Wind farm research: Tony Abbott’s strategy to delay development by creating uncertainty
You don’t need to remove a policy to kill investment. You only need to make things uncertain
More research is good, but not if wind experts are told what to find, The Conversation, Will J Grant, 24 June 15 “………..Research on this topic doesn’t exist in a political or economic vacuum. It is well established that renewable energy broadly, and wind turbines in particular, are matters of significant political debate.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott last week asserted that his intention when renegotiating the Renewable Energy Target was to “reduce the number of these things (wind turbines) that we are going to get in the future”, while his government is also considering appointing a “wind commissioner” to address complaints about the industry.
Meanwhile, key members of the Senate Committee – including John Madigan, David Leyonhjelm, Bob Day, Chris Back, and Matthew Canavan – have used their positions to speak stridently against wind energy. Against this backdrop, is it really possible to pause the world to undertake entirely neutral research?
Telling researchers how to research
There are allegations that suggest the Senate Committee is less interested in truly independent, high-quality research than its members might claim, and is instead recommending to the NHMRC the researchers whose work they would like to see included in future assessments……..
we’ve had inquiry after inquiry into this topic – with no rigorous scientific process finding any evidence of a human health impact – Continue reading
Australia’s Senate passes law to water down the Renewable Energy Target (RET)
Revised Renewable Energy Target Legislation Passes http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/ret-legislation-passes-em4886/ June 24, 2015 Legislation for a watered-down Renewable Energy Target (RET) was passed last night, ending nearly one and a half years of uncertainty for the Australian renewables sector.
The RET has now been officially slashed from 41,000 GWh to 33,000 GWh by 2020.
However, Australia’s Clean Energy Council says major renewable projects would now pick up pace; leading to $40 billion of investment and the creation of 15,200 jobs over the life of the RET, while helping to protect 20,000 current positions.
“While this has been a challenging process, and we are disappointed by the level of reduction of the target for large-scale renewable energy, the passage of this legislation provides the platform for a doubling of renewables over the next five years,” said Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton.
“The legislation also removes the two-yearly reviews of the scheme and ensures no changes to the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme, which is great news for thousands of people working in the rooftop solar and solar hot water sectors.” Continue reading
Tony Abbott – dangerously wrong about energy policy
The BNEF report – see details on it here – predicts that households and business will account for more than half of Australia’s demand by 2040, and is the latest, and most comprehensive, of a series of reports that highlight the rapidly shifting sands of the global energy market, and the move from centralised generation to a decentralised future.
This has been canvassed by the likes of the CSIRO, the International Energy Agency, the biggest utilites, and global investment banks.UBS last month came up with a report stating that a scenario where 50 per cent of all electricity generation was provided by solar by 2050 could not be ruled out. Much of this would be behind the meter, on the rooftops of homes and businesses.
Morgan Stanley has predicted 2.4 million homes in Australia will have battery storage.
Tony Abbott in denial about Australia’s energy 
future http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/tony-abbott-in-denial-about-australias-energy-future-36757 By Giles Parkinson on 23 June 2015 There was a brief exchange on the ABC TV’s Q&A program on Monday night that neatly summed up all that is wrong with Australia’s energy policy.
Grahame Morris – a former chief of staff to Coalition prime minister John Howard, and a corporate lobbyist who is influential in the government of Tony Abbott – had, in the words of host Tony Jones, steam coming out of his ears at the idea that wind and solar could offer a future energy solution. Flapping his arms about and pointing his finger, Morris exclaimed: “Look, not everyone wants a bloody big windmill in their backyard … nuclear power is clean … one of the problems with the third world with poverty is that they don’t have electricity. We have coal and we have uranium that can provide energy sources for those people. You are talking about poverty … that is the answer.”
Morris also scoffed at the idea of climate change and, with that, pretty much summed up the policy position of the Abbott government, its principal advisors, and the conservative think tanks that influence and applaud it.
It is a discourse – the belief in the primacy of centralised generation, be it coal or nuclear – that is guiding the Abbott government’s climate, energy and industrial policy. Disconcertingly, it is a view that spreads to the Labor Party, too, judging by the response of Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon, from the Hunter Valley.
It’s also parroting the key marketing point of Big Coal: one that ridicules or downplays climate science, talks down the need to act, and places its faith in ageing technologies. The push against wind farms is a symptom of the view that nothing can or should change, and green policy can’t be allowed to be right about anything.
