Russia bets big on coal, gas, fossil fuels, and not on renewables

National Guard of Russia

Росгвардия

The West is switching to trendy unreliable energy while Russia is ramping up coal and gas production. 

Russia is building a ten billion dollar railroad to sell coal to Asia, but Australia is building a ten billion dollar hydro bandaid “battery” just to make unreliable energy slightly less useless.

Russia is being left behind on renewables, and they’re probably delighted. The more the West cripples itself in a quest to make sparkly green-electrons that stop the storms, the richer the Russians will get.

With the second largest coal reserves in the world, they’re well positioned to meet the growing demand from India and China. Indeed, if Russia could just think of a way to stop the USA and Australia from producing coal, they could corner the market.

If Russian Intel isn’t paying climate activists and child-complainers a retainer, they must have rocks for brains. But since they are apparently paying French and German bloggers to discredit the Pfizer vaccine perhaps they already are some of the great minds behind Greenpeace?

And if they were funding climate disinformation campaigns, which media outlet would tell us?

h.t GWPF

Coal reserves, graph, EIA, countries, Australia, Russia, India, China, Germany, Poland, New Zealand, UK, USA.

Source EIA 2021

Give me one reason Russia wouldn’t want the west to believe in “Climate change”:

How to beat the West? Putin is betting that Asia will rely on cheap Russian coal for decades to come

Bloomberg

President Vladimir Putin’s government is spending more than $10 billion on railroad upgrades that will help boost exports of the commodity. Authorities will use prisoners to help speed the work, reviving a reviled Soviet-era tradition.

The project to modernize and expand railroads that run to Russia’s Far Eastern ports is part of a broader push to make the nation among the last standing in fossil fuel exports as other countries switch to greener alternatives. The government is betting that coal consumption will continue to rise in big Asian markets like China even as it dries up elsewhere.

The latest 720 billion ruble ($9.8 billion) project to expand Russia’s two longest railroads — the Tsarist-era Trans-Siberian and Soviet Baikal-Amur Mainline that link western Russia with the Pacific Ocean— will aim to boost cargo capacity for coal and other goods to 182 million tons a year by 2024. Capacity already more than doubled to 144 million tons under a 520 billion ruble modernization plan that began in 2013. Putin urged faster progress on the next leg at a meeting with coal miners in March.

“Russia is trying to monetize its coal reserves fast enough that coal will contribute to GDP rather than being stuck in the ground,” said Madina Khrustaleva, an analyst who specializes in the region for TS Lombard in London.

Russia is making more coal than ever. Soon it will overtake Australia.

Russian Coal Production, EIA, Graph, 2021

Russian Coal Production, EIA, Graph, 2021

Look at how fast the Russian gas share of the global market is increasing:

Russia’s Getting Left Behind in Global Dash for Clean Energy

In recent years, the Kremlin has bet the country’s economic and geopolitical future on natural gas, building new pipelines to China, Turkey and Germany, while aiming to take a quarter of the global LNG market, up from zero in 2008 and around 8% today.

Russia, China and India know coal is the future. That’s nearly 120 people for every single Australian that won’t cutting back coal use.

 

9.8 out of 10 based on 74 ratings

72 comments to Russia bets big on coal, gas, fossil fuels, and not on renewables

  • #
    PeterS

    Imagine what the Chinese and Russians (and others) would do to anyone who dares to force them to stop using fossil fuels ASAP. They would be treated as terrorists. We ought to do the same, or at least treat them as mad fools and ignore them. Instead we as a nation praise those who want to stop using fossil fuels, and support initiatives to do so ASAP. When we have such people among us who needs enemies from afar?

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    • #
      Ian

      You write “Imagine what the Chinese and Russians (and others) would do to anyone who dares to force them to stop using fossil fuels ASAP. ”

      You and many others commenting here seem to have completely missed the thrust of this article which begins:”

      “The West is switching to trendy unreliable energy while Russia is ramping up coal and gas production.”

