• NSW Independent Pricing And Regulatory Tribunal - Summary of discussion at Rate Peg Methodology Workshops 12 December 2022
It looks like some NSW local councils have chosen to give up getting to no climate pollution from their activities.
The summary above is from a document published by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
Rates in NSW are set by IPART. IPART says about itself:
“IPART is an independent, strategic agency of NSW Government, charged with regulating key markets and government services to ensure effective social, environmental and economic outcomes.“
I wonder if an ‘effective social, environmental and economic outcome’ is to set council rates at a level which increases, and brings forward in time, the collapse of Earth’s climate to a time now being predicted by some United Nations scientists to be within the next 30 years?
I’ll blog more about the rates inquiry and generally about the contribution IPART makes to global warming through its pricing decisions including when setting council rates.
Some of us remember when the NSW Parliament created IPART in 1992 and part of the then Premier Nick Greiner’s Second Reading speech included these words:
“The tribunal will, therefore, be constrained by strict efficiency and cost issues but will take a broader range of matters into account when making determinations and recommendations. This will ensure that environmental and social issues form part of the equation and the tribunal will need to weigh these matters against strict cost-related factors. Honourable members would be aware that any reasonable analysis of the price or pricing structure of monopoly services, such as electricity, water and sewerage, must take into account the externalities relevant to the supply of the services. The cost of avoiding or minimising any environmental damage which might occur as a result of the supply of monopoly services should be taken into account when determining the appropriate price to be charged. This action will promote sound environmental practices and decisions as well as determining economically appropriate prices for the benefit of the people of this State. It will be a further factor operating to discourage and minimise environmental degradation.“
We will see what we will see. More soon.
Michael