Zero Emission Mandate part of ‘war on the car’
By Paul Homewood
London, 27 November – Net Zero Watch is warning that the new ‘Zero Emission Mandate’ is just the latest in a series of blows that the political establishment has struck at motorists, and says it will not be the last.
The mandate, currently being debated in Parliament, will see car manufacturers fined £15,000 for each car they sell above a prescribed quota, but with the scheme allowing unsold quota to be sold to other companies in the market, the effect will be a huge transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
Motoring journalist James Ruppert says:
“Rich people, who can afford a Tesla, will be heavily subsidised by poor people who can’t. It’s a shameful idea.”
Ruppert’s comments coincide with the publication of his new paper for Net Zero Watch. Entitled The War on the Car, it is a brief history of how the political establishment has tried to force ordinary people out of cars, using a variety of tricks, from low emissions zones, to ever reducing speed limits, to the ongoing attempts to irritate motorists with driver ‘aids’.
Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford said:
“James Ruppert’s paper shows that the campaign to take away our cars is just part of wider struggles: the attritional war of decarbonisation, and behind it the guerilla campaign to take away our hard-won freedoms. The writing is on the wall.”
Click the cover image to download The War on the Car, or read the full text here. 
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
This is the inevitable result of a scientifically illiterate political elite in hoc to the UN and the WEF. We have to fight back against this creeping removal of our rights and freedoms.
I’m unclear what being scientifically illiterate has to do with being willing, if not actually keen, to remove our liberties? Scientists have a long history of dreadful behaviour and crimes against humanity. They are just as bad as any other human, and those who believe they are following science are responsible for terrible things. People either believe in freedom – actually and with their heart and soul – or they do not.
I would think that if ‘scientifically literate’, they would understand the difference between empirical data and belief (inc. consensus, models, etc.), and also be able to work out whether there is any actual evidence for CO2 ‘causing’ (aka: driving) changes in climate/temperature.
” they would understand the difference between empirical data and belief ”
Unfortunately, there are many scientists who do not understand the important difference between empirical data and belief.
Yes Micky, There are many people calling themselves ‘scientists’ who are nothing of the sort. If you dont follow the ‘scientific method’ then you are not a scientist nor practicing science. Probably the majority of so-called scientists today, are just statisticians (its a tool and not ‘science’), propagandists, and priests.
The Left (berserk communists, I call them) commandeers focus group tested words that they find people approve of. Science – like “our democracy” – means absolutely nothing to them; it is simply a tool. An Alinsky trick. “Use the language of your opposition against them.” They speak of science because YOU CARE, not because they do. They don’t.
As freedom hating communists, they are trying to remove our liberties. They speak of ‘science’ to get you to accept it.
It has nothing to do with actual science.
“they would understand the difference between empirical data and belief” – they may well understand the difference but perhaps they also understand the difference between a well-paid job and the dole.
In passing, I notice that ITV News at lunchtime has jumped on the bandwagon claiming that the lack of sprouts and potatoes this Christmas is down to Climate Change. Apparently, they seem to be surprised that it’s cold and wet in Winter!
Lack of vegetables and other food is because farmers are growing less, due to the skyrocketing cost of tractor fuel and fertilisers.
Net zero is increasing supply costs leading to Net Zero food, energy, health or wellbeing.
bobn
Farmers have probably found that subsidy farming using Solar PV is far more lucrative that growing potatoes and brussel sprouts. They have probably also discovered that stuff doesn’t grow well in shade or partial shade and getting a tractor round the panels isn’t particularly easy.
Farmers will also find farming with electric vehicles
Farmers will also find farming with electric vehicles prohibitively expensive, because of vehicle cost (the batteries would be very expensive to buy and replace), battery duration (a trial electric tractor’s battery lasted just ONE hour!), and the recharge time (even IF they can get high enough power chargers to their farms).
expensive
This is no doubt part of the deep state. Generally corrupt organisations self destruct, but it can take time.
Elites, by definition, have to be different from the masses. And Elites, pretty much by definition, care nothing for freedom or principle, only for their election to and continuation as an Elite. Free movement has always been a problem for Elites as it devalues their wealth and status and wrecks the places they can parade and preen as Elites. What is the point of becoming Elite if Tuscany is overrun with the masses? Thus travel must be made, once again, restrictive and expensive. It must be the preserve of those who ought to travel and who appreciate travel, not the hoi polloi. Climate change is a medieval cult rather than a 20th century Utopianist fantasy because it seeks to once again entrench an Elite and restrict the serfs to their 15 minute cities and cold, dull dwellings.
Correct, Phoenix. It isn’t a war on the car; it is a war on the people.
