World’s fastest energy transition: AEMO maps path to 94 per cent renewables — RenewEconomy
AEMO says Australia is going to experience the most rapid energy transition in the world, like it or not, and it could deliver 94 per cent renewables 2040. The post World’s fastest energy transition: AEMO maps path to 94 per cent renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.
World’s fastest energy transition: AEMO maps path to 94 per cent renewables — RenewEconomy
Gas subsidies: Covid Commission asked to explain backflip on evidence to Senate committee — RenewEconomy
Chair of the National Covid-19 Commission faces calls to explain why a pro-gas working group report contradicts evidence provided to a parliamentary committee. The post Gas subsidies: Covid Commission asked to explain backflip on evidence to Senate committee appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Gas subsidies: Covid Commission asked to explain backflip on evidence to Senate committee — RenewEconomy
July 29 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “Talking About Climate Change: It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It” • You might have found yourself talking to someone about Earth justice and climate change, and suddenly, you notice their eyes have started to glaze over. How do you talk to such a person? The answer lies in messaging, […]
July 29 Energy News — geoharvey
Green manufacturing could deliver $50bn boost to GDP, 400,000 jobs — RenewEconomy
Investing in local battery production and the use of renewables to power industry could drive a renaissance in Australia’s manufacturing sector. The post Green manufacturing could deliver $50bn boost to GDP, 400,000 jobs appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Green manufacturing could deliver $50bn boost to GDP, 400,000 jobs — RenewEconomy
Energy Insiders Podcast: Angus Taylor tries to bury energy transition under cloak of secrecy — RenewEconomy
Australia’s energy transition is accelerating, but energy minister Angus Taylor is doing his best to try and bury the details and the key decisions. The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Angus Taylor tries to bury energy transition under cloak of secrecy appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Energy Insiders Podcast: Angus Taylor tries to bury energy transition under cloak of secrecy — RenewEconomy
Gas lobby’s leaked power grab for post Covid subsidies sparks outrage — RenewEconomy
Environmental groups slam leaked findings of Morrison government’s Covid-19 Commission, which has called for massive gas industry subsidies and weakening of environmental oversight. The post Gas lobby’s leaked power grab for post Covid subsidies sparks outrage appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Gas lobby’s leaked power grab for post Covid subsidies sparks outrage — RenewEconomy
Reflection on Jeff Baldock’s presentation to the Senate Hearing on Napandee Radioactive waste Dump plan
Jeff Baldock is the farmer who is selling a portion of his land near Kimba, for four times its market value, to the Federal Government for the site of a nuclear waste dump. He thinks he is benefiting the local community. He could be right, in that they will be showered by he Fed govt with services and facilities that they SHOULD HAVE GOT ANYWAY, without need of being bribed. Baldock has no concept of the long term effect, and later consequences for South Australia.
He made a brave effort at the hearing, to portray this as a community benefit. He struggled a bit, but was helped by plenty of “Dorothy Dixer” questions from the Chairman.
Listening to Jeff Badock on the Senate Committee hearings, I am struck by the naivety and ignorance of the man. He really thinks that farming life will go on just the same in Kimba. With the guarded radioactive waste dump, with dirty great trucks under heavy police guard arriving periodically, and with roadworks, and port works at Whyalla, and the whole disruption of the area Probable loss of population, but Baldock expects a new boom in agriculture and population there. Expects big professional jobs there – hell – those will all be in Adelaide, at best – could be Sydney or Canberra!
Black lives DO matter, but not apparently, to ANSTO and Australia’s nuclear lobby
The systematic racist behaviour by your Government is a stain on the collective consciousness of this country.’
the Senate Inquiry Committee decided not to hold a hearing in SA. Instead it will be a phone/video hearing — a disappointing decision for those far more at ease in face-to-face meetings even if most of the Senators involved were themselves on video.
Much at stake for Barngarla Country, Country, https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/much-at-stake-for-barngarla-country?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Eureka%20Street%20Daily%20-%20Tuesday%2028%20July%202020&utm_content=Eureka%20Street%20Daily%20-%20Tuesday%2028%20July%202020+CID_a705bb9962677d9379d61686e520c4ca&utm_source=Jescom%20Newsletters&utm_term=Much% Michele Madigan, 28 July 2020
- In the present world wide climate of Black Lives Matter when some governments/states are changing significant processes for the betterment of all, how is our own country fronting up when it comes to competing interests regarding land and culture? ‘Quite badly’ is the assessment that comes to mind in examining Barngarla Peoples’ recent reply to the Department of Resources, the federal department charged by government with the establishment of the national radioactive waste dump/facility (NRWMF).
