In an expected move, the Australian Senate, which is more conservative than the center-left Labor government, rejected a cap & trade bill yesterday by a vote of 42 to 30.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd can submit the bill again after amendments in an attempt to gain more conservative support, but a second rejection after a three-month period would allow him to call an election and seek a broader public mandate for the bill.

In the U.S. Senate, Bloomberg reports that nine Democrats have raised the specter of barring or restricting Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and JP Morgan Chase & Co from trading carbon emissions because of their concern that speculation by Wall Street banks could cause excessive price swings in the cap and trade system.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D. WA) quoted in Bloomberg stated, ” The volatility that has existed in the oil market is exactly what we don’t want to happen in carbon markets.”

Bill Winters Co-CEO of JP Morgan responded that the market for trading carbon “will die, and the temperature of the planet will go up by a couple of degrees, more than it would have otherwise, and we’ll be really sorry about it.”

While a cap and trade bill passed the U.S. House with concessions to farm and coal interests, experts predict that a vote on the Senate bill will likely be delayed until next year.

Photo: 
NASA Earth from Apollo 17 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2222548359/

Copyright 2009 - K.J.Collins