Good to see that sacrifices are being made for Climate Change

[pjclarke]

Our old friend and climate change sceptic (or whatever the proper word is today) Charles Booker attempted to link the 2009 Tata selloff to climate change, and as so often happens, got the facts completely wrong, forcing the newspaper concerned to issue a retraction and apology.

In reports in December 2009 we said that Tata had used the carbon trading scheme to transfer steel production from Redcar to India, pocketing £1.2 billion in carbon credits at the cost of 1700 jobs. We accept this was wrong. Redcar was mothballed because a 10-year steel contract was not honoured and the credits could never have amounted to £1.2 billion.

In addition, we accept Tata’s assurance that it did not displace “hundreds of thousands” of villagers from its sites in Orissa and Jharkhand and that at its new site in Orissa, Tata is providing new homes, jobs and facilities for the 1200 families which remained at the site.

We also accept Tata’s assurance that it has no relationship with the Chairman of the IPCC, Dr Rajendra Pachauri.

We apologise for these errors

That's how its done, Dodgy. [A list of all Booker's retractions and apologies is available on request.]

[darmstadt]

Tories couldn't give a tulip, its a dirty blue colour job, there's no large party contributions, there's no directorships, there's nothing in it for them. Now if it was a white collar financial institution in the City, then that would be another question:

"This morning I was told I'm losing my job," he said. "All of us steel workers on Teesside are facing the end of our industry and a very bleak future. Only the government can save us now."

"I would ask why the Germans will help their steel industry, why the French will help their steel industry, why the Italians bought Ilva Steel for £2bn to help their steel industry, yet he hides behind state rules, state aid rules.

"I'm a lowly steel worker - or ex steel worker now - and I don't understand. We're all part of Europe, last time I looked on a map. But that man is hiding behind rules that I don't understand.
So he needs to come to Teesside. He needs to come to speak to me and my colleagues and our councillors and everybody down on that workforce. He needs to come and give us the answers.
"All these woolly words of 'I'm doing everything I can' and 'I will help' - well we're not going to see anything. We need people on the streets. We need people down there speaking to us now."


"Here is the epitome of the Northern Powerhouse. Teesside steel has powered the strength of Britain over the years and has a future.
"If he believes in a future for industry, if he believes in a future for manufacturing, here's his opportunity to prove it.
"To step up and get control of the situation. Save the plant, secure the jobs and make sure steel making has a future on Teesside."

[pjclarke]

reported by the BBC so climate change would not have been mentioned as a reason for its closure

Government

A new joint paper from UK Steel and Community is calling for fundamental reforms of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). Its “Carbon Leakage” prevention measures are meant to protect sectors like steel that are both very energy intensive and highly exposed to competition from less well regulated sites overseas. But problems with the rules mean even the most efficient plants, which should receive all the ETS allowances they need for free, are short changed, damaging their competitiveness and ability to invest in new low carbon technologies.

The average costs of the EU carbon trading scheme could rise to 28 euros (£20.00) per tonne of steel by 2030. UK steel plants are trying to compete with India and China on margins as small as £5/tonne. They can’t cope now, let alone with anything near this level of ETS costs. Steel in Britain is owned by companies in Spain, India and Thailand, who will be reluctant to keep investing in plants that don’t appear to have a future.

From 2010 onwards the TUC and the Energy Intensive Industries Group have prepared report after report with evidence and more evidence highlighting these problems and yet nothing has been done, except more job losses.

Just a tad selective, there. Same source:

Overall, the UK steel industry faces a complex of challenges: Surplus production capacity in the global market, especially in China, unfair trade practices, a strong pound, high energy costs and regulatory pressures such as the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS – all making it hard for UK plants to compete. Cheap imports are already flooding the domestic market.

[Martin Scroatman]

Our old friend and climate change sceptic (or whatever the proper word is today) Charles Booker attempted to link the 2009 Tata selloff to climate change, and as so often happens, got the facts completely wrong, forcing the newspaper concerned to issue a retraction and apology.



That's how its done, Dodgy. [A list of all Booker's retractions and apologies is available on request.]

Christopher Booker, you nobber!

[DaveB]

Just a tad selective, there. Same source:

Yes, but this is DA remember. Never one to let a simple thing like facts get in the way of aa self righteous frothing.

[pjclarke]

Christopher Booker, you nobber!

Ooops. Easy mistake to make, one earns a living writing alarmist fiction, the other.... ;-)

[DodgyAgent]

Our old friend and climate change sceptic (or whatever the proper word is today) Charles Booker attempted to link the 2009 Tata selloff to climate change, and as so often happens, got the facts completely wrong, forcing the newspaper concerned to issue a retraction and apology.



That's how its done, Dodgy. [A list of all Booker's retractions and apologies is available on request.]

So this is completely untrue is it?


UK Steel said: “As well as battling against falling prices, a rise in unfairly traded steel imports and a persistently strong pound, the sector is being hit by disproportionate policy and business costs, higher than those faced by both global and European competitors. These costs include an additional £130m a year to energy prices by climate change policies that make the UK steel sector’s energy costs up to double those of French and German plants,” it said.

“At the same time, business rates in the UK are up to 10 times higher, while new air emissions limits from the EU industrial emissions directive will add another £500m to costs by 2020.”

Gareth Stace, director of UK Steel, said: “If the sector is to continue its vital role supplying the rest of manufacturing, then we simply cannot afford to stand by. Government has within its power the gift to take immediate steps which can alleviate pressure in the short term.”

[DodgyAgent]

Tories couldn't give a tulip, its a dirty blue colour job, there's no large party contributions, there's no directorships, there's nothing in it for them. Now if it was a white collar financial institution in the City, then that would be another question:

What makes anyone think that you care for anyone other than yourself and your petty envy?

[pjclarke]

So this is completely untrue is it?


UK Steel said: “As well as battling against falling prices, a rise in unfairly traded steel imports and a persistently strong pound, the sector is being hit by disproportionate policy and business costs, higher than those faced by both global and European competitors. These costs include an additional £130m a year to energy prices by climate change policies that make the UK steel sector’s energy costs up to double those of French and German plants,” it said.

“At the same time, business rates in the UK are up to 10 times higher, while new air emissions limits from the EU industrial emissions directive will add another £500m to costs by 2020.”

Gareth Stace, director of UK Steel, said: “If the sector is to continue its vital role supplying the rest of manufacturing, then we simply cannot afford to stand by. Government has within its power the gift to take immediate steps which can alleviate pressure in the short term.”

Correct, even the trade body's spokesperson concedes the regulatory costs are 'as well as' geopolitical forces.

[Jog On]

Maybe the laid off workers can be hunted instead of foxes for their benefits. Anyone who eludes the hounds will be allowed to eat and sleep inside for a month until they go again.

If there are too many survivors and not enough food/shelter quota they can battle it out with each other in the forum.