Powering down

Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun (Australia)
"Surely the NSW Government isn’t quite so mad yet as to want to cut the state’s throat:

BUILDING coal-fired power plants will be banned in NSW as part of a new climate change policy expected to go to Cabinet next week.With the Federal Government’s abandonment of a national emissions trading scheme, the State Government will move to curb greenhouse gas emissions with a clean energy policy which bans dirty power plants.However, Treasury officials said a ban could push electricity prices even higher for consumers already hit with a 13 per cent price rise on July 1 as much-needed new energy would have to come from more costly sources.

But we know the Rudd Government is capable of anything:

FARMERS with water rights along the Murray River fear they and other irrigators will be scapegoats for the federal government’s failure to implement an emissions trading scheme when a new water policy for the Murray-Darling Basin is announced in the next few weeks.They claim the government is preparing to severely cut irrigation water entitlements to demonstrate its green credentials and to satisfy concerns about the health of the basin.”It looks as though we are going to be the sacrificial lamb leading to the federal election,” said Cheryl Rix, the general manager of Western Murray Irrigation at Dareton, in far south-west NSW."