Greenhouse articles
Green Snouts Sniff a COVID Windfall
Quadrant Online, 16 April 2020
The Pope, deprived of the counsel of Cardinal Pell, the Church’s most astute voice, foolishly called coronavirus “nature’s response” for failures to act on climate change. It was, therefore, hardly surprising that coronavirus would be recruited to push for additional renewable energy subsidies to reinforce those that have
Renewables rent-seekers aren’t interested in bushfire prevention – or cheap efficient energy
The Spectator, 20 January 2020
No amount of mouth-frothing by Piers Morgan or artful deception bythe legions of renewable energy warriors published by the Australian Financial Review and the Guardian will change the facts about this summer. The severe fire season is due to dry weather (not itself conceivably a result of climate change
Madrid: the climate catastrophe juggernaut trundles on
Spectator Australia, 20 December 2019
As well as nation-states, an astonishing well-funded 2,330 NGOs, many with multiple delegates, fronted up to this month’s Madrid climate conference. The macabre festival was re-located from Santiago because the Chilean populace had risen in revolt about the higher prices foisted upon them by its government
Cheaper power coming? Blink and you’ll miss it if our Paris goals remain
Spectator Australia, 11 December 2019
There is a panoply of agencies regulating energy at the Commonwealth level and not all of these seem to be rowing in the same direction. The main agencies are • The Energy and Environment Department with 490 staff in energy and greenhouse — plus another 454 in its dependent agencies: Clean Energy Finance
The return of Ross Garnaut and climate nirvana?
The Spectator, 6 November 2019
This week, the Financial Review has featured a return of Ross Garnaut to the climate policy advisory role. Soothingly, he said that with the upcoming technological changes, Australia in a post-carbon world could become the locus of energy-intensive processing of minerals”. This, he said, was because of our
A Billion Reasons to Despair
Quadrant Online, 30 October 2019
The support that certain people offer for a policy is Quite often a clear indication that it is hopelessly wrong. So it is when Malcolm Turnbull registered support for the ghe support that certain people offer for a policy is Quite often a clear indication that it is hopelessly wrong. So it is when Malcolm
We should be afraid of rising fuel costs, not climate claims
Spectator, 27 September 2019
With the children’s week-long climate crusade now approaching its end, the United Nations meeting on climate change, accompanied by the normal release of alarmist “findings”, is well underway in New York. The New York meeting has been weaponised by the millions of children incited to take time off from sc
Standby for next week’s UN doomfest for climate crazies
The Spectator, 18 September 2019
The push is on ahead of the upcoming UN Climate Summit to be held next week in New York. Although the most senior world leaders, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, will not attend, the UN claims that 100 heads of state will. The official Climate Summit is proceeded by the Youth Summit to be attended by autistic
Another rope-seller to the hangman
Catallaxy Files, 13 August 2019
An article in the Fairfax papers today asks how we proceed to make sure that regions don’t suffer too much as a result of the inevitable triumph of renewables and the consequent demise of coal. The article represents the views of the Global Compact Network Australia (GCNA), which is funded a hundre
Carbon reduction policies just shovelling money into a black hole
The Australian, 23 July 2019
Australian taxpayers are funding pointless and costly efforts to change the climate. The global warming scare has fathered many government policies that have penalised taxpayers and consumers. The energy and climate space is dominated by regulatory-oriented entrepreneurs seeking government funding or
When Even Bob Brown Gets It …
The Spectator, 28 June 2019
Some people think wind turbines are structures of beauty. Bob Brown is no longer among them and we’ve all had fun pointing out his apostasy. The half-million birds which turbines are estimated to kill every year in the US and the 200,000 German bats minced annually by the same machines might also take he
The Clover Moore catastrophe
The Spectator, 28 June 2019
Clover Moore’s Sydney, with its Climate Emergency clarion call, is far from the first city to adopt the zero-emissions-by-2050 mantra. In fact, the Carbon Disclosure Project with a blue-ribbon board of trustees claiming to represent $100 trillion of funds has 43 such cities on its A-List. These include Melbourne,
Green subsidies have sapped nation’s energy for too long
The Australian, 20 June 2019
This month Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor fleshed out the federal government’s energy policy in ways that brought howls of outrage from the subsidy-seeking renewable energy lobby. Stripping aside the rhetoric, his address had three main themes. First, the government has subsidies in pla
A cancerous fantasy: Australian Outlook 2019
Catallaxy Files, 18 June 2019
Two years in the making and with a release planned for shortly after a triumphant Shorten Government occupied the Treasury Benches, we now have the Australian Outlook 2019. A team led by Dr Ken Henry, the man who developed Australia’s disastrous response to the 2007 world economic crisis, has pro
The Huge Cost of Climate Hysteria
Quadrant Online, 24 April 2019
Mark Lawson comes from a journalistic tradition which attempted to assess factual information without interpreting it within an ideological framework. His book, Climate Hysteria, draws on publicly available information, details that information, and analyses its interpretation and projections as offered by climate
More on the electric vehicles farce
Catallaxy Files, 18 April 2019
We can all have great sport on the back of Bill Shorten’s inability to differentiate between 8 minutes and 8 hours when it comes to the charge rate for electric batteries. But we should not delude ourselves that the Coalition is markedly different. The ALP policy has two strands – first the 50 per cent of new cars to be
The scare is settled? Have the climate catastrophists won?
The Spectator Australia, 19 March 2019
Evidence does not seem to matter in the debate on human-induced climate change. Hardly anyone is listening to reason. Minds have been made up.