But it is plain wrong, and dangerously so. Continue reading
Fight back against government plans to shut down remote Aboriginal communities
The racist and neo-liberal mindset that drives the present and previous governments’ policies on land rights and remote, self managed communities does not recognise any culture or society that may be based on community or collective principles, or practises ecological land management, developed for this environment over tens of thousands years.
The UN State of the Indigenous Peoples Report (2009) observed that free-market economies have devastated Indigenous peoples worldwide……What is going on with the forced closure of Indigenous communities and the driving of Aboriginal people from their traditional lands has all the hallmarks of a land grab – rolling back the hard won recognition of land rights and native title in Australia.
Australia’s First Nations peoples and their supporters are coming together in unprecedented numbers to fight back against community closures and policies that foster cultural genocide and disempowerment.
Racist land grab Stand against forced closures of Aboriginal communities! The Guardian Len Waster, 24 June 15 The Abbott Liberal-National government wants to shut down 150 Indigenous communities in remote Australia. Its actions threaten to leave some of Australia’s most vulnerable people without water, electricity or basic services. The remote or homeland communities that are under threat allow Aboriginal people to live on their traditional country, where they can sustain their language, their spiritual connection to land and their culture.
They are among the more than 1,200 small, discrete Indigenous communities in regional and remote Australia, which present policies place under threat of eventual closure and forced eviction.
As long as there are adequate services people experience better health and wellbeing in their homeland communities than when living in larger townships, where social dysfunction and disadvantage are often prevalent. Continue reading
Wind farm set to be developed on Tasmanian cattle farm
Granville wind farm project awaits Senate vote http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/national/granville-wind-farm-project-awaits-senate-vote/story-fnjj6012-1227411859560, 23 June 15 HELEN KEMPTON Mercury THE 1900 cattle grazing on Tasmania’s most isolated farm will soon share the land with up to 33 wind turbines if Australia’s Renewable Energy Target is passed in the Senate tomorrow.
West Coast Wind plans to start construction of its wind farm on Royce Smith’s 1255ha beef property at Granville Harbour, outside Zeehan, at the end of the year. Already, a wind monitoring station is recording bankable energy data as investors in the $200 million project are secured. At 80m tall, the wind monitoring tower is as high as the turbines will be.
Renewable energy will dominate Australia’s electricity in 25 years
Australia’s electricity ‘to be dominated by renewables’ in 25 years, Rt.com : June 23, 2015 Renewable energy in Australia will outrun conventional means such as fossil fuels by 2040, accounting for 59 percent of electricity generation, according to energy analysts.
Rooftop solar systems are expected to squeeze out retiring coal and gas plants, the Guardian reports, referring to New Energy Outlook 2015, published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
However, analysts say that Australia’s carbon emissions from electricity are unlikely to fall significantly for at least two decades and will reduce only 9 percent by 2030 compared with 2014. Pollution will remain “stubbornly high” if the government doesn’t accelerate the closure of coal and gas plants.
It will be cheaper to replace retired electricity plants with wind or solar farms rather than with modernized coal plants even without the government’s participation, Kobad Bhavnagri, the head of Australia’s Bloomberg New Energy Finance, told the Guardian.
The Australian coal industry is currently focused on export and it has been “quite some time” since a new coal power station was built in Australia, he said………
If Australia places restrictions on fossil-fuels, it would be able to achieve 100 percent of renewable energy usage by 2040, Andrew Blakers, the director of the center for sustainable energy systems (CSES) at the Australian National University told the Guardian.
Moreover, the country would be able to achieve greenhouse neutrality a decade later if it switched to electric transport, including cars, trams and trains, he added.
“And it would be in everybody’s medium- and long-term interests to do so,” he said. http://rt.com/business/269227-australia-renewable-energy-sources/
Barry Brook should be removed from the South Australian Nuclear Royal Commission
So that’s the game plan − making absurd claims about Generation IV reactors, pretending that they are near-term prospects, and being less than “abundantly clear” about the truth. Time for these people to be held to account and for Brook to be removed from the South Australian Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission’s ‘expert panel’.
Royal Commissioner Kevin Scarce was forewarned about Brook’s track record of peddling 
misinformation but still chose to include Brook in his ‘expert panel’.
