JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
Maria! I once met a girl named…whatshername.
http://derecho.math.uwm.edu/models/al152017_analogs.png
10
Context:
http://flhurricane.com/sbanimator.php?year=2017&storm=15
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“I once met a girl named…whatshername.”
Now you have reminded me! 🙂 Dang ‘what’s-her-name’? Punctuation anyone?
Has anyone explained why the cyclones starting from west-west Africa seldom go south? Is the start location to far north for opposing spin, or is South America to close? What is this effect on the so called ‘continental drift/s’?
All the best!-will-
21
1984. ‘Love is a though crime,
The Thought Police make Winston
forget whatsername.’
H/t David Bader.
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And me ferget to wear my reading glasses. ‘thought.’ (
11
Do such ever think?
11
I wonder if the BOM will declare Spring 2017 as the hottest and driest on record?
92
ENSO and IOD are neutral, so its status quo for wet and dry, but ‘October to December nights are likely to be warmer than average over the northern half of Australia, and most of the eastern States. Chances are highest—greater than 80%—in the far north and southeast Australia.’
BoM
40
But Australia went through the hottest Winter on record, while we in Mirboo North froze our nuts off. We had snow falling down to 300m, Lorne was snow covered, we ran out of wood for heating and everyone said it was one of the longest, coldest, Winters they can remember.
So given that, I can easily expect Spring to be called the hottest and driest Spring on record. I’m sure that the BOM can pull some random figures out of that dark, wet, place where all their other data is stored.
But I don’t care, bring on the hot weather.
212
BoM just make it hotter where nobody lives and nobody cares, then put it through mapping algorithms to make most of the Continent hotter than it really is.
BoM Carnegie station in outback WA – obvious errors for days
141
Yeah…right! We are paddling around in mud and there was yet another frost this morning. We haven’t been able to mow yet…it’s far too wet. We are in North Central Victoria. However, the sun is actually shining at last today…yippee!
70
Exactly the same here. We took our hounds for a run at Mossvale Park (a local park with heritage listed trees) and it turned out to be more of a swim. The park was almost totally underwater. One more day of similar rain and it will be completely underwater.
60
I predict a cool wet spring and summer in the south east.
30
Don’t know about Spring but it was the hottest Winter eeevvvuuuhhh.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-01/australia-winter-2017-was-hot-dry-and-a-record/8862856?pfmredir=sm
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I don’t recall hearing BOM stating many places recorded the lowest temperature ever this past winter. Of course the reason is it would go against their political agenda.
42
Jose
10
Hola, Si
10
Clipe September 17, 2017 at 12:18 pm
“Jose”
Is that: ‘Jose can jew see by da dawns early light.’ 🙂
11
It is cool in Brisbane today – due to climate change.
It was hot in Sydney last week – due to climate change.
It was cool in Moscow last week – due to climate change.
It is snowing in Tasmania and Victoria this morning – due to climate change.
I am thinking of becoming the director of news for the ABC, MSM and/or Fairfax.
How do you rate my chances?
261
Pretty good, pretty good! Keep it up 😉
81
ABC24 might take you on, you could deliver the hottest news since yesterday every day
90
Our mum says that we should change our climate every day, ’cause it stops them smelling.
120
Change your climate every day, ’else it starts smelling’.!
This is the exact reason Earth spins, along with everything else. God is so knowledgeable that, ‘he knows to hire\create skilled folk for most details’. Da guys at JPL\Cal Tech insisted that its gatsa spin else all ‘suffocate’ from own farts.
All the best!-will-
11
Have you noticed that ABC has not mentioned ElNino for the last 9 months. It used to be common fare to predict “the Godzilla of all El Niño” patterns bearing down. Needless to say the El Ninos never pitched up on time & more often than not never at all. One even missed by driving North & ending up in Chile. So they simply stopped talking about it & now concentrate on record highs (never low) temperatures. Bad luck ABC the holes in those theories have holes big enough to drive a bus through.
40
The BOM should have Manuel from Fawlty Towers as their official public “ambassador”….
I think we need another award for rubber figures and inventive data integrity, we could call it the Rubber Spoon Award …Manuel crossed with rubbery figues….
60
Sadly Manuel is with us no more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Sachs
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Is Trump going back to Paris?
20
NO
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/16/ah-crap-trump-administration-wont-withdraw-from-paris-climate-deal/
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It is the art of the deal – good book.
40
Paris is non binding, so Trump won’t be going back.
“The red team-blue team is still being evaluated,” Pruitt said. “I think it’s very, very important. I think the American people deserve an open, honest dialogue about what do we know, what don’t we know with respect to CO2 and its impact.”
Washington Examiner
10
“The red team-blue team is still being evaluated,” Pruitt said. “I think it’s very, very important. I think the American people deserve an open, honest dialogue about what do we know, what don’t we know with respect to CO2 and its impact.”
Best to get both teams from the same Ohio freshman class! They are smart as a whip, skilled at p**sing off the other guys, and will do a fine conscientious job for only a six-pack each. The superior way to dispatch this political crock of s**t!
21
An interesting thought here about electric cars et al: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/14/delingpole-imagine-trying-to-escape-a-hurricane-in-a-tesla/.
30
Everybody evacuates as soon as they are told. They drive as fast as they can, in the heavy traffic. The electric motor has to overcome the car’s inertial every time it is stop and start. Everybody needs to recharge at about the same time, so there are queues for recharge points. And then you find that the wind speed is too high for the wind turbines, so they have been feathered, and then a lightning strike trips some circuit breakers on the grid…
130
BUGGER!
30
“The electric motor has to overcome the car’s inertial every time it is stop and start.”
Not at all! The “regen at braking” feature of modern brushless motors is most impressive! If Diesel electric fright trains used that with Li-polymer power storage, on every car, fright costs could half! Go up from the battery, go down, back to the battery! 65% efficiency!
21
We continue to be bombarded with news about hurricanes effecting the USA. No news about them being most unusual – having developed from below average water temperatures.
Why don’t we get the same level of news commentary about those storms effecting Bangladesh, Vietnam and Japan – or don’t those people count?
Could it be something to do with the left wing dominance of the world’s media?
We haven’t been told why the mozzies ate fleeing Myanmar. They are fleeing because the Buddhists have had a gutful of the mozzies murderous ways which they have tolerated for decades/centuries.
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I wouldn’t take too much notice of what the buddhists put out for public consumption. They’re a pretty intolerant lot who supported the Japanese buddhists during WWII. It’s a religion of peace too, as the hindu Tamils in Sri Lanka recently discovered.
The truth is, the Rohingyas are “too ugly to be real Burmese”. I kid you not. That’s what they tell the common folk of their country.
12
?
31
Gnome,
Can you give us reference, please, for the alleged Buddhist support for the Japanese in Burma, during WWII.
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Thought this was worth reading . . . . .
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/09/16/rohingya-crisis-perception-management-rumours-reality-ramifications/
10
Okay then, take out your latest power bill and you can see from the bottom line that the cost has, well, spiked. Now look at the unit cost, that price per KWH, and mine here is around 26 cents per KWH.
There are differing price structures for the three sectors where power is consumed, and that Residential cost is (always) the highest. Commerce is a little cheaper and Industry is cheaper again, and while I can’t find actual costs, the cost for Industry is (roughly) half that of what you pay as a Residential consumer.
Now, before some lefties start screaming their buzzword ….. subsidy subsidy, that’s just the way it is. No one has to pay the extra to make it up to that level of the Residential sector, as it’s just the way those costs are structured.
