Nudging with a bulldozer
I have been looking through our Gubmint’s “Climate Action Plan” again.
It is completely insane.
Either it’s insane or there is some grand plan to force us back into the Stone Age by taxing us to the hilt.
Motorists and businesses will feel the brunt of tax hikes unless they actively invest in going green. The Government plans to force petrol and diesel cars off our roads, introduce new buildings regulations and change the school curriculum in a bid to counteract climate change.
Right. Motorists, business and every man woman and child will bear the brunt. Don’t they realise that produce has to be carried by lorry, and that currently those lorries run on diesel? Electrifying the country’s lorries would cost millions which would mean enormous price hikes on virtually every item sold. I doubt it’s even possible anyway.
The plan has a major emphasis on the transport sector. Proposals include banning petrol and diesel cars from town centres around the country.
So they are also going to ban delivery lorries? The only result of that idea is to create mayhem in the suburbs as people leave their cars to somehow get into the city centres. The public transport system just couldn’t cope, especially as it somehow has to be electrified too.
Other measures include:
Phasing out oil and gas boilers.
Doubling electricity tax on businesses.
New levies on single-use plastics (similar to plastic bag tax).
Loans for retrofitting homes to be repaid through property tax.
And changes to private pensions.
Phasing out oil and gas boilers? What the fuck? How the fuck are we to heat our homes? Coal fires? No, sorry – not allowed. Turf fires? Ditto. Heat pumps? Incredibly expensive and they rely on electricity too. The only option is electricity.
Doubling electricity tax on business? That will just be passed on to the consumer.
Levies on plastics? Tax again.
Retrofitting homes? I heard during the week that retrofitting could be doe for as little[!] as €20,000. Repaying that will add how much to the property tax?
Changes to private pensions is just a leaf out of the Tobacco Control Handbook. Pensions should be only invested in “Green Energy” or some such crap. Maybe they should invest in tobacco companies?
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the government wants to “nudge” people and businesses to change their behaviour in order to tackle climate change.
This is not “nudging” – this is coercion by force and taxation. The man is insane [or illiterate].
This will be done, Mr Varadkar said today, by seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by two per cent a year each year for the next ten years. Mr Varadkar said young people’s greatest fear was “that the world will be destroyed in a climate apocalypse”. He said: “It doesn’t have to happen it’s not inevitable, it can be stopped, action can be taken.”
If young people are afraid it’s only because of adult lies, misinformation propaganda and brain washing. I also blame that idiot child Thunberg and her “crusade”.
“Our approach is not a coercive one,” he said. “It’s to nudge people and businesses to change their behaviour.”
Here we go again. It is coercive to the point of bullying.
Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton has attached clear timelines for when he expects decisions to be taken, particularly in relation to taxation measures overseen by the Department of Finance. Over “an appropriate period of time” the current 11c gap in the price of diesel and petrol is to be closed.
The plan recommits the Government to raising carbon tax from the current rate of €20 per tonne to €80 by 2030.
If the tax stood at €80 per tonne, based on today’s prices and including Vat, a litre of petrol would be around 17c dearer and diesel 20c.
Of course this isn’t coercion. It’s nudging by emptying our pockets.
Ultimately, legislation will be introduced to ban the sale of new fossil fuel cars from 2030 and to stop granting NCTs from 2045. A series of incentives are in the pipeline for people willing to transfer to EVs, including a car-scrappage scheme. It is hoped to have a charging network capable of catering for 800,000 EVs in place by 2030.
So basically we all have to drive EVs whether we like it or not. Stopping granting [granting? Hah! They make it sound like a fucking gift] NCTs will force all non-EVs off the road. Where is the nudging there? Thank God it’s unlikely to affect me’
The potential for a car-sharing programme for towns in rural Ireland is to be assessed. The action plan also sets out an ambition that all new public buses will be electric. The National Transport Authority is to set up a ‘Park and Ride Development Office’ to make life easier for commuters.
Once again – totally insane and unworkable.
Meanwhile, the installation of oil boilers is to be banned from 2022 and gas boilers will be outlawed from 2025 in all new dwellings. Plans will also be developed for ways of having oil and gas boilers replaced in existing homes – but no new regulations will be introduced before 2026.
Oil and gas boilers replaced? With what exactly?
I could go on through the rest but you get the gist? It is prohibitively expensive and in some areas impossible. It is Cloud Cuckoo Land. It is a dream. Or rather it is a dream for the gubmint and a nightmare or the rest of us.
One thing that strikes me is that according to their plan everything will rely on electricity, and I mean everything. What happens if there are power outages? Where the fuck is this electricity to come from? Windmills? The entire country would grind to a standstill in calm weather.
Of course if we all rely on electricity for everything then they have ultimate control over us?
