Lenore Taylor (The Guardian, 10.12.16) slams Malcolm Turnbull’s change of view on climate policy:
‘Malcolm Turnbull’s climate policy stance is “bullshit” according to his own searing assessment when Tony Abbott advanced similar ideas. That was back in the days when Turnbull let facts interfere with his decisions.
‘In 2009, just after he was dumped from the Liberal leadership, Turnbull wrote a blog in which he provided some frank and forceful thoughts about the climate change position of the man who had beaten him. Like a ghost from a more principled past, his old arguments now apply to his own position.
‘“First, let’s get this straight. You cannot cut emissions without a cost. To replace dirty coal-fired power stations with cleaner gas-fired ones or renewables like wind, let alone nuclear power or even coal-fired power with carbon capture and storage, is all going to cost money … So any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, ‘bullshit’. Moreover, he knows it,” Turnbull the backbencher-with-convictions wrote.
‘“The whole argument for an emissions trading scheme, as opposed to cutting emissions via a carbon tax or simply by regulation, is that it is cheaper – in other words electricity prices will rise by less to achieve the same level of emission reductions …”.’