      Russia is building a ten billion dollar railroad to sell coal to Asia, but Australia is building a ten billion dollar hydro bandaid “battery” just to make unreliable energy slightly less useless.

      Russia is being left behind on renewables, and they’re probably delighted. The more the West cripples itself in a quest to make sparkly green-electrons that stop the storms, the richer the Russians will get.

      With the second largest coal reserves in the world, they’re well positioned to meet the growing demand from India and China. Indeed, if Russia could just think of a way to stop the USA and Australia from producing coal, they could corner the market.”

      Has it not occurred to you and others, that for many years, Australia (and many other countries in the Western world) has been and still is, doing exactly, repeat exactly, what Russia is setting out to do, namely exporting as much coal and gas as is possible to the rest of the world?

      Sure Australia signed the Paris Agreement as indeed did Russia and sure Australia is increasing the use of renewables for domestic use but it is also ramping up the export of LNG and seeking other export agreements for its coal to replace exports to China.

      This railway line that it is feared will reduce the West to cave dwellers, is not being built to supply Russia’s power stations but is primarily for coal export which is no different from the purpose for the infrastructure for coal transport that already exists here.

      All this angst about the West going to left behind by this Russian railway line is completely at variance with reality

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      • #
        Ian

        Apologies for the italics and bold it was unintentional

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        • #
          Kalm Keith

          Understood

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          • #
            Raving

            BETTER TO USE BOLD CAPS. Easier on the eyes

            Maybe the Russians would be amenable to being paid for growing wood to bury wood. Wonderful big truck / low tech green industry

            01

      • #
        David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

        I reckon both Russia and China know full well that the IPCC message is a load of codswallop, and their scientists – real ones – have proved it. And their leaders have understood that. Further, they decided to stop arguing against the “consensus”, sign the Paris agreement and ignore any commitments as they sold power to Europe on one hand and build up their power supply to defeat the West economically.
        Cheers
        Dave B

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  • #
    David Wojick

    Re “Russia’s Getting Left Behind in Global Dash for Clean Energy”. We are the ones being left behind! Mind you, dashing backward is hard to do.

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    • #
      PeterS

      Indeed but dare I say we have policy makers who don’t have a clue as to how much damage they are causing to our economy with much worse to come. In my book that makes them very dangerous and in effect no different to what an economic terrorist would do to achieve the same outcomes. How come a traditional terrorist who blows up a coal fired power station would be tracked down and arrested, while a policy maker who ends up achieving the same act is praised? There can be only one explanation. We as a nation have gone stark raving mad.

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    • #
      Raving

      EVs are wonderful things but that’s only when you have excess electric capacity to charge the beasts. It only works when you have grids that can reliably and cheaply deliver that juice at night at home and in rural locations, over weekends and holidays.

      Agree that dumping yet more EVs on an evermore destabilized grid system is cruising full speed astern

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  • #
    TdeF

    I was puzzled by the Russian under the flag. Rosgravdeya means National Guard. The flag used is Russian, but of the National Guard with cross swords. The Russian Federation flag is a version of the original Tsarist flag with orb and sceptre.

    It’s amazing how Russia has transitioned from Absolute Monarchy to Communism to a form of pretend democracy. Still they look after the interest of the state and the Climate Emergency does not apply to Russia. They would love to be just a little warmer in winter. I thought a blanket, as CO2 is supposed to be, would have had more impact on low temperatures than high ones as does cloud cover but in the peculiar science of man made Global Warming, the blanket only works on hot days. And causes bushfires.

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    • #
      TdeF

      The startling value in the graph is the near zero coal reserves of the UK. Britain ran on coal. It was Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1912 who ordered the fleet move to oil from coal. And it was Margaret Thatcher who backed nuclear to bring the Welsh coal miners under Arthur Scargill under control in what was an often violent conflict. Suddenly Britain has no coal? That is a surprise.