Their letter of reply, publicly released July 23rd lays it down:
‘As you would likely be aware the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (Human Rights Committee) has confirmed, in their Human Rights Scrutiny Report — Report 4 of April 2020, that the proposal to place a NRWMF at Napandee is a violation of the Barngarla People’s Human Rights. This is clearly the case, given just some of the matters below…?’
The letter goes on to list how, as Traditional Owners, they were refused the right to vote, forcing them to organise their own official ballot with its unanimous ‘no’ vote which was then ‘entirely ignored by the Minister.’
Shamefully, the Barngarla further identify the final determination of government to crush First Nations and any other group seeking to use the democratic processes of the nation: ‘Those terrible failures in process would have been subject to judicial oversight had the Minister made a declaration under section14 of the existing National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012 (Cth). However, being fully aware of this, the Minister is now seeking to remove the Barngarla People’s legal rights to judicial review by using Parliament to legislate the location directly.’
Yes, the gloves are certainly off in the long running saga of the federal government’s latest effort to offload the nation’s nuclear waste — this time on Barngarla Country.
The Coalition seems to be banking on the certainty that everyone’s energy about national matters is focused on the Covid-19 emergency. The Guardian reports the plan to rush through new conservation laws even before even Prof. Graeme Samuel’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) final report is written:
‘The EPBC Act Interim Report (released July 21st) ) unsurprisingly includes the reprimand that the federal government’s framework environment legislation ‘reflects an overall culture of tokenism and symbolism, rather than one of genuine inclusion of Indigenous Australians’.
At the same time, with the Radioactive Waste Management Amendment Act 2020 yet to pass the Senate, on 21st July Resources Minister Pitt announced his own kind of pre-emptive strike. His joint media release announced a ‘new agency to safely and securely manage Australia’s radioactive waste’ by the establishment of ‘a dedicated agency’ based in Adelaide which will be ‘responsible for all functions of the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility including engagement with the Kimba community.’
This is notwithstanding that the Senate Inquiry Committee is presently examining the actual issue and so of course Senators have not yet voted on the Bill, which confirms the selection of the Nappanee site in SA’s Kimba, Eyre Peninsula. The Minister’s apparent certainty of the outcome by announcing a ‘dedicated agency’ responsible for the entire matter, seems to take no account of these inconvenient facts. Is the Senate seen as irrelevant?
The bill itself narrowly passed the House of Representatives last month with opposition from Labor, the Greens and most of the Independents to whom it was clear that the rights of the Traditional Owners and other groups similarly opposed had been cast aside. MPs were aware that the process attempts to create a serious precedent. As Dave Sweeney ACF summarises: ‘the Parliament precluding the Courts.’
It is possible to turn around injustice: the Human Rights Committee’s report cited above was unanimous and was endorsed by Liberal and National Party members. With the Senate vote perhaps in September, it is to be hoped that federal Labor with its key South Australian Senators like Penny Wong and Don Farrell will follow the precedent set by their Lower House colleagues.
As well as the Greens, there are those other Senate crossbenchers who support farming communities. In the Kimba district and more widely in SA’s entire Eyre Peninsula, there are food producers disturbed by threats, whether by image or actuality, to their food production — the safety of which is more important than ever in these COVID-19 times.
A week out from the long awaited July 28th public hearing, the Senate Inquiry Committee decided not to hold a hearing in SA. Instead it will be a phone/video hearing — a disappointing decision for those far more at ease in face-to-face meetings even if most of the Senators involved were themselves on video.
But the Barngarla are clear. After refusing the funds offered to ironically ‘support their cultural heritage’ comes their letter’s devastating conclusion: ‘Your email indicates that the Government wants “to form a long term relationship with the Barngarla community based on mutual respect”. This is clearly an insincere statement given the complete violation of our rights to date. …The systematic racist behaviour by your Government is a stain on the collective consciousness of this country.’
There’s a long way to go for the Coalition to change from ‘its business as usual’ performance in this as in many other matters. We can all play our part, however, in encouraging Senators to stop another sizable wind back in the nation’s democratic processes. If the Senate defeats this Radioactive Waste Management Bill then the Barngarla and others can, as in any democratic country, take to court the minister’s processes.
There is much at stake.
Notes on Barry Wakelin, speaking to the Senate Inquiry on Napandee nuclear waste dump plan
A student is suing the government over the financial risks of climate change
‘A wake-up call’: why this student is suing the government over the financial risks of climate change, The 
ConversationJuly 27, 2020 Jacqueline Peel Professor of Environmental and Climate Law, University of Melbourne, Rebekkah Markey-Towler, Research assistant, University of MelbourneAs the world warms, the value of “safe” investments might be at risk from inadequate climate change policies. This prospect is raised by a world-first climate change case, filed in the federal court last week.