A substantial majority of people considers human-induced climate change is underway. They do so even though temperatures and ocean levels have not
The Green Robe of Climate Justice
Quadrant Online, 11 February 2019
Being open-minded and impartial, as his tenure as a judge requires, we can take for granted that Mr Justice Preston read more broadly than the warmist epistles of alarmists and climate careerists cited in his judgment against the Rocky Hill coal mine. Alas, the views of less excitable climate scientists failed to get
The Liberals’ Downhill Racers
Quadrant Online, 27 January 2019
Could this be a coincidence? Zali Steggall, former Olympic skier and admirer of Malcolm Turnbull, is to contest Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah. At her launch on January 27 she said her decision to declare as an independent was motivated by a desire to promote the “sensible centre”. That term is code for climate
Reaping the fruits of political sabotage of the electricity industry
Catallaxy Files, 25 January 2019
The third world nature of Australia’s electricity industry was revealed this week with wholesale prices in Victoria and South Australia at the maximum $14,500 for lengthy periods in spite of thousands of customers being cut-off, major users agreeing to shut down demand in return for compensation paid by
Banks pretend to be virtue signalling while plundering electricity consumers
Catallaxy Files, 21 January 2019
In the salad days prior to 2015, before governments’ destructive interventions undermined Australia’s stable low-cost electricity supply, electricity as a topic of general interest hardly figured. Any concerns about power blackouts just did not reach the front pages or the late-night news bulletins. At that time the
The Australian Energy Regulator’s wholesale electricity market performance report
Catallaxy Files, 9 January 2019
The more desperate the situation of an industry, the more reports and regulatory overseers’ governments require, blind to any recognition of an industry’s malaise being created by their own actions. And so, with electricity we have an alphabet soup of regulatory agencies analysing, advising and fiddling. At the
Ford’s Ontario has Nothing to Learn from Australia’s Climate Plan
Troy Media, 24 December 2018
The gilets jaunes (yellow vests) demonstrations across the Atlantic against climate change driven fuel taxes offer Premier Doug Ford yet another reason to congratulate himself on repealing Ontario’s carbon tax. https://troymedia.com/environment/fords-ontario-has-nothing-to-learn-from-australia-climate-plan/
The ALP’s emission reduction dreams will strangle the economy
Catallaxy Files, 23 November 2018
Over the past decade, we have spent $70 billion on wind and solar. Here are some statistics from BNEF, not uncoincidentally, the venue where Bill Shorten and Mark Butler yesterday launched an outline of the ALP energy and climate policy.
Labor’s energy deal: Shorten facts, but you’ll pay more
The Spectator, 21 November 2018
Sucked in by spurious claims of the loss of 99 per cent of all coral reefs, mounting natural disasters, a permanent drought in the Murray Darling, and illusions that fossil fuels are archaic, Labor is preparing to announce its energy policy. Earlier this week, in a dummy run, Energy spokesman Mark Butler claimed, in the
The Diabolic Policy Dilemmas Created by Previous Energy Policies
Catallaxy Files, 14 November 2018
Regulatory measures – subsidies for wind/solar – have wrecked the Australian market, driving up prices and increasing supply costs. And the policies have created wind and solar capacities that have on-going effects, which cannot be unwound by simply allowing the subsidies to run their course, since this will
Real people put living standards above virtue signalling on climate change
Catallaxy Files, 26 October 2018
Leftist Economist Joseph Stiglitz, coming to Australia to collect the human rights activist “Sydney Peace Prize”, is not the only dreamer urging a carbon tax for Australia and proclaiming that climate change was not a liberal conspiracy. ​ As Chris Kenny notes the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) are also
Socialism will impoverish you, but it won’t solve climate change
The Spectator, 25 October 2018
Writing in the Guardian, Geoff Sparrow is not the first person to call for a socialist “dictatorship of the proletariat” as the only means of markedly reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In a curious conflation of this with surveys that appear to show an attraction to socialism in the part
The Bitter Fruit of a Bad Green Marriage
Quadrant Online, 10 September 2018
The service was conducted by the high priests of alarmism, with politicians pledging their love for rent-seeking renewables promoters as a media choir sang of the wonders to come. Yes, we've seen wonders aplenty -- obscene power prices, economic hobbles and the further corruption of science. ​ Comments from
Wasteful investment in wind/solar has a negative value
Catallaxy Files, 2 October 2018 ​
A breathless piece by the Guardian’s Calla Wahlquist announced that Victoria’s renewable energy boom set to create six thousand new jobs. And yet the head of the renewable energy lobby group, Tristan Edis, was downbeat because the subsidies are being phased down. This is the group that claims subsidies are not
Carbon taxes: many losers, some winners
Catallaxy Files, 10 October 2018
n a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Bjorn Lomborg drew attention to the inconsistency of the global warming costs and benefit estimates made by newly minted Nobel Prize recipient William Nordhaus, and the alarmist IPCC climate review issued out of Inchon. Lomborg, is a believer in the global warming myth
The Warmists Are Starting to Sweat
Quadrant Online, 7 October 2018
Here's a prediction you can take to the bank: the ABC and Fairfax will be running even more inane climate-scare stories than usual. Why might that be? Because the US has taken its money and departed Paris, threatening climate careerists with the unsettling prospect of finding honest work. ​ Over the next
Australian energy policy driving us on the road to Venezuela?
Catallaxy Files, 31 July 2018
he absurdity of the oxymoronic “National Energy Guarantee” continues. ​ Minister Frydenberg is urging all the states to sign onto his carbon tax with its fairyland projections of declining electricity prices on the back of higher roof-top investments. (The Government and its advisers did not get the ACCC’s memo
Is there logic in Bjorn Lomborg’s climate change proposals?
Catallaxy Files, 15 July 2018
The Australian’s opinion piece writers on the energy and climate change issue include Judith and Henry as well as Maurice Newman, Chris Kenny and Graham Lloyd. They are all doing terrific work in addressing the myths and self-serving agitprop that has the main political parties in thrall. ​ But where does Danish
Turnbull’s chosen energy supremo says wind is cheaper than coal
Catallaxy Files, 5 May 2018
n Thursday, at the Energy Users Conference, the government’s chosen head of the chive quango running the electricity supply industry, Kerry Schott, remarked that coal plants could no longer compete. According to The Australian (her speech has not been made public) she said “you are unlikely to see a new coal-fired
Emissions and the meeting of energy ministers
Catallaxy Files, 19 April 2018
Ben Potter, who as a useful idiot, was leaked a copy of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) report by the Victorian Government, reports today that the states are likely to sign off on the NEG at their meeting tomorrow. Potter is excoriated by Terry McCrann in today’s Herald Sun for his pandering to green energy
Energy Battlegrounds and Furphies
Catallaxy Files, 13 April 2018
I have this piece in this morning’s Australian which addresses the direction of energy and climate policy in light of Josh Frydenberg’s Press Club address. Aside from demonstrating how the renewable program has wrecked the electricity supply industry and brought a doubling of prices, it has two main themes. First, it
Australians suffer as big emitters get a greenhouse gas free pass
The Australian April 13, 2018
Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg’s tour de force at the National Press Club on Wednesday and his opinion piece on this page yesterday show a man on top of his brief and using it to smite the ALP and the Greens as well as those on his own side promoting direct investment to counter the
Is renewable energy competitive?
