Soren wrote on May 8
th, 2013 at 10:40pm:
The carbon tax has nuffin to do wiv the environment.
The federal government is set to slash around $100 million in funding for solar and other renewable energy projects to help cover an expected plunge in the price of carbon in three years time.
http://www.afr.com/p/national/combet_confirms_carbon_fuelled_tax_foGv95IRrYkTGTo...As the international carbon price collapses, the Australian carbon tax, far from raising money for green initiatives, has created a massive hole in the budget.
The government has punted on $23 per tonne, rising to $29 in 2 yeras and has budgeted expenditure accordingly.
But now that carbon price is going backward (now around 4 euros a tonne, about $5) to less than a quarter of our ficed price and showing no signs of rising significantly.
SO what happened? The Australian 'pricing of carbon' has avtually restricted and will continue to restrict CO2 reduction efforts until it is abolished later this year.
But the Labor Green rhetoric continues but even they do not believe it any more. Because if they really believed that the carbon price will be around $29 in 2015, they would be buying up all the European carbon permits at the present bargain basement price of about $5 and make a killing in 2 years.
But they don't believe it.