Add this to the United State’s Senate failure to even address the cap and trade issue, and it appears that carbon trading is losing the financial and political luster it once had. Now Australia’s ETS scheme is delayed in their senate with little hope of revival.
This says it pretty well at ABC News:
Senate kills off emissions trade laws
The Associated Press says:
Australia’s Parliament defeats global warming bill
Australia’s Parliament defeated legislation to set up a greenhouse gas emissions trading system on Wednesday, throwing a central plank of the government’s plans to combat global warming into disarray.
…
The 41-33 vote followed a tumultuous debate in which the conservative main opposition party at first agreed to support a version of the government’s bill, then dramatically dumped its leader and switched sides after bitter divisions erupted within the party.
From the Australian:
KEVIN Rudd has lost his bid to deliver an emissions trading scheme in Australia before talks in Copenhagen but won an early election trigger after the Senate formally rejected the laws again today.
Just two Liberal senators broke ranks with a clear mandate among Coalition MPs to delay an ETS and voted with Labor on an emissions trading scheme
Deputy Senate leader Eric Abetz declared: “The CPRS is dead. And no amount of CPR can revive it”
Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt writes:
Rudd’s great tax on everything is defeated
How close was that bullet? A mad new tax is voted down, thanks only to Tony Abbott’s one-vote win over Malcolm Turnbull yesterday…
Maybe it had something to do with this:
“We have heard from the Independent Pricing Regulator in NSW just yesterday that this ETS would add 30 per cent to the people of NSW’s power bills …
And as Bolt points out to WUWT a couple of days ago, Climategate figured in as well:
Rudd’s belief that man is heating the world is based almost entirely on the reports of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
But thousands of emails uncovered in this month’s Climategate scandal show that the scientists most responsible for those reports did not just doctor data, destroy awkward evidence, and censor sceptical scientists.
They also show some of them privately admitting that the world seems not to be heating as they (and Rudd) predicted.
“Where the heck is global warming?” raged Kevin Trenberth, an IPCC lead author, to another Climategate scientist: “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.”
Fair Dinkum.
Breakthrough
SBS News (6.30pm) here in Australia (the smallest of the 5 main channels) just had a segment that actually showed some balance.
They started reporting that some climate scientists claim that the permafrost in the Yamal Peninsula was thawing due to global warming but then countered that with a Russian Chief Scientist saying that was not true and that it was melting due to the sun and that greenhouse gases had little to do with temperature.
They then showed a picture of Phil Jones and said he has been stood aside and quoted the ‘hide the decline’ email, they also had a soundbite of Ian Plimer calling the whole situation a fraud and that the science should be debated. They then had an interview with William Kinnimoth.
It ended with Stern saying that skeptics were muddled.
I have never seen anything like it on SBS – they are usually wall to wall alarmist.
Now in primetime!!! keep up the pressure
Australia, Hats Off to YOU!
I’ll be “investing” in a variety of Australian beverages in the not too distant future! (Sadly, my favorite beer is the New Zealand Steinlager… I’ll be waiting anxiously for the chance to buy a celebratory package of it.)
Been rather a good week, all around… Now if we can just get China, India, and Brazil to say “stuff it”…
She’ll be right now M8 cause this bodgy Tax has been given the arse, it’s enough to make a jelly fish crack a fat.
I was away on a site visit all day (a major gold mine) but picked up the wonderful news on ABC radio on the way to the site.
My assessment:
1) Abbott said that he would come up with a climate change policy, but not an ETS, and he attacked the ETS for being a “big tax”, so I guess a straight carbon tax is out too. Perhaps he will drive a policy for more renewables via government support – who knows (nuclear is too hot a topic to contemplate and too far away to be a “solution” for CO2 emissions).
2) We will now see a lot of debate in Australia, at last FFS, about what an ETS actually is. What it means for Joe/Jane Citizen and businesses. How little it matters what Australia does, even if you believe AGW. Get it out in the open (I have been imploring the media in blogs to do so).
3) Rudd (leader of the current government) is not stupid… far from it. He had a double dissolution (DD) trigger today but did not use it. This is a huge revelation in itself… just think about it. He could have called a DD election and won in a landslide because the public is still ignorant of the ETS (I say that in the best possible way ~ to paraphrase Kenny Everitt).