Katta O’Donnell – a 23-year-old law student from Melbourne – is suing the Australian government for failing to disclose climate change risks to investors in Australia’s sovereign bonds.
Sovereign bonds involve loans of money from investors to governments for a set period at a fixed interest rate. They’re usually thought to be the safest form of investment. For example, many Australians are invested in sovereign bonds through their superannuation funds.
But as climate change presents major risks to our economy as well as the environment, O’Donnell’s claim is a wake-up call to the government that it can no longer bury its head in the sand when it comes to this vulnerability.
O’Donnell’s arguments
O’Donnell argues Australia’s poor climate policies – ranked among the lowest in the industrialised world – put the economy at risk from climate change. She says climate-related risks should be properly disclosed in information documents to sovereign bond investors.
O’Donnell’s claim alleges that by failing to disclose this information, the federal government breaches its legal duty. It alleges the government has engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct, and government officials breached their duty of care and diligence.
This is a standard similar to that owed by Australian company directors. Analysis from leading barristers indicates that directors who fail to consider climate risks could be found liable for breaching their duty of care and diligence.
O’Donnell argues government officials providing information to investors in sovereign bonds should meet the same benchmark.
Climate change as a financial risk….… https://theconversation.com/a-wake-up-call-why-this-student-is-suing-the-government-over-the-financial-risks-of-climate-change-143359
The huge, expensive, problematic dismantling of the San Onofre nuclear reactor
Rob Nikolewski, energy reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune, has been following the progress of decommissioning and storing the radioactive waste.
Nikolewski said one very large chunk classified as low-level nuclear waste has already been transported to a storage site near Clive, Utah. The 770-ton reactor vessel was shipped by rail and a convoy of eight trucks across over 400 miles to its destination. Millions more pounds of low-level waste will be broken down into smaller pieces and transported to Clive, where the private company Energy Solutions has a licensed repository.
However the high-level waste — hundreds of spent fuel rods — remains on-site, since the federal government has failed to approve a long- term storage site for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste. Southern California Edison, which owns the plant, has nearly finished transferring canisters of highly radioactive spent fuel rods into over 70 concrete bunkers next to the beach.
Earlier this month the California Coastal Commission approved Edison’s permit for the decommissioning, including removing the cooling pools which originally held the stored spent fuel rods. The Commissioners reserved the right to review the permit in 15 years and if there is evidence of cracking or other problems such as sea-level rise that threaten the integrity of the canisters, the permit holder could be required to move them.
San Diego Congressman Mike Levin is concerned about the safety of the site, which is in his district and has millions of people living within 50 miles. Levin convened a task force that met for a year and recently came out with a report. One recommendation is that since the federal government has not approved a long-term storage site for high-level nuclear waste, the state of California should take more responsibility for how the nuclear waste is disposed of.
Nikolewski said he has not seen any evidence of state officials stepping forward to hold the companies accountable. He said federal law may need to be changed to allow for that.
The distinctive twin domes that are visible from the Interstate 5 will be removed sometime between 2025 and 2027, and decommissioning the plant, including removal of the low-level nuclear waste, should be complete within 6 to 8 years. The high-level waste will remain indefinitely, in bunkers near the beach.
Julian Assange: Denied Lawyer Access and Failure of Transpareny Internaional — Rise Up Times
“Julian has not been able to see his lawyers for seventeen weeks. The computer supplied to him after over a year of asking has its keys glued down and the typing function is disabled.” Popular Resistance July 27, 2020 Julian Assange’s Next Hearing On Monday, July 27 By Don’t Extradite Assange. WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson […]
Julian Assange: Denied Lawyer Access and Failure of Transpareny Internaional — Rise Up Times
Today -public Australian Senate hearings on Kimba nuclear waste plan and changed federal laws
the next Senate hearing into the proposed Kimba radioactive waste plan and the changed federal laws to facilitate this is taking place today.
Try listening -follow the link at this site https://www.aph.gov.au/news_and_events/watch_parliament
Today’s session will hear from supporters of the planned facility as well as critics, including the MUA/Unions SA’s Jamie Newlyn, former federal member Barry Wakelin and myself/ACF.
