How A Coal Baron Fooled Al Gore And The Greens

Andrew Bolt Herald Sun, 26 June 2014

What the hell was Al Gore doing at Palmer’s press conference? Why did the great global warming guru help to sanctify a press conference called by a coal baron to announce the destruction of Australia’s climate change policies?

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…

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.

But Fairfax newspapers buy the spin added by the introduction of warmist guru Al Gore to Palmer’s ludicrous press conference:

Clive Palmer has thrown into chaos Tony Abbott’s plan to abolish the carbon tax, demanding the Prime Minister instead create an emissions trading scheme that would swing into action when Australia’s major trading partners adopt similar measures.

That spin – that Palmer is demanding the carbon tax be scrapped in favour of an emissions trading scheme – is exploded just a few paragraphs later in the very same story:

Mr Palmer made clear that repeal of the carbon tax … would not be contingent on the other measures Mr Palmer proposed on Wednesday night, such as the proposed emissions trading legislation.

UPDATE

To be clear, the carbon tax is gone and that is not contingent on the government agreeing to any emissions trading scheme:

CLIVE PALMER: Repeal of the carbon tax is contingent upon the Government bringing into law a system where the energy producers will refund the benefit to their consumers…

TONY JONES: So – but you won’t make your repeal of the carbon tax contingent on any of these other things you want to see happen? That’s a critical question to answer tonight.

CLIVE PALMER: That’s right, yeah.

TONY JONES: So Tony Abbott, when he negotiates you with tomorrow, going on what Greg Hunt is saying today, will be able to offer you fairly easily the kind of agreement that you’ve asked for. Does that mean you’re now convinced you’ll vote the carbon tax out of existence?

CLIVE PALMER: If that’s the case, it is…

It is bad that Palmer will keep the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and (probably) the Climate Change Authority, and it’s alarming that he wants at least the framework created for an emissions trading scheme.

But it is very good that the emissions trading scheme won’t actually get off the ground under the conditions Palmer proposes.

And it is beautiful that Palmer is against Tony Abbott’s direct action policies as well, as are Labor and the Greens.

This means we could end up with a sceptics’ paradise: no carbon tax, no prospect of emissions trading and not even Abbott’s $2.5 billion direct action schemes. That is a huge win.

Thanks, Clive.

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