Carbon tax pressures mount

11 April, 2011 by

That's not the kind of "rocky road" I meant!

The road will get very rocky for the Labor/Green alliance in the next few months:

THE carbon tax becomes a more intractable problem for the Gillard government every day.

Negotiations and campaigns with business leaders, households and the Greens become more complex and more contradictory with every meeting and every compromise or concession to any of the groups involved.

Against a background of a weakened minority government, forced to appease its Greens partners to have any chance of meeting Julia Gillard’s deadline of a carbon tax by July 1 next year, industry has become emboldened and is beginning to speak out.

There have been warnings of job losses in the coal and steel industries, oil refining is a threatened species under a carbon tax, marginal manufacturing ventures face a final cost hit and now liquefied natural gas is declaring its objections.

LNG’s objections are also raising the fundamental issues of whether Australia needs to or can afford to “go it alone” on a carbon tax and whether such a tax is designed to cut global greenhouse gas emissions or just redistribute and recycle wealth through tax. (source)

So we will have the Greens pulling one way, and industry (and common sense) pulling the other, with Labor stuck in the middle. There are so many contradictions in Labor’s argument for this tax that I have lost count. “It will help the climate”: no it won’t. “It needs to change behaviour”: but it won’t if there’s compensation. “It’s in the ‘national interest'”: if ‘national interest’ means flushing our economy down the pan for no purpose whatsoever while our competitors surge ahead unrestrained. Odd definition of ‘national interest’, that one…

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Caption Competition winner!

10 April, 2011 by

There were over 80 entries to the caption competition – thanks for taking part!

Notable mentions go to:

  • Jim: “and when I put on my special invisible glasses they look like they are spinning”
  • Paul M: “Love to get out and meet my fans…”
  • Keith: “And with just four of these, I get enough electricity to run my hairdryer… if the wind is blowing”

Runner up is Uhavitbad? with: “See, I told you I could suck enough to stop a wind farm”

And the Winner is the crypically named “Z”, with:

The winner!

Congratulations to all!

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UPDATED: Grassroots versus AstroTurf

9 April, 2011 by

GetUp? Grassroots? Like hell…

On the one hand we have GetUp!, the union-bankrolled (to the tune of $1.2m from just one donation) Labor cheer-machine, a motley collection of Lefty lemmings who simply do as they’re told, and turn up whenever Simon Sheikh sends them an email or a text message instructing them to go and plug some Labor/Union/Green cause or another.

On the other we have the real grassroots, ordinary Australians, many of whom are protesting for the first time in their lives against the pointless but hugely damaging environmental posturing of the Gillard carbon tax.

First the lemmings, the ABC’s favourite climate warriors (note the uncritical tone of admiration from our national broadcaster):

Hundreds of people have rallied in Brisbane’s CBD to show their support for the Federal Government’s plan to price carbon.

Over 1,000 people packed Brisbane’s King George square to support the Federal Government’s proposed carbon tax.

Signs calling for cuts to pollution and more spending on clean energy were littered through the crowd. [because they’d all been downloaded from the GetUp! web site – Ed]

Some people rallying say the Government is not doing enough to sell its plan to tackle climate change while others say they are glad it is trying. (source)

And then there are the real Australians, who as expected, get the ABC smear treatment. Note how the ABC manages to skew the report to make them all sound like a bunch of extremists who need to be kept under tight control (smears marked “*” for reference):

The anti-carbon lobby is continuing its pressure on the Federal Government with over 1,000 people attending a protest at Blacktown in Sydney’s west.

It has been a smaller than expected* turn out for the rally opposing, where once again there was a strong focus on the Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Some controversial signs from recent rallies at Hyde Park and Federal Parliament House made an appearance*, but the rally’s co-ordinator Chris Johnson says the tone today was still angry, but much cleaner than at previous events.*

“Today we’ve asked a few people to leave* and we’ve had no trouble,” he said.

The rally at Blacktown Showgrounds is the third major protest against a price on carbon in as many weeks. (source)

Ah, gotta love the ABC, where pro-Labor bias is in its genes.

UPDATE: The Sydney Morning Herald has a fawning, sycophantic piece about the wonderful GetUp! demonstration, all uncritically reported as would be expected for the pro-Labor/Green/Union Fairfax:

Organised by activist group GetUp!, the rally featured face painting and music for children – a deliberate move to show the positive message behind climate change action, national director Simon Sheikh said. [More like indoctrination – Ed]

GetUp! did not want ”to have a louder, angrier rally but to show the difference in both our numbers and message, the difference between fear and hope“, he said.

