Tony Abbott was almost certainly telling the truth when he told Alan Jones he would have preferred to cut the number of new windfarms even more than may occur under the revised renewable energy target – and that this was always his aim.

It’s just that his newfound frankness contradicts claims he and his ministers made before and after the election about how committed they were to renewable energy.

Before the election Abbott said this: “Look, we originated a renewable energy target. That was one of the policies of the Howard government and yes we remain committed to a renewable energy target … we have no plans to change the renewable energy target.” (The Coalition did promise the target would be reviewed.)

On Thursday, urged on by the virulently anti-windfarm Jones, he said this: “What we did recently in the Senate was to reduce, Alan, capital R-E-D-U-C-E, the number of these things that we are going to get in the future … I frankly would have likely to have reduced the number a lot more but we got the best deal we could out of the Senate and if we hadn’t had a deal, Alan, we would have been stuck with even more of these things 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/11/tony-abbotts-boast-of-wind-farm-cuts-contradicts-earlier-stand-on-renewables

 

Alan Jones turns up the heat on fracking
BERNARD KEANE
 OCT 20, 2011
Alan Jones’s ongoing campaign on coal seam gas — his Press Club speech yesterday was more or less a reheat of his extended railing on the issue on his radio program — has produced more than just the unusual sight of a Greens-Jones unity ticket. One suspects, though, the Greens would have found Jones’ complaint that fracking EISs lacked “peer review” ironic, since Jones generally prefers his climate science to have no peer review of any kind.

Australia isn’t the only country where coal seam gas is causing deep disquiet, especially in rural communities. Far from it. It’s a huge issue in the US, where protests continue in several states and particularly in New York State. There, a bitter debate over lifting a state ban on fracking prompted several municipalities to impose their own bans, with some dragged into court by mining companies, many of whom have aggressively litigated against any local government that has tried to regulate or ban coal seam gas development. Just like in Australia, there’s deep anger and division about fracking in these communities (two weeks ago, I encountered a street corner fracking protest in a small upstate NY town, with “Honk if you hate fracking” placards drawing a merry cacophony of horns from the traffic).

read more: http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/10/20/occupy-jonestown-alan-turns-up-the-heat-on-fracking/

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Coal seam gas (CSG) mining will be halted in northern New South Wales under a plan by Deputy Premier and Nationals Leader Troy Grant.

Mr Grant has stopped short of calling for a total ban on CSG and has proposed the seven current Northern Rivers mining licences be reduced to zero through the Coalition's buyback scheme.

The Nationals lost the seat of Ballina to the Greens in the March election and only narrowly retained the seat of Lismore, and Mr Grant said he listened to the will of the local people.

"I support the views of regional communities and it has been made very clear that the Northern Rivers community does not want CSG," Mr Grant said.

"Through the NSW Government's gas plan, CSG licenses in the region are being bought back or cancelled," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-12/deputy-nsw-premier-troy-grant-says-he-wants-end-to-csg-mining/6540508

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But as far as Gus knows, Alan Jones acreage resides in the southern rich tablelands, not far from Canberranealum. The Coal Seam Gas lobby is furiously trying to drill it up...

 

Tony Abbott has launched another attack on "ugly", "noisy" wind turbines, and it appears a trip to an island off Perth contributed to his dislike of the renewable energy generators.

The Prime Minister caused a stir yesterday when he described wind farms as "visually awful".

Today, when asked if he had ever visited one, he replied he had cycled past the wind turbine on Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth.

"Up close, they're ugly, they're noisy and they may have all sorts of other impacts", Mr Abbott said.

"It's right and proper that we're having an inquiry into the health impacts of these things", he said, referring to a current parliamentary inquiry initiated by crossbench Senators.

Western Australia built the Rottnest Island wind turbine in a $4 million partnership with the Howard government, of which Tony Abbott was a senior member.

When it was put into operation, the Government expected the turbine to save about $500,000 a year in fuel costs and predicted it would provide about 40 per cent of the island's power generation.

But Mr Abbott is clearly not a fan of the visual impact.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-12/tony-abbott-launches-another-attack-against-wind-farms/6541952

May be our vision-impaired smelly Turd-in-Chief should go and see Barrow Island...

 

 

Dear Minister,

Please do not approve the clearing by Chevron Australia of a further 32 hectares on Barrow Island for the Gorgon LNG Project.

Barrow Island is an A-Class nature reserve and considered Australia's Ark due to the many species of fauna not to be found anywhere else in the world.

