Coalition’s “clean coal” plan to power Gina, Clive, Adani in Galilee basin, REneweconomy. By Giles Parkinson on 1 March 2017 The so-called “clean coal” power generator being promoted by the Coalition has been revealed to be a 2009 proposal from businessman Clive Palmer that would be used to help provide electricity to Galilee coal mines planned by Palmer himself, Gina Rinehart, and Indian group Adani.
Waratah Coal, the company owned by Palmer’s Mineralogy, confirmed to the ABC on Tuesday that it had made an application to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation last Friday to finance a proposed 900MW coal generator that proposes to use an unproven technology, carbon capture and storage.
The revived plan was originated in 2009, and the details can be found here. It proposed to bury the emissions from the coal plant under the very same coal province that the three mining groups propose to mine – except that it will be “sequestered” in an “un-mineable” area of coal seams some 1km underground.
The $1.25 billion figure comes from its 2009 estimates, but it is expected that this is well out of the ball-park now. It also does not, the application makes clear, include the cost of carbon capture and sequestration.
No plant in the world has come close to making this a commercially viable proposition and the owners of the most advanced project, Kemper in Georgia, now admit it would be impossible make money from coal generation and CCS.
But that hasn’t stopped the Coalition continuing to push “clean coal” over renewables, despite overwhelming consensus that it would cost at least twice as much – and possibly four times as much with CCS – than wind and solar alternatives.
Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – who as recently as 2010 supported 100 per cent renewable energy scenarios – has now pitched the Coalition’s energy policy firmly behind the construction of new “ultra supercritical” coal plants.
Resources minister Matt Canavan has been particularly vocal in support of a new coal-fired power station in north Queensland. This proposal, from Palmer, is the only proposal in the pipeline. Most other energy investors in the area are instead looking to solar and wind farms.
This comes as new data shows that Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, jumping another 2.2 per cent in the last financial year and taking the growth since the repeal of the carbon price to more than 7 per cent.
Much of this growth has come from the electricity sector, due to increased coal-fired generation, and from the new LNG export facilities in Queensland, where more coal and gas is being burned to power the liquefaction of coal seam gas, so it can be shipped overseas.
New studies have again questioned whether coal seam gas is any “cleaner” than coal power, given evidence that “rogue methane emissions” which are not measured by the gas companies, are actually making CSG a dirtier power source than coal…..
The Minerals Council, it has been widely reported, supplied the lump of coal brought into Question Time last month by treasurer Scott Morrison, in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave. The coal was lacquered so Coalition ministers and MPs would not get their hands dirty.
The proposed coal-fired power station in the Galilee Basin reveals the farcical depths of Australia’s energy policy debate. Even the Energy Supply Council, which represents the country’s fossil fuel generators, admits that new coal power is now “un-investable”.
The Coalition wants such coal plants to be funded by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, but this has been dismissed on several occasions by CEO Oliver Yates, who points out that co-financiers would be impossible to find, and any such investment would require billions of dollars in government guarantees and indemnities against a future carbon price.
The Minerals Council, though, is pushing the Galilee coal basin hard. It has previously fought against a carbon price and has launched numerous campaigns to promote coal as a commodity……http://reneweconomy.com.au/coalitions-clean-coal-plan-power-gina-clive-adani-galilee-basin-35115/
March 3, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, climate change - global warming, politics |
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Climate pollution rising: Turnbull, Frydenberg failing, REneweconomy, By Matthew Rose and Suzanne Harter on 1 March 2017 If the Turnbull government had to pay a dollar for every time a minister claimed Australia was ‘meeting and beating’ its climate targets, the money would be stacking up. Their claims, however, would not.
New data, just released under the National Greenhouse & Energy Reporting Scheme, shows the climate policies of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Environment & Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg are simply not working.
The data reflects the emissions of approximately 400 of Australia’s biggest companies and sits alongside the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory as an indicator of our emissions trajectory.
The 10 biggest polluters remain the same as last year. although the order has slightly changed.
They include Australia’s biggest electricity generators, AGL, Energy Australia, Origin, Engie and CS Energy, along with mining giants Rio Tinto and Glencore.