Details of the program are below and info on how to access the event is available at:
11.00 am Wesley and Lisa Schmidt (Submission 75) 11.30 am Mr Barry Wakelin (Submission 46) 12.00 pm Mr Jeff Baldock (Submission 42) 12.45 pm Australian Conservation Foundation (Submission 97) 1.15 pm Maritime Union of Australia (Submission 19) 1.45 pm Adjournment
Public hearings about Australia’s Radioactive Waste Bill – in Canberra Tuesday 28th July 2020 and Monday 3rd August 2020
Kazzi Jai shared a link. Just went to the APH Hearings page for the Amendments Bill ….and there are TWO Public Hearings scheduled – BOTH IN the ACT!!
One for Tuesday 28th July 2020 and one for Monday 3rd August 2020!
No witness list for either yet!
Coronavirus, climate, nuclear, news this week
It’s hard to know what are the most important news items of the week, or the day. The Pandemic Really Has Changed The World Forever. Here’s what we know so far about the long-term symptoms of COVID-19. Nurses and other healthcare workers open up about ‘terror’ of catching coronavirus. We underestimate the long term effects of the pandemic.
Climate emergency is ‘a danger to peace’. In 100 days, the climate emergency may be even more serious. Latest climate study predicts disaster for oceans, coastlines and life as we know it.
The global sweep of coronavirus and climate news makes nuclear issues seem minor, or at least fade into the background a bit. But nuclear threats are always there. This week the corruption that is rife in the global nuclear industry has been highlighted in the legal case in Ohio – a huge criminal racketeering conspiracy that orchestrated the bailout of nuclear power stations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBx56QyrUjY&t=3s
Some bits of good news – The economy usually recovers quickly once pandemics end. House Democrats just put out the most detailed climate plan in US political history.
AUSTRALIA
Coronavirus cases aren’t coming down despite Victoria’s lockdowns. Experts seek to explain why.
NUCLEAR.
Despite Minerals Council lobbying, Australia’s Environmental Law prohibits nuclear and limits uranium mining.
Radioactive Waste Management Bill Amendment. South Australian government (ignoring its own nuclear prohibition laws) joins Federal govt’s haste for nuclear waste dump. Hasty new nuclear dump agency with some overseas staff, – and law for waste dump is not yet passed! New Federal radioactive waste agency flawed from day one Spinbusting the extraordinarily inept nuclear waste media release from 3 Australian MPs. South Australian Government must oppose the Federal government’s nuclear waste dump.
Australia should join regional nations in signing and ratifying the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
CLIMATE. More than 200 prominent Australians issue urgent call to act on climate. Parts of Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, Melbourne suburbs, at risk from sea level rise. All Australia’s coal generators could close by 2040 and it won’t be as big a deal as you’d think. Central banks, including RBA, urge rapid coal phase-out to meet Paris climate goals. Regulator rules it is misleading to claim gas is ‘cleaner and greener’.
Federal environment law review calls for independent cop, but Morrison Government rules it out. Indigenous Australians have been failed by the nation’s environmental protection laws, a review has found..
Australian govt trying to keep its $1.3bn arms purchase a secret, a dangerous precedent.
Rare earths. NT $1.1b rare earths mine could help break China stranglehold $1.1 billion Nolans mine planned for the Territory near Alice Springs .
RENEWABLE ENERGY. Lots of news, but I am short of time today. Check https://reneweconomy.com.au/
INTERNATIONAL
Coronavirus update: US, Brazil and India lead world tally of 16 million COVID-19 cases . Global surge in Covid-19 infections, over 600.000 deaths.
World must act now to protect wildlife in order to stop future virus crises. With loss of biodiversity will come new pandemics.
Global heating will mean that many areas become too hot for human activities. New research: global temperature increase will surpass 2.6 degrees Celsius: the role of clouds. How Facebook fosters climate denial. Crucial need to fix air-conditioning: it causes billions of tons of greenhouse gases. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brtog4AABBg
Clear evidence of excess cancer risk from low dose ionizing radiation. New CT scan method lowers radiation exposure . The global scam: nuclear energy and the industry surrounding it.
In the event of a nuclear bombing, electromagnetic pulse would be the least of our worries. Space archaeology, space junk and weapons, and long-lasting radioactivity.
Humans are blanketing the Earth with plastic.
Earth’s Human Population Is Not Sustainable.
ARCTIC. Arctic heatwave: temperature reach possible all time high. Arctic fires and sea ice melt, show need for urgent climate action. Alaska’s permafrost degrading as summer rainfall increases.
ASIA. Global heating means more rain for Asian monsoon regions. South Asia floods displace millions and kill 550. Millions of children affected by devastating flooding in South Asia, with many more at risk as COVID-19 brings further challenges. A critical situation’: Bangladesh in crisis as monsoon floods follow super-cyclone. Flooding in Assam and Nepal kills hundreds and displaces millions .
1 This month.
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
19 May – Webinar- Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-05-19 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-05-19 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 