On the troubled worldwide history with fast reactors, see the report by the International Panel on Fissile Materials.
Barry Brook being less than “abundantly clear” about Generation IV reactors Jim Green, June 2015, www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/issues/oz/barry-brook-bravenewclimate An 18 June 2015 guest post on Barry Brook’s website claims that Generation IV fast neutron reactors will be mass produced and “dominating the market by about 2030.”
Compare that Big Fat Lie with the following:
- The Generation IV International Forum states: “Depending on their respective degree of technical maturity, the FIRST Generation IV systems are expected to be deployed commercially around 2030-2040.” (emphasis added)
- The International Atomic Energy Agency states: “Experts expect that the FIRST Generation IV fast reactor DEMONSTRATION PLANTS AND PROTOTYPES will be in operation by 2030 to 2040.” (emphases added)
- A 2015 report by the French government’s Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) states: “There is still much R&D to be done to develop the Generation IV nuclear reactors, as well as for the fuel cycle and the associated waste management which depends on the system chosen.”
IRSN is also sceptical about safety claims: “At the present stage of development, IRSN does not notice evidence that leads to conclude that the systems under review are likely to offer a significantly improved level of safety compared with Generation III reactors, except perhaps for the VHTR …” Moreover the VHTR (very high temperature reactor) system could bring about significant safety improvements “but only by significantly limiting unit power”.
- The World Nuclear Association noted in 2009 that “progress is seen as slow, and several potential [Generation IV] designs have been undergoing evaluation on paper for many years.”
All year round vegetable production from huge solar glasshouse in New South Wales
Massive solar-powered glasshouse in NSW Hunter Valley to employ refugees, migrants , ABC News, By Jackson Vernon 21 June 15 Construction is underway on Australia’s biggest glasshouse, in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, which is solar powered and already providing employment opportunities for new migrants and refugees.
Excavators have started the groundwork on the vegetable growing facility at Fullerton Cove, about 40 minutes outside of Newcastle. At more than 16 hectares, it will cover the size of 20 rugby fields.Dutch investor Cor Disselkoen has developed glasshouses throughout the Netherlands and has brought in materials and labour for construction here.
Once operating, the facility will produce 15,000 tonnes of tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicums every year. “We are producing 14 times more per square metre so we have a huge production compared to open field growing,” Mr Disselkoen said.
“It’s year-round, reliable, independent from whatever climactic circumstances so we can guarantee year around delivery to our clients.” Continue reading
We need a Coal Commissioner on health effects of coal mining
The health consequences of the fossil fuel industry have been ignored for many years. On any comparison, it is unfair to focus exclusively on the health implications of wind turbines and, at the same time, ignore the health implications of other forms of energy production……..
Compared to the recommendations by the senate committee on wind turbines, the recommendations from the Hazelwood Coal Fire Inquiry were relatively tame.
Wind commissioner? Let’s have a coal commissioner too, The Conversation, Samantha Hepburn, 19 June 15 Wind turbines have got Canberra in a spin this week, with hearings underway from the senate inquiry into wind turbines and their possible health impacts. The committee yesterday released an interim report from chair John Madigan with seven recommendations to increase regulation around the wind industry.
A dissenting report from Labor senator Anne Urquhart questioned the political timing of the report.
Meanwhile, a leaked email from environment minister Greg Hunt has offered crossbench senators a “wind farm commissioner” in return for support for the passage of renewable energy legislation.
But behind the politics, how do the report’s recommendations stack up?
The recommendations Continue reading
Refuting the claims of the anti-wind farm brigade
Senate told wind farms not bad for health
One of Australia’s leading health and medical research bodies has told a Senate inquiry there is no evidence that wind turbines make you sick.
The Federal Government has told key crossbench senators it’ll appoint a wind farm commissioner to handle complaints from residents concerned about wind turbines.
