‘If you believe that solar & wind are ‘cheaper’, then you’ve been tricked by liars and spivs that want to pocket commissions on selling the country out to China. https://www.bloomberg.com/…/coal-india-approves-32…Coal India Ltd. approved an investment of about 473 billion rupees ($6.4 billion) on mining projects as the company seeks to boost output to replace imports of the fuel, the Kolkata-based miner said in an emailed statement.The approvals include eight new projects as well as expansion plans for 24 existing mines, Coal India said. The 32 sites will have a combined peak output of 193 million tons a year, the highest capacity approved during a fiscal year, it said. The projects will produce 81 million tons annually from the financial year starting April 2023, by when the miner targets reaching 1 billion tons of annual production.The world’s biggest miner is counting on a revival in demand for the fuel as the Indian economy emerges from a pandemic-induced slump. Besides industrial consumption, the approaching summer is expected to boost demand for electricity and spur power generators to replenish their declining coal inventories, Coal India’s Chairman Pramod Agrawal said last month.India’s coal users imported a record 248.5 million tons of the fuel in the fiscal year ended 2020. Increasing domestic production will be key to weaning them away from overseas purchases, Coal India said.’ https://www.facebook.com/CraigKellyMP
Australian Federal Government
I have personally sought to speak to several Australian Federal Parliamentarians about the abortion issue with no success. However, a Queensland senator says “I am asking my parliamentary colleagues, and in fact, our entire community to consider the painful question: ‘what happens to a child born alive during a late term abortion?’ The uncomfortable truth is that the child is left to die.” – George Christensen
Most Australians are unaware that hundreds of documented cases exist of babies being born alive after botched abortions and then left to die.
Federal and state guidelines say no treatment is required. Just let them die.
Courageous and compassionate state parliamentarians Nick Goiran of Western Australia and Dr Mark Robinson of Queensland, both Liberals, have been shining light on this practice for years.
Sadly, their parliamentary colleagues and the media avert their eyes.
Regardless of which side of the abortion debate one is on, only those with the hardest of hearts don’t find the practice heart-wrenching and tragic.
I believe that if most Australians knew the truth about abortion and the harm it inflicts on mothers, they would demand reform.
It is a practice fiercely protected by our cultural and media elites; and by men, whose convenience is the primary beneficiary. Alternative views on abortion are mostly suppressed in the public discourse.
I documented Goiran and Robinson’s work in my recent book, I Kid You Not – Notes from 20 Years in the Trenches of the Culture Wars.
Liberal National Party member for Dawson, George Christensen, read of this while preparing to speak at the Brisbane launch of the book last July.
He promised that night he would push for law reform and this week he delivered, releasing the Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) Bill 2021. You can read the bill here.
He also released research from the Parliamentary Library which independently validates the figures Gioran and Robinson have been quoting for years as well as providing new statistics from Victoria.
In WA, 27 babies had been born alive and left to die between 1999 and 2016.
In the 10 years to 2015, 204 Queensland babies died this way while 33 in Victorian perished after botched abortions between 2012 and 2016.
Christensen’s bill requires medical practitioners to treat a baby surviving abortion the same way they would any other patient. Who would oppose this?
Currently the federal government’s advice to a doctor or nurse encountering a baby born alive after abortion is to “not offer treatment”.
I wonder if Scott Morrison is aware of this.
Christensen appeals to provisions in the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Both support the right to life. Both have been signed by Australia. But when it comes to the human rights of our most vulnerable citizens, we have chosen to look away.
In a media release issued yesterday and ignored by the mainstream media, Christensen says:
“I am asking my parliamentary colleagues, and in fact, our entire community to consider the painful question: ‘what happens to a child born alive during a late term abortion?’
“The uncomfortable truth is that the child is left to die.
“As one state agency (South Australia) so brutally puts it: ‘the baby … is wrapped in a blanket and the mother is given the opportunity to hold the baby as it dies’.
“This issue has been on my heart and mind for a long time.
“Now that I have more information on the number of children we are talking about, though those figures understate the problem, I must act.”
