tech support - old school, really old school

Rod Oram on NZ as a carbon trading hub

here.
I agree. Get cracking. The perfect weightless export that fits brilliantly with our natural strengths.
Better hurry though, Sydney's probably thought about it too.

Bruce McKay on Lines Companies

This guy proves the old cliche of try try again.
Of course, you could go the despair.com route and argue that true incompetence is the ability to think that doubling your efforts can overcome any lack of talent.
Here he is waxing lyrical on lines companies and why they shouldn't be interested in energy generation.

Vector is a lines company and as such is not meant to buy into electricity generation and retailing.

Well that's obviously rubbish. There are plenty of reasons why Vector might want to put some generation at strategic points in it's network. It's subtle but it's worth millions in stranded asset risk.

It's galling but he's right about the wind part though. There's not much point for Vector to want wind generation since they can't turn it on and off as it's needed to streamline the energy flows. Right answer through faulty reasoning.

Bruce McKay on Global Warming

here.
Warning - you may actually be less smart after reading this than before you clicked on the link. Even seeing the link may have knocked a point or two off your IQ.

Step 1: denial - check
Step 2: grudging acceptance - check
Step 3: fix - .....
Step 4: adjustment - check

Hey hang on, what the £$%£$ happened to step 3??
oh and by the way, an agrarian economy may just have more to lose than most countries hmmm? and in case you haven't heard it elsewhere, nz is fine, the countries that get hammered and the people that die or are displaced are the ones that are poor today. business as usual is fine - yeah right.

and one other thing, if you've ever studied a dynamic chaotic system you may be aware of the fact that small changes don't always result in small responses. sometimes the response blows a big @£%£$ hole in your lab.

and yet another thing: it's emmissions per person that's important, not the country (you know emmissions = emmissions per person x persons, doing your bit means changing the first part).

and.... ah forget it.

Garth v Brian on CC

Garth George isn't exactly sharp as a pin. I love reading his column if only to remind myself what the '50s must have felt like to anyone that wasn't male, white and middle class.
I also remember his column where he wasn't too convinced about this whole smoking and lung cancer theory. He's been smoking for years and when he stopped felt awful - so he started again.

NZ Herald summaries on CC in NZ - 1 of 4

Haven't had much time lately and i can't blog at work anymore...

Brian Fallow on what the business groups are looking for in CC policy.

First, New Zealand is a tiny contributor to global warming. Where doing our bit for the planet ends and futile self-sacrifice begins depends on what the big emitting nations do.

I love this. I wish I could do this for everything: I'm a tiny contributer to littering and skewering fluffy kittens, not killing kittens is pointless unless the large killers get on board. You don't set your character by what the worst offenders do...

Secondly, relying on price signals is better than prescriptive regulation. And price-based measures should apply across the economy. Singling out the electricity sector for early action while exempting major emitting sectors - transport and agriculture - for political reasons would be distortionary, inefficient and unjust.

Agree. Although you could make an argument that the electricity sector is easier to get started with but the principle is sound.