Replies

From the comments:

************************************EXCERPT**********************************************

Nigel Brereton says:

January 20, 2011 at 3:58 am

It’s only the small change that they are chasing.

This story from the Times in 2009 puts it into perspective:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article6945991.ece

LAKSHMI MITTAL, Britain’s richest man, stands to benefit from a £1 billion windfall from a European scheme to curb global warming. His company ArcelorMittal, the steel business where he is chairman and chief executive, will make the gain on “carbon credits” given to it under the European emissions trading scheme (ETS).
The scheme grants companies permits to emit CO2 up to a specified “cap”. Beyond this they must buy extra permits. An investigation has revealed that ArcelorMittal has been given far more carbon permits than it needs. It has the largest allocation of any organisation in Europe.
The investigation has also shown that ArcelorMittal and Eurofer, which represents European steel makers at European level, have lobbied intensively in Brussels. This has included threatening to move plants out of Europe at a cost of 90,000 jobs, and asking European commissioners to meet Mittal.
ArcelorMittal is now free to sell its surplus permits on the market or to hoard them for future use. The latter would allow it to avoid cutting greenhouse gas emissions for years, effectively undermining the point of the scheme.
Either way, the company will have gained assets worth around £1 billion by 2012. The eventual value could be much greater. Each carbon permit is currently worth about £12.70 but the European Union has said it wants to drive this price above £30.

The rest of the article at the link.

In order for the UK to have any future energy capacity the government is counting on carbon prices going up to £75 /t by 2050.

This one example of why it is so hard to get a counter argument publicised!