However, I’m not worried. Our lot in power are great for fanciful ideas that go completely arse over tit. Somehow they manage to fuck up just about every plan. Electronic Voting? Dublin Underground? Rural Broadband?
Now if they want to do something about emissions and the like, I would suggest they take up Daughter’s suggestion – rebuild all motorways so the all go downhill. In both directions.
It’s a hell of a lot more sensible than the “Climate Action” crap.
In the wake of all these grand-sounding Green schemes emanating from the backsides of our great leaders over the last few weeks I wonder if in fact they are tentative steps in the direction of making us all get behind fracking and shale gas, of which the British Isles, I understand, has loads. At the moment there are huge objections to it wherever it’s proposed, but given a few years of freezing homes and power cuts, I think they’re hoping that people will start to say: “Oh, stuff the risks and the inconvenience and the unpleasantness of having a massive industrial works just up the road – let’s for God’s sake start extracting the wretched stuff so that at least we can be warm in the middle of winter.” Just a thought, bearing in mind that whatever reason our PTB on both sides of the Irish Sea give us for doing stuff to us is NEVER the real reason they’re doing it. Just a thought.
I'm not sure about fracking. It hasn't been such an issue this side of the Irish Sea. I'm all for it, but of course it falls under the remit of "non-renewable" so the Greens will be against it no matter how sensible.
I would stick with my notion that by forcing everyone in the country it gives enormous control over the population. Apart from control, just think of the financial implications – want more tax income? Just tax electricity! Putting all the eggs in one basket is an horrendous concept.
So diesel and petrol engines are banned.As I recall, Ireland is mainly rural with the majority of the population living in towns. Now just suppose that the Manor caught fire and you called the fire brigade. Where is your nearest fire station? Is it within a 5 minute drive or miles away. "Yes we are sending our new EV pump and will be with you as soon as the pump has finished charging from the last job, should be about 8 hours or so."
No Greenie ever stops to think about the practicalities of real life before opening their mouths.
No greenie stops to think. The other words are superfluous.
Well you live in a democracy. You need to find someone to stand in your area with a working brain cell.
We have the same over here btw. Bunch of incompetent fuckwits with about 3 brain cells between them.
The majority of the electorate here seems hell bent on voting in Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael [two parties with virtually identical philosophies]. Independents do occasionally get elected but their voice is generally drowned out by the two main parties.
Incidentally, our nearest fire service is well over five miles away, so we are very careful with matches and lighters.
You're right, these proposals make no sense. Air source heat pumps are probably the cheapest alternative to oil and gas boilers, but I can see no government investment to vastly increase the country's electricity infrastructure to match the increase in demand that their universal use would demand. How would they generate all this new electric anyway? Would a nuclear Ireland be acceptable, and is so where would they build the new power stations?
On cars, until hydrogen fuel cells become the norm, electric cars are just a fantasy. On that note, here are two interesting links for you:
http://www.ballard.com/docs/default-source/motive-modules-documents/tfl-case-study-2018-low-res.pdf?sfvrsn=2 Note that the buses are made here in Ballymena, then ask why we don't use them in Ireland?
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=hydrogen+fule+cell+scooters+hawai&view=detail&mid=4051ACAF5239B7F018834051ACAF5239B7F01883&FORM=VIRE This is a method of transport that I could live with. The cover on the bike rack collects water and is a photovoltaic cell. The electricity generated splits the water by electrolysis and collects the hydrogen. When the bikes are parked, their fuel cells fill up. Neat, self contained and free fuel once the system is installed. What is not to like?
Don't forget, any time you are feeling particularly pissed with the Republic's government, just have a look at our absent, squabbling shower here in the north and think yourself lucky!
Hydrogen is indeed a good answer, but along with electricity it has the disadvantage of a) requiring a lot of extra space and weight to the vehicle and b) the lack of refuelling points throughout the country.
Having said that the Hawaiian scooter looks brilliant! Ideal for nipping down to the village. Though I wonder where I could store the dog and the shopping!
I live in Huntingdonshire about 10 miles from anywhere that is a connurbation, such as a market town or one nearby (relatively) city. Forget buses. Too infrequent to bother about. If I was banned from driving into said city I would visit the market towns round about more often. If I was banned from them then it's out of town shopping malls only. Or of course order online or both. This of course will finally kill the high streets of cities and towns. I make an exception for Cambridge as it has an excellent park and ride scheme.
We do have a bus service here which is infrequent which could bring me to the village or Skobieville. My personal problem with them [apart from the unreliable service] is that they don't allow dogs. If I had to dispose of the car, the dog would never get a walk! The village is within walking distance, but the problem is that the Manor is around 400ft higher than the village which is quite a climb for an old pair of legs.
I try to give the village as much custom as I can but the lifesaver here is the Interweb!
Forgot to mention – Dublin has a great park and ride area. Cruach Woods in the Dublin hills. The carpark there is always littered with condoms!