It has already suffered damage arising from the Gorgon Project through critical quarantine breaches and around 1500 recorded animal deaths. The actual death total is uncertain as Chevron now euthanases injured animals rather than sending them to the mainland for treatment. Furthermore, Chevron is acting illegally by using at least 200 hectares over and above the land approved for the Gorgon Project. The Environmental Protection Authority has failed to penalise Chevron for any of these breaches, basically granting the corporation open slather on this fragile ecology.

In light of the above, it is evident that the environmental footprint of the Gorgon Project should be limited rather than expanded. As Minister for the Environment you have a responsibility to ensure a national treasure is not lost to future generations.

https://www.communityrun.org/petitions/save-barrow-island

 

Why is this important?

Chevron is guilty of oil leaks and spills on and around the island. In the following link you can see images of leaking oil pipes:

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/leaking-pipes-spill-oil-across-barrow-island/story-e6frg19l-1226067138923

What is the fate of animals relocated from Barrow Island? Read about it here:

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/mammals-moved-to-radioactive-island/story-e6frg19l-1225832999056

And here is a report relating to an asbestos incident on Barrow Island (that would have threatened animals as much as workers): 

http://www.tlcwa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1235:asbestos-bungle-on-barrow&catid=131:top-1

 

 

 

 

 

In light of Prime Minister Tony Abbott raising concerns about the “potential health impacts” of wind farms while speaking to Alan Jones this morning, we’ve pulled together the top five facts on why wind power is one the healthiest forms of energy around.

1. Wind turbines don’t produce greenhouse gas emissions

Unlike the burning of fossil fuels, wind turbines don’t produce greenhouse gas emissions. This is great news! Especially as coal (the dominant energy source in Australia) is well known to emit toxic and carcinogenic substances, which can cause severe health effects. Burning coal is linked to the development of potentially fatal diseases and kills 50,000 people each year in the US alone.

2. The uptake of wind turbines will bring down health costs

In Australia, it’s estimated that the adverse impacts from pollutants produced from coal-fired electricity generation costs A$2.6billion annually. Cutting out coal and making the switch to renewables will help to bring these costs down.

3. Wind turbines are healthy for rural communities too

Wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy present loads of opportunities for rural development. Large-scale projects such as wind farms benefit rural areas by investing in the local economy and employment. Landowners and communities are also adopting renewable energy to reduce costs and become self-sufficient. Small-scale renewable energy systems are cost-effective, especially in remote locations where they can reduce or replace reliance on diesel. Rural communities are also developing the skills to be able to develop their own community-led and owned renewable energy projects.

4. Wind farms contribute to the long-term health of the planet

To stabilise the climate and eventually halt the rising trend of extreme heat, carbon emissions need to be cut rapidly and deeply. Most of the world’s known reserves of coal, oil and gas will need to be left in the ground, including over 90% of Australia’s coal reserves.

Fortunately, we’re making headway in our transition to a low-carbon economy. Clean energy technologies, such as solar and wind, are advancing rapidly and are now competitive in price with fossil fuel technologies in many places. Embracing renewable energy, like wind, will help us to stabilise Australia’s climate and secure the long-term health of the planet. 

5. They don’t damage health: just ask the National Health and Medical Research Council

In February 2015, the Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council found, after careful consideration and deliberation of the evidence, ‘…that there is no consistent evidence that wind farms cause adverse health effects in humans’.

read more: http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/five-reasons-why-wind-power-is-one-of-the-healthiest-forms-of-energy

--------------------------------

6. And they look good. 

Gus thinks that compared to much of our visual destruction of our planet, the wind turbines are a very well designed minimalist imprint unlike the digging of open cuts mining or coal seam gas hubs — which of course cannot be seen often from the road, but has scarred the country like you would not believe...,

 

Halal windfarms

Posted: 12 Jun 2015 04:45 PM PDT

 

 

 En Passant » Halal windfarms

 

The Abbott government’s proposed “wind commissioner” represents a “new low in its relentless anti-renewables campaign”, the wind industry says, suggesting the Coalition might do better to appoint a “coal commissioner”.

Guardian Australia revealed on Thursday the Abbott government has agreed to appoint a “windfarm commissioner” to handle complaints about turbine noise, and a new scientific committee to investigate, again, their alleged impacts on human health, in a deal with anti-wind senators to win amendments to renewable energy legislation.

A leaked draft letter from the environment minister, Greg Hunt, to the crossbench senators – obtained by Guardian Australia – details the promises the government has agreed to win the senators’ support for wood waste to be included as a source of renewable energy – a proposal opposed by Labor but which the government has insisted be included in the broad deal it struck with the ALP to reduce the renewable energy target.

