Carbon Untouchables Roll the ALP

Australian big political parties have consistently proven that they cannot stand up to Coal, Oil and Gas corporations, in any significant way. That became very clear, when in Western Australia, a very short lived policy put out by its Environment Protection Authority - EPA, was completely ditched. The policy recommended "carbon offsets" to be applied to the carbon emissions from new big COG projects.

The total carbon emissions from any new extraction fields are likely to push global warming way past survivable limits. This is simply not believed or heeded by Australian politicians.  They can't stand up to the mining industry money controlled media. Some of the world's biggest resources companies campaigned against the changes. The greenhouse gas emissions in Western Australia are rapidly going up.  Political money and media pressure from resource corporations turns leading politicians into corporate attack dogs against the a need to mitigate the risks to human species survival. Our current "accelerated" economic growth, based on COG energy, is incompatible with a human habitable bio-shell.

According to the EPA, future resource proposals, particularly LNG projects, risked further increasing the state's emissions "by a large margin to 2030".

Full-page advertisements were plastered across Perth's daily newspaper, as big business splashed the cash in an effort to convince the public that the EPA's decision would inflict an enormous economic blow on WA.
They took their public relations effort up a notch, with top executives warning across a range of interviews that devastating impacts loomed, and the Premier's dismissal of the EPA's decision was far from enough to restore stability and confidence.
The panic and abreactions from corporations that might have to cut back on earnings, in order to help cut global carbon emissions, is an indication of just how tough the political fight is going to have to be, in order to make COG corporations back down. Any government plan or policy that will restrict new carbon emissions projects will be politically killed before it comes into effect, and today's political suits are not prepared to fight for them,  just like Australia's short-lived attempt at a carbon tax.

It is significant that this particular carbon war strike happened about the same time as the global school climate strike, which indicates that mass public turnouts means nothing at all to carbon corporations and the carbon-owned political parties of Australia. 

Politicians in big political parties are going to stay bought and bullied by the corporations, and the Premier Mark McGowan has marked himself as an easily bullied and bought COG puppet, as if you didn't already know that. Mark McGowan leads the Labor government in WA, and this will be similar to what you can expect from a Federal ALP government led by Bill Shorten.

The problem has been, that its not enough to tell COG to pay "Carbon Offsets" for new sources of coal, oil and gas. A government EPA shouldn't be having to make up any rules to cancel unwanted extra carbon emissions, just to allow a state can create "Carbon Jobs".  There are already enough existing carbon energy resources around the globe to take us into dangerous climate change.  Nation-states should not be looking for new coal , oil and gas, as a source of money. There are not enough existing global "climate offsets" in the world to buy us all a safe climate.

No one should be investing in new coal fired power stations. No one should be investing in new sources for coal, oil or gas. We should be investing in new renewable energy technology.  Renewable energy payoffs are actually positive.
author:
Michael Rynn
description:
The possibility of financial risk to investors in Australian coal and gas clearly outranks future climate risks that they will most certainly bring about
keywords:
carbon untouchables, Coal and gas interests push around Australian governments
og:title:
Carbon Untouchables

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