Last week the US Senate debated a 500-page global warming bill known as the Warner-Lieberman Cap-and-Trade bill.
The Democrats knew it would likely be vetoed by President George Bush, but they hoped to push it through the Senate anyway and in this way build further momentum for reducing America's greenhouse gas emissions.
But they weren't successful: some Democrats refused to support it on the basis that it would push up petrol prices.
It was perhaps the worst possible time to introduce the legislation with oil prices doubling in the past 12 months and fear of a global fuel supply shortage.
Emissions trading is based on the theory that, by forcing up the price of fossil fuel, alternatives will be found.
But in reality biofuels can only supplement petroleum based products, and while there is always the option of natural gas and nuclear energy, both have their limitations right now.
So the reality is that an emission trading scheme (ETS) which puts a price tag on greenhouse carbon emissions - whether in the US or Australia -- is likely to just be an additional tax pushing fuel prices even higher.
Last week in the Australian federal parliament, Liberal member for the southern Perth seat of Tangney in Western Australia, Dennis Jensen, made the point that an emissions trading scheme, as proposed by the Rudd Labor Government, would not only push up petrol prices, but was based on the false belief that we have a climate crisis.
He said that the belief was based on pseudoscience and added global temperatures had not been increasing as predicted by computer models.
Dr Jensen, a former CSIRO researcher, quoted Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientist, Kevin Trenberth, explaining that, contrary to predictions, the lost heat is probably going back out to space with a number of natural thermostats, including clouds, reflecting sunlight and helping cool the planet.
Dr Jensen also referred to new data showing that not only has the global atmosphere stopped warming, but there has also been, if anything, a slight decrease in ocean temperatures.
The comments by Dr Jenson, and failure of the emission trading bill in the US Senate, follow defeat of climate alarmist, Ken Livingstone, in the recent London mayoral election.
It was claimed the mayoral poll would be a referendum on climate change policies which included more taxes.
The winner was the UK Conservative Party's Boris Johnson, who denies there is a climate crisis and a consequent need for more taxes on transport.
The Rudd Government can't realistically promise to both put maximum downward pressure on petrol prices and also to introduce its planned emissions trading scheme. But will anyone listen to Dr Jensen in Canberra before it is too late?
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