Overall, climate pollution is up by 3.4 per cent since last year and by 7.5 per cent since the Abbott-Turnbull government axed the carbon price. Unlike the government’s current policy, the carbon price was reducing Australia’s pollution. This is evident in the data. [graph on original]
The new data also shows pollution from Australia’s electricity sector, which is responsible for about 35 per cent of our climate pollution, went up 2.6 per cent on the previous year and 5 per cent since the carbon price was removed.
The pollution increases — from specific generators and overall — show there is little incentive for big polluters to clean up their acts when they have a free ride to pollute.
Meanwhile, global warming continues to damage Australian treasures, like the Great Barrier Reef, and increase the likelihood and severity of heatwaves and bushfires.
And there’s no sign Australia’s international commitments under the Paris agreement, including our 2030 target for 26-28 per cent pollution reduction in 2005 levels, will be able to be reached without major policy changes that see Australia phase out fossil fuels and enable a rapid transition to clean renewable energy.
However, instead of acknowledging global warming as a national crisis that demands immediate serious action, the federal government is considering loaning Adani $1 billion for a coal-carting railway line from the Galilee Basin to the Great Barrier Reef coast and wants the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to fund new coal-fired power stations.
None of this stacks up for investors that see coal in terminal decline and are unwilling to sink their money into facilities that will undoubtedly end up as stranded assets.
Nor is support for coal consistent with our Paris commitments, which include driving down pollution to net zero well before mid-century keeping global warming under 1.5—2 degrees………
Turnbull and Frydenberg continue to blame renewable energy. The data released this week is hard evidence Australia’s pollution is going up and that means Turnbull and Frydenberg’s policies are failing. http://reneweconomy.com.au/climate-pollution-rising-turnbull-frydenberg-failing-15377/
March 3, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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After all the negative comments from State and Federal politicians and the media about renewable energy not providing synchronous generation I find it ironic that this “event” was 99% related to synchronous thermal (coal and gas) electricity generators. Ill-informed comment from politicians and journalists exposes the subjective ideological underpinning of these commentators.
Dennis Matthews 1 Mar 17, INTRODUCTION The AEMO report (, 1 DECEMBER 2016) is shockingly (!) written.
It’s full of jargon and acronyms with no easy way of finding what the acronyms mean. We could be forgiven for thinking that AEMO publications are intended to be read only by industry experts rather than concerned consumers.
Its charts are frequently unreadable, with minute characters used to label the axes, the axes overcrowded with labels, and five figure labels such as 200.00 where 200 would have sufficed.
The continual use of the words “incident” and “event” are reminiscent of the nuclear industry’s description of its many serious accidents and failures.
AEMO has uncovered gross inadequate performance by the electricity industry from electricity transmission to fossil fuel electricity generation to systems needed to maintain the integrity of the overall generation-distribution-transmission system. At no stage is there even a hint that severe penalties should be incurred by those responsible. I suspect, even if there were penalties that these would be recovered through increased prices. Competition is almost totally lacking in the industry.
At no stage was the cause of the “separation event” (failure of the Heywood interconnector from Victoria to SA) the fault of wind or solar electricity generators, quite the opposite. Wind powered electricity generators contributed 6% to power supply and the interconnector failure led to the shutdown of 2 wind farms in Victoria.
The following discussion uses the same section notation as the AEMO report.
1. OVERVIEW Continue reading →
March 3, 2017
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energy, politics, South Australia |
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http://wanganjagalingou.com.au/traditional-owners-v-adani-in-federal-court-today-then-to-canberra-to-discuss-native-title-amendments/ Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) Traditional Owners Council 27 February 2017:
“Traditional owners fighting the Carmichael megamine are on the front foot this week, challenging in court the native title process which allowed the Qld Government to issue a mining lease without their consent, and meeting with Federal MPs to present arguments why the Government’s amendments to the Native Title Act threaten the rights of Traditional Owners and fail to deal with the real issues arising from the recent McGlade decision.