That has everything to do, not with the cost they pay, but how much power that they use. The average Commerce consumer uses around 15 to 20 times what the average home consumes, and the average Industry is between 75 and 100 times more than what you pay as a home consumer, and note here (very carefully) the use of the word ….. AVERAGE. Now while some small shops (Commerce) might only consume a bit more than you use in the home, there are some very large Commercial consumers. Take Woolworths, or Coles, or Aldi, the ones in your local shopping mall. Look again at your own power bill. The average Woolies might be paying what you pay for 90 days consumption, so, that Woolies might be paying that amount ….. every day, and most probably even more than that.
As for Industry, let’s then look at the biggies, say an Aluminium smelter, and their rate per KWH actually would be half the home cost. When their potlines are going flat out, they need access to 900MW of power, so, just for one hour’s worth of electricity, they would be paying close to $120,000 ….. just for one hour’s power, and those potlines can run continuously for hours on end.
So, with the ever increasing cost of electricity, you’re grumbling when you look at your power bill. Imagine a Woolies manager when he sees his bill, of that Aluminium smelter operator when he sees his bill.
I said all that because what I have noticed when doing these Base Load Posts of mine that power consumption is falling, albeit ever so slightly, and at some times, that base Load has actually been below 17,000MW, and I can’t recall ever seeing that, because while power consumption has fallen, that’s mostly during daylight working hours as that Base Load has been virtually constant. Admitted, we have now moved out of the colder Winter Months and the heat of the Summer Months is yet to kick in, so (and this always happens in those benign Months of mid Spring and Autumn) power consumption does drop marginally, but the Base Load has remained virtually constant around that 18000MW mark for many years now.
Even so, that drop of 1000MW only comes in at a fall of around five to six percent.
I’m wondering is some of those huge consumers are in fact cutting back on their operations to save what effectively is an awful lot of money, when power costs come into play.
The link to this weeks data and analysis is as follows.
Australian Base Load Electrical Power – Week Ending 16th September 2017
Tony.
151
Possibly the biggest users are starting to generate their own electricity. That is happening with the SA Public service, the SA Submarine corporation and even the new Liberty One Steel at Whyalla. If you do not buy electricity from a retailer, you do not have to pay $400 a tonne carbon tax for gas and $200 a tonne for electricity and that is just the wholesale Carbon tax. Double it for retail.
Even governments like Jay Weatherill are trying avoid the RET. Their GST windfall will not pay for windmill power.
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Wait for the cries of anguish from owners of solar systems when the grid goes down this summer. Their connection to the grid means they will shut off too. So will all the windmill and solar systems. This is an AC grid and any disturbance in magnitude or phase means instant switch off. Restarting can take a day, if the grid is reestablished. The baseload is not only needed for 95% of all people, it is essential to distribute solar and wind. Those people who think they are safe have a nasty shock coming when the mugs who pay for their nighttime power and subsidized and cough up for their lunchtime solar stop supplying baseload.
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I expect lots of anguish. I do not think that owners of solar cells realise yet that their systems shut down when the grid shuts down.
Regular readers of this blog know about it but the average solar cell owner?
Rick Will should be ok. He has half of his cells off the grid anyway, as a precaution possibly.
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I have been thinking about this and am going to trial a test with my parents solar set-up.
My plan is to disconnect the house from the grid via the isolator in the power box on the side of the house.
Then, turn off all unneccessary electrical load inside the house ( to stop your inverter being ovberloaded ).
Now, assuming no other unknown interlocks exist, you should be able to grab a 12V car battery and connect it to a 240V AC inverter ( in theory 300 watts inverter should be enough ), then plug it into the normal power point inside the house.
Now that 240 V AC is present within the house wiring and simulates supply being present from out in the street/grid, the solar panels should think the grid is present from the street, and start up.
Then once you have at least 2kW roof solar now running, it should be able to charge the car battery to keep the inverter running and have enough excess to run the house.
If anyone tries this I take absolutely no responsibility for anything that happens either directly or indirectly.
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This sounds a very dangerous experiment. It would be easier to ask an expert. Solar turns off for a good reason, when it could keep going.
Connecting two AC power supplies, in your case a 240 volt AC inverter source and an inverter from a solar system might cause meltdown in one, if the cabling can handle the mismatch and consequent huge amperage. You could/would cause a fire somewhere in your house with the slightest mismatch in frequency. As Thomas Edison argued, AC has very serious problems for distribution but Tesla argued there is no choice. DC in parallel is a problem too but simple enough to check. The two sources must match perfectly. That is why AC power supplies turn off, to prevent explosions and fire.
11
Good point but it may not be an issue
The inverters on a solar system should synch to the present frequency, namely that which would normally come from the street grid, but in this case from the portable inverter.
Most inverters it hey sense a synch too far out, will shut down.
In some ways ( and I am happy to be corrected here ) assumig in this case every solar cell has a micro-inverter, each cell needs to synch its frequency to what is already existing ( assume clouds passing over or emerging from night time darkness ).
An inverter wil only drive into load – if no load exists ( as the load has been shut off ), no power will be drawn from either the solar cells or the mini inverter beyond running the actual inverter.
I’m happy to be corrected by those who might knopw more about inverters, but I cant see an issue.
10
Couple of comments on the new small engine legislation , after reading a reference it would appear if a manufacturer made different types of powered equipment they could average their emissions over the range so some equipment may run over the acceptable emission limits .
The comment that a leaf blower running for an hour puts out as much hydrocarbon as 150 cars
And the comment that the legislation saves 40 million litres of fuel each year is very hard to believe .
Roberts was partially right in so much as the nitty gritty detail mostly excludes any reference to Co2 but it depends where you look , I can find reference to the Co2 savings if you look at each PDF but it’s long boring reading .
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When does this all end?
When they have destroyed civilisation and we have been returned to the Stone Age?
The problem is partly that the people making these regulations have no idea how civilisation and in particular Western Civilisation came to be.
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And I doubt that the majority of our politicians have experienced a recession, last here circa 1990 and the worst for 60 years caused by a Labor Government, let alone having the good advise and wisdom of relatives who suffered the Great Depression period early 1900s.
And they probably don’t even think about EU countries like Greece, one of the PIGGS.
40
David there is a religious dimension to all this.
Its well hidden unless you know what to look for.
There are a lot of New Age ( New Age is a belief system of sorts ) writings from various authors that talk openly about whats currently happening and the general plan, which seems to be well mapped out.
The plan is to crash our economy and way of life. The reason is that these New Age adherents consider the earth a living “goddess” called” Gaia”, who they believe to be suffering from too many humans.
The problem for us who arent Gaia worshippers, is that we are in the firing line, literally. They also believe unless people will voluntarily reduce energy and resource consumption, they will force us to do it. Then if that fails, they will start amassive war to cull 90% of humanity to protect “Gaia”.
This sounds outlandish, until you realise this stuff is actually very real. Whats not mentioned is that there is a heavy influence of occult black magick witchcraft woven through it all, which I’d rather not go into, but its there.
Thats it in a nutshell.
20
Evening RR,
I found this record of Bernardi talking to his amendment in the Senate. He questions Birminham about whether the legislation ensures that other equipment will never be included in the restriction. To say B’s answers were equivocal is an understatement. That’s about 10 minutes into the 12 minute video, which includes a rather good bit of support from Jackie Lambie.
The legislation disturbs me, particularly as it is apparently based on Kyoto and US EPA approaches.
Enjoy,
Cheers,
Dave B
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WCWghieolBY
40
Good work David,
Cory Bernadi is on the right track here.
