Greenhouse articles

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

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 

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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 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

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/

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.

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 

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. 

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

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,

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

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’

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

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. 

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

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

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

If the world is lucky, nothing of greater substance than delegates' hotel bills will emerge from the upcoming catastropharian confab in the City of Light.

Since the Turnbull Prime Ministership, Environment Minister Greg Hunt has used somewhat tougher language in selling the government’s intent to force a reduction in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

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

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,

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.

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

The media was in a tizz today at the Wotif founder Graeme Wood’s Climate Institute’s promotion of its research into public perceptions of climate change, its friends and enemies

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

A few potholes emerged yesterday in the road to renewable energy nirvana

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 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

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.

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 

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

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.

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,

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.

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 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

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,

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

All those darkened buildings, all that hype about switching off to save the planet! How successful is the tidal wave of support demonstrating our commitment to showing an example to the world? The numbers are in.

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 .....

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 

‘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

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,

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 

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.

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.

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.

A 100-megawatt solar power station is planned for Mildura. And last weekend Energy Minister Martin Ferguson announced funding for two new projects, a 150-megawatt solar plant for NSW and a 250-megawatt facility for Queensland.

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.

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."

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

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

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

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.

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 

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".

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.

Having been feted as the Great Moral Challenge and been the key factor behind the demise of Malcolm Turnbull, climate change policies are nearly invisible in the present election campaign. Aside from the "cash for clunkers" gimmick, both major parties have so far steered clear of giving the matter prominence.

Labor's wasteful and tokenistic "cash for clunkers" subsidy to scrap old cars is one of the few carbon emission reduction policy announcements this election campaign. This is notwithstanding the priority on "climate change" carbon reduction measures that both parties have said is a priority.

Under pressure from local election defeats, the French Government has abandoned its plans to introduce a carbon tax, having suddenly discovered it would, "damage the competitiveness of French companies".

Coal-powered electricity generators and abundant coal supplies bring Victoria the world's cheapest electricity. This will change, partly because of the risk of a government carbon tax. This makes it impossible for companies to build new coal-powered generators

Canberra's decision to shelve its greenhouse tax, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), was a dramatic political backdown. Ironically, though, it brought immense relief to the NSW Government.

Having portrayed a global treaty to reduce carbon emissions as essential and inevitable, the Rudd Government has abruptly changed tack and now sees an emissions reduction program to be unnecessary and costly. This remarkable reversal echoes changes by other governments.

Most politicians across the world recognise that measures to reduce CO2 emissions impose costs on their economies, whether they employ a carbon tax, cap-and-trade or regulatory approach. Failure at Copenhagen showed politicians recognise such costs exceed the benefits.

"Public loses faith in climate change" was the headline of a report in Britain's The Guardian newspaper last month. According to a Mori poll, the proportion of British adults who believe climate change is "definitely" a reality has fallen from 44 to 31 per cent over the past year. And while only six per cent said climate

As a face-saver to December's collapse of the world climate negotiations, governments agreed to the Copenhagen Accord. This had vague provisions to pursue measures to limit global temperature increases to 2C. The accord offered no guidance as to how this might be achieved but did say it would involve 

This week in Canberra the Government and Opposition issued rival plans for handling emissions of greenhouse gases. The policies from both sides are targeted at reducing emissions by 5 per cent by 2020. This really means a reduction of 27 per cent in 2020 emissions per head, because the target base is the 

Greenhouse issues are dominating the economic debate. Most people want to protect the environment and have been told that the tax from the Emissions Trading Scheme will only have minor consequences. In fact, the ETS tax designed to choke-off carbon emissions will have a devastating effect on the 

Barry Jones accuses climate sceptics of using ad hominem attacks yet embarks on the most remarkable such tactics himself. Out-hyping all who came before him, not only does he associate sceptics with those who deny the holocaust, AIDS and the link between smoking and lung cancer, but for good measure adds 

The government says its emissions trading scheme tax will bring no risk to the economy. Indeed, Kevin Rudd constantly harps about savings of 15 per cent if we move early to implement the tax. In fact, there is a considerable risk to the economy from the ETS tax and any alternative measures designed to force 

A form of carbon tax such as the emissions trading scheme cannot reduce global emissions unless there is agreement for a similar level of tax across all economies. That aside, the government's immediate issues are how to spend the money the tax raises, including how to avoid compensating the privatised 

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The Government's climate change policy adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, said last year that the coming Copenhagen Conference would bring an agreement on global measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The 20 per cent Renewable Energy Target (RET), passed in the Senate yesterday, represents a triumph for vested interests in creating negative value. It guarantees that high cost, inefficient windmills will be built by forcing electricity suppliers (and therefore consumers) to pay a premium on electricity supply, 

The Institute of Public Affairs has been researching the economic impact of climate change policies since the early 1990s. The Institute of Public Affairs has a research track record in the climate change field of two decades. As you decide on Australia's climate change policies you should consider the following 

Countdown For Climate Change Vote is the banner on the ALP web site. It explains that only five days remain before Parliament's climate change vote. Canberra's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) would eventually require 90 per cent of electricity to be derived from renewable sources, with perhaps 

The goal of international agreements being considered on climate change is to stabilise the world’s human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. This ambition is barely conceivable. For the main gas, carbon dioxide, it would require emissions to be set at an average global level of about three tonnes per capita. 

