Decentralised solar power an energy answer for remote and urban areas
Solar PV systems provide environment-friendly power generating solution for electrifying remote rural areas where it is neither technically nor economically feasible to extend grid coverage across vast territories
Australia & New Zealand solar PV market report, Renewable Energy Focus, 17 June 2010 In Australia and New Zealand, solar photovoltaic (PV) market trends indicate burgeoning demand Continue reading
Australian media publicising mining billionaires’ cheating message
On Australian TV we witness the unappetising vision of a bunch of billionaires looking like feral hippies – protesting against the government’s proposed super profit resources tax.
Well, of course – these impoverished underprivileged citizens want to have their 15% minimum profit, pretty much untrammelled by letting us – the great unwashed, and our descendants, get some benefit from this greed and environmental destruction.
It is sad that the Australian public can be conned in this way, due to media that is either bowing to its corporate ownership, or just too stupid or slack to see what is happening.
No wonder BHP, Rio Tinto etc are scared that other governments might get the idea of acting in the interests of their people, rather than of corporations. And it’s happening – – in the nuclear industry, as Germany is about to ring in a similar tax on nuclear power.
Australia’s national organisations in favour of super profit resources tax
It’s wrong for billionaires to hijack this debate and hold the country to ransom with their $100 million scare campaign.”
Australia needs a robust tax system with fair and efficient taxation of mining super profits The Australian June 14, 2010 A JOINT statement by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Australian Council of Social Service, Australian Conservation Foundation and the Consumers’ Federation of Australia.
NATIONAL organisations representing social and community sector, unions, environmental and consumer groups have called for the voices of ordinary Australians to be heard in a tax debate that has been dominated by powerful vested mining interests. Continue reading
Miners want 15% profit – Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion might not proceed
Broker casts doubt on viability of Olympic Dam expansion, Sydney Morning Herald, BARRY FITZGERALD, June 17, 2010
BHP BILLITON’S proposed Olympic Dam expansion in South Australia’s outback could have no ”economic value” under the Rudd government’s hotly debated proposal to subject resource company super profits to an additional 40 per cent tax……. the assessment of mining analysts at Morgan Stanley, ”Our modelling of this project shows that the resource super profits tax reduces the net present value of the project to an extent that it becomes negative, and return on invested capital falls below the minimum hurdle rate of 15 per cent used by the mining industry.
BHP Billiton’s managing director, Marius Kloppers……. said that although BHP had not shelved or frozen projects in response to the proposed tax, Olympic Dam was the sort of high capital expenditure project with long lead times that was ”most disadvantaged”……But BHP has yet to commit to the project. Approval from the SA, Northern Territory (ore is exported from Darwin) and federal governments is needed and is planned for the first half of next year. The final proposal with all the permits and conditions attached is then likely to go before the board in the latter half of next year.
W.A. Premier threatens compulsory Aboriginal land acquisition – gas now, uranium later?
Gas hub land may be compulsorily acquired ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 15 June 2010, The Premier Colin Barnett has again foreshadowed compulsorily acquiring land north of Broome to build a Kimberley gas hub. Continue reading
Mike Rann – Premier for the Uranium Lobby
No unconditional support on tax –
Rann | Adelaide Now, Christopher Russell, June 16, 2010 Mr Rann formally opened the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s uranium conference 2010, being held this week at the Adelaide Convention Centre…….
AusIMM president Greg Chalmers said ……..”Uranium should have demonstrated green credentials and cost benefits if we can get over emotions versus logic.…….”
Video on Nuclear waste Dump for Australian Aboriginal Land
VIDEO Australia nuclear waste dump row – Asia-Pacific – Al Jazeera English Asia-Pacific – Al Jazeera 17 June 2010, Australia’s government is pushing its plans for a nuclear waste dump in a remote part of the country’s Northern Territory.It has signed an agreement with the traditional owners of the land who will receive $10m in compensation, most of it in cash.But the proposed nuclear dump has divided local people while and environmentalists warn it could one day be used to store waste from overseas.Al Jazeera’s Azhar Sukri reports.
