Germany leads the way in nuclear phaseout and renewable energy growth
‘Green superpower’ Germany plots the way to a low-carbon world by closing Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant, SMH, June 20, 2015 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald
Many countries face challenges in cutting greenhouse emissions but few set their bar as high as Germany. Germany will permanently close the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant in the country’s south on Saturday, the latest in a phase-out that is scheduled to see the European powerhouse’s last nine fissile fuel plants closed by about 2022.
Leaving nuclear is not without its critics, especially among big utilities: Sweden’s Vattenfall is reportedly suing the German government for €4.7 billion ($6.9 billion) to compensate for its losses.
And yet, German policymakers seem determined to stick to an ambitious – and unilateral – goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent on 1990 levels, even if that means shutting near zero-carbon nuclear plants along the way. The cuts deepen to 55 per cent by 2030 and 80-95 per cent by 2050.
The country is also betting big that renewable energy mainly from wind, solar and hydro power will continue to surge beyond its current share of about 28 per cent of total supply…….
The dramatic plunge in renewable energy prices – with solar panels becoming about 20 per cent cheaper for every doubling of output – has undermined whatever business case existed for nuclear energy, Kraemer says. Continue reading
The dangerous flaw in the Trans Pacific Partnership
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (I.S.D.S.)-style provisions may once have made sense. But they’re now outdated and unnecessary. And including them in trade agreements undermines the broader case for free trade, by making it look like exactly what people fear—a system designed to put corporate interests above public ones.
Trade-Agreement Troubles, MULTUM NON MULTA BY JAMES SUROWIECKI, 19 June 15, In 2012, Australia implemented tough anti-tobacco regulations, requiring that all cigarettes be sold in plain, logo-free brown packages dominated by health warnings. Philip Morris Asia filed suit, claiming that this violated its intellectual-property rights and would damage its investments. The company sued Australia in domestic court and lost. But it had another card to play. In 1993, Australia had signed a free-trade agreement with Hong Kong, where Philip Morris Asia is based. That agreement included provisions protecting foreign investors from unfair treatment. So the company sued under that deal, claiming that the new law violated the investor-protection provisions. It asked for the regulations to be discontinued, and for billions in compensation.
The case has yet to be decided, but the concerns it raises help explain President Obama’s embarrassing setback last week, when the House failed to give him fast-track authority over one of two big trade agreements that had been envisaged as a key part of his legacy. Both agreements—the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with eleven Asian and Pacific countries, and an agreement with Europe called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership—include provisions very like the ones at the heart of Australia’s fight with Big Tobacco. Known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (or I.S.D.S.) provisions, they typically allow foreign investors to sue governments when they feel they have not received “fair or equitable treatment,” and to have their cases heard not by a domestic court but by an international arbitration tribunal made up of three lawyers.
These provisions have been opposed by an unusual coalition of progressives and conservatives, who contend that they will let multinationals override government policy, and, as Senator Elizabeth Warren put it, “undermine U.S. sovereignty.”………. Continue reading
Ranger 3 Deeps uranium project now dead in the water
100% renewable energy will power Canberra’s light rail
Canberra light rail to run on 100pc renewable energy, Capital Metro Minister says, ABC News 20 June 15 Stage one of Canberra’s light rail network will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy, according to Capital Metro Minister Simon Corbell.
Mr Corbell said the multi-million-dollar transport project, linking Civic to Gungahlin in Canberra’s north, provided a significant opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the territory…….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-20/light-rail-network-to-run-on-100-per-cent-renewable-energy/6560498
Australia’s Wind Farm Commissioner to investigate a Non Disease!
This Public Health Expert Has A Hilarious Response To Our New National Windfarm Commissioner He’s not a fan. Jun. 18, 2015, Mark Di Stefano BuzzFeed News Report, Australia
Australia’s national fear of windfarms is being taken up a notch, with reports the government will appoint a “national windfarm commissioner” to deal with health complaints caused by wind turbines.
“This will be a world first commissioner for a non-disease. It’s like having a commissioner into reports of leprechauns,” said Sydney University’s Professor Simon Chapman.
“Is it going to be somebody who is qualified to diagnose medical issues? If so, they’re going to have a hard time doing their job.”Guardian Australia revealed the government will appoint the commissioner as part of a deal with cross-bench MPs on renewable energy.
It comes just a week after prime minister Tony Abbott said he acknowledged the health effects of wind turbines and described wind farms as “visually awful”.
Professor Chapman is from the school of public health at the University of Sydney and has published nearly 500 articles in peer reviewed journals. He echoed the thoughts of scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki who called the comments embarrassing.