Christensen’s bill points out that Australia is in breach of both the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“I have provided the Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) Act 2021 bill to the Prime Minister and other key ministers, seeking their support on adopting this bill, or allowing a conscience vote on it,” Christensen said.
“The bill makes it an offence not to provide life-saving treatment punishable with penalties of higher than $400,000 for health practitioners and higher for corporations.
“It also could see health practitioners who breach the law deregistered in Australia.
“I encourage others to lend their support for this action via my website www.georgechristensen.com.au/bornalive.”
Please support this initiative.
The tide is turning.’https://www.lyleshelton.com.au/proposed_law_to_save_babies_born_alive_after_botched_abortions
If you perchance do not believe the UN and the World Economic Forum (WEF) are not committed communist, socialist Leftist’s working to destroy freedom loving capitalist’s this video should prove it to you! This video is the WEF’s favorite man, the CCP’s Xi Jinping speaking at the WEF’s most recent Davos love fest!
If you cannot stomach watching the whole thing I understand.
‘I have a question. When did politicians and federal employees start calling themselves “public servants”? Even more importantly, why are we letting them? It’s almost as if they’re trying to claim the mantle of nobility for making a sacrifice in the public interest. But I don’t understand what that sacrifice is. They’re paid better and have better benefits than most private-sector employees. They’re rarely held accountable for their performance. Why do we treat them as if they’re serving a higher calling than any other profession in the country?
Take Joe Biden, for example. He claims to have been in public service for over 50 years. But what has he done in that time? He was the first senator to initiate a personal attack on a Supreme Court nominee. His attack on Robert Bork was shameful, and helped create the current environment of Supreme Court politicization. He also used the power of his office to enrich his family members. Exactly how did lunch-bucket Joe become a multimillionaire on the salary of a politician? I fail to see how that has been a service to the country.
Joe certainly isn’t alone. Was Nancy Pelosi serving the public interests when she withheld COVID-19 relief for months — just to deny President Trump a win? Was she also serving her constituents when she bought stock in Tesla just days before President Asterisk signed an order directing all agencies to switch to electric cars? There’s a term for that — “insider trading.” Being the civic-minded public servant she is, I’m sure she’ll be sharing her windfall with her constituents.
It’s not all about money. Some politicians have a completely different idea of providing service. Eric Swalwell placed himself in servitude to a Chinese spy. Exactly what “service” did Eric provide? Was it anything that would allow him to claim nobility? I mean in the U.S. — not in China.
Let’s not forget the bureaucrats that “serve” our nation. Look at the EPA. They’re good at two things — choking the life out of commerce, and polluting rivers.
In the name of serving the public interest, the IRS targeted the Tea Party, thus silencing their voice in the midst of a presidential campaign. They also leaked confidential tax records to the press, and provided tax records to the FBI without a warrant. Isn’t it noble of them to poke us in the eye while taking our money? Perhaps the next time you’re at the grocery store checkout, the clerk should send your shopping list to child protective services rather than thank you. It would be the “public servant” thing to do.
Don’t forget the FBI. It’s in a class all by itself. Our sworn law enforcement agents initiated a coup attempt against a duly elected president. They set a perjury trap for his national security advisor. They even falsified evidence to a FISA court.
I’ve heard the arguments that the FBI rank and file are honest and professional. We shouldn’t blame the whole FBI for a “few bad apples.” What complete balderdash! If most of them were honest, where were the whistleblowers during the investigation of President Trump? As far as being professional, how did they fail to prevent the Boston Marathon bombing — even after they’d received a tip that the Tsarnaevs were up to something? I have the same question about the Pulse Nightclub massacre. Was it also just a “few bad apples” that tried to frame Richard Jewell for the Atlanta Olympics bombing? The FBI even had warnings about the 9/11 attack, yet failed to act.
Of course, our highly professional FBI agents were able to determine that a noose was really a garage-door pull. It only required 15 agents and five days to make that determination. That is some cunning police work! It appears that the FBI is either using their badges to target political enemies, or they’re just a modern-day version of the Keystone Cops in tailored suits. But sacrificing for the public interest — I’m not seeing it.
