Polluters throw tantrum over ETS
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. The Business Council of Australia - who represent most of Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters like Alcoa, Xstrata and ExxonMobil - has released a report saying that they won’t like it if the Rudd government makes them lower their emissions.
They paid researchers to write a report about the impact of an Emissions Trading Scheme on their businesses. The report claims that these emissions-intensive businesses won’t be able to pass on their increased costs to customers, that they won’t be able to reduce their emissions, and that if they’re forced to do so, they’ll take their business overseas.
It all seems like a temper tantrum to me. The increased costs of an ETS can be passed on to customers in the same way the increased costs of BAS statements were when the GST was introduced. And if they’re saying they can’t reduce their emissions, then they’re admitting they’re less innovative and hard-working than other polluters around the world who have already made cuts. Well, maybe that’s true, but it’s not something to be proud of.
As for taking their business overseas, most of these polluters are in the mining business: how are they going to dig up Australian resources if they go elsewhere? And do they really think that there are any countries who won’t have an ETS within the next decade? Anyone can tell you that this is junk economics. As Ross Gittens says in the Sydney Morning Herald, the BCA has just written a vote of no-confidence in itself.
All the players in the heavy-polluting industries saw the problems of climate-change coming years ago, and tried to confuse the issue with their own ‘research’ rather than deal with the situation. Like the cigarette companies in the 80s arguing that their products shouldn’t be subject to any regulation, the polluters now want to continue polluting with no consequences. They’ve seen that the Rudd government’s ETS is weak, and want to turn it into a joke that won’t solve the problem of GHG emissions at all. They smell the opportunity for even more loopholes and taxpayer-funded handouts to get themselves a free ride at the expense of smaller businesses and householders.
It’s pathetic, but it was also entirely predictable. Call me when one of the major polluters actually does something useful for a change…