ACT GreenLabor brings in “New energy efficiency law” – just another disguise for socialist hands in our pockets again
March 14th, 2012 by Warwick HughesI see the Canberra Times are reporting this with breathless enthusiasm as – “Plan to slash ACT power bills”. I have not read so much economically illiterate twaddle for years.
I note the comments on the Canberra Times article show their readers see right through the transparent Green scam.
If power companies have to pay out their hard won shekels to buy new efficient appliances for the poor – the aforesaid power company will have to recover the cost from somebody else. No prizes for guessing who.
Another thing that shoots this scheme down for me is that the Federal GreenLabor Govt is already putting a Carbon Dioxide Tax in place to save the planet. There is no need for the ACT Govt to double up and force us and save the planet twice. I have heard the Prime Minister say many times, that people on benefits will be more than compensated for any rise in utility bills and other costs due to the Carbon Tax. Let them update their appliances out of those funds.
Until more Canberra voters put the Greens last at every election – they can expect more mad socialist schemes like this. The only way to stop this scheme is to vote out the ACT GreenLabor Govt later in 2012.
What the Govt could sensibly do is to look at a divorce for ACTEW and AGL – then instruct ACTEW to always buy the cheapest electricity and gas possible for ACT consumers from any available supplier. I thought competition was supposed to be desirable – how did we ever get this uncompetitive ACTEWAGL joint venture ?
And just to get numbers on scale – the ACT Minister Simon Corbell claims the scheme will save 750,000 tons of greenhouse gases by 2016 – not sure if that is every year. Whatever the timespan claimed by Minister Corbell – be aware that on 2010 figures China emitts 750,000 tons of carbon dioxide every 48 minutes. We could bulldoze Canberra back to bush – that gesture would not measurably affect global emissions.
Posted in Resources | 5 Comments »
March 14th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Yep, a couple of D10s & a bloody big chain starting at the centre of the round-about sounds like a plan.
We may as well start early on the anarchy & get it over with.
Note from Ed: You just wait till your Electricity supplier in Cobar gets a whiff of Simon’s great scheme. Free fridges all over those bush camps.
March 14th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Please no leave it where it is,It was put there so that when the excreta rises to the top(as it always does) we can’t see it and wont smell it. Just imagine if the Federal Parliament was still in Melbourne, god what a stinking mess that would be.
March 15th, 2012 at 7:34 am
Hear hear to bulldozing Canberra back to the bush – with appropriate compensation for my bulldozed humpy in the Inner North, of course!
On the substance, I couldn’t agree more. Incredible economic illiteracy in this press release…a few examples:
“The Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living) Improvement Bill 2012 will require Electricity Retailers to provide households with subsidised or free energy efficiency upgrades to their homes, helping to reduce cost of living pressures on household budgets and reducing carbon emissions in the ACT.”
Where is the money coming from for these freebies and subsidies? It would not, perchance, have to come out of ACT electricity consumers’ pockets, would it? As readers’ comments point out, where else are the Electricity Retailers going to get the moolah for this?
“[B}ill savings of more than $2,000 are expected for households over the life time of implemented energy efficiency measures. Some of the energy efficiency measures that will be made available to households under the legislation include the installation of draught sealing and insulation as well as replacing inefficient heaters, air conditioners and hot water systems.”
If savings are available from these ordinary purchasing decisions available to any household, and exercisable at Bunnings Warehouse or other “high street shops” (as the Poms say), then why are consumers not going out and purchasing them now? How on earth would coercive legislation forcing third parties (power companies) to provide services produce a better economic outcome than a consumer’s judgment as to whether to buy or not to buy these goods and services at their real price?
"The new laws also require a minimum of 25% of all households assisted to be low income households, providing further support to the most vulnerable people in our community," Mr Corbell said.
Not only does the legislation coerce third parties that have no interest in securing net savings for the householder, but the third parties are even told to direct their attentions to households on the basis of their income instead of whether net savings are possible!
“[T]he legislation will mandate a specific requirement to achieve energy savings that reduce carbon emissions by approximately 750,000 tonnes.”
Not only are the Electricity Retailers to use consumers’ own cash to force energy saving measures on them that the consumers have not thought worthwhile themselves, and not only is this being targeted on the basis of the poverty of the household instead of any potential net economic benefit…but the real objective is not economic at all, it is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The chances of securing net economic gains to households when you have thrown out the informational value of market prices, discriminated in favour of certain households, and in the end don’t even have an economic objective at all, are, well, nil.
By the way there are essentially no carbon emissions from electricity generation in Australia. What they mean is carbon dioxide emissions. A tonne of carbon dioxide only contains about 273 kilos of carbon. Quoting amounts of “carbon emissions” in tonnes is a sign that these people have no chemistry as well as no economics.
March 15th, 2012 at 12:05 pm
I noticed this on ABC Online News, “Energy scheme to leave many out of pocket”.
Pretty much says what you said yesterday.
That’s a change for the ABC – not auto-aligned with the GreenLeft this time.
March 15th, 2012 at 1:46 pm
I suspect that there are a number of people working at the ABC in Canberra, most of them living in Greensland (inner-north Canberra), who have woken up to the fact that, unlike the solar panels on their roofs that cost other Canberrans but make them money, this scheme will not benefit them because they aren’t poor and they already live in four + star homes full of four star appliances.