Labor’s sorry record on uranium mining and Aboriginal rights
Ark Tribe faces the bosses’ court – time for unions to get back on the front foot, Socialist Alliance Unionists, 17 June 2010, “…..Indigenous rights? The racist and humiliating Northern Territory Intervention. Uranium mining? Looming open slather for mining bosses. So why support the ALP? Continue reading
Arkaroola uranium mining threatens rare frog species
Mining worries as frog species found – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 16 June 2010, The owner of Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary says discovery of a new frog species is yet another reason to be wary of mining in the Flinders Ranges region of outback South Australia.Scientists say it is the first new species to be identified in SA in 45 years.The species was found this month at Arkaroola, where Marathon Resources is involved in a uranium exploration project at Mount Gee.Sanctuary owner Marg Sprigg says she is worried Marathon’s initial drilling program could lead to it getting a full drilling licence later in the year.”I’m a geologist, I’m not against mining but I don’t think you have to mine everywhere and there were a lot of geologists who put in submissions saying ‘leave Arkaroola alone, it is too special, it’s a brilliant geological teaching laboratory’.”Ms Sprigg says mining could prevent more unique species being found in the Flinders Ranges.
Mining worries as frog species found – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Missing Australian nuclear scientist’s body found
Body of nuclear scientist found Sky News: June 16, 2010 The body of an Australian nuclear scientist who disappeared in the wilds of Canada five months ago has been found in the Ottawa river near the town where he was living.Two canoeists have found the body of former Melbourne resident Lachlan Cranswick.His brother Rupert says photo identification was located on the body and the victim was wearing the clothes in which he was last seen.41-year-old Lachlanhad been working at a nuclear facility for the past seven years.Rupert says it appears his brother had ventured onto the frozen river and fell through the ice
Bleak future for uranium, but not because of resources tax
The mining lobby, and their media servants revel in attacking the Australian government over the proposed super profit resources tax. They blame theis for a poor outlook for for example, the expanded Olympic Dam uranium mine.
But the truth of the poor uranium outlook is otherwise.
Tax gains from bad apples: reduce your tax bill | The Australian, 16 June 2010, Guadagnuolo sees little prospect of a sustained recovery for uranium miner Energy Resources Australia ………”Further, we think the market has overestimated the scarcity of uranium, while advances in reactor technology will limit demand as reprocessing becomes increasingly effective, with the added benefit of limiting the proliferation of nuclear materials,” he says…..PRIME CANDIDATE FOR TAX LOSS SELLING……Energy Resources of Australia (ERA): Down 43 per cent since June 30.
Australia’s trade sanctions against Iran
Australia is pretty good at posturing as a leader in nuclear weapons non-proliferation. Trouble is, Australia is also a leader in selling nuclear fuel to several nuclear weapons countries.
Australia unveils unilateral Iran sanctions , PRESSTV, 15 Jun 2010 Less than a week after the UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, Australia says it is planning unilateral punitive measures. Continue reading
Uranium mining guzzles Australia’s precious groundwater
water from the Great Artesian Basin in Central Australia is being depleted to keep residual radioactive dust from uranium mining wet in order to keep it from blowing across the continent. Seven million gallons of water is being extracted from the basin per day to keep the radioactive dust in place
Unhappy Anniversary for the Atomic Bomb, Streetvibes Newspaper , June 15, 2010 Anti-nuclear activists want it to retire By Jeremy Flannery ” …..Riley is traveling across the United States with a fellow member of Think Outside the Bomb and two Australian members of Footprints for Peace to campaign for the end of nuclear energy. Continue reading
W.A. way behind in clean energy, despite its renewable resources
Perth comes last for sustainability, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 15 June 2010, Perth has been ranked the least sustainable city in an assessment of the carbon footprint of Australia’s 20 largest cities….. Continue reading
Share prices suffer as S.A. uranium companies wrangle
Quasar Resources challenges Alliance in court over Four Mile uranium project, Adelaide Now SARAH MARTIN
- June 15, 2010 QUASAR Resources is accusing junior joint venture partner Alliance Resources of frustrating development of the Four Mile uranium mine in SA’s north. Continue reading
1 This month
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