Australian farmers missing opportunity to profit by farming energy
Farmers squeezed out of energy boon, MATTHEW CAWOOD, Stock and Land 04 Feb, 2012 LANDHOLDERS should be capitalising on seismic changes in how we generate energy, says Matthew Wright, but instead they are being
pushed aside.
Mr Wright, executive director of Beyond Zero Emissions, thinks the thrust of current government policy will be to deny many landholders the ability to profit from wind generation, while compromising the enterprises of other landholders who host coal seam gas (CSG) operations without sharing in CSG profits.
Beyond Zero Emissions, a non-profit organisation, has the goal of moving Australia “from a 19th century fossil fuel based economy to a 21st century renewable powered clean tech economy”.
Wind turbines are “about as benign as it gets” for power generation, Mr Wright said, adding CSG is a “fairly destructive option for resource exploitation”.
Read more »
Greens and Australian Conservation Foundation speak out against Lynas plan for Malaysia
Rare-earths decision big boost for Lynas SMH, Peter Kerr and Vince Chadwick February 3, 2012 ”…….Dave Sweeney of the Australian Conservation Foundation said the low-lying, coastal environment meant holding ponds containing toxic waste might be breached during the wet season.
Mr Sweeney also drew attention to the timing of the board’s decision, which came days after a member of the opposition party in Malaysia said her party would not approve the plant if it won power at coming elections. ”There would be questions being asked and confidence being eroded in the integrity of the approval process, which appears to have become politicised,” Mr Sweeney said.
Lynas had been unable to start exporting ore to Malaysia for refining since its $100 million Mount Weld mine in Western Australia opened in August.
Federal Greens senator Scott Ludlam questioned the business model of exporting rare earths to Malaysia, which takes three weeks, rather than processing them at home. ”This imposes an economic cost on Australia and an environmental cost on Malaysia,” he said.
Western Australia’s new Labor leader speaks with forked tongue
from our Western Australian commentator 30 Jan 12 Few remember McGowan’s sabotage of Geoff Gallop’s Core Consultative Committee on Hazardous Waste (3Cs) a committee dedicated to reforming the hazardous waste industry, protecting public health and a fragile biodiversity.
Remember the Bellevue chemical fire at a hazardous waste plant, allegedly the largest chemical fire in Australia’s history? The disgraceful mismanagement of the Brookdale hazardous waste plant? The lead poisoning of Esperance and the destruction of 9,500 native birds by Magellan Metals? The 400 strong protest march in Kalgoorlie against the foulness of Total Waste Management, operating just 500 metres from a restaurant and a fuel station?
Industry, lobbyists of the haz. waste industry (including Burke and Grill) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry were jubilant when McGowan sacked the 3Cs without explanation in November 2006.
It will come to pass when the people of WA will understand that both Barnett and McGowan are the dancing boys of industry – both wear the same hat in the environmentally desecrated state of WA which has 85,000 abandoned and toxic mine sites.
December 8th, 2011: “No Labor minister or public servant responsible to a Labor minister will issue any approval to facilitate a uranium mining project under a WA Labor government. It does not matter how advanced the projects are. I’m putting the industry on notice. You won’t have your final approvals by the time of the next election and they will not be granted if WA Labor is elected.” (Eric Ripper)
The duplicitous McGowan speaks with forked tongue. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Western Australian Labor’s new policy could lead to hasty, botched uranium mining applications
”A real concern and a real danger is that companies will try and short circuit what is already a very weak environmental impact assessment process, just to get something into the bank so that they’re through before a potential change of government,”
Has Labor’s shift on uranium mining started a race? ABC News, Rebecca Boteler, 28 Jan 12 The new Labor leader Mark McGowan has changed his party’s stance on uranium mining in Western Australia. But what does it mean for those companies in the race to mine uranium?
Mr McGowan announced the party’s backflip on uranium mining on his first day in the job. The new policy means any mines already operational by the time the Labor party next comes into power will not be shut down and any companies that already have approval can continue development.
However, Labor will not allow any new mines to be given the green light. Read more »
Land grab and discrimination against Aboriginals remain in Australia’s draft Constitutional changes
A recommendation that jars, however, is Section 116A that would prohibit racial discrimination. It is not long ago that the federal government over-rode the Racial Discrimination Act to launch its outrageously discriminatory Northern Territory Intervention in 2007 during the Howard era. The Rudd and Gillard governments embraced the policy. It is not ancient history.
The discrimination was said to be ended by atrocious legislation that extended aspects of the Intervention to disadvantaged people of all backgrounds in the Northern Territory and beyond.
