South Australia’s outgoing Premier contradicts Labor Party policy on uranium to India?
Rann changes tack on uranium sales to India, The Australian, October 20, 2011 “…….The long-serving South Australian Premier, forced by Labor to hand his premiership over to Education Minister Jay Weatherill tomorrow morning, said it was time to think about agreeing to India’s desire to import uranium from Australia……. Mr Rann’s remarks came a week after he signed off on approvals for BHP Billiton’s proposal to expand the Olympic Dam mine in the state’s far north. “It will be the world’s biggest uranium mine,” he said.
Mr Rann was a longstanding opponent of uranium exports to India, and had called potential sales a “grave mistake” and “extremely foolhardy”. While India is Australia’s third-biggest export market, Labor is opposed to exporting uranium to a nation that has not signed the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In September, Tony Abbott said the government had made a “great mistake” in reversing the Howard government’s decision to sell uranium to India……
Speaking from France, Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the federal government’s policy was clear. “We will only supply uranium to countries that are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have signed a bilateral agreement with Australia,” he said…..
Australian Uranium Association chief executive Michael Angwin said it was not the Premier’s role to determine which countries uranium could be exported to.
Australia’s Liberal Party’s new platform – Against renewable Energy
the Coalition is becoming an anti-renewable energy party
Abbott opens new front in climate war, Unleashed, 19 Oct 11, This week Tony Abbott and the Coalition opened up a new front in their ideological war against climate change action and carbon pricing.
In a move reminiscent of the US Tea Party, renewable energy has become the new target of Australia’s conservative party.
Not content with the ‘blood pledge‘ to repeal the carbon price, Abbott lieutenants Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb announced that a Coalition government would scrap the Clean Energy Finance Council (CEFC). If well designed and administered, the body is a potentially useful aid for Australia’s transition to a 21st-Century clean economy. The plan to abolish the CEFC threatens $10 billion of investment: $5 billion exclusively for renewable energy and the remainder available for cleantech manufacturing, energy efficiency and enabling infrastructure.* Continue reading
Hindrances in South Australian Parliament to BHP BIlliton’s plan for monster uranium mine
Greens call for inquiry into Olympic Dam expansion, SMH Peter KerOctober 18, 2011 APPROVAL for BHP Billiton’s massive Olympic Dam expansion may not proceed as quickly as the global miner would like, with minor parties in the South Australian parliament seeking to slow the process by attempting to force the company to front a parliamentary inquiry.
The indenture agreement struck by BHP and the SA Government for Olympic Dam will be introduced to the state’s parliament today or tomorrow, and must be approved by both chambers to have any legal power.
The Premier Mike Rann – who will retire on Friday – wants Parliament to approve the bill as soon as possible, and BHP has promised to start spending up to $US1.2 billion as soon as the bill secures passage through the Parliament.
But Mr Rann’s Labor Party does not control the upper house of Parliament, where a group of seven minor party MP’s have the balance of power. Two of those MPs represent the Greens Party, and Greens leader Mark Parnell said the agreement was so important to South Australia’s future it must be fully analysed by a select committee with powers to call and question BHP executives.
Mr Parnell said the delay should pose no problem given BHP does not expect to take a final investment decision until mid 2012. ”What is the point of the SA Parliament cutting corners and rushing this through when the company isn’t going to decide until the middle of next year anyway,” he said.
Mr Parnell wants to quiz BHP over why more processing of Olympic Dam’s copper, uranium and gold could not take place in Australia, as well as the environmental impacts. Despite the approvals process running over many years and through hundreds of pages of environmental impact statements, Mr Parnell said the public had never had a chance to publicly question BHP officials.
