FrankRep
12-03-2009, 03:38 PM
Australian Parliament Rejects Version of "Cap and Trade" (http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5699-australian-parliament-rejects-version-of-qcap-and-tradeq)
James Heiser | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
03 December 2009
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has drawn international attention for environmental outbursts (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/australia-mainmenu-34/2267-australian-prime-minister-goes-hysterical-over-global-warmin) which make him sound like the Al Gore of Oz. Thus in the remaining days before the beginning of the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Rudd has made sure he is keeping up the heat on Barack Obama to commit the United States to the looming debacle in Denmark. According to a report at WFAA.com (http://www.wfaa.com/news/national/78163507.html) concerning Rudd’s November 30 meeting with President Obama, Rudd attempted to contort the long-term good relations between the two nations into the economic equivalent of a suicide pact for the upcoming conference.
"When it comes to climate change, the clock's ticking for us all," Rudd said. "We're working closely with our American friends to secure the best possible outcome for an important deal for the planet, for our economies, for jobs, for the environment."
Rudd's government wants to slash Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 if tough global targets can be agreed upon at the Copenhagen summit.
The only problem for Rudd is that the Australian Parliament has pulled the rug out from under him: Only days before the Copenhagen conference, the Senate of Australia’s Parliament has rejected the Aussie equivalent of “cap and trade.”
According the VOANew.com: (http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/environment/02dec09-australia-climate-change-78310592.html)
Australia's parliament has rejected legislation to set up a carbon trading program, in part because of dissent from climate change skeptics. The decision lands a blow to a key policy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and could trigger an early election next year.
Australia's left-of-center Labor government says the country is being held hostage by "climate change extremists and deniers," after parliament rejected its carbon-trading legislation.
The program needed the support of conservatives in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, to proceed.
The legislation aims to make carbon-based energy, such as electricity produced from the country's plentiful supplies of coal, more expensive. That would create an incentive for consumers and businesses to switch to renewable sources.
A deal to ensure that the plan passed through the Senate disintegrated when the main conservative opposition, a coalition of Liberals and Nationals, elected a new leader, Tony Abbott. He is a fierce critic of the plan and thinks it will do irreparable damage to Australia's coal-powered economy.
The Senate's rejection of the plan allows the government to call an early election if it chooses, although senior ministers have so far ruled that option out. Instead they plan to re-introduce the legislation to parliament in February to give the opposition one more chance to support it.
In fact, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard had a meltdown (http://www.australia.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16985:gillard-on-carbon-pollution-reduction-scheme&catid=72:australian-news&Itemid=200), ranting against the Liberal Party:
Today the climate change extremists and deniers in the Liberal Party have stopped this nation from taking decisive action on climate change. The Liberal Party has ignored the national interest and blocked action on climate change. And today the Liberal Party has failed to represent the millions of Australians who want to see this nation take real and decisive action on climate change.
In point of fact, their action may have saved the Australian economy. And the clear repudiation of the Prime Minister’s legislative agenda may trigger an early election which could bounce Rudd right out of power.
The Parliament’s action creates a whole new context for Prime Minister Rudd’s comments on Monday. If the United States and Australia are indeed “working closely... to secure the best possible outcome for an important deal for the planet, for our economies, for jobs, for the environment,” perhaps the American Senate should take note of the action of our allies down under? If the Australian Senate has chosen to preserve Australia’s economy from the carbon tax folly, will the American Senate follow their lead?
Following in the aftermath of “Climategate” and the revelation that the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia destroyed much of the original data (http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5695-the-bogus-science-of-global-warming) which supposedly supported the “climate change” theory and computer models, President Obama has every good reason to keep his actions in Copenhagen down to reading a few platitudes fed to him by his teleprompter, and come home. Now, contemplating Rudd’s imploding career, and the possibility Australians may be going to the polls sooner than their Prime Minister had anticipated, will the Democratic leadership begin looking toward November 2010 with an even greater sense of dread?
