The beginning of the end?

Have a look at this lot. The ETS is the Emissions Trading Scheme.

- The ETS will reduce GDP by $900 million by 2012
- The average household will have $600 less spending
- A reduction in employment equivalent to 22,000 jobs
- By 2025, GDP will be $5.9 billion less than without an ETS
- The average household will have $3,000 less by 2025
- Hourly wages will be $2.30 an hour less by 2025 than they would be without an ETS
- The ETS will reduce emissions by 5% less than merely funding emissions reductions directly
- The ETS may be bad for the climate as some NZ production will become uncompetitive and shift to countries where their increase in emissions will be greater than if they stayed in New - Zealand. This is known as “leakage”
- The ETS will see by 2025 a 12.9% reduction in dairy farming, a 41% drop in diary land prices and a 6.6% reduction in sheep and beef farming.
- As the decline in pastoral production in NZ will lead to greater pastoral production elsewhere, the increase in carbon emissions will be 3 million tonnes - around 25% of the reductions from the total ETS.
- Southland and Northland would be most affected by the ETS with a 3% drop in GDP, with Auckland and Wellington less affected.
- Paying for emissions reduction out of general taxation would be cheaper and more effective.

The ETS was to be the great cash cow that this stupid government said would be a spin off from our being a world leader in carbon neutrality. We would make squillions as we stood proudly in the vanguard of nations saving the planet. We would not only feel good about leaving a negligible carbon footprint for future generations we would also reap economic benefits as we traded carbon credits from our clean green land. I have to stop now as typing this is making me feel physically sick.

So for the terminally stupid I will join up the dots. All the above economic ruin is being embarked upon on our behalf by a government that is so stupid they think anyone can do anything about the climate. It is estimated that the part of the ETS relating to fuel prices would put an extra 6-8 cents on a litre of gas and they already want another ten cents for a regional tax. This morning there are murmurings that bits of the ETS might have to be postponed (it is election year after all) but David Parker (Climate Change Minister for God's sake) denies this.

Base a stupid policy on a tissue of lies and this is what you end up with - an untenable mess. They made their bed, let them bloody well lie in it.

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