A searchlight in the Senate, into the Government’s Muckaty nuclear waste dump mess
The vast majority of people on the Muckaty Land Trust who are signatories, and their families, remain not only unpersuaded but implacably opposed. Does the government really think that the same factors will not come into play if another site is chosen in the same earthquake zone that has been the site of so much contest and division between family members since this nomination first came to light-a place where several of the same groups of traditional owners have the same interlocking ownership and the same say over country due to overlapping songlines and stories? All of the same problems will follow the dump if the government tries to simply move it 10 or 20 kilometres in one direction or another. It 
must know that.
Unanswered questions on notice regarding Muckaty nuclear waste dump, http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/speeches-parliament/unanswered-questions-notice-regarding-muckaty-nuclear-waste-dump
Senate transcript, 19 Nov 2012 “…..Senator LUDLAM: I will put some brief remarks on the record as to why I am bringing this forward now… I have sought explanation for these unanswered questions on notice because several of them pertain to time-sensitive matters.
Question No. 2389 included questions about the status of the tender process for the concept design of a national radioactive waste facility. The question also put to the minister whether the department had any dialogue or provided briefings to the new Northern Territory government or its agencies regarding the location of a national radioactive waste facility at Muckaty. Particularly importantly, the question asked: has the department had any dialogue with any stakeholders over the potential for a further site nomination, either within the Muckaty Land Trust area or in any other region of the Northern Territory or elsewhere?
At successive budget estimates hearings I have put precisely that question to officers from DRET: are you looking at an alternative site? We know that the government is in serious trouble with the existing Muckaty nomination that is now five or six years old. We have been warning the government, from the time that it was proposed in the late years of the Howard government to the time that it was taken up by Minister Martin Ferguson of the Rudd and then Gillard governments, that the government has gone the wrong way and that this proposal would fail. I believe what we are seeing now are some signs that the government realises its proposals for the Muckaty radioactive waste dump is going nowhere. Continue reading
Minister Martin Ferguson delaying answers to questions about Muckaty nuclear waste dump plan
http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/speeches-parliament/unanswered-questions-notice-regarding-muckaty-nuclear-waste-dump Unanswered questions on notice regarding Muckaty nuclear waste dump 19 Nov 2012 Today Senator Ludlam Scott took the opportunity 
immediately after Question Time to ask why Minister Martin Ferguson
had exceeded the 30 day limit for answering Questions on Notice. 2389 Senator Ludlam: To ask the Minister representing the Minister for Resources and Energy—
(1) With reference to the tender process for the concept design of a national radioactive waste facility:So far, Australian government catering to big utilities, to damage rooftop solar industry
Rooftop solar PV poses a greater threat to the business models of the utilities because it gets behind the meter. This means that, unlike the boom in air conditioners in recent years, rooftop solar PV reduces demand on the network rather than adds to it. The business models of all generators, distributors and retailers have long been based around the unwavering assumption of growing demand. They are simply not able to deal with with the absence of growth – and for this reason, rooftop solar PV is likely to have an even greater impact on their business models than more wind farms
Is Australia’s solar industry being blindsided by utilities?, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 19 November 2012 Beware of people bearing gifts, the old saying goes. And beware of politicians bearing promises of a reduction in electricity bills.
The Federal Government last Friday announced the early closure of its Solar Credits scheme which offered a multiplier in the number of renewable energy certificate issued for the output of a rooftop solar PV systems.
It justified this on the basis that it would save Australian electricity consumers between $80 and $100 million in 2013. But this amounts to be just $10 a year, or 20c per household a week, in an average bill of more than $2,000. If the government were really serious about reducing the impact on electricity bills from the scheme, there were numerous other options.
It could, for instance, be pushing for a change in the rules that allow utilities to pass on a fixed $40 price for each certificate, rather than the much lower market price. (Only the ACT pricing regulator has reduced the pass-through cost, although NSW’s IPART is considering it). Such a move would save perhaps one quarter of the estimated $1.2 billion cost of the scheme this year. Even that amounts to less than 2 per cent of electricity bills – and is forecast to decline to around 0.8 per cent in coming years.
So what is the government up to? The decision announced by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet on Friday took the solar industry by surprise. It’s not so much the financial impact of the decision that worries the industry – it will reduce the savings of a 1.5kW system by around $700, but this was going to happen in July anyway. As Nigel Morris pointed out in his blog, the biggest impact is to effectively cancel Christmas for solar installers, because they will be too busy trying to cope with the last minute rush.
What really worries the solar industry is the form guide of the decision, its timing– coming in the middle of a review of the Renewable Energy Target by the Climate Change Authority – and its arbitrary nature. Continue reading
Victoria needs renewable energy planning (let’s kick Baillieu out)
Hot planning issue as solar left in shade, The Age November 18, 2012 Jason Dowling HOME owners are calling for solar panels to be protected with new planning rules and compensation should a neighbour build up and block sunlight to rooftops.
Victorian residents spending thousands of dollars installing solar power systems to offset escalating electricity prices now have no protection for their investment. There have been more than 142,000 roof-top solar systems installed in Victoria since 2000 – one in 15 Victorian homes now has solar panels.
