Legislation needed to axe Climate Change Authority. Public to be kept in the dark
”what will the future think of the people who voted for this action?”
Mr Hunt declined to respond to questions from Fairfax Media.
Scientists say climate cuts leave public in the dark September 19, 2013 Peter Hannam, The Age Carbon economy editor The Abbott government’s plan to make scrapping the Climate Commission and the Climate Change Authority among its first priorities will deprive Australians of independent information on global warming just when it is needed most, leading scientists say.
Staff at the Climate Commission, a federal body set up to publicise climate-change science, have all but ceased work as they await instructions from new Environment Minister Greg Hunt.
The Climate Change Authority, a statutory body that will need a change in legislation before it can be axed, is continuing work on a draft report due out next month. That report will recommend the level of cuts to greenhouse gas emissions Australia should set and also details international efforts to combat climate change.
Release of New South Wales Renewable Energy Plan
Final NSW Renewable Energy Action Plan released http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/final_nsw_renewable_energy_action_plan_released/083533/ Fri, 20 September 2013
The final New South WalesRenewable Energy Action Plan has been launched, detailing three goals and 24 actions to grow renewable energy generation in the state.
The Plan’s three key goals are:
- Attract renewable energy investment and projects
- Build community support for renewable energy
- Attract and grow expertise in renewable energy technology.
The Plan positions New South Wales to increase the use of energy from renewable sources at the least cost to the energy customer.
Key actions of the plan include: Continue reading
Abbott government illegal in telling Clean Energy Finance Corporation to cease operations
Clean Energy Finance Corporation could sue over Coalition shutdown It is not lawful for the new government to tell the CEFC to cease operations, says leading barrister Lenore Taylor, political editor theguardian.com, Thursday 19 September 2013
The board of the clean energy finance corporation is legally obliged to ignore a directive from the new treasurer, Joe Hockey, to cease its operation and could take the Coalition government to court if it persisted in attempts to shut the CEFC down before the parliament voted to abolish it, according to advice from a leading barrister. Continue reading
Abbott scraps Climate Commission, puts the vacuous Greg Hunt in charge!
Heaven help Australia – no Climate Change Department, and Greg Hunt of all people, in charge of climate matters!
Tim Flannery sacked, Climate Commission dismantled by Coalition by: Gemma Jones Political Reporter From: News Limited Network September 19, 2013 PROFESSOR Tim Flannery has been sacked by the Abbott Government from his $180,000 a year part time Chief Climate Commissioner position with the agency he runs to be dismantled immediately.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt called Prof Flannery this morning to tell him a letter formally ending his employment was in the mail.
In the letter, Mr Hunt tells Prof Flannery: “The Climate Commission does not have an ongoing role, and consequently I am writing to advise you that the Climate Commission has been dissolved, with effect from the date of this letter…… All other climate commissioners will also be sacked with the move to save more than $500,000 this financial year and $1.2 million next financial year.
The Coalition will now take advice on climate change from the Department of the Environment. – [Greg Hunt as Minister]
Tony Abbott’s real reasons for abolishing carbon price – and for his Direct Action sham
Secondly, powerful vested interests in Australia, including the fossil fuel lobby, mining industry and carbon intensive corporations are heavy donors to Mr Abbott’s Liberal Party.
Why Tony Abbott wants to abolish the carbon price, The Guardian, by Alexander White Wednesday 18 September 2013
Why is abolishing the carbon price Tony Abbott’s ‘top legislative priority’? “……. in my view it’s clear that Mr Abbott wants to abolish the carbon tax primarily for two reasons.
Firstly, he is either not convinced of the urgency of the threat of climate change to Australia’s economy or society, or doesn’t believe in climate change at all. For example, one of Tony Abbott’s business advisors, former ABC chairman Maurice Newman, in an article in The Australian equated concern over climate change to a “global warming religion” and climate scientists as a “global warming priesthood”.
Mr Abbott himself famously said in an interview that climate change is “crap”, and his ministry and senior member of his political party are avowed climate change science deniers. This position was made clear in 2009 by Malcolm Turnbull after being dumped as leader: Continue reading
Nuclear lobby front man Paul Howes will bide his time to get into Parliament
Christina Macpherson What is this – Paul Howes posing as some sort of left-winger? Backed by the big mining corporations and the nuclear lobby, Paul Howes helped them to get rid of Kevin Rudd’s Super Profits Mining Tax, and indeed, to get rid of Kevin Rudd.