“It is time, as Parliament sets to sign off on the biggest deal in South Australia’s history, to finally get some straight answers on this enormous project,” he said. : http://www.smh.com.au/business/greens-call-for-inquiry-into-olympic-dam-expansion-20111017-1ltda.html#ixzz1b9u265hy
South Australian Premier Mike Rann having a bet each way on his uranium “legacy”
Two faced Premier Mike Rann, previously elected as S.A. Labor Party’s spokesman AGAINST uranium mining, went on to be a fervent servant of BHP Billiton. Now he wants to have his “legacy” as having approved. the monster Olympic Dam open cut uranium mine.
BUT – that mightn’t work out. Olympic Damn has a good chance of becoming an environmental and economic nightmare for South Australia. So, just in case, Mr Rann is now piously giving himself the credit for saving Arkaroola Wildreness from uranium mining. (Bad luck, Marathon Resources, your Premier dumped you for BHP.) – Christina Macpherson
Arkaroola protection bill going to SA Parliament ABC News, October 17, 2011 Premier Mike Rann has visited Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary to promote this week’s introduction of legislation to permanently protect the area from mining.
The South Australian Premier sees Arkaroola’s protection as some of his last business before he steps out of the limelight…
His Government signed the Olympic Dam indenture with BHP Billiton last week, another key project Mr Rann leaves as his legacy….. New laws will ban all types of mining at Arkaroola and come four years after exploration waste was dumped at Mount Gee in the area by explorer Marathon Resources. Arkaroola also has been provisionally listed on the state heritage register and will be nominated for national and world heritage listing…
Marathon Resources had spent millions of dollars exploring at Arkaroola and its share price has fallen since the mining ban was flagged.It is negotiating with the SA Government for compensation. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-17/arkaroola-wilderness-legislation-mining-ban/3574300
Sydney’s Hunter’s Hill uranium radioactive wastes might be dumped in western suburb
Sydney’s uranium waste could still go west, Josephine Tovey, October 18, 2011 The Premier, Barry O’Farrell, will not rule out sending waste from a former uranium plant in Hunters Hill to western Sydney, despite the Coalition campaigning against the move when it was in opposition.
The Keneally government had signed a contract with SITA Environmental Solutions at Kemps Creek to dispose of the waste but withdrew from it last year after an outcry from the community.
Liberal candidate for Mulgoa Tanya Davies, who won the seat, had accused the former government of using her electorate as “dumping ground for Sydney”…. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/sydneys-uranium-waste-could-still-go-west-20111017-1ltfb.html
Australia’s New England area has bright future for farmers and wind energy
The huge commercial wind farm planned for Sapphire, between Glen Innes and Inverell, has negotiated with more than 20 landholders to take between 150 and 170 turbines.
“Those turbines are all on large properties,” Mr Cruickshank said. “They can run their sheep and cattle without any difference, they get a good return, and there aren’t any neighbours who are affected.”
Wind power puts region in renewable energy box seat, The Armidale Express JANENE CAREY 17 Oct, 2011 NATURAL advantages are making New England a significant part of the push to source 20 per cent of Australia’s energy from renewables by 2020.
Paul Cruickshank, one of the speakers at a low-carbon economy seminar held in Armidale said that although this region has the potential for large scale solar, our real advantage lies in wind power. Continue reading
Clean Energy Finance Corp could guide Australia to be a renewable energy super power
Clean Energy Finance Corp vital to untainted future –Cowra Community News, 18 Oct 11, ACF THE Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has welcomed the appointment of Jillian Broadbent AO as chair of an expert review panel that will advise on the design of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The foundation has also urged the federal Government to enshrine the new body in law by April 2012 “so it can start investing in the next wave of renewable, clean energy by July 2013”.
“The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) will harness Aussie innovation in cutting edge technologies like solar thermal, geothermal and wave power,” says the ACF’s economic adviser, Simon O’Connor, in a statement.
“Australia has massive untapped, abundant renewable energy resources, yet we have failed to capitalise on this natural competitive advantage. “Funding for renewable energy has struggled to match commercial needs, with the result that Australian-made technology has gone to China, California and Spain.
