Narrabri gas project: former judge questions independence of NSW planning commission (excerpt): The Guardian

Adam Bandt Facebook post

(Pics not from The Guardian)

"A former New South Wales judge has called for “independent” to be dropped from the name of the state’s planning commission after it approved the controversial Narrabri coal seam gas development, arguing the body is effectively controlled by the government.

The commission on Wednesday gave what it described as “phased approval” of the $3.6bn project in the state’s north. The decision, which included 134 conditions, was welcomed by the proponent, oil and gas company Santos, and the federal and state governments, but criticised by local farmers, conservationists and Indigenous traditional owners.

Paul Stein QC, a retired court of appeal judge now speaking as a committee member of the Centre for Public Integrity, said he was “deeply concerned” that the NSW Independent Planning Commission had been diminished by changes introduced by the government in March following complaints by mining and resources interests.

Adam Bandt Facebook post re corporations and tax payments

 

They included allowing the planning minister, Rob Stokes, to impose a tight timeframe in which a decision had to be reached and appointing new members to the commission.

“We believe the IPC shouldn’t have the word independent in the title anymore because they’re essentially under the control and direction of the minister,” Stein told Guardian Australia.

 

Invest in a green future not fossil fuels

“This was a massive inquiry, highly technical, and it was ordered to be finished in 90 days, and that was only extended to 120 days because [Santos] put in further submissions. It is very hard for a tribunal or commission to withstand such intense political pressure.”.... "

Go to original The Guardian article

 

Facebook Posts re the decision below.

@JustinFieldIndependent  · Politician

 

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Related: Narrabri gas project: do we need it and what's at stake for Australia's environment? in The Guardian

 Related:  Class action to stop planned coal mine extension filed by climate action-focused Australian teenagers (excerpt): ABC

 

 Narrabri,#methanegas,gas,farmers,Great Artesian Basin,NSW, Justin Field, IPC, Independent Planning Commission,indigenous peoples, tax,political party donations from corporations,#climate crisis, scandal,#jailclimatecriminals,

 

 

Australia's government channels government green funds away from renewables towards subsidies for fossil fuels.

(Pics by this blog)

ARENA to get $1.4 billion as Coalition channels funds to CCS, hydrogen and pubs (excerpt): RenewEconomy

The federal Coalition government has finally decided to extending the funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, but will – as predicted – push both ARENA and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation away from wind and solar into other “low emission” technologies, including carbon capture and storage.

 

ARENA and CEFC have played critical roles in advancing Australian renewable, storage and other critical enabling technologies since their creation in 2012, and despite repeated attempts by the Coalition government to dismantle them, and severe cuts to ARENA’s original budget.

ARENA – which is now nearly exhausted of funds, and had its board recently stacked with Coalition favourites – is to be given “guaranteed baseline funding” of $1.427 billion over the next 10 years, and will be given extra allocations in the annual budget. For 2020/21, that will amount to $191 million.

This is part of a $1.9 billion package to the two green funds that will include money for CCS, a regional hydrogen hub, along with many of the project identified by a group led by former Origin Energy CEO Grant King, and even some money for pubs to upgrade their refrigeration systems.

 

The government will change the mandates of both ARENA and the CEFC so they can more or less follow the government’s Technology Roadmap which is to be finalised in the next couple of weeks, and which looks at technologies beyond wind and solar, including gas, hydrogen and CCS.

 

The push to broaden the mandate into “low emissions” technologies will require parliamentary approval – rejected by the Senate when the Coalition first tried to scrap the bodies – and comes just days after the unveiling of a major gas package, and the government’s extraordinary ultimatum to build a 1GW gas plant in the Hunter Valley.