Catallaxy Files, 10 November 2017
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is now on his way to the UN conference in Bonn to pay obeisance to a global warming fraternity strengthened by two new members (Nicaragua and Syria) to the loss of merely one (the USA). Renewable energy (other than Politically Incorrect hydro) is the UN’s posterchild.
Frydenberg: Saviour or Suicidal?
Quadrant Online, 5 January 2018
In the slow news period that is the first few days of the year, The Australian broke a story about dissension in the Coalition ranks regarding the “in principle” decision, announced by Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, to allow Australian firms to acquit their carbon dioxide emission obligations by buying overseas
Opinion polls on green energy: a glass half full
Catallaxy Fie, 31 October 2017
There is some interesting material thrown up by today’s release of the Newspoll results on climate change. One interpretation is that a majority of respondents would prefer to leave the Paris Agreement, which the Government uses as justification for green energy policies, in light of Trump having already
End the renewables rorts now for cheap power
The Spectator Australia, 17 October 2017
The government’s abandonment of the expanded renewable energy target that the Finkel report recommended represents a careful compromise. The Prime Minister remains a rusted on fan of renewable energy which he considers marks the future. Malcolm Turnbull has put himself through multitudes of hoops to
Labor threatens renewed land expropriation to meet greenhouse emission reductions
Catallaxy Files, 6 October 2017
Among the egregious instances of government property theft, planning regulations contain some of the greatest calumnies. And, within planning regulations, a stand out is the conspiracy of state and federal governments of allegedly different political stripe to seize rural property values without compensation as a
BHP Billiton’s ‘green activism’ comes at a price
Herald Sun, 28 September 2017
AUSTRALIA’S mining skills have enabled BHP to become one of the world’s largest companies. But big firms often become overly bureaucratic and their management seeks to engage in matters well beyond the daily grind of trying to maximise the wealth of shareholders. And so it is with BHP.
Liberal, Green and ALP politicians conspire to destroy the economy
Catallaxy Files, 24 August 2017
Yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull, unveiling the plans by Pratt for new investment in containers said, “You know everything my government does is designed to encourage Australian businesses to invest.” The absurdity of this was underlined by Anthony Pratt informing us, “Our cost of energy in America is 2½ times
Regulations create super profits in electricity supply – will Governments move to seize these?
Catallaxy Files, 21 July 2017
Environment and Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg has assailed the Queensland government for presiding over (if not conspiring to produce) an outcome in the electricity market which has enriched the state government coffers by $1.5 billion (actually over four years). Following a reorganisation, the previous three
Anti-Coal Energy Policy will Hit Living Standards
Herald Sun, 9 June 2017
With the 2015 Paris Agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Australia and other countries followed a course pursued since the 1990s. This involves forcing and bribing electricity consumers to substitute wind and solar power for coal. ​ Malcolm Turnbull has made abandoning coal-based energy a signature
Energy policy: Finkel Twinkle Little Star
Catallaxy Files, 9 June 2017
Predictably, the Finkel report came out with a concealed attack on coal – a new tax which Finkel falsely described as “all carrot and no stick”. This is to cut in at a politically specified level of emissions with those power stations emitting more CO2 per unit of energy than this paying for credits and the subsidy going to
Make the World Great Again
Catallaxy Files, 1 June 2017
I will be announcing my decision on Paris Accord, Thursday at 3:00 P.M. The White House Rose Garden. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! That’s 5 am on Friday Eastern Australia time. Always a reliable advocate for economic harm, The Guardian sets out the “five worst things Trump” has done on climate change
Whither the Paris Climate Change Agreement?
Catallaxy Files, 29 May 2017
The media battle lines are set on the Paris Climate Change Agreement with Politico hoping that Trump will continue to “study” the issue Trump himself said he’ll make the decision this week while Marc Morano says he already has already indicated Clexit to many confidants. Formal withdrawal is largely academic
$190 carbon tax needed to meet Paris Agreement
Catallaxy Files, 21 March 2017
The Finkel inquiry into the energy future got off to a bad start with its preliminary report erroneously claiming all this wind and solar we are seeing is being driven by technology and consumer demand when it is clearly a function of government regulations requiring consumers to buy exotic renewable energy at
The Paris Agreement, Trump, Turnbull and Tesla
Catallaxy Files, 13 March 2017
On the night Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister, Julie Bishop was quick to step in to forestall him responding to a press question about Australia’s future global warming/emissions policy. She said, as Malcolm was collecting his thoughts, the policy remains the same. Turnbull, flanked by Bishop and
Subsidised renewable energy: from little things bad things grow
Catallaxy Files, 24 February 2017
In his outstanding address launching the compendium Making Australia Right, Tony Abbott offered a fivefold agenda. Malcolm Turnbull recognised this as, in effect, throwing down a leadership challenge. The key feature, as when Turnbull first lost the Liberal Party leadership to Abbott, is energy policy. Turnbull is
Follow Trump: dump the renewable energy target
The Spectator Australia, 24 January 2017
The Trump victory came with his pledge to take the US out of the Paris agreement on climate change. This leaves only the EU among the major emitters of greenhouse gases (the others being China, India and Russia) still forcing its consumers and industries to accept high-cost electricity largely through imposing
The Wind Has Changed
Quadrant Online, 8 December 2016
Problem is, the Turnbull government hasn't noticed that president-elect Trump is about to knock the well-funded wheels off the global alarmism industry, as his cabinet picks confirm. Instead, we're told to lie back, think of Paris and make our own green rent-seekers so much richer. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop
Will Trump’s EPA Administrator drain the swamp or create a new one?
