"Green" policies are destroying this country

Couple of thoughts here.

I opted to vote green for most of the past 20 years, but the preachy idealism completely removed from realism of the current Greens in Govt, especially from Eamon Ryan, has meant that I most probably won't vote for them in the next elections, especially since many of their clothes have, by necessity been stolen by all the other parties, who are all compelled to engage in a bit of green washing for populist appeal now.

Secondly, I read one account this week of the the Egypt COP and the organisational deficencies plaguing it, amongst which one example was very illustrative. I pictured this collection of smug, self-satisfied environmentalists suffering from long haul jet lag, after having arrived into the desert heat from all points of the globe and immediately heading for the swimming pool or the shade of the air conditioned pavilions (because they are worth it!) and the fact that very few of them will acknowledge this week that air conditioning is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases.

Instead, the main preoccupation of many of them was the shortage of drinking water and (oh the horror!) some of them had to resort to the risk of actually drinking tap water. So much for a bit of empathy or solidarity for the huge swathes of the world's population whose access to potable water is hugely impacted by global warming and destructive mining practices, ensuring that they can drive their EV's and stay in touch on social media via their mobile devices.

Then another thought struck me this week, during a SEAI presentation on community energy, where the speaker spoke about the huge barriers to roll out of EV's in Ireland, including prohibitive pricing and availability. A simple solution would be to abolish the VAT on EV's imports from the UK to increase vehicle imports (Of only EV's) to the levels that regular ICE vehicle imports were just prior to Brexit (about 40% of all cars being registered per annum). Of course the SIMI would protest widely about such a proposal but the reality is that they are currently overwhelmed with demand and are no where able to meet that demand. I fired off a letter to Minister Ryans dept but of course got a buck passing rteply to say that that is a matter for Paschal's dept who no doubt will be able to give me a litany of reason why it is not possible, especially since it might risk upsetting Paschal's colleagues in the Eurogroup.

But then again considering the pathetic state of our Electricty supply (and the facilitated price gouging by our suppliers) can we really accomodate a few hundred thousand new EV's on our roads in the next decade?

Agreed, we should be transitioning to more sustainable forms of transport but the general mindset of officialdom in Ireland is about 10 years behind on that.

A case in point, the N84 approach road and overbridge of the €220m N5 Castlebar/ Westport ring road project is built on a design and planning process from 6+ years ago and I was told that it was impossible to adapt that to accomodate cycle paths or footpaths so a brand new infrastrucre due for completion in Spring of next year has a dedicated pavement solely for motor vehicles along which I have to compete on my commute to work on by bike to work bicycle and alongside it are two vast swathes of grass planted green margins purchased through CPO for the project.

Also good luck trying to preach the gospel of sustainable transport to rural dweller heavily dependent on two cars in a household and with no access to any decent public transport or a car pooling incentive or the farmer dependent on his Tractor/SUV for work on his farm, or all of us dependent on the predominantly diesel fuelled logistics distribution system for access to FMCG's.

You have to remember though rural Ireland in the eyes of the greens is something to be attacked and decimated if at all possible.

I think a lot of our green friends were never in central Europe where pellets stoves are everywhere also I would love to know when the EU are going to stop the alpine regions from burning wood considering they want us to stop turf. I was in the French Alps this summer and every single chalet was drying wood outside for the winter.

Philip Boucher Hayes had an interesting report on RTE's Drivetime yesterday evening concerning the announcement by Leo Varadkar back in 2018 that all gas & oil exploration off the coasts of Ireland was to be banned permanently with immediate effect. It seems that a international consortium were within a few short months of announcing a multi billion investment in a certain gas field off the west coast. This particular enormous gas field has the capacity to ensure that Ireland would be energy independent for the next 50+ years with spare capacity to export. But the permanent banning by the deluded Varadkar striving to be best boy in the class and to appease the greens, not here in Ireland, but in Europe and elsewhere means that we're sitting on a goldmine but not allowed to ''mine'' it while we spend millions, perhaps billions importing gas and related fuel annually with it's related carbon footprint. We're also facing the real possibility of power cuts in the coming years. I guess we get the politicians we deserve.

The energy policy being pursued on the back of the green agenda being pursued across the EU (not just the green party) will see continued price rises and a shortage of affordable energy, irrespective of the outcome of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Nobody has agreed the path forward, and the state of play on this thread is arguing the costs (and lack thereof) of a viable alternative.

One side argues nuclear for electricity generation, the other argues the costs are prohibitive and implementation timelines are too long.

Another argues that we should double down on offshore wind turbines, solar and batteries and inter-connectors to France and Britain. The counter argument is the capacity factor is low, unreliable and batteries are insufficient to handle wind droughts or peak load and neither are the investors biting.

Another argues that we must not close the base load-generation (Moneypoint & Tarbert) and will need to adopt supercritical coal generation to make up for the shortage of gas due to the decline of Corrib, the prohibition of LNG storage, the lack of gas storage in this country and dependency on the pipeline from Britain. The counter argument to that revolves around green mandates and fines from the EU (Brussels)

The hopium argument is based around converting pure water to hydrogen using the excess power from wind turbines dotted along the coast.

Conservative estimates are that untapped hydrocarbon resources off the west coast are on par with the North Sea and Norway

It won’t bother me if aviation want to contribute to the fund or whatever price increases tickets might go up. I will still be flying 4 times a year transatlantic until i’m either too old to fly or I permanently move to the USA. If the greens **** up this country it will be the latter.

Yes. Taxes will continue increasing til everyone gives up work.

A link to this would be helpful.

How do you propose people go on holidays?