In democratic countries, one would expect that incompetent and corrupt politicians actively involved in scandals, deadly disasters, or other catastrophes would get voted out of office, fired, prosecuted, or at least retired into obscurity. But if they are pitching for Net Zero, the European Union promotes them. Spain’s Socialist minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, who the Spanish Congress is investigating for neglecting to strengthen dams, drainage canals, warning systems, and responses that would have mitigated the deadly consequences of the recent floods that devastated the province of Valencia — killing hundreds of people and destroying thousands of homes — has just been appointed to the European Commission. The president of the European Commission (the EU’s ruling body), Ursula von der Leyen, has quite a bit in common with the Spanish Climate Czar. When von der Leyen was German defense minister, she hollowed out the military with defense cuts while shuttering Germany’s coal plants and nuclear reactors. Her government made Germany dependent on Russian gas as part of the “Green Energy transition,” weakening Europe while filling Vladimir Putin’s war chest and emboldening him to invade Ukraine. Von der Leyen is herself under investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Belgian government on corruption allegations involving the purchase of over $2 billion in COVID vaccines, most of which were never used. She is being probed for “interference in public functions, destruction of evidence, corruption and conflict of interest,” according to the Belgian prosecutor’s office in Liège. It’s alleged that her husband, Heiko, is a lobbyist for Pfizer. Despite losing support among European conservatives who were her original base, von der Leyen narrowly clinched her reappointment to a new five-year term last month by a coalition of Socialists and Greens rallying to her cry for “massive investment in renewables.” Meanwhile, Ribera, who shows devotion to the climate cult by riding a bicycle to cabinet meetings — from her parked limo a block away — has been a key apparatchik in the pharaonic Net Zero programs pushed by von der Leyen. Asleep at the switch while 300 Valencians drowned in the mud, she has been instrumental in tearing up Spain’s countryside to install massive solar and windmill farms to save the world by 2050. Along the fertile agricultural valleys, rolling hills, and pasturelands off Spain’s southern coast where the country’s legendary prize bulls and Andalusian stallions have bred for centuries, thousands of acres are being expropriated to install solar panels arriving from China. “This could be catastrophic for the local economy,” says Jose Garcia Cea, who heads Plataforma SOS, a local group fighting the project. He fears that the damage to agriculture and tourism would turn thriving local communities into “ghost towns.” The communist mayor of Jimena de la Frontera, a picturesque town with a population of 7,000, says that the solar parks will create new “Green jobs.” But these would mainly consist of low-wage temporary work during the few months of installation. African migrants landing daily in the nearby port of Algeciras and housed in local hostels at EU expense could provide the labor. According to Garcia, projects currently up for building permission have been submitted by shell companies with hidden owners presenting inadequate environmental impact studies. He points to a map indicating how a solar farm is planned for a low-lying valley on an estuary near the sea, an area highly vulnerable to flash floods. The solar panels are powered by a dangerously toxic sulfuric gas that could poison the atmosphere through accidental leaks. Fifteen lobbyists for renewable companies have offices in the same building that houses the European Commission’s headquarters in Brussels. They have pushed for subsidies exceeding well over $100 billion to boost solar and wind, distorting the energy market and depressing Europe’s largest economies. A third of Europe’s electricity now relies on unstable sources. There is little sunshine in northern Europe during much of the year and the North Sea wind blows so hard at times that windmill farms have to be shut down as they overload the grid, costing a billion dollars each time. “Germany is buckling under the weight of ballooning renewable energy subsidies,” according to Bloomberg. GDP growth in what was Europe’s economic powerhouse has dropped to small decimals and major firms like Volkswagen are announcing mass layoffs and plant closures. They cite rising energy costs and stifling regulations designed to boost demand for electric vehicles (EVs) — which China produces more cheaply. The EU’s current tariff on Chinese EVs is 10 percent and while they are thinking of raising it to 35 percent, Spain’s Socialists have a captive market. They are offering subsidies to the owners of the 120,000 cars that got washed away in Valencia if they replace them with EVs. There is a further catch: The flood struck areas that won’t have the necessary electricity to charge them for months and there are no charging stations in the 70 worst-hit villages and towns. Brexit should have unshackled the U.K. to pursue rational energy policies. Instead, it’s competing with the EU for net-zero targets. North Sea oil exploration has been virtually stopped, with gas wells being capped using methods that prevent their ever reopening. Among the most controversial Green measures being introduced is forcing homeowners into strapping debt by requiring them to replace their gas boilers with electrically powered heat pumps whose cost can exceed $70,000 per unit. Record tax hikes unveiled last month in the new Labour government’s budget are going to finance the Green agenda even as Britain’s social services are collapsing and average living standards drop. Former conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tried to scale back the draconian climate measures and impossible target dates introduced by his predecessor, Boris Johnson. Aware of their unpopularity, Labour’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, initially spoke of reallocating $35 billion earmarked for net zero. But then, Special U.N. Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and former Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, flew into London on a private jet from his home in Canada to meet with Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. Carney is also vice-chairman of Brookfield Management, a hedge fund heavily invested in renewables, whose holdings include Britain’s main producer of heat pumps. Carney’s Stalinist approach to saving the world is explained on his U.N. website: “Those who invest in achieving net zero … who are part of the solution, will be rewarded. Those who are lagging behind and are still part of the problem will be punished.” (RELATED: The Real Climate Change Disaster) His book Value(s), Building a Better World for All, in which he makes ample reference to the teachings of Marx and Lenin, envisions a Net Zero world in which “Assets will be stranded, used gasoline powered cars will be unsaleable, inefficient properties will be unrentable,” and the broken middle classes are “climate road kills.” (RELATED: Climate Change Socialism on the Attack) Ben Habib, deputy leader of Nigel Farage’s surging Reform party which gained parliamentary representation in the last British elections, told The American Spectator that “enforcing unpopular climate policies will inevitably result in growing restrictions on civil liberties.” Carney’s partner on the trusteeship board of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, has openly called for “Climate Lockdowns.” In a recent speech, the usually measured von der Leyen made a passionate appeal for censorship or “pre-bunking”: “We need to build societal immunity to information manipulation because research has shown that pre-bunking is much more effective than de-bunking,” declared the EU president who has led efforts to ban X and other social media platforms. Spain’s Socialists are trying to push measures that would place the country’s main television channels under virtual one-party control. Support for Green parties is otherwise vanishing. Greens are polling at 10 percent in Germany, five percentage points less than their vote in the 2021 elections. In Ireland, Belgium, and other countries, they have lost all parliamentary representation and have 12 seats left in the European parliament. EU mandarins are increasingly resorting to lawfare against critics of climate policies. Germany’s collapsing coalition government of Socialists and Greens has been trying to proscribe the surging right-wing Alternative for Germany which has made dramatic gains in recent elections. Repressive measures have reached the point that police raided the home of a pensioner at 4 a.m. to arrest him for calling the local Green party gauleiter an “idiot.” Ex-BBC star presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been arrested on charges of inciting public unrest after speaking at a farmers’ protest outside Parliament. A young environmentalist in Spain was slapped with a $35,000 fine for hanging a poster on the road to a hilltop castle protesting the construction of a mega solar farm nearby. Carney might offer advice in this regard. Some years ago, he played a key role in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s repression of a Canadian truckers’ strike over COVID mandates. He called for “following the money” in an open letter to Toronto’s Globe and Mail, to cut the truckers’ sources of funding, which led to the government freezing of individual bank accounts. Every tyranny needs a dynasty and Europe has them ready-made. King Charles III of England led the Green charge at a climate conference in Glasgow, where he called for a military-style campaign to mobilize the world for climate action. A close relative of Spain’s King Felipe holds a job at the U.N.’s climate office in New York, which a Spanish diplomat who held senior positions at the U.N. described to The American Spectator as a “front.” Spanish royals need to placate radical leftists in the government who are pushing for a referendum on the monarchy. In the last Cold War, Russia’s KGB activated extensive operations to penetrate European labor unions and sponsor terrorist groups to sabotage Western Europe’s energy. Europeans are doing it themselves this time around and saving Russia the work even as they lean on the U.S. to risk nuclear war to save them from Putin. Donald Trump must hold his promise to pull out of the Paris climate accords and expose the global “climate scam.” Americans should furthermore lock arms with the growing majority of Europeans fighting for their civil rights, cheap energy, and food security. READ MORE from Martin Arostegui: Kursk Is Not Worth a Nuclear War North Korea Is in the Fight Has Latin America Become a Base for Iran’s Terrorism? The post Climate ‘Changists’ Cashing In, European-Style appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.