Australia facing $2 billion cost in early closing of carbon price scheme
Early repeal of carbon price scheme could cost government $2bn Financial Review 11 OCT 2013 GEMMA DALEY AND JAMES MASSOLA
The Coalition government could owe companies billions in refunds for freely allocated permits if it repeals the current Carbon Pricing Scheme before 2015, fresh analysis shows.
The early repeal of the scheme could lead to a cash windfall for metals, energy and power stations – the most intensive emitters – as they cash in on freely allocated permits, RepuTex analysis said.
“The earliest the carbon tax is likely to be disbanded is the start of October 2014, meaning that companies are likely to be liable for their emissions over the first quarter of the compliance year, but eligible to receive more free permits, which could be sold back to the government before the repeal takes effect,” said RepuTex head of research, Bret Harper. The government could end up with “a bill in excess of $2 billion to cash in nearly 87 million freely allocated permits”…..
Mr Harper said the earlier the scheme is disbanded, the higher the cost to government, with more excess permits being sold back by companies.
“If the repeal is held back until April 2015, the cost to government would only be around $138 million, as companies would continue to accrue carbon liabilities through the year, and would therefore have fewer permits to sell back to the government from their free allocation,” said Mr Harper……
MORE DETAIL NEEDED
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said business wanted more detail from the federal government about how the Direct Action policy would work…..http://www.afr.com/p/australia2-0/early_repeal_of_carbon_price_scheme_SUY0FQ0LUJReEPyjOkSiJN
Plutonium washes down from mountains in Fukushima
Documentary: Plutonium detected “all around” mountain in town 20 kilometers from Fukushima plant — “Everyone knows that… We use the water that comes from those mountains” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/documentary-plutonium-detected-all-around-mountain-in-town-20-kilometers-from-fukushima-plant-everyone-knows-that-we-use-the-water-that-comes-from-those-mountains-video
October 16th, 2013
Title: Welcome to Fukushima (2013)
Director: Alain de Halleux
Release Date: 11 March 2013 (Belgium)
Minamisoma resident Seiko Kowata, ~20km from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant:
Plutonium has been detected all around the mountain, everyone knows that.
But the ground absorbs the rain and we use the water that comes from those mountains.
So we must have further discussions to find out what the after effects could be.
But even the government has no idea.
17 November Australia’s National Day of Climate Action!
National Day of Climate Action! http://aycc.org.au/action
Australian Youth Climate Action Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing our generation and the Government have not shown the Australian public that they have any credible climate change policy. It’s time to show them that we demand they protect our future.
Join us on the 17th of November for a National Day of Climate Action.
Be a part of a summer of climate action – it all starts on the 17th of November.
Locations and times coming soon.
Call for submissions on Abbott’s plan to repeal carbon tax
Climate-Action Canberra
The tax is working…it has reduced emissions…..economists support it whereas almost no economists support Abbotts ideas.
Mainstream media is distorting information on climate change
Media false balance as illustrated in the IPCC reporting by outlets like the BBC, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News is largely to blame for this “consensus gap.” This practice of false balance misinforms the public and does us all a disservice.
Conservative media outlets found guilty of biased global warming coverage http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/oct/11/climate-change-political-media-ipcc-coverage by John Abraham and Dana Nuccitelli
New studies show conservative and politically neutral media outlets are creating false balance in climate change reporting There’s a 97 percent consensus on human-caused global warmingin the peer-reviewed climate science literature and among climate experts. There’s a 96 percent consensus in the climate research that humans are responsible for most of the current global warming. The 2013 IPCC report agrees with this position with 95 percent confidence, and states that humans are most likely responsible for 100 percent of the global warming since 1951.
Yet a new study conducted by Media Matters for America shows that in stories about the 2013 IPCC report, rather than accurately reflect this expert consensus, certain media outlets have created a false perception of discord amongst climate scientists.
