Can Obama sidestep a gas explosion?
Spectacularly rising gasoline prices loom as Barack Obama's Achilles heel in the president election. And while recent energy policy declarations may offer some protection, they ignore the biggest challenge of all.
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Comments PolicyClimate change is not the most important energy issue on our planet any more as evidenced by Obama and backed by Wayne Swan yesterday when he stated 'the carbon tax goes to economic efficiency and environmental sustainability'. Since when are higher energy prices economically efficient? What happened to the floods, cyclones, droughts and rising oceans; and the pictures of all those cooling towers emitting pure water pollution (Can Obama sidestep a gas explosion?, February 27).
Seems to me like it is just another big tax, as the scientific measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide shows that its concentration in the atmosphere has increased at exactly the same rate since the Kyoto agreement as the rate preceding it.
Hence the risk of climate change is not being addressed by any emission reduction policies, mitigation has no chance of working, that only leaves adaption. To fund adaption Australia needs the most efficient economy possible, and at this point in the price cycle, and for the foreseeable future, hydrocarbons are the most efficient energy source available to us.