top of page
Yallorn pic_edited_edited.jpg

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

Your essential Paris primer

Quadrant Online, 23 October 2015

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.

Cutting emissions beyond Paris

Australian Financial Review, 22 October 2015

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. 

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

Climate Change survey spin will backfire on the ALP

Catallaxy Files, 10 August 2015

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

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

Renewable subsidies: which is the best way to waste money?

Catallaxy Files, 14 July 2015

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

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.

Earth Hour: the Majesty of Failure

Catallaxy Files 12th April, 2012

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 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.

Subsidising solar power is just plain crazy

Herald Sun 24th June, 2011

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.

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.