“They come for your wiper snipper today”
I am not sure if his amendment actually tried to protect whipper snipers. As discussed on the previous blog hand held petrol motor tools and other applications where light weight is the premium consideration are the main victims of the legislation.
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Don’t worry, they make take your life, they may take your liberty, but they’d never dare to take your Trabant.
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Well spotted David , I think Cory is one of the few that are watching our backs , I’m so disgusted with one nation that I’ve put them under the greens on the list of hopeless .
His Conservative party will definitely get my vote , don’t know what happened to the Nats on this one either , if I didn’t know any better I’d swear that the Coalition was trying to outgreen Labor but I don’t understand why one nation sold not only themselves out but us as well .
31
So, second thing. It seems that the quest for cheaper power might come back to bite them on the a$$.
When I started doing this Base Load thing twelve weeks back, I firstly detailed all the coal fired power plants, all their Units and the total Nameplate, and that was 16 Power Plants with 49 Units and a Nameplate of 23019MW.
Twelve weeks back, there were usually three or maybe even four Units out of action at any one time. What I did notice that all the rest when added together as a whole were generating their power so that it closely followed the Load, in other words, the Load Curve for coal fired power generation actually closely matched the Load Curve for consumption. (Demand) It was like that as an overall thing, all Units added together, and similar in Queensland and also NSW. Victoria was different because there was now NO Hazelwood, so their 10 Units virtually generated their power (almost) in a straight line.
Now here we are, twelve weeks later, and admitted, it’s in those benign times when consumption has dropped slightly, but I have seen something I don’t recall seeing previously.
There are currently 11 Units out of action, four in NSW and Queensland, and three in Victoria. That’s more than one Unit in five out of action, and a removal of 4890MW, and that’s a huge amount of power to take away from the grid, almost a fifth of Australia’s average daily power consumption. (at the moment)
Now, instead of following the load, those remaining Units are almost operating in a straight line of power generation, as good as they can deliver.
On top of that, I’ve also noticed that a couple of those remaining Units are struggling, most notably at the two old plants, Liddell with two Units down, and the other two doing the best they can, and Gladstone with one, sometimes two Units down, and one of the others struggling.
Now because of those old Units having problems, the Gladstone one supplies the Boyne Aluminium smelter, and Liddell, (with Bayswater also having a Unit down as well) and Bayswater the closest suppliers to the smelter at Tomago, I’m wondering if both smelters have been asked to ease back on their power consumption, while those remaining Units are worked on.
Hence, the (slight) power reduction I mentioned in the earlier Comment above.
Okay, you think that these smelters are huge consumers, and that’s true, but it still only amount to around 10 to 12% of that Base Load.
So, it might seem that the way to reduce overall power consumption is to dump those Alumimium smelters, and let me tell you, that won’t be allowed to happen.
So, the quest for cheaper power has seen those power generating companies flogging a dead horse of all the coal fired power they can get, so much so, that now we have almost 5000MW taken off the grid and some remaining Units struggling.
And coal fired power is cheaper than any other form, and you only need to look at the cost for power in each State to see that, as Queensland, with so much coal fired power (115 to 125% of the State’s consumption) has the cheapest power in Australia.
Very soon now, I can see talks being tentatively broached about the need for new coal fired power plants.
Tony.
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Afternoon Tony,
This may interest you, and may be relevant to your observation. And the tie-in with the closure of Hazelwood is instructive.
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That cannot come a moment too soon in my opinion. Why don’t we have several new unitys already under construction?
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with respect Tony
Bayswater and Liddell are owned by AGL , purchased or given to them by the Government at
sell out prices .
I would think that AGL is just leveraging the market for their advantage and if their advertising agenda is correct , then they are flogging the running turbines in order to
produce increased atrophy or accelerated premature wear to facilitate a need for close .
Incidentally AGL and other retail suppliers are supplying ( only if you contact them ) discounts up to 42% on your power , what they do not say is your service charge may change to compensate the AGL`S ( retailers ) for their loss of profit , the service charge used to be integrated .
Interested to know when did the service charge become a separate charge on power bills .
40
The warmist climatologists partake,
In feeding frenzies on the funding cake.
Renewables, will fail to hit the mark,
And leave Australians fumbling in the dark.
The voting power of Australian folk,
Could lift the blanket banning of ‘two-stroke’.
While outboard motors can pollute with oil,
Will ‘two-stroke’ mowing grass pollute the soil?
The warmists may now have their tipping point,
And knock Australia’s grid right out of joint.
Though data sets by B.O.M. have been adjusted,
They are not by the Government less trusted.
140
‘Though data sets by B.O.M. have been adjusted,
They are not by the Government less trusted.’
Sadly, Ruari, so true.
50
True tipping point revealed.
The level of renewables that stuffs our power grid. We seem to be there now.
60
What about the story that Pres. Trump is prepared to negotiate on the Paris Climate agreement. Not a good move in my opinion,but he seems to be trying to make new friends in places where you would not want to make friends.
42
Fake news from the WSJ.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/16/ah-crap-trump-administration-wont-withdraw-from-paris-climate-deal/
50
Also from…https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/09/16/european-commissioner-the-wall-street-journal-cited-says-story-entirely-false/#more-138603
“There has been no change in the United States’ position on the Paris agreement,” said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters. “As the President has made abundantly clear, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favorable to our country.”
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Donald Trump has complained that he suddenly acquired lots of “friends”, as soon as he moved into the White House, including those from places where you would not want to make friends. Welcome to, “Realpolitik”.
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15 Sept: ClimateChangeNews: Guest post: What will be in the next IPCC climate change assessment
by Dr Valérie Masson-Delmotte
(Dr Valérie Masson-Delmotte is a senior researcher at the Laboratoire des Science du Climat et de l’environnement in France and co-chair of Working Group 1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC)
At a meeting in Montreal last week, the member countries of the United Nations reached an important decision about the next few years of the IPCC – the scientific body that assesses climate change. All countries agreed on the outlines for the three main components of the next major report, due in 2021-22, which is the vital groundwork that will now guide the contributions of climate change researchers from all over the world.
My colleagues and I at Working Group 1 (WG1) – the group that examines the physical science basis underpinning past, present and future climate change – have taken a brand new approach that we think will make our work more accessible, holistic and ***in tune with policymakers’ needs…READ ALL
https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-what-will-be-in-the-next-ipcc-climate-change-assessment
10
even the simplest statement of fact is met with FakeNewsMSM scorn
14 Sept: WaPo: Trump says ‘we’ve had bigger storms’ when asked about Harvey, Irma and climate change
By Dino Grandoni
The back-to-back landfalls of two harrowing storms in Texas and in Florida have reignited both the scientific debate over the link between hurricanes and global warming and the U.S. political debate over what, if anything, to do to address climate change…
When asked on Air Force One whether the two recent storms have changed his view on climate change, Trump told reporters: “We’ve had bigger storms than this.” He went on to talk about bigger storms that he said occurred in the 1930s and 1940s…
Hurricane patterns in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, have long been a puzzle for scientists. Even so, hurricane researchers were perplexed by Trump’s comment.
“That’s just not correct,” said Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Parsing Trump’s comment that “we’ve had bigger storms than this” begins with trying to understand what Trump means by “bigger.”
