Antinuclear

Victorian govt leads the way from renewable energy, towards brown coal, then nuclear

  the massive 3,700 sq km lease EL4416 to Dr. John White’s Ignite Energy Resources. Cutting a swathe right across southern Gippsland’s prime coastal and tourism region, it runs the entire length of the spectacular 90 Mile Beach from the top of Wilsons Promontory to the Gippsland Lakes, half circling the towns of Bairnsdale, Sale and Traralgon.

when action on global warming can no longer be delayed, what will the Victorian government’s exit strategy be for brown coal? How will it placate community concern over food security and energy in a warming planet? In the absence of any willing investors left for wind or solar, are Victorians the first to be softened up for the nuclear debate we’re yet to have?

White is more than just a valued friend of the Liberal Party and former head of Prime Minister John Howard’s Uranium Industry Framework. White is a serious player in the international nuclear stakes and was the brainchild behind the “cradle to grave” business plan for President George Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.

Victoria goes dirty brown, Independent Australia, 25 Nov 11 IA INVESTIGATION: The new Victorian Government has abandoned any concerns for the environment in a rush to turn Victoria into a big, dirty, brown coal mine. Environment editorSandi Keane reports   “…. Under recent legislation, new coal-fired power stations can be built 1km from the nearest residence (or just over 1km in the case of the Anglesea Primary School) – but not for a windfarm, which needs to be at least 2km away from the nearest complaining resident….the grab for arable land is on…..Over 40 per cent of Victoria is now under licence — a “ticking time bomb” according to Environment Victoria’s Make Wakeham. Its new website, CoalWatch, allows users to see at a glance which areas of Victorian have been leased to mining companies for the mining of brown coal…..

Voters might have been kept in the dark about Baillieu’s plans to transform farmland to quarries during last year’s election campaign, but miners certainly got wind of the coming bonanza and responded with a flurry of activity. Hundreds of brown coal mining leases have now been issued for Victoria’s prized farm land as well as those areas now out of bounds to wind farms — coastal and areas of significant environment value.

Long time Liberal luminaries and heavyweights, of course, come in for special favours.

By far the most egregious example of this is the massive 3,700 sq km lease EL4416 to Dr. John White’s Ignite Energy Resources. Cutting a swathe right across southern Gippsland’s prime coastal and tourism region, it runs the entire length of the spectacular 90 Mile Beach from the top of Wilsons Promontory to the Gippsland Lakes, half circling the towns of Bairnsdale, Sale and Traralgon.

White is more than just a valued friend of the Liberal Party and former head of Prime Minister John Howard’s Uranium Industry Framework. White is a serious player in the international nuclear stakes and was the brainchild behind the “cradle to grave” business plan for President George Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.

White invested $45 million in a UK/USA/Aus consortium. The Nuclear Fuel Leasing Group would produce the nuclear fuel rods in Australia, lease them and bring back the spent fuel rods for storage — as outlined in NFLG’s submission to the Switkowski Committee’s Uranium Mining, Process and Nuclear Energy – Opportunities for Australia?

White estimated the fortune to be made on storing the waste to be a staggering $6 billion per annum — trumping Australia’s biggest single LNG agreement, which was valued at $90 billion over 20 years or just $4.5 billion per annum were it to become a reality.

The Mineral Resources Sustainable Development (MRSD) Act requires licensees to consult with landholders prior to exploration. Welshpool resident, Dr. Chris James, is concerned about the lack of community consultation with individual farmers on mining leases, believing they are simply contacted, signed up with confidentiality clauses and any communication with the local population left to the local council. And according to James, the rapidly expanding mining industry is engaged in some risky experimental processes.

White’s company, IER, has a number of partnership projects that could be described as these sorts of experimental processes. All require an open-cut brown coal mine. One uses brown coal as a base for a soil fertiliser. Sounds laudable enough but one can’t help question how turning prime agricultural land into an open cut brown coal mine in order to boost the carbon of less productive land makes sense — except, perhaps, as a profit spinner for fertiliser manufacturers.

Of more concern is Cougar Energy’s joint venture to develop an Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) project within IER’s lease. Cougar’s pilot project at Kingaroy has been closed down by the Queensland Government due to water contamination issues. What controls will the Baillieu government exercise?…..

Under a Coalition Government, the policy sounds convincingly reassuring when it comes to taking other countries’ nuclear waste:

“A Coalition Government will not accept other countries’ spent nuclear fuel or nuclear waste.”

But resolutions passed at Liberal Party Federal Council, June 2-3, 2007, give lie to the chorus of denials, whenever the media applies the blowtorch to the waste issue. Under Item No. 24 Nuclear Industry, the Council believes Australia should:

 “expand its current nuclear industry to incorporate the entire uranium fuel cycle”

The “entire uranium fuel cycle” is White’s “cradle to grave” plan for GNEP which would see Australia leasing the fuel rods then bringing them back for safe storage – id est, Australia would be taking back its waste not the waste of other countries; of course, when you lease something, ownership remains with the lessor…..

when action on global warming can no longer be delayed, what will the Victorian government’s exit strategy be for brown coal? How will it placate community concern over food security and energy in a warming planet? In the absence of any willing investors left for wind or solar, are Victorians the first to be softened up for the nuclear debate we’re yet to have?

Perhaps the winner in the current search for a new number plate slogan for Victoria, once proudly called the “Garden State”, could be “Victoria – the Quarry State”?

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/environment/victoria-goes-dirty-brown/

November 25, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Victoria