Monday
Dec102012
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Yeo's company awarded state funding
Dec 10, 2012 Climate: Parliament Energy: biofuels Guido Fawkes is reporting that a renewables company chaired by Tim Yeo has been awarded £50 million of state funding.
Reader Comments (25)
"...had designed a micro-organism capable of turning human waste into biofuels..."
That'd be methane then but iirc that process is entirely natural.
Scam?
The man is an out and out crook.
A philanderer too, apparently.
All in all a real credit to his Party.
Yeo's ethics stink even worse than the input product.
It's so bloody blatant in the Green Graft circus now - even the Mafia has the decency to cover it's tracks.
OT - but National Review & Mark Steyn are asking for contributions to fight Mann's lawsuit.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/12/10/mann-vs-nro-legal-battle-heating-up/
I got a frisson of pleasure from chipping in.
The Grafter
With reference to an older thread (I go unconnected for alarmingly long times): “… ‘hostile sceptics’ who are essentially trying to disprove the scientists…” (Bob Ward, Help Rescue the Planet International Conference on Climate Change, 7th May, 2012.)
Erm, excuse me, but I thought one of the basic scientific principles is that ideas and theories are supposed to have attacks on them in an attempt to disprove – that is usually the ONLY way to test a theory; if it cannot be disproved, then it gains greater credence (though still may not be correct).
Is it me, or is there a subtle shift from fear of “global warming” to that of “climate change”? Whereas the two were once considered almost synonymous, there seems to be a definite demarcation, and to say “global warming” when others speak of “climate change” is to invoke ridicule upon yourself. This seems to be a crass attempt at a body-swerve of the fact that the past few British (thus, by clumsy extrapolation, the entire world!) summers have been pretty dire, and the winters getting more and more fearsome, to such an extent that they can no longer be dismissed as “weather” with quite the aplomb that the snow-fall of 2009 (or was it ’10? my, how time flies…) was.
But what is causing this? I ask (being an inquisitive mouse). Well, it is all the fault of CO2, don’cha know? Apparently, this previously innocuous chemical becomes evil when it is emitted by humans or by human endeavour. Unlike the “good” molecules of water vapour and methane, which, though more numerous by several factors and also with far greater potential for over-heating us, apparently (and conveniently), do not hang around for long enough to do any damage, the wicked CO2 molecules are hoarding themselves in the atmosphere, heating it so as to cause this drastic, not to say dangerous, cooling, such that ice-caps melt and thicken at alarming rates; the endangered polar bear suffers a massive population explosion; the sea rises to levels that no-one can actually notice; hurricanes, made rarer and weakened by higher tropospheric wind-speeds, cause even more damage than ever before; during the feared droughts, the flood plains of the Severn, the Trent or the Cambridge fens are inundated with water, so damaging many of the new buildings there.
The fact that the climate has been changing for millennia, epochs, or even eras, before humans were invented is conveniently forgotten by these people; I find the very notion that we can have ANY noticeable effect upon the workings of the global atmosphere to be close to the highest height of human arrogance.
Who better to throw excrementa than a fan of wind?
Guido tells us that he is paid 4,500 quid a month just to be the Chairman. I wonder what that works out to per hour, given his other commitments? And what justifies this extraordinary rate of remuneration?
I am just a danged furriner, but have to wonder what sort of leadership the PM is showing here. Has the UK become a kleptocracy?
Yes johanna, it would appear so.
I remember the days we used to make superior jokes about all those dodgy latin types and their "Spanish practices".
Sadly, and quite suddenly - we seem to lead the field in blatant official corruption.
The motto seems to be - "stick a green label on it & fill yer boots!".
What ever happened to the satirical, politician exposing magazine called Private Eye.
Come on Ian, impress Merton with new found cojones; or are you, Ian, part of the Establishment, or at least the BBC's pension fund, now.
Foxgoose, the thing that (from afar) blows me away is that the PM would allow it. If he is fine with this, who knows what else is going on under his benignant eye.
I don't think TMO has been awarded £50 million, but a slice of £50 million.
So far all I can find is mention of a £20 million boost to the synthetic biology industry in a few places such as this November speech by Osborne. TMO are mentioned in it but no figure is given for how much the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (that they are a member of*...) has awarded them.