The shading of solar panels as Melbourne’s housing density increases is becoming a hot planning issue.
Planning and building regulations protect north-facing windows and shading of back yards but do not specifically address the shading of solar panels…..
Stephen Ingrouille, owner of solar company Going Solar, said shading was occurring more frequently and could have a big impact on solar panels.
”The one thing they [solar panels] do need is direct sunlight and so they just have to be in full sun. And any shading, even shading over a portion of one corner of one cell can actually knock out a whole bank of cells – that’s the issue,” he said.
He said protection for solar panels through building and planning rules was needed.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/hot-planning-issue-as-solar-left-in-shade-20121117-29j1g.html#ixzz2ChetfaFZ
Extensive study shows health hazard of low level radiation
Even low-level radioactivity is damaging http://www.sc.edu/news/newsarticle.php?nid=5214#.UKp7zOR9JLv Broad analysis of many radiation studies finds no exposure threshold that precludes harm to life By Steven Powell, spowell2@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-1923
Even the very lowest levels of radiation are harmful to life, scientists have concluded in the Cambridge Philosophical Society’s journal Biological Reviews. Reporting the results of a wide-ranging analysis of 46 peer-reviewed studies published over the past 40 years, researchers from the University of South Carolina and the University of Paris-Sud found that variation in low-level, natural background radiation had small, but highly statistically significant, negative effects on DNA as well as several measures of health. Continue reading
The reality behind the Palestine-Israel conflict
When Israelis in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend themselves, they are defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to defend itself against the population they are crushing… You can’t defend yourself when you’re militarily occupying someone else’s land. That’s not defense. Call it what you like, it’s not defense.” ~ Noam Chomsky — with Paula Johnson Francesshelli.
Aboriginal traditional wisdom shared in Canadian land management programme
It’s a vastly different way of looking at environmental stewardship
It means from an indigenous perspective that we are not separate from nature. We belong to nature and there is no disconnect between humans and nature. That’s something we find in most indigenous cosmologies, that we are not here to dominant or exploit nature. We’re here to protect it and take care of it,”
Today’s aboriginal elders — with their links to the past — are forging an environmental future, Winnipeg Free Press By: Alexandra Paul 11/17/2012 “…..It used to be that you’d ask an elder if you had a question about anything aboriginal or wanted to understand traditions such as Ohcinewin.
But now, those in younger generations, such as Cook, 33, bring that ancient wisdom to bear on new applications, such as university programs in Western Canada that focus on aboriginal governance, environmental practices and literature. With the environment, the most practical application of traditional knowledge is tied to land management. Continue reading
Australia’s public liars being exposed
IPA falsifiers fear fact checking fad Independent Australia 19 November, 2012 Serial deceivers, the Institute of Public Affairs, appear decidedly nervous about the prospect of fact checking coming to Australia, reports Alan Austin.
WATCHING the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) become appalled at the threat of fact checking coming to Australia has been one of this year’s more entertaining media experiences. Writing on The Drum online last week, IPA research fellow and (according to his bio on The Drum*) editor of the IPA Review, Chris Berg claimed fact checking – that is, ensuring what is written is actually true – is
‘…appealing in principle. It is disappointing – even futile – in practice.’
Well, of course it is ― to the IPA. Its Review almost rivals The Australian for distortions and falsehoods. Almost. Its writers almost match Andrew Bolt for fabrications. Well, no, not really………
Even pro-Republican Fox News called Romney and Ryan out on their multiple fabrications.
Steve Benen’s influential website meticulously documented Romney’s porkies throughout the 2012 presidential campaign. He ended up with a total of 917 by election day ― a tally that would make even Australia’s “Lying Rodent” blush.
Most commentators assess this to have been a factor in the huge win for President Obama. How significant it was, of course, impossible to measure.
More urgently for Australia’s IPA, recent focus on the lies of their pal, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, has coincided with a dramatic fall in his approval rate to new record lows. Just coincidence? Again, hard to be certain. But the IPA is nervous……
Fact checkers are required primarily for calling out lies — deliberate statements of falsehood, made knowingly by politicians, the media and public commentators.
Australia, the USA and Britain today are rife with fabricators.
Journalists lie about public figures, about climate change and about Aboriginal people.
The IPA routinely fabricates and distorts in its advocacy on behalf of its undisclosed clients on tobacco marketing, internet privacy, climate change, controls over shonky charities and many other matters.
These are profound challenges facing Australia, the USA and Britain. Fact checkers can help us deal with them. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/business/media-2/ipa-falsifiers-fear-fact-checking-fad/
Australia’s industrial cane toad pushes on, despite water scarcity and uranium market collapse
Company steps up search for uranium in Red Centre, ABC Rural News, By Caddie Brain, 19/11/2012 The uranium explorer set to start Western Australia’s first uranium mine at Wiluna, is expanding its exploration into the Tanami Desert of Central Australia.
Toro Energy will conduct three aerial surveys over the next fortnight about 350 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.
The surveys follow an agreement with Traditional Owners to explore for uranium at its Wiso, Mount Denison and Reynolds Range tenements…. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201211/s3635569.htm
1 This month
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