These are just a few examples. The other alphabet soup agencies aren’t any better. Employees across all federal agencies formed the “resistance” to fight all things Trump. They gave us four years of leaks and unconfirmed anonymous sources undermining anything Donald Trump tried to accomplish. They did it all because they decided we needed something other than what we voted for. How would you rate a waiter that brings you want they want to serve you, not what you ordered?
Spare me the claims of nobility. Who’s really laboring to benefit the country? Is it politicians and bureaucrats whose only focus seems to be amassing power and choking commerce? Or is it the nameless workers who get up at dawn every day to keep this country running. The real nobility belongs to the farmers who put meals on our tables, the truckers who ensure supplies arrive on time, and the linemen that keep the lights on. As for our self-proclaimed federal “public servants,” — they’re overpaid employees with lifetime job security, at best. At worst, they’re parasites on society with aspirations to become our rulers.
The next time a politician or bureaucrat says they’re “serving” me — I have one thing to say: I want my tip back.’https://genzconservative.com/public-servants-or-parasites/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=gen-z-conservative-daily-newsletter_1
My personal opinion is that politicians are less trust worthy with each passing year. As someone has said ‘How do you know when a politician is lying? When they open their mouth.’
‘Greg Hunt the Australian federal government Health Minister was interviewed on the ABC Insiders in regards to the deployment of the Pfizer experimental mRNA injection being rolled out starting today Monday 22 February.
He admitted that if you take the experimental COVID agent, which they call a vaccine (but it is not actually), you are really taking part in a massive clinical trial. He said:
“And we have to look at what is called ‘the longevity’ of the protection with regards to the antibodies that are developed. The world doesn’t know that answer. The world is engaged in the largest clinical trial, the largest global vaccination trial ever, and we will have enormous amounts of data”.
Watch here on the ABC Insiders program. The quote starts about 12:40 mark.
There you have it. It is still in stage 3 trial and all those out there who take the jab are trial participants. The Health Minister essentially admits that they don’t know if the COVID jab has any effect. He says the evidence is strong on preventing transmission but Pfizer itself said they have no data. It would seem that the “enormous amounts of data” that Hunt refers to, gathered from the public who are unknowingly enrolled in the trial, is what they will use to determine whether it prevents transmission and whether or not it is safe especially in the longer term.
The experimental COVID jab has been approved by the Australian FDA for “emergency use only” because it is currently still in the trial phase. It is not an approved medical agent. Everyone who takes the jab in the next few years is a test subject in the massive clinical trial but without knowing it. This is unprecedented. Except maybe in Nazi Germany. This is experimenting on the population without “informed consent”. I am sure they are not telling those who take it that they are in a clinical trial.
The “enormous amounts of data” will be analysed to determine if the jab is safe or not. Only then can the jab be determined to be “safe and effective” for human use. And that could take years. So it is imperative that all adverse reactions and deaths are reported. Do you see that happening? Never happened before so what would it happen now, there is no mandatory reporting system.
From the reports of many many deaths and serious reactions around the world I can’t see how it can ever be considered safe. One Spanish nursing home has had nearly 50% on the residents dying (46 dead already) or on the path to death within 2 weeks of getting the mRNA experimental injection. The government has halted the Pfizer injections as a result it seems. The carnage is great.
Wake up Australia!’https://biblescienceforum.com/2021/02/22/australian-health-minister-admits-covid-experimental-injections-are-a-massive-vaccine-trial/
Whether one lives in the USA or Australia politics is pretty much the same. The Left has taken ahold of most of the pollies and they seem to determined to continue the path of national destruction. Professor David Flint writes that ‘Pilate’s contemptuous dismissal of truth echoes down the ages. Those who, like Pilate, wash their hands while authoritarians try to gag anyone they insist must not speak, ignore what distinguishes civilisation from the evil alternatives.
