Green fascists given free rein in England

How far will all of this go? The energy industry and the government in the UK have allowed the environmental groups free rein to delegitimize coal (and oil for that matter). They have invested nothing in defending fossil fuels, legitimizing their product or in advancing strategies to combat global warming that do not involve getting rid of coal. As a result, the jury was, in a literal sense, prejudiced against coal. The benefits of affordable energy for the many must be championed, otherwise we will end up with expensive energy for the few.

Vandalizing the Economy
CEI’s Iain Murray, from Planet Gore

This is very big. In Britain, a group of Greenpeace supporters trespassed on to a coal-fired power station and started vandalizing it, painting a message to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown about global warming. They were arrested and prosecuted. Their defense strategy was to claim a "lawful excuse" on the grounds that their actions could help prevent significant damage to others' property that would result from global warming. Their defense witnesses included James Hansen, Al Gore's adviser and head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Zac Goldsmith, ultra-wealthy heir of Sir James Goldsmith and a conservative candidate for Parliament. The strategy worked. Yesterday, a jury returned a majority verdict, acquitting the so-called Kingsnorth Six. As The Independent put it, the jury decided the "threat of global warming justifies breaking the law ."

The ramifications are huge. Operators of coal-fired power stations in the UK have just been stripped of legal protection from the criminal actions of the environmental lobby (to call them extremists would be wrong - this is the mainstream). It is perfectly possible that a future jury will find differently, but the chances of that happening have fallen dramatically. Investor confidence in coal energy will therefore be damaged. There will be huge political risk in building a new coal plant. Existing coal plants will come under literal attack.

The same people hate nuclear and will work to delay new nuclear plants. Renewables are marginal, even according to the Renewable Energy Foundation . North Sea Gas is running out, so the only solution to keep the lights on is kowtowing to Vladimir Putin and Gazprom .