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In the perfect world of economic liberals, every commodity has its price. Limited supply makes goods more expensive and vice versa. That's how markets work—at least in theory. In practice, things often look different, and this is especially true when it comes to emissions trading, a business subject to a very different mechanism: laws dictated by the European Union. Economists have generally praised the trading scheme as a nearly ideal instrument for reducing harmful carbon dioxide emissions. … But for the last half year, prices for CO2 certificates have dropped almost continuously, decreasing by about half, to around €8 ($10.60)...

Ezra Klein has unwittingly offered a telling insight into the liberal mind. On Morning Joe today, the liberal Washington Post blogger actually argued that quintessential big government programs like massive involvement in housing finance and the imposition of a carbon tax aren't "progressive" but simply "good policy." Joe Scarborough pushed back saying Klein's notion of "good policy" was only so for those who share his liberal mindset. View the video here.

China's biggest airlines warned on Thursday they will refuse to pay a new EU tax aimed at cutting carbon emissions. Beijing said it has deep concerns over the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which came into force on New year's Day and demands all airlines pay a green duty to offset carbon emissions. "China opposes the European Union's unilateral legislation. China has expressed to the EU our deep concern and opposition many times on a bilateral level," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. … "The CATA, on behalf of Chinese airlines, is strongly against the EU's improper practice of...

Ow, that’s gotta hurt. CA’s 2006 Global Warming law – denied.Federal judge blocks California low-carbon fuels ruleChico Enterprise RecordFRESNO — A federal judge moved today to block California from enforcing its first-in-the-nation mandate for cleaner, low-carbon fuels, saying the rules favor biofuels produced in the state.The lawsuit challenging the state regulations, which were adopted as part of the state’s landmark 2006 global warming law, was filed in federal court last year by a coalition including the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association and the Consumer Energy Alliance. Fresno-based U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill’s written ruling Thursday said the low-carbon fuel...

Guest post by David ArchibaldWillis Eschenbach’s post on lab work on coral response to elevated carbon dioxide levels, and The Reef Abides, leads to a large scale, natural experiment in Papua New Guinea. There are several places at the eastern end of that country where carbon dioxide is continuously bubbling up through healthy looking coral reef, with fish swimming around and all that that implies.Coral Reef at Dobu Island with carbon dioxide bubbling through it (photo: Bob Halstead)What that implies is that ocean acidification is no threat at all. If the most delicate, fragile, iconic ecosystem of them all can...

Guest Post by Willis EschenbachThere’s an interesting study out on the natural pH changes in the ocean. I discussed some of these pH changes a year ago in my post “The Electric Oceanic Acid Test“. Before getting to the new study, let me say a couple of things about pH.The pH scale measures from zero to fourteen. Seven is neutral, because it is the pH of pure water. Below seven is acidic. Above seven is basic. This is somewhat inaccurately but commonly called “alkaline”. Milk is slightly acidic. Baking soda is slightly basic (alkaline).Figure 1. pH scale, along with some...

Yesterday Australia passed it's $23 a ton carbon tax. Leftist activist group Get Up emailed this message to it's members from Al Gore. "This is a historic moment. Australia's Parliament has put the nation's first carbon price into law. With this vote, the world has turned a pivotal corner in the collective effort to solve the climate crisis. This success is the result of the tireless work of an unprecedented coalition that came together to support the legislation, the leadership of Prime Minister Gillard, and the courage of legislators to take a vote that helps to safeguard the future of...

LABOR may have finally bounced off rock bottom but Australia's oldest political party and its leader are still facing a historic loss of public confidence and electoral failure. A three-point rise in the Newspoll primary vote for the ALP has avoided the unthinkable for the Gillard government of going to 25 per cent or below to have less support than the combined vote for the Greens and various odds and sods, but the broader view of this survey of public opinion about Labor - as well as the personal standing of Julia Gillard - is devastating. The electorate has not...

Every Australian ought to read the Ergas article in The Australian. For non-Australians, it’s a case-study of just how thin and fragile all our democracies are. The government was elected NOT to do this. The Treasury are paid to provide their modeling and assumptions to the Australian people but they won’t. The Labor Party is planning to put in the crippling legislation that can’t be unwound, even if 99% of Australians wanted it to be. No, this is not a master plan to destroy the country, it’s just filthy ambition — to rule at all costs, the nation be damned....

In a video interview this week, White House Office of Science and Technology Director John P. Holdren told CNSNews.com that he would use the “free market economy” to implement the “massive campaign” he advocated along with Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich to “de-develop the United States.” In his role as President Barack Obama’s top science and technology adviser, Holdren deals with issues ranging from global warming to health care. “A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States,” Holdren wrote along with Paul and Anne H. Ehrlich in the...

