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Tempus Fugit Memento Mori - Time Flies Remember Death
The Europeans have no interest in mother earth - but a vested interest in increasing US energy costs via Kyoto and the eco-cult of true believers.
by StFerdIII
For the EU, Kyoto and the eco-cult scam [$100 billion in public funding and counting….], is a key attempt to lessen its economic disparity with the USA. The EU is the world’s largest economic area, comprises 450 million people, and is in the process of trying to digest 10 new member states. Yet the EU is failing economically and socially – especially vis a vis its American and Asian rivals. The UNO inspired eco-cult and its associated Marxist schemes of redistribution, government management and higher energy costs are European attempts to reduce American economic superiority and ‘level the economic playing field’. It has nothing to do with saving the earth goddess.
Don’t believe me? Okay let the EU Environment Commissioner do the talking as she revealed in 2002: ‘[Kyoto] is not a simple environmental issue where you can say it is an issue where the scientists are not unanimous,’ and ‘This is about international relations, this is about economy, about trying to create a level playing field for big businesses throughout the world.’
That is pretty clear. The eco-cult scam is about Europe trying to compete. It has nothing to do with science. [I wish at least Al Gore would be so forthright and honest.]
To the EU, Kyoto is about the United States' unfair tax competition. Those toothless Americans refuse to match the European level of taxing energy! The outrage! Europeans use unfathomably high taxes to ‘modify behaviour’, particularly repressing automobile use and increasing energy input and transportation costs. The energy cost disadvantage is the main reason why the Europeans, using government money, want to scaremonger the world into ‘action’ on Gloabloney warming or whatever the climate change label is this week! [Why Al Gore and North American eco-cultists sign on is due to other political considerations, not dissimilar to the ravings put forward by EU politicians.]
The economic disparity between tired, old, arrogant Europe and the US is due to the European’s obsession with Marxist social engineering. A key economic variable not cited or investigated by the eco-cult loving media, and which informs European economic inferiority, is of course the lower energy costs enjoyed by the Americans which stimulates investment, production, travel and consumption. Non-renewable energies in Europe are highly taxed and coveted by governments as a revenue source – for social engineering programs. This excess taxation ensures Europe will have difficulty competing.
How bad is the EU cost differential in energy? Pretty darn bad. Public domain data provide a reliable indication of relative EU/US prices, though their absolute levels are somewhat overstated due to the discounts granted to large corporations [who are friendly with the ruling Marxist clique in power]. Some key differences in the energy structure between North America and Europe would include:
• Gas, Oil and heavy fuel oil:
o Refined product prices are linked to crude oil prices and are not very different around the world. Non-refundable taxes (0% in the USA against 19-35% on average in Europe); eco-taxes [20% or more] and higher transport costs [10% or better] account for the higher prices observed in Europe of about 40-60% in total.
• Natural gas:
o There is an unregulated market of gas in the USA, where prices tend to trend consistently with oil prices, but are significantly lower than fuel oil prices on an equivalent thermal basis. In Europe, the price of gas tends to be more directly linked to the price of fuel oil, by formula, and generally carries a premium on fuel oil prices. Pre-tax prices are 10-20% higher in Europe. Taxes on natural gas are around 8% in Europe and 3% in the USA.
• Electricity:
o There is a hybrid competitive power market in the USA, compared to the monopolistic structure in continental Europe. Pre-tax prices are on average some 60% higher in the USA. In general there are no taxes in Europe (with some exceptions) and approximately a 3% tax on average in the USA.
• Agriculture:
o The heavier feedstock used in Europe requires a greater unit energy consumption in utilities (by some 20%), and agricultural energy efficiency is lower.
The overall cost of energy is higher in Europe by at least 30-40% depending on the energy source. This is enormous. As well industrial plants are bigger and usually newer in the USA. The more rapid turnover of assets in the USA - made possible by higher profits - leads to a broader application of up to date, more energy efficient technologies. This factor is paramount in accounting for the lower levels of energy efficiency observed in Europe.
Energy taxes are therefore counter-productive, as they retard rather than accelerate progress in energy efficiency. Modern technology and filtering is a far better way of protecting the environment than old Europe’s tired subsidization of inefficient plants and industries, and higher energy taxes which reduce profits and the ability to recapitalise assets. Europe’s addiction to social engineering perversely and negatively impacts the environment. Gee who would have thought of such a revelation?
And here is the irony. Measured on a GDP per km basis the US is the cleanest or perhaps the 2nd cleanest nation in the world. Only Germany can come close. Outside of Germany EU energy usage is far more inefficient and more environmentally unfriendly thanks to the use of older technology.
Yet it is the UNO and the EU who indict the United States with irresponsible environmental degradation and resource usage - especially oil usage. According to this story the United States, with only four percent of the world’s population, produces 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Its energy consumption per capita is the 3rd highest in the world [after Australia and Canada] and its constant industrial emissions of Co2 [human emission account for less than 4% of total Co2 emissions by the way] are somehow changing climate patterns.
All that sounds pretty horrid except for some inconvenient facts. The USA happens to be one of the world’s biggest countries which mandates high energy usage and transportation costs. A continent size country, with far flung assets in variable temperature zones, will obviously consume more energy than a small geographically constrained state such as Austria, or Portugal. The US does not possess a mild, temperate climate like that of Spain, but has weather patterns ranging from the Siberian to the tropical. This again mandates a higher energy usage. But perhaps most importantly the US also accounts for 25 percent of global GDP far out of proportion to its population. For the chattering Marxists, US industrial output which is 3-4 times larger per capita than Japan [which is 2nd in the world], necessitates energy use.
And here is the hypocritical EU stick in the eye for the Americans. The rest of the world produces 80 percent of greenhouse gases, with the largest share coming from nations such as China and India exempted from Kyoto Treaty controls. For the EU Kyoto is not so much about reducing CO2 emissions as it is about increasing the costs of energy inputs for American industry and agriculture. In fact Kyoto would add about U$ 400 million in costs to US industry and reduce the US economy by 2-3 % of GDP growth per year. For this reason, the US withdrew from Kyoto with a unanimous 95-0 rejection of the accord in the US Senate in 1997.
For the Europeans it is easier to force up US energy costs and impair American competition, than it is to reform their social-economic structures. Through the UN, taxpayer funded eco-lobby groups, and through self-interested political-marxist ideologues, the Europeans hope to convince the world that the fascist Americans are plotting to destroy mother Gaia.
The fact that their real ambition is to enhance EU competitiveness to the detriment of the North American economy and living standards, is of course lost on the eco-cult of the true believers. Even worse European assets and technologies which are not up to date do nothing to help reduce Co2 emissions nor particulate pollution. The eco-cult and Kyoto is hypocrisy and government funded Marxism on a colossal scale.
Sources:
-CEFIC, International Energy Agency
-ESCIMO, IEA & CEFIC-Ecostat analysis
-As for the Kyoto Protocol, Bush was scathing and uncompromising - "My approach recognizes that economic growth is the solution, not the problem. Because a nation that grows its economy is a nation that can afford investments and new technologies. The approach taken under the Kyoto Protocol would have required the United States to make deep and
-see C. Read, America vs. Europe, pgs 356-380, more sources listed there.
1/3/2011 America vs. Europe – Kyoto – Conclusion (continued)