The wind and renewables industry – which had reluctantly accepted the deal to reduce the overall renewable energy target to break a year-long deadlock between the parties and avoid further job losses – reacted with dismay.

“This is a blatant attempt by the Abbott government to use taxpayer cash to appoint a propaganda agent for the anti-wind brigade,” said Andrew Bray, coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/18/abbott-governments-windfarm-commissioner-pledge-a-new-low

Even to a long-term student of political ventriloquy, the Abbott government’s capacity to speak out of both sides of its mouth on climate policy is astonishing.

It claims to run a credible environment policy while pandering to those who would prefer to do nothing. It spends $660m, mostly to continue projects started under the former government’s carbon market or its state precursors, while maintaining as its chief business adviser Maurice Newman, who claims climate change is a UN-led ruse to bring about a new world order.

Greg Hunt continues to claim he has achieved “certainty for the renewable energy sector” with a revised renewable energy target while the prime minister admits the whole point of of the review (headed by self-professed climate sceptic Dick Warburton) was to reduce the number of “ugly … noisy” wind farms as far as the Senate would allow, and that he’d really like to cut them further.

As the well-funded, virulently anti-wind website “Stop These Things” boasted this week, possibly quite accurately, the prime minister’s words could actually achieve what he was unable to get through the Senate.

The site (its authors don’t name themselves and went to some lengths to register their domain name anonymously on Christmas Day 2012 through Arizona-based domainnamesbyproxyit) says that from its perspective, “the more attention the better. You see, the wind industry’s ability to roll out the 2,500 giant fans [it means turbines] needed to satisfy the latest [RET] … depends upon commercial lending institutions [i.e. banks].

“With all the sound, fury and bloodletting taking place in the media on a daily basis, no banker in touch with their earthly senses is going to lend so much as a penny to a wind power outfit to build any new wind farms from here on. The insurmountable obstacle to that event can be summed up in a single word: RISK.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/19/the-coalition-is-engaging-in-double-talk-on-climate-policy-it-has-no-other-option

 

Written by: Michael Taylor

I worked in government long enough to know how they operate.

Nothing is an accident.

Everything is planned or stage-managed.

It is especially so before a new, and particularly controversial initiative is to be announced. It’s always good for the government to get a ‘feel’ of how the announcement will be received. Conversely, if there are indications that the announcement would be in the face of public disapproval then it’s just as good for the government to say and do nothing. “It was just all speculation”. “It will blow over and soon be forgotten”.

And so it was when yesterday we learned that:

A national wind farm commissioner to investigate complaints about wind turbines will be appointed by the Abbott government as anti-wind energy senators move to curb the industry’s growth.

This government knows just who to turn to.

Talk around the water cooler suggests that most people see this as a swift response inspired by Tony Abbott’s much public complaint to Alan Jones that wind farms could represent health risks, and of course, his much lampooned comment about them being noisy:

“Well Alan look, I do take your point about the potential health impact of these things,” Mr Abbott said.

“When I’ve been up close to these wind farms, there’s no doubt, not only are they visually awful, they make a lot of noise.

I beg to differ to the water cooler consensus. Experience in government tells me it was the other way around.

The government wants to appoint a national wind farm commissioner and was dangling its toe in the pool of public opinion first.

That’s where Alan Jones steps in – who else?

It was all stage-managed.

Conveniently Jones wanted to talk about wind farms and instead of being met with Tony Abbott’s customary responses that are littered with hesitant words the Prime Minister spoke quite fluently. It was not the Tony Abbott who is always lost for words when confronted with an off-the-cuff question.

Everything fell into place. Let’s run through them:

• The government wants to appoint a national wind farm commissioner. It is a controversial decision given the world’s move towards cleaner energy.
• The government ‘employs’ Alan Jones to interview the Prime Minister about – among other things – wind farms.
• The Prime Minister puts it out there that there are potential health concerns with wind farms, and of course they look ugly and are noisy.
• The Murdoch media publish stories that support the Prime Minister. Public support has been mustered.
• Bingo, government announces (conveniently through a leaked letter) that it wants to appoint a national wind farm commissioner.

The wind farm debate was no accident.

There are times when Tony Abbott knows exactly what he is doing.

http://theaimn.com/in-government-nothing-is-an-accident/

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Yes we know that. John Howard was the master of such stage management. This is why we need to always fight this ugly "stage management" as well as boo the writers of the bad play in this political theatre.