 

Go to Renew Economy's complete article by Giles Parkinson

 

Related: Compromised: Genie Energy and the Murdoch media’s climate denial (excerpt): Michael West Media

PM Morrison,#Australia,#methanegas,coal mining,gas,ARENA,#fossilfuelcompanies,role of media,

 

 

Video - 'We're just flaring a tremendous amount of gas': Oil executives in leaked recording share their REAL views on climate change and burning natural gas while publicly claiming to have emissions under control (excerpt) : Mail Online

Summary from article


"• A discussion by the Independent Petroleum Association of America among oil and gas executives was secretly recorded in June 2019

• In recording they shared their true stances against climate change and their opposition to federal regulation of methane emissions 

• Ron Ness, the president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, said: 'We’re just flaring a tremendous amount of gas. The value of it is very minimal'

• He slammed stronger regulation of natural gas as an 'unnecessary burden'  

• Dan Haley, the president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, suggested the industry use emotional marketing tactics to 'win these battles'

• He said: 'The activists are doing this when they talk about banning fracking in Colorado. They don’t show explosions. They show women and children' 

• Comments come as oil and gas leaders are criticized for flaring natural gas, which creates pollution and emits planet-warming greenhouses gases "

Go to the extensive Mail Online article

Related:  Just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, study says (excerpt): The Guardian (3 years old but still relevant)

Related: 'Australia in January,

 California in August':

 Aussies watch on in horror

 as wildfires ravage

 US west coast (excerpt): SBS

#fossilfuelcompanies, oil companies,  #methanegas, gas, greenhouse gas pollution, 

False Solutions to Climate Change: Agriculture: Resilience

"A veritable cornucopia of false solutions is being pushed these days, not only by corporations and think tanks but by the UN’s IPCC, the international body responsible for research and action on climate.  We could have made a gentle transition if we had begun when we first became aware of this problem decades ago, but for various reasons we did not. There is no time left for barking up one wrong tree after another; no time to waste in false solutions. Hence this series pointing out the fallacies behind such proposals as electrifying everything, carbon trading, geoengineering or switching to “gas—the clean energy fuel!”

I’ve divided the issue into sectors: electricity generation, transportation, agriculture, buildings, and then there are two sections on false solutions that aren’t part of an energy sector—geoengineering schemes, and some other policy options. Finally, we look at real solutions. I am not an expert on anything except maybe gardening, so my hope is to spur discussion.

Part 3: The Agricultural Sector"

Read the excellent complete Resilience article

Australian businesses call for climate crisis and virus economic recovery to be tackled together: The Guardian

Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australia Industry Group, says Covid-19 and climate are ‘urgent’ challenges that overlap.


A leading Australian business group is calling for the two biggest economic challenges in memory – recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and cutting greenhouse gas emissions – to be addressed together, saying it would boost growth and put the country on a firm long-term footing.

Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, representing more than 60,000 businesses, says economic recovery from the virus and the transition required to meet net-zero emissions by 2050 are overlapping issues that should be taken on together.

“There’s a lot that we can do to rebuild stronger and cleaner,” Willox planned to say on Tuesday, according to a speech released in advance.

“The need is urgent. Covid-19 and climate are bigger than any economic challenge we’ve faced in the last century.” 

Read the complete The Guardian article

No green new deal for Australia as Coalition tightens embrace of fossil fuels: Renew Economy

The full economic impact of the Covid-19 is still yet unknown, but it is clear that world’s governments face a choice in their response: 
Do they look to protect industries in terminal decline, or do they look to the long-term, supporting new green industries to flourish in a post-Covid-19 future?

A growing number of experts and global leaders have joined calls for the response to Covid-19 to be a ‘green response’, including the implementation of a ‘Green New Deal’ for a sustainable economy popularised by US Democrats.

The Green New Deal provides a vision for a sustainable future economy, and integrates proposals for ambitious climate action, investment in clean energy, a circular economy and includes a boost to direct public sector investment in sustainable infrastructure, including electric vehicles and public transport systems.