Because he brought up the 1930s, Trump perhaps had in mind the infamous 1935 Labor Day hurricane that, like Irma, devastated the Florida Keys. That storm was recorded as having the lowest air pressure of any hurricane on record in the United States…
“The President may have been referring to the fact that the 1930s-1950s were an unusually active phase for hurricane activity in the Atlantic, perhaps comparable to the one we are in now,” Gabriel Vecchi, a hurricane researcher at Princeton, wrote in an email. “That is true, though we can’t say with confidence, based on my read of the evidence, that the present phase is more or less active than the one in the 1930-1950s.”…
It’s that lull in the 1970s and 1980s that has puzzled scientists…
“The real anomaly is that the ’70s and ’80s were unusually quiet,” Emanuel said. “It’s not that the ’30s and ’40s were unusually active.”…
“I don’t see hurricanes as necessarily the best piece of evidence to see that global warming is real,” Vecchi said in his email. “The fact that the planet has been warming: surface, ocean, land, deep ocean; that ice and snow have been melting; and that sea level has been rising are much more compelling and unambiguous.”…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/09/14/trump-says-weve-had-bigger-storms-when-asked-about-harvey-irma-and-climate-change/?utm_term=.c46484ce0f22
30
“Because he brought up the 1930s, Trump perhaps had in mind the infamous 1935 Labor Day hurricane”
Really?
Trump is 71. He was born on the 14th June 1946.
21
Ok, not brought up in, but brought up the subject of the 1930s hurricanes. He would not remember the 1940s either, so the 1930s-50s hurricane story is a era outside memory for Trump.
11
You have to love the logic that someone says storms will be more frequent and stronger but fails to explain why? Not only does this not fit the facts, but seems just made up. Every possible consequence from the alleged 0.8C in an average has been put forward, without explanation or science. Are these conclusions from failed computer models which predicted rapid runaway warming? Or are they just fantasy? Can you just allege anything and everything is Climate Change? It seems so.
31
You know the old saying – “leave no stone unturned”?
Well, CNN makes stones.
30
True but it’s one thing to suggest thirty years ago that increased CO2 increases global temperature, slightly. Not an unreasonable hypothesis at first sight. However since then the CNN accepted opinion is that CO2 controls every aspect of our weather in a chaotic system across a planet? How? What single prediction has come true? Not even a temperature increase in 20 years and if not temperature, on what are these predictions based? The original promoters of this are retired or retiring, Hansen, Pachauri and Gore is close. Flannery will be looking at his pension.
However according to (Comedian) Bill Maher the US is killing people in Syria with deadly CO2, worse than Sarin gas. Clearly according to Bill, CO2 is the root cause of the conflict. Forget religion, politics, cash and oil. It’s all CO2. According to (actor) Robert De Niro, the connection between CO2 and Hurricane Irma is self evident. The seas have risen, the cities have drowned, islands have vanished and species have been wipted out. After thirty years of this, where? It’s not science. It’s not fact. It’s arrant rubbish, made up nonsense.
Still AGL is profiteering, earning billions from the State piggery which is Global Warming.
31
15 Sept: UK Independent: MP appointed to Parliament’s science committee is part of climate change denial think tank
Exclusive: Graham Stringer risks ‘wasting valuable time’ over discussing whether global warming is real
by Tom Embury-Dennis
A new member of the Commons committee meant to ensure Government decisions are based on sound scientific evidence is also a trustee of an organisation that promotes climate change denial.
Graham Stringer, a long-time sceptic of the consensus scientific view on global warming, was appointed unopposed to the Commons Science and Technology Committee on Monday alongside seven other male MPs.
The appointment comes almost two years after the Labour MP joined Nigel Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) think tank, which has a lobbying wing dedicated to opposing policies that limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Rebecca Newsom, senior political adviser at Greenpeace, told The Independent the appointment was “odd” and risks the committee “wasting valuable time having more discussions about whether climate change is real”…
In 2014, Mr Stringer was one of only two MPs to vote against the Energy and Climate Change Committee’s acceptance of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) conclusion that humans are the dominant cause of global warming.
Minutes of the report reveal the Blackley and Broughton MP tried unsuccessfully to remove a sentence endorsing the IPCC’s projections of future warming, as well as a paragraph concluding “warming is expected to continue in the coming decades”…
In a BBC interview in 2015 Mr Stringer falsely claimed there was “no scientific evidence” linking climate change to the floods that ravaged Britain that winter…
The Science and Technology Committee has also attracted criticism for its lack of diversity. Of the nine members elected so far eight are men, and all but one are white.
Mr Stringer told The Independent: “I’ve been on the science and technology committee for approximately 10 years. I’ve got a degree in chemistry and worked in the industry for 10 years.
“I try to bring my training as a scientist to all of my work.”
On accusations he is a climate sceptic, the MP said: “I am sceptical about everything – that is what scientists are. But there has been an enormous amount of shoddy work masquerading as science with regards to climate change.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/graham-stringer-mp-climate-change-science-and-technology-committee-global-warming-policy-foundation-a7946966.html
COMMENT: David: This is not clear reporting. At the top of the article it says he’s a new member. At the bottom of the article he claims to have been on the committee for 10 years.
Whichever it is it would be good to know who proposed him for the job and why he was unopposed. Is this purely a Labour Party carve up or are all MPs in on this nutty decision?
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read as much as you can:
12 Sept: Reuters: Transcript of Reuters interview with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt
by Reuters Staff, written by Richard Valdamis – 30 Min Read
REUTERS: There have been reports about the EPA launching what has been called a red team-blue team review of climate change science. Can you tell us more about this? Will this lead to a re-evaluation of the 2009 endangerment finding that carbon dioxide endangers human health?
PRUITT: I’m thinking about it. Steve Koonin, professor at NYU, did a very exciting piece in the Wall Street Journal called Red Team Blue Team. I scheduled time with Steve in my office the week that article came out. I didn’t know it was coming out… So Steve and I were meeting about some other things, and we didn’t really focus on that, but I took the opportunity to talk to him about it and … we’re considering it. I think the American people deserve and honest, open, transparent discussion. What do we know? What don’t we know? Does it pose an existential threat, what can be done about it? etc…
There are lots of questions that have not been asked and answered. Who better to do that than a group of scientists? Red team scientists and blue team scientists getting together and having a robust discussion about that for all the world to see. So, I’m not a scientist, I’m an attorney. That does beg the question because there is a follow-up question to that, which is what can be done about it [climate change] that is statutory and legal?
But as I’ve shared with senators in the confirmation process, Congress has never responded to this issue. If you ask people that amended the Clean Air Act in 1990, including [former Michigan Democratic] Congressman Dingle, he is endlessly quoted as saying that if you try to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act of 1990 that it would create “a glorious mess.” So the Clean Air Act was truly set up to address local and regional air pollutants.
So, you hear often about the regulation of GHG and CO2, but there has to be a determination of what can be done. What are the tools in the toolbox? If the tools are not in the toolbox to address this issue, I can’t, and this agency can’t, just simply make it up. We can’t re-imagine authority. The past administration tried to do that with its Clean Power Plan.
It was extraordinary what the Supreme Court did [in its 2014 ruling on the Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA case. The court backed the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases from mobile and stationary sources but threw out its “tailoring rule,” which revised the statutory thresholds for requiring federal air permits for greenhouse gases.] It said a lot. It said the authority the previous administration was trying to say that they had in regulating carbon dioxide wasn’t there. So there are two parts to this question: what do we know/what don’t we know? And two, what is the response…the statutory response? The red team blue team is intended to be a response that provides answers to the American people… the American people deserve, in my view, an open transparent honest discussion about this issue…. So we are contemplating being a part of that process.
REUTERS: The consensus has been overwhelming that climate change has been caused by human beings…
PRUITT: That’s not the question. It is not a question about whether the climate is warming. It is not a question about whether human activity contributes to it. It is a question about how much we contribute to it? How do we measure that with precision? And by the way, are we on an unsustainable path? And what harm…is it causing an existential threat? There is another great piece in the New York Times by Brett Stephens, I think it was, that talked about the climate of complete certainty. His whole premise is that there is a basis of consensus we know but the politicians have done what? Created an elasticity approach. They’ve stretched it so far that it’s reached a point where the credibility is being strained. That article, along with the red-team blue-team, I think those book-end this approach where we have a discussion about that.