Writing plays, stories and Hollywood movies, always need some long tested techniques that make you swallow the implausible plots, the brainwashing development and the inevitable good feeling conclusion. Politics is the same: a problem is introduced at the beginning and quite soon there is some "sign posting" of possible solution or of action to come towards the end... Meanwhile, in most cases the plot then moves towards "obstacles", usually in the format of "baddies", crooks, communists, lefties or smelly skunks. The hero has to shoot all these down, one at a time, until the hero, nearly overcomed by the "obstacles" find the inner resources to do a last heroic act and win the situation. Of course at the end, the hero can kiss and marry the lady who he had rescued in a blaze of firepower. And we lap it like the proverbial fairy tales. No such thing in real life.

Thus, the political lie is like a Hollywood movie. Tony Turdy is the writer and the mediocre Jean-Claude Van Damme in a "C" grade movie that is advertised and reviewed by Uncle Rupe as a five star performance. It should deserve zero stars in "L'Officiel"... Should the writer of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (17th century), be alive today, he would be horrified at the way our Turdy still fights the Windmills like a souped-up idiot and gets away with it... Cervantes' work was satire... and clever Turdy is humouring us by performing this theatre, in broad daylight, expecting us to believe it's the norm.

Now, we have to push steel pipes in the wheels of his bicycle, to stop him from going any further. That would be an accident.

 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-25/clarke-and-dawe-a-few-venue-problems-but-otherwise/6572848

 

Meanwhile:

 

It sounds like a scenario from a fantasy dinner party: the most powerful man on the planet interviewing one of the world’s most beloved naturalists about his life story, about climate change and the future of life on Earth.

But in May, it has emerged, this encounter did happen, when Barack Obama invited Sir David Attenborough to the White House for a televised discussion – in which he, the US president, was to ask the questions of the broadcaster, not the other way round.

In the interview, to be broadcast simultaneously in the UK and US on BBC1 and BBC America on Sunday, Obama tells Attenborough: “I’ve been a huge admirer of your work for a very long time … you’ve been a great educator as well as a great naturalist.”

But it is Attenborough, on the day in which he marked his 89th birthday, who poses the most probing questions of their encounter, asking the president why he cannot show a commitment to tackling climate change in the same way previous presidents had strived to put people on the moon.

Challenged by the naturalist, Obama says: “We’re not moving as fast as we need to and part of what I know from watching your programmes, and all the great work you’ve done, is that these ecosystems are all interconnected. If just one country is doing the right thing but other countries are not, then we’re not going to solve the problem, we’re going to have to have a global solution to this.

“What we’re seeing are global trends that depends on the entire world working together, and sadly we haven’t made as much progress as we need to on climate change.”

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jun/25/sir-david-attenborough-and-barack-obama-face-to-face-in-tv-interview

Well, you all can forget about our Turdy... He's like a brat being towed, screaming and dragging his feet, on his first day to school where he will soon become truant numero uno.

Here again, Chris Uhlmann, now Nine News (conservative) Political Editor, formerly at the ABC and seemingly a bit bitter from having had to change employer, tells us his charade about windmills and renewable energy being not good enough...

I can say with confidence that with the weather circumstances under which South Australia lost power three years ago — should you have had gas, coal, nuclear, elastic bands, snowy schemes galore or even battery storages — you would still have been in the dark, considering the power lines went down. At this stage, as the Australian Energy Regulator is taking four South Australian wind farm operators to court one has to realise that this is a political exercise, rather than trying to solve a problem that has now been solved with a battery storage facility and possibly stronger power lines. 

 

This is what the expert Chris Uhlmann, now Nine News (conservative) Political Editor, formerly at the ABC has to say:

It should be noted that none of these reports questioned the reality of climate change. Many stressed the energy system needed to de-carbonise and that the absence of a national carbon price had created a hotchpotch of competing state and federal policies.

But no qualifications were heard above the storm that followed as thousands of complaints rained down on my then employer, the ABC.

A formal complaint was lodged with the broadcast watchdog for the crime of having “clearly indicated that it was his strong suspicion that the SA statewide blackout occurred because of SA's reliance on renewable energy.”

Now, three years on, the Australian Energy Regulator is taking four South Australian wind farm operators to court arguing they “failed to provide automatic protection systems to enable them to ride-through voltage disturbances to ensure continuity of supply” and that “contributed to the black system event”.