Giant PR machine swings into gear against the Convoy It’s important for the big-government-dependent parties to deny the power of the Convoy. Less than a week ago, there was a rally at Parliament House with around 3,000-5,000 people. And today there was another one, this one with around 600 vehicles according to Matt and Janet Thompson, and this one by people who have gone to extraordinary lengths, driving up to 5,000 kilometers from all corners of the country.The convoy is a rolling protest that involved thousands of people across the nation. In Sydney, people switched their headlights on in sympathy,...

Hundreds of truckers circled Australia's parliament on Monday in a campaign aimed at forcing the government to withdraw a proposed carbon tax law, and call new elections, the second anti-government protest in the nation's capital this month. The truckers sought to draw on public dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Julia Gillard's minority government and perceptions of economic incompetence, despite a robust economy. "Everyone is on the edge because the country is basically in a state of disarray. We've all been surprised at just how tough everyone is doing it," said transport company owner Peter Whytcross as the "Convoy of No Confidence"...

Tomorrow, a road convoy will set off from Port Hedland in Western Australia for a journey across the country. Two more convoys will leave Perth and Cairns on Thursday. By the end of this week, 11 convoys will be in motion, all heading to a single convergence point next Monday. This is the ”convoy of no confidence”.  [SMH] Finally, the mainstream media has realized the Convoy of No Confidence is historic, real, and unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.  Monday, the news was front page of The Australian (Mass convoy to make ‘real’ voices heard), and thanks to Paul Sheehan,...

Thousands of people have gathered in the Australian capital, Canberra, to protest against a planned carbon tax aimed at curbing greenhouse emissions. It is the centrepiece of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's environmental strategy, despite her ruling out its introduction during last year's election campaign. A year on from that pledge conservative opponents, who opposed the measure, are calling for a new election. They say the tax will drive up household bills and costs jobs. No issue in Australian politics is generating more passion right now than climate change. The proposed carbon tax is to penalise 500 of the country's heavy...

Should energy consumers pay extra taxes to fund government-mandated and subsidized renewable energy technologies? "Absolutely yes," says John Bryson, President Obama's nominee for Commerce Secretary. He made the remark at a meeting of the Commonwealth Club of California in 2009 and went on to extol the virtues of hidden rates in California, a state encumbered with some of the nation's highest electricity and unemployment rates. Bryson, retired CEO of the electric utility Southern California Edison (SCE) and its parent company Edison International, excused the practice, saying, "That's been a part of the regulatory environment for the investor-owned utilities for as...

SYDNEY (AP) -- Australia will force its 500 worst polluters to pay 23 Australian dollars ($25) for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit, with the government promising to compensate households hit with higher power bills under a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unveiled Sunday. Prime Minister Julia Gillard sought to reassure wary Australians that the deeply unpopular carbon tax will only cause a minority of households to pay more and insisted it is critical to helping the country lower its massive carbon emissions. Australia is one of the world's worst greenhouse gas polluters, due to its heavy reliance...

JULIA Gillard faced searching questions about her honesty last night, as voters in Brisbane pounded her on backflipping on an election commitment not to introduce a carbon tax. It came at the end of another testing day on the carbon hustings for the Prime Minister and Tony Abbott, as their roadshows each hit potholes. Public servant Aaron Bachman set the tone for Ms Gillard's encounter with 100 professedly uncommitted voters at a forum organised by Sky News and The Courier-Mail. He asked her why, if the carbon tax was so important, she did not take it to an election and...

Mines Minister Norman Moore has spoken out about his long-held desire to see Western Australia split from the rest of the nation, citing the carbon tax and Minerals Resource Rent Tax as opportune reasons to secede. In an interview with Channel Ten's George Negus last night, Mr Moore - one of the WA government's most senior members and leader in the state's Upper House - said the federation was broken and needed to be fixed. "We should try and fix up the Federation and in the event the Federation can't be fixed, and I suspect it can't be, then states...

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Anthony Watts From ABC NewsThey are calling it “Carbon Sunday”.This is a collection of links and excerpts regarding PM Julia Gillard’s speech announcing the tax. In a nutshell, from what I can see, the majority of Australians are pissed, and she’s toast, partly because she lied about it before taking office, partly due to the fact it is being implemented as a deficit from the get-go. Oh and then there’s the fact that it won’t make a bit of difference to the temperature, and will be nullified by China.Apparently, the way it is structured,...

