One reason bank why banking fees are so high

They are overpaying for energy:

TORONTO, Nov. 23 /CNW/ – RBC today opened its 100th bullfrogpowered branch in Brantford, Ontario. RBC was the first financial institution to partner with Bullfrog Power to source low-impact, renewable power in 2005. The 100 Canadian branches powered by Bullfrog use 9,800 MWh of certified emission-free power.

“The decision to become bullfrogpowered at 100 of our branches supports our commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions footprint across our operations,” said David McKay, group head, Canadian Banking, RBC. “This goal will be achieved through a combination of conservation and energy efficiency measures, as well as the sourcing of clean renewable energy like Bullfrog Power.”

RBC is committed to increasing the percentage of certified green power used in its Canadian branch network through purchasing clean, renewable green power for all new branches in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and the Maritimes, where Bullfrog currently has operations. In 2009, RBC opened 25 new green-powered branches in Canada.

 Apparently RBC also finances companies that invest in the oil sands, not that there is anything wrong with that. But it does seem to clash with their pretensions to be one of Canada’s greenest employers.

 

The truth about green jobs

“For all the talk about green-job creation, there’s an unavoidable problem with renewable-energy technologies and the policies that promote them: From an economic standpoint, they’re big losers,” said Max Schulz, an analyst at the Manhattan Institute, a free-market think tank.

“Renewables can’t produce the large volumes of useful, reliable energy that our economy needs at attractive prices. Government subsidizes renewables because — all things being equal — the free market won’t,” he said.

 

“Green jobs” without subsidies

Chinese businesses don’t seem to need subsidies to be convinced to invest in clean-energy technologies. And yet, America (and by extension, Canada) are purportedly in danger of being left behind without massive intervention by government:

According to the Breakthrough Institute report, China is home to one-third of global solar manufacturing capacity. In wind, China has gone from having almost zero manufacturing output five years ago to having at least 70 turbine manufacturing companies today. Companies like BYD are also pushing ahead in the commercialization of plug-in vehicles.

 “Without concentrated action and big investments by the U.S. government, we will be passed by in the clean-tech race,” said Michael Shellenberger, president of the Breakthrough Institute, in a conference call on Wednesday. “We think the U.S. can catch up, but it won’t be through modest research and development and legislation, but through massive investments.”

While Chinese capitalists see opportunity, North American “capitalists” expect to be bankrolled by taxpayers. Something is wrong here.

 

Carbon offsets: Magic pill not magic

You don’t say!

In 2002 Responsible Travel became one of the first travel companies to offer customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets to counter the planet-warming emissions generated by their airline flights.

But last month Responsible Travel canceled the program, saying that while it might help travelers feel virtuous, it was not helping to reduce global emissions. In fact, company officials said, it might even encourage some people to travel or consume more.

“The carbon offset has become this magic pill, a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card,” Justin Francis, the managing director of Responsible Travel, one of the world’s largest green travel companies to embrace environmental sustainability, said in an interview. “It’s seductive to the consumer who says, ‘It’s $4 and I’m carbon-neutral, so I can fly all I want.’ ”

Offsets, he argues, are distracting people from making more significant behavioral changes, like flying less.

And to think I thought I could lose weight by paying someone else not to eat.

 

 

Hybrid Humvee

Somehow I don’t think this will shut the environmentalists up:

Lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel has signed an 18-month, $1.29 million contract with the U.S. Army to design and test hybrid battery options for the Humvee.

Trying to power the iconic fuel-guzzling High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV aka Humvee) with a battery, may seem like trying to put out a fire with a garden hose. But a lithium-ion battery system can deliver a lot of power from a battery quickly, giving a truck like the Humvee the thrust it requires.

EnerDel, a subsidiary of Ener1, will collaborate with the U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) on four possible power systems that could be implemented in the XM1124 version of the Humvee.

But now that one of their preferred technologies is getting support from military spending, hopefully they will drop the ludicrous assertion that U.S. military expenditures are really a subsidy to oil, of which the unsubsidized price might otherwise be $300 to $480 a barrel.

