In Victoria, HRL announced yesterday that it would it was putting on hold its plan to build a new coal and gas fired power plant at Morwell following a decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus write: As two Americans watching from the sidelines as Australia tears itself apart over a carbon tax, it is impossible not to be reminded of our own country’s self-destructive battle over cap and trade in 2009 and 2010. And little wonder why: the Left and Right partiesin Australia have adopted [...]

Graham Readfearn writes: It was one of those “drop your bacon sandwich at the audacity” kind of stories — the sort of revelation that shows what power and influence in a democracy really means. Australia’s wealthiest individual, Hancock Prospecting chairman Gina Rinehart, loaded up a couple of federal MPs onto her private jet and flew them [...]

“Brown coal”, Mantle Mining company director Ian Kraemer told locals at a Bacchus Marsh public meeting, “has the ability to be the saviour of the planet”.

The eyes of even the most hardened court observers glazed over as the seemingly endless mess of legal procedures dragged on. It wasn’t just unremarkable, it was outright dull – obscuring the profound struggle set to unfold. Monday  was day one of a court case in the Brisbane Magistrates Court in which a group of [...]