Paul Howes is a gung-ho advocate for Australia’s uranium/nuclear lobby – and he will make his move when he deems that he is sure to be elected
Union chief Paul Howes abandons bid for Senate vacancy, saying it would have got ugly PAUL CLEARY THE AUSTRALIAN SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
……….HIGH-profile union leader Paul Howes has decided not to stand for a possible Senate vacancy, saying he does not want to spark a brawl in the NSW branch of the Labor Party. “I don’t want to be a wrecker and I don’t want to divide,” Mr Howes, the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union and so-called “faceless man”, told reporters in Sydney……..
As an ALP Right faction powerbroker, Mr Howes played a role in Julia Gillard’s overthrow of Kevin Rudd as prime minister in 2010 -…….
Mr Howes refused to rule out running for parliament in the future, including as a lower house candidate in the next federal election. He declared his support for Bill Shorten in the leadership contest for federal Labor. : http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/union-chief-paul-howes-abandons-bid-for-possible-senate-vacancy/story-fn59niix-1226722672466#sthash.A7cN4HdX.dpuf
Martin Ferguson applauds the Abbott government’s attack on renewable energy
Christina Macpherson Just as well I’m not a subscriber to the Fin Rev – so I wasn’t able to read this almost certainly nauseous article. Anyway, readers might have noticed that Australia’s former (Labor) Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, has gone very quiet in recent months.
In that job, Martin Ferguson functioned with determination as the Minister Against Renewable Energy. It was a hard job for him, seeing that he was in a government that supported renewable energy and action on climate change.
So now, at last, – Ferguson can come out in his true colours – as servant of the polluting industries, and happily supporting the Liberals in their servitude to the polluting industries. What’s next for Ferguson – a big job with BHP, or with the Australian Uranium Association, or with John 
White, working for Australia as international radioactive trash dump?
Ferguson backs lower renewable energy target Financial Review Former energy minister Martin Ferguson has backed an industry campaign to reduce the renewable energy target, an intervention which will strengthen the hand of critics of the scheme within the Coalition. (subscribers only)
18 SEP 2013 http://www.afr.com/p/national/ferguson_backs_lower_renewable_energy_KMQdzXIjg1aFFox2r6XIcJ
South Australia’s renewable energy success, as its electricity prices fall
The Australian Energy Market Operator has predicted that the amount of rooftop solar could triple by 2020. Depending on how much wind energy is built between now and 2020 – and that will depend on whether the new government retains the current renewable energy target – the state’s renewable energy capacity is expected to soar well above 50 per cent by then.
South Australia’s perfect energy mix: Cleaner, greener, cheaper REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 18 September 2013 Not only has South Australia achieved the highest level of wind energy and rooftop solar in the country, and has cut its emissions by a third in the last few years, its consumers have also had a windfall in generation costs: they are paying generators much less for their electricity than they did before the boom in wind farm and household solar began in 2009.
A study by energy analyst firm Pitt & Sherry finds that in 2012/13, the average South Australian paid generators $88 a year less for the electricity he or she consumed than they did in 2009-10.
And that is even after the introduction of a carbon price. If the impact of the carbon price is taken out, the average price paid per capita to generators in South Australia has fallen by $188 over the last four years – during which time the wind industry has grown from virtually nothing to more than 1,200MW, and rooftop solar has done the same (it is now 400MW). Continue reading
Australia’s power utilities losing money because of falling electricity demand, not because of carbon pricing
lower demand and the impact of renewables is actually delivering cheaper electricity, even if it means that generators are suffering because of lower profits
South Australia’s perfect energy mix: Cleaner, greener, cheaper REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 18 September 2013 “……..Of the other states, Tasmania (because it is mostly hydro) had the lowest carbon impact of just $43 per capita, while Victoria had the highest courtesy of its brown coal generators, and Queensland and NSW, which both rely heavily on black coal generation, also had high impacts.