 

NYT shines light on Al Gore

Al Gore’s self-serving advocacy has always irked me. Now, even the New York Times is on to him.

Silver Spring Networks is a foot soldier in the global green energy revolution Mr. Gore hopes to lead. Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy as Mr. Gore and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes.

Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming skeptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire,” profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in.

[...]

Mr. Gore has invested a significant portion of the tens of millions of dollars he has earned since leaving government in 2001 in a broad array of environmentally friendly energy and technology business ventures, like carbon trading markets, solar cells and waterless urinals.

 

 

Prince Wind Farm: Like Frankenstein’s scar

In the spirit of Hallowe’en, I’m posting some satellite shots of Brookfield Renewable Power’s Prince Wind Farm.  While some suggest that a wind turbine rising from the pristine wilderness is a thing of beauty, I could not help thinking this project looks like one of Frankenstein’s scars.

Link on Google Maps

 

“Solar never efficient without massive government subsidies”

An interesting investment perspective on climate change:

Noting there’s arguments and counterarguments on both sides of the global warming debate, Altucher declares: “Nobody really knows” whether the globe is heating or cooling or how much is manmade and how much is just the Earth’s natural cycle.

For investors, Atucher says the message is clear: Avoid solar stocks, since solar power is “never efficient” without massive government subsidies.

Watch the whole video.

 

Wind is not the solution

Whatever its merits, wind generation has been greatly oversold by the hucksters whose livelihood now depends on diverting huge government subsidies toward them so their precious wind projects can compete with conventional forms of energy. Despite the ongoing efforts of climate alarmists and their media poodles to convince us otherwise, dramatically increasing the amount of energy generated by wind turbines is not only uneconomic but also bad public policy. Ultimately, wind will be proven to be about as effective a response to global warming as corn ethanol.

With regard to energy, Canada has nothing to be ashamed about. The carbon footprint of Canada’s energy production is among the cleanest in the world. Unlike the United States and most of Europe, the bulk of our energy production comes from hydroelectric and nuclear. We do not need wind.

The shortcomings of wind generation are becoming increasingly clear. As Jon Boone points out, wind is a bad choice from both an energy and environmental perspective:

Because of wind’s unpredictable variability, it can never replace the capacity of conventional generation. Twenty-five hundred 450-foot wind turbines, spread over five hundred miles, can mathematically offset a large coal or nuclear plant; but they cannot do so functionally–for what must happen when 5,000 MW of volatile wind is only producing 100 MW at peak demand times, a common occurrence?

This business is absurd. The whole point of modern power systems has been to move beyond the flickering flutter of variable energy sources. Prostituting modern power performance to enable subprime energy schemes on behalf of half-baked technology is immoral. As is implementing highly regressive tax avoidance “incentives” to make it appear that pigs can fly. No coal plants will be shuttered and little, if any, carbon emissions will be reduced as a result of this project—or thousands of them.

[...]

Industrial wind projects will clearcut hundreds of acres, if placed on forested ridges. Even small 100 MW industrial wind parks would hover for miles over sensitive terrain, threatening vulnerable species while mocking endangered species protections–and scenic highways strictures. They will cause unlawful noise for miles downrange. They will devalue properties in the area as much as 50%, if they could sell at all. Dynamiting will threaten wells and aquifers.

 We would be wise to listen.

 

Greywashers vs. greenwashers

Its seems you can’t turn anywhere these days without some marketer making green claims.

You could be forgiven for thinking that big companies with the vaguest interest in flashing their green credentials – even when those credentials are somwhat tenuous – do tend to get out there and do it. A lot.

But no, according to a new study. Big tech companies – you know, those shrinking violets of the marketing scene, like Microsoft and Cisco – often fail to tell the world about all the good they’re doing to save the world. Yes, that’s right. Oh and it’s the opposite of ‘greenwashing’, so they’ve called it ‘greywashing’ (or presumably ‘graywashing’ for Americans).

I am not a big fan of Microsoft, having used their products, but this news raises my opinion of them. As for the greenwashers, it is always good to keep in mind that sometimes the most vigorous supporters of a cause are the ones you need to keep an eye on.