Climate change bill back

The Local Government and Environment Committee has reported back [PDF] on Jeanette Fitzsimons' Resource Management (Climate Protection) Amendment Bill, and recommended that it not be passed. The bill would have restored the ability of local councils to consider climate change when deciding on resource consents - a vital backstop to the government's planned emissions trading scheme, and good insurance if it goes the same way as the last three attempts and is not passed. Unfortunately the committee thought that the bill should be considered in parallel with the legislation setting up the ETS and so repeatedly delayed it; in the end it has been taken back to the House by Fitzsimons rather than delayed further. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely to get a vote before the election, but at least it is back on the agenda, and the Greens will have plenty of time in which to suggest amendments (top of the list: adding a clause to force the government to produce a National Environmental Standard to provide guidance to councils within two years). And in the meantime, the polluters are laughing all the way to the bank...