Category Archives: Economics

Stromversorgung ist auch trotz Kohleausstieg gesichert

Deutsche Welle: Braunkohle vom Hambacher Forst wird nicht mehr gebraucht. “Wissenschaftler sind sich einig: Für den deutschen Strombedarf wird die Braunkohle unter dem Hambacher Wald auch langfristig nicht gebraucht. Auf die Rodung könnte verzichtet werden – wenn es die Politik wollte.”

“Aus dem Abschaltplan der Fraunhofer-Forscher lassen sich auch die Braunkohlemengen genau ermitteln, welche vor allem die Kraftwerke Niederaußem und Neurath in den nächsten Jahren noch benötigen werden. Diese beiden Kraftwerke werden aus den Tagebauen Hambach und Garzweiler versorgt. Von heute bis 2030 benötigen sie demnach noch 250 bis 280 Millionen Tonnen Braunkohle.

Nach Angaben der Forscher liegen in den beiden Tagebauen Hambach und Garzweiler aber noch deutlich über 2000 Millionen Tonnen.

Würde die Politik diesen Vorschlag auch aus Klimaschutzgründen verfolgen, so wäre eine Rodung des Hambacher Waldes für die deutsche Energiesicherheit nicht mehr nötig, lautet ein Fazit der Autoren.

[…]

Der zügige Braunkohleausstieg in NRW sei wegen der Schäden bei der Verstromung zudem aber auch “wirtschaftlich vorteilhaft”. Hohe gesellschaftliche Kosten ließen sich durch den Kohleausstieg vermeiden, betont auch das Umweltbundesamt (UBA). Allein im Jahr 2016 entstanden der Gesellschaft verdeckte Mehrkosten durch Gesundheits- und Umweltschäden aus der deutschen Verstromung von Kohle in der Größenordnung von über 46 Milliarden Euro, so das UBA .

Würden auch diese Kosten bei der Betrachtung des Kohleausstiegs berücksichtigt, so wird deutlich, wie günstig ein Kohleausstieg für die Gesellschaft sein kann, selbst dann, wenn die Entschädigungszahlungen an die betroffenen Energiekonzerne sehr großzügig sind.

Laut RWE-Angaben liegt der Gewinn beim Betrieb von Braunkohlekraftwerken derzeit bei etwa drei Cent pro Kilowattstunde. Nach Angaben des UBA entstehen dabei zugleich aber Gesundheits- und Umweltschäden von über 19 Cent pro Kilowattstunde, die von den Bürgern als Krankenkassenbeiträge und Steuern getragen werden. Kohle und vor allem Braunkohle ist demnach in der Gesamtbetrachtung die teuerste Energie.”

“Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes.”

The New York Times: Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father. “The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s.” By David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner. Published Oct. 2, 2018.

If you’d like a more concise version with the main points, read

11 Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Trump’s Wealth by Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and David Barstow instead.

“[A]n investigation by The New York Times has revealed that Donald Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire. What’s more, much of this money came to Mr. Trump through dubious tax schemes he participated in during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, The Times found.

In all, the president’s parents transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55 percent tax rate on gifts and inheritances that was in place at the time. Helped by a variety of tax dodges, the Trumps paid $52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax returns show.”

Links via MetaFilter.

“What is now called resisting is often Americans simply helping others: a concept so alien to the Trump administration that it is labelled as subversive.”

The Globe and Mail Opinion, by Sarah Kendzior: The resistance to Donald Trump is not what you think. “There is no unified, hierarchical group on the periphery trying to overthrow the U.S. government. There are only regular people, in every city, hoping for better, and trying to rescue the America they once knew”.
Sarah Kendzior is the author of The View From Flyover Country and the co-host of the podcast Gaslit Nation.

“There is no question that most Americans disapprove of Mr. Trump and the GOP. The question for November is whether dissent matters in the face of an increasingly autocratic regime, one whose disregard for rule of law is unparalleled in U.S. history, and one that may have engaged in voter suppression and one whose associates are being investigated for whether they collaborated with operatives of hostile states to win the previous election. The midterms have become an existential matter: Will we salvage our damaged democracy, or lose what rights remain? For non-white Americans, immigrants, women, LGBTQ Americans and other groups targeted by the administration, there is nothing abstract about this inquiry.

I spent most of the year on the road in America, and I don’t think we, as a people, are as cruel or mercenary as those who represent us. Political activists and Democrats are not as disorganized as pundits claim. Everything sounds confusing when you listen for a coherent message, and what you hear instead is an anguished cry. But at least that cry is honest. That cry means people still care. The worst sound, these days, is silence.”

Link via MetaFilter.

As if climate change didn’t happen fast enough already

NPR: Trump Administration Eases Regulation Of Methane Leaks On Public Lands.

“The Trump administration is rolling back another Obama-era energy regulation, this time one that aimed to curb methane leaks from oil and gas operations on tribal and public lands.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, even more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term, that contributes to climate change. The Obama administration said that large amounts of methane are lost into the atmosphere through leaks, as well as intentional venting and flaring at energy production sites. It moved to limit that by requiring oil and gas companies to capture leaking and vented methane at existing sites, to gradually update their technology and to make plans for monitoring escaping gas.

The Government Accountability Office says as much as $23 million of potential royalty revenue from those gases is lost annually.

But in a statement, the Department of the Interior said that rule was “unnecessarily burdensome on the private sector.“”

(Emphasis mine.)

This is kind of an understatement. Each ton of methane has about the same effect as 21 to 25 tons of carbon dioxide, so it’s much worse. How about methane being “burdensome on the world’s climate”?

“They did a ‘magnificent job.’ President Trump says so himself. Have him come say that to my face.”

The New York Times: On Hurricane Maria Anniversary, Puerto Rico Is Still in Ruins. “By Frances Robles and Jugal K. Patel. September 20, 2018.

“A year ago, on Sept. 20, the deadliest storm to hit Puerto Rico in over 100 years slammed into the island’s southeast coast, just 14 miles south of where Ms. Cruz lives in Punta Santiago. The tourist and fishing town of 5,000 people bore a terrible share of Maria’s initial fury.

Almost 650 houses flooded with water from the sea; others were inundated by an overflowing lake, a river, and two ponds — and also raw sewage. Many homes lost walls and roofs in winds that reached 155 miles per hour when the storm made landfall.
[…]
Times journalists visited 163 homes in two neighborhoods in Punta Santiago to cover what progress had been made in the last 12 months.”

Link via MetaFilter.