Background of guests who accept and reject human-caused global warming in IPCC media stories, courtesy of Media Matters.
The 19 percent of guests classified as ‘climate scientists’ in the above graphic is also very generous to the conservative American media outlets. Continue reading
Seriousness of Fukushima radiation hidden in Japan’s news
Japan Journalist: Plutonium and uranium escaped Fukushima reactors as gas, it was a colossal 9,000ºF inside — Can’t be detected by a Geiger counter — Terrible things are looming for the children, they must be evacuated yet nothing’s done… This is a “criminal nation” — I am worried (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/japan-journalist-plutonium-and-uranium-escaped-from-fukushima-reactors-as-a-gas-temperature-was-9000of-cant-be-detected-by-a-geiger-counter-children-must-be-evacuated-yet-nothing-is-d
Title: Takashi HIROSE
Source: Yonaoshi 3.11
Date: Mar. 8, 2013
Transcript Excerpts
Hirose Takashi, journalist/former engineer: As we speak, radioactive material is seeping through Fukushima’s ground. It makes its way underground, reaches the ocean, to finally end up in the sky.
This kind of fact does not make the news, so everyone forgets about it. If that was talked about every day in the news, the Japanese population couldn’t ignore it. […] In my opinion mass media bear most of the responsibility for it. […] Incidents happen because mass media never take the problem seriously.
The problem with contamination is that we can only measure it within items surrounding us, in the soil, the ground. A lot of people today own a Geiger counter, but it can only report airborne particles, it only measures Gamma rays. In fact, when researching the radioactive content out from the reactors, and its dispersion, we do not find everything.
It was about 5,000ºC [~9,000ºF] inside the reactors. This was a temperature of colossal magnitude. The uranium and plutonium took on a gas form to escape. I can find all that based on my calculations, but none of this can be detected using a Geiger counter […]
No one even measures the strontium level. The strontium is the scariest of all. It penetrates and stays resident in bones, causing leukemia. This is particularly dangerous for the growth phase of children exposed today.
For children living near contaminated areas like Fukushima, we have to immediately set up a plan for their evacuation. […]
Before Japan lost the war, we organized group evacuations. We managed the escape of children from dangerous areas […]
This is something that must be done now. But the country does not do anything about it. For that I am calling this country a criminal nation. If we do not act, terrible things are looming for those children. I am worried.
Watch the clip of Hirose here
Energy storage for large scale renewable energy projects
Energy storage mandate expected to bring large-scale renewable energy projects onto the electric grid http://photos.mercurynews.com/2013/10/16/energy-storage-mandate-expected-to-bring-large-scale-renewable-energy-projects-onto-the-electric-grid/ Oct 16, 2013
The first-in-the-nation energy storage mandate is expected to help integrate large-scale renewable projects onto the electric grid, help the grid better manage unpredictable events such as storms or wildfires, push utilities to consider a wider range of emerging technologies and jump-start the storage market as a whole. PG&E’s Yerba Buena Battery Energy Storage System Pilot Project, based in East San Jose, charges batteries when demand is low and sends stored power to the grid when demand grows, allowing operators to balance supply and demand. The project, which cost $18 million, uses the sodium-sulfur batteries made by NGK in Japan that have 4 megawatts of capacity and can store electricity for roughly six hours
PG&E’s Yerba Buena battery energy storage project, seen Tuesday morning Oct. 15, 2013, is capable of storing up to four megawatts of power from its place in the hills above Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, Calif. A California law that requires utilities to get 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind is widely credited with accelerating the state’s cleantech economy. Now state regulators are poised to compel utilities to invest in “energy storage,” which could jump-start technology long considered the holy grail of the electricity industry. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
The hidden high costs of repealing Australia’s carbon tax
Repealing the carbon tax: hidden costs and unanswered questions 16 October 2013, The Conversation, Rosemary Lyster, Professor of Climate and Environmental Law at University of Sydney
There are reasons Australia has a price on carbon. Let’s recap.