“We can answer their angry slogans and misinformation with a positive, family friendly gathering to stand up for our vision for clean energy and preserving a safe climate for our kids.”

He cited a recent anti-climate action rally in Melbourne at which participants claimed that Australians did not want action against climate change and said that “real grassroots community action” could make a difference.

“Let history record that when they tried to engineer a dangerous and angry Tea Party-like movement in Australia, ordinary families neutralised it with a larger and peaceful positive movement.” (source)

Pass the sick bag.

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Flannery finally flips

9 April, 2011 by

Maximo bizzarro. And this nonsense comes from our esteemed Climate Commissioner on a nice little $170k salary from Gillard’s Labor government. It would be hilarious, if it weren’t so serious.

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Daily Bayonet GW Hoax Weekly Roundup

9 April, 2011 by

Skewering the clueless

As always, a great read!

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UN's $100bn annual "Green Climate Fund"

9 April, 2011 by

What the UN does best…

Global socialism through the back door. With all the carbon tax nonsense going on at home it’s been too easy to ignore the circus of UN climate talks. But with the latest talks concluding in Bangkok, it’s an appropriate time to remind ourselves of the lunacy at the UN.

Most of the news about these talks has been the “feuds” between “rich and poor countries”, and how they struggle even to agree an agenda for further meetings! But sneaked in at the bottom of the Sydney Morning Herald article was this:

A Green Climate Fund was also established that aims to channel $100 billion annually by 2020 from rich countries to help poor nations cope with climate change. (source)

How much of the revenue from Gillard’s carbon tax would be sucked into this fund?

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Wind doesn't blow, it sucks… big time

7 April, 2011 by

And when they do work, they shred birds, or catch fire…

That’s wind power we’re talking about. And it’s total shite. As anyone with half a brain has always known. Repeat after me: wind power sucks. And here it is confirmed, in the key conclusions of a report by the John Muir Trust, “a leading UK charity dedicated to the protection of wild land for both nature and people”:

1. ‘Wind turbines will generate on average 30% of their rated capacity over a year’
In fact, the average output from wind was 27.18% of metered capacity in 2009, 21.14% in 2010, and 24.08% between November 2008 and December 2010 inclusive.

21.1% of rated capacity in 2010? That sucks.

2. ‘The wind is always blowing somewhere’
On 124 separate occasions from November 2008 to December 2010, the total generation from the windfarms metered by National Grid was less than 20MW (a fraction of the 450MW expected from a capacity in excess of 1600 MW). These periods of low wind lasted an average of 4.5 hours.

Total generation less than 20MW? Hardly enough to power a small town? That really sucks.

3. ‘Periods of widespread low wind are infrequent.’
Actually, low wind occurred every six days throughout the 26-month study period. The report finds that the average frequency and duration of a low wind event of 20MW or less between November 2008 and December 2010 was once every 6.38 days for a period of 4.93 hours.

Once every 6 days for nearly 5 hours? That really, really sucks.

4. ‘The probability of very low wind output coinciding with peak electricity demand is slight.’
At each of the four highest peak demand points of 2010, wind output was extremely low at 4.72%, 5.51%, 2.59% and 2.51% of capacity at peak demand.

Less than 5% of capacity at peak demand times? That really, really, really sucks.

5. ‘Pumped storage hydro can fill the generation gap during prolonged low wind periods.’
The entire pumped storage hydro capacity in the UK can provide up to 2788MW for only 5 hours then it drops to 1060MW, and finally runs out of water after 22 hours.

Let’s face it – wind power sucks big time. And yet this is what the UK is planning on relying on for its electricity generation? Oh. My. God. Last person to leave, please turn out the lights.

Hang on, they’re out already.

Read it here.

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Renewable energy is a WASTE OF MONEY

7 April, 2011 by

Renewable energy

Apologies for the capital letters there, but I’m shouting. The Victorian Auditor-General has savaged his State’s pathetic attempts to “tackle climate change” by setting unachievable renewable energy targets:

THE state that sold itself as the heartland of sustainability has been exposed as falling hopelessly behind its own renewable energy targets for most of the past decade.

Victoria’s renewable energy record was savaged yesterday by the state’s auditor-general, who also highlighted how the former Labor government had failed to perform basic checks on key projects.

