Posts by Alfie
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Remember all those cheap carbon credits bought from Russia and the Ukraine? Turns out they were largely invented.
A new study from the Stockholm Environment Institute says the vast majority of carbon credits purchased from eastern Europe were nothing more than "hot air" and no actual emissions were harmed in the process. According to one of the authors of the study, Vladyslav Zhezherin, "This was like printing money." In other words, fraud.
Our own user pays Emissions Trading Scheme is skewed in many respects. For instance forresters have to be part of the scheme, but farmers do not. Why was that again?
The Environmental Protection Authority has just released the final list of 2014 New Zealand Units (NZUs) allocations to industry -- each NZU is valued at around $NZ6.80. The theory is that taxpayer subsidies encourage our bigger polluters to stay here, rather than move their emissions to some other godforsaken country. RNZ estimates this equates to taxpayers donating about $30m a year to our worst polluters. Here's the full list -- some examples:
NZ Steel - $7.3m
Rio Tinto (smelter) - $5.14m
Fletchers - $2.55mWhile I'm sure that these companies are deserving of more taxpayer largesse, somebody remind me... this saves the planet exactly how?
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Michele Hewitson interviews Alastair Thompson in the Herald.
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Polity: Saudi sheep: Misappropriating…, in reply to BenWilson,
Does it tarnish reputation to actually have dirty dealers held accountable? I don't think so - I think it does the opposite.
As an immediate effect perhaps. But in the long term it would surely discourage other dirty dealers and incentivise greater honesty for all those in public service.
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The Herald exposes the sheer volume of swap kauri being exported and claims this has jumped "more than 2500 per cent in five years."
In 2009, 173 cubic metres of swamp kauri was legally exported. That increased to 1150 cubic metres in 2013, before sky-rocketing to 4356 cubic metres last year.
Nicholas Jones' story shows that a single company, Silver Fern Resource Trading, sent 1810 cubic metres last year -- all to China. That company is owned by one Yongpeng Wei from Auckland.
The photograph accompanying the story shows just how intricate and detailed the 'carving' needs to be to garner a rubber stamp from our government.
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Ponytailgate continues...
In more bad news for Key, Chief Ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem has decided to investigate the decision by his office not to release any records of his contact with Glucina, the cafe's owners or its employees.This results from a complaint by Labour's Paul McMahon after his request under the Official Information Act was turned down by Key.
Under questioning from the Greens in Parliament he confirmed he had no contact with Glucina's Pink PR company, but would not answer questions about personal contact with the columnist.
Key may have a defense if he argues that he was wearing his slimy, shape-shifting reptilian hat every time he spoke with Glucina.
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Amidst the numerous calls for McCully to stand down, one Rachel Smalley disagrees because standing MM down might make NZ look bad.
The deal looks messy. The deal looks murky. It appears we have paid what amounts to a bribe, but we shouldn't risk tarnishing our international reputation until we know for sure.
I'd humbly suggest that McCully's bribe, that dodgy 'invoice' and the other backroom antics surrounding this affair have already tarnished our country's previously enviable reputation for honesty and transparency.
Could Smalley be gunning for Mike Hoskings' job? Or maybe a nice, safe government PR role? Because all going well, McCully's department will surely be looking for a fresh team of spin doctors in the very near future.
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Auditor-General Lyn Provost will carry out an inquiry into the Saudi sheep bribe. Does this mean that Murray McCully will finally have to front up and actually answer the difficult questions?
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Toby Manhire -- it's not a bribe, it's a non-compensatory facilitisational disbursement.
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Nope. Just spreading the word.
