Liberals to stall on carbon emissions trading scheme

[Australia]

KEVIN Rudd faces a delay in the introduction of his carbon emissions trading system until after the next election.

The Opposition Leader told The Australian that the Prime Minister's plan to begin emissions trading in July 2010 was a threat to the economy and the Coalition would reject legislation allowing trading until it was clear whether China, the US and India would join a global pact to reduce their emissions. [it already is clear: two of them are too smart to ever join it - snip]

A growing chorus of exposed industries - including airlines, petrol refiners, LNG exporters, cement manufacturers and aluminium smelters - has voiced concerns in recent days that billions of dollars of investment risk being lost overseas. Their concerns tally with AWU fears that thousands of jobs would be lost on the tide of outgoing investment... [snip]

Climate Change Minister [? and I thought having a Goracle was bad] Penny Wong said government assistance to industry would have to be gradually reduced over time. "To do otherwise would be economically irresponsible" [then why do it in the first place?][snip]

[BTW:] Government sources have made it clear Mr Rudd sees little chance of compromise with the Greens, who want his $500 million taxpayer-funded investment to research clean coal technologies scrapped...

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