Queensland farmers not keen on uranium mines in their back yard
Uranium mining rethink sparks Qld farmland fears, ABC News, By Chrissy Arthur 24 Oct 12 Rural lobby group AgForce says it has concerns about the impact of uranium mining on Queensland farms. The State Government will lift a long-standing ban on uranium mining, saying it will generate investment and jobs.
However, some landholders and conservationists have expressed concern about the environmental impact and the possibility of toxic mine spills. AgForce president Brent Finlay says landholder concerns will need to be considered.
“All of those issues concern us and that is why it has to be done properly if it is done,” he said.
“We have to work with landholders, we understand that no landholder wants any mine in their backyard – it puts pressure on agriculture. “If these developments do go ahead, the impacts on the environment and the community are very important and they have to be managed and if there are spills, they need to be cleaned up.”
A Gulf of Carpentaria mayor says local government leaders will also pressure the Queensland Government to ensure environmental safeguards are in place for any uranium developments…
Queenslanders Urged To Act On Solar Installations http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3429 18 Oct 12 Tens of thousands of Queensland households that registered for the state’s previous solar feed in tariff rate are yet to finalise their paperwork and installations – and may miss out if they wait too long. Continue reading
Uranium mining for Queensland – NOT a job provider, and NOT needed
As for respecting the wishes of Aboriginal Queenslanders, neither our State nor Federal legal frameworks give traditional owners the right to refuse mining on their lands, so it is difficult to see how their wishes will be respected should they not wish to host a uranium mine. And given the findings of a 2006 study that found a 90% higher incidence of cancer amongst indigenous peoples living in close proximity to uranium mines in Kakadu, one can well understand how that might be their preference.
Queenslanders have thus far decided we don’t want to be part of an industry that generates toxic waste with no functioning long-term storage solution, fuels weapons of mass destruction, and has no future in electricity generation because it grows ever more expensive while clean energy alternatives grow ever cheaper.
The jobs aren’t in uranium: Stone Opinion: Adam Stone | 6th October 2012 “……..The LNP obviously decided to insulate their campaign from public concern about uranium mining by committing that they would not change Queensland’s anti uranium mining policy, but their underlying conviction on the subject is completely at odds with this position. After all, they openly campaigned in favour of repealing the policy in the 2009 State election …..
The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) and Australian Uranium Association (AUA) have opened by arguing that uranium mining in Queensland will: provide jobs, respect the wishes of indigenous Queenslanders, cut greenhouse gas emissions, only supply uranium for peaceful purposes, and is necessary for baseload power generation as only nuclear, hydro and fossil fuels can meet this need. Continue reading
Cairns to host renewable energy session on report on Queensland’s Far North energy potential
a renewable energy information session would be held in Cairns within weeks to discuss the report, plan and the next steps.
Far North could be capital for renewable energy http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2012/10/03/234605_local-news.html Nick Dalton October 3, 2012, The Cairns Post A MOVE to make the Far North the renewable energy capital of Australia has been backed by a new State Government report which shows the sector has the potential to be worth $750 million a year and employ more than 2500 people within 10 years.
The report and a development plan commissioned by the State Government showed the industry, which includes solar, wind, biomasse and biodiesel, is currently worth $100 million a year involving 108 businesses which employed 700 people. The detailed strategy and action plan called for the employment of a full-time project officer to
implement the recommendations to grow the industry.
Report authors David Smyth and Grant Behrendorff, of Evolve Energy in Cairns, said a steering committee involving more than 12 people from the industry as well as Cairns Regional Council, Advance Cairns, Ergon Energy, the State and Federal governments was already working to implement the recommendations. Continue reading
Solar energy going backwards in Queensland, with its anti-renewable energy government
Queensland a leader in solar? Not on Campbell Newman’s watch By Charis Palmer 27 September 2012 The Conversation Around the clock solar power could be a reality for Australians in the foreseeable future, but experts say a hostile state government stands in the way of Queensland becoming the solar power leader suggested by the Climate Commission.