Some of the blue team scientists – they say oh we are not going to participate in that. Why not? Why don’t you want to participate? It’s like the New York Yankees according to them. It’s like the New York Yankees playing a Little League team. If you’re going to win and if you’re so certain about it, come and do your deal. They shouldn’t be scared of the debate and discussion. That’s what science is all about. That’s what scientific debate is about. Let’s get red team scientists in. Let’s get blue team scientists in. Let’s let them question one another. That would be exciting to see.
REUTERS: But what would it look like?
PRUITT: It’s in its formative stages. The idea is a good idea because it’s an idea that advances science. It advances discussion. It advances transparency. It advances for the American people to consume and participate through this debate because there is not consensus on this issue. How do we know that? There has been no policy response. That’s why we haven’t seen Congress act because there has been such a question. It’s not a question about whether warming is happening or whether we are contributing to it. That’s not what we are debating. It’s how much? To what degree? The precision of measurement. Does it pose a meaningful threat? Is it unsustainable? There is a host of questions that will be asked and answered during the process. It’s exciting.
REUTERS: But how would this be brought to the public? Would you put it on television?
PRUITT: “I think so. I think so. I mean, I don’t know yet, but you want this to be open to the world. You want this to be on full display. I think the American people would be very interested in consuming that. I think they deserve it.” …
REUTERS: On Paris and climate change, polls show younger people are more supportive of U.S leadership on climate change. How do you explain your decision to a younger generation?
PRUITT: That’s not what Paris was about. I get what you’re saying but here’s the deal though. It was not about whether the U.S. is going to continue leading on reducing our CO2 footprint because Paris didn’t actually do that. Paris was a bumper sticker. Go back and read the articles about the criticism that was levied on the environmental left. They were very critical and dismissive of the Paris agreement. You know why? Because China didn’t have to do anything until 2030 and India conditioned all of their obligations upon receiving two and a half trillion dollars of aid. Russia, India and China contributed 0 dollars to the Green Climate Fund. People have short memories there…
REUTERS: What do you think about the argument some major fossil fuel companies like Exxon and Cloud Peak Energy (coal company) made that it is better for the US to remain in the Paris agreement because it gives them a competitive advantage?
PRUITT: I don’t understand that argument. I just simply don’t understand that argument because if they are saying that the technology that is being developed domestically that we are not going to be able to export and other countries will be interested in? Where is the evidence of that? China is still building coal facilities to the tune of almost one a day. They had 800 planned and they have scaled that back. India is going to continue burning coal. What we ought to be doing is exporting technology and innovation to help them do it cleaner. It is not the job of this agency and it shouldn’t be the job of any regulatory body to force or pick winners and losers in the energy mix. We need fuel diversity as far as the generation of electricity because you can only get so much natural gas through the pipelines.
So if there is an attack on your infrastructure with regards to the pipes and how natural gas is delivered to generate electricity, what do you do? You have to have a solid amount of hydrocarbons – coal stored on site – that allows you to address peak demand. If GDP growth is going to continue at 3 percent, then you’ve got to have [fuel] diversity- it’s energy security across the board. It’s unwise in business to have one client or two clients. It’s unwise in electricity to have one source or two sources. In Oklahoma – 18 percent of our electricity is wind generated. This is an all of the above approach and EPA should not get in the business of foisting upon the markets decisions to say don’t burn fossil fuels…
REUTERS: Do you ever talk to your kids about climate change? Do they agree with you?
PRUITT: My kids are wonderfully talented individuals and their world view is wonderful. They look at these issues in a smart way and I think they would probably echo the things that I have shared.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-pruitt-text/transcript-of-reuters-interview-with-epa-administrator-scott-pruitt-idUSKBN19X01Z
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He is a small single person heater I use for camping. https://youtu.be/TpMSpJcFSY0
It can run on disposable butane cartridge gas cylinders with a bayonet connection that you can get for $1 each. The heater uses 66g of gas per hour and has a thermal output of 930W.
The cylinders contain 220g of gas so will last 3.33 hrs for a cost of 30c per hour. To scale up to 1kW equivalent we multiply by 1/0.93 to give a factor of 1.075 or 32.25c per hr for an equivalent 1kW output.
This is not a huge amount more than most Australians are paying for 1kWh of electricity.
Incidentally the gas is canned in China, probably from exported Aussie gas.
This illustrates how ridiculous the cost of energy has become in Australia.
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I use one for camping barbecues with a BBQ round fitted plate that sits on the single burner stove, and another in the kitchen that I use with a Wok or with a large stainless steel pot when cooking curries and other freezable meals to save me cooking every night.
Gas canisters are available from Bunnings, Fishing Boating and Camping stores and many other outlets.
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Presumably proper ventilation is essential? Nice looking little stove.
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Good warning Annie.
Do not use inside the tent!
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“Do not use inside the tent!”
While you abide therein! OTOH:
Excellent for dispatching elsewhere, nicely warmed varmints within tent! Please invite the always above raptors to the barbecue!
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You fail to account for fixed charges last bill cost me 40.1c per kWh inclusive of all charges. I am designing my off grid system right now.
9 kg bottled propane is about 25 bucks, and represents 122 kW hours of heating / cooking half of electricity at 20c per kWh. This is the most expensive form of LPG. Disconnect, use gas for cooking and hot water. 9kg diesel is around 126 kWh and therefore it costs 10c per kWh in a heating application. Petrol is around 14c per kWh for heating. Use autogas and LPG is 10c per kWh. All much cheaper than electricity.
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Hmm Ms red thumb, come outta the basement and explain to me where my math was wrong hey? My post was just about the energy in fuels and their density. It was all just math from there. Or does your red thumb mean “I deny math” or maybe it’s the calorific values of the fuel? Or maybe it’s the fuel density, or even the price you think I got wrong, we will never know because you are too much of a coward to say so!
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Bobl:
I haven’t spotted any other costs in your calculations, such as purchase, maintenance and depreciation. If you want to compare your supply costs against those of an external supplier, surely you need to quantify and include these costs?
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And provision for replacement
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I have in previous posts done that – around 4c per kWh for electricity generation. I can assume in domestic installs maintenance is largely a sunk cost, since you are not actually paying yourself to change the oil.
However the head post was about fuels VS electricity on Fuel cost per kWh and I cited heating applications where most domestic consumption is. There are probably less maintenance and replacement costs on a gas heater, stove and HWS (especially the on-demand gas systems) than there are on electric appliances.
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Bobl:
I’ve just got my electricity bill from AGL. Fairly painless ( $3.47) because I have solar and they have raised the feed in tariff along with their charges.
Some comments:
My kWh usage per day is the highest it has been in 9 years or more. I wasn’t imagining that the winter was colder than usual.
The price hikes are 23.6% for the ‘peak’ rate and 43.3% for the ‘Controlled load’ (off peak hot water) which makes up 67.5% of the bill. The Service Charge went up 17.0% but as it makes up 24.4% of the bill its effect counts. ( If I put 32.7% of the Service Charge onto the daily rate it works out at 65.5¢ / kWh rather than 38¢ / kWh ). Makes running a generator look cheap, if only I could keep feeding solar back into the grid. The new State Song for SA will be The Hills are alive with the Sound of Generators.