“Senior spokesperson for the Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J)
Traditional Owners Council, Mr Adrian Burragubba, says,
“The W&J Family Council have voted three times since 2012 to reject Adani’s sham deal, while the National Native Title Tribunal gave the green light to the Qld Government to issue Adani with a mining lease, after the mining company applied to have our decision overridden.
This is the crux of our appeal before the full bench of the Federal Court on Monday”.
“Spokespeople for W&J, Mr Burragubba and Ms Murrawah Johnson, will also visit Canberra this week to meet with key Federal MPs about the Government’s Native Title Act Amendment Bill and explain the failures of the native title process.
Labor and The Greens voted against rushing the Bill through the House of Representatives last week. The Bill is now being scrutinised by a Senate committee which is due to report on 17 March 2017. … “
March 1, 2017
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aboriginal issues, legal, politics |
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Government green bank receives funding request for $1.2 billion coal-fired power plant, The Age, Adam Morton Amy Remeikis 28 Feb 17 The Turnbull government’s push for taxpayers to finance new coal-fired power stations is facing its first test after an application for support was lodged with the national green bank.
Clean Energy Finance Corporation chief Oliver Yates told a Senate estimates hearing that the agency received an email on Friday from an unidentified company requesting a loan for a proposed $1.2 billion, 900 megawatt coal plant with carbon capture and storage.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the plan, but energy industry experts noted the size and estimated cost were similar to a previous proposal by former mining magnate and MP Clive Palmer for a generator in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
Speaking to Fairfax Media on Monday night, Mr Palmer said he had “retired” and directed questions to Waratah Coal managing director Nui Harris. But he said the company had spent $20 million on a similar plant under the Gillard government and the project was in a “high state of readiness”.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is banned from financing capture and storage technology, which involves burying the greenhouse gas emitted in burning coal underground. Dropping the ban would require a challenging change in legislation – a step likely to be opposed by Labor and the Greens.
Mr Yates said he believed new coal plants were not commercially viable unless the government was willing to indemnify the owner for the life of the plant.
He said the indemnity would need to cover any future climate change policy – an unquantifiable sum covering decades – and potential delays in construction due to protests.
Mr Yates, a former Macquarie Bank executive director who is stepping down as head of the finance corporation, said he was not aware of any bank that would be willing to lend to a project that may not be viable.
“I don’t see that as a sensible risk position for the taxpayer to take,” he said.
“If a private sector participant wants to go and build anything – they want to build a theme park, want to build the Eiffel Tower – it may not be economically sensible, but they are entitled to go and do it if they want to.”…….
Mr Yates said among the risks facing coal proposals was the falling cost of renewable energy. Coal generators would need to compete to sell the electricity they produced.
An analysis by consultants Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently found new coal plants, with emissions up to 25 per cent lower than Australia’s existing plants, would be more expensive than gas, wind or solar power. Adding carbon capture and storage would dramatically further increase the cost. ……. http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-green-bank-receives-funding-request-for-12-billion-coalfired-power-plant-20170227-gume05.html
March 1, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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Adani director appointed to body overseeing mining giant’s coal port despite conflict of interest warning http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-27/adani-director-appointed-government-body-overseeing-coal-port/8301104 Exclusive by the National Reporting Team’s Mark Willacy and Alexandra Blucher 27 February 2017:
“The Queensland Government appointed an Adani company director to chair the authority overseeing the Abbot Point coal port, despite being warned of “potential conflicts of interest”.
Key points:
“It’s undoubtedly a conflict of interest,” said law professor on Mr Fish’s appointment
Treasurer’s office confirms it knew of Mr Fish’s directorship and that he “disclosed potential conflicts of interest prior to his appointment”
But Mr Fish’s link to Adani was not disclosed publicly by the Treasurer when he was appointed … “
March 1, 2017
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politics, Queensland, secrets and lies |
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~ Sovereign Union http://www.sovereignunion.mobi/ http://www.sovereignunion.mobi/content/block-native-title-amendment-indigenous-land-use-agreements-bill-2017 16 February 2017: “There is a grave concern that the national parliament will accept the bleeting of the racist fear mongers
who run immediately to the king of racism, George Brandis, Attorney-General, to amend the Native Title Act.
