The Road To Ruination

What a scam all this is:

The EU will introduce a 'surprise' (aka hitherto secret) new plan today to combat global  warming, committing Britain and the rest of the EU to the most ambitious targets in the world.  The plan proposes a massive increase in the  target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in this decade.

The EC is determined to press ahead with the cuts  despite the financial meltdown, even though it would  require Britain and other EU member states to impose far tougher  financial penalties on their industries than are being considered by  other large economies.

Business leaders fear that thousands of jobs could be lost and energy bills could soar. Carbon taxes on road fuel, heating and other sources of emissions could be introduced, with proceeds reinvested in renewable energy products.

The possibility of trade wars also rears its head with the suggestion that EU industries could be  protected by imposing border tariffs on imported goods from non-EU  countries with less stringent emission controls. The tariffs would be  introduced with a requirement for importers to buy emissions permits.  Free trade my ar*se - the EU is a protectionist bloc.

The EU Climate Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, is also under pressure to explain her failure to close the loophole which has allowed alleged fraudsters to make millions of euros through the EU's emissions trading scheme.   She had apparently been informed about the fraudsters targeting the Danish carbon industry in August 2009, but had said she didn't know about the fraud until December 2009.

In so-called missing trader fraud, bogus traders open an account in a national carbon registry, buy emissions allowances in one EU country VAT-free and sell them on with VAT added. The trader pockets the VAT without paying it to the national exchequer and the trader goes "missing".

Meanwhile more detail is emerging of the LibServatives' Energy Bill,  including a 'smart' energy grid and a dedicated investment bank which, for householders, will mean more borrowing, more debt, more taxes, more monitoring, higher energy bills.

I'd argue that greater damage is done by corporations through deforestation and subsequent species loss but what equivalent 'trading' scheme can tptb invent that will tax the ordinary person while letting the real culprits off the hook?  The smallest examples of this are charging shoppers for unrecyclable plastic carrier bags and for recycling the supermarkets' own  wasteful packaging.  They always hit the ones at the bottom of the food chain.

The Road To Ruination