      Then our own Dear Leader Daniel Andrews says Victoria has no ‘natural resources’ which is why he looked to his illegal deal with China’s Belt and Road to bring billions into the state. You have to wonder why they would bother if we had nothing and certainly not 300 years of brown coal (which is the same rotted ancient plant matter as black coal but 60% water). And he forbade looking for more gas. And we Victorians had to buy a timber mill so that they could stop using our timber, which is also locked up.

      Someone forgot to thank Daniel’s good friends for the Wuhan Flu which has further crippled Victoria with nearly 6 MONTHS of devastating total lockdown in a year. No one else in Australia has suffered so much. Daniel seems to be doing business with the wrong communists.

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      • #
        Richard Owen No.3

        TdeF:
        Churchill was undoubtedly influenced by William Stanley Jevons (economist & MP) who predicted that Britain would run out of coal.
        Also, that pumping cheap oil was easier on personnel than manhandling coal in sacks.

        As for the UK it has lots of coal; mostly in pitts now flooded by years of neglect but also billions under the North Sea. Also some under the Irish Sea which the recent attempt in Cumbria to open a new coal mine is being fiercely opposed by the Greens (and the stupid if that isn’t a tautology).

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        • #
          TdeF

          Agreed, but the graph is of ‘reserves’ not politics. Politically coal is poison now, but real coal is old rotted leaves and it is very odd for the graph to show Britain with no coal reserves at all.

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          • #
            TdeF

            And of course that simple move from coal to oil by Churchill was the fundamental battle in the Middle East from 1914, 1926 and 1939 because all the known oil was under the control of the Ottoman Turks or Russia.

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          • #
            Rokdoktor

            The classification of “reserves” likely means that part of the resource that can be extracted ecomomically. Britain still has coal resources, but much of it can’t be mined under the present price regime. Take low-cost producers such as the USA and Australia out of the equation causing a rise in the coal price and Britain would have “reserves” again.

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    • #
      ian hilliar

      Yes , we would all like to be a little warmer , especially in winter. Interestingly, when Svante Arrhenius came up with his theory that CO2 from western civilization’s use of fossil fuels might heat the planet, he went on to say he thought that it was a very good outcome , as the increase in global temperature would open up Siberia and Alaska as vast farm lands to feed the growing population. The greens never quote dear Svante on that. Nor do they ever mention his other great theory, that repeatedly electrocuting your children would increase their intelligence. Perhaps that was what happened to Greta Thunberg ? Her father, Svante Thunberg, is a direct descendent . Global warming? Still waiting, Svante!!

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      • #
        Richard Owen No.3

        Ian:
        His second idea certainly increased children’s attention in lessons, but I think it stemmed more from his belief in Racial Purity and the superiority of the Nordic race.
        It occurs to me that someone else thought the same, and lead a political party to power. Said party had ‘Green’ policies extraordinarily like those advocated by modern day Greens.

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      • #
        C. Paul Barreira

        Some have it that Russia—Siberia, more correctly— is losing the permafrost.

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    • #
      C. Paul Barreira

      Mark Raeff, a specialist in Russian history, 1923–2008, argued somewhere that Russia had no liberal tradition. Rarely, I feel, was this clearer perhaps than in War and Peace (Tolstoy). Towards the end of the novel an argument between Pierre Bezukhov and Nicholai Rostov leaves them at polar opposites, the one reactionary, the other choosing revolution. And so it has been. And thus, too, apparently, it remains.

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    • #
      Vladimir

      TdeF,

      The Global Warming, if it ever happened, would be absolute blessing for Russia, where now two thirds (3/4?) are too cold to have viable agriculture, industry or population centres.

      And, yes – the Росгвардия though it is only 350k bayonets, is Putin’s personal army, best fed, best armed. It has replaced Internal Troops (National Guard) and other armed forces, which were under traditional Army & KGB control.

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      • #
        GD

        Global Warming, if it ever happened, would be an absolute blessing for Russia

        It would be an absolute blessing here in Victoria too.

        10

  • #
    John in NZ

    Have a look at the multiple symbols of power in that double headed eagle emblem.