The latest instalment from the Climate Commission on the impacts and opportunities of climate change is “wilfully blind to reality”, with no mention of the massive coal and coal seam gas industries in Queensland, said Chris McGrath, senior lecturer in environmental regulation at the University of Queensland. The report says Queensland’s solar resources are among the best in the world, and the state should take more advantage of the opportunity.
But in the absence of positive deployment policies from the state government, it will take some time to see large solar power stations serving retail customers, said Mark Diesendorf, deputy director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at University of New South Wales. The Climate Commission’s report cites the Kogan Creek Solar Boost Project, which will provide a solar thermal addition to the neighbouring coal-fired power station, expected to be the largest solar integration project in the world.
But in July, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman withdrew $75 million in funding from the proposed stand-alone 250 megawatt Solar Dawn project near Chinchilla.
Dr Diesendorf said concentrated solar thermal could be vital to solar power generation in the longer term. “It’s not very expensive to store the heat on concentrated solar thermal and therefore have 24 hour solar power.”
But with several coal-fired power stations running at less than capacity in Queensland, organisations investing in new solar infrastructure will find it difficult to compete, Dr McGrath said. He added that the government’s focus remained on coal and coal seam gas, with renewables seen as a small component only.
“They’re talking about Queensland as a leader for solar, but Queensland’s going backwards in terms of participating in any funding for addressing climate change, and unwinding programs.” Dr McGrath said the picture painted by the Climate Commission in its report is the same one that’s been painted for ten years with no action taken.
He said a blunter approach was needed from the Commission and agreed that while it may not be an advocacy group, it was up to scientists to point out the consequences of policy choices. “It’s not advocating if you say the 5 per cent by 2020 goal will lead to three degrees warming and we won’t have a Great Barrier Reef at this point. That’s just joining the dots for people to see.”
Queensland’s LCP govt backflips on its election promise to keep ban on uranium mining
Environmentalists says LNP reneging on uranium ban agreement THE AUSTRALIAN 17 September, 2012 Cole Latimer Green groups say the Queensland Government has backflipped on its promise to ban uranium mining after opening discussions on the metal’s future on Friday.
QLD mines minister Andrew Cripps opened the floor for discussion last week after the Queensland Resources Council and the Australia Uranium Association called on Campbell Newman’s Government to make a decision on uranium’s future…… ACF spokesperson Dave Sweeny said the LNP has previously pledged to keep the uranium ban in place, The
Australian reports .
“We remind the Queensland government and the LNP they went with a clear commitment to the people they had no intention to expand or facilitate the uranium industry in Queensland,” he said.
We will actively take part in this debate highlighting the costs and consequences both here and overseas,” he said.
“Don’t forget Australian uranium was inside Fukushima (nuclear reactors in Japan) when it melted down. “Rocks from Kakadu are now causing radioactive fallout.”
It comes only days after Australian uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) was accused of ‘stealthily’ attempting to mine uranium.
Renewed lobbying for uranium mining in Queensland
Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, in a speech to the uranium industry in June, called on Queensland to lift the ban. “The Australian Government urges Queensland to take the next step and to also remove its ban on uranium mining
LNP silent on uranium mining front Gympie Times, Daniel Burdon, APN Newsdesk | 13th September 2012 A RENEWED push by the state resources lobby to reopen Queensland to uranium mining has been met with silence by the Newman Government. Continue reading
Queensland leads in war against solar energy
War against solar: pricing regulator favours gross tariffs, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 14 September 2012 The Queensland pricing regulator says it favours the introduction of a gross feed in tariff in the state, in a move that the solar industry say would be devastating for the rooftop solar PV market…..
They argue it effectively reduces competition in the industry, and potentially removes one of the key solutions to the overloading of grids. Numerous independent studies have underlined the important role that solar PV could help in meeting peak demand, but this is rarely acknowledged by the utilities, who are more concerned about protecting revenues by growing their assets. The move comes just months after the Queensland Government slashed its net feed in tariff. Queensland had been the fastest growing state for solar PV, accounting for 40 per cent of national installations by some count.