The Commonwealth government is now desperate to overturn the recent decision of the full bench of the Federal Court in the McGlade v Native Title Registrar case v Native Title Registrar case, which puts the validity of many ILUAs in doubt as not all ‘named applicants’ who needed to sign an ILUA did so.
Incl: Hansard 2nd Reading Native Title Amendment”
“It truly represents that the Coalition government and the conservative Labor party govern for the non-Aboriginal society with little or no concern for inherent Aboriginal rights and this is despite years of condemnation by the United Nations Human Rights Commission and other treaty bodies such as the CERD, Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
“We cannot accept any further adverse changes to the Native Title Act, because the John Howard’s 10 Point Plan facilitated a repression and smothering of our inherent legal rights as the true land owners of this continent.
After the 1993 Native Title Act was passed, the late Nugget Coombs condemned the Keating Labor government and its Aboriginal advisors for agreeing to an Act to suppress Aboriginal rights and interests, in favour of ensuring a free pathway of access to Aboriginal lands in right of the multi-national and trans-national corporations, in order to exploit mineral wealth and natural resources without having to pay any fair and equitable compensation and royalty to the rightful owners.
“I call upon the Aboriginal members in both upper and lower houses of Federal parliament to stand their ground and not allow the current Native Title Amendment (Indigenous Land Use Agreements) Bill
to pass through the Federal Parliament. There can be no compromise on this issue. … “
February 27, 2017
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Like Trump, Turnbull’s environmental WTFness is a propelling us to disaster, Independent Australia Sue Arnold 25 February 2017, Like many Americans, Australians are wondering how the hell we ended up with a PM whose environment policies are a recipe for disaster. Sue Arnold reports.
AS THE Trump horror reality show unfolds, a collective shudder is being felt around the world. His anti environmental policies are winding back half a century of progressive laws created to ensure healthy human and animal habitats for current and future generations.
With the U. S. Environment Protection Agency now in the hands of climate sceptic and resource industry front man, Scott Pruitt , the Agency is scheduled to be repealed in 2018. The Endangered Species Act is also on the hit list and a U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is definitely on the cards.
At the same time, scientists have announced that the ocean oxygen levels have dropped by 2% in 50 years, a truly frightening scenario. According to the WWF Report 2015, populations of marine vertebrates have declined by up to 50% since l970. Coral reefs are predicted to be extinct by 2050.
According to Dr Richard Leakey, author of The Sixth Extinction, within the next 30 years half of the species on earth could die in one of the fastest mass extinctions in the planet’s 4.5 billion years of history.
Yet the legacy of future generations has no currency with the world’s most powerful leader.
Banging the drum for “clean coal” and “putting the miners back to work,” Trump is ensuring pollution of rivers, forests, air, water, and the agricultural lands on which we depend for the very stuff of life. His refusal to acknowledge the damage climate change is wreaking on the planet is a threat to human existence.
A similar scene is unfolding in Australia as Malcolm Turnbull leads the way with a similar mindless rejection of environmental reality. Witness his latest Trump style policy to use the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to fund “clean coal”. Utter madness.
Where does this arrogance originate?…..
It’s almost impossible to separate Turnbull and Trump in terms of their attitudes towards the environment. The record speaks for itself. Given the current PM’s repeated assertions he’s an environmentalist, his sell-out on climate change, and his obvious deference to the extreme right wing of the Liberal Party, perhaps it’s time to change the definition of environmentalism. With “clean coal” now his government’s mantra, the PM is better described as a hypocrite, blind to the appalling state of this country’s environment.
Look at the record.
The most recent State of the Environment Report is dated 2011.
Key findings include: -……….
Several bills languishing in the parliament demonstrate the future of Australia’s unique environmental legacy under a Coalition Government, highlighting the move towards Trump extinction policies.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Standing) Bill 2015 aims to remove extended standing for community members (including environment groups) to seek judicial review of decisions made under the EPBC Act. Standing would then be restricted to a person “whose interests are adversely affected by the decision”. If this bill is passed by the Senate, the onus of protecting specific environmental matters would be in the hands of individuals who could demonstrate their “interests are adversely affected by the decision”. Common law has interpreted this to require “special interest”.