However, the impact of falling demand and renewables offset much of these price impacts. In Victoria, which takes a lot of the excess South Australian generation, and where the local energy efficiency program has also had a signficant impact (household consumption is down 10 per cent over the last year according to EnergyAustralia), the fall in wholesale prices represented $124 per capita. That means, even with a carbon price, average payments to generators rose only $55 over the four years. Continue reading
Clean Energy Finance Corporation – its demise will stall investment and jobs
CEFC put on notice by new government Sky News September 18, 2013 The Clean Energy Finance Corporation hopes it may have a role to play under an Abbott government despite the coalition taking steps to dismantle the ‘green bank’ on its first day in office.
The coalition has set about implementing its promise to wind back the government-owned body tasked with investing in clean energy.Treasurer Joe Hockey has written to the CEFC requesting the cooperation of its board in suspending all further investments.
The Australian Greens slammed the move as illegal, claiming the coalition could not instruct the $10 billion CEFC to act against its legislated mandate.
The corporation has agreed not to approve any new investments but will continue meeting its existing legal and contractual obligations……. Australian Greens senator Richard Di Natale said the CEFC had been legislated to invest its funds and telling them to do otherwise without new laws in place showed a ‘complete disregard for the parliament’.
‘The fact that Tony Abbott believes he can instruct an independent statutory body to act against its legislated mandate … shows arrogance and hubris,’ Senator Di Natale said in a statement.
The CEFC was set up under the Gillard government’s carbon price package, and assigned $10 billion over five years to support renewable energy projects through loans, guarantees and equity investments. The corporation said it had invested $500 million on projects worth $2 billion, meaning it had generated four times its own outlay, and had no adverse impact on government net debt.
Some advocates of clean energy have expressed concerns that investment and jobs in the sector will stall without the certainty of funds provided the CEFC……..http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/article.aspx?id=907335
Queensland’s Newman government to open up Cape York wilderness to mining
Blueprint splits Cape Liam Parsons Thursday, September 19, 2013 The Cairns Post HUGE sections of Cape York will be opened up to mining and farming under the Newman Government’s draft Cape York Regional Plan.
Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney was in Cairns yesterday to unveil the plan which will replace the former Labor government’s Wild Rivers laws……. Wilderness Society Northern Australia campaigner Gavan McFadzean described the draft plan as the Newman Government’s blueprint to industrialise Cape York. “This Government wants to open up the most sensitive waterways and landscapes to mining, dams and land clearing,” he said.
Mr McFadzean said the plan snubbed the region’s world heritage values and “rides roughshod over the aspirations of the traditional owners of Cape York.” http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2013/09/19/248318_local-news.html
Pacific Hydro will go it alone, believing in its Portland Wind Project.
Clean energy providers bypassing the big power retailers CRIKEY, TRISTAN EDIS | SEP 17, 2013 Pacific Hydro’s wind farm will be financed without a big power retailer involved. Is this the future or just a last hurrah for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation? Pacific Hydro announced last week it will construct the 47 megawatts final stage of the Portland Wind Project. The size of the wind farm is nothing exceptional, but the way it is commercially structured is: this wind farm is one of very few constructed without a major energy retailer involved either as the owner, or as a 10-year-plus purchaser of the output.
Generally wind farms are developed with energy retailers involved. That’s because they substantially reduce the risk of the project by providing a fixed price for output, bypassing wholesale electricity and renewable energy certificate markets which can be extremely volatile………
Pacific Hydro has decided to take a punt that market fundamentals will eventually prevail. It’s worth noting they’ve done this with $70 million in finance from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The CEFC’s mandate includes adopting the presumption that politicians don’t fiddle with the law of the land.
Will other financiers be quite so brave now the CEFC has been ordered to shut down? http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/09/17/clean-energy-providers-bypassing-the-big-power-retailers/?wpmp_switcher=mobile
What would it mean to abolish the carbon price
Why Tony Abbott wants to abolish the carbon price, The Guardian, byAlexander White Wednesday 18 September 2013 “…… In the twelve months since the carbon price was introduced in Australia, our nation has enjoyed nearly unparalleled economic prosperity: low inflation of 2.4 percent, strong growth in the stock market of 23 percent, record low unemployment of 5.8 percent, low interest rates of 2.5 percent (cash rate), strong terms of trade and most importantly a decrease in carbon emissions.
