At least US President Obama back in January 2008 was honest enough to admit that “under my plan of cap and trade, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

Electricity generators have warned that they face a cashflow crunch of hundreds of millions of dollars to buy carbon tax permits as the latest greenhouse gas emissions figures suggest

almost $4 billion of the $7.7bn to be raised in the first year of the policy will come from power companies.

Data from the Climate Change Department yesterday shows the power generation sector accounted for about 170 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in the 2010-11 financial

year, which could mean a carbon tax bill of $3.9bn if repeated next year.

The two NSW state-owned generators – Macquarie Generation and Delta Electricity – were the two biggest emitters in 2010-11, with 20.3 million tonnes and 19.8 million tonnes in CO2

emissions respectively.

If the same emissions levels were repeated next year, Macquarie would face a carbon tax bill of more than $466m and Delta would pay $455m, based on the government’s starting carbon

price of $23 a tonne from July.

The companies told The Australian yesterday they would try to recoup the cost through higher electricity prices, but because prices are set by bids in the national electricity

market, they are uncertain how much they will be able to recover.

Tell me how taxing the bejesus out of electricity is going to cool the planet?

Meanwhile, Japan has become the latest major world polluter to rule out introducing a carbon price or carbon tax in the near future,

as it struggles with power shortages and a rising yen caused by the euro crisis.

Japan, the world’s third-largest economy and fifth-largest global carbon emitter, joins the US and Canada in backtracking on the introduction of a carbon price.

Japan, Australia’s second-largest trading partner, is more reliant than ever upon Australian imports of fossil fuels, and now accounts for about 65 per cent of Australia’s liquefied natural gas exports.

It is the world’s second-largest steel producer and relies upon the importation of Australian coking coal and iron ore.

The Gillard government’s idiotic carbon tax dreamed up to meet this imaginary crisis is falling apart. The EU’s carbon dioxide EUA futures contract for December 2013 expiry last traded (28/2/12) at

$12.22 (9.80 Euros) or per ton leaving Australia isolated as the only country in the world with a $23.00 per ton carbon dioxide price – the highest in the world.

The EUA futures contract for December 2014 expiry last traded (28/2/12) at $13.18 (10.57 Euros) per ton.

China will also be putting a price on carbon dioxide but at a measly (appropriate?) rate of 10 yuan or $1.55 per ton of carbon dioxide.

Not only will Gillard’s carbon tax do serious damage to the competitiveness of Australian industry, it will add billions a year to the cost of electricity and push more Australians into fuel poverty.