Shouldn’t the government know what the benefits and costs of the carbon tax are before they make it into law? This is looking awfully like a case of “policy first, justifications later”. First they promised they won’t do it. Then they do it, and they ask for even more of our money so they can pay PR hacks (introduced to us as scientists and economists) to tell us how fabulous their unwanted plan is — after all, the Climate Change Commission has no purpose other than to advertise the Carbon Tax. Then there’s a $12 million advertising program. But wait,...

JULIA Gillard admits Australia is a long way from consensus on climate change - and says the debate may become ever tougher for Labor - as new polling reveals her behind Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister for the first time. ..... Ms Gillard said today the polling was a result of her plan to put a price on carbon, and that while it was a tough reform "it may get even tougher, before it gets easier". “I believe that once carbon pricing is in place people will see how the system works and the benefits of it,” the Prime...

President Obama’s pick to replace Gary F. Locke as commerce secretary faces an uphill Senate confirmation battle. Even before the White House handed in the name of John Bryson for the job, Senate Republicans had vowed to block any nominee over administration foot-dragging on free-trade agreements. The selection of this particular leftist for a business-outreach post is rallying the opposition. “I find Mr Bryson unacceptable as secretary of commerce for the United States, and I will work in opposition to his conformation,” said Sen. John Barrasso, vice chairman of the Republican Conference, to The Washington Times. Mr. Bryson co-founded the...

WE'VE heard plenty about the carbon tax but haven't heard from plumbers, writes David Penberthy. IN a telling intervention that will change the dynamics of the debate, 13 of the nation's plumbers have spoken out about the controversial carbon tax. The group of 13 took time out on Friday from digging ditches and unblocking toilets to issue statements about the tax. The eminent plumbers represent more than two centuries of combined plumbing experience and have worked on hundreds of plumbing jobs across our nation. It is the first time a group of plumbers has united in commenting on such a...

Post: The nominee for commerce secretary founded an anti-energy group and believes in redistribution of wealth to help poorer nations. At this rate, we'll be one of them. If personnel is policy, there can be no better choice to help implement President Obama's anti-growth energy policy and redistribution of wealth plans than his choice to be the next secretary of commerce, John Bryson. One would think that the former CEO of power company Edison International would have a more practical view of energy development and management. But he's earned Rep. Darrell Issa's description of him as a "green evangelist." Bryson...

(CNSNews.com) – John Bryson, President Obama’s nominee to head the Commerce Department, told a University of California Berkeley audience in 2010 that a cap and trade system was a good way to hide a carbon tax from the public. Bryson, formerly the CEO of Edison International, said that a carbon tax was the new “third rail” of politics because politicians wouldn’t want to tax energy directly. “I think it’s still unlikely there’ll be a carbon tax bill because I think in the end a very high percentage of the members of Congress think it’s kind of the third rail to...

The frequency of apocalyptic religiosity, the carbon tut-tuts sermons, the be-green-to-be-seen plays, have cemented public skepticism. Take the Australian Left’s latest Labor-first TV campaign for a carbon dioxide tax with Cate Blanchett. It screams decadence. Or as the Nationals Senate leader put it: “I think that Cate Blanchett is a marvellous actor, a beautiful person and a wonderful Australian, but the relationship between that and a person who is, unfortunately, is already doing it tough in their life, who’s under the pump already because they can't afford their power bill... what do they get from the ad?” To the critical-thinking...

CATE Blanchett has sparked outrage in the community with her decision to front an advertising campaign promoting the Federal [Australian] Government's controversial carbon tax. The millionaire Hollywood actor has been accused of being out of touch by spruiking the benefits of the tax that she can afford to pay, unlike many already hard-up Australians. The 42-year-old has teamed with Packed to the Rafters actor Michael Caton to be the faces of a series of TV ads branded "Say Yes", which will screen nationally from tonight. The ads are aimed at convincing the average Australian that a carbon tax is a...

The Greek mythological Hydra was a serpent-like beast having many heads, and for each head cut off, it grew two more. The Waxman-Markey bill, commonly known as “cap-and-trade,” was our country’s own “green monster.” Even President Obama, the bill’s main proponent, admitted that if it were implemented, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

THE Australian Federal Police could be required to investigate new climate change offences under Julia Gillard's carbon tax, sparking concerns over the agency's resourcing. As Julia Gillard today declared her carbon tax would be “shyster” proof. Climate Change Minister Greg Combet's office said enforcement arrangements under the proposed carbon tax were yet to be finalised. But AFPA president Jim Torr said there was little doubt the AFP would be required to play a role in policing the scheme. “Tax evasion is one of the big things the AFP works on,” he told The Australian Online. “This will be another area...

