Underground Coal Gasification too costly and too unreliable

This week The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) published a report describing how coal-to-gasification technology for electricity-generation purposes remains commercially unviable.

The report—“Using Coal Gasification to Generate Electricity: A Multibillion-Dollar Failure”—concludes that two long-running marquee American Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), projects, Duke Energy’s Edwardsport plant in Indiana and Southern Company’s Kemper plant in Mississippi, prove the case against such investments.

“Efforts to gasify coal for power generation have been major failures, technologically and financially,” writes David Schlissel, the author of the report and IEEFA’s director of Resource Planning Analysis. “Both Kemper and Edwardsport have been economic disasters for consumers and investors alike, and a number of important and painful lessons have emerged from Kemper and Edwardsport.”

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To Christians arguing ‘no’ on marriage equality: the Bible is not decisive

Just in case you were wondering about claims of biblical support:

“We need to put all this in perspective. These are six verses out of more than 31,000 verses or roughly 0.016% of the text. In contrast, the Bible contains more than 2,000 verses about money (and related issues of greed, wealth, loans, and property), and more than 100 specifically on one’s obligation to care for widows.

In other words, monitoring and proscribing human (homo)sexual activity is not a particular concern of the Bible when compared to the overarching demand for justice, economic equality, and the fair treatment of foreigners and strangers. For certain Christian groups to make this the decisive Christian issue is simply a misreading of biblical values.”
— Robyn J Whitaker, Lecturer in Biblical Studies, after analysing verses in the bible dealing with sex, writing in the conversation about the same sex marriage issue.

 

Healthy Murray-Darling Rivers Roadshow Fri 22 Sept

Join FOE Adelaide members attending this not to be missed event organised by the Australian Conservation Foundation and Conservation SA:

HEALTHY RIVERS ROADSHOW

Friday 22 September

6:30-8:30 pm

Walkerville Town Hall,

66 Walkerville Terrace

Walkerville

 

It’s time for people right across the basin to come together, connect and speak out so our rivers and our communities can thrive.

Find out what you can do to make a real difference for the Murray-Darling Basin. Hear from an inspiring panel of passionate people including Dr Anne Jensen, Healthy Rivers Ambassador and Environmental Consultant; Paul Harvey, Murray Darling Basin Authority – Basin Community Committee; Kat McBride and Kate McBride, pastoralists and Healthy River Ambassadors.

Let’s make plans, have a yarn and share ideas.

This is a free event but places are limited. 

BOOK YOUR SPOT NOW!

Event host: Kathy Whitta (08) 8223 5155

RSVP online here

Don’t let Monsanto get their way!

Don’t let Monsanto get their way!

It’s been over 20 years since the introduction of the first GM crops to Australia and the majority of our food remains GM free.

However, the GM crop industry has a plan. Aided and abetted by the Federal Government they have four key objectives this year:

  • Ensure that new GM techniques such as CRISPR are not regulated as GMOs – so they can use them in our food with no safety testing and no labelling.
  • Remove the ability of states to introduce GM crop bans – so they can introduce GM wheat unobstructed.
  • Remove GM labelling so they can sneak GMOs into our food without us knowing – even more than they already do.
  • Allow GM contamination in organics – so we are really unable to avoid GMOs in food.

In the past couple of years a Government Inquiry into Agricultural Innovation and a Productivity Commission report into the Regulation of Australian Agriculture made precisely these recommendations.

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Yami Lester

 Yami Lester, Wallatinna Station (Jessie Boylan)

It was with great sorrow that Friends of the Earth learnt of the passing of Yami Lester in July. Yankunytjatjara Elder, atomic test survivor, Aboriginal rights activist, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Yami’s voice and support will be sorely missed.

 

Many Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigners got to meet Yami over the decades. On occasions we would stay with him at Wallatina ? in the far north of SA ? as part of our Radioactive Exposure Tours or on our way to Australian Nuclear Free Alliance meetings in Alice Springs. The last time some of us got to visit Yami at Wallatina was in September 2016 ? we were working with Aboriginal communities to stop the SA government’s plan to dump the world’s high-level nuclear waste on Aboriginal land to improve the state’s economy.

Yami lost his sight as a result of one of the British atomic bomb tests in SA in 1953. Speaking on ABC radio in 2011, he said: “I was a kid. I got up early in the morning, about 7:00am, playing with a homemade toy. We heard the big bomb went off that morning, a loud noise and the ground shook. I don’t know how long after we seen this quiet black smoke ? oily and shiny ? coming across from the south. Next time we had sore eyes, skin rash, diarrhea and vomiting everybody, old people too.”

Along with Maralinga veteran Avon Hudson, Yami was responsible for the formation of a Royal Commission in the 1980s that shone a light on the atomic crimes of the British government, the spinelessness and culpability of state and federal governments, and the ugly racism that pervaded everything to do with the atomic bomb tests.

As a young man, Yami joined the Aboriginal Advancement League in Adelaide. He was also central to the work of the Pitjantjatjara Council that led to the grant of freehold title to traditional owners in SA.

His children have taken up the call for his lifelong battle for justice. His eldest daughter, Karina Lester, recently travelled to New York for UN negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. The treaty recognises the disproportionate impact of nuclear weapons on Indigenous peoples around the world, and has provisions for assistance and reparations for those affected.

Yami’s warmth, kindness, generosity and resolve inspired so many Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, and as Tjamu (grandfather) and Katja (great-grandfather) “he will be forever remembered by his loved ones, his extended family, community and by so many”, a statement from his family said. “Yami leaves an incredible legacy of better global understanding of the devastation of nuclear bombs and for the ongoing battle for recognition of the consequence of them on the rights and interests of Anangu.”

When the No Dump Alliance formed in May 2016, to oppose plans for an international high-level nuclear waste dump in SA, Yami became the ambassador for the Alliance and, together with his daughters Karina and Rose, spoke loud and strong against nuclear waste dumping in SA.

Yami said: “In 1953, I was just ten years old when the bombs went off at Emu and Maralinga, I didn’t know anything about nuclear issues back then, none of us knew what was happening. I got sick and went blind from the Totem 1 fallout from those tests, and lots of our people got sick and died also.

“Now I’m 74 years old and I know about nuclear issues. Members from the APY, Maralinga-Tjarutja and Arabunna, Kokatha lands say we don’t want nuclear waste on our land. There are big concerns. And I worry because I know it is not safe for South Australia land and the people. Why does the Government keep bringing back nuclear issues when we know the problems last forever?

“It means a lot to me to be in this Alliance. I would like others to listen and join, become a member and fight together.”

Yami Lester, Wallatinna Station (Jessie Boylan)