Guardian Goings-on (1) Electric Vehicles

For a while now, it's been clear that the Grauniad isn't just broadly on the side of the greens (hardly surprising), but that it has a positive editorial policy of proselytising, not to mention smoking up the embarrassing facts.  For example, it ran a 'myth-busting' series on heat pumps, which was straining every sinew to say "heat pumps are wonderful, don't let anyone tell you otherwise", except that the last residues of journalistic integrity forced it to admit that the first half of that statement needs qualifying (heavily) in several dimensions, to the point where the second part looks pretty silly.  Likewise, it ran a series on how wonderful electric vehicles are, not to worry about recharging etc.

Except, actually, EV drivers seem to fall out of love with their costly acquisitions, subsidised or not (and notwithstanding the acceleration, hohoh, with which even J.Clarkson is supposed to be deeply in love).  This clearly manifests itself in something long suspected by skeptics, namely that the resale value of EVs is turning out to be pitiful.  This is, incidentally, for very good reasons.

Someone in the trade has decided the ideal place for an attempt to arrest this highly damaging phenomenon is, of course, the Graun.  Which has obligingly let fly with a lengthy, risible puff-piece trying to talk up second-hand EVs: ‘Spectacular bargains’: why now is a great time to buy a used electric car in the UK.  

What sort of journalist could take pride in being told to write such tosh?  I haven't heard quite so much disingenuous 'talking his own book' nonsense since the Beeb allowed a representative of the used car fraternity to announce that, during some pronounced downturn in new car sales a few years ago, it would mean that prices of second-hand cars would be going up!  (... 'because nobody wants a new car, so they'll be buying second-hand cars instead and demand will go up'.  FFS, man, if there's a recession in car buying it'll hit the entire sector!)

Well, I suppose Kath Viner feels it's all hands to the pump.  I look forward to the next in this series - perhaps "why doesn't your village volunteer to have a small nuke planted next door?  You could get up a petition ..."

More on this 'journalistic' behaviour to follow.

ND  

Budget: Raising a Thin Smile

Yes, you guessed, my smile is at the expense of the greens - and of course the rapacious subsidy-farmers who use sincere greens as human shields.

Hammond has taken the very logical step of curtailing the largesse on offer (via our electricity bills) to new green projects. "In order to protect consumers, the government will not introduce new low carbon electricity levies until the burden of [energy] costs are falling. On the basis of the current forecast, this means there will be no new low carbon electricity levies until 2025."  In doing so, he's taking the greenies at their word that renewables are now the cheapest form of new power generation - which isn't true, of course, notwithstanding some major cost-reductions recently in solar and wind technologies; but with boasting like that in the air, Hammod's ruling is an appropriate piece of policy ju-jitsu.  When you've declared that renewables don't need subsidies anymore, complaints about what he's done are just that little bit more difficult ...

The Renewable Energy Association said it welcomes the move to a subsidy-free future, but the industry needs urgent clarity on how the government is planning to bring new projects forward, especially for less developed technologies like tidal and advanced waste-to-energy. The group also called for clarity around carbon pricing after the government offered little detail on the future of the country's tax on carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector. 

Ah yes, "clarity", and "bringing forward".  We should open a scrapbook on all the different euphemisms these disingenuous gits use for "public subsidy".  We can translate "less developed", too - it means "grotesquely uneconomic".  It is earnestly to be hoped that the answer to their question about plans to "bring forward" the wretched Swansea Tidal Lagoon is - no such plan. 

To round out the picture, it must be noted that Hammond has disappointingly fallen for the Electric Vehicle nonsense.  This article (from a green-supporting perspective) gives rather more detail on the mish-mash of Budget announcements, if you can navigate some even-more-subtle euphemisms and sophistry (I particularly like the idea of "subsidy-free CfDs", which needs careful unpicking).  It gives a good summary of the EV aspects: 

... this budget provided serious support for electric vehicles - £400m more for EV charging networks, £100m for sales incentives, more tax breaks for corporate uses, and more money for R&D. This is a big deal. EVs have an outsized role to play in the low carbon economy. They are a powerful symbol of the cleaner, more attractive infrastructure we have to build. They are extremely popular with the public and can help generate buzz for the wider decarbonisation project. They deliver multiple emission reduction, air quality, and jobs benefits. And they sit at the heart of the smart grids that will enable power sector decarbonisation. Hammond is to be praised for recognising this opportunity and pursuing it. 

For my money (and it is, after all, our money), Hammond has no business putting that kind of cash behind a "powerful symbol [that] can help generate buzz".  And all those supposed benefits can be strongly disputed.

Still, if he's killed the lagoon ...

ND  

A world of electric cars?

Reports like the one out today are meant to be read for their shock value.


No doubt, greenies everywhere are busily sharing and approving of this report, which claims that in 10 years the petrol/diesel engine era will be over.


However, I am not so sure about these claims. Firstly, the electric cars are still too expensive and although battery technology improves, they are relatively slow. Maybe in about 10 years they will start to be competitive, but I doubt before then. And, when they do they are going to need to have a huge road tax (something needs to replace petrol taxes), so delaying the day or competitive equivalence.


Then there is this nice communist dream I see everywhere about Uber taking everything over and people not owning cars. This works just in in, say, London. Anywhere outside a major conurbation this is an idea for the birds. It has taken a century to get the world set to make people free, they are not going to give this up easily and certainly not within a decade. Who cares about saving money when you have a choice about freedom to make (er, the EU referendum vote anyone?).


Then there is the charging, people will get used to it, but an hour plus stop all the time is not an easy thing. Just to be controversial too and anti-capitalist, this is an area where international standards are needed too, so that all cars are compatible with some kind of generic charging platform.


Whilst I don't doubt electric is catching on (all the rich, cool people in my town now are rushing to buy Model X Tesla's), it will be a longer than 10 years for it to try to replace the current infrastructure - and this is in the West, let alone the rest of the world where power is not even stable or affordable!


I won't be rushing to short oil companies just yet.