One European Green minister has announced that he is planning on banning a commonly used type of fossil fuel despite the ongoing energy crisis.
Ireland’s environment minister, Eamon Ryan, has announced that the sale and distribution of turf — a commonly used fossil fuel popular in Ireland — will be banned in the country from September this year.
This is despite the fact that both Ireland and Europe are facing down a crippling energy crisis partially caused by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as well as other long-term systemic issues.
According to a report by the Irish Independent, Ryan — a member of Ireland’s leftist Green Party — justified the fuel sale ban by saying that the fumes from turf contribute to a number of deaths each year in the country.
“[The new regulations] are required, as each year, some 1,300 people die prematurely in Ireland due to air pollution from solid fuel burning,” the publication reports the leftist minister as saying.
“Research undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency also demonstrates that the contribution of peat to air pollution levels is significant,” he continued.
Other members of Ireland’s lower parliamentary house meanwhile are not happy with the ban, with one saying that it was “inexcusable” considering the ongoing cost of living crisis.
“At a time of war in Europe and soaring energy prices, Minister Ryan thinks now is right to prevent hard-pressed people from being able to buy a couple of trailers of turf to warm themselves next winter,” said Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice. “This inexcusable act of Government overreach must be resisted.”
The Environment Minister is also currently planning on forcing through a carbon tax hike on the Irish people, as well as implementing measures aimed at curbing the use of SUV-style vehicles, despite elected representatives warning that normal Irish people simply cannot afford such increases.
Ryan is also set to recommend that those struggling to pay their fuel bills take shorter showers and turn down their thermostats, seemingly unwilling to pull back on Ireland’s heavy taxation of energy.
Ireland is far from the only location where politicians have declared war against fuels deemed undesirable, even during a period of extreme energy insecurity.
Neighbouring Britain has also taken aim at the at-home burning of fossil fuels, with the sale of a number of fuels for such purposes being banned in 2021, with the sale of traditional house coal to be banned entirely by May 2023.
Meanwhile, on the European mainland, Germany has been on a green crusade against anything that is not considered to be completely renewable fuel, shutting down nuclear and fossil fuel power stations throughout the country in the hopes of lowering carbon emissions.
These shutdowns have continued in recent months despite the country’s extremely insecure energy position, with the Federal Republic at risk of extreme hardship should Moscow cut it off from the Russian natural gas it so desperately needs to operate normally.
Even Green party politicians within the country — who have continued the power station shutdowns — have lamented the nation’s over-reliance on Russian energy, with one going so far as to describe the Russian supply addiction as “stupid”.
“Energy policy is always power policy, is always interest policy, is therefore always security policy,” said German Climate Minister Robert Habeck. “Energy policy is always power policy, is always interest policy, is therefore always security policy.”
“We knew, or we could have known, that it was not only stupid to place all our security policy cards on just one country, but that it also wasn’t a smart idea to put them on that particular country,” he continued. “We have to acknowledge that we acted wrongly in the past.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.