Climate sense

Whenever anyone urges caution regarding Labor’s reckless and one-eyed pursuit of a carbon price, Gillard or Combet or Wong will wheel out how many other countries have cap-and-trade schemes in place, and claim that the rest of the world is “moving towards” more carbon pricing. They usually trot out the European cap-and-trade system, which accounts for 25 or so of the 30-odd countries, and which is so mired in corruption that the majority of transactions are fraudulent, followed by the US Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade scheme with ten [er, nine – Ed] states. Even that is less than one fifth of the US.

It simply isn’t true. The world is pulling back from carbon pricing, as people realise it doesn’t work. Japan has abandoned plans for an ETS, the EU scheme is doing little to reduce emissions, but everything to cripple an already struggling economy, New Hampshire voted to leave the US RGGI, and now its the turn of New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie spells out the blindingly obvious:

New Jersey is dropping out of the nation’s largest regional effort to reduce greenhouse gases in a move announced by Governor Christie on Thursday that was praised by business groups and criticized by environmental advocates.

Christie called the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative a “failure” and said it has been ineffective in battling global warming.

“RGGI has not changed behavior and it does not reduce emissions,” Christie said at a news conference in Trenton.

“RGGI does nothing more than tax electricity, tax our citizens, tax our businesses, with no discernable or measurable impact upon our environment,” he said.

Christie’s decision to withdraw by year’s end comes after similar efforts in New Hampshire, Maine and Delaware were met with resistance in recent weeks. New Jersey is the first state to opt out of the program, and some environmentalists fear Christie’s decision could provide momentum for other states to withdraw. (source)

Let’s hope so. Climate sense for once. Perhaps Gillard, Combet and Wong should follow New Jersey’s excellent example… How about a shot at Republican candidate in 2012, Mr Christie?

P.S. As at 2pm AEST, this news is missing in action from ABC, Fairfax, and News Corp. Only Sky have reported it so far…

(h/t WUWT)