Tag Archives: housing
Burn The Forests, Save The Planet?
Good news for the American logging industry: Timber is back, with an assist from Europe’s anti-carbon crusade. Across the forests of East Texas and deep in the Florida swamps, trees are in rising demand as “biomass” to help utility companies in Europe meet their targets for so-called “renewable energy.” That basically includes everything except nuclear and fossil fuels—even wood pellets, made from compressed sawdust or trees run through a chipper. Last year, Europe imported more than 1.7 million tons of these pellets from America, for a market that the U.S. International Trade Commission describes as having been “virtually nonexistent” in 2000. Back then, Europeans still hoped they could meet much of their 2020 carbon-cutting and “renewable” goals with wind, solar and other more fashionable fuels. That hope proved unrealistic, even before austerity budgets started shaving subsidies from these perpetually emerging industries. In a 2003 directive, the EU put biomass on a list of fuels to subsidize and exempted it from carbon capping and taxing. Never mind that burning compressed wood—a leading source of “biomass”—usually produces less energy per kilo of CO2 than does coal. The EU’s emissions accounting follows the logic that in the long run we’re all biomass: Forests can regrow and reabsorb CO2, so their combustion is not only renewable but “carbon neutral.” European utilities generating wood-fired electricity have since 2005 been eligible for credits, which they can sell to companies overrunning their CO2 quotas. The only hitch is that land-use and conservation rules in most European countries make it either illegal or prohibitively expensive to clear-cut trees for industrial processing. Solution? Use wood from America. U.S. lumber consumption is still recovering from the housing crash. The Internet has also reduced demand for paper pulp and disrupted the economics of logging. Europe’s anti-carbon regime has reversed these trends by creating a whole new market for timber products. Europeans imported wood waste, scrap and pellets at $140 per metric ton in 2011, the Trade Commission reports, up from $52 in 2001. Producers are still ramping up capacity to meet European demand, which could easily double in the next decade if governments stay the regulatory course. Last week, Maryland-based Enviva, whose clients include German utility giant E.ON , EOAN.XE -0.15% announced that its new 500,000 metric-ton pellet plant near the Roanoke River is in full operation. Supposed conservationists in the Obama Administration have been following Europe’s lead. The Environmental Protection Agency has so far exempted biomass emissions from CO2 tallies, and since 2009 the Department of Agriculture has doled out millions in small loans and grants for wood pellets and other “advanced biofuels.” Some advance. The industrial revolution was fueled by a shift to higher-energy fuels like coal and, later, petroleum. Modern power plants and pellets mean wood can be burned more efficiently than 200 years ago, but it will still take an awful lot of forests to make this great leap backward. Remember when logging was bad for the environment? This Europe-driven wood-pellet boom is another reminder that the obsession with CO2 creates indifference to other environmental considerations. Continue reading
China Property Digest: Home Prices Keep Rising Despite New Curbs
BEIJING | Wed May 22, 2013 4:19am EDT May 22 (Reuters) – China’s home prices are still on the rise despite stricter measures by the central government and major cities in the past few weeks to calm frothy real estate market. The rise fuelled expectations that China could adopt further cooling steps, particularly the widening out of property tax on home owners. Property investment accounted for 11 percent of China’s gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2013. Here is a look at the latest news, numbers and more from China’s real estate market. REUTERS NEWS MAY 18 – China’s housing inflation accelerated to its fastest pace in April in two years, driven by a jump in prices in Beijing and Shanghai, complicating the task of policymakers trying to cool the property sector while supporting economic expansion. MAY 13 – Growth in real estate investment in China quickened in the first four months as developers saw improved liquidity conditions, though property sales slowed slightly due to continuing government curbs. MAY 10 – As central banks print cash to boost moribund economies, investors in Asia wanting to hedge against rising prices are dumping gold and doubling down on property. MAY 6 – China Vanke, the country’s largest real estate developer, said it sold 12.4 billion yuan ($2 billion) of property in April, up 67.6 percent from a year earlier. MAY 2 – Average home prices in China’s 100 biggest cities rose in April from the previous month, the eleventh straight month-on-month rise, a private survey showed, raising the risk of further tightening steps despite recent government measures to crack down on speculation. APR 25 – China should expand property ownership taxes to more cities instead of imposing a 20 percent capital gains tax on transactions if it wants to prevent a steep rebound in home prices this year, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top state think-tank said. DATA Beijing’s property sales reached 5.6 million square meters in the first four months of 2013, up 71 percent from the same period last year, according to data from Beijing Bureau of Statistics. China’s central government will allocate 66 billion yuan to local governments to help build public housing for rent this year, the Ministry of Finance said. Existing home sales in Beijing plunged to 5,212 units in April, slumping 88 percent from the previous month and dropping 48 percent from a year ago, according to data from local property brokerage Home Link. Land sales in China’s 53 major cities rose 3 percent in April from a year ago and were down 11 percent from March, data from a private consultancy CRIC showed. CHINESE PRESS MAY 22 – About 30 Chinese developers have raised almost 80 billion yuan so far this year from overseas to support expansion. (Securities Daily) MAY 13 – China should gradually rely on market forces to control the housing market as the current administrative curbing measures could not change market sentiments on rising home prices, the newspaper said in a commentary.(People’s Daily) MAY 12 – China’s government is studying a long-term policy system to control the housing market , which is expected by analysts to improve its way of regulating the market and replace current home purchases restrictions. (Xinhua) THEY SAID — “Considering the special position of property industry in the economy , the policymakers will treat the market more reasonably and cautiously.”(Li Daokui, former academic adviser of the People’s Bank of China). — “Expectations on home price rises have not waned yet. China’s property tightening campaign is still at its critical moment and the country needs to reinforce implementations of cooling measures.” (Liu Jianwei, senior statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics, said in a statement accompanying the release of April home price data) (Reporting By Xiaoyi Shao and Kevin Yao; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) Continue reading
Homes for Sale – 1131 Oyster Place, Oxnard, CA
Property Site: http://tour.troop.com/home/ASC3ZU John Villar, DRE License number 01830413 Great starter home for the first time buyers. This home is located … Continue reading
