Desperately trying to be helpful to the energy rationers on our
own shores who seek to import Europe’s disastrous energy
rationing “cap-and-trade” scheme — being debated as part
of the president’s budget as we speak — Europe and its
enablers are striving to convince us that their statist “global
warming” debacle is actually a vibrant experiment in
market-oriented policymaking.
Today’s offering is destined to go down as a
classic, appropriately coming to us from (at least some of)
the people who brought us Monty
Python. First came a report in
Reuters that the rationing scheme was at least 40
million tons short of carbon permits in 2008 — meaning fewer
were required than were printed — the first time the scheme has
registered a shortfall. Reuters noted that it is likely that the
ETS will once again register a surplus of permits in 2009,
raising question marks over its effectiveness.
Given that the the WSJ
accurately covered the issue — “UPDATE: EU ‘08 Emissions
D[ow]n As Recession Takes Hold”, noting that carbon
emissions from heavy industry and utilities in the EU fell 6%
last year as the economic downturn slowed industrial activity in
everything from construction to auto manufacturing — I
cautioned colleagues to watch for the usual
suspects spinning this straw into golden claims that
the “Emissions Trading Scheme” or ETS is finally on track, has
found its legs, is working at last etc. You see, they’re
desperate to say that, as part of selling it on you and instead
of the less painful tax, even though for its first three years
the highly touted myth of “certainty of emissions” (denoting
reduced emissions, and to an amount certain) were
in reality emission increases each year…even while
economy-wide emissions managed to dip! It’s that distorting
and subject to gaming, which also explains why Enron invented the
scheme in the mid-1990s.
Sure enough, out rushes the New York Times, gasping with
a story “E.U. Carbon Trading System Shows Signs of Working”.
Why, not stone dead…remarkable plumage, and, I think
it’s just stunned, resting, shagged out after a long squawk,
pining for the fjords! It moved, or, was that just you
pushing the cage…
As summarized by Climate Wire (and with my emphases added, so you
don’t miss some of the finest spin around). You can just
hear the success amid the wistful speculation!:
The European Union’s trading system for reducing carbon
emissions is showing signs of working, according to a
preliminary analysis released yesterday.
Emissions fell between 4 and 6 percent in 2008 among industries
covered by the E.U. system, compared with increases of roughly
1 percent in 2007 and 2006, according to analysts who reviewed
the figures.
Most of the decline was attributed to falling industrial
and electricity production caused by the economic crisis,
but analysts pointed out that the size of 2008’s decline
showed the system was causing some businesses to be marginally
cleaner.
“What we’re seeing today is that it is easier to meet the
emissions targets in the short term because of lower economic
activity in the world, but it doesn’t change the fact that
carbon markets do work,” said Henrik Hasselknippe, head of
carbon analysis at Point Carbon.
Spread the entrails another way and you “see” no such thing,
that’s just puffery. Yes, real markets work but, no, dear
friends, this… is an
ex-parrot! Now, if it would only expire and go on to meet its
maker, as opposed to flying over here.
