Publications

Government tries to subvert ARENA again!

roman April 5, 2022

On Monday last week, an earlier iteration of controversial regulations issued to ARENA – that sought to redirect its funding to non-renewable energy technologies were cancelled out by the federal senate.

The cancellation occurred after a senate oversight committee deemed the regulations to be unlawful, and inconsistent with ARENA’s legislated aims to only fund renewable energy technologies.

However, before the end of the week, federal energy minister Angus Taylor had issued a replacement set of regulations that again sought to have ARENA’s funding redirected to the government’s preferred technologies, including carbon capture and storage and fossil hydrogen production.

The new regulations tie the types of technologies that ARENA may fund to a definition of “clean energy technologies” included within legislation establishing a separate agency, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

The regulations create an unusual situation where one body, the board of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, is able to define which “low emissions technologies” ARENA will be able to fund.

An explanatory statement included with the latest set of regulations stated that the Morrison government intends to ensure ARENA could fund non-renewable energy technologies.

“The Regulations provides ARENA with the necessary authority to deliver any non-renewable elements of the programs, supporting emissions reductions through broader clean energy technologies such as energy efficiency and non?renewable low-emission technologies,” the explanatory statement said.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is, however, explicitly prohibited from investing in nuclear projects and carbon capture and storage projects under its legislation.
More details: “No prohibitions”: Renewables funds can be spent on fossil hydrogen and CCS, officials say

Clean Futures, Old_Notes

Fossil fuels must go: IPCC

roman April 5, 2022

The central role that renewable energy technologies will play in keeping global warming within safe limits has been detailed in the latest working group report of the IPCC, published on Tuesday, which made a clarion call for “immediate and deep emissions reductions”.

It said these are necessary across all sectors of the global economy to stem rising greenhouse gas levels, and keep a global warming limit of 1.5 degrees within reach.

According to the IPCC, wind and solar technologies can deliver the most extensive potential cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by replacing fossil fuels in the global energy system, dwarfing the potential contribution of more costly technologies like carbon capture and storage.

“Large contributions with costs less than US$20 per tonne CO2 come from solar and wind energy, energy efficiency improvements, reduced conversion of natural ecosystems and methane emissions reductions,” the report says.

The IPCC said the dramatic reductions in the cost of wind, solar and battery storage technologies over the last decade meant they were already commercially viable and would be the key to decarbonising most of the world’s energy systems.

CSIRO adjunct science leader, and one of the co-authors of the report, professor Tommy Wiedmann, said these achievements made it possible for the world to halve greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade.

“Since 2010, the cost for renewable energy technology has fallen dramatically. Solar power is now 87 per cent cheaper, wind 55 per cent and batteries are now 85 per cent cheaper than ten years ago. The capacity of renewable energy installed has exceeded previous expectations,” professor Wiedmann told a media briefing.
“The IPCC report says that greenhouse gas emissions can be halved by 2030, which is what we need to achieve the Paris goals.”

“This can be done. It can be done with solar and wind replacing fossil fuel energy.

Clean Futures, Climate, Old_Notes

“Perverse:” Australian fossil fuel subsidies will top $22,000 a minute this year

roman March 29, 2022

Michael Mazengarb notes on reneweconomy:
Australian fossil fuel subsidies will top $11.6 billion this financial year, with new analysis shedding light on the extent to which both federal and state governments are actively supporting the continued expansion of the fossil fuel industry.

New analysis, published by The Australia Institute on Monday, has estimated that fossil fuel subsidies increased by 12 per cent in the last year – a $1.3 billion increase – driven higher by the Morrison government’s ‘gas-fired recovery’.

It sees the value of government fossil fuel subsidies significantly exceed the funding committed to emergency response measures and dwarfs the funding provided to the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.

Research director at the think tank, Rod Campbell, described the subsidies of fossil fuel use and production as “perverse”, at a time when a growing number of Australian communities are being devastated by climate-change fuelled disasters like flooding and bushfires.