O/T? Canberra is supposedly 100% renewables (or closing in on that target) because the ACT has signed agreements with wind farms around Australia to buy at $70-90 a MWh. Nevermind that the actual supply will come mostly from NSW coal fired what is the position regarding the subsidies under the RET? These are added onto customers bills in ratio with the RET and the amount of conventional power bought, but if Canberra is 100% renewables who pays for those subsidy certificates? Does this mean that Canberrans get electricity at (wholesale) $70-90 a MWh whereas we peasants pay $100-120 PLUS the $82 RET subsidy PLUS the cost of Canberra’s RET subsidy?
Enquiring mind would like to know.
P.S. I don’t know when this will be posted. Electricity dropped out (after 3 flickers) 15 minutes ago for just under 4 hours. Presumably something to do with the 7 hours scheduled blackout in 3 days for “up grading the supply”.
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I have a small single person heater. It is called Mrs Whakaaro.
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I trust that she is low maintenance.
lol
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Will – did Michelle ask you to post this on my site? – Jo
No not at all! My daughter Michelle is but another very smart Pretty lady like you. We were chitchating ’bout local goings on of interest to many folk. Enjoy or ignore your choice.
[Jo’s site is not a post box, and this “communication” discusses private matters. I suggest you get in touch with “M” via more direct means] Fly
This is but a copy of direct communication from me with daughter Michelle. If on the internet how can this ever be private? Your assumptions of privacy seem meaningless.
All the best! -will-
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We broke our September minimum record this morning, took it down from -0.2C to -2.1C. Believe it was -6C in The national capital, with the best alpine snow pack in twenty years, and the BOM has this as the hottest winter on record. Reckon the BOM needs to replace (a) a lot of equipment or (b) a lot of personnel.
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Can’t wait to hear the TV news weatherman’s explanation.
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If you check the south coast of NSW for Aug this year it shows max temps above average. Yet if you check the actual SC sites, the max temps are below average. Homogenisation and infilling data – way to go.
Anomaly map
http://www.bom.gov.au/web03/ncc/www/awap/temperature/maxanom/month/colour/history/ns/2017080120170831.gif
Actual site temps (scroll down to summary statistics).
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/nsw/summary.shtml
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Ian, you are simply imagining that it is cold.
Just like I imagined that summers were as hot as hell when I was kid, but the “records” now say otherwise.
Thank goodness for Trove, etc.
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We really need to start pushing out the idea that there will be a Climate Nuremberg Trials for crimes against science, reason and humanity and there will be severe punishment for guilty parties.
All those BoM lurkers secretly reading this take note!
Your crimes might be forgiven if you blow the whistle and I’m sure Wikileaks is awaiting your uploads.
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Notice to BoM lurkers and whistle blowers. I imagine as the BoM tries to cover up its past data tampering they will start deleting large anounts of data and will implement more logging of data network transactions so you better start downloading and backing up data now before it disappears or becomes inaccessible.
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Should be a crowd sourcing project.
Where do we start!
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Get a staff list with the internal comms contacts for this year and the last five.
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It was just my birthday day so here is the A-10 Thunderbolt II wishing me a happy Brrrt day! An extremely effective weapon, no wonder Obama tried to get rid of it.
https://youtu.be/NvIJvPj_pjE
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Many happy returns David, that A-10 is the biggest salad maker I’ve seen!
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The A10 can be an effective weapon but the idea is not new.
The Hurricane IID tank buster (AKA Can opener) was an effective weapon in North Africa in WWII.
https://www.google.com.au/search?source=hp&q=hurricane+2d+tank+buster&oq=hurricane+tank+buster&gs_l=psy-ab.1.1.0j0i22i30k1.1681.8916.0.11237.26.23.2.0.0.0.286.4005.0j1j18.19.0….0…1.1.64.psy-ab..5.21.4034.0..0i131k1j0i131i46k1j46i131k1j0i3k1j0i10k1j0i10i46k1j46i10k1.0.lfy8sSsNsgc
Pilots however found that surprise was essential. Given warning the German tank crews would jump out and set up a vertical firing machine gun in front of the empty tank. THis could bring the Hurricane “can opener” down.
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“Two underwing guns, mounted one beneath each wing panel each in conformal gun pods, were fitted to Hawker Hurricane fighters which were issued to No. 6 Squadron RAF. They served in North Africa from mid-1942 where they achieved considerable success; claims included 148 tanks hit, of which 47 were destroyed, plus nearly 200 other vehicles. However, they suffered heavy losses, mainly to ground fire (the Hurricanes were poorly protected) and also lacked effectiveness against the Tiger tank. In 1944, the aircraft served in the Far East, mainly firing HE ammunition against road and river transports.
Tests in the Far East showed a high level of accuracy, with an average of 25% of shots fired at tanks striking the target. Attacks with HE were twice as accurate as with AP, possibly because the ballistics were a closer match to the .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns used for sighting (the HE shell was lighter and was fired at a higher velocity). By comparison, the practice strike rate of the 60 pdr RPs (rocket projectiles) fired by fighter-bombers was only 5% against tank-sized targets.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_S
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BoM needs to be audited, but sending in a Red Team would be more productive.
‘The membership of the Red Team will basically determine the Team’s conclusions. It must be made up of adversaries to the Blue Team “consensus”, which has basically been the U.N. IPCC. If it is not adversarial in membership and in mission, it will not be a real Red Team.
‘As a result, the Red Team must not be allowed to be controlled by the usual IPCC-affiliated participants.’
Dr Roy Spencer
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Yes!
I like the Red Team Idea. Thew would ask questions that the government appointed Technical Advisory Forum never did.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/acorn-sat/#tabs=Technical-Advisory-Forum
A properly appointed Red Team would be able to demand answers from the BOM and would likely uncover the fact of any deleted data (causing more question from Red Team)
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They have just wound it up and without equivocation I say its a whitewash.
‘The Bureau is carefully considering the Forum’s report and will shortly release a formal response to its recommendations.’
CSIRO
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Has anyone heard any more about the Mann v Ball case?
Cheers,
Dave B
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Heard of it but nothing about it for a while , most cases the Mann uses non disclosure to hide a ruling , he can afford a never ending court case .
21
Warning to all about communications on the internet!
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In the UK, what is known as a Tomlin Order is far from uncommon. It is used when one party wants to settle a claim just before a case is heard or before judgment is given and want to keep it secret.
A Tomlin Order incorporates wording which binds both parties and the court to non-disclosure of the Terms of the Order and thus the outcome of the case.
I have had two of these – one when a firm of solicitors settled my claim of false accounting amounting to theft on the day before the Hearing, and the other was a Russian tractor manufacturer 10 days into my claim in the High Court that the tractor was ‘unfit for purpose’.
In the tractor case the Judge had made it clear on day 2 that the manufacturer didn’t have a leg to stand on and on day 3 made the exceptional comment that he could not believe that their barrister was licensed to appear before the Court ! This was nearly 30 years ago and my legal costs for barrister and solicitor were running at some £2500 a day and the defendants were dragging the hearing out with some days yet to go until they received instructions from Russia to settle. Every day of the hearing a stern-faced man in a trench coat and dark hat sat at the back of the court, my legal team thought he was an observer from the embassy.
These Orders are used to protect the reputations of people and firms who would otherwise lose much if not all of their reputation. They are inherently wrong but faced with the uncertainty of a judicial outcome, and legal costs, are difficult to refuse.
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While the WSJ reported that Trump may not exit the Paris Accords yesterday, with a denial coming from the White House, Reuters just reported that Tillerson said WH is open to staying in.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1BS0LW
This flip flopping is getting really tiresome.
