Antinuclear

THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper ignores reputable science on wind energy

The Australian’s fear of reds under the bed, CLIMATE SPECTATOR:  Tristan Edis, 12 Mar 2012 On Friday, The Australian newspaper dedicated front page coverage to a United Kingdom study that claimed that, in Britain, using wind turbines to cut emissions costs 10 times the price of a gas-fired power station. Such a claim is not correct for Australian circumstances. But what I find remarkable is why The Australian considered such a study to be front page news.

There are more than 50 Australian economic modelling studies (my hard drive holds 730 megabytes worth) – prepared by a range of highly credible sources – that examine the relative costs of wind versus alternative power sources, specifically for Australian conditions. The Australian could have chosen from the Australian Energy Market Operator, the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics, Access Economics, CSIRO, Carbon Market Economics, the Treasury, the Electric Power Research Institute, several of Australia’s major electricity companies, and even ACIL Tasman (who they have cheerfully and uncritically quoted on countless occasions in the past when they have been commissioned by the Coal Association and the oil and gas industry).

If they had bothered to pick up any single one of these studies they would have found the claim of a tenfold cost difference to be profoundly exaggerated

Yet the paper decided a study analysing UK conditions and prepared for a lobby group (The Global Warming Policy Foundation) that is obviously dedicated to undermining the case for action to reduce carbon emission, was not just news, but front page news. I would have perhaps understood such a response to an international study if it had been prepared by the International Energy Agency, or the OECD, or the UK’s peak scientific body, the Royal Society. But the Global Warming Policy Foundation?

This report was supported by commentary by their environment reporter, Graham Lloyd, headed ‘An Industry Running out of Puff ’. In it he suggests that community opposition to wind farms and health fears about wind turbines are widespread, major problems afflicting the wind industry. No mention is made of the CSIRO study that found that opposition within local communities hosting wind farms in Australia is largely exaggerated. Nor does it mention that many thousands of people in Denmark have been living in close proximity to wind turbines for more than a decade without ill-effect.  …..
f this was an isolated case from The Australian then one could just pass this off as ‘slow news day desperation’. But the embarrassing errors have been systematic and long-running. Below are some stand-out examples, but there are enough to fill a book……

March 14, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, media