The renewable energy bill now before the Senate proposes that 20 per cent of electricity be derived from renewable sources.

There was a large dose of whimsy in the G8 leaders getting together in Berlusconi's Italy last week. Not only did it place the host's colourful private life at the centre of the world's stage but it was further enlivened by the world leaders' decision to adopt targets for emission levels 40 years into the future.

Even though the US House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade emission restraint bill last week, it has to pass the more formidable hurdle of the Senate before it can become law. The bill requires a 20 per cent reduction in US emissions by 2020 and an 83 per cent reduction by 2050.

Twelve years ago, as a sop to wind farm lobbyists and green activists, the Howard government announced a "2 per cent renewable energy requirement". This compels electricity retailers to incorporate high-cost wind and solar generated electricity within supplies. Vested interests ratcheted up the renewable share 

Politicians have converted the global warming policy chess match into a poker game with a constantly revised bidding currency, comprising tradable emission rights, carbon taxes and a range of other measures. Carbon taxes, and tradable rights to emit carbon, like the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), are 

Despite the Government announcing it has backed away from early action to reduce carbon emissions, the Prime Minister's website continues to say, "The cost of inaction on climate change will be much greater than the cost of taking action now." Like others working for Kevin Rudd, his website managers can't ke

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Developing a pulp mill in Tasmania has been a 25 year saga that remains unfinished. Back in 1983, the Wesley Vale proposal launched the career of Christine Milne and placed the green movement at the political centre of power. That proposal was founded on a peerless set of environmental guidelines that had be

With a pre-Christmas White Paper, the Federal Government transformed the global warming debate's focus into the introduction of a comprehensive new carbon tax. To neutralise the adverse public image of taxes, this has a fancy new name -- the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Much to the chagrin of greenies, Penny Wong is delaying issuing Australia's emission reduction targets until after this month's Poznan meeting on climate change, and any targets in the forthcoming Australian white paper will not be definitive.

China's rapid industrialisation had by 2006 led it to becoming the world's largest emitter of CO2e, surpassing the US with 18 per cent of the world's total emissions. In per capita terms, China remains a low emitter with 4 tonnes per capita (cf. US 20 tonnes, Australia 16 tonnes, OECD average 11.5 tonnes).

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An emissions trading scheme has not even started but the Government's hostility to carbon emissions is already choking off the supply of electricity, leading to an inevitable rise in prices. Coal is used to generate 90 per cent of Australia's electricity, but no business can fund new coal-fired power plants under the 

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong accused the Opposition of not knowing whether it was Arthur or Martha on climate change. As the realities of a carbon tax sink in, there are politicians on both sides having second thoughts. The International Energy Agency recently estimated that 1.1% of annual global output 

REDUCING emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) presents the most difficult and costly task Australia has contemplated. Most CO2 is a by-product of fossil fuels -- coal, oil and gas. Next week Ross Garnaut's climate change review is to deliver a draft report to the Federal Government. The review's initial papers favour 

The main game in emission policy awaits the Garnaut report and perhaps the "strategic review" of the Government's climate change policies being conducted by Citigroup consultant Roger Wilkins. Timetables are being refined but by the end of the year the Government will have the advice it does not want to hear -

In the range of energy supply systems designed to reduce greenhouse gases, the most expensive is photovoltaic cells, or solar panels. Engineering firm SKM has estimated that rooftop solar power is eight to 12 times more costly than regular electricity. The panels also cost three to five times more

There are many dimensions to the factors pressing for action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Among them are genuine concerns that mankind may be causing climate shifts, and the subsequent commercial pressures applied by those, largely in the alternative energy camp, who see the prospect of canalising 

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.

Hundreds of prominent scientists this week attended a conference in New York hosted by the US Heartland Institute. The scientists rejected claims that we are seeing catastrophic human-induced global warming. They concluded that the earth may be undergoing a period of modest warming but that it and 

I f burning fossil fuels is the major cause of global warming then the prospects of preventing it are slender. Fast growing developing countries currently have relatively low levels of carbon emissions. However, their economic growth is highly dependent on fossil fuels and this presents seemingly insuperable 

Professor Ross Garnaut is looking to the world stabilising emission levels at year 2000 levels "soon after 2020". Following this he sees a need for halving them by 2050 and reducing them to less than a quarter of 2000 levels by 2100. He also considers that emissions must be based on some level of equality on a per 

As Professor Garnaut examines ways forward in reducing Australia's carbon dioxide emissions, he will become aware of the enormity of the global task If burning fossil fuels causes global warming the prospects of preventing it are slender.