Unfortunately for Australia it is becoming increasingly clear that the Morrison government is steadfast in giving life support to the fossil fuel industry, clearly indication its preference for short-term opportunities for fossil fuel interests, and its ministers have been clearly working  reinforce the position of the oil, gas and coal sectors.

Resources minister Keith Pitt has gone in to bat for the gas and coal sectors, while energy minister Angus Taylor is working to prop up demand for oil and relaxing already weak regulations on the oil sector, including fuel standards.

This includes the Morrison government gifting almost $100 million to the United States to purchase oil that will remain stored in the United State’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

On Wednesday, Taylor announced that the government would also be looking to soften fuel standards to allow the industry to redeploy stockpiled aviation fuels for use in other parts of the transport sector. Australia already has weak fuel standards by most international standards, and a further weakening of the standards will likely lead to worse environmental and health outcomes.

Pitt made the government’s priorities even clearer, welcoming the expansion of Australia’s gas sector with Arrow Energy’s commitment to a new gas project in Queensland. “Notwithstanding COVID-19, our energy and resources will be important in getting not just our economy back on its feet, but vital in assisting our important trading partners to kickstart their economies,” Pitt said.

“The Australian Government is committed to working with the oil and gas industry in order to provide support and flexibility given the changing circumstances at this time.

At the same time, Taylor – who doubles as emissions reduction minister –  has praised the electricity and gas sectors for overseeing significant falls in domestic prices. But he studiously avoided any mention of the ongoing significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in the grid, or the prominent role played in that by investment in wind and solar.

Despite Covid-19, the threat of climate change has not subsided and the need to transition the global energy system to one with significantly less greenhouse gas emissions will remain a pressing global issue during and after the world has dealt with the pandemic. And studies show that acting on climate change will deliver substantial economic benefits for those who embrace it.

The International Renewable Energy Agency this week published new analysis that shows ambitious investment in the clean energy sector would provide substantial benefits to the global community, boosting global economic output by as much as A$160 trillion by 2050 above a ‘business as usual’ scenario.

This included the potential to create almost 250,000 new jobs in Oceania’s renewable energy sector by 2050, with growth more than compensating for inevitable job losses in the fossil fuel sector.
A global poll conducted by Ipsos in April found that 71 per cent of adults globally still view climate change as serious a long-term crisis as Covid-19. The figure was lower in Australia, with 59 per cent agreeing with the proposition locally.

“Despite the environment taking a back seat compared with other current issues, it’s still important to people. There is strong support among the public for a green economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis,” Ipsos Australia public affairs director, Jennifer Brook, said.

While it still sees a majority of Australians ranking the climate change response as equal importance with Covid-19, the Morrison government will likely see the weaker response as an opportunity to put climate action event further on the backburner.

Bruce Robertson from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis told RenewEconomy that moves to prop up ailing parts of the fossil fuel sector were a mistake.

“While governments say they are not supposed to be picking winners, they are certainly not supposed to be picking losers,” Robertson said.

“Globally since the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a permanent shift down in demand – and the world is swimming in gas and oil. How will this investment get us out of the hole? It is not a governments role to pick winners. It is definitely not a governments role to pick proven losing industries to shower tax payer dollars on.”

“The government is making big decisions about our future right now. We need a new normal, not going back to the old ways of a reliance on emissions-intensive gas, which is both a fossil fuel and a loss-making industry. Gas is not the industry of the future. We have the choice now. We can do things differently going forward,” Robertson added.

With a long-term view, strategic investments in the green infrastructure required for the long term offers the best possible economic response to the Covid-19 crisis.

The government can do this by heeding the calls of the clean energy sector to include investment and support for new zero-emissions generation and energy efficiency in stimulus measures.

Doing so will not only provide a powerful form of short-term economic stimulus, but will also leave Australia better placed in the long-term, well after the crisis of Covid-19 as been resolved.

Original article

RenewEconomy and the Smart Energy Council will be co-hosting a “virtual conference” on May 6, focusing on a renewables-led economic recovery, featuring industry leaders, analysts and advocates. More information and registration here.

