ETS scheme a failure - OFFICIAL says European Commissioner for Energy, Adries Piebalgs : Channel 4 TV 7.00 News

Regulars know how pissed off Lord Patel gets at the predictable and predicted failure of the European Trading Scheme for trading carbon generated from the burning of fossil fuels. Now that a unit is changing hands for approximately 50p the European Commissioner for Energy, Adries Piebalgs has been on Channel 4 TV News at 7 to say Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme - designed to cut emissions in the EU and meet Kyoto commitments - are far too lax and the system is a failure.

Meanwhile Channel 7 reveals that British energy utilities, together with their European counterparts (who of course own 80% of UK utilities) , have been coining it on the present regime. British utilities have actually made £800,000,000 out of the scheme simply because carbon prices didn't do what they were supposed to - or put another way did exactly what Lord Patel said they would do - and also anticipated by the money jugglers of the City who pulled the wool over Mrs Beckett's eyes. But that wasn't difficult.

They did this by charging customers for the price of the carbon trading credits but actually the tokens were free. So, will the government levy a windfall tax or are they happy with the situation of customers being out of pocket. A question that Jon Snow asked Maestro Milliband the Minister of the Environment - but didn't receive an answer.

Curiously George Monbiot got something right , on Page 46 of his otherwise worthless book "Heat" he says ... and shout this from the roof tops...

" ...in creating a carbon rationing system , you are in effect creating a new currency"

After this flash of brilliance he then goes on to ridicule the "rather dull 'carbon units' and proceeds to call the new curency "icecaps" ...well that caught on George.

The smart men in the City didn't give a twopenny damn what you called it, but they knew a sure fire one way bet when they saw one.