The Australian - Newcastle on the map as a port for LNG exports

NEWCASTLE Port could support a liquefied natural gas export plant to process the huge coal-seam gas resources Santos and partner Eastern Star Gas say they are sitting on in NSW's Gunnedah Basin, according to an early study.

Eastern Star managing director David Casey told The Australian a report his company commissioned into the possibility of an LNG plant at Newcastle, north of Sydney, had come back positive. "The report says it can be done and that it (an LNG plant) should be looked at further," Mr Casey said.

Business Spectator - Monumental progress

The world’s major governments may find themselves trapped by the politics of the day as they seek to forge an international agreement on climate change (A monumental failing, July 14), but at least some of the world’s leading companies are getting on with that vision thing in developing new energy sources.

Two major projects have been announced in recent days which could be ground-breaking for the energy and fuel industries, and seem to be more than just feel-good marketing exercises in a world hungry for good news on the green front.

The most striking, of course, is the Desertec project, a $700 billion proposal to build a massive network of solar energy plants across Northern Africa and the Middle East, transmitting energy back to Europe.

Green Left Weekly - Nationalise coal— to fund a just transition away from it

This is the second part of an interview about breaking Australia’s addiction to coal between Green Left Weekly’s Zane Alcorn and retired Hunter Valley coal miner and climate activist Graham Brown. They discuss how a “just transition” away from coal could be made – a transition that benefits the workers and communities now dependent on coalmining and coal-fired energy plants.

Beyond The Beyond - Renew Newcastle

*Australian favela chic. Step one, creepy, long-abandoned buildings; step two, free wifi:

“Renew Newcastle has partnered with local ISP Ipera to introduce a free wireless internet service in and around the Hunter Street Mall. This enables our temporary projects to access internet without having to establish broadband or telephone contracts and it enables visitors to the city the convenience of free internet access.”

http://www.renewnewcastle.org/faqs

Senator Christine Milne - A Different World - Speech to the National Press Club

Our wealth has not brought us happiness and governments are now analysing scientifically demonstrated ways to improve well-being in everyday life and the policy interventions that would enable them. They are exactly the interventions that need to be made to address climate change and peak oil. Last year, the New Economics Foundation conducted a study for the UK Government, identifying "five ways to well-being": connect, be active, take notice, keep learning and give.

By re-designing our cities around people instead of cars, with green spaces, cycleways and pedestrian paths, with rapid transit linking urban villages, we will reinvigorate communities, reconnect to each other and be more active in our daily lives.

Business Spectator - A Monumental Failing

The 10-year old international project to stop global warming has descended into a complete shambles; we can now only hope that it’s not true, and that the skeptics are right.

But no matter who is right, we can be sure of one thing – there is little hope that an agreement to replace the failed 1997 Kyoto Protocols can be forged in Copenhagen in December. That’s despite the fact that the two Kyoto holdouts – America and Australia – are now on board, at least in principle.

Essentially the world’s politicians have given up on doing something during their lifetimes. They gave up on doing something while they are in power long ago.

All meaningful action has been put off for between 10 and 20 years, by which time the 2009 class of politicians will be safely tucked up in their pensions, living on high ground. Furthermore, the final goal has been pushed out to 2050, by which time they will all be dead.

Peak Energy - Michael Klare, Peak Oil and the Remaking of Iraq

Peak Energy - Study Suggests Wind Power Potential Is Much Higher Than Current Estimates

Peak Energy - Biogas from Onions

Peak Energy - For Cheap Clean Energy, Go Geothermal, Study Says

Peak Energy - Google Data Centres: Following The Moon On The Way To Energy Efficiency

Peak Energy - Why the Microgrid Could Be the Answer to Our Energy Crisis

Peak Energy - Exxon to Invest Millions to Make Fuel From Algae

Peak Energy - Suntech to Develop Multi-GW Solar Projects in China

Peak Energy - Severn tidal power schemes: Prepare for a dust-up

Peak Energy - European Gas Dependence - Better Russia Or Iraq ?