Antinuclear

It’s a great time to really revel in the endless possibilities of continuing to mine and burn fossil fuels – at least, that’s according to our Industry, Science and Innovation Minister Christopher Pyne and his sidekick Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, who announced the creation of the Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Growth Centre on Wednesday: a centre to “drive innovation and productivity in the Australian resource sector.”

And what better time could there be to launch such a boondoggl… sorry, completely legitimate and necessary centre of excellence than in 2016? After all, it’s a fossil fuel industry boom time!

Heck, only yesterday the headlines were celebrating the ‘Worst day for BHP since 2008 as market plummets’, thanks to the tumbling price of oil. And then there’s the recent report from Oxford University, which found that Australian coal mines are among the riskiest investments in the world.

In fact, the Senate is currently investigating BP’s plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, since their last application was knocked back on the grounds that it somehow failed to meet the government’s already-largely-voluntary environmental impact requirements.

So with that sort of universal global enthusiasm for the always-trustworthy fossil fuel biz, you can understand why Pyne’n’Frydy feel that Australia needs to invest $15.4 million taxpayer dollars into it. After all, the industry is clearly on the rise – heck, only yesterday it made a whopping $15.4 million!

And sure, we supposedly made a non-binding deal in Paris to pretend to cut emissions last year – but then again, last month we confirmed that climate change monitoring at the CSIRO is a big ol’ waste of dollars on dumb science stuff.

Unlike, say, centres to drive innovation and productivity in the Australian resource sector, overseen by former energy company executives, which are obviously wise and necessary public investments. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-government-believes-that-fossil-fuels-are-the-future-20160225-gn3ojs.html