The public is increasingly skeptical of global warming and far more worried about the economy than the environmentWhat the heck went wrong?" That, apparently, is the question roiling the environmental community as it realizes that the fight against climate change has fizzled. As Brad Plumer writes in the New Republic, everything was looking great in 2008 for a sweeping effort to make good on candidate Barack Obama's pledge to start turning back the rising oceans. The Democrats held Congress. Both John McCain and Mr. Obama had promised to push for capping carbon emissions. Corporations had gotten on board. Al Gore...

Professor Bob Carter writes:A rather remarkable thing happened in Australia last week, which was the leaking of an internal government document issued to all Labor MPs (probably from the PM Gillard’s office) with 16 pages of suggestions as to how members of the government might best sell the idea of a carbon dioxide tax to the public. Many of the sound-bites and slogans suggested in the paper have already been in common currency for many months.I attach a copy of the strategy paper, and also of a critique that I have made of it with Alan Moran and David Evans....

President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday scrapped the country's proposed carbon tax and reshuffled his cabinet in populist tilt after suffering a crushing electoral defeat over the weekend, when his Gaulliste UMP party lost every region other than in its bastion of Alsace and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. The vote saw a resurrection of both the Socialist Party and the far-Right National Front, showing how the delayed effects of rising unemployment can change the political landscape long after recession has passed. The jobless rate has risen to 10.1pc, up from 8.7pc a year ago. A quarter of those aged...

On March 12, I joined concerned citizens outside Julia Gillard's electorate office in Werribee, Victoria, where Liberal Victorian senators Mitch Fifield and Scott Ryan spoke. The message: No carbon tax. We came from all walks of life: farmers and city folk, women and men, young and old, black and white. Yes, even in Victoria the debate, and therefore democracy, isn't over, much to Gore's dismay. The chattering classes just can't seem to gag us. But why? Unlike government-endorsed protesters, people on my side are more willing to serve our PM critical-thinking questions. Take the Sydney-based Werribee boy Tim Blair: "By...

No Carbon Tax Interviews Series - 002 [Video]

The Labor government and MSM are at a loss why the Australian people do not want their latest, Carbon Tax thought bubble. No Carbon Tax TV took to the streets of Labor's heartland in Sydney to get some opinions.

Saturday afternoon: I’m just back from the No Carbon Tax Rally outside Julia Gillard’s energy-hungry office. The rally was a peaceful, gender inclusive-friendly, multiracial event with some thought-provoking signs. Fun fact: Gillard’s office is located near “Big Brothers Pizza”. [Photos below]

Things are hotting up in politics downunder. The immovable force meets the polls. Twenty years of PR catches up on the PM who didn’t do her homework. As Tim Blair says:  It’s a meltdown, Labor is seething. Bring Your PopCorn. “There is evidence the public’s general confidence is being shaken by sudden policy shifts and uncertainty about a minority government; there is growing disquiet, even dismay, among business leaders that dealing with the government on the basis of compromise with a commercially viable outcome is being overtaken by ideological demands.” The Australian Everything had the semblance of order until Julia...

“I have one yardstick by which I test every major problem -and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?” Dwight D. Eisenhower. Driessen and Soon‘s article in New Year’s day CanadaFreePress (CFP) identifies the growing conflict as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tries to take control of energy in Texas. EPA is manipulating a completely unnecessary and scientifically unjustified control of energy and must be stopped. Fortunately, the Texas case is currently stayed by a court order, but EPA history is to do anything to achieve their goal.

Cancun is hosting the U.N. conference on man-made climate change — amid record cold temperaturesBest Opinion:  Wall St. Pit, Independent The irony: As negotiators from nearly 200 countries met in Cancun to strategize ways to keep the planet from getting hotter, the temperature in the seaside Mexican city plunged to a 100-year record low of 54° F. Climate-change skeptics are gleefully calling Cancun's weather the latest example of the "Gore Effect" — a plunge in temperature they say occurs wherever former Vice President Al Gore, now a Nobel Prize-winning environmental activist, makes a speech about the climate. Although Gore is...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis is paying the price for independent thinking. Inglis, a Travelers Rest Republican, might have been the only Republican lawmaker in the country booed lustily by his own constituents at town hall meetings last month.Inglis was shouted down when he asked listeners why they're afraid of President Barack Obama - and then suggested they stop watching conservative TV commentator Glenn Beck."He's trading on fear," Inglis advised one group, setting off loud catcalls. Despite a broadly conservative voting record, Inglis has angered many GOP activists with his contrarian stands on a handful of high-profile issues. In...