Catallaxy Files, 29 November 2016
One of the most important issues for Trump is the staffing of the EPA. Trump has said “We are going to get rid of it in almost every form. We’re going to have little tidbits left but we’re going to take a tremendous amount out.” But there are doubts about whether he will be able/willing to carry this out. Reagan also
Trump changes the global carbon policy but Liberals just snipe at ALP
Catallaxy Files, 28 November 2016
There is no doubt that Josh Frydenberg accepted a poorly dealt hand when he took on the combined Energy and Environment portfolio following the Commonwealth election in July of this year. Starting with John Howard in 2001 successive Australian governments have bowed to the combined power of the
Trump: the ghost stalking Marrakech
Catallaxy Files, 16 November 2016
Having attended the December 2015 Paris Climate Change conference as one of the 0.1 per cent not sharing the fervour, I cannot suppress my schadenfreude about the Marrakech follow-up. Nor, I imagine, can another participant opposing the herd, Myron Ebell, who is now busy in Washington
Trump victory a win for coal-powered energy
Herald Sun, 11 November 2016
This week, two events look likely to transform Australia’s politically created, catastrophic energy policy. First there was the announced closure of Hazelwood which produces a fifth of Victoria’s electricity. Secondly we have the Trump victory which mercifully will undermine the injurious climate and energy policies
More green energy costs to placate activists and their financiers
Catallaxy Files, 27 October 2016
The trove of emails that Wikileaks is publishing help to explain what drives political decision taking. This is especially evident in the environmental sphere. US “charities” linked to Clinton campaign are funding lawfare and other opposition to Australian coal, oil and gas developments. International finance flows to
Queensland and Victoria seeking to feast off national economic amputation
Catallaxy Files, 14 October 2016
There are those who say if you force people to invest in horses and buggies and use these for half of their road trips we would all be better off. Not for them the superficiality that this would reduce real incomes as a result of investing in technology that is higher cost, prone to breakdown and can only operate when
One Good Thing About Trump…
Quadrant Online, 22 September 2016
Should he claim the White House on November 8, the US will reject the obligations of the Paris climate accord. Like him or not in regard to other of his stated goals and policies, a ferocious disdain for the economy-hobbling rent-seekers of Big Wind and the like is a powerful recommendation turbine fireUnlike
Optimism on costs of abatement from the Climate Change Authority
Catallaxy Files, 1 September 2016
I have an article in the Spectator on line Garbage–in-garbage-out plus a little tampering, on the report issued today by the Climate Change Authority. The report offers some soothing bromides about the chances of Australia reducing its carbon dioxide emissions at modest cost.
The Climate Change Authority: garbage in, garbage out (plus a little tampering)
The Spectator, 1 September 2016
There have been several hundred Australian analyses of climate change policy and its costs and benefits. Most have provided profundities and attractively presented impressive looking modelling, normally demonstrating that the medicine, though bitter at first, will make us better and possibly richer in the
Another day, another piece of climate alarmism
Catallaxy Files, 24 August 2016
The alarmist John Connor from the Climate Institute has issued a paper claiming that a 2 degree C change in global temperature would be disastrous but we could live with a 1.5 degree warming or, as he put it, “warming of 1.5°C would (still) see current extreme heat waves, droughts and mass coral bleaching
Self Harm from Australian government management of natural resources
Catallaxy Files, 12 August 2016
Just when it seemed that in NSW we had one Australian government that was pursuing sound if uninspiring policies, Mike Baird proves us wrong. Even without the disgraceful arrogance of the ban on a sport much loved by the lower orders, the Premier has demonstrated himself no more fit to govern than
Revolutions, Taxes and the Coming Revolution
Quadrant Online, 5 August 2016
There was a time when leaders were elected to prevent the sovereign spending the money of the voters, but those days are long gone. Now legislatures plunder the productive to appease rent-seekers and the mendicant. Encouragingly, the portents for change are everywhere and growing rent-seekerIn
Energy and Environment an Unhappy Marriage
Herald Sun, 22 July 2016
Environmental programs, especially those targeting carbon dioxide emissions, have come to dominate energy supply policies over the past 20 years. Hence, following the federal election, energy and environment policy has been merged into one ministry under Josh Frydenberg. Last year in Paris, Australia like
ALP/Libs in race to wreck the economy with climate change policy consensus
Catallaxy Files, 30 May 2016
he debate between Mr Shorten and Mr Turnbull last night demonstrated an unsurprising level of consensus on greenhouse gas mitigation. The Prime Minister talked about the 26-28 per cent reduction of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (based on 2005 emissions) that the government signed onto in
Fans say cheap solar is inevitable but give us a subsidy anyway
Catallaxy Files, 27 May 2016
While claiming it is not a prelude to a carbon tax, Greg Hunt has approved the release of the Clean Energy Regulators “Safeguard mechanism”. This sets limits, initially very easy to meet, on firms’ carbon dioxide emission levels with the corset being tightened come 2020 when Australia can embark on a UK-style
Federal election 2016: parties clueless on cutting emissions
The Australian, 13 May 2016
Few people and no politicians would understand the costs of the political parties’ energy policies. The ALP, Greens and Liberals each have lengthy statements explaining how their approach is smarter and would cost little and be supervised by a plethora of acronymic bodies to regulate, advise and judiciously dole
Buying lower living standards
Catallaxy Files, 6 May 2016
All that blistering controversy about the $3 billion saved by retrospective changes to superannuation. Yet there is one item of news, issued on the same day as the budget, which demonstrates the fatuity of government and its addiction to senseless policy and wasteful spending. The Clean Energy Regulator (don’t you
Economic suicide: Australian energy policy proposals
Catallaxy Files, 28 April 2016
Labor’s carbon emission proposals move Australian policy closer to the edge of insanity. Not content with the prosperity busting program of Mr Turnbull and his environment minister, Greg Hunt, the ALP is proposing the total wipe out of our most precious asset, low cost low sulphur coal. The Government has a
The Climateers’ Moveable Feast
Catallaxy Files, 12 April 2016
Yesterday the ALP is reported to be examining how it can shut down “ageing coal-fired stations”. This is part of the policy to reach 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and the Greens claim Shorten is seeking an escape from the Party’s previous announcements. Coalition government policy is for a Direct
The Climateers’ Moveable Feast
Quadrant Online, 11 April 2016
The Paris COP 21 at the end of last year may have set an all-time record for conference attendance of officials, NGOs and lobbyists—40,000 plus at least 5000 from the media. Virtually every world leader made an appearance, many changing their schedules at short notice to attend the opening rather than the close.
Well, Tesla my fancy!