    Mother Russia sees itself as being in control of her own destiny. She will not react well to any attempt to push her around.

    130

    • #
      GlenM

      Russia has endured much and the collective adversity is fixed well in the national psyche. Russia is in need of hard currency and its proximity to NE Asia – coupled with efficient infrastructure should benefit them. Putin is a strong willed leader- something Australia and the west lacks.

      130

  • #

    I think that through threats, sanctions and the desire to be green, that much of the west will severely curtail coal production

    . They will hobble themselves whilst leaving china and Russia to supply developing countries and gain power and influence along the way as they will also not moralise to their customers.

    I am sure the respective rulers of china and Russia will be eating popcorn as they watch in amazement as the western lemmings throw themselves off the economic cliff.

    330

  • #

    Britain has enormous coal reserves

    https://euracoal.eu/info/country-profiles/united-kingdom/

    However having proven coal reserves is a different thing to having merely identified coal reserves and not quantified it as being part of national resources

    160

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Russia aims to make Sakhalin Island carbon neutral by 2025

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-emissions-sakhalin/russia-aims-to-make-sakhalin-island-carbon-neutral-by-2025-idUSKCN2DE1D9

    >> “Russia has no actual plan to zero out emissions from Sakhalin Island operations.
    It will wind up merely asserting its vast grasslands offset ops.

    In the real world, Sakhalin produces 146 million barrels of oil annually, none of which will be offset.”

    – comment via Steve Milloy @junkscience

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  • #
    Lawrie

    Which Federal politicians have been shown this information? I often wonder what those hundreds of “advisers” that infest Canberra actually do. I suspect they censor such information in line with their recently acquired degrees in Green propaganda from our socialist universities and feed their quite ignorant masters the latest woke rubbish. The few politicians who do their own research are kept far away from the levers of power and are usually ridiculed by the MSM and leaked against by the team.

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    • #
      GlenM

      All of our industrious and competent leaders are sidelined Lawrie. I suppose that if Dutton became PM and elevated individuals such as Matt Canavan, the country might get ahead. Question;: what to do with the Green/Socialists?

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  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Another brilliant dose of reality.

    110

  • #
    Neville

    Don’t forget that OECD co2 emissions haven’t increased since 1970 and 1990.
    Just add the EU + USA emissions from this graph using IEA data. No increase.
    Then look at China, other countries and India since 1990 or 2000. Their co2 emissions have soared and will continue for a very long time.
    But Africa has barely started and with China’s help they will need to build a better lifestyle for their people and you bet they won’t be wasting billions $ on the TOXIC UNRELIABLES like the S&W DISASTERS.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions#/media/File:World_fossil_carbon_dioxide_emissions_six_top_countries_and_confederations.png

    40

    • #
      Raving

      Maybe its more natural to say that power supply lags power demand.

      Need the demand for power consumption to justify the construction of power supply.
      They built coal powered stations to meet industrial demands. Consumer uptake followed in lag as people gained means to also take advantage of the electric supply

      When the Chinese build a coal fired station in the developing world they are providing a product and seeking a customer base. If it were the other way round the power station would have been financed of its own accord.

      Perhaps its a mistake to believe you can build renewables first and worry about grid reliability later

      00

  • #
    David Maddison

    In regard to Australia’s Snow Hydro 2 Big Battery:

    1) It will only be about 60% efficient due to water having to be pumped or released through 27km of tunnels, each way. Normal hydro batteries are about 80% efficient because the tunnels are much shorter, by design.

    2) Most of the Sheeple seem to think it is new generation, not a battery, due to the way it is being marketed by government and also due to the unwillingness of the Sheeple to enquire about anything.

    3) Where will the extra power come from to compensate for all the pumping and release losses? More coal, LoL? Or thousands more windmills?

    210

    • #
      Analitik

      Another thing that Peter Lang pointed out years ago is that the long pipe lengths mean that the water columns will have considerable inertia.

