Antinuclear

REMOVE MARTIN FERGUSON FROM ENERGY, by Tom Swann  (and Swann doesn’t even mention Ferguson’s unswerving loyalty to the nuclear lobby!  – C.M.) ) 

Here’s just a short list of what Fergo gets up to:

– He invited climate skeptics to launch their book at Parliament House;

– He had the AFP and private companies spy on climate volunteers and campaigners, under the pretence of protecting the energy supply–are we being tracked right now?;

– On a 16 person panel designing future energy policy, he chose only one from the renewables industry, and only after pressure;

– He’s infamous for his ‘open door’ to coal and gas lobbyists;

– He advocates massive expansion of coal and gas, and is pushing ahead with the new HRL coal plant despite HRL missing deadlines, community outrage and the PM’s promise for no new coal;

– He has a long history of holding back our struggling renewables industry, from irregular funding to poor program administration;

– For example, he is responsible for the poor design and continued delays in the Solar Flagships program, which hasn’t yet issued a single flagship grant;

– Gillard acknowledged he is a liability when she made sure he was not in charge of setting up the new Clean Energy Finance Corporation;

– As Ministerial Chair of the International Energy Agency, he ignores the IEA’s recent push for urgent climate action through strong support for big solar;

– Meanwhile, government reports overlook the projections, from the IEA and elsewhere, of rapidly falling renewables costs, especially in solar, as well as new evidence showing support for renewables can actually cut costs;

– He agitates for nuclear power in Australia, nevermind the cost, emissions impact and health risk (the recent Energy White Paper makes a big deal out nuclear power in Australia even while showing all too clearly how expensive it would be!);

– He wants Australia to become a global nuclear waste dump, and has started by  forcing a dump on Muckaty, a remote Aboriginal community that wants nothing to do with it – Senate debate on Muckaty started when everyone was focused on leadership spill!

– As the Minister for Tourism, he’s responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs provided by the Great Barrier Reef — many times more than in fossil fuels. But the reef is under extreme threat from climate change — and so are those jobs!  http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/move-martin-ferguson-out-of-energy