A Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility funded Adani rail link could create a $billion ghost train
Government loan to Adani will create ‘billion-dollar ghost train’, Senate told https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/11/government-loan-to-adani-will-create-billion-dollar-ghost-train-senate-told
Public governance specialist raises concerns over the way the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is conducting itself, Guardian, Michael Slezak, 11 Aug 17, If the federal government funds a rail link to Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine, it will become known as the “government-funded billion-dollar ghost train”, an expert in public governance has told the Senate.
Thomas Clark, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney, who has decades of experience in public and corporate governance, appeared before a Senate inquiry into the operation and governance of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif), which is considering a $900m loan to Adani’s rail link.
He said the way Naif was conducting itself neglected years of reforms in public finance, and risked returning Australia to an era “when the public sector was discredited”.
Clark criticised Naif’s lack of transparency, pointing to its lack of disclosure of conflicts of interests and refusal to disclose whether or not Adani had applied for funding.
The former minister for resources Matthew Canavan has acknowledged that Naif is considering a loan application by Adani for the railway, and an Adani spokesman confirmed that the company had sought a loan.
“The worry is that the Naif’s structure and processes, and the way the board has been selected and so on has neglected all of that reform and thrown us back to an era of long ago when the public sector was quite discredited.”
He said the corporate history of Adani – which has been implicated in several environmental disasters and governance questions – would make the company ineligible for government funding.
“The serious concern is that if this rail project goes ahead and is funded, it will not only prove a financial and energy disaster, it will also announce to the world the poor standards and poor public governance that allowed this disaster to occur and utilised tax payer money to fund it,” Clark said.
“This will not enhance the reputation of Australia internationally for sound governance and probity in public finance.
“Undoubtedly if Naif funds this Carmichael project, it will become renowned as the government-funded billion-dollar ghost train – a useless waste of taxpayer money to enrich a company based in the Cayman Islands, which the Australian public will not forget or forgive.”
The Senate hearing continues on Friday, and will include an appearance by Naif officials.
Commonwealth Bank will not lend to Adani Carmichael coalmine project
Carmichael coalmine: Commonwealth Bank indicates it will not lend to Adani
Controversial Queensland coalmine project is now without financing from any of Australia’s big four banks, Guardian, Michael Slezak, 11 Aug 17, The Commonwealth Bank has indicated it will not lend money to Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine, leaving the project without financing from any of Australia’s big four banks.
A spokesman from Commonwealth Bank said the bank is “not among the banks who have been, or will be, asked to consider this financing”……
The statement follows a significant public campaign pressuring the bank to rule-out funding the project.
Until today, it was the last of Australia’s big-four banks to not rule out lending to the project. Commonwealth Bank remains a lender to Adani’s Abbot Point coal export terminal, through which coal from the proposed Carmichael mine will be shipped through the Great Barrier Reef to India……
Blair Palese, chief executive of 350.org Australia said the announcement was a win for the public campaign.
“It’s a huge win for the two and a half years of campaigning from the public across Australia to put pressure on the bank,” Pelase said.“Literally there were thousands of protests at Commbank branches around the country,” she said. It would be really great if they would come out openly and clearly (to rule out the project) but we’ll take it,” she said. “It’s a clear statement that it’s a toxic project.”
Julien Vincent, chief executive of Market Forces, a financial campaign group, said not having any of Australia’s big-four banks on board would be a problem for Adani.
“They provide not just debt but credibility,” he said. “Losing Commonwealth Bank from the pool of prospective lenders is a huge blow, given that CBA is already a lender to Adani’s Abbot Point coal export terminal.”
Jonathan Moylan, a campaigner at Greenpeace said the announcement from CBA is a win for the public, but that pressure on the bank to release a stronger climate policy would continue…….https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/11/carmichael-coalmine-commonwealth-bank-indicates-it-will-not-lend-to-adani
How a journalist was used to make the bombing of Hiroshima look OK
In 2004, the progressive journalists Amy and David Goodman called for the prize to be revoked, charging that Laurence had knowingly covered up the effects of radiation sickness on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors by “parroting the government line” that such reports were Japanese propaganda.
Laurence’s role within the Manhattan Project was a clear conflict of interest
We will probably never know the true extent to which William Laurence was co-opted, compromised, or corrupted by his military and governmental connections and involvements.
