topic Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when.... in Community Spirit

You know the global warming scam is failing when....

nero_bolt — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 11:08:00 GMT

TONY'S NEW BEST FRIEND IS AL'S NEW BEST FRIEND

Clive has just handed Tony a gift on a carbon platter.

Clive, with his new bestie, All Gore, publicly stated he'll support the repeal of the carbon tax, but only if Tony's Direct Action plan is replaced by a globally-linked Emissions Trading Scheme.

Tony should agree and shake hands with Clive - and come out of tomorrow's meeting with a 'V' for victory salute.

Nobody thinks Direct Action is fair dinkum. It was a token billion dollar policy dreamed up by the conservatives' to alternatively respond to the global warming scare, something that Abbott deep down reckons is '**bleep**' anyway

Dump Direct Action and there's a couple of billion dollars or so saved.

Thanks, Clive (wink, wink).

Now, what about that replacement, the ETS?

Clive says the replacement Emissions Trading Scheme must be globally-linked. The ETS would only operate once Australia’s major trading partners establish their own schemes.

That's not ever gonna happen while countries are doing more yakking and nodding and no real intention of doing.

Tony should, without hesitation, accept Clive's terms.

Tony could then triumphantly announce, "I've stopped the boats, and I've got rid of the toxic carbon tax - all within my first 12 months."

Problem solved.

Greens leader, Christine Milne is rightly worried about Clive's conditional link to our trading partners.

Tonight on the ABC 7:30 program she argued that we already have a legislated ETS, and that Clive doesn't understand that.

But maybe Clive does.

Current legislation has Australia paying a carbon tax until 2015 when the fixed carbon price moves to a flexible market driven ETS.

Christine doesn't want anything changed. The last thing Christine wants is for the carbon tax to be dumped in favour of a new ETS that is conditionally linked to our trading partners establishing their own schemes. That will mean no carbon tax and no ETS.

Politics is as much about pragmatism as anything else. It's often the only way to get your own way, indirectly.

Tony, shake hands with Clive - and do a little twerking with him if you have to.

Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when....

nero_bolt — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 23:26:07 GMT

Clive Palmer kills carbon action (well done Clive)

AUSTRALIA will be left without a major scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions after Clive Palmer last night backed the repeal of the carbon tax without supporting any concrete alternative.

The Palmer United Party leader sounded the death knell for the carbon tax last night by confirming his senators would vote to abolish the impost after the new Senate takes shape next week.

In an unlikely pairing with former US vice-president Al Gore, one of the world’s leading climate change campaigners, Mr Palmer held a press conference in Parliament House to declare the carbon scheme dead.

Mr Palmer said the PUP would propose an emissions trading scheme to put a price on carbon but said it would only start when other nations did the same, an unlikely prospect in the short term.

He also vowed to vote against Tony Abbott’s alternative policy, the $2.8 billion Direct Action spending program, in a move that appears to kill off the scheme given it is also opposed by Labor, the Greens and minor parties.

“The carbon tax is an arbitrary tax and it sets a price on carbon at a level far above an international price for carbon, and in so doing it disadvantages Australians and that is why it should be repealed,” Mr Palmer said.

In a written statement, the PUP leader said the party would be “true to its promises” and would vote to abolish the tax.

The statement put no conditions on the PUP vote other than an amendment to require power companies to pass on their full cost savings to consumers. Further conditions are possible, however, as Mr Palmer will hold talks with the Prime Minister today to negotiate the party’s position, which has shifted several times since the election.

The declaration capped an absurd press conference last night where Mr Palmer and Mr Gore refused to take questions, saying they had to go to an “urgent dinner” and avoiding questions about whether the former vice-president had been paid for his appearance. Mr Palmer told the ABC last night Mr Gore had not been paid.

Greens leader Christine Milne dismissed Mr Palmer’s proposal for a long-term emissions trading scheme as “extremely vague” and noted that Australia already had an ETS due to come into effect under existing legislation.

The outcome is a significant win for Mr Abbott in his bid to end the carbon pricing scheme, securing a majority in the upper house with support from the PUP, the Liberal Democratic Party, Family First and the Democratic Labour Party.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt said last night’s declaration was “good news” and the government would work with the PUP on amendments to ensure power companies passed on any savings to consumers.

“We welcome the fact the carbon tax will be repealed — that’s the unambiguous message from tonight,” Mr Hunt said.

The government is facing defeat, however, on the Direct Action program that Mr Abbott has put forward over more than four years to replace the carbon price.

Mr Palmer called Direct Action a “waste of money” and confirmed the PUP would vote against it, ensuring its defeat given similar objections from Labor, the Greens, the LDP and Family First.

In a surprising but untested proposal to act on climate change, Mr Palmer said the PUP would seek to legislate an emissions trading scheme that would only come into force when Australia’s main trading partners also took similar action.

