Antinuclear

Australia’s opportunity to work to make renewable energy cheap

There is a better way. Instead of trying to make fossil energy more expensive, Australia should work to make clean energy cheap. 

Australia’s carbon tax battle: where it fits into the global war, Crikey, October 6, 2011  Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus  :“…….the Left and Right parties in Australia have adopted virtually wholesale the positions taken by Left and Right parties in America.

Of course, the great difference is that while Democrats did not get their cap and trade law, it now seems that the Australian Labor-Green coalition will get its carbon tax. But Australia’s populist backlash against the legislation will, at minimum, slow its implementation and, at most, result in a change of government and its ultimate repeal.

Not that its rapid implementation would have any effect on emissions. The carbon tax will be far too small to make clean energy cost-competitive with coal. And the government has announced it will give back to consumers more than it collects through redistributive tax policies. As in Europe, Australia can meet its emissions targets only by purchasing dubious carbon offsets…..

The right-wing everywhere blusters that efforts to price carbon will destroy the economy. This is nonsense. Everywhere the carbon prices have been too low to have any discernible impact. Australia’s carbon price would cost households less than $5 per week more in groceries. Many households will get back in assistance more than the carbon tax costs. If the plan applied to petrol, it would raise the cost per litre by a few cents. In any case, in recent years the price of most fossil fuels has already increased by much more than any proposed carbon tax, and we still see economic growth coupled with increasing use of those fuels…..

October 7, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News