RenewEconomy and its sister sites One Step Off The Grid and The Driven will continue to publish throughout the Covid-19 crisis, posting good news about technology and project development, and holding government, regulators and business to account. But as the conference market evaporates, and some advertisers pull in their budgets, readers can help by making a voluntary donation here to help ensure we can continue to offer the service free of charge and to as wide an audience as possible. Thankyou for your support.

Michael Mazengarb

 

Michael Mazengarb is a journalist with RenewEconomy, based in Sydney. Before joining RenewEconomy, Michael worked in the renewable energy sector for more than a decade.

Who is Preventing Kids from Learning about Climate Change? :Green Market Oracle

"The reason that climate change is not de rigueur in American schools is largely due to powerful economic interests.  Specifically the fossil fuel industry and Republican legislators whom they help elect.

The fossil fuel industry is at the core of the climate crisis and they have known that they are a leading cause of climate change for decades. In a bid to retain their economic power they have declared war on science and sought to subvert the truth through a diverse array of sophisticated campaigns.

The oil and gas industry uses their tremendous wealth to buy politicians and political outcomes. Their immense financial clout is also used to buy scientists and control academia.

Campaign finance is one of the most powerful weapons they have deployed in their war against the facts. The GOP has been working for the fossil fuel industry for years, and in the age of Trump they have consolidated their control over Republicans.

Disinformation is disseminated through lobbyists, think-tanks and front groups. One of the most pernicious purveyors of climate denial is the fossil fuel funded Heartland Group. They promote policy that supports industry and their disinformation campaigns target kids in public schools. They provide "educational" materials (textbooks and lesson plans) that try to circumvent the facts about anthropogenic climate change.

Their lies have been deeply ingrained in the nation's political discourse on education. Such disinformation has prompted a number of state legislators to question whether kids should be given access to the facts about climate change. In Idaho legislators said kids should not be taught that climate change is caused by human activity."

Read the article

Related:

Climate change: Big lifestyle changes 'needed to cut emissions': BBC

 

Fossil fuel exports make Australia one of the worst contributors to climate crisis : The Guardian

Australia looking to become an emissions superpower, the Australian Conservation Foundation says

Australia is responsible for 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and could be contributing as much as 17% by 2030 if the pollution from its fossil fuel exports is factored in, research says.

Under climate accounting rules that record carbon dioxide released within a country, Australia is responsible for about 1.4% of global emissions. The analysis by science and policy institute Climate Analytics found more than twice that, another 3.6%, are a result of Australia’s coal, oil and gas exports.

Florida chooses world’s largest solar + storage project to replace gas plants: Renew Economy

"Florida Power & Light (FPL), the state utility owned by NextEra Energy, plans to build the world’s largest solar plus battery storage project which will boast battery capacity four times larger than anything currently in operation.

The new project is specifically intended to accelerate the retirement and replacement of two 1970s-era natural gas generating units at the company’s neighbouring power plant."

Read the article

1.5°C = Zero Fossil Fuels: 350.org

1.5 degrees heating

It’s simple — to keep global warming below 1.5°C, coal, oil + gas needs to stay in the ground.

On October 8, 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report on keeping warming below 1.5°C. It was a wake-up call to the world that the window for avoiding runaway climate change is closing — fast.

To have any chance of staying under 1.5°C of warming, no new fossil fuel project can be allowed to go ahead.

The fossil fuel industry is knowingly causing the climate crisis. Every institution and every single level of government has a role to play in stopping this reckless industry before it’s too late.

We must demand that all institutions withdraw their support from the fossil fuel industry — be that investments, sponsorships, subsidies or permits — and stand up to the industry before it’s too late.

Go to original 350.org article

#fossil fuels  #divestment  #coal  #oil  #gas  #IPCC  #1.5degrees C  # global warming