The introduction of gross tariffs would also likely kill off the emerging commercial-scale solar PV market in Australia. Commercial scale solar is considered one of the most effective options for reducing peak demand because the output from the rooftop or ground mounted panels corresponds with usage by commercial users.
However, Australian solar companies have also expressed fears that the suspension of grants under the Federal government’s $800 million Clean Technology Investment Program for manufacturing groups could threaten many projects, just as the industry was getting started.
The head of one NSW company, who requested anonymity, said he had 15 proposals on the drawing board, ranging in size from 30kW systems to up to 1MW for customers including manufacturers, processors, retailers, and vineyards.
He said if the funding was withdrawn, only a couple of smaller projects were likely to go ahead. That’s because larger commercial customers had the buying power to negotiate lower electricity prices – of around 16c-18c/kWh (instead of 30ckW/h or more) from the utilities which were effectively cross subsidized by other users. RenewEconomy highlighted the other issues surrounding commercial solar in this piece earlier this week, Why new solar tariffs coud drive a man to diesel”….
The situation in Australis is not unique. In the US, for instance, the solar industry is facing similar issues, as highlighted in this piece on Greentech Media this week – where they flagged a potential installation of 75GW of solar PV in the country by the end of the decade – 15 times its current capacity – and massive resistance from utilities.
In Australia, the utilities have become concerned because of recent forecasts that suggest up to 18GW of solar PV could be installed in the country over the next few decades. Some private forecasts suggest that could happen within a decade.
As David Crane, the head of leading US energy generator NRG, said earlier this year, solar PV represents the biggest threat to the conventional energy industry in half a century. In the Greentech Media piece, the solar companies said utilities in the US were so powerful they acted as “a fourth arm of government” and won’t give up easily. Professor Ross Garnaut has commented on the extent of regulatory capture in the Australian industry, hence the ability to “gold plate” networks and extract huge compensation packages for the carbon price. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/war-against-solar-pricing-regulator-favours-gross-tariffs-23984
Queensland’s Premier Newman turning that State into renewable energy backwater
Queensland – Solar Star One Day, Renewables Wasteland The Next, by Energy Matters, 13 Sept 12, “……Campbell Newman appears to have decided Queensland should become a clean energy and climate change backwater in terms of further progress from this point forward.
Queensland’s recent budget was a climate change and renewable energy related massacre. Numerous programs are to be axed – some of which had been previously announced:
– Solar Flagships project.
– Queensland Climate Change Fund
– Queensland Renewable Energy Fund
– Queensland Smart Energy Savings Fund
– Solar Initiatives Package
– Waste Avoidance and Resources Efficiency Fund
– Local Government Sustainable Future Fund
– Climate Smart Home Service
– Solar Hot Water Rebate Scheme
– Solar Atlas
– Cloncurry Solar Thermal Trial Site Remediation
– Bright Thing Campaign
– Renewable Energy Industry Development Plan
– Climate Smart Business Service
– Sustainable Energy Innovation Fund
– EcoBiz program….
Further analysis of the impact of Queensland’s horror budget in relation to climate change and renewable energy initiatives can be viewed on RenewEconomy.
Australia’s Liberal States, especially Queensland, fight renewable energy
Newman’s antipathy to green energy runs deep.
Campbell Newman’s war on green energy REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson 6 September 2012 It looks like the clean energy industry is going to have to go back to basics when dealing with the new conservative government in Queensland – just as it has had to do in Victoria, with that state’s Coalition government. Tomorrow, when the NSW Coalition government releases its renewable energy plan, it will learn if it will have to do the same there.
In Queensland, however, the industry is right back at first base. Not that it ever really left it: it is the one state that has hardly any large-scale renewable generation, apart from a series of biomass plants from sugar cane plantations and a single 12MW wind farm.