The IPCC has released its Fifth Assessment Report stating that the increase in atmospheric concentrations of CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide is unprecedented in the last 800,000 years.
Data sets show a globally averaged combined land and ocean surface warming of 0.85C between 1880–2012. There’s a 95-100% probability that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951 to 2010 is human induced.
By 2081-2100, under the IPCC’s best case emissions scenario, temperatures could rise by as much as 1.7C and in the worst case scenario by 4.8C. Our last summer broke 123 extreme weather records in 90 days. Last month was Australia’s hottest ever September on record. So what are our current emissions?
Australia’s December 2012 National Greenhouse Gas Accounts show that since 1990, emissions from the electricity sector grew 47.3%, the stationary energy sector 44.5%, transport 47.5%, fugitive emissions (including from coal mining) 30.5% and industrial processes 30.8%.
These sectors are all covered by the carbon price mechanism (CPM).
Let’s recap the Abbott government’s agenda to reduce our emissions. The Climate Commission has been abolished. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation will be abolished. We no longer have a Department of Climate Change. Yesterday, thedraft legislation to repeal the carbon price mechanism, to be the first item of business for the 44th Parliament, was revealed.
This means, briefly, that if the legislation passes the following will occur.
There will be no annual cap on Australia’s escalating emissions.
Financial year 2013-14 will be the last year that the carbon price mechanism applies and all charges for non-compliance will be repealed. The government will not extend what it calls the “carbon tax” even if the Parliament does not pass the repeal bills until after 1 July 2014. If the bills are not repealed at all, the government will be in breach of the law if it refuses to apply the carbon price mechanism and other carbon price legislation. Calling a double dissolution is a possibility…….
the Abbott government conceals so much.
What will the refunds, rectifications and potential compensation payments arising out of repeal cost taxpayers?
What will it cost taxpayers to deal with extreme weather events? So far extreme weather events influenced by climate change have cost Australia billions of dollars. Insurance premiums are rising and areas becoming uninsurable. Before the 2013 floods, Munich Re reported that financial losses from extreme weather events in Australia rose four-fold over the past 30 years…….http://theconversation.com/repealing-the-carbon-tax-hidden-costs-and-unanswered-questions-19203
Uranium miner Paladin has to sell assets to stay afloat?
Hurt by Low Uranium Prices, Paladin Targets Asset Sale WSJ, By Ross Kelly 16 Oct 13 SYDNEY–Paladin Energy Ltd. (PDN.AU) was once among the boldest predators in the uranium industry, buying up deposits of the nuclear fuel in countries as diverse as Niger and Canada to feed a boom in global demand for non-fossil fuels.
Now, the Australian company has turned seller to ease investor concerns over its debt pile, as it racks up losses due largely to the sharp fall in uranium prices since an earthquake triggered an atomic crisis in Japan in early 2011……
It has already cut its exploration budget in half and slashed executive pay by 10% to ease pressure on its balance sheet, but this hasn’t arrested a fall in its share price to near-decade lows.
In August, Paladin said it needed the spot uranium price to average US$42.50 a pound over the coming year or it would run out of cash by the end of September next year without additional cost cuts. That price goal is well below current levels of US$35.25 a pound, near an eight-year low hit last month……
analysts think the sale process could stumble again, given the uncertain outlook for nuclear power.