But the National Health and Medical Research Council says while it’s still investigating wind turbines, it’s satisfied they don’t pose much of a risk.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4258297.htm
Wind farm commissioner: Senator John Madigan defends proposal for fresh scrutiny on wind turbines; professor says ‘no evidence’ of health risks
Crossbench senator John Madigan accuses green groups of “shrill denials” over the issue of wind farms, after the Federal Government offered to appoint a special commissioner to look into complaints about the renewable energy …
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-19/madigan-defends-wind-farm-commissioner-proposal/6557634
Debate: Kelly O’Shanassy and David Leyonhjelm
The Prime Minister is proposing the creation of a wind farm commissioner to handle complaints about turbine noise and their alleged health impacts. Tony Abbott says the concerns need to be taken seriously. Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O’Shanassy and Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm debate the issue with Steve Cannane.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4258737.htm
No need to investigate windfarms or alien abduction, says Greens leader Richard Di Natale
Greens leader Richard Di Natale has slammed critics of windfarms, saying there is no need to investigate them.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2015/jun/18/di-natale-wind-farms-turbines-energy-alien-abducation-greens-commissioner-video
Wind farm commissioner for Government’s ‘tin foil hat brigade’, say Greens
News of an Australian wind farm commissioner has renewed the old debate about the claimed health effects of wind turbines.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/06/19/wind-farm-commissioner-governments-tin-foil-hat-brigade-say-greens
Australia’s Prime Minister Abbott being manipulated by maverick extreme right wing Senators?
Cross bench starting make demands of Tony Abbott’s government NEWS.COM.AU JUNE 19, 2015 THE cross bench in the Senate has realised its power and is starting to roar. The problem for voters is the Government is listening.
The clutch of independents with minimalist primary votes and huge ambitions want attention to the mishmash of offbeat ideas and prejudices they hold dear.
And if Tony Abbott and his ministers want their support to overcome the combined Labor/Greens bloc, they will have to take some of them seriously. And it’s already happening.
Here are a few of the causes the senators are championing and want action on:
WIND FARMS: Senator John Madigan wants an ombudsman to deal with the complaints against wind farms by those who live nearby. He says he’s not obsessed by the issue, it’s just he doesn’t believe the 25 scientific inquiries which have found the turbines are not health hazards. Prime Minister Abbott, who calls them ugly and noisy, is considering the appointment of a wind farm commissioner. He has not considered a similar appointment to deal with the many more complaints about coal seam gas………….
MORE GUNS: Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm supports same sex marriage. And he wants people to take their firearms to the weddings to help celebrate. After the Lindt Cafe tragedy he urged laws changed to allow Australians to tote more weaponry. “What happened in that cafe would have been most unlikely to have occurred in Florida, Texas, or Vermont, or Alaska in America, or perhaps even Switzerland as well” because “statistically speaking” some of the abducted customers would have been armed. Nobody in Parliament thinks this is a good idea.
GO NUCLEAR: South Australia’s Bob Day is another senator who thinks wind power is dangerous because of what he calls the “harrowing” effects on humans and animals. But he thinks atomic energy is a better proposition and wants Adelaide to build nuclear subs. “One of the major obstacles to Australia considering nuclear submarines has been the absence of a domestic nuclear industry,” fretted the man who considered turbines a threat. http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/cross-bench-starting-make-demands-of-tony-abbotts-government/story-fnu2pwk8-1227406160609
Traditional Aboriginal owners of Muckaty remain vigilant against nuclear waste dumping
Govt still looking for nuclear waste site one year after pursuing Muckaty , SBS News, Today marks one year since the federal government agreed to stop pursuing Muckaty, Northern Territory, as a site to store nuclear waste. By Andrea Booth Source: NITV News
A court case had been battling the issue for nearly 10 years.
The Northern Land Council nominated Muckaty, located 120 kilometres from Tennant Creek, as a site for a dump in 2006 with the Muckaty community to receive a $12 million benefits package. But Warlmanpa and Marumungu people in Muckaty claimed they had not been consulted about the plan.
The threat of a nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal Land continues after the government called for other land owners, councils or organisations to nominate their land for the facility.
The Department of Industry and Science told media this year it remained “committed” to finding a site.
Traditional owners of Muckaty say they feel they must continue to defend their land and culture from nuclear waste. Aunty Jeanie Sambo told NITV News that a nuclear waste dump would destroy them. “It will probably poison [everything] that we live [from], like the animals that we hunt and the river that we drink out of,” she said. “It is not good for us.”
Australia produces nuclear waste and sends it overseas as the country does not yet have its own processing facilities. International agreements require that the processed material be returned to Australia.
Australia has about 5,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste.