“Now, the CEFC will help fill the renewable energy ‘valley of death’, keeping Australian technology here and creating Aussie jobs. “Returns on public investment through a CEFC are far better than the returns delivered through grant programs.
“Combined with a carbon price, this is the most economically efficient way to turbo-charge the renewable energy sector, which is why we are seeing many countries setting up finance corporations, like the UK’s Green Investment Bank.
“The renewable energy industry is ready, investors are ready, Australians are ready – it’s time to get on with the job and help Australia become a clean energy superpower.” Further detail about the CEFC in the ACF’s report, Helping Australia Compete in the Renewable Energy Race, at www.acfonline.org.au /CEFC.http://cowracommunitynews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=8415&id=137
Grandiose uranium mine depicted as a tourist attraction!
As well as a giant open pit, the company will leave behind a small mountain of unused rocks and a large tailings storage facility, which will need to be fenced off with warnings of the potential for radiation exposure.
Once mining stops, the pit is expected to fill with rising groundwater, creating a vast outback lake that would be up to 350m deep.
BHP Billiton says backfilling is not a feasible option and has suggested the South Australian Government resume control of the pit and turn it into a managed tourist attraction. It says the government would be responsible for building and maintaining viewing platforms and controlling access by tourists, students and scientists.
It suggests the rock storage, where it will dump the ”overburden” of surface rock and soil which will take about five years to remove, should be returned as crown land and could also be used for tourism….
The expanded mine is planned to be productive for 40 years……
Anti-nuclear groups and the Greens have criticised the conditions for not going far enough, but are equally concerned about what will be left behind.
The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance said almost nine billion tonnes of radioactive waste would remain in northern SA. A spokeswoman said if that was acceptable to the SA Government, then it was setting the bar ”extremely low”.
”The radioactive waste will remain on Kokatha and Arabunna country long after BHP Billiton packs up its business and moves on,” she said, referring to traditional indigenous landowners of the region…. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/mine-could-one-day-be-a-tourist-attraction/2320845.aspx
BHP Billiton’s proposed desalination plant to exterminate Australia’s iconic Giant Cuttlefish?
Save the Giant Australian Cuttlefish and Upper Spencer Gulf The Point Lowly Peninsula is the only known place in the world where hundreds of thousands of Giant Australian Cuttlefish gather to breed. We need your help to urge the State Government of South Australia to protect this wildlife phenomenon from proposed industrial impacts.
Other fish species also spawn in the area including Snapper, Western King Prawns, Squid, Eagle Rays and Port Jackson Sharks. The Upper Spencer Gulf ecosystem also supports resident dolphin pods plus visiting whales, endangered sealions and turtles.
A desalination plant is currently proposed for the Point Lowly Peninsula. If approved, its operation will release salty brine into this sensitive ecosystem. Scientific studies have shown that increased salinity kills cuttlefish and squid eggs.
The Giant Australian Cuttlefish and Upper Spencer Gulf fish nurseries need your help. Sign and share our petition and urge our State Premier to insist on relocating the proposed desalination plant to a less vulnerable area. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/7/save-the-giant-australian-cuttlefish-upper-spencer-gulf/
Aboriginal elder warns of Kalta – nature’s revenge for huge Olympic Dam uranium mine
THE LIZARDS REVENGE, DLF – Desert Liberation Front, Response to the governments decision to expand Olympic Dam mine. Sleeping underneath the ground there is an old lizard, Kalta the sleepy lizard. The lizard ain’t so sleepy anymore.
BHP is mining right into that Lizards body. The government has just approved an expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium mine, making it the biggest uranium mine in the world.
Kalta is angry and wants revenge. Arabana elder Kevin Buzzacot is calling the people of the world to help the lizard shut down the mine. He is calling for people to come and heal the land in the name of peace and justice for the next 10,000 generations to come.
The land is being irreversibly poisoned in and around Roxby Downs by the tailings dam causing dust and ground water contamination, and contamination of its workers.