‘Atomic Bill’ and the Birth of the Bomb A star New York Times reporter was hired by the Manhattan Project to be its chronicler and cheerleader. The ethical debate continues to this day. Undark, 08.09.2017 / BY
T 5:51 A.M. on Monday, May 21, 1956, the famed New York Times science correspondent William Leonard “Atomic Bill” Laurence watched a new universe burst into existence……Called Cherokee, it was a hydrogen bomb that moments before had been dropped about four miles off target from a B-52 bomber flying 10 miles over the northern Pacific, near the island of Namu in the Bikini Atoll
“….Laurence was also, at least in his own era, one of the most important science writers in America, one whose influence, if not his lyrical and vivid prose style, persists to this day. The Princeton historian Michael D. Gordin, author of “Five Days in August” and “Red Cloud at Dawn,” notes Laurence’s seminal impact on popular perceptions of the Bomb: “[His] science-driven utopianism, stressing some of the potential positive outcomes of nuclear power and minimizing the threat to Americans … [was] strongly influential in those early years, and shaped some of the discourse even of those opposed to the positions he articulated.” Much of Laurence’s writing, Gordin goes on, “became just part of the way people talked about nuclear weapons for decades.” Continue reading
Adani fined $12,000 for Abbot Point coal terminal stormwater breach
The Age, Jorge Branco , 11 Aug 17, Indian mining giant Adani has been fined $12,000 for a stormwater breach at its Abbot Point coal terminal during Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
The Adani-owned Abbot Point Bulk Coal was granted a temporary licence to more than triple its “suspended solids” releases during the severe weather in March. But the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection claimed more than eight times that amount was released into the ocean near the north Queensland facility.
The fine did not relate to water released into the surrounding wetlands, which was still under investigation. Activists released striking photos of the difference in the wetlands before and after the cyclone, claiming coal had turned the area black, but Adani said it had complied with the conditions of its licence.
BBC give platform to climate denier, in the cause of “balance”
Independent 10th Aug 2017, The BBC has been criticised for inviting a climate change denier to come on air and voice his belief that global warming isn’t happening. Science
broadcasters including Brian Cox and Jim al-Khalili criticised the decision
to bring on famous denialist Nigel Lawson, apparently to make sure that
there was a balanced debate.
Both pointed out that there is very little debate about global warming – an established fact on which almost everymainstream scientist is agreed. Lord Lawson was able to make a number of
claims, which went mostly unchallenged.
He said, for instance, that the world had actually become colder over the last 10 years – despite the fact
that 2014, 2015 and 2016 have been the hottest years on record.
Environmental experts including Carbon Brief fact-checked each of the
claims and found that none of them were true.
But apparently because Lord Lawson had been invited on as an opposing voice in a debate – to follow an
interview with Al Gore about his latest climate change film – he was mostly asked to disagree with the science on global warming and his opinions were little picked up on.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/today-programme-nigel-lawson-al-gore-climate-change-denier-global-warming-bbc-radio-4-inconvenient-a7886426.html
12 August REneweconomy news
-
Australia’s biggest wind farm is also its least productiveWhat’s wrong with Australia’s biggest wind farm? Victoria’s 420MW Macarthur facility was supposed to produce 50% more power than it did last year.
-
Another solar farm planned for Collinsville, as Blackrock buys inNew 50MW Hayman solar farm to go merchant, as US investor BlackRock makes first big move into renewables with two solar farm investments.
-
Australia’s first battery “giga-factory” set for development in DarwinAustralian company Energy Renaissance says it has “sealed deal” with NT government, locking in Darwin as preferred site for 1GWh lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant.
-
New rules for retailers, but don’t sit there waiting for your electricity bill to go downA call to retailers; Information about discounts will be simpler, but you’ll still have to do the legwork to shop around.
-
Scientists develop spit-powered batteryYou can make a battery out of a lemon, a tomato, an orange or a stack of pennies. And now you can make a battery using spit.
-
RCR awarded $315M for Daydream and Hayman solar farm projectsRCR Tomlinson Ltd is pleased to announce that it has been awarded two contracts for the 150MWac Daydream Solar Farm and the 50MWac Hayman Solar Farm, developed and maintained by Edify Energy Pty Ltd.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 