The search for truth is dependent on freedom of speech. As Robert Menzies warned: ‘Today’s truth is frequently tomorrow’s error…. If truth is to emerge and in the long run be triumphant, the process of free debate – the untrammelled clash of opinion – must go on’.
Menzies practised what he preached. When novice backbencher and subsequently Democrat leader Don Chipp decided to give notice that he would cross the floor over some government bill, Menzies replied, ‘If you feel that way, my boy, you must follow your conscience.’ This freedom is at the very heart of representative democracy. As Burke explained, we choose our representatives for their judgment. Any restriction is contrary to the ‘whole order and tenor of our constitution’.
Craig Kelly has been ordered not to repeat scientifically endorsed views on medicines or vaccinations, a Sydney TV host even ordering him to ‘be quiet’.
Following the US mainstream media, no longer adhering to the adage that ‘Comment is free but facts are sacred’, journalists will too often insert some adjective like ‘baseless’ about something which a responsible media once reported with curiosity and without condemnation, such as the fact that banned medicines may still enjoy reputable scientific support or that allegations of electoral fraud are supported by mountains of evidence. Such journalists will also readily dismiss comment by reference to some non-existent standard such as ‘the’ science.
Rather than limiting themselves to desk-based reporting, such journalists could visit a court room. There they would often see expert witnesses called by both sides.
They would come to understand that scientific truth is determined neither by majority nor even consensus, as demonstrated when Australian scientists won the Nobel Prize for showing that some gastric ulcers can be caused by a virus, Helicobacter pylori.
In the case of Craig Kelly, where the mainstream media have smelt blood, the Prime Minister unwisely surrendered just as he did over the National Anthem. Unsurprisingly, Kelly’s pre-selection is now in issue. On that surely it is time that our normally manipulated preselections be replaced by primaries where registered Labor, Liberal, etc., supporters in the relevant electorate or state actually decide who their candidates shall be.
Probably the strongest reason why there is a bi-partisan move to replace Craig Kelly, as there was with Trump, is that he embarrasses the politicians and their elite allies over the litany of burdens they impose on the people for which they will never have to answer.
Central to this is their endorsement not only of the increasingly discredited theory of man-made global warming but also both the Paris solution and the claim that the successors to the assorted dictators, thugs and dissembling politicians will deliver on their promises decades hence. Independent research suggests that at best this will barely reduce the temperature in 2100, saving about 2 per cent GDP at a cost of between 16 to 32 per cent of GDP. I doubt whether most politicians believe all this. If they did, they would not have ‘carbon’ footprints many times those of ordinary people, unless of course they are outrageous hypocrites.
Why then have they, as Alan Jones and Terry McCrann warned years ago, signed a national suicide note? What they and other elites want is for Craig Kelly and a few colleagues to stop reminding Australians of this. But ordinary Australians are not stupid. Only ten per cent of airline travellers buy ‘carbon’ credits, probably those elites who don’t themselves pay for their tickets.
As with their refusal to harvest water, as with their immigration programme designed to satisfy the fiction that the GDP is rising while wages are stable or falling, as with an education programme delivering declining standards, the politicians are running our great country into the ground. Hence their determination to throw anyone who exposes this out of parliament.
Meanwhile in America, Speaker Pelosi followed the answer given by the high priests when Pilate invited them to explain their case, ‘If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee’. There was need neither for evidence nor due process. The voice of Pelosi was sufficient. The so-called Senate trial is undoubtedly unconstitutional for any one of several grounds most of which have been mentioned in prior columns.
One arises out of reliance on Trump’s free speech-protected assertion that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
On that Time magazine has now confirmed the existence of a ‘conspiracy’ among a ‘well-funded cabal’ of ‘powerful people’ working together behind the scenes to ‘influence perceptions’, ‘change rules and laws’, ‘steer media coverage’ and ‘control the flow of information’.
They even admit to using the eight months of violent looting, burning and torching by Black Lives Matter to advance their agenda.