“Barring a miraculous recovery in the uranium price, the only realistic way to generate enough cash to meet the US$300m convertible maturity in November 2015 is a sale of a stake in Langer Heinrich, which didn’t generate acceptable bids earlier this year,” said Clarke Wilkins, an analyst at Citigroup, who rates Paladin’s stock a sell…..http://online.wsj.com/article/DN-CO-20131016-001298.html
Removal of carbon tax will not necessarily save household expenses
Experts reject Coalition claims of carbon tax savings The Age October 16, 2013 Peter Hannam Carbon economy editor Experts have rejected claims by the Abbott government that household expenses would be significantly smaller after a repeal of the carbon tax…….Hugh Saddler, a principal consultant for energy analysts, Pitt & Sherry, said it had been “almost impossible” to see the carbon price footprint when it was introduced, and it will be no easier to tell the response if it is removed……
Gas price surge
While consumers will see a benefit from lower electricity prices if the carbon price is eliminated, the benefit is likely to be dwarfed by other changes in energy prices, said Tony Wood, director of Grattan Institute’s energy program.
Wholesale gas prices will double in coming years, adding about $170 a year to average Victorian household bills, and up to about $100 for other states less dependent on gas for heating, said Mr Wood…….
A much bigger impact, though, is likely if the Australian Energy Regulator adjusts the investment returns it permits for network spending on new poles and wires. The so-called “gold plating” contributed about half the increase of electricity prices over the past five years.
“Network prices should actually be coming down,” dragging power prices with them, Mr Wood said.
Opponents wrongly attributed all the increase in energy prices to the introduction of the carbon price, Mr Wood said. “You can hardly claim all the credit if [energy prices] go down.” http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/experts-reject-coalition-claims-of-carbon-tax-savings-20131016-2vmts.html#ixzz2i0BxzeCi
Morale sinks as Fukushima workers plagued by health problems
Plummeting morale at Fukushima Daiichi as nuclear cleanup takes its toll Staff on the frontline of operation plagued by health problems and fearful about the future, insiders say Justin McCurry in Fukushima The Guardian, Tuesday 15 October 2013 Dressed in a hazardous materials suit, full-face mask and hard hat,Japan‘s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, left his audience in no doubt: “The future of Japan,” he said, “rests on your shoulders. I am counting on you.”
Abe’s exhortation, delivered during a recent visit to the FukushimaDaiichi nuclear power plant, was only heard by a small group of men inside the plant’s emergency control room. But it was directed at almost 6,000 more: the technicians and engineers, truck drivers and builders who, almost three years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown, remain on the frontline of the world’s most dangerous industrial cleanup.
Yet as the scale of the challenge has become clearer with every new accident and radiation leak, the men working inside the plant are suffering from plummeting morale, health problems and anxiety about the future, according to insiders interviewed by the Guardian……..
Some workers have left because of exhaustion and stress, while others have decided to find work closer to their displaced wives and children.
“They are less motivated and are worried about continuing to work for a firm that might not exist in a decade from now,” Shigemura said………
Workers who have stayed on do so in the knowledge that they risk damaging their health through prolonged exposure to radiation and in accidents of the kind that occurred this week.
Earlier this year, Tepco said that 1,973 workers, including those employed by contractors and subcontractors, had estimated thyroid radiation doses in excess of 100 mSv, the level at which many physicians agree the risk of developing cancer begins to rise…….
While Thomas and other experts have cautioned against reaching hasty conclusions about a possible rise in thyroid cancer among Fukushima Daiichi workers, there is little doubt that their punishing work schedule, performed under the international spotlight, is taking a toll on their health.
“I’m particularly worried about depression and alcoholism,” said Takeshi Tanigawa, a professor in the department of public health at Ehime University in western Japan. “I’ve seen high levels of physical distress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.”……
For the thousands of non-Tepco employees hired across Japan to perform backbreaking, dangerous work for contractors and subcontractors, the lure of earning decent money in return for working close to lethal levels of radiation has proved an illusion.
Once money for accommodation has been subtracted from their wages, labourers are typically left with a few thousand yen at the end of each day. In some cases, smaller companies withhold danger money, which can amount to more than half of a worker’s daily wage because, they say, they need the extra cash to keep their business afloat.
The poor pay has forced growing numbers of men to quit and take up jobs decontaminating the area around the plant, for which they can earn similar money but with much less exposure to radiation…….