Premier Campbell Newman signalled his approach to renewables early in his term when he decided he didn’t want to put any state money into the Solar Dawn consortium, or any other renewable energy project for that matter, and announced he would disband the state’s climate change and renewables program. His approach was that the if federal government had a carbon tax and a renewable energy target, then Canberra should pay for it. It wasn’t the state’s business.
That might sound fine on the stump, or in a sound bite on radio talkback, but it’s actually self-defeating. The law states that each electricity retailer must provide a certain amount of renewable energy to its customers, paid for by renewable energy certificates, and that includes Queensland utilities.
If they don’t build renewable energy in their own state, then that money will simply be spent on projects being built by the southerners – be it in NSW, Victoria or South Australia. Continue reading
Queensland’s Liberal-National Party policy on Climate Change- an international embarassment
Queensland and the weird alternate reality of climate change denialists Independent Australia, Graham Readfearn, 25 July, 2012 “….. we come to the latest episode, where Queensland’s currently in-power Liberal-National Party has accepted a motion that climate science shouldn’t be taught in schools. The proposer of the motion, which was accepted unanimously (but may not be taken up by the parliamentary wing of the party), is a Dr Richard Pearson, from Noosa.
It now appears that Dr Pearson has been conducting his own climate science experiments — at home, in his kitchen, armed only with thermometers, two fish cooler boxes and a roll of cling film. Some may find the results remarkable; you see, Dr Pearson believes he may have disproved the greenhouse effect (you may now pinch yourself).
We know this because he wrote about his experiment on the website of the climate sceptic group the Galileo Movement — whose patron is the noted climate expert (and radio presenter) Alan Jones. Dr Pearson’s conclusion?
‘That the Greenhouse Effect theory is not confirmed by this experiment and may be disproved by it.’
Now, even though the notion that a guy in his kitchen in Noosa armed with two eskies and a roll of cling film could single-handedly disprove the greenhouse theory may seem just a tad fanciful….
plausible to non-experts, such as the vast majority of the general public. At the end of his experiment, Dr Pearson recounts how his daughter had questioned how a man with cling film could “disprove a theory that hundreds of climate scientists around the world say is true”. “That my darling is science”, was Dr Pearson’s response. Is it really?…
Professor Matthew England, of the University of New South Wales Climate Change Research Centre and also chairman of the Australian Climate Commission’s science advisory panel, says the motion which Dr Pearson managed to get passed at the LNP’s state conference could have broad ramifications, if only for the state’s reputation.
If the proposal to remove greenhouse science from the school curriculum is enacted, Queensland’s education system will become an international joke overnight. Basic greenhouse gas physics has been established with around 200 years of scientific progress — any move to muzzle climate science facts from being taught at schools will be condemned as world’s worst practice in scientific education.
So if the Queensland Education Minister John Paul Langbroek does act on the motion from his party, then Prof England says the State will be a laughing stock. Until then, we’ll just have to settle for the majority of the members of the LNP. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/queensland-and-the-weird-alternate-reality-of-climate-change-denialists/
70,000 scientists wrong about climate science, says Queensland’s Liberal/National Party
Scientists reject LNP school move http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/scientists-reject-lnp-school-move-20120713-221or.html#ixzz20dcQEzwx July 14, 2012 Adam Morton and Daniel Hurst A BODY representing nearly 70,000 Australian scientists has criticised a Queensland Liberal National Party resolution calling for mainstream climate science to be cut from the state’s school curriculum.
LNP delegates at the party’s state conference passed a motion yesterday calling on Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek to stop the teaching of ”environmental propaganda material, in particular post-normal science about climate change”. The mover of the motion, Noosa LNP member Richard Pearson, attacked ”false prophets who would poison the minds of our children in our schools”.
”Few people understand that the so-called science of climate change is really what can be defined as post-normal science,” he said, arguing it went beyond traditional understanding of science. The motion was passed with overwhelming support.