Auditor-General Des Pearson found renewable energy generation as a percentage of power consumption had increased from 3.6 per cent to just 3.9 per cent over seven years. This compared with a target rate, set in 2002, of 10 per cent by 2010.

Mr Pearson found Labor had failed to properly assess or substantiate the cost and benefits of the key incentive mechanism for attracting private investment in solar energy generation. Nor was enough work done on the validity of the solar energy targets.

And why is that? Because when anyone says the magic word “green”, nobody bothers to undertake the proper cost/benefit analyses, because they believe that the moral superiority which comes from their misguided desire to “save the planet” renders such mundane considerations unnecessary. Well let me tell you something. It doesn’t.

Mr Pearson condemned as ineffective Labor’s setting of renewable energy targets, claiming that in 2002 no effort was taken to determine whether renewable energy and wind energy targets were achievable.

“In the absence of these key planning inputs, there was no evidence to show that planning was effective or the targets soundly based,” he said.

State Energy and Resources Minister Michael O’Brien will review all the systems put in place by the previous government.

“Labor lied to Victorian families over the cost of its poorly planned energy policies,” Mr O’Brien said. “The Auditor-General found Labor’s solar sham would have cost Victorian families nearly 500 per cent more than Labor claimed and every dollar of this cost blowout would have increased electricity bills for struggling Victorian households.” (source)

Yet this is where billions of tax dollars are disappearing every year, pointless gestures to appease the urban Green/Left which achieve absolutely nothing for the environment or the climate.

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Gillard and Swan wanted to abandon ETS

6 April, 2011 by

Which is worse?

That would be the same Gillard and Swan who are now trying to railroad through a carbon tax in breach of an explicit pre-election promise not to. To discover this fact, all The Australian had to do was check its news archive:

Speaking on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, Mr Rudd, now Foreign Minister, said he had made the wrong call to abandon his ETS plan.

He said there were people in the party who wanted to kill off the idea, and others who advocated delay.

“I tried to find a way up the middle of all that, preserve the unity of the government,” Mr Rudd said. “On balance, it was the wrong call. We should have simply tried to sail straight ahead.”

Mr Rudd did not specifically suggest Julia Gillard, as Mr Rudd’s deputy, had lobbied heavily for the switch.

However, the caucus minutes, reported in The Australian last November, reveal a different story.

“I wish to place on record here that Lindsay Tanner and Penny Wong strongly argued to me against taking that position. Equally strong was the advice from Wayne and Julia that the emissions trading scheme had to be abandoned,” Mr Rudd said at the time. (source)

Julia is a fake, changing her tune to fit the prevailing mood (or the wishes of the Greens).

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Labor Nightmare: The Return of Rudd?

5 April, 2011 by

Horror movie in real life…

Kevin Rudd was in good form on Q & A last night, breaching cabinet confidentiality to reveal that senior Labor figures were against an ETS, and leaving open the possibility (heaven forbid) of another go at the leadership. Another great day for Labor!

THE Coalition has seized on Kevin Rudd’s admission that he got it wrong when he dumped his emissions trading scheme, painting the comments as a job application for a second tilt at the Labor leadership.

The Foreign Minister’s breach of cabinet confidentiality – in which he admitted some senior ministers wanted the ETS permanently killed off – has also been used by the opposition to accuse Labor of hypocrisy over the issue.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said there was “no doubt” Mr Rudd’s comments were an appeal to his backbenchers for another go at the leadership.

“I would suspect Kevin Rudd is applying to be prime minister, there’s no doubt about that, no doubt at all,” he told ABC radio.

Mr Rudd admitted on last night’s Q&A program that shelving his ETS was a costly error.

While admitting his mistake, he said he had resisted the urgings of some cabinet members who had argued for it to be axed completely. Others wanted to stick to the existing timetable.

…

Deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop, who appeared on the panel with Mr Rudd, said his comments provided an extraordinary insight into divisions within the Labor cabinet.

“He said that last night, that there were some who wanted it dumped for all time. He was clearly indicating that that was Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan,” she told The Australian Online.

“I think he relished the opportunity to set the record straight. That’s what it appeared to me.

“I think that Julia Gillard’s hypocrisy is just too much for him. And he’s outraged by it. That’s what it appeared to me to be, that he was speaking out over her hypocrisy.”

Ms Bishop said Mr Rudd had clearly broken cabinet confidentiality and had “never seen such an open discussion of otherwise confidential deliberations”. (source)

Just when you think it can’t get any worse for Labor. The Return of Rudd – a horror movie in real life.

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