From the first mobile application of an engine ( the steam one ?) a mannie had to WALK in front bearing a flag ….
Without the incremental improvements in our Tech knowledge where would Society be today? Large powerful machines, BEARINGS, OILs for Lubrication of same, etc. The satisfaction of Flying higher & faster and BIGGER than ever before. It kinda knows no bounds – bar man’s stupidity. and greed. greed for many things. Warfare. Greed for Knowledge, freedom and most importantly, supply of sufficient food and removal from the millstones of poverty ??
We need to reform society – Drain the swamp first and disinfect it. – easier to disinfect whilst it’s still wet or afterwards? we don’t want to disseminate swamp bugs after draining. I think it’s teaming with non-beneficial Hydra.
National planning policy has been produced so that personal use of cars is not encouraged.
Our local climate emergency planning authority then bent all their nice new policies and gave consent for a large staff car park on high grade agricultural land.
‘campaign to take away our hard-won freedoms’
Okay, but ‘hard-won?’ That sounds like Benny Peiser populism.
” Okay, but ‘hard-won?’ ”
For Brits, WW1 and WW2 were “hard-won”. Defeat for the Brits in either conflict in Europe would have created a very different Europe.
Hard earned, but not by the living. Your ancestors fought hard. So did mine. Dad was a B-24 pilot, stationed at RAF Rackheath. They are dead now.
‘campaign to take away our freedoms’ should be sufficient. The punch up makes me suspicious that he doesn’t actually care about your freedoms. It’s trashy journalism.
” Hard earned, but not by the living. ”
There are still Brits alive who fought in WW2 and Brits alive who survived the Blitz as civilians. For them, WW2 was generally “hard-won”.
As you probably know, Rackheath no longer exists as an airfield, although the control tower and some other buildings still exist.
I can recommend Old Buckenham airfield (Norfolk) for a visit, very atmospheric and featuring the “Liberator Restaurant” https://www.oldbuck.com/the-liberator
“Micky, you believe that had Germany won the wars, they would have banned Brits from car ownership? Did they ban them in Vichy France? ”
This thread has taken an OT direction! Far more than car ownership at stake in WW1 and WW2 in Europe.
On topic. Peiser is pandering. I guess he knows his audience, as some like it.
Gamecock, it depends on how far back you go.
Ignoring the Magna Carta which didn’t actually achieve a great deal for the people. We’ve had, in various parts of the UK before the UK. John Wycliffe and the Lollards, The National Covenant, The Levellers, Tolpuddle Martyrs, The Suffragettes, Regicide and Restoration, Peasants Revolt, Poll Tax Riots (twice),
accidental commit.
Peterloo Massacre, Jarrow Marches, Clydeside Reds (John MacLean) and Skye Crofters Wars to name a few major and not so major things leading us to the current UK.
So a reporter asks a WWI soldier in the Ovillers-la-Boisselle trench if he is fighting for the freedom to own a car. He asks, “What’s a car?”
Gamecock
Does anyone know what the future holds for their descendants in a free society? What they know is that whatever it is it will be better than being a serf in a society where there are few or no freedoms.
I don’t know what life will be like for my grandchildren’s children but I hope that it’s not living in an oppressed country with no freedom of movement or speech. I expect your WW1 soldier would have said something similar and included the Kaiser in what he said.
Here, from the WSJ, a fluff piece selling renewable generation and EVs.
https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/now-for-some-good-news-about-climate-27236f56?reflink=integratedwebview_share
Now for Some Good News About Climate
Paywalled.
Oops, forgot i was a customer. Sorry for that, here’s a snippet
There is no shortage of bad green-energy news. Automakers are fretting about electric-vehicle growth, higher interest rates are smashing financial plans, permitting for big projects still takes forever and offshore wind is a mess.
But for every setback, there is a Sun Streams. This cluster of solar farms will cover more than 13 square miles of desert west of Phoenix. By 2025, it will provide enough electricity for roughly 300,000 homes, bringing Arizona’s largest utility closer to its goal of a zero-carbon grid.
The scale of the development, mostly owned by renewables company Longroad Energy, is part of a staggering surge in renewable energy. Driven by falling costs and better technology, growth in renewables has consistently exceeded expectations.
The big annual United Nations climate summit starts later this week in Dubai. What has become clear after years of talking is that few countries or businesses or people are willing to sacrifice much to limit climate change. The explosion of clean energy offers hope for cutting fossil-fuel use.
“We are coming short on many dimensions, and we have an enormous amount of work to do,” said Rich Lesser, global chair of Boston Consulting Group. “But, equally important, our ability to make progress on the technology side has dramatically exceeded our expectations.”