The likelihood of individuals mounting lawsuits against the Federal Government is remote. https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/like-trump-turnbulls-environmental-wtfness-is-a-propelling-us-to-disaster,10056
February 25, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, environment, politics |
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It means the costs of cleaning up oil spills from exploration wells would be tax deductible, and could be held over and “uplifted” into future years at an annual rate of 17.5%……
“The rules are written so if a company created an oil spill with their exploration rig, they could make a profit from it,” – Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson
“A standard tax deduction for an oil spill clean-up would be bad enough, but in this case the deduction grows in value every year. No other sector, no other set of businesses gets such ridiculous and costly deductions.”
Taxpayers to pay for oil spill clean-ups under petroleum resource rent tax https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/25/taxpayers-to-pay-for-oil-spill-clean-ups-under-petroleum-resource-rent-tax Treasury confirms companies would be able to claim tax deduction for expenses incurred from cleaning up pollution, Australian taxpayers will be forced to subsidise the clean-up costs of oil spills in the Great Australian Bight thanks to the terms of the controversial petroleum resource rent tax. Continue reading →
February 25, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, environment, politics |
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Shorten goes on front foot over 50% renewables ‘target’, The Conversation, Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra February 22, 2017 Australia could be the “energy capital of Asia” but instead it is going backwards, Bill Shorten will say in a speech on Thursday, vigorously defending Labor’s target of 50% of Australia’s electricity coming from renewables by 2030.
As the government floats the prospect of help for cleaner-coal power stations and attacks Labor for committing too strongly to renewables, Shorten will say that to achieve the ALP’s 50% target much more private investment in renewable generation and technology will be needed than the amount required to get to the legislated Renewable Energy Target (RET). The RET is for 23.5% of Australia’s electricity generation in 2020 to come from renewable sources.
He will say that what is required is an emissions-intensity scheme (EIS) for the electricity sector, ongoing support for research and investments in renewable energy technology, and a plan to modernise the National Electricity Market.
The speech comes as an Essential poll this week found nearly two-thirds (65%) approved of Labor’s target of 50%; 18% disapproved. Support for the policy was 55% among Coalition voters.
After much debate last week about the precise nature of Labor’s 50% commitment – whether it was a “goal” or a “target” – Shorten will take a more assertive line. “Forget the word games – 50% renewables by 2030 is Labor’s target, our goal, our objective and our aspiration,” he will say.
“We can be the energy capital of Asia. And if Australia nails the energy question, we will collect a growth dividend that can set us up for the century.
“But despite the prize on offer, despite all our natural advantages, we’re not just stuck in the gates – we are going backwards.
“When the Coalition came to office and declared war on the RET scheme, investment in large-scale renewables fell by 88% in one year.
“After being rated one of the four most attractive destinations in the world for renewable energy investment in 2013, we now don’t even crack the top ten.
“In the last three years, the world has added nearly three million jobs in renewables energy – and Australia has lost 3000,” Shorten will say, speaking at Bloomberg…….
The first and most important step to provide that certainty and to assist the transition to renewable energy is to establish an EIS for the electricity sector, he will say. An EIS rewards energy generators that produce pollution levels lower than a set benchmark.
An EIS would drive investment in new sources of energy – renewables but also gas, Shorten will say.
“An EIS doesn’t rely on taxpayer funding or government officials making investment decisions. It leaves both decisions and funding to the private sector, to the market,” he will say. “It will reduce power bills and reduce pollution.”
Malcolm Turnbull has ruled out an EIS despite the preliminary report of the Finkel inquiry into future security of the national electricity market giving it a positive nod…….https://theconversation.com/shorten-goes-on-front-foot-over-50-renewables-target-73460
February 24, 2017
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More than 70% believe Coalition not doing enough on energy – poll
Guardian Essential survey shows a clear majority supports Labor’s goal of sourcing 50% of energy from renewables by 2030, Guardian,
A majority of voters surveyed in the latest Guardian Essential poll supports Labor’s renewable goal, suggesting Coalition attacks are not working. Guardian, Katharine Murphy, 21 Feb 17, More than 70% of voters think the Turnbull government is not doing enough to ensure affordable, reliable and clean energy for Australian households and businesses – and a clear majority also supports Labor’s goal of sourcing 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2030.
