Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Geert Wilders: The Lights Are Going Out All Over Europe
| Wednesday, June 1, 2011 |
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Labels:
Europe,
Freedom,
Geert Wilders,
Islam,
Multiculturalism,
Political Correctness
EU to ban cars from cities by 2050
| Tuesday, April 12, 2011 |
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Labels:
CO2,
Environmentalism,
Europe,
Regulation,
Socialism
Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years.
The European Commission on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050.
The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.
Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of "zero" for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities.
Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto "alternative" means of transport.
"That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres," he said. "Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour."
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European nations begin seizing private pensions
People’s retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don’t want to reduce spending or make privatizations. As most pension schemes in Europe are organized by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends. In recent weeks I have noted five such attempts: Three situations concern private personal savings; two others refer to national funds.
The most striking example is Hungary, where last month the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse. They could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14bn of individual retirement savings.
The Bulgarian government has come up with a similar idea. $300m of private early retirement savings was supposed to be transferred to the state pension scheme. The government gave way after trade unions protested and finally only about 20% of the original plans were implemented.
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Disarmament In America's Energy Security Battles
| Tuesday, November 30, 2010 |
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Labels:
CO2,
Economy,
Energy,
Europe,
Green Jobs,
Obama Administration,
Regulation
Development of abundant power and fuel sources
is being restrained by regulatory headlocks
in favor of much higher-cost green alternatives
with relatively scant capacity prospects.
Current Obama administration battle strategies directed toward futile wars to control climate change and free America from fossil dependence are hindering, not advancing, progress toward lasting energy security. Development of abundant power and fuel sources--which we will continue to rely on--is being restrained by regulatory headlocks in favor of much higher-cost "renewable" and "green" alternatives with relatively scant capacity prospects.
Proponents of such policies would have us imagine an autonomous nation powered and fueled by limitless sunbeams, friendly breezes and amber waves of grain-producing-alcohol that sever reliance upon dirty coal mines, oil rigs and smokestacks (those ugly industries that presently heat our homes, fuel our cars and power our computers). How can we possibly resist such a vision? Well maybe it's a bit easier to do so after we observe European experiences.
The E.U., which like the U.S. relies heavily upon coal and oil, has found little salvation through enormous investments in renewable alternatives. This realization is now causing large measures of buyer's remorse and pain. Members are witnessing their already shaky economies further destabilized by rampant fuel hikes, menacing power shortages and costly, yet unsuccessful, CO2 emission reduction efforts.
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German 'heatball' trick outwits EU light bulb ban
| Thursday, October 21, 2010 |
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Labels:
Energy,
Environment,
Europe,
Germany,
Light Bulb
Berlin: A German entrepreneur is bypassing a European Union ban on light bulbs of more than 60 watts by marketing his own brand as mini heaters.
Siegfried Rotthaeuser and his brother-in-law have come up with a legal way of importing and distributing 75 and 100 watt light bulbs - by producing them in China, importing them as "small heating devices" and selling them as "heatballs".
To improve energy efficiency, the EU has banned the sale of bulbs of over 60 watts - to the annoyance of the mechanical engineer from the western city of Essen.
Rotthaeuser studied EU legislation and realised that because the inefficient old bulbs produce more warmth than light - he calculated heat makes up 95 percent of their output, and light just 5 percent - they could be sold legally as heaters.
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Anti-Austerity Protests Sweep Across Europe
by Jonathon M. Seidl
Anti-austerity protests erupted across Europe on Wednesday — Greek doctors and railway employees walked off the job, Spanish workers shut down trains and buses, and one man even rammed a cement truck into the Irish parliament to protest the country’s enormous bank bailouts.
All the actions sought to protest the budget-slashing, tax-hiking, pension-cutting austerity plans of European governments seeking to control their debt.
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Europe's light-bulb socialism
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