      This means that Snowy 2.0 will not be able to ramp up and down as quickly as conventional hydro, greatly reducing its ability to help fill in generation fluctuations from renewable intermittency.

      140

    • #
      David Maddison

      Also, SH2 is not a new idea. The concept has been known since the inception of the Snowy Hydro scheme but until the Green moron Turnbull, was always rejected as uneconomic. It still is, of course.

      140

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      Correct David ; three (3) very valid points on the Snowy Hydro 2 big battery fraud . .
      Our media is hiding the truth, and most people haven’t a clue. In fact we are being lied to.
      Soon Russia and others will overtake us and we’ll be left stranded without our export markets.
      Here in Australia we will be reliant on expensive renewable energy and as a result our living standards will decline and we will all be poorer. Not a bright future I believe.
      GeoffW

      140

    • #
      David Wojick

      Re your #2, even grid scale batteries are reported as generation! They are always reported in MW (discharge capacity) not MWh (storage capacity). Generators are correctly in MW so batteries sound like them. A report will say x MW of wind or solar and y MW of batteries, so it sounds like we are getting x + y of stuff. In fact we are getting stupidity + fraud.

      151

  • #
    David Maddison

    Dinesh D’Souza looks at Biden family corruption with resoect to the Russians. Includes President Imposter Biden.

    https://youtu.be/x-8Hekvhq00

    10.5 mins.

    140

  • #
    Neville

    BTW here’s the African population clock up to the present.
    The 53 countries of Africa had 363 million people in 1970, but today that has increased by ANOTHER billion people, IN JUST 50 YEARS.
    So much for the Biden DONKEYS EXISTENTIAL THREAT and in 1970 life expectancy was about 46 and today is 63.
    https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/africa-population/
    Koonin, Shellenberger, Lomborg, Christy , Spencer, Lindzen, Happer etc all know there is no APOCALYPSE or EXISTENTIAL THREAT and in fact even our poorest continent is much better off today than in 1970.
    When will these donkeys WAKE UP?

    160

  • #
    Neville

    BTW when Mao died the life expectancy in China was about 64 and today is 77 and INCREASING EVERY YEAR.
    Those fossil fuels are just terrible for a country’s WEALTH and HEALTH, SARC.
    Here’s the Chinese data since 1950.

    https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CHN/china/life-expectancy

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    • #
      Raving

      Reminds me of putting old horses out to pasture.

      Yes I know it’s cold hearted to say such but …
      Populations which die young save on retirement costs

      Industrialization consumes the strength of youthfulness
      Aging populations have problems with productivity

      01

  • #
    Analitik

    Russia doesn’t have the wealth to squander on renewables. It can only afford economically viable schemes hence their commitment to fossil fuels.
    They see the havoc being wrought in Europe as an opportunity to be the supplier for energy when they (& other nations) can no longer afford the subsidies and unreliability that are inevitable with renewables

    160

    • #
      David Maddison

      The obsession the West has with Ruinables is providing the two countries who seek world domination, Russia and China, a huge boost toward their objective.

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  • #
    el gordo

    Let the market decide.

    ‘The price of thermal coal has surged to a decade high, with producers cashing in on rampant demand after a swift turnaround for the fossil fuel.’ (Oz)

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  • #
    Neville

    Germany certainly needs all the Russian GAS that they can get. ASAP.
    Very cold spring temps AGAIN.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/06/02/germanys-may-among-coldest-in-140-years/

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  • #
    Serge Wright

    It’s sad watching the demise of western society, especially because it’s being done from within. It’s also sad watching Europe substituting their energy independence for reliance on Russia, a country that was the sworn enemy just a few decades back and is now a rogue state. Of course we cannot blame Russia. This is an own goal by the EU of epic historical proportions and we all know how this ends, because there is only one outcome possible. Once the reliance on abundant Russian oil and gas is in place, with Europe having only intermittent RE remaining, you have what chess players refer to as “check mate”.