Catallaxy Files, 8 April 2016
There are surely more people than me who are skeptical of Elon Musk’s Tesla. Yes, Musk has shown himself to be a brilliant innovative entrepreneur with Pay Pal. And lightening does strike twice in the high tech field as Steve Jobs showed with his reincarnation at Apple. But in contrast to the Silicon Valley start-ups
Malcolm the merchant banker creates a sub prime market in renewable energy assets
Catallaxy Files, 23 March 2016
With the announcement of the Clean Energy Innovation Fund (CEIF), Malcom Turnbull has killed several birds with a single stone. He has warmed the cockles of the hearts of the renewable rent-seekers who are such a valuable source of campaign finance conned all the ABC/Fairfax/Guardian journalists into
The end of the world is nigh, starvation awaits us all
Catallaxy Files, 3 March 2016
The Wilderness Society has placed an article in The Guardian with media climate change worry wort Lenore Taylor about the Queensland Government relaxing the clearing of land. Strictures against this were brought about by the collusion of first the Howard and later the Rudd Governments with the the
Land clearing and CO2 emission controls
Catallaxy Files, 29 February 2016
The Wilderness Society has placed an article in The Guardian with media climate change worry wort Lenore Taylor about the Queensland Government relaxing the clearing of land. Strictures against this were brought about by the collusion of first the Howard and later the Rudd Governments with the the
Carbon abatement’s snake venom: diluted but still poisonous
Catallaxy Files, 25 February 2016
Motley events offer hope of a fraying of the policies stemming from climate change hysteria. While the UN is trying to organise a reaffirmation meeting in April by national leaders of the sacred emission reduction pledges they made in Paris last December, reality is moving against it. The UN climate change
South Australian electricity – the state’s suicide mission
Catallaxy Files, 19 February 2016
Here is an object lesson of the effects of winner picking by governments. South Australia’s electricity industry is now threatening to seriously undermine the state’s economy. Back in October 2014, the electricity market manager, AEMO together with the South Australian state based transmission business, Electra
Inflicting on-going damage: the relentless green energy push
Catallaxy Files, 4 February 2016
Yesterday saw the publication of one of the regular horse-chokers that emerge from the electricity regulators and government funded analysts. This one was looking at the Queensland situation, with a view to examining how the ALP can implement/diverge from the crazy policies they proposed for an election they
Over the cliff: the climate agreement consumated
Catallaxy Files, 13 December 2015
"If all the industrial nations went down to zero emissions it wouldn’t be enough, not when more than 65% of the world’s carbon pollution comes from the developing world" John Kerry December 10 2015 An agreement on climate change action On what is theoretically the final day plus one of the Paris Climate
Paris and Climate Change: approaching the crescendo
Catallaxy Files, 10 December 2015
The obfuscations and lies spewed by political leaders is a sad epitaph of the loss of striving for better living standards. The addresses served to illustrate how detached from reality the alarmist politicians have become, bombarded as they are by the agitprop of green NGOs and the scientists they have co-opted. The
The Paris climate conference: into the second week
Catallaxy Files, 8 December 2015
With the end of the first week of the world Climate Change summit, the torrent of papers and thousands of presentations remain overshadowed by a different form of war to that on carbon dioxide. A small satellite conference hosted by Heartland saw a parade of actual scientists including our own Bob Carter,
Climate Change in New Focus but Carbon is Costly
Herald Sun, 27 November 2015
On Monday, Paris will host a different agenda from that which has dominated this past fortnight. On November 30 world leaders gather there for the United Nations annual climate change discussions. The key issue is the link between carbon dioxide and forecast increases in global temperatures. Addressing this
More economy-busting warming inspired measures in the pipelin
Catallaxy Files, 27 November 2015
Most developed world economies — Australia included — are pledging at the Paris Conference to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by more than 26 per cent by 2030. China and India, the largest and third largest emitters, are merely saying that they will reduce their economies’
Financing the uncompetitive wind farms: Local Government is no solution
Catallaxy Files, 20 November 2015
Tristan Edis had a breathless piece in the green left Climate Spectator yesterday. In it he foreshadowed plans of local government authorities, led by the City of Melbourne, buying 1200 Megawatts of installed green power capacity. It turns out that his informant was one of those over-optimistic types who are forever
Climate Nirvana: If only all of Australia could be like the ACT
Catallaxy Files, 9 November 2015
The Climate Council has its uses. It drew our attention to the utter shame we, as Australians, shoulder in having high emissions of CO2 per capita. At 24 tonnes of CO2-e we are nearly twice the OECD average. But wait! Once you examine emissions in terms of consumption levels a different picture emerges.
Climate change negotiations: Paris blues or future busts?
Catallaxy Files, 5 November 2015
Joining me at the Paris climate change gabfest will be almost every world leader and green celebrity. California alone has Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown, and eight Democratic lawmakers. And that’s before we have the batch of contemporary concerned movie stars all playing their part in urging others to live a
No end to the waste and propaganda in pursuit of CO2 emission abatement
Catallaxy Files, 2 November 2015
I am among the most faithful readers of The Guardian – its football coverage is second to none. Occasionally my eye wanders to other writings. My attention was attracted to this from Lord (raised to the Nobility following his assiduous pandering to Gordan Brown’s climate change agenda) Nicholas Stern
Fracking: another episode in the struggle for mineral rights
Catallaxy Files, 28 October 2015
Tapping coal seam gas reserves has been among the most challenging political issues around the world. Perhaps this is because the mineral extracted is new and those ranged against such activities can mobilise opposition and invent new dangers from a novel form of mining
Greenhouse plans: more economy busting policies being cooked up
Catallaxy Files, 7 October 2015
Hardly has the ink dried on Australia’s appalling commitment to source 23 per cent of electricity from renewable sources when Bill Shorten is talking of upping it to 50 per cent. The current measure will alone own impose a cost of $2.5 billion a year
Whacking Fracking: Victorian Liberals abandon income growth
Catallaxy Files, 28 September 2015
In Victoria the opposition Coalition has decided to outflank the ALP from the Green Left. Its latest missive is extending the ban on gas exploration within the state till 2020 (read “indefinitely”). It was the Victorian Coalition in Government that first banned gas exploration – not just fracking for coal seam gas,
Deflating the mirage of cheap carbon credits
Catallaxy Files, 10 September 2015
Yesterday in the AFR, Richard Denniss of The Australia Institute applied more of the balm intended to sooth us into buying the serendipity of a costless zero carbon emitting future. According to Denniss we can reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide by simply buying EU approved permits at $13 a tonne.