BBSRC's own website has pictures and details of Willets' visit to TMO Renewables where he was handed a synthetic biology roadmap, and they describe TMO as "a UK company, established with long-term support from BBSRC, which uses synthetic biology techniques in the production of renewable fuels and chemicals."
* PDF. See page 18. There are however *loads* of boards and lots of people on them to the point where it looks a bit silly.
Unfortunately Yeo has already sold this technology down the river. TMO is building Bio Fuel plants in China based on this technology so lets guess what country will soon discover how it all works and will sell it to the world for less than the British?
The same Tim Yeo who's described by the Guardian as one of "A group of leading UK climate legislators".
(The others in the group being mainly from Globe International, worthy and knowledgeable people like John Gummer and Barry Gardiner)
That Cameron can even consider giving a man with such an appalling history a job says all I need to know about Cameron and the Neo Tories
As I am starting to tire of pointing out, the chairs of the Parliamentary Select Committees are not in the gift of the Prime Minister but are subject to election by all members of the House of Commons.
See here
Not that that makes Yeo's troughing any more acceptable or understandable but we do nothing for our credibility by continually getting simple facts wrong especially when we (rightly) criticise the likes of the DT ("More shale nonsense") for the same thing.
Mike Jackson, with respect - and I mean that sincerely, because I admire your posts - you are missing the point. A strong PM controls who is up for these jobs. An ethical PM would have told Yeo in no uncertain terms that he was not an acceptable candidate, and would have put up someone else. The bottom line is, the PM approved his appointment.
This level of graft and corruption is no so in-the-face of the public that I can only conclude that these people believe (a) they are untouchable, or (b) they are trying to provoke a revolution!
MFG, omb
I challenged Yeo on his conflicts of interest a few weeks back when he was at a debate on climate change policy at UCL.
His response:
"It will be a dark day indeed in Parliament when MPs are not allowed outside financial interests"
>:-/
Mike Jackson and Johanna
Thanks for pointing this out. Perhaps I should have said that I believe that Yeo should have had the whip withdrawn some twenty years ago when his philandering and illigitimate reproduction became apparent.
Some of that state funding will go straight into Yeo's pocket. £50m of state funding has to make TMO Renewables a viable company which means Yeo's undeclared shares will now have a value which should put at least £250,000 into his Christmas fund.
This is not a new idea.
New Zealanders have been making biofuel from sewage way back in 2006 and 2008.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381404
NZ firm makes bio-diesel from sewage in world first
By Errol Kiong
5:00 AM Friday May 12, 2006
A New Zealand company has successfully turned sewage into modern-day gold.
Marlborough-based Aquaflow Bionomic yesterday announced it had produced its first sample of bio-diesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds.
It is believed to be the world's first commercial production of bio-diesel from "wild" algae outside the laboratory - and the company expects to be producing at the rate of at least one million litres of the fuel each year from Blenheim by April.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10532972
There's oil in them sewage ponds
By Jarrod Booker
4:00 AM Friday Sep 19, 2008
One man's waste is another man's treasure in a process developed in New Zealand that could revolutionise the fuel industry.
A South Island company has developed a means of turning algae that grow in sewage ponds into crude oil, which can then be refined into fuels such as petrol, LPG or kerosene and aviation fuel.
I thought it had already been established years ago, both by EU Directive and Judicial Review that human sewage is waste, and cannot be recycled or processed into anything?
http://www.sovereignty.org.uk/features/eco/pollypoo.html
50 million? how about another $6.5billion wasted!
13 Dec: CBS: Tax dollars backing some "risky" energy projects
CBS News counted 12 clean energy companies that are having trouble after collectively being approved for more than $6.5 billion in federal assistance. Five have filed for bankruptcy: The junk bond-rated Beacon, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, AES' subsidiary Eastern Energy and Solyndra.
Others are also struggling with potential problems. Nevada Geothermal -- a home state project personally endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- warns of multiple potential defaults in new SEC filings reviewed by CBS News. It was already having trouble paying the bills when it received $98.5 million in Energy Department loan guarantees...
Nobody from the Energy Department would agree to an interview...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57358484/tax-dollars-backing-some-risky-energy-projects/
How come you Brits allow crooks to run your government?
Your country is pathetic.