Protecting Manawangku was filmed through the lead up to a major rally in Tenant Creek against the proposed dump ..http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/06/19/govt-still-looking-nuclear-waste-site-one-year-after-pursuing-muckaty
Controversial Senators Madigan, Lambie and Leyonhjelm now determining Australia’s Energy Policy?
It seems to be the case of the mad right wagging the tail of the ultra conservative dog on energy policies. Senators Madigan, Lambie and Leyonhjelm all hold controversial views about climate science and wind farms – all being advised by noted long-term anti-wind activists.
Abbott promises to Do Something about wind turbines http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/abbott-promises-to-do-something-about-wind-turbines-24423 By Giles Parkinson on 18 June 2015 The fate of Australia’s renewable energy target – and the wind industry in particular – is once again in the balance, after Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised anti-wind cross-bench Senators that he would take action to restrict or monitor wind farms.
Legislation cutting the RET to 33,000GWh from 41,000GWh had been expected to pass the Senate this week, finally giving the industry some certainty to invest, albeit in a much reduced target.
But Abbott’s refusal to cut a deal with Labor over the controversial issue of native wood waste has seen him turn instead – as predicted two days ago – to the senators who have already decided – like Abbott – that wind farms are ugly, dangerous to health, not very effective, and possibly constitute an act of treason.
Abbott – whose opinions on wind farms have been shaped by advisors who do not accept the science of climate change and his one encounter with a single turbine on Rottnest Island – met with Senator David Leyonhjelm and other cross-benchers this week.
He told the environment minister Greg Hunt – who told a radio station this week that “I know what you mean” when told that a single turbine in his electorate was “ugly” – to draft a letter to the cross benchers, outlining his commitments to get tough on wind farms.
The letter, according the The Guardian, includes a promise to appoint a wind-farm “commissioner” to monitor and act on complaints, an “independent” scientific committee (perhaps like the Warburton RET review) to liase with the Senate inquiry, and an undertaking to act on the Senate inquiry’s recommendations. Continue reading
Rooftop solar taking over in South Australia – the test State for Renewable Energy
Rooftop solar to cut total grid demand to zero in South Australia, 
REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson on 18 June 2015 See also Rooftop solar to overtake coal capacity before 2030
The Australian Energy Market Operator predicts that the growing uptake of rooftop solar by homes and businesses will reduce grid demand in South Australia on certain occasions to zero by 2023, highlighting the rapid change in the nature of energy markets, and the growing shift from centralised baseload generation.
The predictions from AEMO came in its 2015 National Electricity Forecasting Report, released on 
Thursday. It says that the near 575MW of rooftop solar is already accounting for one-third of total grid demand on certain days in the state.
But within a decade this total could treble, pushing minimum demand required from the grid in the whole state to below 0MW (zero) on some occasions in 2023-24, and for several hours at a time by 2024/25 – when AEMO expects 1864MW of rooftop solar.
It says zero demand from the grid could last from 11.30am to 2.30pm local time on some days………..
South Australia will be a test case for Australia, and indeed the world, because of its high level of “variable renewables” such as wind and solar in its energy mix. Continue reading
New White Paper on Northern Australia might undermine Indigenous land rights
Don’t use northern development as ‘Trojan Horse’ to undermine Indigenous land rights, Noel Pearson warns, ABC News By political reporter Anna Henderson, 19 June 15 Influential Cape York Indigenous representative Noel Pearson has warned that development of the north must not be used as a “Trojan Horse” to undermine Indigenous land rights.
The Federal Government has unveiled the northern Australia white paper, a blueprint for policy ideas to develop the sparsely populated region and capitalise on lucrative resources.
The white paper included a section on simplifying land arrangements and a commitment that Indigenous Australians should have the “same opportunities as other Australians to leverage their land assets and generate wealth”.
It also said the Federal Government aimed to have all current native title claims finalised within a decade. Mr Pearson — who attended the Cairns launch of the policy — said the white paper’s reference to expediting native title claims was “certainly welcome”.
“They’re good words,” he said. But he said there have always been concerns that state, territory and federal governments may use the policy to erode progress in the land rights campaign.
The Aboriginal leader also said the policy would not achieve anything if land tenure issues were not addressed…….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-19/noel-pearson-northern-development-indigenous-land-rights/6558842
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