Greens Plan

I was with a mate the other day who has a hair brained anarchistic notion that we need no law. He will refuse to vote, and takes little notice of any law. Surprisingly this guy is no radical, in fact he is a conservative passivist in many regards. A great guy, good mate, but boy I could argue with him on some stuff 🙂
But I read Hamiltons book “Scorcher” on the politics of climate change and he made the comment in there about how when you really want change to happen you need to legislate it.
The example he gave was catalytic converters on vehicles. He suggested that if the government said (like they have with our light globes) “hey car manufacturers if you feel green when you are making your next car, pop one of these devices on to the exhaust system. I know it will cost you more to build the car and I know you will pass that cost onto the consumer, but hey think of the environment more than your sales!” – If the government had said this what do you think would have happened? YEP, about 5% of cars MIGHT have had one based on green consumer demand.
Instead, the government made up a rule. They said EVERY car needs to made with one of these converters on.

What about these new light globes?
I went to a family members house last night, she said, “Come see my new light globe in my lamp! I was shopping for a new globe and my son (9) said I should buy an environmentally friendly one, I had no idea what he meant but looked and found one for me and now I am ‘green'”
We mentioned we have 2 lights yet to convert in our home and she was blown away and had lots of questions and a good discussion followed.

So should the government just throw millions of dollars at transforming and legislating stuff like this? The Greens would – What do you think, “out of the goodness and conscience in our heart or legislate it?”

THE Greens have unveiled a $22 billion plan to improve the energy efficiency of every Australian home.

Under the scheme, every home would be subject to an energy audit and then retrofitted with energy-saving devices, including solar hot water systems, insulation and low-flow shower heads.

The government would cover the up-front cost, but then collect payments from home owners over a 10-year period, ensuring the repayments were never as much as the savings on energy bills.

Greens Tasmanian senator Christine Milne, campaigning in Adelaide today, said in that way no householder would be out of pocket.

“What we need is a real focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency,” Senator Milne said.

“The problem is every time people talk about the increasing demand for energy, their response is let’s build a new coal-fired power station.”

Senator Milne said current schemes to encourage energy efficiency only offered ad-hoc or peripheral rebates that had little impact.

“The Greens are saying Australia’s 7.4 million homes need to be retrofitted to be energy efficient,” she said.

“That means every home should at least have solar hot water and full insulation.

“Let’s invest $22 billion of the surplus in retrofitting the housing stock of the nation.

“We don’t want to see infrastructure of the kind we’re talking about – $22 billion – frittered away in tax cuts.

“We have got to change the way we think about energy and fuel.”

Senator Milne said the Greens’ strategy would also help low income earners, traditionally the group least able to afford making the changes, invest in energy efficiencies.

She said it would also provide for thousands of new jobs, including people trained to be energy auditors and those required to complete the installations across the country.

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