Author Archive: roman

We had a well-attended AGM, and elected a number of knowledgeable and talented people to our Admin/Strategy collective.

In particular, we have a new Convenor, Susie Ruthenbeck; a new Secretary, David Faber; and an experienced treasurer, Richard Smith.
There was considerable discussion at the first meeting of this year about the anti-nuclear campaign against the National Dump; the push to speed up a just Energy transition to renewables; and what we might do for the coming state election. More details soon…

The SA govt has given $6 million of our taxpayer money to a mining company for exploratory work re unconventional gasfields in SA. Note that gas licences and projected gas licences, if they are approved, will mean gasfields on 53% of Australia i.e. 408 million hectares while only providing 2% of jobs at the same destroying jobs in tourism, and agriculture (crops, meat & vineyards). This youtube link below shows the effect on people’s lives and farming land in Australia and the USA.

It’s very worth watching and only takes 40 mins (be informed while sipping a cup of coffee or tea).

 We need energy and we can get it through wind and solar farms which, surprise surprise, provide ongoing jobs & are much less detrimental to the environment.
Do we want to affect our food and water or protect both for our future use? A simple question really.

 Action

Can you spare an hour on Saturday the 8th July? Do you want to help keep our environment clean? If so please join us at the Water4Life roadside action on the corner of Glen Osmond and Greenhill Roads (parklands side) from 10.30am to 11.30am

 Writing to your MP is also useful. We need to let our MPs know what we want & where our votes will go. (Our MPs are our employees – we pay them, right?)

Money All gas mined will be exported, so we get it at a buy back deal where the price to us will be linked to global prices, not local prices. Hence price of our gas will go up in the next few years. 84% of mining profits go to overseas shareholders. Most income from mining fields go to pubs & property owners re increased rent.  But the affiliated loss of income to farmers is horrendous eg one farmer explained that his farm is his super – this will be affected by a gasfield near his place.… Read more >>

Journalist Naomi Klein’s new book is out now; subtitled “Defeating the New Shock Politics”, it offers insights into the rise of Trump and suggests a toolkit for the resistance. In particular, she pinpoints why neocons are so actively resisting recognising the urgency of action against climate change.

“…climate change, especially at this late date, can only be dealt with through collective action that sharply curtails the behaviour of corporations such as ExxonMobil and Goldman Sachs. It demands investments in the public sphere — in new energy grids, public transit and light rail, and energy efficiency — on a scale not seen since the second world war. And that can only happen by raising taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, the very people Trump is determined to shower with the most generous tax cuts, loopholes and regulatory breaks. Responding to climate change also means giving communities the freedom to prioritize local green industries — a process which clashes directly with the corporate free trade deals that have been such an integral part of neoliberalism, and which bar “buy local” rules as protectionist.”

—  Naomi Klein, No is Not Enough, p81

One day after the PM appeared to throw his support behind the development of a new coal plant for Australia – to shore up the nation’s “continuous power sources” – AGL Energy CEO Andy Vesey has delivered a couple of energy market home truths and clarifications: renewables will be the only source of new baseload energy in Australia, and coal cannot compete.

In the opening address at Australian Energy Week in Melbourne on Wednesday, Vesey said

“What’s the new baseload for us? It’s going to be large-scale renewables. It’ll be firmed up by probably open-cycle gas and, eventually, when storage comes down, that’s what it will be.”

“We don’t see anything baseload other than renewables,”

— AGL Energy CEO

Full story at RenewEconomy: http://reneweconomy.com.au/agl-says-only-renewables-will-provide-new-baseload-not-coal-85724/

“Chief scientist Alan Finkel has been trying to explain, as loudly and forcefully as he can, that wind and solar are the cheapest form of new energy. But in the Coalition, they can’t hear you scream that particular message.

It is now more than a week since the Finkel Review was unveiled – to a mix of hope, promise, disappointment and frustration. But judging by the rhetoric of the past few days, it has failed even in its most basic tests: to move the debate forward and to promote acceptance of the obvious, that new renewables are cheaper than new fossil fuels.

So much so that the review, which has been hailed as a “once in a generation” opportunity to bring Australia’s ailing energy market into the 21st Century, is now being used as an excuse to take it back to the 19th.

Despite pleading from business, the Coalition hasn’t changed its stripes at all. They are still calling for new brown coal generators in Victoria, and a new black coal generator in north Queensland.

Queensland LNP leader Tim Nicholls has promised to set the wheels in motion for new coal-fired generation in Queensland’s north “within 100 days” of winning office, and federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg has slipped back into his pre-Finkel rhetoric of blaming the states for all of the NEM’s woes.”

— Giles Parkinson, Coalition’s war on cheap power: When fools design energy policy, RenewEconomy, June 19th (our emphasis)