Clive Palmer will help axe carbon tax but courts Al Gore in push - TopicsExpress

Clive Palmer will help axe carbon tax but courts Al Gore in push for ETS. - By political correspondent, Emma Griffiths. Clive Palmer has announced that his party will vote in the Senate to abolish the carbon tax but will demand legislative changes in a bid to lock in falling power prices. The Fairfax MP and leader of the Palmer United Party is also planning to propose an emissions trading scheme to tackle climate change, similar to the one proposed by the Labor Party. Axing the carbon tax was the major campaign platform and election promise for Prime Minister Tony Abbott during last years election. Mr Palmer, whose party will hold three balance-of-power seats in the Senate from next Tuesday, was flanked by climate change campaigner and former US vice-president Al Gore when he made the announcement. ***(What a duo!!!)*** A PUP source told the ABC the party is confident his ETS proposal will be passed by the Senate, which would require support from the Labor Party. But it will also have to pass the House of Representatives, where the Coalition has the majority, to become law (where it would fail). Mr Palmer is set to also reveal that his party will demand the Renewable Energy Target and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation are also retained. ***(More billions utterly wasted!!!)*** As the largest voting bloc on the new micro-party cross-bench, PUP will hold the balance of power when the Senate changes over next Tuesday. Its power has been boosted by an agreement with Victorias Motoring Enthusiast Party Senator Ricky Muir. Palmer: Top dog or annoying PUP? A larger-than-life myth has grown around Palmer, but theres one problem; it isnt true, write Peter Lewis and Jackie Woods. Mr Palmer, the soon-to-be Senate kingpin, is also due to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Mr Abbott over breakfast on Thursday morning. It will be the first time the two have met since they fell out at a Liberal Party national conference in 2012. If Labor and the Greens oppose government legislation, Mr Abbott will have to negotiate with a micro-party crossbench of eight senators, six of whose votes will be needed to pass any bills. Mr Palmer has already declared the PUP will not support billions of dollars in budget measures, including the $7 GP fee, the increase to the fuel excise, the new paid parental leave scheme and changes to pensions. Mr Gore served as US vice-president for eight years from 1993 and has spent most of his time since leaving office focussing on ways to combat climate change. His efforts were the subject of the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth and in 2007 he was a co-recipient, with the IPCC, of the Nobel Peace Prize for working to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change. ***(With Gore and Obama having received the Nobel Prize, it has now assumed the value and prestige of a roll of toilet paper!)*** In 2009, when the national climate change debate centred around Kevin Rudds plans for an emissions trading scheme, Mr Gore congratulated the then prime minister for the initiative. And he pointed to Australias potential to fight climate change through other sources of energy. No nation has greater renewable energy resources and a greater capacity to develop alternative sources of energy and contribute to a solution for the climate crisis, Mr Gore said during a press conference at the time. abc.net.au/news/2014-06-25/clive-palmer-to-announce-carbon-tax-stance-flanked-by-al-gore/5549938