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Why ‘Clean Coal’ Is No Excuse For Burning Coal
Our coal ship painting action the other day put both Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett on the spot, forcing them to respond publicly about their plans to expand the coal industry. Both politicians used the development of so-called ‘clean coal’ technology as their defence. ‘Clean coal’, or carbon capture…
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Bligh’s Response To Greenpeace Coal Ship Action In Queensland
Greenpeace activists finished their painting just moments before a police boat turned up this morning, with a final tally of 20 ships painted with messages like “Bligh exporting CO2”, “Coal is killing the Reef” and “Stop coal expansion”. While 10 activists were taken into custody by police, Premier Bligh was questioned about the protest in…
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Queensland Government’s Coal Protectionism
The latest evidence of the Queensland government’s blatant coal protectionism is a CSIRO report which has been sitting on Energy Minister Geoff Wilson’s desk for a year. The report finds that large-scale renewable energy plants could provide ALL of Queensland’s electricity needs, and recommends that the Queensland government start funding renewable technologies with some of…
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Coal Industry Stranglehold
It’s a balmy Saturday morning on the Esperanza and the sea is as calm as a lake. We are sliding past rugged southern Queensland islands and every so often a pod of whales breaches within a hundred metres of the ship. There’s a momentary illusion that all is well in the world. However, as we…
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Queensland Plans To Export MORE Climate Change
Premier Anna Bligh chose to announce plans for the massive expansion of Queensland’s export coal industry at the same time as the Rudd government was releasing its so-called Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme earlier this week. In hindsight, it was easy to see there was no contradiction between the two, because Penny Wong’s policy more closely…
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Wong announces Carbon Polluters' Reward Scheme
Yesterday Penny Wong released the government’s not-so-Green Paper outlining their intended emissions trading scheme (ETS), or so-called Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The ETS is the mechanism the Rudd government wants to hang its hat on as the mark of their commitment to climate change action. Although the signs so far have not been promising –…