Denied responsibility over the great economic issues like carbon emissions and pulp mills, or those with vast diplomatic ramifications like Japanese whaling, our neophyte Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has turned his attention to plastic bags. Showing no bashfulness in employing the ABC's

Over the weekend, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its "synthesis" report of the previous major papers released this year. Though Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd put ratification of the Kyoto Protocol as main priority, the differences on carbon emissions policies between the 

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd and his party's environment spokesman, Peter Garrett, first said Labor would agree to Australia reducing greenhouse gas emissions even if the king-hitting emitters such as China and India didn't join.

It seems a distant memory but new projects once excited emotions of support. People tended to recognise them as bringing greater wealth, better jobs and spin-off benefits across the community. Gunns' Tasmanian pulp mill epitomises a regrettable change. Here is a project that introduces a state- of-the-art 

The Labor Party has discovered a new, seemingly costless way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett wants to phase out electricity suppliers' ability to offer off-peak power. This would mean dearer electricity, reduced demand and lower levels of carbon 

Harnessing the UK Kyoto Treaty negotiating team, Sir Nicholas Stern has lent his name to a report that out-trumps all others in signposting the route to Armageddon. Unrestrained by the already slender threads of their fellow members of the international greenhouse negotiating fraternity,

Australian spending and regulatory measures for greenhouse mitigation fall under two categories: subsidies by governments for carbon dioxide reductions and direct regulations. In the budget, the $8000 subsidy for solar panels, costing $150 million a year for a very expensive

The clamour for measures to prevent global warming is becoming more insistent. It is fashionable that nature is reflected in John Howard's Australian of the Year committee picking evangelical scientist Tim Flannery.

Many politicians have made vigorous statements about the need for carbon taxes or setting tradeable rights to emit carbon dioxide. The West Australian government is the latest, foreshadowing a new carbon tax of $25 a tonne. This is below the $134 a tonne the UK Stern report estimated would be necessary.

This week's rare power outage in Victoria and the fact that it was controlled quickly demonstrates the resilience of the electricity supply system we have.

Automatic trigger mechanisms caused by smoke closed down the line from the Snowy. This left a 20 per cent hole in supplies at a time when a heatwave 

Labor is indignant that the Liberals are apparently siphoning green voters away from them. They even look likely to lose a seat as a result and, more worrying, the Greens party looks set to win the balance of power in the Upper House. Both major parties are dancing around the edge of the ardent followers of 

This week the British Government published the Stern report on the economics of climate change. The report re-interprets some scientific measures of global warming and takes a stab at estimating some of the costs and benefits of taking action. It calls for a vast increase in regulations and taxes to reduce 

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.

Alarmist stories about greenhouse gases causing catastrophic warming continue to be aired in the media. Notwithstanding the lack of evidence, global warming is even being blamed for hurricanes and an apocryphal disappearance of polar bears. Yet, the only solid measure of the warming, the NASA satellite 

The first cancellation of a project as a result of environmental activism took place 30 years ago. The previously unknown snail darter was judged to be under threat and would face extermination if the then 95 per cent completed Tellico Dam in Tennessee were commissioned.

Jon Stanford's "Carbon signal now firmly on the agenda" (Opinion, April 12) and the Allen Consulting report on which it is based illustrates some of the deficiencies of the debate on greenhouse economics.

In the Victorian Government's pre-Christmas issues paper, "Driving investment in renewable energy in Victoria", ministers John Thwaites and Theo Theophanous said "the Victorian Government has already committed to" two new renewable energy polices. These were that:

In Sydney this week a meeting was held on climate change. Participants were from the six Asia-Pacific nations which together will account for 70 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Four of the six nations represented at the meeting -- Australia, the United States, China and India -- have rejected 

Bob Grant, chief executive of wind energy producer Pacific Hydro, ("All energy industries depend on crutch", Australian Financial Review, November 15) maintains that wind power to be viable needs only the sort of government support that he says conventional fuels have enjoyed.

Australian electricity generation is 90 per cent coal. Because it is inexpensive and located conveniently to major electricity loads, now that market systems have replaced the centrally controlled direction, Australia's power costs are among the lowest in the world.

