QLD Government’s “Green” Showerhead Scam In NSW Too

(h/t Andrew Bolt’s blog)

Funny isn’t it.

How the mainstream media begin to highlight the direct connection between “green energy” scams and carbon credits, only after the Green-Labor government has rammed its carbon derivatives scam legislation through the Parliament.

It is almost amusing that this story concerning a NSW Government “showerheads” scam, has come out just 6 days after this blog’s popular and widely-read exposé of the Queensland Government’s “ClimateSmart” scam. A scam which includes flogging (amongst other eco-gimmicks) low-quality “energy saving” showerheads to the public without clearly revealing that the Federal Government was accruing carbon credits for them, and without clearly revealing to the customer that they were signing over all rights and entitlements to any carbon credits accruing from “or related to” energy savings in their household.

Here’s the story of the NSW scam, from The Sunday Telegraph (emphasis added):

Dodgy door-to-door salesmen cash in on yet another green scheme

DODGY door-to-door salesmen have cashed in on yet another green scheme in a replica rort to the Federal Government’s bungled pink batts scandal.

In a secret report obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, the state’s independent power regulator has demanded the multimillion dollar scheme be shut down immediately. The NSW Government yesterday also promised to investigate suspected widespread abuse.

The little-known scheme has proven a bonanza for operaters selling showerheads to households in return for up to $30 million in tradeable energy certificates which have also driven up the state’s power bills.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that the sale of showerheads has exploded since the Federal Government ended the pink batts scheme.

“We suspect many of the same operators who were involved in the sale of pink batts were involved in the sale of showerheads,” one industry source said. “When pinks batts was suspended, there was a big jump in the production of energy savings certificates from showerhead sales.”

The supension of the pink batts scheme in February last year saw a surge in the number of energy-saving certificates produced by selling showerheads from 37,032 in 2009 to a staggering 406,755 in 2010.

More than than half the certificates created by the scheme are now generated from the sale of water- and energy-saving showerheads.

The Department of Fair Trading has also been flooded with complaints about dodgy showerhead installations.

These include door-to-door salesmen encouraging customers to buy two showerheads, others encouraged to sign forms to state their showerhead had been replaced when it hadn’t, as well as numerous complaints about dodgy installations which led to water leaks.

A yet-to-be released Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal report on the Energy Saving Scheme, obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, found the issuing of energy-saving certificates from the sale of showerheads was open to manipulation, and threatened the integrity of the entire scheme.

The regulator said it was concerned about the potential for “inaccurate, and possibly purposefully manipulated” certificates. “We are also concerned that the new showerheads are mostly replacing previously installed low-flow showerheads.”

Under the scheme launched in 2009, a market is created in tradable energy efficiency certificates which must be purchased by the state’s energy operators as part of a government push to reduce energy consumption.

The report shows the scheme cost more than $20 million last year — $10 million of it just for showerheads — which had to be paid for by households in their quarterly power bills.

The certificates cost more than $30 million this year because their value increased. [TBI: how? why? as per the guaranteed-to-rise carbon price, right?!]

The Government is likely to move quickly to wind up the showerhead component of the scheme. Energy Minister Chris Hartcher said: “The NSW Government is extremely concerned by yet another botched Labor scheme and will be giving serious consideration to IPART’s recommendations.”

[Note to News Ltd: for crying out loud, get a sub-editor who can spell … or at least use a spell-checker!]

The print version of The Sunday Telegraph also featured these extra inset pieces:

Enact Energy Suspended

> Enact Energy earned zero certificates in 2009 and 274,899 in 2010
> Earned more than $5m from trading certificates
> Suspended from Energy Saving Scheme in June this year after an audit uncovered allegedly questionable bookkeeping

And…

In hot water over showerheads

Western Sydney business partners Mustafa Ali Khan and Kamran Mirza were set to make $1.5 million from the shower head replacement scheme.

However, the directors of Regents Park firm Combined Force have been barred from further participation after an auditor questioned their records.

Mr Khan and Mr Mirza, who set up their business to take part in the pink batts insulation scheme, claim they have been unfairly done by.

“There are some companies making lots of money,” Mr Khan said. “We have been operating honestly. We are a small company and we are suffering. I am not happy.”