In 2009, the International Energy Agency predicted that solar power would remain too expensive to compete on the grid. It continued to underestimate the growth of renewable energy and EVs. Last year, more than four-fifths of the world’s new power capacity was renewables, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Subsidies drove early growth in wind and solar, then technology refinements and large-scale manufacturing made them cheap. Lithium-ion batteries, which power cars and store electricity on the grid, plunged in price, too. Sun Streams will have enough batteries to power about 40,000 Teslas.
Money is continuing to flow into these projects despite green energy’s headwinds. Longroad, the developer, said on Monday it raised $600 million of debt finance to expand its portfolio in a deal led by Apterra Infrastructure Capital, an affiliate of Apollo Global Management.
Research firm Rystad Energy estimates that we are on course to burn enough oil, gas and coal to heat the planet by between 1.6 degrees and 1.9 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, depending on how urgently governments act to speed up the transition.
That is rosier than many other forecasts, though it exceeds the international target of 1.5 degrees that is seen as a comparatively safe limit.
Rystad’s bullishness comes from the sun. Chief Executive Jarand Rystad said the spread of solar panels is compensating for lagging sectors such as offshore wind, which has been hobbled by cost overruns and snarled supply chains.
BloombergNEF expects solar panels installed this year to add nearly 400 gigawatts of generating capacity. That is 4.5% of the generating capacity of the world’s power plants in 2022. On the current trajectory, transition bulls argue, it is a matter of when renewables erode fossil-fuel use, not if.
The IEA expects demand for coal, gas and oil to peak this decade. To be sure, many fossil-fuel-producing companies and countries are betting on a long future for their products, and peak-oil talk has been wrong before.
But it is also easy to underestimate the pace of change. Projections by the U.S. Energy Information Administration didn’t foresee how quickly renewable energy and natural gas would erode U.S. coal consumption.
The usual sort of nonsense. Ignores the sun going down. When is Four Corners coal power station closing in favor of this solar? 400GW of solar is probably no more than 60-70GW of actual average output. 3-400MWh of battery isn’t going to power anything for long. It is of course the tax credits that are needed to ensure solar investment. Ask the UK government why it has just increased the Administrative Strike Price on solar by a third if you believe that solar is getting cheaper. It is of course natural gas that has eroded US coal consumption, but that’s fossil fuel, isn’t it? What happens if gas production declines? Back to coal…
Thx, chris. So now wsj has gotten into printing fantasy.
I wonder if tgat solar farm is another Ivanpah. That’s gone well…cough.
The WSJ, and actually any paper, publish articles written by those not part of the editorial board. Sometimes those articles are in direct opposition to the opinions of the board. In this case the author is Ed Ballard. My sense of this piece is that “past” projections were below what has happened [me: Did anyone expect the massive subsidizes and regulations?], and recent growth has now encountered many problems.
But, yes, he does seem to be a fan of renewables.
“How dare the working class own a car” – A. Green
Fizz or Fume ? A Rivian Became the First EV to Win the Longest Off-Road Competition in the U.S. https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/a-rivian-became-the-first-ev-to-win-the-longest-off-road-competition-in-the-u-s/
Proof once again that anything is possible, given infinite money and infinite time.
‘After relying on diesel generators to power its chargers, Renewable this year switched to green hydrogen, something Rebelle Rally founder Emily Miller told TechCrunch was the end goal all along. It was just a matter of finding a partner that could help build the charging infrastructure and procure the large amounts of hydrogen needed for the 10-day event.’
Cirrusly? Hydrogen charging infrastructure out in the desert? On a trailer, I bet.
On a trailer towed by an ICE truck – if it was so.
At https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/suggestions-49/
Following through links via https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news Rome, Berlin plan massive hydrogen pipeline to Africa
There’s plenty to read
WATER Accounting How much water to make Hydrogen, How much water released to enviro as a consequential combustion waste gas. YES WATER is now a WASTE Product ( GAS ) …. and so on ( THERMODYNAMICS )
” A Rivian Became the First EV to Win the Longest Off-Road Competition in the U.S ”
The “Rebelle Rally” doesn’t look particularly demanding compared to – say – the Paris-Dakar in the 1980s, where lorries could race Group B cars in the desert.
It’s a bunch of girls.
This is putting into action the proposals in the recently passed Energy Act. Ask your MP if he voted for the Energy Bill to be passed into law.
Been test driving some new cars – the latest annoyance is EU rules which force manufacturers to enable an audible speed warning every time you go 1mph over the local speed limit as determined by the car’s GPS database or by the car’s road-sign-reading camera. At the moment the warning beeps can be shut-off by driver but this must be done manually every time you startup. Infuriating.