Australia’s Climate Change Policy Announced
Catallaxy Files, 12 August 2015
So, Australia now has a position on greenhouse gas policy to take to the UN confab in Paris at the end of the year. We are to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels, a position that the PM says puts us in the middle of the road. This is not enough for the Bernie Fraser led “independent” Climate Change
We cannot afford to pay for green power losers
The Australian, 14 July 2015
The debate on renewable energy has been with us for decades. Always promising to deliver competitive electricity, it has never achieved it. The issue has had its media profile lifted as a result of the government instructing its green energy bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, to stop investing in wind and
Climate propaganda: agitators against wealth and their friends
Catallaxy Files, 29 June 2015
This morning we learned that Bill Gates, who the Guardian has been trying to recruit as its sponsor in chief for greenhouse madness, considers the existing renewable approach is a dead end but he wants to spend the money looted from taxpayers and energy users into novel forms of R&D. He has already spent
Wind farms such as these are raising electricity costs for all consumers
Australian Financial Review, 9 July 2015
The Australian Climate Roundtable alliance is seeking to limit human induced global warming to a 2 degree increase. The alliance comprises business lobbyists, ACOSS, the ACTU, and green lobbyists, the Climate Institute, the ACF, WWF and the Investor Group on Climate Change. The objectives it claims "will
Grattan Institute parades its inner Bob Brown
Catallaxy Files, 23 June 2015
The Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood has an article in today’s AFR which argues that “Legal force (under the UN) might be the only way of moving in the right direction (to the abatement said to be necessary)”. Mr Wood, an Al Gore trained climate change warrior, is a long standing champion of the renewable
Green energy generates big costs for little gain
Australian Financial Review, 22 June 2015
Alternate energy Reports of the death of coal are greatly exaggerated. For green power is still very costly and uncompetitive, and likely to remain so despite all the subsidies. In this newspaper last week Richard Denniss opined that there was a stampede of investment money out of coal ("Abbott blind to coal
The renewable scam: a never ending story
Catallaxy Files, 21 May 2015
In an article in The Australian today the head of Origin Energy, Grant King, suggests the industry would be hard pressed to build the amount of capacity our callow political leaders have determined we should accept as part of the “compromise” deal to build 33,000 GWh by 2020. Grant King suggests that it would be
An Invitation To Be Spurned
Quadrant Online, 28 May 2015
When 26 carbon-phobic ambassadors urge Australia to follow the EU's lead and adopt all manner of wealth-killing initiatives to save the planet, the diplomatic response is one of polite demurral. Out of earshot, unrestrained laughter will be the more truthful reaction
A renewable energy deal: helping to reduce incomes and jobs
Catallaxy Files, 18 May 2015
The Australian today ($) reports a deal is about to be clinched on reducing the large scale wind and solar renewable target to 33,000 GWh (forecast to be 23.5 per cent of electricity demand). The initial target of 41,000 GWh plus the 4,000 GWh of rooftop facilities – was only a few years ago, when we were a low cost
Emission reductions affordable – not bloomin’ likely!
Catallaxy Files, 15 April 2015
Greg Hunt’s “stunning” success at selling around five million tonnes (actually apparently 5.8 million tonnes) a year of greenhouse gas emissions for an average of under $14 per tonne per tonne has invited much comment. The ABC’s green left commentary headed by Leigh Sales suggested that this meant we should
Garnaut re-advocates his failed policy approach
Catallaxy Files, 15 April 2015
Ross Garnaut plays out his previous government agenda in criticising the White Paper on Energy. He says it is deficient because it has no carbon tax and fails to enhance the merits of the Renewable Energy Target. He says “do the math” and you will see that forcing the substitution of energy that is three times the
The renewable energy scam gets a new boost
Catallaxy Files, 4 May 2015
Uncertainty about whether the massive subsidies to renewable projects has led to a bonus: new projects have virtually ceased. Spruiker Giles Parkinson reported that only one large project was approved in the recent quarter and the vast bulk of the recent $200 million in financing came from the government
The Renewable Rort and its Friends
Catallaxy Files, 10 April 2015
The RET issue is coming to a head. Bear in mind, the rationale for the scheme is a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions but it does this to a trivial extent and at a very high cost. The real rationale is now how to soak consumers for a dud product that could not survive in the absence of subsidies.
Fracking: another case of voter ignorance killing wealth generation
Catallaxy Files, 24 March 2015
On Q and A last night, a discussion from about 7 minutes took place on coal seam gas. Coalition MP and junior minister Fiona Nash brags that NSW coalition has not approved one coal seam gas exploration permit and has bought back permits of those granted by Labor. Now only 11 per cent of NSW land can be
Renewable energy’s fraudulent boondoggle starts to unravel
Catallaxy Files, 6 March 2015
It seemed a good idea at the time. Renewable energy is produced by nature and is freely available, so why not make its use mandatory? What could go wrong, after all Greenpeace and our many experts tell us that in a few years’ time, if not now technology will make it cheaper than all that coal derived electricity with
Carbon taxes: the ALP’s gift to the Coalition
Catallaxy Files, 30 January 2015
Earlier this week, Andrew Leigh the junior shadow Treasurer floated the essentiality of a carbon tax (and, oblivious of the collapse of commodity prices, a mining tax). Our man in Davos, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was fast out of the blocks attacking the proposal which will surely prove more damaging
'Greatest moral challenge of our time' A Fizzzer
Herald Sun, 23 January 2015
WORLD growth is resulting in a doubling of the atmospheric composition of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases”. Present concentrations are at near record lows and a doubling of greenhouse gas concentrations is harmless to health. The concerns revolve around the knock-on effect on climate. Some point
Fossil-free funds not so clean-cut in long run
Herald Sun, December 11, 2014
EARLIER this year, the Australian National University sought advice from a green group, the Centre for Australian Ethical Research, regarding its superannuation fund. It later pulled investments out of a gold miner, energy giant Santos and other Australian firms. This prompted considerable criticism of
The new protectionism: renewable energy industry's shameless self promotion
Catallaxy Files, December 5, 2014
According to Christopher Flavin, the President emeritus of the Worldwatch Institute, in a few years’ time wind energy will not need to be subsidised. Oh wait! He said that back in 1984. And he was not alone, Booz, Allen & Hamilton did a report in 1983 saying the same thing as did Amory Lovins and the American
Wind, The Greens answer to the human plague
Catallaxy Files November 21, 2014
Elections bring out the most risible policy proposals that can be imagined. And having The Greens brings a never ending supply of fairy dust. Yesterday Senator Milne authorised the release of a paper “A New Victorian Economy, Cleaning Up Our Energy System”. In the paper The Greens inadvertently
Victorian voters face an unedifying choice when it comes to energy
Herald Sun, 14 November 2014
CHEAP energy plays a crucial role in business competitiveness. The lobby group for major firms, the Business Council of Australia (BCA), recognises this in its energy reform package launched this week. The BCA seeks to avoid duplication of regulation (and who doesn’t?) but its policy recommendations are timid.