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https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/17/epa-evaluating-red-teams-to-challenge-climate-science-despite-hurricanes/
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Tillerson and Cohn have never really been on board with this issue.
For this and other reasons I expect to see Cohn out the back door soon.
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Yes! On Trumpian terms.
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Euan’s News Bytes
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The proposed UK ban could raise CO2 emissions by 18% to 35% over 2015 levels by 2048 simply from the battery manufacture.
Emissions from powering them could come from renewables , but preliminary calculations suggest that for this to be wind power would require around 22% of the UK land mass to be covered in wind turbines !!!
Our Department for Transport have the rather foolish notion that battery manufacture won’t increase CO2 emissions because ‘ Tesla are going to make them with renewable energy’. Seems they don’t know that China is widely predicted to have 65% or more of global battery production …. seems they don’t know that China plans to double CO2 emissions by 2030 under its Paris Climate Agreement commitment.
Equally the seem unaware that the Nissan car plant in Sunderland which also makes batteries has on-site renewable power generation meeting just over 1% of the plant’s energy requirements. Nissan agreed the sale of All their worldwide battery plants to Chinese investors in August of this year.
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17 Sept: WSJ: Climate Change Hype Doesn’t Help
The bigger issue than global warming is that more people are choosing to live in coastal areas.
By Ryan Maue
(Mr. Maue, a research meteorologist, is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute)
As a meteorologist with access to the best weather-forecast model data available, I watched each hurricane’s landfall with particular interest. Harvey and Irma broke the record 12-year major hurricane landfall drought on the U.S. coastline. Since Wilma in October 2005, 31 major hurricanes had swirled in the North Atlantic but all failed to reach the U.S. with a Category 3 or higher intensity.
Even as we worked to divine exactly where the hurricanes would land, a media narrative began to form linking the devastating storms to climate change. Some found it ironic that states represented by “climate deniers” were being pummeled by hurricanes. Alarmists reveled in the irony that Houston, home to petrochemical plants, was flooded by Harvey, while others gleefully reported that President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago might be inundated by Irma…
By focusing on whether climate change caused a hurricane, journalists fail to appreciate the complexity of extreme weather events. While most details are still hazy with the best climate modeling tools, the bigger issue than global warming is that more people are choosing to live in coastal areas, where hurricanes certainly will be most destructive…
Yet climate scientists all too often speculate during interviews rather than refer to IPCC reports or their cousins from the U.S. National Climate Assessment. Some climate scientists have peddled tenuous theories with no contemporaneous research evidence. Advocacy groups package these talking points for easy consumption by journalists, who eagerly repeat them…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/climate-change-hype-doesnt-help-1505672774
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re Ryan Maue’s “Advocacy groups package these talking points for easy consumption by journalists, who eagerly repeat them”…
difficult to find some BBC World Service Radio pieces I’ve heard in recent days, which seem to be inserted into all sorts of programs, but there was George Monbiot, that financial whiz, on World Service Business Report, responding about flood insurance being “under extreme pressure” because of “unforseen, extreme weather events this century”, according to the BBC host.
Monbiot went on about “climate breakdown” intensifying hurricanes, causing sea level rise, & warmer air/more moisture meaning more intense rainfall… And so it went on.
another BBC program, maybe Newshour or another Business program, covered the insurance angle as well, in particular how lack of insurance cover in poor countries will lead to more climate migration. there were vague mentions of developed countries being responsible, and the BBC host asked his guest if maybe they would pay the inevitable, high insurance premiums for poor countries in order to stem the migration! at least the guest, who was going along with the “climate alarmism”, had the sense to say no they wouldn’t.
this morning, it was the turn of media darling, Obama-appointed ex-EPA administrator, Judith Enck, on BBC Newshour, with an unusually short piece, which was almost identical to the following NYT piece:
6 Sept: NYT: An Enormous, Urgent Task: Hauling Away Harvey’s Debris
By JOHN SCHWARTZ and ALAN BLINDER
Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency whose territory included New York and New Jersey, said that environmental considerations have to be part of the process, even after a disaster…
“The victims of these storms are already in environmentally compromised situations,” she said, “and the way debris is handled should not make it worse.”
She said that separating waste by type is anything but fussy, especially in the age of climate change, when scientists have shown that global warming is producing wetter storms and contributing to more destructive storm surges, and could also be making some storms more powerful…
Historically, Texas has not shown deep concern over environmental issues, and in the current crisis, its stance on debris removal has been similar. Governor Greg Abbott has temporarily suspended 19 environmental rules that the state said would “prevent, hinder or delay” Harvey disaster response…
a further taste of Enck:
Worried about your health care? Then don’t let them cut EPA’s budget.
Environmental Defense Fund (blog)-7 Jul. 2017
To quote former regional EPA administrator Judith Enck: It’s “going to make people sick. It literally will make people sick”…
18 Jan: AP: Regional EPA director headed to Pace Law
WHITE PLAINS – Judith Enck, the Environmental Protection Administration’s regional director, will become a visiting scholar at Pace University’s law school…
The Democratic appointee previously told the Times-Union of Albany that she’s stepping down from her EPA post Friday, the day Republican Donald Trump becomes president.
Pace says Enck will collaborate with faculty, guest lecture and work closely with students in the environmental law program…
her Twitter account reveals the same old nexus between all parties involved in pushing the CAGW scam. worth looking at more, just to see the politics of it all:
Twitter: Judith Enck
Happy environmental leader. Former EPA Regional Administrator (appointed by President Obama). Working on climate change. WAMC (NPR affiliate) commentator.
(KEPT AT TOP) Enck re-tweets jusineburt Mar 6 :
Every city/county needs solar siting survey. #CleanCoalition IDs 65MW comm. solar potential in S San Mateo County http://bit.ly/2lVEBHX
9 hrs ago Enck re-tweets Fareed Zakaria CNN:
Also on today’s show at 10a/1p ET on CNN: Climate scientist @KHayhoe discusses how climate change is impacting weather
9 hrs ago Enck re-tweets Naomi Oreskes:
30 years ago today nations signed Montreal protocol to stop ozone depletion. It IS possible to act on facts. #ClimateAction @ClimSciDefense
9 hrs ago Enck re-tweets: Yale Environment 360
Trump’s judicial appointments could shape US enviro policy for decades, and early nominees are anti-reg, pro-business
https://twitter.com/enckj?lang=en
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btw Enck’s had the final words on BBC this morning re Irma/Harvey, to the effect:
– this is climate change, this is the new normal –
with no further word from the BBC interviewer.
“new normal” is a bit of a meme! the monolithic MSM:
15 Sept: WaPo: Perspective | Irma and Harvey are the new normal. It’s time to move away from the coasts.
Climate change is rendering once idyllic lands inhospitable to life.
by Elizabeth Rush, the author of “Rising: The Unsettling of the American Shore,” teaches creative writing at Brown University.