Anna-Maria Arabia, chief executive of Science & Technology Australia, called the resolution ”extremely harmful”. The central principles of climate science – including that man-made greenhouse gases trap heat in the lower atmosphere and have warmed the planet – were backed by all the world’s major scientific academies.
”The message this sends is ‘we do not treat the science as an issue of testing ideas, we treat it as a belief system’,” Ms Arabia said. ”We shouldn’t be telling students that testing ideas is propaganda and that there is ‘post-normal science’, whatever that means.” Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said MPs had not decided whether to act on the resolution. ”We will always do the right thing by Queenslanders ahead of the LNP,” he said.
Solar Dawn confirms its plan to rise Ecogeneration, , 5 July 2012 The Solar Dawn consortium has advised the Federal Government that its Solar Flagships Program-winning project is well-advanced and remains Australia’s best prospect for a large-scale solar thermal facility, despite the consortium failing to meet the recent financial close milestone and the Queensland Government’s decision to withdrawn from its project support agreement.
Solar Dawn Project Director Anthony Wiseman said that while the project delay represented a set-back, the consortium – made up of AREVA Solar and Wind Prospect, after CS Energy pulled out – will pursue discussions with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Queensland Government to move Solar Dawn forward based on the project’s advanced status and the strong economic and environmental benefits it offers to the state and the country…..
Queensland’s anti solar energy government swings into action
Campbell Newman Government axes Queensland solar energy scheme, nation’s largest by: Darrell Giles The Courier-Mail July 02, 2012 AUSTRALIA’S biggest solar energy scheme is dead in the water, torpedoed by the withdrawal of funding by the Newman Government. The State Government is pulling $75 million out of a renewable energy power project, effectively killing off up to 400 jobs.
Regional Queensland was set to be home to one of the biggest combination solar and gas power plants in the world under a $1.2 billion scheme, a joint Federal-State Government and private partnership.
The Solar Dawn project would have used Australian-pioneered technology and transformed Chinchilla and the western Darling Downs into the nation’s mixed-energy capital. But the Liberal National Party has found a way to back out of an earlier Bligh government agreement and halt its contribution.
Premier Campbell Newman signalled soon after winning the March state election that he would look at pulling the plug on the $75 million investment if he could do it without risk to taxpayers. Minister for Energy and Water Supply Mark McArdle wrote to federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson last week to confirm he had cut the Queensland contribution. Mr McArdle was understood to have told Mr Ferguson Solar Dawn was unable to meet the State Government’s funding agreement.
As a result, the agreement between the two governments was “terminated”…… Prime Minister Julia Gillard had committed $464 million, saying the project would support Labor’s carbon tax and keep the environment clean…… http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/campbell-newman-government-axes-queensland-solar-energy-scheme-nations-largest/story-e6freoof-1226413831562
Queensland Premier Newman’s war on solar energy
Can-do Campbell slashes Queensland solar PV tariffs, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 25 June 2012 One of the most depressingly predictable political back-flips has finally come to pass, with the Campbell Newman-led Queensland state government abandoning its commitment to the solar bonus scheme, and announcing it will slash its net feed-in tariff from a 44c/kWh to just 8c/kWh.
The dramatic move means that Queensland is the last state to remove the solar PV FiT, and replace it with a nominal amount. The 8c tariff will be reviewed in July 2013, and will end in July 2014 – leaving retailers to make only a “voluntary contribution.”
This is despite promises by Newman during the campaign that the solar bonus scheme would not be cut. But as we pointed out in this item in March, Can-do Campbell and the art of political risk, Newman intended to cut a whole range of climate and clean energy schemes. Newman has now brought an end to a variety of renewable energy schemes, including a $5 million grant for the Cloncurry solar PV project, and funding for geothermal research.
Newman also sought to exit a $75 million grant for the Solar Dawn project in the solar flagships program, but has found he could not. He may still be able to hold on to the money if Solar Dawn is unable to negotiate a power purchase agreement with the state government-owned utility. Continue reading
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