The key moment on the day of the election was 11pm. Trump was winning with a solid lead in the battleground states. In a Zoom call at that time, cabal architect Mike Podhorzer calmed conspirators by ‘presenting data’ to show a Biden victory was in hand. As it was.
Voting was then suspended in battleground states on the ruse there was a drainage overflow in one polling station.
Counting soon secretly resumed in the absence of Republican scrutineers. And as anyone with the slightest experience knows, this was obviously done for one reason and one reason only – fraud.
Biden’s vote suddenly advanced exponentially, massively and as Patrick Basham has demonstrated here, implausibly.
Rather than answering the mountain of evidence Donald Trump’s lawyers subsequently assembled, its existence was denied by the mainstream media with social media punishing anyone who mentioned it. Despite that, Trump still strikes terror into the hearts of the elites. He and anyone considering following him must be silenced.‘ https://www.spectator.com.au/2021/02/kellyleo/
Western Australia along with many of the other states are becoming more like a CCP state. Is individual freedom soon to be totally gone?
What is scary is that our Governments of the West send delegates to this World Economic Forum whose goal is total control! ‘The great reset has a hidden agenda of Implementing Communism across the Globe.’ https://rumble.com/vb9fzz-the-great-reset-agenda-2030.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=JustAnotherAnon&ep=2
‘Who leads the way in Australia when it comes to hating on Christians and Christianity – someone who does so regularly, habitually, and as a matter of course? One could think of plenty of likely candidates here. But we can certainly nominate one Victorian politician who has turned anti-Christian bigotry into an art form.
I refer of course to Australia’s most flagrant misotheist and Christophobe, Dan Andrews. This socialist left premier has spent most of his adult life waging war on Christianity and its beliefs and values. The list of his many hateful actions against the faith gets longer each passing month, and I have regularly written about this antichrist leader.
Too often I have had to document his many acts of infamy and villainy over the years.
Whether it is the radical abortion and euthanasia laws he has pushed through; his undying support of the diabolical “safe schools” programs and the like; his promotion of all things homosexual and trans; his attempts to throw into prison praying Christians who dare to help those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction; and even his war on Christmas carols – to name a few examples – this guy is Pharaoh, Herod and Nero rolled into one.
Just how far can this guy go in his anti-Christian zeal? What has possessed him to keep this war against Christianity on the top of his priority list? Just why does he feel he must personally destroy the faith of millions of Victorians? Needless to say, I would have answers for all of those questions!
But consider his latest ugly outrage: his ongoing war against Australia’s – and the world’s – greatest ever tennis player, Margaret Court. Of course she has been under attack for years now, for the simple reason that she dares to be a Christian, dares to have a church in Perth that is faithful to the gospel, and is committed to standing up for biblical values in a pagan world.
So the hate-filled secular left have been hating on her quite some time, and have even sought to get the Margaret Court Arena renamed in Melbourne. On and on it goes. Their vile poisonous hatred knows no bounds. And Andrews is leading the pack here.
The most recent episode involves the news that she is about to be awarded an Order of Australia honour on Australia Day. That has got Andrews and the other Christophobes foaming at the mouth. As one news item put it:
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he [was] “quite sick” of discussing Ms Court after being asked about the backlash toward her during a press conference on Friday. “I’m quite sick of talking about that person every summer,” he said.
“I do not support that but I don’t give out those gongs, that’s not a matter for me, that’s for others.” Andrews stated Court’s views were “disgraceful and hurtful”, adding they “cost lives”. “Calling out bigotry is always important. This bigoted quackery costs lives.”
Dan Andrews just could not contain his irrational hatred. As he said on Twitter:
“I don’t want to give this person’s disgraceful, bigoted views any oxygen. But when others insist on rewarding them with this country’s highest honour – I think it’s worth saying again: Grand Slam wins don’t give you some right to spew hatred and create division. Nothing does.”
Good grief. Talk about a deplorable rant filled with falsehoods and furphies. Talk about showing your true colours. For leftist thugs like Andrews, those who dare to hold opposing points of view are not allowed to speak. Freedom of speech is only for those who hold the “correct” positions on contentious issues. All others must just sit down and shut up. Thanks for that strong stand for freedom and democracy Dan.