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  • #
    Chris

    Russia is also building a 3000 kilometre gas pipeline across the tundra to northern China.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Back in the day, when some Australians used to think of useful projects, remember the idea of a railway across Australia connecting iron ore in the West with coal in the East where it would be processed and exported as steel…?

    Nowadays the best anyone can think of is exporting rocks.

    And building more windmills.

    Morons!

    120

  • #
    Dennis

    So ask why one of the world’s largest minerals and energy source nations, Australia, is being pushed by the globalists to stop extracting these valuable resources, including Agenda 21 based National Parks with those resources locked away?

    Why did our Federal and State parliaments agree to ban nuclear energy and restrict the mining of uranium?

    Elected representatives are meant to serve the people and govern in our best interests which include national security and prosperity.

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    • #
      Dennis

      Ask why State Governments are permitting socialism to be taught in public schools and not dealing with the decline in quality of eduction for the students?

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Everyone now has to be equal. Semi-literate and marginally numerate.

        Even if it means that our schooling is now internationally rated behind Western Krygistan.

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  • #
    Zigmaster

    I wonder if the major cyber attacks on a US pipeline and meat processor that emanated from Russia ties in with the global warming narrative which the Russians would see in their interests to promote. Whilst it highlights how vulnerable we are by a reliance on fossil fuels and meat rather than make people think how they should do without such things for the benefit of the planet it actually makes people realise how they can’t do without such things. As a green global warming hack I think they are a failure but at least they get handsome ransoms paid to make it worthwhile.

    10

    • #
      Vladimir

      Many-many years ago, back there, I mentioned Helsinki Agreement of Human Rights to a little KGB man, who looked at me with a genuine pity. He said “I thought better of your thinking ability. So what if USSR signed it, it is only paper…”

      Same now – the same people in power, the same way of thinking – sign anything, no intention of keeping your word.

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  • #
    Raving

    I megaton wood = 20 sq miles of forest clear cut
    1 unit mass of wood yields 1.8 unit mass CO2 when burned.

    Thus 10 sq miles of clearcut woodlot = 1 megaton Co2

    Germany emitted 684 megatons CO2 in 2019
    6,840 sq miles = 82 miles squared

    Germany is 138,000 square miles
    Implies needing to clearcut and bury 5% of Germany each year just to balance carbon emission and sequesteration

    Given that Germany has a high density of both population and carbon usage, it is plausible to manage emission/sequestration at a global scale given that carbon emissions are reduced

    80 tons per acre of wood clearcut x 640 acres per square mile

    10

  • #
    Simon B

    In sporting terms, the West has scored a massive own goal, which we in Australia will pay heavily for. Putin and the Politburo have been watching Australia being slapped around the head by China for daring to question the covid origin. That has Russian foreign policy analysts asking where can we take an advantage in trade. No brainer on Russia’s part. Now it’s time for the Australian Federal Government to put our interests first. The strangle hold on the west by the UN, EU and WHO is translating into the WEF determining Australian foreign earnings and it must stop. We will undo a quarter century of growth in one fell swoop if we don’t stand up now and protect our earnings and integrity.
    Australians have always had a good bullshit detector, but right now our elected officials are ignoring the majority who put them there (ratified again via the recent NSW by-election) to appease an activist media and self interested foreign ‘allies’.

    10

  • #
    Pete of Charnlop

    While Russia grabs the opportunity to develop exports of their natural bounty, Australia and the West in general hope in vain that exporting wokeness will prop up the economy.

    We are not the only place in the world that can dig stuff out of the ground, and, with rapidly diminishing manufacturing, what then is left when our sandpit is no longer required by China? I have little hope for Australia, we’re in for a proper flogging.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    You know Snowy Hydro 2 must be disastrous if even Far Left SBS are doing a story about it.

    But the mere fact of Turnbull’s involvement guarantees disaster.

    https://youtu.be/KDpw-oXIt7g

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    • #
      Dennis

      Snowy 2 was part of the original Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme system until cancelled because the costs and benefits did not add up to a positive outcome.

