Northern Delusions: Oslo to ban combustion engine vehicles from 2025 to 'combat CO2 emissions'
Northern Delusions: Oslo to ban combustion engine vehicles from 2025 to 'combat CO2 emissions'
At the same time, the gov't plans to sell drilling licences in the Arctic--hypocrisy, you'd ask? Nah, just another day of virtue-signalling idiocy
So, during my casual morning read of various legacy media outlets, I found these two gems, with the first coming to you courtesy of the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK and the second piece appeared on Austrian state broadcaster ORF (all translations and emphases mine):
NRK: Zero Emission Zone in Oslo from 2025 at the Earliest
The Oslo City Environment Agency recommends making the entire area within ring 2 a zero-emissions zone for road traffic. They believe this can happen from 2025 at the earliest.
The ban on driving petrol and diesel cars in the area is proposed to be introduced first for vans and heavy transport [but how would those avocados and AmazonPrime products be delivered to the hip and trendy urbanistas?], then for passenger cars two years later.
People living in the zone are recommended to apply for an exemption from the ban for the first five years.
The agency also believes that HC [handicapped, yep, gotta love the political correctness of the Nordics…] vehicles and people with HC cards, first responders, and emergency vehicles should be exempt from the ban.
‘I am happy to receive this professional basis for one of Oslo's most important climate measures’, says Sirin Stav, city councilor for the environment and transport (MDG), in a press release.
A prerequisite for the introduction is that the law be changed so that municipalities are given the authority to introduce such zones. This is what the national authorities must adopt. [Nullification Crisis, anyone?]
‘Oslo and other big cities are now waiting for the government to give the municipalities the opportunity to introduce zero emission zones’, says Stav.
The Norwegian Environmental Agency also points out that a well-developed charging infrastructure is needed before a zero-emissions zone can be introduced. In 2022, the municipality only managed to build 11 charging stations.
The zero emission zone will help to cut emissions in Oslo. The municipality has decided that emissions must be cut by 95 per cent by 2030, compared to 2009 levels.
The recommendation from the agency has now been sent to the city council for assessment, before a proposal is presented to the city council.
ORF: Norway Plans Major Expansion of Oil and Gas Exploration
Norway has announced plans to open 92 new areas in the Arctic for oil and gas exploration. These are 78 areas in the Barents Sea in the far north and 14 areas in the Arctic Ocean near the Arctic Circle, the government announced yesterday in Oslo.
‘Facilitating the search is important for Europe as well as for Norway and the affected regions’, Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aasland said. The announcement was made in connection with the annual award of oil drilling licences in already explored areas.
According to a cross-party agreement reached in November, exploration in pristine areas will not be allowed before 2025 [I’m so glad we’re cutting emissions by 95% by that year]. The plans presented are to be the subject of a public hearing.
Sharp Criticism
The announcement was met with sharp criticism from environmentalists, who said the Norwegian government was preparing ‘a large, extremely aggressive series of drilling licences at a time when both the UN and the International Energy Agency are clearly saying that there is no more room for more oil exploration if we want to meet climate targets’, said Truls Gulowsen of the Norwegian branch of the NGO Friends of the Earth.
The Barents Sea has long been considered promising by the oil industry. So far, however, only two oil fields are operating in Norwegian waters—the Snöhvit [literally Snowwhite] gas field and the Goliat oil field. Norway is the largest supplier of natural gas in Europe and an important oil producer.
Bottom Lines
At some point, all those hip, trendy, and politically correct urbanistas will break down completely and commit themselves to mental institutions, if only because their own words and actions betray the policies the claim to support. People are only able to withstand these immense amounts of cognitive dissonance for so long.
You don’t have to do a ‘careful’ reading ‘between the lines’ to realise two essential facts: zero emissions zones are about as sane as zero Covid policies instituted in, say, one part of the world. Last time I checked, gases (such as CO2) don’t care that much about borders as some of those imbeciles who propose such regulations think.
Apart from that, these zero emissions zones in Oslo won’t do anything about the commuters from the metro area who use trunk roads to get into the city daily. Speaking of roads, by the way, esp. those arterial ones, they are actually owned by either the county or the national government, i.e., whatever the city council decides won’t—can’t—be applied to these roads.
And while we’re on the topic, the average EV is some 400-500kg heavier than the same car powered by a combustion engine. This means that roads must be re-built to higher standards, i.e., they will cost much more per mile. Good luck with these policies, for I’m pretty sure that voters won’t like higher taxes to maintain these more expensive roads, esp. if some voters (those who, like me, own a combustion engine-powered vehicle) would be ‘asked’ to pay those taxes while being banned from using them at the same time.
No taxation without representation the ‘permission’ to use public spaces, such as roads, that I’d be forced to pay for.
Also, these inanities are what passes for ‘good governance’ and ‘exemplary policies’ these days. Wait until you see the morons of the world running things.
Oh, wait.
Shit.
No petrol or diesel vehicles, eh? Time for contrarians to go all-in on woodgas and ye olde Dampkraftwagen!
Neither of which can release more CO2 than the fuel used absorbed while growing, so not only are their emissions "climate neutral", they're even more environ-mental than electrical cars.
You'd think our cousins to the west would learn from this years outright disaster with electrical snow-plows this winter. 1 hour plowing at best, 4 hours or more charging.
While a diesel, petrol or woodgas or even a bloody steam-engine from the 19th century work better!
will be fun to watch the cars light up on fire as Earth's magnetosphere continues to get weaker. and the dropping is not linear.
Now even smaller solar flares can slap humanities foolish attempt to electrify everything at this point in time. But I guess it's a feature so you can not move away further south if the northern electrical grid gets fried by the true solar power.