Julia Gillard’s new pledge to Australians should read “There will be no more affordable electricity under a government I lead.”
At least US President Obama back in January 2008 was honest enough to admit that “under my plan of cap and trade, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."
Electricity generators have warned that they face a cashflow crunch of hundreds of millions of dollars to buy carbon tax permits as the latest greenhouse gas emissions figures suggest almost $4 billion of the $7.7bn to be raised in the first year of the policy will come from power companies.
Data from the Climate Change Department yesterday shows the power generation sector accounted for about 170 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in the 2010-11 financial year, which could mean a carbon tax bill of $3.9bn if repeated next year.
The two NSW state-owned generators - Macquarie Generation and Delta Electricity - were the two biggest emitters in 2010-11, with 20.3 million tonnes and 19.8 million tonnes in CO2 emissions respectively.
If the same emissions levels were repeated next year, Macquarie would face a carbon tax bill of more than $466m and Delta would pay $455m, based on the government's starting carbon price of $23 a tonne from July.
The companies told The Australian yesterday they would try to recoup the cost through higher electricity prices, but because prices are set by bids in the national electricity market, they are uncertain how much they will be able to recover.
Tell me how taxing the bejesus out of electricity is going to cool the planet?
What a cluster fuck.
Meanwhile, Japan has become the latest major world polluter to rule out introducing a carbon price or carbon tax in the near future, as it struggles with power shortages and a rising yen caused by the euro crisis.
Japan, the world's third-largest economy and fifth-largest global carbon emitter, joins the US and Canada in backtracking on the introduction of a carbon price.
Japan, Australia's second-largest trading partner, is more reliant than ever upon Australian imports of fossil fuels, and now accounts for about 65 per cent of Australia's liquefied natural gas exports.
It is the world's second-largest steel producer and relies upon the importation of Australian coking coal and iron ore.
The Gillard government’s idiotic carbon tax dreamed up to meet this imaginary crisis is falling apart. The EU’s carbon dioxide EUA futures contract for December 2013 expiry last traded (28/2/12) at $12.22 (9.80 Euros) or per ton leaving Australia isolated as the only country in the world with a $23.00 per ton carbon dioxide price – the highest in the world.
The EUA futures contract for December 2014 expiry last traded (28/2/12) at $13.18 (10.57 Euros) per ton.
China will also be putting a price on carbon dioxide but at a measly (appropriate?) rate of 10 yuan or $1.55 per ton of carbon dioxide.
Not only will Gillard’s carbon tax do serious damage to the competitiveness of Australian industry, it will add billions a year to the cost of electricity and push more Australians into fuel poverty.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” - H L Mencken
Could it be then, that if we continue to allow greenhouse gas emissions to rise unchecked and fuel serious warming, our planet's crust will begin to toss and turn once again?
The bottom line is that through our climate-changing activities we are loading the dice in favour of escalating geological havoc at a time when we can most do without it. Unless there is a dramatic and completely unexpected turnaround in the way in which the human race manages itself and the planet, then long-term prospects for our civilisation look increasingly grim.
…and when the debilitating effects of anthropogenic climate change are insinuating themselves increasingly into every nook and cranny of our world and our lives, the last thing we need is for the dozing subterranean giant to awaken.
The Guardian and the writer of this rubbish should be ashamed. The SMH should also be embarrassed about republishing this nonsense.
I normally wouldn’t bother commentating about the Oscars except for the fact the Academy just gave its best picture gong to the French black-and-white silent film, “The Artist”.
It obviously appealed to the art farts so expect to see a plethora of Australian taxpayer funded silent films coming to your local cinema soon.
I can’t wait to see the silent black-and-white version of Star Wars…
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet at the National Press Club rejected suggestions the embattled aluminium sector was doomed and said it could continue to thrive using clean energy.
Keep peddling Greg...but please stop peddling CAGW bullshit...we all know it’s a scam.
He is a concerned citizen who does not believe in the Man-made Climate Change/Global Warming theory and does not want a carbon dioxide tax which he believes will ruin Australia's economy, destroy jobs and be of no benefit to the environment.
This exclusive cartoon was commissioned by Andy’s RANT!
If you would like to reproduce this cartoon first get permission from me via twitter.
Don’t worry about the Gonski Review Christopher Pyne. Your first order of business when you become the Federal Minister for Education is to emulate Arizona’s new approach and empower school principals to sack any teacher who brings their partisan doctrine into the classroom.
Teachers in Arizona would automatically be fired for bringing “partisan doctrine” into their classrooms under a bill pending before the state legislature.
Arizona Senate bill 1202 is meant to ensure students get a balanced view of what they’re taught in school. In addition to firing teachers who bring partisanship into the classroom, school districts that allow it to happen would face losing state funding.
Arizona GOP congressional candidate Gabriela Saucedo Mercer testified in favour of the bill, telling lawmakers: “I have seen, firsthand, the damage done to our young students by partisans who pretend to be educators.”
“I have seen young students who, through classroom indoctrination rather than instruction, were incited to threaten and harass anyone who disagrees with their position,” Mercer said.