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5699-australian-parliament-rejects-version-of-qcap-and-tradeq
James Heiser | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
03 December 2009
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has drawn international attention for environmental outbursts (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/australia-mainmenu-34/2267-australian-prime-minister-goes-hysterical-over-global-warmin) which make him sound like the Al Gore of Oz. Thus in the remaining days before the beginning of the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Rudd has made sure he is keeping up the heat on Barack Obama to commit the United States to the looming debacle in Denmark. According to a report at WFAA.com (http://www.wfaa.com/news/national/78163507.html) concerning Rudd’s November 30 meeting with President Obama, Rudd attempted to contort the long-term good relations between the two nations into the economic equivalent of a suicide pact for the upcoming conference.
"When it comes to climate change, the clock's ticking for us all," Rudd said. "We're working closely with our American friends to secure the best possible outcome for an important deal for the planet, for our economies, for jobs, for the environment."
Rudd's government wants to slash Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 if tough global targets can be agreed upon at the Copenhagen summit.
The only problem for Rudd is that the Australian Parliament has pulled the rug out from under him: Only days before the Copenhagen conference, the Senate of Australia’s Parliament has rejected the Aussie equivalent of “cap and trade.”
According the VOANew.com: (http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/environment/02dec09-australia-climate-change-78310592.html)
Australia's parliament has rejected legislation to set up a carbon trading program, in part because of dissent from climate change skeptics. The decision lands a blow to a key policy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and could trigger an early election next year.
Australia's left-of-center Labor government says the country is being held hostage by "climate change extremists and deniers," after parliament rejected its carbon-trading legislation.
The program needed the support of conservatives in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, to proceed.
The legislation aims to make carbon-based energy, such as electricity produced from the country's plentiful supplies of coal, more expensive. That would create an incentive for consumers and businesses to switch to renewable sources.
A deal to ensure that the plan passed through the Senate disintegrated when the main conservative opposition, a coalition of Liberals and Nationals, elected a new leader, Tony Abbott. He is a fierce critic of the plan and thinks it will do irreparable damage to Australia's coal-powered economy.
The Senate's rejection of the plan allows the government to call an early election if it chooses, although senior ministers have so far ruled that option out. Instead they plan to re-introduce the legislation to parliament in February to give the opposition one more chance to support it.
In fact, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard had a meltdown (http://www.australia.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16985:gillard-on-carbon-pollution-reduction-scheme&catid=72:australian-news&Itemid=200), ranting against the Liberal Party:
Today the climate change extremists and deniers in the Liberal Party have stopped this nation from taking decisive action on climate change. The Liberal Party has ignored the national interest and blocked action on climate change. And today the Liberal Party has failed to represent the millions of Australians who want to see this nation take real and decisive action on climate change.
In point of fact, their action may have saved the Australian economy. And the clear repudiation of the Prime Minister’s legislative agenda may trigger an early election which could bounce Rudd right out of power.
The Parliament’s action creates a whole new context for Prime Minister Rudd’s comments on Monday. If the United States and Australia are indeed “working closely... to secure the best possible outcome for an important deal for the planet, for our economies, for jobs, for the environment,” perhaps the American Senate should take note of the action of our allies down under? If the Australian Senate has chosen to preserve Australia’s economy from the carbon tax folly, will the American Senate follow their lead?
Following in the aftermath of “Climategate” and the revelation that the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia destroyed much of the original data (http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5695-the-bogus-science-of-global-warming) which supposedly supported the “climate change” theory and computer models, President Obama has every good reason to keep his actions in Copenhagen down to reading a few platitudes fed to him by his teleprompter, and come home. Now, contemplating Rudd’s imploding career, and the possibility Australians may be going to the polls sooner than their Prime Minister had anticipated, will the Democratic leadership begin looking toward November 2010 with an even greater sense of dread?
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5699-australian-parliament-rejects-version-of-qcap-and-tradeq