And believing what the overwhelming majority of mankind has always believed throughout human history is not bigotry. To simply affirm the truth that marriage is between a man and a woman is not spewing hate. You are the one spewing hate Andrews. You are the one causing division.
Court has done more good for more people – including homosexuals – than Andrews has ever done. Her church food distribution program alone – which serves everyone without partiality – has provided so much help to so many. Court loves all people and wishes the best for them. She even wishes the best for Andrews and prays for him.
And for Andrews to claim that her views were putting people’s lives at risk was utterly bizarre. Indeed, that is a bit rich coming from a guy who is directly responsible for causing the deaths of over 800 innocent people in his spectacular failure to manage the corona crises and the hotel quarantine programme.
Court is doing all she can to help save people’s lives – physically and spiritually. But all Andrews can do is keep pushing his ugly hatred, animosity and bigotry. What a loathsome political leader he is. As Sky News host Rowan Dean said about his remarks:
“In the petty, petulance stakes, nothing of course could match the spoilt, meanspirited, arrogant, virtue-signally narcissism of the premier of Victoria parading in front of his sycophantic press groupies.”
Of course Andrews was not alone in this hateful, bigoted reaction – there are plenty of other Christophobes out there who have been just as bad in their comments. Hardcore God-hater Phillip Adams was also quick to condemn her: “Margaret Court gets an AC – Australia’s top gong – in next week’s Honours List? Far worse than Bettina Arndt’s AM. Or Tony’s knighthood for the Duke. A disgraceful, shameful, tone deaf decision.”
Lesbian activist Magda Szubanksi was quick to comment: “Largely, to be honest, I think she’s irrelevant. We have marriage equality now. There are still many things that need to be worked on … but really I think let her wither on the vine.”
And then fake Christian Father Rod Bower of Gosford Anglican had this to say on his infamous outdoor signpost: “When homophobia is honoured everyone s dishonoured.” Give it a rest Rod. One day you will stand before the Lord to give an account of how you have for so long dishonoured God by your apostasy.
Other Labor big wigs also chimed in with their venom. Anthony Albanese said this: “Margaret Court has already been honoured for her tennis prowess. She’s already an Officer of the Order of Australia. I think it’s clear for everyone to see that making her a Companion of the Order of Australia has nothing to do with tennis.”
Labor Shadow Health Minister Chris Bowen agreed: “(Ms Court has) caused great hurt and anguish for many, many Australians and in my very strong view have not reflected mutual respect and respect for people’s beliefs and respect for people’s sexuality that is an important part of being a modern Australian.”
Wow, the haters sure are gonna hate. But pride of place certainly goes to Andrews. His demonic contempt for this wonderful woman of God is just so frightful to behold. And he always carries on like this when anyone dares to stand for biblical truth and values.
Just like Bower will one day face the one true and living God, so too will Andrews and his ilk. They need to repent now before it is too late. Keep them in your prayers. They sure need it.’https://goodsauce.news/calling-out-australias-most-shameless-christophobe/
The climate scammers are out in full force now that Leftist Sleepy Joe is at the helm. The world according to Bishop Ussher was only a little over 1600 years from the original creation when man had gotten so wicked that God sent a deluge upon the world and ONLY EIGHT PEOPLE SURVIVED. It wasn’t carbon that caused the flood but the sinfulness of man but as history shows man doesn’t learn much from history.
Now, today, it isn’t the sinfulness of mankind that causes politicians to lose sleep but its too MUCH CARBON!
It was only at midday Friday The Spectator Australia asked Will Australia face carbon tariffs under the Biden regime? By that evening, the Prime Minister had pre-empted any trade war with an immediate surrender or, as his spin on the front page of The Weekend Australian put it, declaring that the “Politics of carbon has ended“.
The Biden Administration’s flurry of energy and carbon emission-related measures during its first day have had an immediate effect on Australian policy, with Scott Morrison declaring that political debate about reaching a carbon-neutral future is over.