4) Rudd delayed the DD because he is hedging his bets. What if COP15 and Climategate blows up? If that happens he can go the WMD route and say he was “acting on the best information that scientists provided him.” If it doesn’t blow up (less likely option IMO) he can call the DD, or just coast to the next election in November 2010 and still win.
5) Abbott is a Rhodes scholar – no muggins by any measure… let’s not forget this. His job is to shed as much light on the “climate science” and “ETS” as possible and what it means in the Australian context. If Climategate explodes, and he successfully leverages off it, he could pull off the most unlikely election win in Aussie history.
Having said that… look at the WA election last time around (about a year ago). The election was forced early by Carpenter (Labor) and the Libs were in disarray. Somehow they won… Rudd must be thinking about that as well in terms of pulling the DD trigger.
I could go on but I don’t want this to become another TL:DNR.
Have to feel sorry for Rudd… He’ll be hanging his head and flying off to Climatehagen without an ETS trophy, the laughingstock of the chardonnay socialist leaders.
I fear the jokes over port and cigars will be too much for his delicate disposition such that he’ll quietly sneak back to his 5-star each evening.
Steve Schapel (18:28:12) :
“Climate Change Minister Penny Wong …”
I wonder what she’ll do for a job now?
Evening all,
Yes we Australians had a great victory today but you’d never know it reading our MSM. Talk about bad losers!
I think the MSM commentariat share at least two faults with the colluding scientists: groupthink and arrogance. No wonder they’ve got on so fine.
Andrew Watts’ site definitely helped me put together some of the most damning statements from the CRU colluders and I emailed a selection to every major party MP in Oz, lower and upper house.
I didn’t need any media personality to radicalize me though it was a good to know I wasn’t alone as I read that thousands of emails were flooding in to our pollies. Same as you people here I suppose. Now who orchetrates you lot?
Exactly.
No, I was just so angry that this dog’s breakfast of an ETS was going to succeeed through moral cowardice that I let our pollies know what was going on with Climategate. Whether they believed it or not they can’t claim they didn’t know.
Thanks Anthony and everybody here. You most certainly helped to turn the tide in Australia and with any luck, the rest of the world.
Bravo.
Patrick Davis (22:05:23) :
“I thought the science of AGW was all about CO2 as the driver and nothing to do with the Sun?”
If you can stomach a look at Real Climate’s website they also use the sun – in what appears to be a full blown solar maximum state. Freudian, Gavin – Freudian…
(Can you believe it – I actually spelt Freudian as ‘Fraudian’ before I error checked my post!)
One good reason why there have been so few double dissolutions is that the vote quota for each Senate position is halved. What this means is that smaller parties have a better chance of getting Senators elected.
As might be expected, this is anathema to the major parties. While Labor might do deals with the Greens from time to time, they certainly do not want them with the balance of power. Likewise the Libs/Nats with parties such as One Nation.
Rudd is not completely stupid. For all the bluster, I think he believes that the tide is running out for the AGW scam in Australia. If Abbott plays his cards right he could annihilate Rudd on just two issues alone: boat people and emission schemes.
From http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/senate-rejects-labors-ets-scheme/story-e6frg6xf-1225806094041
“Queensland Liberal Senator Sue Boyce said she could not in good conscience abandon the amendments agreed to by Labor and the Coalition to improve the scheme.
“I would ask people to accept and understand,” she said.
Earlier, Liberal senator Judith Troeth said her experiences in the bush and in farming had convinced her climate change was real.
“Droughts are longer. Rainfall has dropped,” she told the Senate.”In short I believe there is global warming.”
After her speech Senate leader Nick Minchin, who led the anti-ETS revolt patted Senator Troeth on the back for her own decision to take a stand.”
There are two senators who are unlikely to be returned at the next election, whenever it’s held!!!
The New Zealand ETS was passed after the ruling National Party bribed the small Maori Party with millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.
By way of a thank you to our neighbours across the ditch, I bought some Aussie beer at the supermarket today.
Okay, so it wasn’t very nice, but that’s quite beside the point. You’ve really done yourselves proud. Consider the whole underarm thing forgotten.
