To ETS, Or Not?

We’re going to have an Emissions Trading Scheme. Well…the government would like us to have an Emissions Trading Scheme, but the likelihood of it getting up via the Senate would seem to be a forlorn hope.

Now, I’m an advocate for addressing Climate Change and do lean heavily towards the distinct probability of Climate Change being accelerated through human industrialisation. Frankly, in my view, it’s what the Americans would call a ‘no-brainer’.
But just what is an Emissions Trading Scheme? Can I somehow sell my vehicle emissions on an ebay-like market? Do I get free credits, because I’m a tax-payer? Why does the aluminium smelting industry apparently get 90% free credits to pollute, but the coal industry sector doesn’t?
The ‘selling’ of the government’s desire to create an Emissions Trading Scheme has been very poor, indeed, practically non-existent. Surely the electorate deserves as much, or more information regarding a scheme of taxation on business, which will inevitably be passed on to that electorate? Why should we, the tax-payers of Australia, be required to wade through obfuscatory legislation, green papers ad infinitum in order to gain even the merest smattering of an understanding of what an Emissions Trading Scheme is, how it is intended to function, and exactly how it will impact on all Australians? If it’s good enough to win government on the back of addressing Climate Change, surely it’s good enough to explain to the voters just how that address will happen.