UK Increases Industrial CO2 Emission Limits By 3% - Independent

[hatrack]

"Britain's power stations and heavy industries were given increased allowances to emit carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal gas causing global warming, in a controversial government announcement yesterday.

Their total CO2 emissions, which in future will be capped as part of the European Union's emissions trading scheme starting in January, can be nearly 3 per cent more over the next three years than originally envisaged, ministers have decided.

The announcement was greeted with relief by business, but with considerable ire by environmental groups and opposition political parties, who said it made a nonsense of Tony Blair's often-stated wish to cut UK emissions of greenhouse gases back severely, as part of the fight against climate change.

The decision follows a struggle behind the scenes in Whitehall between Margaret Beckett's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which wanted tighter CO2 controls, and Patricia Hewitt's Department of Trade and Industry, which was anxious that stricter limits would undermine the competitiveness of UK business. In the end the dispute was decided by Mr Blair himself, who now appears to have accepted the arguments of industry."

EDIT

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=576789

[Nihil]

1. Interesting euphemism, "arguments" = "payments"

> In the end the dispute was decided by Mr Blair himself, who now
> appears to have accepted the arguments of industry."

Persuasive things, bribes, aren't they Tony?

The corrupt little poodle plays the "casting vote" tactic to ensure
that his paymasters get their way after all.

Nihil