Puppets in Parliament and Pay-offs on the Road to Carbonia

Viv Forbes (Carbon-Sense)

12 October 2009

 
Malcolm Turnbull met coal mining chiefs recently. He said later that the miners begged him to negotiate a compromise deal. They want the Liberals to lobby for exemptions from Penny Wong’s Ration-N-Tax Scheme.
 
The big miners supported the scheme in the belief that exporters would be exempt, and they would also get buckets of taxpayer money for fantasies like carbon capture and burial. Now they find that the dog they unleashed is menacing them. The Ration-N-Tax Scheme proposes a tax on fugitive mine emissions of methane and carbon dioxide. This will close many gassy mines unless they get a special exemption.
 
Other Liberal leaders have said that big business wants the “certainty” of the Ration-N-Tax Scheme. There can be no certainty on the amount of damage any Ration-N-Tax Scheme will bring. We know the economic damage of a full blown scheme will be large (that is what it is designed to do) but no one knows how large. The only certainty is that whatever we do with carbon dioxide will have no effect on the climate. The only way to get a “certain” outcome from Parliament is to reject this bill entirely.
 
The Liberal backbench are right in rejecting Penny Wong’s flawed legislation. They are reflecting the interests of real Australia outside the urban greens and the Big Business Councils.
 
And surely no one except Mr Turnbull wants a Clayton’s version of the Ration-N-Tax Scheme, with a huge bureaucracy administering nothing useful to the climate or anyone else - it must be thrown out.
 
It seems we have a house full of puppets in Canberra, all dancing as vested interests pull the strings?
 
Those calling for “certainty” are mainly the voices of vested interests, and they expect a pay-off.
 
Some are already celebrating the pay-offs to come.
 
For example, the “Carbon Market Expo” to be held on the Gold Coast in October 2009 boasts that “more than 70 businesses will exhibit at the expo”. They include bankers, brokers, carbon asset managers, carbon investment managers, carbon accounting firms, carbon management firms, carbon consultants and auditors, carbon control consultants, emissions trading forums, carbon rewards groups, tree technology consultants, green fleet firms, carbon credit offset suppliers, carbon forest service companies, carbon certifiers and verifiers, carbon registries, carbon market infrastructure providers, recruitment firms, R&D advisers, PR firms, engineering contractors, University academics, carbon market advisers and of course all the federal, state and even local “climate smart” bureaucracies and their well travelled staff.
 
Despite their totally mercenary aims, this large group of city business interests will talk reverently of their visions of Carbonia. This is a mystic land where only green carbon is permitted to exist; where nymphs and gnomes skip through sylvan forest of indigenous vegetation; where gentle breezes and warm rain are never disturbed by snow storms or heat waves; where floods, droughts and bushfires are unknown; and where a planned carbon depression has ensured there are no nasty farms, factories, mines or motor engines.
 
In other meetings across town, the alternate energy crowd are still celebrating their success in gaining bi-partisan support for the recent legislation forcing consumers to use their expensive and unreliable products. (Of course, the sun never sets and the breezes never fail in Carbonia.)
 
And those expecting continuing millions from taxpayers for carbon burial sink holes also have their lobbies and meetings for the faithful.
 
No doubt all these people are lobbying for the “certainty” of a place at the carbon trough.
 
But none of these “businesses” could exist without the taxes and controls to be imposed on everyone who consumes the products of carbon fuels – food, travel, electricity, steel, cement, chemicals and manufactured goods - all the tangible things we need to support our standard of living and our jobs.
 
A huge parasitic industry trading permits in hot air or living on carbon-funded welfare is gathering to feed off the dying carcass of our real industry. But when the hosts die, so will the parasites. And through all this planned turmoil, climate will go on changing as it always has.
 
Let’s turn the limelight of publicity onto the puppets in Parliament and the puppeteers calling their tunes. 
 
The Labor Party dances to the fiddles and flutes of the green fairies, and their expected pay-off is election preference deals or voting support in the Senate. The Liberals dance to the big bass drums of business offering who-knows-what for exemptions, mandates, subsidies and special tax handouts.
 
No one consulted the Rockhampton Cement Plant which is being mothballed because of the threat of the Ration-N-Tax Scheme. An upgrade of the Gladstone plant is also is also a likely carbon casualty.
 
Does anyone care that farmers in droves are leaving the land, fishermen are leaving the sea and factories are migrating to China? Who represents these real workers whose jobs will slowly disappear in the green haze now intoxicating most politicians in every Parliament?
 
 
 
The Promise of all Ration-N-Tax Schemes:
 
Cap and trade will drive up energy prices to force people to use less energy. Consumers will drive less, fly less and buy less.
 
All Cap and trade does is force people to:
 
“Spend More to Use Less.”
Nick Loris,
Heritage Foundation, October 2009
 
 
Things are no better on the international scene, where vested interests have created their own consensus - those expecting benefits from Copenhagen far outnumber those who will undoubtedly pay.
 