      And remembering that not long after VicGov forced the closure of Hazlewood brown coal fired Power Station (25 per cent of electricity supply in Victoria) the drought conditions prevailing resulted in very low water storage levels for Snowy Mountains Hydro generators and therefore limited operating times.

      20

  • #

    Toot toot! Here comes the train. Toot toot, oh look another one. Toot toot, oh, and there’s another.

    A typical coal hopper carries 100 tonnes of coal. Five locomotives haul 100 hoppers in a ‘unit’ more than one kilometre long. That’s 10,000 tonnes per single train load.

    ONE and a half train loads of coal is, umm, one day’s supply for ONE large scale coal fired power plant.

    That’s an awful lot of trains. No wonder the rail line is being upgraded.

    Tony.

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  • #
    Global Cooling

    Geopolitics is the key factor in our energy preferences. Europeans do not want to rely on Russia. Central EU does not have coal, oil, gas or uranium. This results in looking for alternative energy forms. Russia cannot increase prices or stop delivery if customers have other options. Changing from energy form to another is not cheap and easy.

    20

    • #
      Chris

      Europeans are relying on Russian gas whether they like it or not. The first Russian pipe line into Europe runs through the Ukraine and is a source of much angst because Russia pays a royalty to the Ukraine which they resent. In the past Russia has turned off the gas in the middle of winter to show their displeasure with the Ukrainians. The second gas pipeline is almost completed, this is’ Nord Stream 2′ it runs under the Baltic Sea and directly to Germany. Trump’s concerns were legitimate – Germany will now be at Russia’s call. Biden has given this pipeline his blessing and Russian gas will fill all the energy holes left by Germany’s green dreams.

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  • #
    Philip

    Meanwhile… Australians are desperate to leave it in the ground, so others can sell theirs.

    Ha Ha Ha. What can you do but laugh ?

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  • #
    John Watt

    As one of the many “quiet Australians” I am concerned that we now have some of the highest prices in the developed world for a basic electricity supply. A decade or so ago we had some of the lowest such prices. It Is not unreasonable to argue that this shift has weakened our manufacturing capability and our economy.
    I wish to draw your attention to some analysis by Australian scientist Dr John Nicol concerning the behaviour of atmospheric CO2 in the presence of infrared radiation i.e. the basic “square one ” step in understanding CO2’s role in climate change.
    Nicol’s conclusion , a decade or so ago , was that CO2 has only a fraction of the impact attributed to it by IPCC, Gore, Obama, Thunberg et. al. So why is Australia ignoring Nicol , bowing to the mob and dismantling an energy supply system that has served us well for some decades?
    Does it make us feel good to be part of “saving the planet”? Too lazy to look for facts?
    Are some of us in the financially powerful position to be able to profit from the replacement/downgrading of our energy supply system and the premature replacement of the vehicles on our roads? Opportunistic greed?
    On other issues Australia is taking an independent stand in our own interest. Why not on the CO2 question? Why not embrace and support the analysis of an Australian scientist…as opposed to the sales pitch of the rich Mr Gore or the emotive rantings of Ms Thunberg.
    CO2 does no harm and Australia has the resources to “go it alone” until the mob come to their senses.
    Please take the time to work your way through Dr Nicol’s analysis.

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  • #
    BeijingYankee

    Abiotic oil and gas. Mother Nature’s gift that replenishes itself, forever. And you want toxic batteries and toxic green waste in your landfills?

    20

  • #
    CHRIS

    I am getting sick and tired of the CAGW acolytes using the term “renewable energy”. Aside from (maybe) wood and water, there is no such thing. After all, what do these idiots think solar panels, wind turbines and batteries are made out of…THIN AIR? Welcome to the “New Capitalism” and “New planned obsolescence” of trash such as Al Gore (who has invested heavily in renewable energy companies). Does anybody really think that panels, turbines and batteries which, when built, will last forever? LOL

    10