The uranium is taken all over the world and used to kill the land and all its creatures. It’s destroying lives not only in Fukashima, with the reactor meltdown, but in the depleted uranium shells that children play with in the streets of Iraq and Kosovo.
With the governments numerous attempts to put a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty in the Northern Territory there is a danger that radioactive waste will be brought back, opening Australia up to accepting nuclear waste from all over the world. Lets stop the deadly cycle where it starts.
The land the lizard and the creatures of this earth are summoning everybody who gives a shit to the gates of Roxby Downs on the 14th of july 2012 for The Lizards Revenge – This is an open invitation to all people and a special call out to artists, musicians and activist community groups and media to get involved in the creation of this autonomous zone for the peace and healing of this land.
Obscenity of BHP Billiton’s Control of Huge Water Resources in Olympic Damn Uranium Mine Deal
VIDEO Mine expansion draws more water from basin ABC News, Paul Klaric, October 14, 2011 Scientists are concerned that the the proposed Olympic Dam mine expansion will put a strain on Australia’s greatest underground water supply. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-14/mine-expansion-draws-more-water-from-basin/3572500
GREEN LIGHT FOR OLYMPIC DAM EXPANSION THE BLOGGER IS A BHP BILLITON SHAREHOLDER. On 13 May 2011 the company announced a proposal for six-fold expansion of Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia – to extract the most valuable single mineral deposit in the world. The mine will consume up to 42 million litres of water a day from the Great Artesian Basin for plus 40 years.
USE OF THE GREAT ARTESIAN BASIN BY THAT MINE IS THE ISSUE WHICH THIS BLOG ADDRESSES
On 10 October 2011 the South Australian (SA) Government granted approval for the BHP Billiton (BHP) Olympic Dam expansion. The Indenture Bill, signed on 12 October by representatives of BHP and the State Government, will now be submitted to vote in the SA Parliament. The SA government will not terminate or suspend the current licence which entitles BHP to take 42 million litres of water each day for Olympic Dam from the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) – but BHP will in the future pay for GAB water. This failure of the SA Government to protect the best interests of the GAB represents an enormously significant strategic win for BHP.
Australia’s carbon tax has a symbolic and leadership value in international effort against global warming
The passage of this initiative is still hugely important, if for no other reason than that it shows Big Coal can be rolled. The coal industry is an even larger part of the Australian economy than it is of the American, and it has an enormous amount of political power. And just like here in the U.S., there are plenty of shrill politicians in Oz who claim that any new tax will lead to economic ruin.
Gillard told Members of Parliament that they would be judged on their vote by every Australian, “because the final test is not are you on the right side of the politics of the week, or the polls of the year.”
“The final test is this: are you on the right side of history?”
Australian Carbon Tax Vote: A Very Big Deal, ROLLING STONE, : OCTOBER 13, By JEFF GOODELL So maybe there is hope for us yet. After what one Aussie columnist calls“the dirtiest and most dishonest campaign ever waged before the Australian public,” with millions of dollars spent on media ads and climate skeptics flown in from around the world, Australia’s House of Representatives voted yesterday, 74 to 72,to levy a tax on carbon pollution. The proposal, which was pushed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, will impose a price of $23 on a ton of carbon pollution, starting in 2015. After 2015, an emissions-trading scheme will be introduced, with the goal of cutting total carbon pollution 5 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. The legislation still needs to pass the Senate, but because Greens control the balance of power there, that is not likely to be a problem. Unless something dramatic happens, in a few months Australia will have taken an important first step toward saving itself from the catastrophic impacts of climate change.
This is a big deal. Continue reading
Carbon tax bill will benefit most Australians
Carbon tax bill is good news for Australia, Guardian UK, 14 Oct 11, Once the dust settles, the majority in Australia are likely to find that the bill will benefit them Thanks to a narrow victory for the government, Australia now looks likely to join the EU and New Zealand in introducing a comprehensive policy to make carbon polluters pay for the damage they cause. This is very good news. It has been an uphill battle, with the opposition and business lobby all but claiming that the sky would fall in should the bill be passed.