He did not elaborate on how the ETS would work, but said later it would not be a condition for his support in repealing the carbon tax. The scheme would set the carbon price at zero — a win for big polluters — and would change only in response to global action.

The PUP position appears set to prevent any substantial scheme being introduced to replace the carbon tax, prompting experts to warn last night that there would be no way to meet the government’s stated aim of reducing emissions by 5 per cent by 2020.

Mr Gore expressed his “disappointment” at the move to repeal the carbon tax as he stood in the Great Hall of Parliament House side-by-side with Mr Palmer, who owns one of Australia’s biggest producers of greenhouse gas emissions.

As the ultimate owner of Queensland Nickel, Mr Palmer will be spared a carbon tax bill of at least $6 million a year if the impost is repealed.

While Mr Palmer has said he will not abstain from the carbon tax vote in the lower house, his position will be adopted by three PUP senators in the upper house and may be copied by the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party’s Ricky Muir, who has declared unity with the PUP.

In a challenge to other parts of the government’s agenda, Mr Palmer said the PUP would vote against any change to the Renewable Energy Target — designed to ensure 20 per cent of energy is from renewable sources by 2020 — before 2016. While that vow matches Mr Abbott’s commitment at the last election, it could stymie any attempt by the government to modify the RET in response to complaints from industry about the impact of the target on power prices.

Mr Palmer also said the PUP would vote to retain the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the agency set up by Labor as a way to invest $10bn of taxpayer funds into renewable energy schemes. The PUP position ensures the new Senate, like the current one, will veto the government attempts to dismantle the CEFC.

The government reintroduced the carbon tax repeal bill on Monday after the Senate rejected the bill in March, setting up a potential trigger for a double dissolution election if the upper house voted against the measure again.

Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when....

nero_bolt — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 00:18:45 GMT

Stephanie Balogh shares my suspicions about Al Gore’s appearance at Clive Palmer’s press conference - one called to actually announce the end of the carbon tax:

Gore has either been duped into thinking Palmer is an environmentalist or he has been handsomely paid for his bizarre appearance. Or both…

Does Gore know that Palmer claims to have a deal to export $60 billion worth of coal to China over the next 20 years from his big holding in Queensland’s Galilee Basin?

Does Gore know Palmer’s Waratah Coal was given approval late last year to build a thermal coal project near Alpha in central-west Queensland?

Does Gore know Palmer operates a polluting nickel refinery, Queensland Nickel?

Does Gore know Palmer incurred millions of dollars in penalties for refusing to pay his carbon tax bill on time?

Does Gore know that Palmer owns a fleet of cars and planes, and it is doubtful that he counts a Toyota Prius among his collection, and it is unclear whether he claims carbon offsets when he flies in his private 19-seat Bombardier jet?

Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when....

debra9275 — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 01:14:34 GMT

It's a disappointing move by Clive, but we all know he has " vested interests" where carbon tax is concerned. The al gore thing was strange, I thought Palmer was trying to make it look like he hasn't let us down, when really he has.

Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when....

boris1gary — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:10:51 GMT

what a strange thread...Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when....

when what?

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/palmer-gores-abbott-to-change-canberra-climate,6611

Last night in Canberra the unlikely duo of Clive Palmer and Al Gore announced a partnership to battle climate change — and battered Abbott’s spluttering budget. Bob Ellis takes us through events.

Wednesday, 7.25 pm

It’s hard to imagine where Abbott can go now, after Clive and Al, side by side, foreboded a Budget utterly smashed and an early dinner.

A senior ‒ really senior ‒ Cabinet Minister told me half an hour ago:

“Tony is unafraid of the polls, and he’s as likely as not to go to a double dissolution. He really is.”

I dare not think this is so. But…

The only item they will get through now will increase the deficit — and no cuts to pensions, the ABC, SBS, and CSIRO will be tolerated by Palmer, Labor, the DLP, the Greens. This leaves them, this year ‒ the Truss-Abbott gang who can’t shoot straight ‒ sixty billion in the hole and next year a hundred billion.

And they have no Plan B … and they never had one.

Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when....

durruticolumna — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 03:51:23 GMT

I was buying a coffee and scanned the editorial in the Australian while I was waiting.Clive Palmer is not too popular there:)
Get this! They were down on old Clive for destroying "the worlds toughest abatement progam".I nearly fell over laughing given their attacks on Julla Gillard and the carbon tax.
What I think they're really worried about is that their beloved LNP is going to get hammered at the next election and PUP's going to be the major beneficiary.The rusted ons aren't going to be too happy with Tony, Joe & co.if this eventuates.
Clive Palmer,looked upon as being a bit of a joke by most people,myself included,before the last election,might single handedly set the LNP back 20 years.Mwahahaha.

Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when....

siggie-reported-by-alarmists — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 05:55:10 GMT

Al Gore........ giggle.......

Re: You know the global warming scam is failing when....

icyfroth — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 06:59:00 GMT

It's certainly weird to see that odd couple standing up on a shared podium.