As an Englishman, I find this disheartening. Those Aussies thrash us at cricket, knock lumps out of us at rugby, and now seem to have politicians with b**ls. What next? They learn how to play football (soccer) and brew decent beer? It’s all very depressing.
Of course I meant Anthony Watts, not Andrew Watts.
I blush with shame.
E.M.Smith (01:10:36) :
Without being biased in any way, ya gotta try the Tasmanian brews.
The Baghdad Broadcasting Collective 24 hour propoganda stream has had nothing on this from 8:30 am to the present 10:30 am.
No problem in telling us about the £8 billion for rolling out Smart Energy Meters for all by 2020 or heart-tugging scenes of human and animal poverty on our “fragile” planet in adverts for the BBC upcoming coverage of Carbonhagen.
The Beeb news service now serves as a propoganda machine for extreme environmental activists and a Government that happily signed away UK sovereignty without asking the British population.
As an aside the UK ceased to be a sovereign nation on December 1, 2009!
The BBC MUST be brought to book.
Perhaps the esteemed Viscount could turn his steely gaze upon this once respected body.
Who knows but perhaps ClimateGate will be overtaken by BeebGate!
Reed Coray (22:18:18) :
Two Barbara Boxers would constitute a tipping point from which there would be no return
So that’s when California would fall into the ocean. (Who would miss it?)
View from the Solent (02:34:50) :
What next? They learn how to play football (soccer) and brew decent beer?
You left off music. What if they come up with someone better than David Gilmour?
“Australian Senate rejects Kevin Rudd’s climate plan”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8389909.stm
“We will come to parliament again, we will seek passage of the bill,” she told journalists. “All options are on the table as to what happens next.”
It’s not over yet
royfomr (02:39:38) :
Perhaps the esteemed Viscount could turn his steely gaze upon this once respected body.
Not so fast, not so fast. Let him gaze with intent on ClimateGate. I want to see him the star witness—star witness after the wistleblowers, that is—testifying in front of the US Senate. No divided attentions if you please.
Excellent. At last a politician who has the guts to buck the AGW tax scam, and all the bad science which sits behind it.
There is an interesting poll about whether people believe in AGW on the Sydney Morning Herald web site:-
If you fancy making your feelings know the link is here:-
http://www.smh.com.au/polls/politics/form.html
Currently stands at 60% YES, 30% NO, 10% undecided
Wat
We shouldn’t really waste space on this august climate debate blog but YES I’m old enough to remember that appalling day when the Australian captain ordered a bowler to bowl underarm. Not cricket.
Antonia
You know what is really weird? The ClimateGate Google Trends results show that the number one origin of Google searches for “Climategate” is Sweden:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=climategate
So we Australians are all searching for naked Swedish women online (ooops, I never confirmed that) and they are searching for Climategate… something distinctly yin & yang about that.
Meanwhile in more sensible news:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/tony-abbott-stumbles-forced-to-restate-support-for-emissions-targets/story-e6frgczf-1225806271993
Nuclear being raised as an option in Australia… and so the cycle continues.
Bulldust – I concur – don’t any of us feel too sorry for Rudd – he might be a pratt, but he can read the tealeaves a lot better than the MSM commentariat. He has just been taken neatly off one hook, but unless he too does the unthinkable and does a statesman-like “no responsible leader could take the nation into a climate change scheme until the uncertainties arising from the CRU… etc etc” (in which case, odious little narcissist that he is, I’d have to tip my hat to him), he is still saddled with a fervently-held party policy which by February, say, will look absurd, and from which at some stage he will have to resile. And if you thought the last fortnight saw a party in disarray, wait till you see Labour when he does.
Abbott must now follow through, with a relentless critique of AGW, and retain the crown of the “First Guy in Canberra Who Saw Through It.”
One caveat – a Fortran-literate blogger I read was so disgusted with the code he was ploughing through that he absolutely refused to be believe it was the real thing and not a sort of delta version that someone had somehow got hold of. You don’t suppose……’-)
Gene Nemetz (02:42:52) :
I can tell you that the State of Jefferson would NOT miss it.
I’m not even sure if Boxer is aware that the State of California extends north of Sacramento.
I’ll bet David Archibald is busy at the pub tonight, tossing a few down to celebrate the slaying of CPRS.