While the original Intervention legislation is approaching its sunset clause to be replaced by the cheerier sounding “Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory”, the land-grabbing intent continues. Residents of remote Aboriginal communities are being pressured to sign regular leases on their property. Sign on the dotted line before the August
deadline or lose it. Funding for housing in remote communities is frozen in favour of construction in faraway towns. Opposition leader Tony Abbott is rubbing his hands together on behalf of resource developers referring to the current situation in the NT as that of a “failed state”.
Words won’t replace need for struggle, The Guardian 25 Jan 2012, Symbols and words can be powerful and useful; they can unite and heal. But nobody is impressed by lip service or tokenism. In the lead-up to Invasion Day (or Survival Day as it also known) and which is officially celebrated as Australia Day, such judgements are being made about a government-sponsored report on proposed changes to the constitution.
Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution is the work of a panel headed by Aboriginal leader Professor Pat Dodson and senior lawyer Mark Leibler AC. It is said to be the result of discussions with “… more than 4,600 people, in more than 250 meetings in 84 locations across the country and received more than 3,500 submissions.”
The recommendations include “Recognising that the continent and its islands now known as Australia were first occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; Acknowledging the continuing relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with their traditional lands and waters; Respecting the continuing cultures, languages and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; Acknowledging the need to secure the advancement of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
Commentators have noted that solid majorities in polls taken on these issues have been reflected in the recommendations. The fact that attitudes to questions like recognition of the first peoples of Australia are improving is certainly to be welcomed. Read more »
Australia’s Family First Party jumps on the anti wind power bandwagon
Better coordination urged in wind farm fight, ABC News, January 23, 2012 The Family First Party says a state-wide group is needed to tackle wind farm developments. A number of groups have been formed to oppose wind farms in various regions, including Keyneton near the Barossa Valley.
The party’s Rob Brokenshire says a more coordinated approach will be discussed at a forthcoming meeting. ”The Government and those that are pro-wind farm at all costs want to brand them in a certain name but I won’t accept that,” he said… Mr Brokenshire says he is organising a meeting for early next month.
“One of the main items of the meeting is the concept of forming a state-wide group that looks at the big picture of the impact from wind farms on rural and regional people,” he said…. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-23/better-coordination-urged-in-wind-farm-fight/3787778
Uranium mining in Western Australia’s still dubious despite Labor’s new wishy washy policy
Uranium miners fear uncertainty despite Labor policy change, SMH, Rania Spooner January 24, 2012 -The company likely to become WA’s first uranium miner has welcomed a significant change in WA Labor’s policy on uranium mining, but warned the fledgling industry still faced plenty of uncertainty.
Within hours of taking over WA Labor yesterday, Opposition leader Mark McGowan announced the party would pull away from its pledge to shut down any approved uranium project if elected next year.
Mr McGowan said WA Labor remained against uranium mining and would not approve any new applications, but the change in policy meant the state would not be open to compensation claims.
Applications only part way through the approvals process would not be allowed to continue under a Labor government.
One or two miners are so advanced in the approval process that they are likely to get the nod before the March, 2013 election.
One of those is South Australia-based Toro Energy, which is among a handful of uranium hopefuls to have pursued WA deposits since the Colin Barnett government lifted the state’s long-standing ban in November 2008…….
Greens nuclear affairs spokesman and Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam condemned the policy “backflip”, saying Labor couldn’t “have it both ways” on uranium.
“It is a dangerous, toxic industry that operates to provide fuel to the dangerous, toxic nuclear energy sector. If Labor is opposed to uranium mining they should make their position clear,” Senator Ludlum said in a statement.
“Mr McGowan has spoken of providing certainty to the industry.
“It is far better to let the nuclear industry know it is certain they have no future in Western Australia.”..
South Australian Government lackey of mining interests in legal action against Aborigines
ATTORNEY GENERAL TO APPEAL MINING BAN, Australian Mining By Andrew Duffy on 18 January 2012 South Australia’s Attorney General John Rau is appealing a decision by the state’s Supreme Court to block development of an exploration lease held by Argonaut Resources.
On Friday the court ruled exploration at the Lake Torrens tenement could not go ahead after an Aboriginal Heritage Site Card was lodged over the area. The court ruled the development had denied procedural fairness to the traditional owners, the Kohatha Wati and Adnyamathanha people.