…

Mr Khan and Mr Mirza claim they had generated 13,500 certificates, qualifying the business to create a further 50,000, which they estimate would have been worth about $1.5 million.

However, an IPART-appointed auditor claimed Combined Force had improperly created certificates.

The company has now stopped installing showerheads in NSW, while it remains in dispute with IPART. It continues to sell rof insulation, solar hot water systems and energy efficient lighting.

Combined Force owners deny any wrongdoing.

“We don’t criticise the scheme, it is a good scheme, but the audit system is wrong,” Mr Mirza said.

“We did the right thing.”

And…

HOW IT WORKS

> Get accredited to earn energy-saving certificates
> Use door-to-door salesmen to persuade families [TBI: and especially old folk, no doubt!] to let you fit showerheads for them, for ‘free’
> Each showerhead earns you ‘certificates’: 1.5 for a gas water system, more than three for electric hot water systems
> Certificates worth about $30 and are traded to power companies
> Power companies use the certificates to offset their energy use

Observant readers will notice the vital inconsistency in the above articles, all on the same page of the same newspaper! I have underlined them for emphasis. On the one hand, it is said that the companies cashing on on this scheme qualify to “create” energy-saving certificates. But in an adjacent piece, it says they get accredited to “earn” the certificates.

This slack, lazy reporting pisses your humble blogger right off.

Because this very inconsistency actually points to the root of the fraud. Any half-decent journalist (or Editor) should notice this inconsistency, question “What is the truth here?”, and investigate.

Whereupon they would eventually discover what barnabyisright.com readers have known for a long time.

Only governments can “create” the green religion’s new form of electronic “money”.

So it is governments – not dodgy salesmen – who should be the focus of these stories.

Let us be clear, dear reader.

This “showerhead scam” is not the work of dodgy door-to-door salesmen.

It is a government-mandated program.

It began with the government forcing state energy suppliers to buy “energy efficiency certificates”.

Sound familiar?

Sounds exactly like the much bigger, much grander, Federal Government Clean Energy Future carbon derivatives scam to me.

The basic operating principle, is exactly the same.

By bankster-financed government decree, Company A is forced to buy some form of “green” energy “certificate” / carbon “credit”, from Government Z.

As a result, Company A looks for ways to reduce (not their energy usage but) the number/cost of those “credits” they have to buy … while making extra profits at the same time.

Voila!

A very slick “ClimateSmart” scam in Queensland.

A not so slick Energy Saving Scheme scam in NSW.

In the case of the Federal Clean Energy Future scam, Company A looks for ways to reduce (not their “emissions” but) the number/cost of carbon “units” they have to buy, in the following ways:

1. Conveniently underestimate (‘misreport’) their emissions, in their annual self-reporting to the government;

2. Buy much cheaper international carbon “credits” from shonky offshore sellers;

3. “Hedge” their carbon credit liability, by “investing” (ie, betting) in all manner of speculative carbon derivative financial “products”, designed by the bankstering industry.

By the way, on these showerhead scams.

It is worth noting something else too.

In these examples of state-based green rorts, the “Company A” that is being “forced” to aid and abet the government-mandated “green energy” scam … just happens to be a government-owned company.

The electricity generators in NSW and Queensland are mostly state government-owned.

And in the case of the Queensland “ClimateSmart” scam, it is run by a Pty Ltd company owned by the Queensland Treasury Corporation.

So let us not be too angry with those chaps featured in The Sunday Telegraph.

Unlike most of us, they were bright and cunning enough to have an eye out for the main chance.

The real culprit in all these green schemes scams, is the originator.

International finance.

Bankers.

The creators of computerised “money” (debt).

The creators of the concept of computerised carbon “credits” (debt).

The financiers of everything … including the Great Global Warming Hoax.

Aided and abetted by our self-serving, clueless, sell-my-mother-for-votes-or-just-a-better-portfolio politicians.

Except Senator Joyce.

Barnaby Joyce has long described trading in carbon permits as “The Greatest Scam On Earth”.

Barnaby is right.

Tags: climatesmart, energy saving certificates, energy saving scheme, IPART, pink batts, showerheads