Hoaxes: A high-ranking member of the U.N.'s Panel on Climate Change admits the group's primary goal is the redistribution of wealth and not environmental protection or saving the Earth. Money, they say, is the root of all evil. It's also the motivating force behind what is left of the climate change movement after the devastating Climate-gate and IPCC scandals that saw the deliberate manipulation of scientific data to spur the world into taking draconian regulatory action. Left for dead, global warm-mongers are busy planning their next move, which should occur at a climate conference in relatively balmy Cancun at month's...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday it is not clear whether he will schedule a lame-duck vote on Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) bill that would block looming Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas rules for two years. Reid earlier this year pledged to Rockefeller that he would bring up the measure. But the Nevada senator told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday that it’s unclear if there’s enough time in the lame-duck session. “We are at a critical time here. It is real hard just to say ‘yeah, we can do this,’ because we have limited time to go through...

Climate Fraud: As the case for global warming and cap-and-trade has collapsed, so too has the market that was to exploit this manufactured crisis for fun and profit. The climate-change bubble has burst. Lost in the hubbub leading up to the Republican and Tea Party tsunami on Nov. 2 was the collapse of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). But its implications for the future of the American economy and the business climate are staggering: It is an acknowledgment that both the case for climate trade and cap-and-tax legislation has also collapsed. On Oct. 21 the exchange announced it was ending...

Sometimes being first to do something historic is commendable. Other times, it's foolhardy. Tuesday's action by the state Environmental Improvement Board, buried by election-day news, falls in the latter category. The board — on a 4-3 vote mostly along the lines of environmental activists vs. industry supporters — approved what the state calls the most comprehensive greenhouse gas emission regulations in the nation.~~snip~~Gov.-elect Susana Martinez, who opposes cap and trade, said Thursday her staff is already researching the best way to reverse the EIB decision. Critics have said the program would cost New Mexico revenue and jobs, raise consumer prices...

SANTA FE — The Environmental Improvement Board voted 4-3 Tuesday to adopt a controversial cap and trade plan for New Mexico to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions believed to be contributing to global warming. The decision, supported by EIB chair Gay Dillingham, Abbas Ghassemi, John Horning and James Gollin, is another step in an initiative begun by Gov. Bill Richardson in 2005. The plan was opposed by both candidates for governor, dozens of lawmakers, some cities like Farmington and utility and oil and gas groups which argued it would raise consumer prices, destroy thousands of jobs and put New Mexico...

One of the Obama administration’s most aggressive officials on global warming regulations is stepping down from her post at the Environmental Protection Agency. Lisa Heinzerling, the head of EPA’s policy office, will return to her position as a Georgetown University law professor at the end of the year, said EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan. Within EPA, Heinzerling is one of the more dogmatic proponents of regulating greenhouse gases to the maximum extent possible under the Clean Air Act. [...]

Much has been written about the oil and gas billionaire Koch brothers and their multimillion-dollar donations to right-wing causes. Charles and David Koch’s combined $43 billion wealth has made them virtually unstoppable this election cycle; even prolific left-wing philanthropist George Soros recently said he was powerless against the “avalanche” of donations from conservative billionaires like the Kochs. However, in recent days a handful of liberal billionaires have decided to take on the Kochs in one of the most hotly contested battles this election season: Proposition 23, the California ballot that may well prove a bellwether for the future of energy...

Environmental groups and industry seem headed for another battle over regulation of greenhouse gases, as President Barack Obama said he will look for ways to control global warming pollution other than Congress placing a ceiling on it. "Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way," Obama said at a news conference Wednesday, a day after Democrats lost control of the House. "I'm going to be looking for other means to address this problem." Legislation putting a limit on heat-trapping greenhouse gases and then allowing companies to buy and sell pollution permits under that...

Idiot bureaucrats design scheme to export data centres and jobs offshore Almost half of the UK's data centre operators believe the UK's Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) efficiency scheme tax could drive UK data centre investment offshore, with one-third saying it would send UK data centres overseas as well. The findings are from a survey of Britain's largest data centre operators by Datacenter Dynamics as part of a marketing initiative for its conference, Datacenter Dynamics London 2010. Other findings were that 83 per cent of the respondents said they are concerned about the rising cost of purchasing carbon allowances and 81...

New Mexico regulators are set to decide today whether to adopt a state proposal that would establish a cap-and-trade program to control greenhouse gas emissions. The New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board is considering a petition by the Environment Department that would allow the state to participate in a regional cap-and-trade program with other Western states and Canadian provinces that make up the Western Climate Initiative.~~snip~~Jim Norton, director of the department's Environmental Protection Division, said New Mexico has a chance to be a leader when it comes to adopting climate regulations. With global warming, he said the state could face more...