According to Adelaide Now Rau has decided to appeal the decision on advice from Crown Law…..
the decision was a worrying sign for the SA mining industry, and allowed Government to “veto exploration and mining activities” on land where traditional ownership could be asserted…. http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/attorney-general-to-appeal-mining-ban
Anti business policies of Liberal governments in Victoria and New South Wales – war on renewable energy
Now, however, backed by the fossil fuel industry, the campaign against solar and wind power in Australia has exposed many of the very anti-business policies of the Coalition. With dropping costs and increasing reliability for renewable energy, conservatives have had to turn to ‘community concerns’ to wage their attacks. These concerns are based around a very tiny, loud minority, and apparently don’t exist for the coal or coal seam gas industry. They also go against strong evidence that show that renewable energy is extremely popular.
There is no doubt that the renewable energy industry will continue to grow throughout the world. Wind and solar are booming and will soon be cheaper than current fossil fuels.
The war against renewable energy The Drum, Simon Copland, 19 Jan 12, It’s an odd scenario when the Coalition becomes the main opponents to a new, profitable business. Long seen as the small government, pro-business party, the Coalition has engrained itself in the business community and business interests.
Yet, with the election of the Victorian and New South Wales Liberal Governments, it has become increasingly apparent that the Liberal’s pro-business pedigree is only extended to certain business operations – normally the dirtiest ones to boost.
It all started with new regulations in Victoria in 2011. Passed through both houses of the Victorian Parliament in 2010, these rules set strict new regulations on the development of wind farms in the state. Based on the idea of ‘community concerns’ about wind development, the regulations state that any person who lives within 2km of a proposed wind turbine will now have the ability to veto the project, with very little discourse for wind operators. The bill has the potential to cost Victoria $3 billion in wind investment and means that it would now be easier to get approval for a coal power plant in Victoria than a wind farm.
Despite outcry from the Victorian environmental and business community, on the eve of Christmas the New South Wales Coalition Government followed its Victorian counterparts inadopting similar regulations. The New South Wales Government boasted that these were the “toughest wind farm guidelines in Australia and possibly the world”. As Barry O’Farrell said, if he had his way, there would be no more wind farms ever approved in New South Wales. Read more »
Western Australia’s new Labor leader might change uranium policy
Ripper to stand down as WA Labor leader in favour of McGowan, ABC, Radio National A.M. David Weber , January 18, 2012
Political analyst, Harry Phillips…. says Mark McGowan could change Labor’s current policy to
withhold approval for uranium mines.
HARRY PHILLIPS: He may bring about a reversal on Eric Ripper’s very strong stand on uranium; they’d rescind contracts and that. That’s a very hard policy to sustain and I think it leads to – they’re really locking themselves into a different position there to the Federal Labor. That’s a very hard policy to uphold…. http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3410113.htm
Wind energy: South Australian govt in the grip of fossil fuel astroturfers?
Proposed Policy Threatens Wind Power Investment In South Australia, Energy Matters, 8 Jan 12, Australia’s Clean Energy Council (CEC) says the South Australian Opposition’s policy on wind farms would threaten more than $3 billion of investment and result in a further increase in electricity prices in the state if implemented.
South Australian Opposition leader Isobel Redmond has vowed to ban wind farms within 2 kilometres of any residence. Another key element of the Liberal’s policy is a ban on wind farms within 5 kilometres of townships.
Clean Energy Council Acting CEO, Kane Thornton, said wind power projects currently proposed for South Australia would provide for the electricity needs of more than 567,000 homes and create 948 direct jobs.
“As we’ve seen in Victoria, such measures would effectively make South Australia a ‘no-go’ zone for wind farms, driving billions of dollars of investment from the state. In addition, South Australians would see higher electricity prices as future renewable energy will need to come from higher cost sources,” said Mr. Thornton.
Mr. Thornton pointed out over 20 per cent of South Australia’s electricity is generated by wind power and the wind industry is one of the reasons the state’s carbon emissions fell by 18 per cent over the past five years.
In August last year, then-Premier Mike Rann said South Australia was home to 54% of Australia’s wind power capacity, 5 times more per capita than Victoria and 10 times more than New South Wales.
While Ms. Redmond reportedly claims wind turbines are being installed “willy-nilly with no accountability“, the CEC states current guidelines ensure a proper balance between wind farm developments and community in South Australia.
The CEC says it will work with the South Australian Liberal Party to “ensure they understand the value of the wind industry to the state, and to provide them with a more complete understanding of wind farms and associated issues.” http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=1973
South Australia’s Liberal Party sucked in by anti wind power astroturf
Liberals to ban wind farms within 2km of homes by: Political Reporter Daniel Wills The Advertiser January 06, OPPOSITION Leader Isobel Redmond has vowed to ban wind farms within 2km of any home. In her second policy announcement since declaring the end of her small-target strategy, Ms Redmond said she would move to “protect”
residents from the possible economic, social and health impacts of wind turbines if the Liberals won the 2014 election.
