This is not what PUP voters thought they were voting for… but the Big-Bankers will be happy.
Really? Clive Palmer holds the balance of p0wer in the new Australian Senate, due to start on July 1. He’s the coal magnate who made it clear he would get rid of the carbon tax. Now he’s palling up with Al Gore, and saying he’ll vote the tax down but only if we add a clause for an emissions trading scheme that is conditional on China, the US, the EU, Japan and Korea joining in too. Is this a meaningless dead-duck promise that is unlikely to happen, or is this the long softening up for the UN convention in Paris next year, when weak schemes (like China’s, where lots of permits are free) are used as leverage to call in the sub-clauses? I don’t think Gore would be flying out here if there was no chance this legislation would matter. At the very least he will use it to lean on other countries, as evidence that “Australia wants in”. At the very least this is about keeping the illusion of momentum going.
What is going on behind the scenes for this extraordinary turn-around? The man said only two months ago that he thought global warming was natural and 97% of carbon emissions came from nature. Clive the-coal-miner suddenly cares about carbon?
His long-awaited declaration on climate policy clears the way for Mr Abbott’s signature carbon tax abolition, but throws into doubt other aspects of the Coalition’s climate policies.
In a blow to the Abbott government, Mr Palmer said his Palmer United Party would use its decisive four votes in the Senate to block the proposed abolition of the money-making CEFC and would also move to legislate an emissions trading scheme with a starting price of zero dollars. — Sydney Morning Herald.
Keep the CEFC? The Clean Energy Finance Corporation
There would be enough support for the government to abolish the 20 per cent Renewable Energy Target, despite figures showing consumers would be better off if the target was kept, but the CEFC, which has turned a $200 million profit on investing in renewable energy projects, is likely to be retained on current numbers.
— also, Sydney Morning Herald.
Financial institutions benefit from trading schemes, but they don’t benefit from taxes (and they certainly don’t want “Direct Action”).
From Andrew Bolt h/t TonyfromOz and Bobl
Andrew Bolt:
Reports that Palmer wants an emissions trading scheme. Which is a carbon tax in another form.
What a sell out. But this should cement Palmer’s relationship with the ABC and the Canberra press gallery.
The Greens are now also suggesting they could back an emissions trading scheme, having already helped destroy the prime ministerships of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard by opposing just that.
also
Palmer’s plan isn’t good, but could be worse.
The very bad news is that Palmer (the coal miner) will vote to keep the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which lends our money for dodgy green schemes, and the Renewable Energy Target, which forces us to waste money on green power and drives up power bills.
But Palmer’s trading scheme has a useful get-out, although it sets up a dangerous machinery – especially if Labor is returned.
He says he will move an amendment to a bill to abolish the Climate Change Authority that a zero-rated emissions trading scheme be set up, to be operative only when China, the US, the European Union, Japan and Korea have the same. The price, he suggests, will be set at the world price.
At this stage, though, there is no sign the US, Korea and Japan will have any such scheme, and the Chinese plan is for a scheme where permits are likewise free.
Clever Clive. With luck, this scheme will never happen. But Palmer says the carbon tax will go. And that is the main game.