I am not sure what the make of the article. It looks to me more like an economist battling for his favourite theory. It's a pity there is no way for us plebs to tell if his theory is any better than the theories of the economists in treasury.

In the mean time, Australia has lost another unique Australian idea on renewable energy generation to the world's champion of private enterprise, the US. We lost it because of government regulation in the US forcing power companies to supply energy from non-CO2 producing sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKyDaWmiNiU

Geoff,

You can't be an reputable economist, because as Gillard claims, all reputable economists favour her carbon tax.

Thanks for pointing out the difference between the concept of a market based price on carbon, and the hodge podge of compromises that makes up Gillard's abortion of a policy.

It would be a huge help if more people faced up to the facts. This carbon tax is a con, in true politician style, and is really a massive tax grab. Anyone silly to think they are being compensated should look at the fine print, which provides for the tax to be indexed at 2% above inflation, while there is no guarantee that any compensation will be indexed.

The main group to be attacked is, of course the middle class, and it really makes you wonder how they attract many voters from there (at the moment they don't seem to be attracting many from anywhere).

The NSW government is not far behind with its massive tax grab from electricity. People should realise that these actions have spelt the end for electric cars, before they even got going.

We are entering a new depression, which could well be longer and more protracted that the one in the thirties, as the only basis for recovery is cheap energy. With this gone, the best we can hopr for is Japanese-style stagnation.

What we need (I know how popular it would be) would be a $1 per litre additional tax on petrol, and a general reduction in public service salaries and pensions, with politicians and judges leading the way. Greece and Italy provide excellent examples.

What with peak oil, peak food, and a 2 or 3 billion population increase in the next 25 years, it is going to be a rough time.

rstuart,
Thank you for the link. Again we see the short sightedness of our Australian governments. America has welcomed this company with open arms. Heavens only knows what happened to plans for our own plant, but I'm sure we could have some quite accurate guesses.

So much for promises of a Clean Technology Innovation Program. We wont see anything here with this sort of track record.