IPCC calculations show global warming won’t be harmful if it resumes
The Australian, 8 October, 2014
Satellite data available from 1988 has allowed very precise measurements of global temperatures. These at first confirmed a warming trend. But the satellite recordings, greeted with such enthusiastic fanfare by the warmist fraternity, have, for the past 18 years, bitten the hand that fed them.
A Modest Sceptic Boasts…and Frets
Quadrant Online, August 01 2014
Senator Cory Bernardi, in the latest edition of his wonderful “weekly dose of common sense”, recalls all the political scalps that climate-change regulations have claimed, reminding us that he wrote his first piece on the subject seven years ago. At the time he was widely vilified as a heretic.
End of the carbon bubble
Australian Financial Review 17th July, 2014
Regulatory change will always disadvantage some while advantaging others. But the benefits of deregulation far outpace the costs and Australia carries a weighty regulatory burden, one that has deprived us of enjoying the world's highest living standards.
Renewable energy as a means of reducing emissions fails two key tests
Herald Sun 27th June, 2014
Regulatory change will always disadvantage some while advantaging others. But the benefits of deregulation far outpace the costs and Australia carries a weighty regulatory burden, one that has deprived us of enjoying the world's highest living standards.
A carbonless economy comes at too high a price
Herald Sun 30th May, 2014
Economists estimate that if increased carbon dioxide emissions raise global temperatures by a degree or two over the next century, world income might be 1 or 2 per cent lower than it would otherwise be. In the context of overall income doubling over the same period that's tiny, especially since the costs do not
Subsidy scam hurt the energy sector
The Australian 19th May, 2014
In addressing climate change spending and regulatory costs, the government has made some impressive first steps. Few of these are in the wrong direction. Labor went to last year's election with more than $5 billion a year in budget outlays for its climate change programs. This included more than $2bn a year to
Beware of wolves wrapped in climate change
Herald Sun 4th April, 2014
In The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio's mentor says, "Nobody knows if the stocks will go up, down, sideways" and explains that the stockbroker's job is to "Move the money from your client's pocket into your pocket". There are similarities with the climate change game.
Poll: Aussies won't pay for climate schemes
Media Release, March 2014
A new poll conducted for the Institute of Public Affairs by Galaxy Research shows an increasing number of Australians are unwilling to pay to fight global warming. The poll also shows a stable attitude towards the science of climate change.
Renewable energy sources are just a power failure
Australian Financial Review 23rd January, 2014
Much has been written about the contribution that wind and solar have made to Australian energy supply, especially in the recent hot spell. About 10 per cent of electricity supply comes from renewable sources, two-thirds of this being unsubsidised hydro-electricity, w
The heavy cost of Renewable Energy Requirements
IPA Review, January 2014
The carbon tax was the tombstone of the ALP’s 2013 election policy platform. But it is only one of a family of measures providing nutrition for the crusade by numerous scientists, officials, university lecturers and renewable energy installers supposedly to save the world from catastrophic human induced global
Terminate the renewable scheme now
The Australian 14th November, 2013
The sun is setting on the carbon tax. At its current rate, $24 per tonne of CO2, the tax increases the wholesale electricity price by 55 per cent and a Treasury endorsed OECD paper estimates Australia needs a tax of $78 per tonne to meet its emission restraint goals.
The Looming Disaster from Deficit Spending
Quadrant Online,1st October 2013
As a chronicler of economic history and a policy advocate, David Stockman combines economics training with an inside operator’s knowledge gained at the highest levels of government and finance. Back in the 1980s he was plucked from relative obscurity as a junior Congressman to become President Reagan’s
Scrapping the green empires
Australian Financial Review 11th September, 2013
Now the hurly-burly's done and the people have resoundingly elected the Coalition in what Tony Abbott declared to be a plebiscite about the carbon tax, where to from here? As well as terminating the carbon tax, the annual costs of which rise to $13 billion by 2020, and the $2 billion a year subsidy to
The real cost of emissions reduction
The Australian 7th August, 2013
As Tony Abbott made clear yesterday in a letter to the secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the top priority of an incoming Coalition government would be to repeal the carbon tax and associated measures that have dramatically increased the cost of power.
Obama takes climate misstep
The Australian 27th June, 2013
Barack Obama's long-awaited address on climate change has thrown the spotlight back on to an issue that was receding in policy priorities. The US President repeated some of the dubious factoids about the warming in recent decades and receding Arctic ice without noting countervailing points,
Taxes on carbon too drastic and too soon
Herald Sun 13th June, 2013
Julia Gillard's loss of voter confidence was massively compounded by her reneging on the pledge that "there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead". Greenhouse gas policies remain the coming election's signature issues, with Tony Abbott saying repeal of the carbon tax is his first priority.
Cancun can-do is a con
Australian Financial Review 4th February, 2013
Ross Garnaut says carbon dioxide emissions are on track to meet targets set at the 2010 Cancun international climate change meeting. True or not, it is irrelevant. Unlike the 2007 Bali climate change meeting, where Kevin Rudd basked in international adulation by signing Australia up to the doomed Kyoto
The heavy cost of renewable energy requirements
IPA Review, 2013
The carbon tax was the tombstone of the ALP's 2013 election policy platform. But it is only one of a family of measures providing nutrition for the crusade by numerous scientists, officials, university lecturers and renewable energy installers supposedly to save the world from catastrophic human-induced global
Address to the Revolt Against the Carbon Tax
Occasional Paper, IPA, 2013
My focus is on the economic and political implications of the measures restraining carbon dioxide emissions. First, the outcome on the climate, if any, as a result of Australia taking action alone is negligible. Not only do we account for a trivial 1.5% of global emissions,
Heavy hand of regulators promises pain on power
The Australian 24th December, 2012
In the week before Christmas, three events reiterated the increasing degree to which Australia's once market-driven electricity industry dances to a tune of government regulation. On December 19, the Climate Change Authority issued a final report on its review of the Renewable Energy Target.
