Friday, November 15, 2013

You keep those "Green" energy policies in place, Euros!

Thanks for all the jobs coming our way:
Spain is reeling under the deep delusion, Germany is beginning to feel the pain, and the UK is on the verge of deep economic wounds that could leave painful scars for generations.
A few days ago Kurt Bock, the firm’s [BASF's] chief executive, warned that its Ludwigshafen plant may soon be forced to close, with BASF’s German jobs relocated elsewhere. The reason, he said, was Germany’s soaring energy costs and the crippling green levies being used to pay for ‘renewables’ such as wind farms. With German energy prices already twice as high as in the United States and likely to rise much further, the time had come to reconsider ‘the competitiveness of the location’.

… For voters, this [the UK's new green energy policies] will mean years of further cost-of-living misery. But for business, it may well lead to German-style bankruptcy. About two thirds of this legally mandated ‘dash for wind’ will be paid for by companies. Some will find it intolerable, and join previous casualties of Britain’s green revolution such as aluminium smelting. Those that remain will have little choice but to pass their bills on to customers — so many other things will become more expensive, too._Spectator __ via GWPF
The industrial jobs that are at risk represent an appreciable part of the UK’s and Germany’s economy. Once they are gone, they are not coming back.
Al Fin covers this from a slightly different (and insightful) angle, but the take away is that German heavy industry will pack up and come to these shores, because energy costs are a significant part of the cost of the Heavy Chemical and manufacturing industries.  These aren't "Macjobs", either - these are the coveted high paying/high value output jobs that must be at the core of any healthy economy.

Of course the current Administration will be horrified by this, but given the political problems they're going to have over the next 18 months with Obamacare, some high visibility programs to raise everyone's energy costs and drive manufacturing jobs away is unlikely in the extreme.  They're too busy trying to hang on to the edge of the chasm to engage in much more "transformational change". 

Unlike the Greens in Europe who pretty much own the governments.  So keep those "Green" policies in place, Euros!  You don't want anyone accusing you of hating on Mother Gaia, right?  And thanks for all the great jobs!

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