But once the dust settles and the lamenting subsides, the majority of people of Australia are likely to find that the bill passed on Wednesday benefits them. Much of the money raised from the carbon price of £15 per tonne of emissions will be recycled in the form of tax breaks and compensatory payments.
It will also be used to stimulate investment in new clean energy technologies leading to new jobs and increased inward investment. Hopefully over time this will boost Labour and the Greens’ popularity, so ensuring that the policy is protected – despite opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “blood promise” to repeal the legislation.
Australia’s energy system is among the most polluting in the world thanks to its heavy reliance on coal, but Australia’s climate is vulnerable to the impact that climate change brings. Acting to reduce emissions is in the country’s self-interest in the longer term, especially if it can act as an inspiration for other countries to follow.
South Korea and China are looking to introduce emissions-trading schemes and all eyes in the global carbon market are now firmly looking eastwards. There could be significant advantages for Australia’s financial institutions in being amongst the first to participate in this market, just as London has benefited from being the hub of the European carbon market….
Being out in front has its advantages and confers a moral superiority but there will always be forces of conservatism who will be made to feel uncomfortable. It is therefore more important than ever that countries in the early adopters group work together to defend their actions and encourage more into the fold.
No one, in Europe or Australia, can now claim to be going it alone, and with luck soon many more will step up and join the race to the top. As Australia has shown this will not be easy, but we must defy those who would rather participate in a race to the bottom where ultimately everyone is a loser….http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/12/carbon-tax-australia?newsfeed=true
Australia’s House of Representatives passes The Australian Clean Energy legislative package,
Australian clean and renewable energy legislation passed, Reinforced Plastic 13 October 2011 The Australian Clean Energy legislative package, which put a price on carbon emissions and promotes renewable energy, has been passed by the House of Representatives. By Kari Williamson The 19 Bills comprise the Clean Energy legislation and the Steel Transformation Plan Bill, which put a price on carbon emissions, promote investment in renewable and clean energy technologies, and support action to reduce carbon pollution on the land.
The legislation will now be introduced to the Senate, and aims to be passed through the upper house by the end of the year. According to media reports, there could be over US$13.2 billion on the table for renewable energy and other low-carbon investment if the legislation passes the Senate.
Australia is currently one of the top 20 polluting countries in the world. http://www.reinforcedplastics.com/view/21326/australian-clean-and-renewable-energy-legislation-passed/
One small concession to Australia’s environment – BHP to pay a bit for future water grab
(once again – so much news about BHP Billiton and Olympic Dam uranium mine – more items at http://nuclearnewsaustralia.wordpress.com/ )
BHP forced to pay for Great Artesian Basin water, ABC Rural By Annabelle Homer , 13/10/2011 The South Australian Government and BHP Billiton have signed an Indenture Agreement to enable the Olympic Dam mine expansion to go ahead. The Indenture Bill will be introduced to State Parliament next week to enable this agreement to be backed by the full force of South Australian law.
As part of the agreement, the company will now be charged for the water it extracts from the Great Artesian Basin and $350 million a year in royalties will be generated once the project is at full capacity….. BHP has accepted reluctantly they will now come under Environment Protection Agency, they are paying for the first time ever for the Great Artesian Basin water.”
BHP will be charged on the current NRM Board levy rate (currently $0.0318/KL) for the region (capped at $0.10/KL), for a period of 30 years from the commencement of the project.The charge will then revert to the current NRM Levy rate.
BHP will not be required to pay for water being taken on the Special Mineral Lease.
Independent environmental consultant David Noonan says the BHP is not paying enough. “He says the company will be paying $1.3 million to $1.5 million a year for essentially a precious water resource.”
The Bill also includes a 12-month sunset clause, which means the company has one year from when Parliament passes the Bill to get the approval from its Board of Directors to formally begin the expansion. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201110/s3338957.htm
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