“Wind turbine syndrome has never been diagnosed anywhere in the world. There is no medical case report of it anywhere in the world,” said Professor Chapman. “If you trace it back it goes back to not liking wind turbines, or people who have classic problems like sleep problems and they are trying to attribute their condition to something.”……http://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/commissioner-for-wind#.wjVll9e1o
Abbott deliberately slowing debate, to undermine wind energy – Senator Milne
Glenn Lazarus accuses Government, Labor of ‘dirty deal’ over renewable energy target, ABC News By political correspondent Louise Yaxley ,19 June 15
“……Greens senator Christine Milne said it would not mean certainty. “You just have to look at the Prime Minister’s words,” she said. “He said that the reason the RET is 33,000 gigawatt hours is not that he wants to give certainty to the renewable energy industry.
“No. It is 33,000 gigawatt hours because he could not get it any lower. “That is as low as he could go in this Senate, but he will go lower if he can.
“In terms of whether it means more wind turbines, what did the Prime Minister say? He can’t stand them. There are too many of them. He does not want to see any more of them. But he spoke to the loggers at their dinner and said he thinks they are marvellous; they do a great job.
Slow debate attempting to undermine wind: Milne Senator Milne also accused the Government of slowing down debate on the bill to implement the new target.
“I’ll tell you why — it’s because out in the back rooms the crossbenchers are out there trying to stitch up an even worse deal with the Government,” she told the Upper House. “No doubt it’s an attempt to undermine wind.” Continue reading
Aboriginal people distrust new Northern Australia white paper – with good reason
“the conversation should be driven by Aboriginal people, not by the government, and the “devil was in the detail”. “We’ve got to be careful when we look at these words in the white paper that they’re not code for winding back Aboriginal informed consent in those property rights,”
Northern Australia white paper: native title proposals met with distrust, Guardian, Helen Davidson 20 June 15 ‘It’s disturbing to suggest that Aboriginal people have either got to surrender their native title or extinguish it to be able to have … a typical western form of title,’ Indigenous leader Joe Morrison says. Changes to native title flagged in the federal government’s white paper on northern Australia are being met with reserved distrust by Indigenous council leaders.
The $1.2bn plan to tap the potential of the north was released on Thursday and included proposals to “simplify” land arrangements in the region, where large sections of land are held under native title or by Indigenous groups. Continue reading
BBC’s whitewash banishes those here way before Phillip
Developing North Australia – at the expense of Aboriginal land rights?
If governments want to work in a “full partnership” with Aboriginal people in The North then they must stop treating their interests in land as something to be dealt with for the convenience of those governments and the powerful interests behind them.Abbott’s white paper for the black tropics: Boon or boondoggle? Crikey,
BOB GOSFORD | JUN 19, 2015 “………Aboriginal people are the fastest-growing demographic, at current rates of population growth, half of the North’s population will be blackfellows by 2050.
So how are Aboriginal interests treated in Developing North Australia? This is the ‘horrid’ part. At page 4 of Developing North Australia we are told that:
Developing the north will need to be done in full partnership with Indigenous Australians, with a focus on creating opportunities through education, job creation and economic development. These opportunities for Indigenous Australians will contribute to achieving the objectives of the Government’s Indigenous Advancement Strategy.
Noble sentiments but a reliance on the vexed Indigenous Advancement Strategy rings out some very loud warning bells. The first chapter is entitled “Simpler Land Arrangements to Support Investment” and some elements of the plan are welcome–particularly the fast-tracking of outstanding native title claims for resolution within the next ten years, increased funding for native title representative bodies and modest increased support for indigenous ranger groups and pastoral land use pilot projects. A streamlining of the needlessly complex native title Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUA) processes, which should be simplified to resemble the standard lease arrangements used widely by the NT land councils, is also welcome.
Overall though, the approach to Aboriginal land interests in Developing North Australia appears very much to be one of “you’ve got something and we want it back.”
This is particularly apparent in the emphasis on “township leasing” that will see control of Aboriginal land in townships–by far the most commercially valuable land in the Aboriginal estate–controlled of a Commonwealth bureaucracy and measures to “cut red tape” around hard-won cultural heritage protections. The old saw of “Aboriginal home ownership”–creating housing markets in communities largely reliant on welfare income and where no market exists–also gets a run. Continue reading
Why Australians should take Senator Jacqui Lambie seriously
It is tempting to laugh at Senator Jacqui Lambie’s way out outburst on climate change, wind energy, and nuclear power.
BUT – Australia’s outrageously ignorant and idealogical government loves her for this.
This brings about what I think of as the “Pauline Hanson effect”. By this, I mean that the Howard government was pretty far to the Right anyway, but the extreme right wing campaign run with some success by Pauline Hanson made it easier for Howard to move even further that way.
