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Originally Posted by Tel 911S
The claim that fossil fuels are subsidised here is just lies promoted by the left wing media .
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.word...ubsidy-claims/
Included in this link is a report which claims to show the amount that fossil fuels are subsidised around the world . But the amount for the UK is nil .
And a lot of the other claims are that the cost of air pollution & roads are a subsidy for for fossil fuels . |
Errrr.
https://www.odi.org/publications/100...oal-production
In 2015, the UK was the only G7 nation to increase oil and gas subsidies. The UK subsidies were £5.9bn, with £3.7bn used to subsidies oil and gas production in Russia, Suadi Arabia and China.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a6730946.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...fuel-subsidies
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpo...an-renewables/
I'm sure you'll claim it's the left wing media conspiracy, but that bottom one is from the London School of Economics and tells you the facts. The UK subsidises oil and gas. Fact. Sorry.
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Over the last 10 years oil companies have paid about £60 billion in taxes to the government in the UK , & taxes on road fuels adds another £28 billion per .
So the idea that fossil fuels are subsidised here is just lies to try to cover up the fact that renewable energy gets £9 billion subsidy [ Official Government figures ] rising to about £13 or £14 billion over the next few years .
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Just because you pay taxes, doesn't mean you aren't subsidised. That's not how subsidies work. Oil & gas pays more taxes because it makes more money. That's how taxes work - you earn more, you pay more.
Prices rising is being blamed on renewables? Let's get real here -
Energy prices have not significantly risen since 2009. But tell you what, those gas prices were looking pretty bad in 2013 before the oil barrel crash. That's what's had the biggest effect on energy prices in the UK - better hope the oil industry doesn't recover.
Oh so now we quote Google, who have gone all-in on electric cars? Quite a conflict you've got there.
That article was written in 2014, but if you read the link you'll find that the quote is from 2008. That's approaching a decade out of date. Are we going to really be using a decade old quote, especially given how much the technology has progressed?
Did you know at current (so discounting progression completely for now), the current average American house has enough roof space to power all of its needs, including a car? And that's ignoring any sort of tech progression. It's almost like development needs to be done to improve technology eh?
It's a good thing that nobody is suggesting that we turn off all power plants and move to solar overnight, otherwise we'd have a problem. But what is being suggested is we move to improve the technology so it IS viable to replace fossil fuel when we don't have any left to generate power with.
And then there's all the talk of "You need X square miles to power the UK, you can't just find that land!". A completely disingenuous argument, because nobody is suggesting we move everybody out of Wales and cover it in solar panels. The Welsh wouldn't like that, and I do like Wales so don't really want to annoy them. I wonder what kind of area we could put these on that would take up less space. Maybe a space were humans don't tend to go. Maybe high up to avoid shade as much as possible. I know! Roofs!
The other thing about solar panels is they're pretty ugly. Kinda cool from a tech stand point, but not pretty. If only someone would
develop roof tiles that look like solar panels. Oh they have? Well isn't that a nice looking solar roof, providing energy for the occupants!
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Once again, we've got the usual complaints. Oil and gas isn't subsidised (which it is...no matter which way you swing it...it just is, it's in the Governments budget for god sake) and renewables aren't good enough yet. Of course, nobody is suggesting that overnight we turn off all power plants and turn to solar. It's an absolutely ridiculous argument to make that we shouldn't bother doing something if it isn't 100% the answer, especially since right now no energy source provides 100% of the energy and it's a mix of sources. So why is it such a bad thing that renewables provide some of it.
You know what I'm not seeing? Any solutions put forward for an alternative to the fact we ARE running on an energy supply which has a limited life span, and we ARE creating a world health problem by continuing to do so. All this "ELECTRIC CARS AREN'T THE ANSWER" never seems to come with any substance with it, happily ignores facts to call any sort of progression terrible. Oil and gas is great. It's done remarkable things for society. It's allowed us to build wonderful things. But those days will end, because there simply isn't enough of it. So ignoring the carbon and health stuff (because it really doesn't interest me - i'm not a green warrior), and purely based on longevity...we need a replacement.Oh, and I work for an oil and gas company. I'm not calling them evil and think they should shut down - I'm just not going to stick my head in the sand and decide that we shouldn't progress the world, because I can't see beyond 20 years.
I notice we've stopped call the cars and batteries terrible now that it's proven that they can be fast, they can be long distance, they can be charged quickly, and they can have a longer life span than a petrol car. Notice how the arguments against electric cars keep moving onto new subjects, because people are so absolutely determined to hate them.
Here it is summed up: Some smart, rich people are trying to make sure that the human races survives long past the oil and gas reserves we have, and are attempting to create a sustainable solution, that will also provide an environmental and health boost. It isn't perfect, but it's an attempted solution to a subject WILL become a problem, and they're starting now so that we have a head start. And some people have such a massive issue with this, that they'll actually post lies on the internet to put other people off.
People keep saying it can't be done. But they also said online newspapers are rubbish, you can't fly private rockets, you certainly can't land private rockets, you can't make online currency, you can't make electric cars. Well tell you what, I'm going to bet on Elon. He keeps doing things which other people claim is absolutely impossible and will never happen. He's either a wizard, or more likely, these things can happen if people put in the effort.
PS - I'm not arguing motorsport should be electric. Electric cars make sense for every day use, but not for motorsport. I find Formula E boring, and although I'm going to give it a try, Electric GT isn't looking much better. But if you're driving around a 1.4L Diesel Toyota Corolla, you can't claim it's because you love the thrill of an internal combustion engine.