddance to wind farms
“For years now, the plan to cover hundreds of square miles of the British countryside with ever more wind turbines has been the centrepiece of Britain’s energy policy — and one supported by all three major political parties.
Back in 2008, when Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced his wish to see the country spend £100 billion on windfarms, the only response from the Tory leader David Cameron was to say that he should have done it sooner.
It was the only way, they all agreed, Britain could meet our commitment to the EU that, by 2020, we must produce nearly a third of our electricity from ‘renewables’ — with the largest part provided by tens of thousands more wind turbines.
Yet now, out of the blue, has come this announcement by the Coalition Energy Minister that from now on there is to be a moratorium on building onshore turbines other than those for which consent has already been given.”
Here in Canada our governments are blindly following down both these very paths, rather than learning from others mistakes. We seem determined to repeat them.
We posted a story not to long ago which you can read Here, that highlights the Ontario and Quebec governments plan to collaborate on a cap and trade scheme.
“*In June 2008, the governments of Ontario and Quebec agreed to collaborate on a greenhouse gas cap and trade initiative.
*In July 2008, Ontario joined the Western Climate Initiative, which also includes Arizona, British Columbia, California, Manitoba, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Quebec, Utah and Washington, in working on a regional cap and trade system.”
Since this agreement in 2009, Quebec has announced the launch of their cap and trade system. Source
“The Quebec government is introducing a cap-and-trade system in an effort to reduce carbon emissions in the province.
Quebec will join the state of California and be the first Canadian province to start enforcing cap-and-trade regulations for carbon emissions.
Environment Minister Pierre Arcand said as of Jan. 1, 2013 the ceiling for allowable emissions will gradually become stricter.”
Ontario is also following the failed wind farm model that Britain has been using. Source
“Samsung C&T have been working on a secret deal since 2008 with Six Nations(SN) Band Council and Government of Ontario. On May 25 2012, Six Nations Band Councilor Bill Montour signed an agreement behind closed doors to create a 515-acre green energy park on Six Nations unceded lands on Sutor Rd. in Haldimand County- East of Hagersville and West of Dunnville . This will be a wind turbine power generation complex in Ontario, which will be the largest of its kind in the world.
This project is being done in accordance with the Green Energy Act which was enacted in 2009″
While we continue down the same path as Britain and the European Union, how can we expect a different result? We will not get one. It is only a matter of time until Canadians start feeling the crunch from these cap and trade schemes. We must break free from this ideology or face the same fate that Europeans have staring them straight in the face. A complete energy dictatorship designed to control every aspect of your life. But that’s OK as long as it has the term “green” attached right?
