The Bullroarer - Friday 8th May 2009
Posted by aeldric on May 7, 2009 - 8:56pm in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
National Business Review NZ - Australian emissions trading pushed back
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has delayed emissions trading across the Tasman for a year, blaming the changes on the pressures of recession.
The Australian - Fewer green loans available but now interest-free
THE Rudd Government has slashed spending on the "green loan" election promise funded in last year's budget, but decided the energy efficiency lending should be cost-free to borrowers for four years, citing the impact of the recession on its own budget and that of households.
SMH - Jobs at any cost
It's been a week when environmental Luddites apparently made a comeback.
While Tasmanian police were carting away the handful of conservationists trying to prevent logging of giant trees in the Upper Florentine Valley, politicians in Canberra were driving perhaps the final nail into the coffin of the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Jobs, we're told, are at risk.
Sound familiar?
On the eve of the 2004 election, in an act widely credited with ensuring the Coalition's retention of power, Prime Minister John Howard proclaimed to 2000 cheering forestry workers in Launceston: ''Many Australians would like to see an end to old-growth logging. I would too, but that should not occur at the expense of jobs and not at the expense of individual regional communities.''
Howard was stoking populist fears:
ABC - No climate for change
The key mechanism the Government has selected to drive Australia's transition to a low carbon economy doesn't actually seem intended to drive a transition, write the University of New South Wales' Dr Regina Betz and Dr Iain MacGill.
The Australian - ETS delay is not enough
AN old lesson all governments have to learn anew is that it is the election promises you keep that are likeliest to get you into trouble. It is a lesson Kevin Rudd is learning the hard way, with his ignominious retreat from his (always delusional) ambition to make Australia a world leader in its response to global warming.
National Business Review NZ - Swift Energy's credit woes cause Kiwi company concern
US oil exploration firm Swift Energy’s revolving credit facility has been reduced by $US100 million, which is causing concerns for NZ company Greymouth Petroleum.
Scoop.co.nz - Auckland public transport growth highest in 20 yrs
The Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) today reported the highest level of public transport growth for over twenty years.
Brisbane Times - 'Coal rush' as Queensland gas looks greener
Australian industry might have been given a one year reprieve from the government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, but it hasn't cooled the interest in an emerging coal rush, with companies snapping up coal seam gas resources in a bid to develop a more efficient form of energy production.
THe Australian - Another green fund bites the dust in bear market
THE bad news keeps coming for Australian international environmental equity funds and their investors.
The latest is that DWS Investments has closed its Global Climate Change Fund.
Australian international environmental funds are a new sector of the fund management industry that have tried hard to get off the ground. But after two years and the global financial crisis they are still struggling.
ABC - MP attacks Barnett coal comments
The Member for Collie, Mick Murray, has criticised comments made by Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett about reducing coal power, in discussions about the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The Premier yesterday told ABC Local Radio that Australia should make more use of gas and less use of coal.
Mr Murray admits the coal industry has emissions problems, but says his electorate would suffer dramatically if the industry was killed off.
"There's a $500 million fund that's looking at all sorts of research to be able to clean up the coal industry and it's emissions problems," he said.
"Australia-wide there are 30,000 jobs in the coal industry. They need to do that to look after those jobs."
International Business Times - China 2: It Can't lead us Out of A Recession
There's another, slightly different view of China's prospects from the International Monetary Fund which this week produced its latest outlook for the economies of the region, including Australia and New Zealand.
The Outlook says that Asian economies are unlikely to undergo a sustained recovery until midway through next year, and more importantly, they should not rely on China to pull the region out of its current slump.
Albany and Great Southern Weekender - $70 million renewable energy deal
ALBANY’S Plantation Energy has signed a $70 million supply agreement with Europe’s largest power company.
The company’s first major export deal for densified biomass pellets produced from plantation tree harvest residues will be initially supplied from its new $25 million plant on Down Road.
The Age - Don't drive industry away: MPs
FOUR Coalition MPs have argued that increasing Australia's carbon emissions could reduce emissions globally.
NZ Herald - NZ palm oil use could help to wipe out orangutan
A cooking oil that is driving the destruction of the rainforests, displacing native people and threatening the survival of the orangutan is present in grocery products commonly found in New Zealand.
Stuff.co.nz - Verbal mauling for Contact expert witness
Complaints about shortcomings in expert evidence have become a recurring theme at the board of inquiry considering Contact Energy's plans for a 184-turbine Waikato wind farm.
The Australian - Emissions rise could be good for planet - Coaliltion
I'm not sure which country these politicians live in, but here in Oz the experience to date has not been good.
Plans to tackle climate change in Australia have focused on reducing emissions, but the Coalition has taken the opposite approach.
Four Opposition senators, members of a Senate committee, have issued a report that says boosting Australia's emissions could help the planet.
Regarding the Albany biomass pellet article, I'm note sure how can shipping WA wood products to Europe for burning can honestly be described as "renewable" ?
Barnaby et al yet again.Marvellous,that when defending vested interests,just about any sort of contorted reasoning,aka,lies,will serve.
I can only hope that recent reports presaging the demise of "The Oz" are not premature.