“This is bad economics and even worse climate policy. We are witnessing Australia’s flood-stricken communities trying to pick up the pieces while fossil fuel interests are cashing in the tune of over $22,000 a minute,” Campbell said.

More details at Recneweconomy.com.au: “Perverse”: Australian fossil fuel subsidies will top $22,000 a minute this year

Old_Notes

Senate again blocks Angus Taylor’s bid to redirect ARENA funds to CCS projects

roman March 29, 2022

Michael Mazengarb writes on reneweconomy.com.au, 28 March 2022:

The federal Senate has delivered a pre-election blow to the Morrison government’s energy policies, cancelling out controversial regulations that sought to redirect funds from renewable energy technologies to those preferred by the Morrison government, including carbon capture and storage.
Notably, for the Morrison government, the blow was delivered by one its own, a conservative Senator who had threatened to cross the floor in what would have been a humiliating outcome on the day before the federal budget.

The controversial regulations for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), issued by federal energy and emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor, attempted to expand the responsibilities of ARENA and redirect its funds to carbon capture and storage projects, and a range of non-renewable energy policies.

The included the ‘Future Fuels’ fund, soil carbon and a range of grants to improve freight transport productivity.
…

The Coalition government has been hostile towards the agency, unsuccessfully attempting to abolish it altogether. The regulations issued by Taylor have been viewed as a fresh attempt to redirect its funds to those technologies favoured by the Morrison government.

Labor’s climate and energy spokesperson, Chris Bowen, welcomed the outcome, which as come after a year of attempts to repeal the regulations parliament.

“Morrison and Taylor’s efforts to circumvent the parliament with their dodgy ARENA regulation have been disallowed by the Senate,” Bowen said.

“This disallowance was moved by their own Liberal-led committee, vindicating Labor’s fight to protect ARENA from becoming another Angus Taylor slush fund.”

“The government has variously tried to abolish, undermine, and repurpose ARENA funding for fossil fuels – while they spend taxpayer money on ads claiming credit for ARENAs work,” Bowen added. “They have fought against this outcome for a year – and cannot be trusted on climate change and renewables.”

Old_Notes

Public comment on EPBC Act referral

roman March 19, 2022

Referral:
EPBC 2021/9128 — National Radioactive Waste Management Facility NRWMF, SA
Submission by Philip White, Friends of the Earth Adelaide

Introduction

In response to the question raised in the Minister for the Environment’s invitation for comments, the proposed action is a controlled action. It is acknowledged as such by the proponent, the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency (ARWA).

Establishing that fact may be the formal aim of this particular part of the assessment process, but, before the proposal can proceed, it must be subjected to a full public Environmental Impact Assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
It should not be approved based solely on documentation provided by ARWA, or anything less than an Environmental Impact Assessment, for reasons including the following:

The wastes that will be stored and/or disposed of need to be isolated from the environment for thousands of years. The long timescale greatly increases the opportunity for foreseen and unforeseen environmental impacts.
The transport of radioactive waste over thousands of kilometres represents a serious environmental hazard. Besides problems related to mishandling, there is the potential for various types of transport accidents. Radioactive waste shipments are also potential targets of theft, terrorism, or even, as we are currently seeing in Ukraine, acts of war.
The fact that the Barngarla traditional owners are opposed to the plan makes it even more important that aboriginal heritage issues are thoroughly addressed.

Recommendations

1. The referral should be rejected because (a) it is clearly opposed by the Barngarla people, the Traditional Custodians, and (b) there are better alternatives that have not been presented for consideration.

2. If, despite the arguments in recommendation 1 for rejecting the referral outright, the Minister decides not to reject the referral, it should not be accepted in its current form, based on s74A of the EPBC Act, which allows the Minister to not accept a referral if it is a component of a larger action.… Read more >>

FoE, Nuclear, Old_Notes