Overturning Trump’s policies, Biden has recommitted the United States to the Paris Climate Accord, rescinded approvals for leases to explore for oil and gas on public lands and for a major oil pipeline — with the loss of thousands of jobs in his own country and Canada — and reimplemented tight vehicle emission controls.
It would not have been lost on Australian bureaucrats that Biden has previously discussed a carbon tax and that he has selected as Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, who has been working with the bipartisan Climate Leadership Council on carbon emission policies.
Yellen’s aim is for policies that would not leave US businesses vulnerable to competition from nations that are not incurring the costs of decarbonising their economies. Her proposal is for “carbon customs unions” that are to be deemed compliant with World Trade Organization rules. This is similar to EU thinking. The policy would impose punitive carbon tariffs on imports from countries judged to have inadequate emission reduction policies and perhaps offer exporters GST-type rebates on the emission-restraining costs they incur.
Yellen’s approach is consistent with views of Obama officials that have been appointed to key positions in the Biden Administration. Among these is former Environment Protection Agency (EPA) head, Gina McCarthy as National Climate Adviser and John Kerry as the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. Biden has also appointed other climate change warriors to head powerful agencies, including the new the EPA head, Michael Regan and Green New Deal proponent Deb Haarland as Secretary of the Interior.
Four years ago, in my book Climate Change: Treaties and Policies in the Trump Era, I noted President Trump’s rejection of doom-laden climate prognoses and his determination to avoid measures that would place the US at a commercial disadvantage to other countries. That meant rejecting the Paris Climate Accord with its hefty decarbonisation costs. Fast-growing developing countries: China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia had also rejected emission restraints and once the US did so, this left only the EU almost alone among the major emitters. This would cause the Paris Accord to collapse, bringing a different end to the climate wars than the one now foreshadowed.
Trump’s low-cost energy policies contributed to a resurgence of the US economy, where high growth was accompanied by record-low unemployment rates and the US becoming, for the first time in 60 years, a net exporter of oil and gas. In ploughing an alternative field, the Biden team, like the EU, realises that decarbonisation must be multilateral to ensure acceptable national economic harm.
Developing countries might obtain a respite from US (and EU) attempts to prevent an erosion of their competitiveness through tariffs. But this would be more difficult for Australia to achieve, notwithstanding that, in terms of actual decarbonisation costs incurred, Australia has spent twice as much per capita as the US and EU. Aside from the money wasted on high-cost wind and solar, the 20 per cent share of electricity supply that renewable energy subsidies have brought about has resulted in an unreliable supply. Indicative of this is that last year, because subsidised renewables supply energy when it is not needed, the electricity market actually saw negative prices for almost four per cent of the time. Such negative prices place further pressure on the economics of those electricity suppliers that are dependent on commercial interactions for their revenues and brings a snowball effect in undermining reliability.
In seeking a way out of the impasse created by changed US policies, Morrison says he wants Australia to achieve carbon neutrality by adopting yet to be discovered technology innovations. In this, he finds himself in the camp of NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean, the standard-bearer for the anti-fossil fuel lobby, who has announced “hydrogen will power the future”.
The Prime Minister has previously rebuked Kean but the best path forward may be to proclaim Australia’s green credentials in having funded the destruction of its previously reliable electricity supply industry and to announce a 2050 net-zero commitment. Achieving that goal should be accompanied by gradually eliminating subsidies and be made contingent on the alchemy of turning hydrogen into energy or other unlikely breakthroughs.
Obtaining EU/US acceptance of such an approach as policy-compliant will be among the most important policy challenges Australia faces in navigation the shoals emerging from the Biden victory. ‘ https://spectator.com.au/2021/01/morrison-runs-up-the-white-flag-on-carbon/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MDS%20%2020210126%20%20GK&utm_content=MDS%20%2020210126%20%20GK+CID_b5eae7b0b1d2707e7235df94a645b691&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Australia&utm_term=ScoMo%20runs%20up%20the%20white%20flag%20on%20carbon