Guardian 1
Guardian 2
The Age
OK The Age might be biased.
But have you noticed the number of aggregator, networking links (digg etc) The Oz puts on stories? If the one above is any guide... perhaps the only people linking to Oz articles are other Murdoch press
blogs... I mean news papers.Rupert,as one of the rulers of the world,is only doing what he has been programed since birth to do - first defend his own financial interests and,second,defend his power base.
It will be interesting to see,if he proceeds with this,how it translates into the Australian situation with it's very limited media ownership.The relationship of News Limited and Fairfax with the oligarchy has always been murky.The oligarchy don't really want an informed,let alone active,citizenry.
Much as I loathe the Oz's editorial stance I must say their business coverage (particularly on energy related matters) is much better than the mainstream Fairfax press (the AFR sucks as they don't have accessible or linkable articles, so I won't include them).
So I'd miss the Oz from that point of view, even if the demise of their editorial, opinion and foreign affairs pages would be a blessed relief to us all.
A few more news items :
Courier Mail - Entire coal seam gas industry available
Wall Street Journal - INTERVIEW: Arrow In Talks On 2 New China Coal Seam Gas Projs
SMH - Out of Africa: the blood tantalum in your mobile phone
Tropical islands for sale - at recession prices
"Islands have certainly have come down in price significantly and that's a reflection of the global economy," principal realtor Richard Vanhoff told Reuters.
It might also be reflection of a different reality (or is that realtory?)
Shhh don't mention the sea level.
Well, far be it for the electorate of Collie to suffer dramatically!
;-)
Indeed! There's $500 million being spent trying to make slightly-less-filthy Coal a reality, after all!
Woolworths (which is hardly an upstanding social citizen itself) alone employ 92,000 people. Methinks the Coal industry places slightly too much importance on itself.
So Woolies should get 92,000 / 30,000 x $500 million = $1,533 million?
I guess it'd be like when they gave Toyota $75 million to make the hybrid Camry, the Toyota Australia chief said, "well, we were going to make it anyway, but it's nice."
(Fixed).
Depends on your point of view, I suppose. Woolies is a fantastically profitable company. So is Big Coal. Big Coal gets $500 million to research and perhaps deploy a techonology of dubious feasability and worth, so the argument could be made as to why Woolies should be given a brown paper bag full of unmarked bills as well, since Woolies employs more people and has more scope to reduce its Carbon Intensity.
If the Government is going to hand out your and my money like kiddy cocaine to businesses, profitable or not, then everyone should be able to get them, not just Big Carbon.
From where I sit, no, not a red schekel. CCaGS might be technically feasable, but the timelime for its implementation is dubious at best, and outright bullshit at worst. Giving money for such a... effort, seems to me to be throwing money at unbridled hope. Woolies has a financial incentive to reduce its carbon intensity: its profitable. Reduce your costs and keep your prices the same means more profit.
So no, neither should get money. One is a boondoggle, the other is worth doing anyway of their own back.
The Coal industrys claim that 30,000 jobs are at risk is obviously, in the sort to medium term, complete nonsense. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't shut down the mines overnight without far-reaching complications. So on that, Big Coal is lying by omission. Add to this, Big Coal seems to me to be implying that the 30,000 jobs it provides are not only important, but more important than other jobs, not limited to just jobs in competing industries. They imply that the loss of even one job in the industry, the loss of a single ton of coal, is some sort of national tragedy, and that everyone should be expected to support them to the last 5c piece in their pocket.
Frankly, it shits me.
I was watching the press lunch with the Minister of finance.
All Clones.
Stage managed, carefully coreographed mindset.
No mention of the decoupling of oil from the economy.
No challange of the desireability to get ourselves back into the Business as Usual that got us into this mess.
Canberra is Australia's Versai.
French king ordered his nobles off their lands so he could control and neuter them. The chooks in Canberra are chosen for their correct paradigm.
Yeah,
Those politicians in Canberra are such stupid chooks, not a clue, don't do anything, or if they do it's wrong, hey wait a minute I think I voted for them, or perhaps I forgot to vote and that idiot down the road voted for them because I was too dumb to vote or too lazy to run myself.
"Feeding the chooks" Joe Bielkie Petersen
(The chooks are the reporters)
Politicians are very good at what they do. Their job is to ensure that the debate is framed and controlled to their liking.
See how the pop singer Peter Garret's wings have been clipped.
I repeat. They are very good at what they do. They are not stupid.
All chooks in Canberra come from the same gene pool. Incest is rife.
Pauline was an outsider. Canberra went Thermal when she tried to muscle into the party. All of Canberra beat the same drum, and then went for her throat.
I don't listen to what they say. I watch what they do.
I doubt that we live in a democracy.
I suspect you aren't joking.
Pauline an "outsider"?
Venal self interest clothed in a nationalistic white flag of ignorance portrayed as "innocence".
Unsophisticated is just another audience... sufficient in Ipswich for a one off term.
She was selected by the Liberals, remember... and they aren't totally dumb either. Outsider, yeah right. She was brought inside, until she opened her mouth. But then, she served her purpose.
Were you denied your opportunity to vote for her???