Carbon tax gone, and with it any shred of leadership on climate and energy policies.

Our Federal elected representatives have voted to abolish the carbon tax. Did you give your rep a mandate to do that? I didn’t, yet tho is now what we have: no effective energy policy other than ‘keep digging up the black stuff and selling it to the highest bidder’.

We have no effective climate policy. make no mistake, ‘Direct Action’ is a weakened version (with promised funding already cut back) of John Howard’s first generation policies from 1998. It will not achieve any significant emissions reduction, although it might – just might – increase forest cover and aid is small improvements in soil condition in some agricultural areas. But there is nothing like any consensus on that from the scientists, and all the economists who include the broadest range of metrics in their calculations are saying it is a backward step.

So – what’s the good news coming out of Canberra? There isn’t much really. And this Pollyanna finds that very frustrating. Clive Palmer’s recent conversion on the road to Damascus may yet prove to be a fallacy, and the Senate’s decision to retain savings generated by a tax now defunct is nothing short of surreal. And yet even today, PM Abbott did rule out ever having a carbon pricing mechanism. Huh??

Strange days…

Bring on the double dissolution you say?

In the mean time, the likes of you and me can just get on with improving things, in the built environment, and anywhere else our feet happen to tread. Here’s an interesting article on energy storage systems from today’s industry newsletters.