Carbon emissions from the highly polluting energy sector National Electricity Network fell by 7.4 percent in 2012-13. Renewable energy grew by around 30 percent in the same period. A great deal of the reductions in various sectors of the economy in carbon emissions are due to the price signals from the carbon price.
More importantly, from 2015 the Clean Energy Future Act would introduce a cap on carbon emissions, a policy tool of greater significance than the price alone.
If the carbon price were abolished, the cap on emissions would also be removed. Australia is already one of the world’s largest polluters and per capita there is almost no greater carbon emitter than Australia. The removal of the carbon price would give a signal to fossil fuel companies to continue expansions of dangerous coal projects and unconventional gas projects.
Numerous other environmental policies under Tony Abbott would contribute to a likely expansion of carbon emissions, including the abolition of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the devolving of environmental regulation to state governments, and the overturning of the world heritage listing for Tasmanian forests.
Australia would also be sending a very dangerous signal to the rest of the world, that as a major polluter Tony Abbott does not plan to contribute to a global solution to climate change. Australia is about to take the chair of the G20, a very influential role. The G20 potentially has an important role to play in providing leadership in reducing global carbon emissions. As a climate denier, it would be difficult for Tony Abbott or his foreign minister Julie Bishop to credibly contribute to multilateral climate discussions………http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2013/sep/18/tony-abbott-abolish-carbon-price
ERA, Rio Tinto, Paladin desperately hope that Fukushima is just a “bump in the road”
Japan goes nuclear-free The Motley Fool, By Justin Loiseau – September 16, 2013 Japan is closing down its last operating nuclear reactor for scheduled maintenance, putting the country in “nuclear-free” territory for the first time since the Fukushima crisis necessitated nationwide inspections two years ago. Japan has 50 commercial reactors nationwide, and the March 2011 Fukushima disaster marked the first time in over 40 years that the country pulled power exclusively from non-nuclear sources.
Japan is split on the future of this fuel. While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and utilities point to the need for nuclear to meet Japan’s growing energy demands, the general public and environmental activist groups remain apprehensive about the safety of local reactors.
Japan and Australia may be oceans apart, but the two countries are closely linked. Energy Resources of Australia (ASX: ERA) is one of the largest uranium producers in the world, the secret sauce of nuclear reactors. Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) has a 64% stake in the company as well, and Japan’s exit from nuclear could push prices down drastically if it bids adieu indefinitely. Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN) and its 82%-owned Summit Resources(ASX: SMM) subsidiary tell a similar story. Spot prices have already dropped from $65 highs in 2011 and are currently hovering around $35, similar to 2006 markets.
Japan’s nuclear notions are unclear, and proponents of the energy have warned of blackouts if the country doesn’t jump back on the nuclear track. Opponents, including Greenpeace Japan, are instead pushing Japan to seize the opportunity to become a leader in renewable energy.
Regardless of the ultimate outcome, this latest nuclear shutdown is another bump in the road (read “increased risk”) for nuclear energy and its uranium producers……http://www.fool.com.au/2013/09/16/japan-goes-nuclear-free/
Indigenous Affairs to be run by Prime Minister’s Office, and the unelected Indigenous Advisory Council
Senator hails change NT News, STAFF WRITERS | September 17th, 2013 TERRITORY Senator Nigel Scullion is the country’s new Indigenous Affairs Minister………The administration of the portfolio will now rest within the Prime Minister’s office – not the Indigenous Affairs Department.
“Having the support of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet ensures that I will have influence across all portfolios,” he said.
Senator Scullion has already met with Indigenous Advisory Council chair Warren Mundine and said they shared “common ground on most issues”……http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2013/09/17/325000_ntnews.html
1 This month
17 October, Free Public Talk on Nuclear Issues in South Australia
David Noonan will speak on public interest concerns over the new Roxby Downs Indenture Act 2026 on BHP copper-uranium mining and ore processing in SA, and on how AUKUS may face SA with a High-Level nuclear waste agenda.
Dr Jim Green will discuss international developments in the field of nuclear power including ‘small modular reactors’ and Generation 4 ‘advanced’ nuclear reactor concepts.
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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