Australian carbon should be auctioned: adviser (Cap and Rebate)

Ooh, the rentseekers aren't going to like this. Nope. Not gonna like this one bit. No siree.
From Reuters:

Australia's farmers, coal miners and power generators should have to bid at auction for carbon permits when carbon trading starts in 2010, the government's top climate adviser said on Thursday.

Ross Garnaut, appointed by the government to help work out how to best introduce carbon trading, said giving major polluting industries free carbon permits would make no difference to the higher prices people would pay for energy or goods.

"Whether permits are allocated freely or auctioned to existing (electricity) generators, the price impact on households will be the same," Garnaut said in a discussion paper on Thursday....MORE