The latest Guardian Essential poll suggests that the Turnbull government’s relentless partisan attacks on Labor’s 50% renewable energy policy, and its concerted efforts early in the new political year to position itself as the party of cheaper and more secure power, haven’t yielded the desired result.
The poll shows 71% of the sample think the federal government is not doing enough to ensure affordable, reliable and clean energy – and only 12% rate the current effort as satisfactory.
Even among their own constituency, Liberal and National voters, 62% of the sample said the government was not doing enough.
When asked about the ALP’s aspirational goal to source 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2030, 65% of voters registered their approval of the concept.
The policy – which has been repeatedly branded reckless and ideological by the prime minister – won strong majority approval from both Labor and Green voters. Coalition voters were also more likely to approve of the target than disapprove.
The political campaign by the government hasn’t moved the dial in any significant way. Attitudes to the policy have changed little since it was unveiled by Bill Shorten in 2015.
Voters were also divided about whether or not Australia should build new coal-fired power stations but a clear majority opposed the idea. Forty-five per cent of the sample said it was a bad idea and 31% supported building new coal-fired power stations.
The people positive about the idea of building new coal-fired power stations were Liberal/National voters (47%),men (39%) and people aged 65 and over (53%)……
Most voters are also attributing power blackouts in South Australia to failures of the energy market in responding to extreme weather events (45%), rather than to problems with too many windfarms……https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/21/more-than-70-believe-coalition-not-doing-enough-on-energy-poll
February 22, 2017
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Frydenberg on blackouts: No mention of failing network, gas, software, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 21 February 2017 Federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg has put the blame for recent blackouts in South Australia directly on the state’s high penetration of wind and solar, and attributed no blame to network faults, storms or failing gas plants.
In a speech on energy security to the right-leaning Sydney Institute on Monday night, Frydenberg listed four black-out events that had hit South Australia since and including the “unprecedented” state-wide outage on September 28.
He made no mention of the fierce storms, the falling power lines, the network faults that caused outages in December and February, or the role of gas plants that sat idle, or had to shed capacity because of the heat and other technical faults.
Nor did he mention the software glitch that meant 90,000 households, rather than 30,000, suffered power cuts in South Australia earlier this month when demand hit record highs.
Instead, Frydenberg pointed only to the roles of wind and solar, both of which he said were producing at a fraction of their capacity when the rolling blackouts were implemented.
“This means that the days of easily forecastable supply are over,” he said. “Nowhere was this more clear than during the last South Australian blackout, when 90,000 consumers lost power.”
An Australian Energy Market Operator report last week said the cause of the problem was bad forecasting, not just of supply, but of demand. It was caught short when demand spiked and could not wake a gas generator from its slumber.
Another 300MW of gas capacity was unavailable because it was broken – with half of it failing in the hours before the blackout. Wind energy was producing twice as much power as had been forecast a day earlier. Solar was the only local generation that produced exactly as predicted.
As AEMO told the Senate inquiry last week: “It is going back to the unforced and unplanned outages that eroded our reserves at that time in such a short period of time.
“Yes, we knew the wind would drop-off and we knew the solar would drop-off at a particular time, but our reserves were fine up until the point when we had forced outages.” i.e. the gas plants.
Frydenberg also spoke of South Australia’s price spikes, but made no mention of similar price spikes in Queensland and South Australia.
Indeed, average wholesale electricity prices in coal-dependent Queensland so far this month have average $301/MWh, nearly 50 per cent more than South Australia last July ($201/MWh), when network supplies from Victoria were restricted by an upgrade and which helped trigger the Coalition’s anti-renewable campaign.
In February this year, NSW has averaged $214/MWh while South Australia has averaged $210/MWh. In January, average wholesale prices in Queensland were at $197/MWh, while in South Australia they averaged just $84/MWh.