And not just the Liberal Party. As the whole political discourse in Australia shifted further away from the interest of the public good, and towards corporate interest, and towards xenophobia, – the Labor 
Party moved with it.
Now with the already absurdly right-wing Abbott government, we have Jacqui Lambie’s extremism. There is a real danger that she can help to make Liberal and Labor policies – on energy, on climate, on nuclear issues, on asylum seekers – look reasonable and mainstream .
Is Australia’s federal government now learning from its nuclear waste mistakes at Muckaty?
One key concern is that the Minister’s self-imposed truncated timeline will not allow for meaningful community consultation and might again lead to Canberra’s political imperatives being prioritised above good public policy and the national interest
Beyond Muckaty: The Path Towards Responsible Radioactive Waste Management, New Matilda, By Dave Sweeney, 18 June 15 The federal government has clearly taken on some of the lessons from previous mistakes. Can Macfarlane finally get it right, asks Dave Sweeney.
A year ago this week a small group of Traditional Owners of country in the Northern Territory won a big victory for Australians everywhere when the Federal Government announced an end to plans for a national radioactive waste dump at Muckaty, north of Tennant Creek.
The decision, an important win for the community, the environment and responsible radioactive waste management in Australia, is a tribute to the tenacity and courage of the many Traditional Owners who were tireless in their defense of country and culture.
After seven years of sustained campaigning the Muckaty community provides a clear example of the power of people to successfully resist the flawed actions of the people in power. It is also an important landmark on the continuing road to advancing responsible radioactive waste management in Australia.
The campaign against the dump included national speaking tours, regional rallies, community delegations, political advocacy and extensive media and public profile work. This combined effort saw a profound environmental and human rights abuse in a remote region make it on the national radar and won strong civil society and wider community support, including important assistance from legal firm Maurice Blackburn.
Muckaty was always a bad deal based on a broken promise and as senior Traditional Owner and campaign spearhead Dianne Stokes conveyed, it is a great relief that it will never be a done deal: Continue reading
No wonder this scurvy newspaper does not make a profit.
Only THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper could do this – they go on to twist this event into a plug for the uranium industry
Rio uranium bombshell kills Ranger
Ranger uranium producer Energy Resources of Australia suffered a nasty shock this week. (subscribers only) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/rios-uranium-bombshell-kills-off-ranger-plans/story-e6frg9df-1227404735935
Senator Jacqui Lambie delights the Abbott govt, with her pro nuclear and anti-climate action call
Coalition applauds Lambie’s climate denying, pro-nuclear rant http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/coalition-applauds-lambies-climate-denying-pro-nuclear-rant-71184 By Giles Parkinson on 17 June 2015
The speech from Lambie was made in debate over the proposal to cut the renewable energy target to 33,000GWh from 41,000GWh. Lambie said it was excellent to cut the target, because renewable energy (other than hydro) could not support an industrialised economy.
Instead, she said, the only way for “cheap, decarbonised” power, was to push for nuclear energy. ”We have got to become world leaders in nuclear,” Lambie said.“You are worse than deluded. You are dangerously deluded … and you should be locked up, for helping enemies destroy our nation – if you think that wind energy will solve problems,” Lambie said. Continue reading
The 21ST CENTURY ELECTRICITY SECTOR AND THE NUCLEAR WAR TO STOP IT
POWER SHIFT: THE DEPLOYMENT OF A 21ST CENTURY ELECTRICITY SECTOR AND THE NUCLEAR WAR TO STOP IT, MARK COOPER SENIOR FELLOW FOR ECONOMIC ANALYSIS INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT VERMONT LAW SCHOOL JUNE 2015Minerals Council of Australia seem to be ignorant of basic economics
Dennis Matthews, 19 June 15 Support by the Minerals Council of Australia for fossil fuels comes as no surprise, nor does their apparent ignorance of the difference between the Conservation Council of SA (CCSA) and the (Australian) Conservation Foundation (ACF) but it is of concern that they seem to be ignorant of basic economics (The Advertiser, 18/6/15).
Rooftop solar electricity has gone from strength to strength in a classic case of increased demand leading to decreased price. All solar electricity needed was the ability to compete with entrenched fossil fuels. This was done through the Renewable Energy Target , which was an acknowledgement that fossil fuels had pollution derived hidden costs.
The worldwide acknowledgement of these hidden costs is now putting fossil fueled power stations on the endangered list, especially in countries that have “developed” by ignoring the cost of pollution.
Similar advances can be made by addressing other aspects of electricity demand, such as solar hot water or more energy efficient buildings.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
