Emissions Trading Scheme blah, blah, blah, not a good idea, blah, carbon tax better, blah, cap and trade no good, blah, jobs at risk, blah,
How is a carbon tax any different to the other methods? It's a fact that the end users of whatever it is that's produced will be paying, which will put prices up. For necessities like power it will make life hard, for things not necessary it will mean a fall in sales/demand.
What irks me most about this ETS/Cap and Trade/Carbon Tax idiocy is that it isn't necessary as AGW is not reality.
Watch this space, it should be up on site after 9am, EST. I'll paste the details below.
Latest Transcripts:
Updated Thursday, 19 February, 2009
US commander says tough year ahead
The US President Barack Obama has committed an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, but military experts are warning many more troops will be needed if the war is to be won. The new US troop commitment is likely to put pressure on American allies, including Australia to send more troops especially if European nations draw down their contingents in Afghanistan.
TRANSCRIPT
Britain deports radical cleric
After a protracted legal battle, radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada is set to be deported from the UK after Britain's highest court unanimously ruled that the preacher can be deported to Jordan despite his claim that he'll be tortured there.
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Clinton praises Indonesia for Islamic democracy
During her tour of Asia, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has praised Indonesia as an example of modernity by embracing Islam, democracy and women's rights.
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Libs line up for blue ribbon seats
The Melbourne seat of Kooyong and the Sydney seat of Bradfield are facing pre-selection battles as the Liberal Party chooses replacements for outgoing MPs Petro Georgiou and Brendan Nelson. Nelson tells AM it's important a seat-warmer isn't chosen and that his replacement be a person headed for the ministry. Nelson has also attacked moves to unseat Alan Stockdale as the federal party president.
TRANSCRIPT
Fire areas begin to rebuild
Little things count for a lot in the areas burnt and blackened by the Victorian fires. Streets are being cleaned up and services repaired.
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Bushfire victims seek legal advice
A lawyer who has been helping bushfire survivors at Kinglake says many people are discovering their insurance policies aren't worth what they thought and others are facing problems with banks and landlords.
TRANSCRIPT
Coalition warms to carbon tax
The Opposition's Andrew Robb says a carbon tax may be a better way for Australia to cut carbon emissions. He says the Government's model for an emissions trading scheme is overly complicated, flawed, will cost jobs and do little to help the environment.
TRANSCRIPT
Government committed to emissions trading scheme
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Federal Government will not change its policy on an emissions trading scheme to reduce carbon pollution.
TRANSCRIPT
Illness follows Queensland floods
The floodwaters in far north Queensland have cut off the water supply to one small town in the Gulf and there are fears that dysentery has broken out. Karumba has been isolated by floods for more than a month and last week the water pipeline into the town was damaged.
TRANSCRIPT
PM last night had this interview with Frank Stilwell, Professor of Political Economy, University of Sydney.
4 comments:
A lot of overheated air emitted by hot heads. We need to just stop the sun shining.
Finally people are starting to look at the mad cap and trade scheme and work out what it will mean if implemented. Of course it will be national suicide and it’s starting to looks as if the Penny is starting to drop.
Under the system the government decides how may permits they will issue each year which will then be auctioned each month through the year. Anyone needing permits to remain in business, i.e., power stations, energy suppliers, large industries and any industry that emits fugitive emissions as part of their production process, would be required to self assess their needs and purchase the permits from the government (or anyone who had some to sell). At the end of the year they will be required to report and surrender the correct number of permits and there will be (most likely heavy penalties) for non-compliance.
Then the government will reduce the number of permits that are available in each successive year after the scheme starts until, joy of joys, Australia’s total emissions are reduced to the desired (subsistence) level! And this whole crazy mess is supposed to cause alternative low emissions technologies to come into the market place because of the price on carbon.
Well I’ve got news for the government:
1. the new technologies don’t exist and the gains in energy efficiency are fanciful
2. the huge efficiency improvements required in the use of energy if we are to maintain our standard of living will not happen.
If this mad command economy scheme proceeds, the end result will see energy rationing in Australia when the energy suppliers are unable to obtain the permits that they require. Forget about the proposal in the ETS white paper that power stations would be given free permits (but still taxed on their value) on the basis that they continue to keep available the same amount of generation capacity that they have now. There is a term the government should contemplate and it is force majeure.
Funnily enough with all this talk about ‘clean energy’, the discussion centres around electricity but we have other energy suppliers delivering natural gas and oil based fuels. These energy suppliers will also have to have permits and remember the number of permits will be reduced.
Of course there is one possible way of bypassing the Australian scheme (suggested yesterday at Bolta’s ) and that would be through buying international permits. That would work if those ‘international’ permits were Kyoto CDM compliant as required by the white paper. For example, if the carbon credits from Russia met this criteria a business here could but the credits instead of at auction in Australia which could nicely stuff the government with its wealth redistribution plans. And WTF if would just add to the $870 million present from the UN.
Still this government has finally worked out that it controls the printing presses . So I’m sure a few billion more here of there won’t matter. I wonder if/when we will see expiry dates printed on our currency.
Idiots.
A few more comments from the link Coalition warms to carbon tax.
The Greens leader Senator Bob Brown says the present plan is flawed, arguing it rewards big polluters.
Potentially yes if you think CO2 is a pollutant and given the design of the ETS.
A group of Australian economists agree but they want the Government to consider scrapping the scheme altogether. They say a carbon tax would be a better way of lowering emissions.
B/S. A tax is a tax is a tax. It will be just a tax on energy like the current excise fuel tax is on liquid petroleum fuels. Does anyone think that the excise fuel tax has reduced the consumption of petrol or diesel? So why would increasing the price of energy result in lower emissions? Have these people any hard data on the price elasticity of demand for energy? Apparently not because it’s price inelastic. About the only sensitivity will be with larger energy users relocating to locations where energy prices are lower (an aluminium smelter is a good example) whilst for other users, the only option is wear the cost or if the costs are too great to go out of business.
The Opposition isn't ruling out the idea. Its emissions trading spokesman Andrew Robb says a carbon tax would be simpler.
B/S. See comments above.
ANDREW ROBB: What we do know is that the scheme designed by the Rudd Government after 18 months of endless inquiries and millions of dollars is a deeply flawed scheme. It will cost jobs it will kill investment and it won't do anything about CO2 reductions.
Well at least he is right with these remarks.
So we need now, and I think the Government is already starting itself, to look at alternatives.
More B/S. News for you Mr Robb. Nothing needs to be done if you want this economy to survive. And furthermore nothing much can be done to cost effectively reduce CO2. The evidence is that there is no need to do anything about CO2 and having said that, sure invest in R&D for alternative energy development systems but that’s all.
Well and clearly put, Wand
When will the blindingly obvious consequences sink into the turbid minds on both sides of politics?
I'm now convinced that Paco's descriptor for the buyers of his wares,
...people who are not greatly burdened with an excess of cognitive ability,
should be applied to all the pollies.
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