{"id":322891,"date":"2024-04-25T14:04:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T12:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=322891"},"modified":"2024-04-25T14:04:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T12:04:15","slug":"the-war-on-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=322891","title":{"rendered":"The War On\u00a0Cars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t Doug Brodie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you know, I have been warning about this for years:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a fit of self-loathing, the European Union has begun to destroy the economic engine that pays its bills. Some of this is well known, but some is not, and it will astonish you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only nine of the EU\u2019s 27 member states are net budget contributors, and Germany pays the most \u2013 around \u20ac25bn (\u00a322bn) in 2021. Without the generosity of the Bundesrepublik, the European Commission would struggle to keep the lights on at the Berlaymont.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In turn, that wealth comes from its manufacturing industry. Specifically, from strong global demand for the German vehicles which account for almost three-fifths of Europe\u2019s car exports. As recently as a decade ago, the streets of Shanghai and Shenzhen teemed with German brand SUVs. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So you would think that the regulators in Brussels would show some care to the delicate vase they\u2019re carrying across the room. But not a bit of it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

French, German and Italian automakers are now caught in a pincer. In order to <\/em>meet climate targets<\/em><\/a>, vehicles powered by conventionally-refined hydrocarbons will be phased out, while much cheaper battery-powered (BEV) <\/em>competition from China floods in<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The industry won\u2019t be permitted to sell the product that European customers do want, but can\u2019t compete on price with a product it appears to have enough of. So far, so (depressingly) obvious.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what is little known is how specific and vindictive the EU has become in its attack on the car.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this is not actually a war on the combustion engine, so much as a war on personal mobility. The EU has relaxed its dogmatic insistence on alternative hydrocarbons for maritime and aviation \u2013 but not for road vehicles.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand this, recall that the phrase \u201cfossil fuel\u201d is actually very misleading. Hydrocarbons are not only dug up and refined \u2013 <\/em>they can also be made from scratch<\/em><\/a>, using biology or chemistry.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most \u201corganic\u201d method is to use algae. But you need a lot of it, and attempts to engineer them to produce higher yields have failed to scale.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s chemistry. The Fischer-Tropsch process converts carbon monoxide and hydrogen into a complex hydrocarbon \u2013 an e-fuel that can replace petrol.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You do need energy both to unlock the hydrogen, and then to create sufficient temperatures for the process itself to work. However, if these inputs are \u201czero carbon\u201d then so is the e-fuel that emerges.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December, I reported how Porsche is using wind power in Patagonia to produce petrol and diesel. Or, if we had lots of nuclear capacity, we\u2019d use the off-peak electricity. By day the plants would keep us warm and at night they could create the petrol, diesel and oil we need.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Japan\u2019s HTTR reactor design even produces the required hydrogen as a by-product.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, in fields where hydrocarbons are superior or simply irreplaceable, we can swap the ones we dig up with ones we make and still hit climate targets. And the infrastructure of pipelines and filling stations is already in place, which cannot be said for hydrogen or electric charging.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry is responding. Infinium, which is backed by both Amazon and Bill Gates, recently broke ground on a new plant that uses both carbon capture and renewables to create hydrogen. There are many more. But the EU is stubbornly refusing to allow cars and trucks to use them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s baffling, because the Eurocrats at \u2018DG-MOVE\u2019 (the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport) have already conceded that synthetic hydrocarbons are green.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July, the EU permitted the maritime sector to use \u201crenewable fuels of non biological origin (RFNBO)\u201d, as it calls e-fuels. In October, it allowed the aviation sector to use them too.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it\u2019s ignorance, or simply dogma. However opposition to the car has become one of the sustaining grievances of modern policy making.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just look at how vehemently our councils, our planners and our architects detest four wheel freedom, too. A low-intensity civil war is breaking out over <\/em>low traffic neighbourhoods<\/em><\/a>, or zoning schemes as in Oxford.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicholas Boyes Smith, the design czar for whom the \u201cOffice of Place\u201d was created, issues a stream of anti-car Tweets.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifteen minute cities are \u201ca  timeless Scrutonian ideal\u201d he argues. There is no garden city or new town movement today. In the 1960s, bureaucrats bulldozed neighbourhoods to ensure that cars were convenient. Now they destroy neighbourhoods by inhibiting their use \u2013 or stop them being built at all.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlanning is now about the rationing of materials and resources and space, rather than their deployment. It\u2019s subtractive, not additive,\u201d says architect critic Tim Abrahams.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConstraint is the watchword, not opportunity.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Malthusians want fewer of us, and ideally we\u2019d be going nowhere, except by bike or on foot. Car companies are facing prejudices from all corners, but it\u2019s the EU\u2019s ban on green fuel that is the most urgent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No wonder Renault chief executive Luca de Meo, in an open letter to the EU published last month, bemoaned the lack of joined up thinking or strategy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast to the US and China, the Commission passes rule after rule, an incoherent mess. EU rules alone have made passenger cars 60pc heavier on average, he wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switzerland, which is in the European Economic Area but not the EU, has blessed e-fuels.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the Swiss, we also have an outstanding chemicals industry. The lunacy of aligning ourselves with Brussels, now we have left, has never been more apparent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2024\/04\/22\/eu-war-on-cars-destroying-economic-foundations<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a fit of self-loathing, the European Union has begun to destroy the economic engine that pays its bills. Some of this is well known, but some is not, and it will astonish you.<\/p>\n

Only nine of the EU\u2019s 27 member states are net budget contributors, and Germany pays the most \u2013 around \u20ac25bn (\u00a322bn) in 2021. Without the generosity of the Bundesrepublik, the European Commission would struggle to keep the lights on at the Berlaymont.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":322895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819809,691819303,691819960,691818051,691818154],"class_list":{"0":"post-322891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-targets","9":"tag-european-commission","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-net-zero","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/OIG-67-1.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1lZV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":412131,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=412131","url_meta":{"origin":322891,"position":0},"title":"Germany\u00b4s dream of green steel","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Admittedly, we are a bit undecided about what verdict we should give to the\u00a0Tagesschau podcast 11Km\u00a0on the topic of \"Green Steel\". 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