Costs lost in the focus on climate
The Australian 17th October, 2012
It is more than 25 years since the possibility that carbon dioxide and other human-induced greenhouse gas emissions achieved currency as possible causes of global warming. In that period a large volume of legislation has been introduced. The latest proposals link Australia's carbon price with that of the European Union
Somersaults and a belly-flop: carbon tax fails on all counts
Australian Financial Review 29th August, 2012
In a humiliating backdown, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, though failing to acknowledge the damage of a carbon tax to the Australian economy, has recognised that the tax he introduced last month - at $23 a tonne of carbon dioxide - is excessive.
Costly price to pay for taxes, regulations on energy
The Herald Sun 27th July, 2012
This week the Commonwealth Government's Climate Commission visited Melbourne. Headed by master sensationalist Tim Flannery, the commission was formed by Julia Gillard to help sell the merits of taxes and regulations to reduce carbon emissions.
Carbon tax final straw in a lethal energy plan
Herald Sun 29th June, 2012
On Sunday the carbon tax will be implemented. This tax is the latest and most lethal of the suite of carbon-reduction measures delivering crushing blows to businesses and households. We already have the cancer of the Commonwealth's Renewable Energy Target.
Only one-third of Australians believe humans are to blame for global warming
Media Release, March 2012
Only a third of Australians think the world is warming and humans are to blame, according to a Galaxy poll commissioned by the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. The Galaxy poll asked 1,051 Australians on the weekend of 23-25 March 2012 .....
Renewable energy rules lose traction
Australian Financial Review 1st February, 2012
Energy policy in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries is spurred by concerns that gas and oil are becoming scarcer and that fossil fuel emissions must be curtailed. This view is being punctured by technology allowing massive new resources to be developed fromshale and coal seam
Emissions Trading: Towards the biggest economic change in Australian history
IPA Review, 2012
‘Placing a limit and a price on emissions will change the things we produce, the way we produce them, and the things we buy', states the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper, which compares the economic impact of the proposed emissions trading scheme with the
Household electricity prices to rise, year on year
The Australian 13th December, 2011
An agreement to try to reach a deal by 2015 on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is the bottom line of the past fortnight's climate change jamboree in Durban. A few days before the conference's inevitable failure to reach any meaningful agreement on emission reductions,
Carbon policy sacrifices nation's wealth
The Australian Financial Review 17th October, 2011
When Adam Smith famously pointed out that "there is a great deal of ruin in a nation", he had in mind the foolishness of its political leaders. The passage of the carbon tax through the House of Representatives, underscores his insights. It is far from unprecedented for a government to sacrifice its nation's wealth
The case against the carbon tax
Australian Financial Review 8th September, 2011
Ross Garnaut issued his interim report on climate change in February and is due to issue a draft report next month. Conspicuously absent from the February report is the N-word. Nuclear power is not even canvassed in passing or dismissed as being high cost, politically unpalatable or dangerous.
Peak productivity, living standards set for carbon tax sacrifice
The Drum 2nd August, 2011
Campaigning by politicians through the power generation regions of the Latrobe Valley and the Hunter have focussed on the effects of a carbon tax on power station jobs. However, the really significant feature of these vulnerable areas is just how few jobs are involved.
Suffocating the economy one tax at a time
The Drum 13th July, 2011
If implemented, Julia Gillard's proposed carbon price starting at $23 per tonne will push us closer to economic stagnation. If the Government wanted to make the 159 million tonnes saving in 2020 it seeks, it would not attempt to do this with a domestic tax.
Australia's emission levels are overstated
Industrial Electrix 22nd June, 2011
In a chapter of a recentIy published Anthology, "Energy, Sustainability and the Environment" edited by F.P. Sioshansi, I observed that "International trade means countries that export energy intensive products incur emissions on behalf of other countries.
We emit less CO2 than Combet gives us credit for
The Australian 17th May, 2011
On April 13, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet's spin for a carbon tax pushed new frontiers in the art of being economical with the truth. He said: "Australia release[s] more pollution per person than any other country in the developed world, more than the US."
You may not believe in climate change, but you will pay
The Drum Unleashed 24th February, 2011
A Galaxy poll commissioned by the Institute of Public Affairs has found that only a third of Australians think the world is warming due to human carbon dioxide emissions. The poll, taken last weekend, represents no shift in views from those in an identical poll eight
Energy sector wilts under government's solar stress
The Australian 25th January, 2011
Shortly before Christmas, federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson announced seven proposals were being assessed for two spots in the first round of subsidies for large-scale solar power. Though dwarfed by the waste demonstrated in the $42 billion Building the Education Revolution, the
Lights Out
Published in Quadrant Online, 20 July 2010
You might think that these people are deranged but there were 1,400 of them, tertiary educated to a person, clapping and cheering enthusiastically. It’s a sobering thought that these people financed from the public purse and dedicated to destroying the Victorian coal and gas based electricity generation
We’re already hurting from climate change policies
IPA Review 2010
In Mexico early last year, 75,000 people took to the streets in protest of the increasing cost of basic grain, in what were branded the ‘tortilla riots.' In March 2008, there were food riots in Egypt. And in April, Haitians rioted over the price of basic foodstuffs.
DCC briefing: a farrago of spin, obfuscation and exaggeration
The Drum Unleashed 4th November, 2010
Flush from its near death experience following the hung parliament, the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCC) has published its briefing to the incoming Gillard Government. It talks of its mission to bring to the government advice of the "highest quality", which is "integrated", "objective", and
Putting a price on climate change policy
The Drum Unleashed 18th October, 2010
The Government has initiated a new saga in addressing greenhouse gases policy options. It has set up a parliamentary committee with membership restricted to "those who are committed to tackling climate change and who acknowledge that effectively reducing carbon pollution by 2020 will require a carbon price".
Big new tax? Kloppers can't be serious
The Australian 17th September, 2010
IT was almost as if BHP Billiton's Marius Kloppers had already cleared with the government the speech he delivered in favour of a carbon tax. The new Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson were quick to welcome it.