This comes just more than two months after Planning Minister John Rau released a scheme to reform the wind power industry, including allowing turbines 1km from homes, and follows Ms Redmond’s commitment this week to find savings in public sector wages.
Ms Redmond yesterday labelled wind “probably the least efficient and most unreliable of all the green energy sources”. She said she would not be fazed if the policy caused a drop in turbine investment…..
Government figures show wind energy contributes 21 per cent of power generated in the state. The Clean Energy Council estimates $2.8 billion has been invested in the sector…..
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/liberals-to-ban-wind-farms-within-2km-of-homes/story-e6frea83-1226237791196
Australian Greens defend renewable energy schemes against fossil fuel “greenhouse Mafia”
Greens defend loans for renewables, Herald Sun, AAP , January 04, 2012 AUSTRALIAN Greens leader Bob Brown says fossil fuel industry attacks on a government loan scheme for renewable energy projects are “a bit rich” given the massive subsidies they get.
Senator Brown was defending the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which will provide finance to renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-emissions technologies…..
The corporation has been attacked by the opposition as a slush fund, with finance spokesman Andrew Robb saying it would only “fund projects that the private sector won’t touch with a barge pole”. Now a new attack has come from some of Australia’s biggest industry sectors. The Australian Industry Greenhouse Network – whose members include the Australian Coal Association, the Minerals Council of Australia and the National Generator’s Forum as well as large mining and petroleum companies – says the loans fund could distort markets, the Australian newspaper reported today…….
Senator Brown said government had a legitimate role in helping establish new markets that had wider public benefits. He cited the fact that most coal fired power stations in Australia were originally built by governments, even if they were now privately owned.
“Here we’ve got that same industry, having been built upon government financing, claiming now that the renewable energies of this century shouldn’t even be subject to assistance through loans,” he told ABC radio today. Senator Brown said the fossil fuel industry was currently subsidised to the tune of $11 billion a year.
“The subsidies involved in the clean energy finance corporation are really very restrained compared to those going to the polluting industries at the moment,” he said.
“The fossil fuel industry is largely foreign-owned, it pours billions of dollars out of the country each year and it’s complaining about domestic industries getting a $10 billion loan fund.
“It’s a bit rich isn’t it?” http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/greens-defend-loans-for-renewables/story-e6frf7ko-1226236190140
Success for Australia’s coal lobby, with new laws against wind farms in N.S.W. and Victoria
The state’s conservative Premier, Barry O’Farrell, .. has said that he personally opposes any no new wind farms.
public concerns about turbines have been ”aided and abetted” by climate sceptics who have launched a Tea Party-style fear campaign. The campaign has featured local lobby groups protesting under the banner of “landscape guardians” – believed to be based on Britain’s Country Guardian.
The NSW Greens said the proposal would kill off the wind-generation sector in favour of coal seam gas projects
Australian state launches world’s toughest wind turbine laws, Telegraph UK 24 Dec 11 Australia’s most populus state has proposed the world’s toughest laws on wind turbines, with a plan to give all residents within 1.25 miles a veto over new projects.By Jonathan Pearlman in Sydney 23 Dec 20111. The New South Wales Government proposed the new rules following controversial rural wind farms which angered residents over noise and raised claims the vibrations cause stress and illness.
Under the proposals, turbines will be subject to a noise limit of 35 decibels, five decibels less than in the state of Victoria, which has similar guidelines. The NSW planning minister, Brad Hazzard, said the measures were “some of the toughest wind-farm guidelines in the country, possibly the world”. ”One hundred per cent of neighbours have to be happy within that
two-kilometre zone,” he said. Read more »
Bleak prospects for Australian uranium miners: most States and ACT ban uranium mining
Olga Galacho reports in the Herald Sun , 19 Dec “….In Western Australia, a pro-uranium conservative government faces a Labor Opposition that wants the mining banned. It is in WA that Toro will next year begin extracting uranium for the first time in that state from its $300 million Wiluna mine.
In Queensland, a state Labor government opposes uranium mining, unlike the Labor governments in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
In NSW and Victoria, freshly elected conservative governments have maintained their Labor predecessors’ ban on uranium
exploration……”It takes two election cycles to get a uranium operation up and running and in Australia, this is considered too high a political risk.”…..”
