Adelaide FoE Notes

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Nuclear Waste ballot delayed

August 20, 2018

The ballot of residents in Kimba and Hawker, designed to guagesupport for teh proposed dump, has been delayed. It was to start Monday Aug 20th, but will be deferred until arguments from Traditional Owners are heard in the Supreme Court

The Federal Government has short-listed two sites near Kimba and one near Hawker as possible locations for the waste facility.
Postal votes to help determine whether the two communities would accept the waste dump have been put on hold after legal action was launched in the Supreme Court by the Barngarla indigenous people.
The Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation argues that native title holders who live outside the municipal borders of Kimba should be entitled to vote in the postal ballot. The case is scheduled to be heard by the full court this Thursday.

Adelaide FoE Notes, FoE, Nuclear

Feds exaggerate the “benefit” of Nuclear waste Dump

August 20, 2018

20 August: A new report into the claimed economic benefits to regional communities of the Federal Government nuclear waste facility has found the government has exaggerated the benefits, and not properly factored in insurance costs and other risks.

“This whole process has been poorly conducted and horribly divisive from day one,” said Craig Wilkins, Chief Executive of Conservation SA.
“Knowing how reluctant many people in Kimba and the Flinders Ranges are to having a nuclear waste dump in their backyard, the Federal Government has greatly over-sold the economic benefits to try and buy community support.
“This report is a reality check for a community sick of the spin from the Federal Government,” he said.
Conservation SA commissioned economic think tank The Australia Institute to examine more closely Federal Government’s claims of an economic windfall for the affected communities.
The Down in the Dumps report compared the current Australian National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF) plans with similar facilities overseas, and found a raft of exaggerated jobs and economic return claims.  For example, a proposed facility in Canada which is more than one hundred times larger with more functions and features, will cost only half as much to construct and operate.
As the report’s author, Dr Cameron Murray, states: ‘Either the waste facility is orders of magnitude larger than need for Australia’s nuclear waste, or the government has exaggerated the economic returns to the local community of the NRWMF facility’.

Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear

SA Liberals to continue energy transition.

May 25, 2018

Dan van Holst Pellekaan, the energy minister in the newly elected South Australia Liberal government, has vowed to continue the state’s dramatic energy transition and show other states “how it can be done”.

In a keynote speech to the Australian Energy Storage conference and exhibition in Adelaide on Wednesday, van Holst Pellekaan said expectations that the election of a Liberal government would be the end of clean energy in the state were false.

“We heard about the end of renewables and return to energy systems of the past,” van Holst Pellekaan said.

“The transition is underway, and the transition will continue. It is being driven by the fundamental economics of clean energy as the lowest cost new build energy source.

“South Australia will lead and show the world how a sensible transition can be done.”

More details in the reneweconomy website article “SA Liberals vow to continue energy transition…”

Adelaide FoE Notes

Ban Underground Coal Gasification

May 25, 2018

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Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is an undeveloped, high risk mining technique involving the combustion of coal seams underground.

It has already caused pollution disasters in Australia and overseas.  In South West Queenland, Linc Energy polluted 175 square kilometres of prime agricultural land with dangerous chemicals and gasses, causing the death of livestock and damaging farmland for the foreseeable future.

The Queensland government recently responded to this disaster by banning Underground Coal Gasification.

However, this technology is not banned in other states or territories. There are currently plans to fuel a power station in the South Australian outback town of Leigh Creek through “in-situ gasification” (UCG).

It’s time to build on the momentum of this Queensland ban by instating a national ban on this dangerous practice.

We cannot let agricultural land, ground water and natural environments become the collateral damage of these high risk mining experiments, especially when we have safe, renewable energy options available.

There is no room for this dangerous, high emissions technology in a forward thinking country.

For background information on UCG, please check here.

ENVIRONMENT MINISTER, JOSH FRYDENBERG, HAS THE POWER TO ACT TO BAN THIS DANGEROUS TECHNOLOGY
Email Josh Frydenberg NOW!

 

Adelaide FoE Notes, FoE

Renewables campaign meeting Saturday

May 25, 2018

Just a reminder for those interested in campaigning on climate & renewables: there’s a meeting at 3pm this Saturday, May 26th, in the common room at Christie Walk (entry via 101 Sturt St). We’ve launched The Playford Declaration, and will be looking at how to promote it and what areas we might want to campaign on in the next few months.

Please RSVP by contacting Roman (email: roman.orszanski@foe.org.au, mob: 0424447817) if you’re interested in the campaign and/or are coming along to the meeting. Up for discussion: the declaration, low cost renewables for the poor, gas fracking, divestment, and a ban on fossil fuels.

Adelaide FoE Notes, Climate, Renewables