AEMO, in its report, has insisted that it is not the nature of wind energy or solar that have contributed to the various blackouts. Frydenberg, however, is having none of it….http://reneweconomy.com.au/frydenberg-on-blackouts-no-mention-of-failing-network-gas-software-19688/
February 22, 2017
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We have now reached a time where an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations are ready to outlaw nuclear weapons, just as the world outlawed chemical and biological weapons and land mines.
There is no reason why we should not be providing leadership in the effort to ban nuclear weapons.
Australia must play our part. Malcolm Turnbull should commit to attending the 2017 negotiating conference. If Australia fails to participate, this will tarnish our international reputation as a disarmament supporter and, in doing so, fail to act to promote safety in our world.
AUSTRALIA MUST PLAY ITS PART IN ABOLISHING NUCLEAR WEAPONS , ANTHONY ALBANESE MP, SPEECH TO THE TOM UREN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS , 12 Feb 17 In 1961 John F Kennedy told the United Nations:
Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.
It is incredible to think that almost six decades on, this threat still exists. We must continue to dedicate ourselves to eliminating this threat. Every nation has a responsibility to work for a world free of nuclear weapons.
Australia is no exception.
That is why the work of ICAN in Australia and around the world, in helping to progress the disarmament
agenda, is so important.
I come to this debate with the benefit of the testimony of a man who saw the horror of nuclear weapons first hand. Tom Uren was imprisoned in a POW camp on the island of Omuta on 9 August 1945. Just after 11am, the US detonated an atomic bomb over the city of Nagasaki about 80km away. Estimates of the death toll ranged between 40,000 and 80,000. That’s men, women and children. Nuclear weapons don’t discriminate.
Continue reading →
February 20, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics, weapons and war |
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Josh Frydenberg flags changes to allow CEFC to invest in carbon capture and storage, ABC News, AM By Eliza Borrello, 20 Feb 17, Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has revealed the Government is considering lifting a ban on allowing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to invest in carbon capture and storage……At the moment the CEFC, the Government’s green bank, is not allowed to invest in it.
But amid the Coalition’s renewed support for coal-fired power, Mr Frydenberg said that could change…..
Shadow Energy Minister Mark Butler said it would require the kind of legislation Labor would strongly oppose. “This would be an outrageous act of vandalism against a successful financing mechanism for renewable energy, for energy efficiency projects and for genuine low-carbon technology,” he said.”It’s no real surprise, I guess, because the Liberal Party has never really supported the CEFC. “It tried to abolish it for three years and now seems committed to making it a finance mechanism for the coal industry, which is unable to attract finance from the private sector.”
Government interested in low-emission coal-fired plants Mr Frydenberg said he was also interested in investment in high-efficiency, low-emission coal-fired plants.
Currently they are not green enough for the CEFC to invest in, but Mr Frydenberg has flagged changing the rules. “The Government could issue a new mandate to the CEFC which would then inform its guidelines and would make possible an investment in a high-efficiency low-emission power plant,” he said……
But Mr Butler said the market was not interested in the kind of plants Mr Frydenberg was suggesting.
“It doesn’t reflect the reality in the electricity industry. No-one in the industry is talking about the reality of building new coal-fired power stations,” he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-20/government-interested-in-carbon-capture-tech-frydenberg-says/8284682
February 20, 2017
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most of the Mineral Council’s biggest members are multinationals, listed on Australian and overseas stock exchanges. Could their membership fees or fighting fund donations be used for the MCA’s political campaigns if foreign donations were banned? Should their individual contributions be revealed?
Deep-pocketed miners don’t like it when those with different views wield clout, Guardian, Lenore Taylor @lenoretaylor 18 February 2017 In 2010 the mining industry’s $22m campaign against Kevin Rudd’s resources tax helped bring down a prime minister. For years it has spent huge sums on donations and advertising and lobbying to exert enormous political influence. But the deep-pocketed miners really don’t like it when those with different views find the cash and the smarts to wield some clout.
February 20, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics |
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Antinuclear 