As the winds tore through South Australia on that September day, two sets of transmission lines toppled. A series of voltage dips ricocheted through the system, tripping the wind farm's protection settings and they shut down. That ripped more than 450 megawatts out of the system, or 48 per cent of total power. The interconnector to Victoria tried to pick up the slack before its protective systems sensed it was being overloaded and the link slammed shut. Frequency plummeted in the isolated state, all remaining generation was snuffed out and, for the first time since 1964, an entire state blacked out.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/three-years-on-from-the-south-au...

 

What a lot of codswallop. No. Actually it's correct. Too true. But the conclusion is wrong. 

Here are some of the outages that happened — NOT DUE TO WINDMILLS, SOLAR OR ELASTIC BANDS — around the world:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_power_outages

 

and this from 2003:

 

France has shut down the equivalent of four nuclear power stations as the heatwave eats into the country's electricity generating capacities.

With temperatures in French rivers hitting record highs, some power plants relying on river water to cool their reactors have been forced to scale back production.

The French nuclear safety authority has given others permission to return the river water at a higher temperature than is normally allowed. 

The precise consequences of higher river temperatures are not known, but it is thought that they could endanger fish. French meteorologists are calling this summer the country's hottest since 1947.

The chief executive of state-owned Electricité de France did not rule out further cuts, but said that the company would do all it could to maintain supplies.

-----------

 

On December 26–28, 1999 Cyclone Lothar and Martin left 3.4 million customers in France without electricity, and forced EdF to acquire all the available portable power generators in Europe, with some even being brought in from Canada.[59] These storms brought a fourth of France's high-tension transmission lines down and 300 high-voltage transmission pylons were toppled. It was described as one of the greatest energy disruptions ever experienced by a modern developed country.

---------------------

 

On August 24, Hurricane Andrew made landfall on Elliot Key. As it passed over the northern Florida Keys it downed 17 miles of power lines, breaking the wooden poles they were strung on, along a path that was in four feet of water, stretching from the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant southward to the upper Keys. The shallow depth prevented the use of large construction barge cranes for rebuilding the power pylons but the water was too deep for land-based construction vehicles. As a result, the Upper and Middle Keys were largely without power for several months as the Middle Keys Electric Co-op only had generating capacity for 10% of its demand. The power lines heading north to Miami were restored much more quickly, as they were strung along the side of US highway 1 on dry land. Key West power was in the process of decommissioning an end-of-life oil-fired plant and was able to restore 75% generating capacity for the lower keys in one day as there was no storm damage that far south. Key West power was in the process of converting to sourcing 100% of its electricity from the Turkey Point facility.

 

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AND NOT A WINDMILL IN SIGHT. The present lawsuit (the Australian Energy Regulator is taking four South Australian wind farm operators to court) is no more than a POLITICAL WITCHHUNT, designed to hurt renewables.

 

----------------------------

AGL said it did not accept the regulator's conclusions about the 2016 blackout and would "strongly defend" the proceedings, arguing the statewide blackout was triggered by extremely rare and catastrophic weather.

Nearly three years ago – on September 28, 2016 – South Australia was plunged into darkness as powerful storms barrelled across the state in what experts described as a once-in-50-year event.

There were 80,000 lightning strikes along with tornadoes and wind speeds reaching up to 260km/h.

The storms led to a series of failures that caused the state, which has a high reliance on wind power, to become cut off from the rest of the national energy grid.

It also sparked a national political debate over Australia's energy mix, including questions about whether or not renewable energy, such as wind, was reliable enough to provide baseload power.

"The SA Black System event involved a catastrophic storm," an AGL spokesman said.

"We understand and acknowledge the impact that this event had on communities, services, organisations and businesses across South Australia. AGL has worked closely with the SA government and regulators following the event, to identify the lessons and potential improvements that could be made."

Tilt Renewables, which owns South Australia's Snowtown 2 wind farm and has also been included in the legal action over the blackout, said it believed it acted in good faith in compliance with the National Electricity Rules.

"The company will continue to engage with the [Australian Energy Regulator] in an endeavour to resolve this matter," chief financial officer Steve Symons said.

The regulator's legal action announced on Wednesday claims the companies breached the National Energy Rules. It is seeking declarations, penalties, compliance orders and costs.

AGL, in a statement to the stock exchange, described the regulator's allegations as "highly technical in nature". The energy giant said the legal action related to the performance of its Hallett 1, Hallett 2, North Brown Hill and The Bluff wind farms during the weather event.

The AER said providing timely and accurate information to the Australian Energy Market Operator was critical to ensuring power system security and the effective operation of the wholesale energy markets.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/wind-farm-giants-face-legal-ac...

 

the Australian Energy Regulator taking four South Australian wind farm operators to court is a waste of taxpayers money.

 

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