Saturday 20th of April 2024
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crappy budgies...

crappy budgies...

Tony Abbot made such an ass of himself trying to put one over us with a pensioner’s electricity bill, he’s been on the naughty mat ever since. Thankfully, we appear to have been spared the daily litany of carbon tax misdemeanours, lest we remember his.

But if Mitt Romney wins the U.S. Presidential election in a fortnight’s time, Abbott may well be tempted to make an ass of himself again on this subject.

There’s no doubt a Romney win will signal a return to Bush’s ‘business first, people last’ agenda. He opposes fuel-economy standards, wants to expand tax breaks for big oil companies and wind down investment in wind power; in other words, the same agenda we’d see in Australia if Abbott gets into the Lodge.

But, before the next election, Tony Abbott will need to convince the Australian public to get shot of the carbon tax ― like the Republican-dominated Congress dispensed with Obama’s cap and trade bill. Abbott will likely come up with the same absurd argument he voiced on his return from the United States in July this year, when he claimed:

“The last thing they want to do is damage their competitiveness, score an economic own goal without doing any good for the environment by hitting their people with a carbon tax.”

Well, let’s see how the U.S. is dealing with greenhouse gas emissions since Abbott made that claim.

Notwithstanding a Romney victory and Obama’s cap and trade Bill buried by a Republican-dominated Congress, the U.S. is rapidly decarbonizing its economy. In fact, the U.S. will easily meet its Copenhagen Accord target of minus 17 per cent by 2020, based on 2005 levels.

Without a price on carbon, on the other hand, Australia has no hope of meeting even its limited target of 5 per cent by 2020 below 2000 levels.   

Surprisingly, two Republicans are responsible for rush by other states and institutions to jump into the vacuum vacated by Washington on climate change leadership:  disgraced President, Richard Nixon, and former Californian Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Following the Governator’s bold Global Warming Solution Act 2006, emissions in California are on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to 1990 levels, and an impressive 80 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050, matching U.K. and German targets.

As the eighth largest economy in the world, California is big enough to qualify for a seat on the G20 in its own right and has the power to galvanize action beyond its borders.

Referred to as ‘the California effect’, carbon trading is now operating in sixteen U.S. states through theRegional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Mid-Western and Western GHG trading schemes. California is also developing a joint cap and trade scheme with British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba through the Western Climate Initiative.

But the largest share of the credit for decarbonizing of the U.S. economy should go to Richard Nixon.

During his administration, President Richard Nixon (1969-1974), delivered a raft of environmental legislation. It included the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Clean Air Act.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/burning-the-budgies-over-u-s-carbon/

 

meanwhile in china...

BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- China aims to reduce the per-unit GDP greenhouse gas emission in 2020 by 40 percent to 45 percent as compared to that of 2005. To accomplish the goals, China adopted a range of major policy measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) period, and has achieved remarkable results. Following are the major achievements China made during this period:

Closure of outdated industrial capacity

China shut down small thermal power generating units with a total generating capacity of 76.82 million kw, and eliminated backward steel production capacity to the tune of 72 million tons.

China phased out 120 million tons of iron production capacity, 370 million tons of cement production capacity, 107 million tons of coke production capacity, 11.3 million tons of paper production capacity, and 45 million cases of glass production capacity.

From 2005 to 2010, coal consumption in thermal power supply dropped 10 percent from 370 g/kwh to 333 g/kwh.

http://english.cntv.cn/20111122/110064.shtml

pigs' arse!...

A New South Wales piggery has become the first in Australia to turn its manure into carbon credits, earning it as much as $150,000 a year.
Blantyre Farms, near Young in the state's south-east, spent almost $1 million on a biogas generator that captures methane from the manure, turns it into electricity and exports it to the national grid.

It has turned the farm's monthly power bill of $15,000 into a $5000 credit.

There is a further windfall from carbon credits awarded to the farm for the greenhouse gas emissions it avoids by capturing and burning the methane.

“The whole purpose for us was to eliminate our electricity bill,” farmer owner Edwina Beveridge said.“We were lucky that we fit so well into the carbon initiative scheme."

With its 22,000 pigs, Blantyre Farms is the first farm to tap into the government's Carbon Farming Initiative program, aimed at cutting emissions from agriculture.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/pigs-in-carbon-clover-in-farming-first-20121025-287bb.html#ixzz2AHuQlwyC

tony's understanding of the law is an arse...

 

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott made this extraordinary statement about the police raids. Prime Minister Gillard needs to explain why she said she had full confidence in Thomson "given what is coming out now into the public arena". 

Could somebody give Abbott a lesson in Legal Process 101? 

It works like this – when police and regulatory agencies gather evidence that does not mean a person has done anything wrong. Then Abbott's loyal sidekick, Chris Pyne, chimed in with a flurry of hyperbole about scandal and Thomson's vote in Parliament being a tainted one. 

Pyne, believe it or not, has a law degree so he knows that because there are no findings made by any court against Thomson at this point the man is entitled to vote in the Parliament and his vote is as good as that of any other MP.

There are two aspects about Thomson's case which emerge from yesterday's frenzy and the events leading up to it. 

Firstly, is it any wonder that suppression orders, loathed by the media, are so necessary to ensure fairness in our justice system today? If politicians continue to undermine Thomson's rights, and the media reports those comments, then the only answer is to suppress any publication about the legal proceedings. 

Secondly, what does it say about our legislators that they are so brazen in their contempt for the rule of law when it suits them? Shouldn't there be sanctions for politicians who comment on legal proceedings in a way that clearly undermines fairness?

That Craig Thomson has had his reputation and rights so undermined before he even steps into a court room should frighten all Australians. It shows that the cherished and fundamentally important rights of people in our legal system can be swept aside whenever it suits politicians and the media. 

The hunt for the story or the power would seem to be the driving factors in the way Thomson is being treated.  And who will it be next?

Greg Barns is a barrister, former Liberal Party advisor and national president of the Australian Lawyers Alliance. 

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4333134.html?WT.svl=theDrum