Who will be net losers from any Copenhagen carbon deal? It will not be places like France, heavily reliant on nuclear power; nor will it be places like Scandinavia, lucky enough to have harnessed their abundant hydro power; nor will it be places like Iceland, where geothermal energy is readily available; nor will it Russia who will take advantage of the collapse of Soviet industry to earn “carbon credits”; nor will it be places like India, China and Brazil, who see Copenhagen as the place where they will manage to extract massive funds and technology from the west in order to “clean up their industry”; and it will not be OPEC who are already seeking deals to get “compensation” if Copenhagen reduces demand for their oil.
 
Who is destined to play Santa Claus at the global warming party in frigid Copenhagen? The intended victims are those rich western nations heavily dependent on carbon fuels, such as Australia, USA, Poland and UK. 
 
Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull are the Judas goats leading us to this slaughter.
 
The Ration-N-Tax Scheme must be rejected.
 



Spotlight on the UN IPCC
Malcolm Roberts has carefully examined the “science” promoted by the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). In an open letter to all members of Parliament, he comes to these conclusions:
  • It is clear that IPCC reports are not scientifically prepared and contradict science.
  • The IPCC ignores natural causes of global warming.
  • Very few scientists support the IPCC’s core claim and a huge number world-wide oppose the IPCC’s core claim.
  • There is no evidence human production of CO2 caused global warming.
  • Many IPCC claims are unscientific.
  • Many claims of the IPCC are false.
  • The lack of an effective peer review process and the unjustified dismissal of well-founded comments demonstrates that IPCC reports were written to a predetermined aim to ensure a predetermined outcome.
  • The science is indeed settled - CO2 is NOT causing global warming!
 
 
 
Engineering the Ration-N-Tax Recession.
 
“Let me emphasise something very strongly as we begin this discussion. The United States has already this year alone achieved a 6% reduction in emissions simply because of the downturn in the economy, so we are effectively saying we need to go another 14%.”
 
Senator John Kerry as he introduced his Ration-N-Tax Scheme into the US Senate.
This bill aims at cutting emissions by 20%.
Reported in “The Week that Was”
10 October 2009
 
For the Carbon Recession Planned for Britain see The Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2009:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6248257/Planned-recession-could-avoid-catastrophic-climate-change.html
 
“Britain will have to stop building airports, switch to electric cars and shut down coal-fired power stations as part of a 'planned recession' to avoid dangerous climate change”.
 
 
Delusions in the land of Kyoto
 
“Japan's commitment in June to cut greenhouse gas levels 8 percent from its 1990 levels by 2020 was scoffed at for being far too little. Yet for Japan - which has led the world in improving energy efficiency - to have any hope of reaching its target, it needs to build nine new nuclear power plants and increase their use by one-third, construct more than 1 million new wind-turbines, install solar panels on nearly 3 million homes, double the percentage of new homes that meet rigorous insulation standards, and increase sales of "green" vehicles from 4 percent to 50 percent of its auto purchases.
 
“Japan's new prime minister was roundly lauded this month for promising a much stronger reduction, 25 percent, even though there is no obvious way to deliver on his promise.
 
“Expecting Japan, or any other nation, to achieve such far-fetched cuts is simply delusional.”
 
Bjorn Lomborg, reported in CCNet152/2009. For full report see:
 
 
Global Warming needed?
 
First we had news of record cold in Central USA as an Arctic chill set in. As the front moved in the temperature plunged 23 deg C in five hours. On October 10th Denver recorded the lowest temperature for this time of year for 104 years. (Maybe Al Gore was visiting and the Gore Effect struck again?)
 
Then it was reported that the Pacific Ocean is starting to cool down. And the sun remains unusually quiet.
 
None of this proves the warming phase is over, but it does suggest there is no global warming crisis, and no need to commit economic suicide in the hope of appeasing the weather gods.
 
Tide Turning.
 
The UK Sunday Times 11 October 2009 headlines its Review section:
 
“Why Everything you think you know about Global Warming is wrong”.
 
Quote: "So not only is carbon dioxide plainly not poisonous, but changes in carbon dioxide levels don't necessarily mirror human activity. Nor does atmospheric carbon dioxide warm the earth - ice-cap evidence shows that over the past several hundred thousand years, carbon dioxide levels have risen after a rise in temperature, not the other way around."
 
Not everything in the article is as sensible as that quote, but the main message is clear.
 
 Viv Forbes
 
 
“Carbon Sense” is a newsletter produced by the Carbon Sense Coalition, an Australian based organisation which opposes waste of resources, opposes pollution, and promotes the rational and sustainable use of carbon energy and carbon food.
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Viv Forbes MS 23, Rosewood   Qld   4340   Australia.     info@carbon-sense.com           07 5464 0533
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