“Tepco workers worry about their health, but also about whether Tepco will take care of them if they fall ill in the future. They put their lives and their health on the line, but in the years to come, they wonder if they will just be discarded.”http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/15/fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-cleanup
Radiation illness cover-up in Fukushima
“It’s Madness”: Doctors in Japan helping perpetuate Fukushima cover-up — Patients not being told their illnesses are from exposure to radioactive contamination — Scientific reports showing radiation health damage to humans are forbidden to be published (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/madness-doctors-japan-helping-perpetuate-fukushima-cover-patients-being-told-illnesses-exposure-radioactive-contamination-scientific-reports-show-radiation-health-damage-humans-forbidden-be-publ
Title: Arnie Gundersen Interview
Source: WBKM
Date: Oct. 2013
Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Chief Engineer: : We’re seeing scientist after scientist here at Fairewinds writing to us saying that they’ve got good science and they’re being ostracized in Japan and being forbidden for publishing scientific reports that show radiation health damage to Japanese people. So basically the government is sitting on the scientific community and preventing goods science from being done. Same as the doctors, the doctors have contacted us as well. They say they’ve been told not to tell their patients that their illness is radiation induced. So these guys have an oath as a doctor to be honest with their patients, and yet they’re basically ignoring their own oath and helping perpetuate a cover-up in the Japanese government. […]
Host: From where I sit, what you just described is madness essentially.
Gundersen: From where I sit it’s madness too. That’s the problem in Japan right now, is that nobody is willing to admit that the path they have chosen to take for the last two and a half years is crazy.
Full broadcast here
Australians’ special cancer danger from UV radiation
Sun sense in the summer months Australian Pacific College, 14 Oct 13 http://blog.apc.edu.au/2013/10/sun-sense-in-summer-months.htmlAlthough it’s not quite summer yet, the sun is starting to get hotter as we approach the hottest part of the year here in Australia. Some of you may be used to hotter weather than this but the sun in Australia is stronger than a lot of other countries around the world as evidenced by the fact that we have one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world (Cancer Council Australia)……
- The majority of skin cancers in Australia are caused by exposure to UV radiation in sunlight.
- Sunburn causes 95% of melanomas – the deadliest form of skin cancer.
- In Australia, almost 14% of adults, 24% of teenagers and 8% of children are sunburnt on an average summer weekend. Many people get sunburnt when they are taking part in water sports and activities at the beach or a pool, as well as gardening or having a barbecue.
- Sunburn is also common on cooler or overcast days as many people mistakenly believe UV radiation is not as strong. This is untrue – you can still be sunburnt when the temperature is cool.
- Sun exposure that doesn’t result in burning can still cause damage to skin cells and increase your risk of developing skin cancer. Evidence suggests that regular exposure to UV radiation year after year can also lead to skin cancer.
- A tan is not a sign of good health or wellbeing, despite many Australians referring to a ‘healthy tan.’ Almost half of Australian adults still hold the misguided belief that a tan looks healthy……http://blog.apc.edu.au/2013/10/sun-sense-in-summer-months.html
No treaty with Australian aborigines – no legal ownership by British invaders?
Land ownership impacts on its inhabitants By Clive Dawson, The Courier, 17 Oct 13, “…….The doctrine of Terra Nullius literally land belonging to no-one meant Britain didn’t have to pay compensation or apologise to anyone for settling in Australia because there was nobody there to pay compensation or apologise to.
I wonder then who those Aboriginal people were who told Governor Phillips and his fleet which arrived at Botany Bay on January 18, 1871 to go home, and how can New Holland be part of the British Crown when Governor Phillips never signed any treaty with the Aboriginal elders on the 26 January 1788?
New Zealand had a treaty saying it belonged to the British Crown, so can the British government show the Australian people any treaty showing that Australia is part of the British empire?http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1846991/land-ownership-impacts-on-its-inhabitants/?cs=64
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 