Yes, I know that there might be some room for doubt here, but an example I came across in the news pages of CityAM today clearly highlights how so-called environmental taxes are hurting the economy and costing jobs, often in areas already in dire straits:
RIO TINTO yesterday said new environmental taxes and red tape were partly to blame for the closure of its Lynemouth aluminium smelter in Northumberland, risking 600 jobs.
The mining giant said the smelter “is no longer a sustainable business because its energy costs are increasing significantly, due largely to emerging legislation.
It is thought that the coalition’s controversial plans for a carbon price floor, announced in the 2011 Budget, are being blamed alongside EU emissions trading and large combustible plant rules.
Earlier this month, the lobby group Energy Intensive Users Group said Rio Tinto was among dozens of firms asking the government for some relief from the carbon price rules.
An agreement has not been made in time for Lynemouth to remain open, though a government “support package” is due before the end of the year.
The government recognises the need to support energy-intensive industry,” said a Treasury spokesperson yesterday.
Personally, I think risking 600 jobs is pathetic. If the AGW alarmists are really that good, they should be looking to risk millions. They need to raise their game.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but you can see why this blog, along with others, gets angry about the lying and bad faith of those “scientists” who exaggerate their doomongering, and the politicians who embrace their ideas. It has consequences for actual lives.
Rio Tinto’s aluminum smelters in Fort William Scotland are run on hydro electricity. They can even claim subsidy for the power they use. just saying…
In its varying degrees, the political, legislative and social applications of environmental science studies in this 21st century should be carefully compared to that of Eugenics in the late 19th and through the mid- 20th centuries.
RRS, I do believe we have tomorrow’s SQOTD
It wouldn’t be so bad if the science was ironclad and there were no political agenda ….. but there is.
RRS,
I’d second Perry on that if it made any sense to! I mean seeing as I’m a guest and he’s cheif cook and bottle-washer and all around here. But a very stimulating point indeed.
JP,
Well said. That area of England I know well and they need this like a kindergarten needs to employ Gary Glitter. Not to blow my own trumpet here but I posted something similar at Cats about the vile air passenger duty. “Green” taxation is rotten to the core. I will lay god money that some half-assed “rescue package” is announced to “create jobs” in the area via subsidized Windy Miller antics.
Even if it was proven that CO2 is the menace that it is claimed to be, industries closing all over Europe to be replaced by new set ups in China and India is not going to address the problem is it? Just move it somewhere else.
Stonyground,
I believe the objective is to have us all reduced to subsistence farming.