Labor’s dirty coal dependency
Today the big bad news, again, is the failure of the Australian Government to do something decisive on climate change. The Melbourne Age reports that ‘State emission cuts ‘futile’ and would aid polluters’.
Our CEO, Steve Shallhorn writes in the Sydney Morning Herald, where he asks ‘Why is the Federal Government failing to live up to its promise to do something credible on climate change?‘
Steve writes, “The recent essay by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, in The Monthly gives a solid clue to the general problem: old school political economy. It focused on ideological division between his party and the Opposition, and spoke to the past, not the future.
Symptomatic of the problem is the Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson. In cabinet because of clan loyalties, he is as “carbon captured” as the Howard government’s resources minister, Ian Macfarlane.”
Steve then tells it as it is and ramps up the climate debate to a new level: “Rudd needs to compel Ferguson to work constructively to create a just transition from coal to renewable energy or ask for his resignation.”
Also in the Age we read ACTU President Sharan Burrow calling for 800,000 green jobs in 15 years as a response to climate change and a solution to the recession. Arrogantly, coal giant and Anvil Hill mine owner Xstrata declined to comment for this story. Amazingly, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson is cited, telling the mining industry to lobby harder for a sweeter deal in CPRS.The climate movement’s blockade of Newcastle Harbour on the weekend got some good coverage in the Newcastle Herald and on ABC Radio over the weekend.
Be alert and alarmed as you cruise the interweb, as the US coal industry has launched a $20million online greenwash advertising push, according to Reality.org. Their blog and supporters email have all theinformation you need to push back.
Coal Vs. climate - the lines are drawn!
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sarah
March 27th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Thanks Sarah.
I hope you find the blog useful or fun. See you here again soon.
dan
March 27th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Hi
Ross Garnaut has made repeated comments about the influence of the fossil fuel lobby in watering down the provisions of the CPRS and the Rudd Government’s GHG emissions reduction target for 2020, but he was strangely reticent about commenting on Ferguson’s behaviour as reported in your blog when questioned about it by Fran Kelly on ABC RN’s Breakfast Show a few days ago.
Guy Pearse’s ongoing analysis of the situation speaks volumes, and should be compulsory reading for all Australians.
For a bit of light hearted relief on the coal industry’s greenwash, see this satirical ad produced by the Coen brothers last month.
http://action.thisisreality.org/page/s/coenbrothers
regards
Adam Lucas
March 27th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Hey Adam,
I missed the Garnaut interview, thanks for letting us know. Its disappointing and makes me wonder - why are people so scared of Big Coal and its acolytes?
Totally agree about Guy’s work - it tells the real story, not climate change but the policy denial, the scandal of time wasted….
Yep that Coen Brothers TVC was a pearler. I love This is Reality especially their current Twitter etc campaign on clean coal spin.
See you back here soon!
dan
March 30th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I have been following the blogs of Greenepeace and many groups for a long time and have noticed both sides of the argument are constantly screaming the same thing. I work in the power industry and have been involved with Coal, Gas, Wind, Landfill and Geothermal plants both in Australia and overseas.
First I’d say if anyone thinks the main coal generators (at least the ones I know of) within Australia and Europe are not doing anything, you should probably look a little closer. It may not be exactly what is desired by everyone here, but if successful, it should lead to a reduction of 50% per MWh by 2020 by most of the Australian generators. Most of the companies have some intrest in clean coal, but also many have begun surveys for Solar, Geothermal and other similar technologies.
I firmly believe we need to reduce CO2 emissions, but reading suggestions (including the Energy Revolution Senario), I would suggest the major problem with all these changes is not in the technology but the current electricity system. Simply put, currently you get paid when you generate electricity into the power grid, and you get paid at the price which is determined by supply and demand on the market. This means as a generator, you need to have maximum output capability available when the price goes high. This is true for baseload plants as well who could go 11 months making a loss and still turn a yearly profit within a few hours just by having everything available when someone else doesn’t.
With many alternative technologies (wind, solar, even hydro and geothermal to a lesser extent) you have the added complication that the power may not be available at the time the price goes high. Hence your competitors get a even higher price increase, also if you have to have a runback in the middle of a high price period, there can be penalties enforced on you.
What I would suggest is maybe payment should be changed to available capacity (with a capacity factor). This would reduce price flutuations as plant would not make money when they are out of service on mainenance ect. and you are not penalised for the loss of primary motive force. (no wind, cloudy day, lack of water). It would then be up to the network to choose the most stable power source mix to supply the grid. This would take the gambling out of installing a alternative ‘green’ power plant.
This is a very quick summation of the concept and collection of information. I fgreanpeace would let me, I would like to present a blog opinion piece to explain more of the details and get some feedback.
Dk