The Farmer’s Weekly advises UK farmers: Don’t miss out on climate change tax discounts Excerpts below with my bolds.

The NFU has warned farmers they face rises in climate change taxes unless they register for a discount scheme before the 31 July deadline.

The Climate Change Levy (CCL) is a tax charged on gas, electricity, LPG, coal and coke used by UK businesses.

In April 2019, CCL rates levied on energy bills will increase by about 3% for electricity and 7% for gas for any businesses that do not register for a discounted rate under an NFU scheme.

Under the CCL scheme, eligible businesses can receive a discount in return for meeting energy-efficiency or carbon-saving targets. Achieving these targets will enable the business to receive a discount until March 2023, the NFU says.

The NFU CCL scheme gives up to 93% levy reductions on electricity and 78% on gas to qualifying businesses in the pig, poultry and protected horticulture sectors. It is therefore imperative to sign up to the scheme before the deadline of 31 July, the union warns.

via Science Matters

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June 16, 2018 at 01:24PM

The story comes from Bloomberg, where they regard the event as lamentable: Ontario Scraps Carbon-Reduction Plan as It Expands Elsewhere.  Excerpts below with my bolds.

Ontario will scrap the province’s cap-and-trade program and pull out of the carbon-trading market with Quebec and California even as pollution pricing expands in other regions of the world.

Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives will follow through on a campaign promise to withdraw from the environmental program that required companies to buy credits to offset pollution blamed for global warming. Premier-designate Doug Ford also said he will challenge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authority to make local governments put a price on greenhouse-gas emissions.

The move comes as carbon-pricing programs are expanding in the U.S. even as President Donald Trump seeks to ease restrictions on coal companies. Europe already has a large regional cap-and-trade system while China, the world’s biggest polluter, has committed to a national pollution program that could open by 2020.

Ontario’s election results were largely priced into California’s carbon market. Despite Friday’s announcement, emitters in Ontario remain obligated to manage their carbon pollution until the province formally withdraws from the system, said John Battaglia, head of carbon markets at BGC Environmental Brokerage Services LP.

“The market is stable here,” Battaglia said in an interview. “We expect a bit of short-term volatility, but long term, the show will go on.” (Comment:  It is all about the show, isn’t it?)

Ontario’s PCs will be sworn in June 29 after defeating the Liberals in an election earlier this month. Ending what Ford called a job-killing carbon tax was one of his major commitments during the campaign. Ontario will also quit the Western Climate Initiative, Ford said Friday from Toronto.

Trudeau Plan

“Eliminating the carbon tax and cap-and-trade is the right thing to do and is a key component in our plan to bring your gas prices down by 10 cents per liter,” Ford said in a statement.

But the move may not spare Ontario from a carbon price. Trudeau’s government is bringing in carbon pricing rules to cover all provinces and a “backstop” for local governments that don’t come up with their own plans this year.

“Ontario is going to still have an obligation under the federal architecture and the cost of meeting that obligation could be higher,” said Dallas Burtraw, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future. “The costs of the cap-and-trade program are small on retail gasoline rates.”

via Science Matters

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June 16, 2018 at 12:03PM

Guest opinion by Ronald D Voisin 

It’s just amazing how we as a society can let global group-think ideas have fantastically large continued public traction when direct scientific observation utterly refutes the very basis of the ideas.  Can not the alarmist scientific folks (I’m thinking here of Mann, Alley, Schmidt, Hansen, etc.) be just a little bit honest about what is actually going on?

Sea level rise is widely reported every single day as an emanate man-made climatic disaster.  Portions of Greenland melt, and portions of Antarctica melt. are presented as proof-positive that human burning of fossil fuels is causing the Earth to overly warm and therefore causing these melts…which will lead to coastal inundation…and we must therefore change our ways at any cost.

However, it just so happens that these same portions of Greenland and Antarctica melt are now known to be situated over highly active geothermal sites…and that 100% of the observed melt is easily and readily attributable to current enhanced geothermal heat release.

91 UNDERWATER VOLCANOES ANTARCTICA
GOOGLE MAPS

Now, exactly why it is that that enhanced geothermal heat release is happening just now, is unknown.  But it surely has nothing to do with human consumption of fossil fuels. Can it actually be argued that this misrepresentation of cause-and-effect is somehow, nonetheless, in the public interest?

An intellectually honest, potentially wrong and disprovable, but likely meritful answer, as to why geothermal heat release might be currently enhanced, can be found here:

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/04/09/an-engineers-explanation-of-climate-change

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About the Author

Ronald D Voisin is a retired engineer.  He spent 27 years in the Semiconductor Lithography Equipment industry mostly in California’s Silicon Valley.  Since retiring in 2007, he has made a hobby of studying climate change.  Ron received a SEE degree from the Univ. of Michigan – Ann Arbor in 1978 and has held various management positions at both established semiconductor equipment companies and start-ups he helped initiate.  Ron has authored/co-authored 31 patent applications, 27 of which have issued. 

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via Watts Up With That?

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June 16, 2018 at 11:11AM

We are expecting another three inches of rain this week.

via The Deplorable Climate Science Blog

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June 16, 2018 at 10:13AM