An unexpected audible warning can be distracting and dangerous, more so than ‘straying’ 1mph over some arbitrary limit. I also have to switch off the auto-engine-stop function every time I startup, and also enable the auto parking brake every time (mine is an automatic), which I do as all the motoring experts say you shouldn’t be stationary in a queue with your foot on the brake dazzling the vehicle driver behind you. Annoyingly, I also have to switch off the radio again when I start up, despite it being off when I switch off. It’s as if free choice is also being removed from vehicles’ ancilliary items. What next?
I hired a Ford Focus a few years ago, the biggest button on the dashboard was to switch off auto stop. An excellent design feature I thought and very handy as we struggled out of Edinburgh in an unfamiliar car to attend a wedding not far from Kirriemuir (the party was a little more sedate!). Everything is controlled my menus and software now I suppose.
I hired a new all gizmos car a few months back. Among the annoyances were the lane keeping system which had to be switched off after every start. My local roads have lots of potholes, and I value being able to negotiate them without wrestling with the steering. Also, I reckon that if I need lane keeping systems to keep me safe on a road, I’m probably too tired to be fit to drive anyway. The speed nanny systems (including an in dash display of the speed limit) were also a nuisance. You could set cruise control to follow the speed limit – but if it misread the limit applied to your road (e.g. picking up a lower limit on a slip road) you could get some alarming behaviour. Adaptive cruise control was rather better, gently decelerating if you approached a slower vehicle ahead, but picking up speed if you could move to a different lane to overtake: a bit less hassle than having to touch the brake or change gear or actively cancel cruise before being able to overtake. Mostly I try to drive with enough anticipation that I rarely need to brake unless for stationary vehicles or to make a tight turn. Adaptive cruise was also good for those 50mph average speed check sections, where it would handle being stuck behind someone doing 49mph, or dabbing their brakes periodically.
Modern automatic transmissions are now rather more sophisticated: mine dropped into low gear descending a steep hill without having to engage lockdown – indeed lockdown wasn’t a selectable option. Not quite as good as using a manual around country lanes, where gear changing for corners and hills provides a smoother ride, or for using gears to provide engine braking approaching a roundabout. But overall less brake use than older auto transmissions.
The automatic headlights worked surprisingly well switching between high and low beam. Stop-start was a pain to be switched off. Blind side alarm was another irritation that was overly sensitive and took no account of acceleration to get into a gap in the next lane.
I think we may be approaching a time when the public will see the light. The upcoming election will open minds a bit with both main parties having lunatic policies on almost everything. The next few months could be a big heave to make the public realise the truth and how they are being lied to.
Can that produce a constructive result? Voting “none of the above” won’t.
At least I think it won’t. Maybe it will.
Oh I dunno, have seen too many sparklies in the Sky at night, …. or were they Elon’s toys. But I do know there’s a Light in Achilitibuie. ( but it’s of no use to us over here in the Glens.) Seeing the light.. Different people see different colours, and some are color blind. Whilst seeing is believing, others won’t L@@k, many of those who do can’t ( or won’t) see, and many don’t WANT ( to admit ) . THat’s civilisation being “educated” and become woke.
I presume that Chinese manufacturers/importers who sell only evs will benefit from the selling of their excess quota and if they so desire use this extra cash to reduce the price of their evs and further undercut the ev prices of their European rivals? Or just increase their profits.
It’s never going to happen.
A Virgin flight today from Heathrow to JFK is being hailed as it is the first transatlantic flight to use ‘green’ fuel. On board are Branson and whoever is this month’s transport secretary. GB News has pointed out that there are no paying passengers or any cargo so the plane is light in comparison to a normal flight.
Gamecock would want a fuel that’s guaranteed not to turn green in the tank.
Just how much “waste cooking oil” can there be in the world ?
Nowhere near enough as most reasonably intelligent people would work out. Bear in mind that just like with lithium, lots of areas are looking to use waste cooking oil, or virgin vegetable oil, to conform to the insane requirement to reduce CO2. If you look around you will find transport wanting to use bio-diesel. Heating oil and Red Diesel users are being pushed to using this as well. And you can add in the shipping industry. There is a real – not net – zero chance that this fuel can ever be used to replace fossil fuel. The Virgin flight needed special permission to use the fuel and the publicity stunt was covered today by Dr North with the impeccable title of ‘Virgin on the ridiculous’.
Clearly we need to abandon ideas about discouraging takeaway food and instead switch to encouraging it. We need vastly more fast food outlets, so that the great unwashed can provide more used cooking oil and the elite of society can continue to fly around the globe.
Even if we went for deep fried foods for all of our five-a-day there would be less than 1% of the supply needed to stop using fossil fuels.