A month ago, NSW Premier Bob Carr uncorked the bottle holding the nuclear power genie. This week, Marcus Godhino used these pages to try to replace it. His daily double was on climate change and nuclear phobia. Bob Carr had a road to Damascus conversion. This silently acknowledged that his policies have 

NSW Premier Bob Carr has spearheaded a move by Australian State Governments to introduce a system of carbon trading. This aims to implement a more aggressive reduction in carbon dioxide emission than that favoured by the Commonwealth.

The European Union has begun a carbon dioxide trading market that sees its 12,000 electricity generation plants and major factories have been given an annual quota of carbon dioxide units. Fossil fuel burning electricity generators are allowed to produce more energy so long as they don't increase their output

The Boxing Day tsunami death toll has now risen to 230,000. Apart from cyclones, it constitutes the worst loss of human life in a single day as a result of war or natural causes. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima brought 66,000 dead. The most destructive tsunami and earthquakes have been centred on

Last Tuesday, as the Victorian Government was launching its Greenhouse Challenge for Energy, the Economic Adviser to Russian President Putin was delivering addresses on the issue in Melbourne. Dr Illarionov minced no words in decrying the Kyoto greenhouse agreement, even though Russia recently agr

Don Henry ('We're no joyless mob') claims that the Australian Conservation Foundation is not against economic growth. He says the ACF wants growth that makes use of less land, water and energy. In other words he favours planned growth in areas that he and his apparatchiks prefer rather than development th

Yesterday's NSW wholesale electricity prices were over one hundred fold the average---a reminder of the sensitivity of the nation's supply and demand balance. Canberra has sought the Industry Commission's advice on government measures to promote energy efficiency. While we can never have a surfeit of 

Peter Garrett lets his cat out of the bag (AFR , 20 May, 'Environment pays dearly for free trade'). He opposes the free trade treaty with the US because it will enrich us and in the process cause us to use more water, energy and land. There's an irony in being lectured on the evils of wealth by a

The publication of Bjorn Lomborg's meticulously researched tome The Skeptical Environmentalist in 1998 shocked the environmental movement. Supported by 2930 footnotes and a bibliography that extended to 70 pages, Lomborg clinically examined the grand environmental issues of the day against the scientific

Sponsors of wind power are keen to promote it as not only clean and green but the modern way to meet our electricity requirements. Governments, businesses and trendy unionists are all dazzled by the development, profits, and jobs that wind generators seem to offer. And every week brings new propos

The greenhouse gas emissions market is where agenda-driven environmentalists hook-up with vested interests in creating opportunities for trading rights. Sarojini Krishnapillai of the Australian Conservation Foundation dangles a $750 carrot of billion emissions market he says will be lost to Australia unless we ra

The politics of energy is a heady brew. Two weeks ago, Candy Broad, the Energy Minister, announced measures designed to suppress electricity price rises. At the same time she called for additional use of high cost renewable energy which would boost electricity costs.

Some 60,000 delegates from all over the world are now converging on Johannesburg to take part in a grand environment summit. Australia's Environment Minister is taking a taxpayer financed party of 50. Johannesburg will provide an opportunity for busybodies to swarm and attack the US (and Australia) for not

The Kyoto climate control agreement is back in the news. Under this agreement, countries tentatively agreed to limit emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide). The aim is to combat a forecast man-induced trend to increased global temperatures.

Sustainable development as a term came into its own with the 1987 publication of the Brundtland Report. Brundtland herself was a Norwegian Socialist, and the report itself showed that influence. For example, reminiscent of earlier, flawed analysis by the Club of Rome, the report looked to replace existing energy 

The ALP's policy decision to ratify the Kyoto Convention on greenhouse would deliver a cruel blow to the Victorian electricity industry and to the Latrobe Valley. At Kyoto, Australia agreed to limit its carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 to 8 per cent above the 1990 level. Already we are over 20 per cent

REVERING FALSE GODS The New Zealand Government may be on the verge of worshipping the Green Baal and throttling the nation’s agriculture by banning biotechnology. The implications of this are particularly profound for Australia. We share many regulatory, political and commercial institutions with New Zeal

The Commonwealth Government has a ready opportunity to fill the $185 million hole in its budget as a result of the backdown on beer excise. President Bush's rejection of a greenhouse treaty offers Australia a heaven-sent opportunity to avoid needless expenditure. Following the US decision, the Government

Last month a position paper of the coal based electricity generators opposed ratifying the Kyoto greenhouse gas agreement and carbon taxes. Coal accounts for three quarters of electricity generation. In the past, the different carbon content of fuels has divided the power industry: a carbon tax advantages black co

The Hilmer reforms to competition policy seek to expunge State protectionism and preference for government-owned bodies. At the heart of this reform program is freedom of trade in electricity. This is being undermined by NSW legislation which, under the banner of greenhouse gas reductions, will severely i