This month
For international news, go to nuclear-news
Check on the Ugly Australian company, Lynas, in Malaysia http://baddevelopers.nfshost.com/Docs/L.htm
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/49872 Peter Watts at Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World
Aboriginal protest in Canberra. Scroll down page. Video news shows no violence from protestors, only from police http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/breaking-news-blog/the-referendum-died-today/20120126-1qj4x.html
of the week. http://www.radiationreport.com/effects-of-radiation/nuclear-apologists-play-shoot-the-messenger-on-radiation/
Energy Matters Video News – Episode 56 – February 1, 2012
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3021
Anti nuclear action below: - more info at Action Australia « Antinuclear and at Event details « Antinuclear
EVENTS
- February 13 Adelaide Fukushima and the Future of Nuclear Power
- February 23 - Adelaide Nicole Foss – a Mentor For Turbulent Times. Nicole Foss speaks on Energy and the Economy http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=FqRGVNUK5x0
LATEST AUDIO & VIDEO ITEMS. arrive – so fast and so good – go to our audiovisual page Audiovisual « Antinuclear for information on these websites
Nuclear power and WATER – theme for February 2012
For Australia especially, Global warming means WATER shortage – drought over wide areas, more evaporation.
Nuclear power and uranium mining are water-intensive
Uranium mining is water intensive. Already outback communities are being hit by water shortage, as water is being extracted from the Great Arterial Basin faster than it is being replenished.
Yet BHP Billiton has open slather, at no cost whatever, to its daily guzzle of 35 million litres, and BHPB plans to extract an additional 120 million litres of publicly-owned artesian water per day, every day, for the next 70 years.)
Out of sight, out of mind
Groundwater is a major resource, but one that has been taken for granted for decades. In the past, groundwater supplies were treated as an infinite resource, and subject to an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude. But that’s changing. There’s now an enormous interest in the way our groundwater resources are measured, managed and utilised. There are also concerns over issues such as over-extraction of water, pollution, wastage, allocation and licensing issues, water pricing and groundwater salinisation.
The water source beneath one-fifth of Australia
The most well-known and important groundwater source in Australia is the Great Artesian Basin, or GAB. This is a vast groundwater source that underlies 22 per cent of Australia – extending beneath the arid and semi-arid regions of Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales. It covers about 1.7 million square kilometres, and contains an estimated 8700 million megalitres of water. Not surprisingly, it’s one of the largest artesian water basins in the world……
The sustainable yield of a groundwater source depends on balancing the use or discharge against recharge rates. Normally discharge of groundwater occurs through vegetation, into streams and lakes, or through evaporation into the atmosphere. Sustainable yield cannot simply be determined by a measure of the recharge rate. If water is extracted for human use at the recharge rate, discharge to other areas can be affected…..
Extraction of groundwater can also lead to salinity problems and have a negative impact on native vegetation with roots that tap into groundwater, as well as wetlands, rivers and streams. The full impact of using these aquifers as planned is not known, but is likely to reduce the rate of water flowing to support rivers and wetlands and other groundwater dependent ecosystems…. http://www.science.org.au/nova/100/100key.htm
Garlick said water from the Great Artesian Basin in Central Australia is being depleted to keep residual radioactive dust from uranium mining wet in order to keep it from blowing across the continent. Seven million gallons of water is being extracted from the basin per day to keep the radioactive dust in place, she said.
Despite its profits more than tripling in the last three years, BHP has never paid a cent for the vast amounts of water used by the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine near Roxby Downs. The mine currently uses approximately 35 million litres of water a day from the Great Artesian Basin. Under the Roxby Downs Indenture Act BHP is not required to pay for this water usage.
The Indenture Act applies specifically to the Olympic Dam mine, and provides for wide-ranging legal exemptions and overrides from environmental and Aboriginal heritage protection laws that apply elsewhere in the state, including the Environmental Protection Act and the Natural Resources Act (which incorporates water management issues).
“The Indenture Act means that the Olympic Dam mine is not subject to the same environmental regulatory framework as other industrial projects in the state,’ explained Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide. “Additionally, by allowing BHP to take water from the Great Artesian Basin for free, the South Australian government is essentially providing BHP with a massive subsidy,” she continued.
The water intake from the Great Artesian Basin has already had adverse impacts on the unique Mound Springs found near Lake Eyre, which are fed by the underlying Artesian Basin, and are sacred to the Arabunna people, the traditional owners of the area.
As part of the proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam mine, BHP Billiton proposes to increase its water consumption by an additional 200 million litres per day. Water intake from the Great Artesian Basin will increase to up to 42 million litres per day, with the remainder to come from a proposed desalination plant at Point Lowly. This amounts to over 100,000 litres of water per minute.
“The vast water usage of uranium mines is often forgotten in the debate about uranium and nuclear energy. Here we are, in the driest state on the driest continent on earth, host to a mine which needs millions of litres of water each day. Due to the Indenture Act, we are essentially exporting our water overseas for free,” said Ms. Calan. (FOE)