That two storms of Harvey and Irma’s caliber would make landfall in the United States during the same swampy fortnight seemed exceptional at first — and then, of course, it didn’t. That’s because surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic, where many hurricanes are born, are between 0.5 degrees Celsius and 1 degree Celsius above average this year. Warmer seas, combined with higher atmospheric temperatures, feed storms, helping turn average hurricanes into spectacularly destructive events. Add accelerated sea level rise into the mix, and you get large swaths of North American coastline inundated in previously unimaginable amounts of water…
If we’re going to adapt to climate change without loss of life and unnecessary financial hardship in Harvey- and Irma-like storms, federal, state and local governments need to start financing and encouraging relocation…
Meanwhile, in the wake of Irma and Harvey, local floodplain managers can pursue buyouts where the cost of mitigation may eclipse the cost of retreat. And those who are faced with the difficult task of recovery can ask whether they want to return. If the answer is no, then the community can band together and seek money to relocate through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program…
The superlatives used to describe Irma and Harvey, and Sandy and Katrina before them, are starting to sound eerily familiar: “unprecedented,” “record-breaking,” “game changer.”…
But as polar ice caps melt, sea levels rise and storms intensify, the past is proving to be an increasingly unreliable guide…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/irma-and-harvey-are-the-new-normal-its-time-to-move-away-from-the-coasts/2017/09/15/4ff2a61e-9971-11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story.html?utm_term=.64eb9c5ea3f8
7 Sept: Guardian: Twin megastorms have scientists fearing this may be the new normal
by Jonathan Watts
“Even I as a climate scientist am startled to see another potentially devastating storm in this region so shortly after Harvey,” said Anders Levermann, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research…
But there is a growing sense of urgency for governments to reduce emissions and strengthen preparations for future disasters…
As well as better urban and emergency planning, he said, social policies would also play a part.
“Increasingly, the evidence is clear that the poorest, being the most exposed to many climate risks and often being the least protected, will be most affected. Addressing this inequality is at the heart of not just the climate change discussion but all discussions about how we become resilient to risk and hazards.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/06/twin-megastorms-irma-harvey-scientists-fear-new-normal
FUNNY…I WASN’T AWARE THE POOR OWNED THE COASTAL PROPERTIES!
Is climate change making mega-hurricanes the new normal?
Deutsche Welle – 7 Sept 2017
Will these types of storms become the new normal?
CBS – 31 Aug 2017
Bill Nye, Cataclysmic Hurricanes are the New Normal
TMZ – 9 Sept 2017
Are these powerful hurricanes the new normal? – RN Drive – ABC
ABC Australia – 7 Sept 2017
Monster storm Irma is barrelling through the Caribbean, just weeks after Hurricane Harvey … Is this the new normal, or a freak coincidence?…
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Comment on Reddit (and CHIPSTERO7 blog) regarding the radiative forcing effect from CO2:
How can the alarmists possibly justify that CO2 is the main driver of temperatures? The feedbacks must be so strong!
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It’s always pleasing to find that one has been ‘on the trail’ even when late to the party.
There has been a lot of hype about cyclones Harvey and Irma and that they are “Climate Change in Action” and other Shamanism and attempts at more Magic.
No, they are not.
It’s The Sun, Stupid, not Magic.
Physics in Action.
Just a week ago, I was talking about Space Weather affecting Terrestrial Weather. Well, it’s nice to be vindicated.
Harvey and Irma (and all the others, Pam, Debbie etc) are The Sun in action!, I was close, but I don’t get any cigar, being wa-a-a-y-y-y-y behind the 8-ball. Spaceweather, ie: sun spots.
Active sun spots create Solar Flares. CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections) are often the product of the more powerful (M and X Class flares.) When aimed our way, the CMEs collide with the Earth’s magnetic field, creating geomagnetic storms. The bigger the flare, the bigger and the faster the CME, and the more effect it has. Coronal Holes and high speed Solar Wind can have effects on our magnetosphere too.
In other words, solar activity and its effects on Terrestrial geomagnetic activity is what we should be researching, not wasting our time and resources on plant food (CO2). t food, Let’s leave it at that and concentrate on researching real causes.
I found this: The Sun and Storms on You Tube. :-).
Watch and Enjoy!
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18 Sept: Sky News: AGL secures solar grants before coal closure
Australians are on track to pay more than $500 million to AGL to fund its flagship solar generators, as the energy giant prepares to shut down its Liddell coal power station.
The Australian reports the company has already secured $230 million in grants and will gain more under the renewable energy target.
The scale of the subsidy is now a key question for the government in the debate on whether to embrace a clean energy target.
Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar told Sky News he is open to government subsidies to keep the coal generator going.
‘We need to do… whatever we have to do to ensure that we don’t end up with the problems that South Australia has had,’ he said in Sunday.
‘I would be comfortable for the prime minister and the energy minister to do whatever they had to do to ensure we have enough dispatchable energy.’
Mr Sukkar conceded it was ‘possible’ this would involve investing money.
The two AGL solar farms in western NSW generate a combined 359,000-megawatt hours of electricity, just four per cent of the capacity of the Liddell Power station.
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/federal/2017/09/18/agl-secure-solar-grants-before-coal-closure.html
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behind paywall:
Want lower energy prices? Put baseload out to pasture
The Australian Financial Review 18 Sept 2017
***article behind paywall:
18 Sept: Australian: Greg Brown: Taxpayers should subsidise Liddell coal power station: Michael Sukkar
The Australian reported today ***(LINK) that taxpayers are on track to pay more than $500 million to AGL to fund its flagship solar generators. The two AGL solar farms in western NSW generate a combined 359,000 megawatt hours of electricity, just 4 per cent of the capacity of Liddell, but have secured more long-term investment than the coal power station under laws that continue the renewable subsidy until 2030.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly backed Mr Sukkar’s call for taxpayer subsidies to keep Liddell open. He also said there should be no subsidies to renewable energy sources.
“We are just causing massive distortions to the electricity market, we are putting all sorts of pressure on households, on family on business in Australia,” Mr Kelly told ABC radio this morning.
“And we are really not getting anywhere near the cuts in emissions we need.
“I believe it would be far better to let the technology develop, we can deploy it towards the end of the next decade and that way you can still have a very good chance of achieving the Paris targets.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/taxpayers-should-subsidise-liddell-coal-power-station-michael-sukkar/news-story/89194f01c0ab2dcf6442189572129c79
Craig Kelly – just forget Paris.
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Q&A tonight . . . . . all you’ll need to know about climate change . . . . .
30
Three warmists up against a couple of lukewarmers, fair and balanced?
10
The news theme this year is entirely the socialist agenda. Global Warming is supported strongly by the Left of politics because it allows them to take over the power system and cripple Western Democracies. Extreme Union leader Stephen Conroy dreamed up the NBN on the back of a beer coaster to control all communication. Socialist groups are attacking icons of Western society, from Lord Nelson to Christopher Columbus to John Batman in Melbourne.
The same groups are demanding the state destroy the Marriage Act to force people with religion to obey the state. This is nothing to do with marriage because same sex Unions are law in every Australian State and Territory. It is about making things compulsory for those who dare disagree and using state laws to do it.
Churches no longer control the state, but in a Socialist world, people still want to shut down the church. Again. The ABC cheered when Catholic churches were burned down in Melbourne two years ago. This revisits what happened in the Russian Revolution when the churches were stripped and turned into museums. Similarly in the French revolution where churches were stripped. All the kings and queens of France were dug up at the St. Denis cathedral and thrown into a lime pit. Until Victor Hugo’s popular Hunchback story, the vandalized Notre Dame church was used as a warehouse. Many of Paris’ churches show the effects of stripping. Everything was stolen. Statues beheaded. Now using ‘the Science’, phony science, we are being subjected to the demands of the often violent socialist mob.
To my amazement, today Liberal and National party members ran a full page advertisement under the Liberal Party and National Party banners in the Australian demanding a Yes vote. Why? They are not informing either side of the debate. Why not run a full page advertisement for Climate Change? Who needs socialist MPs, the new elites. Who paid for the adverstisement? Hopefully not the Liberal party or are the 1/4 of the retired people on the list paying from their handsome indexed pensions? Is this Malcolm’s Black Hand at work?
If the YES vote was really supported by 70% of people, as we have been told. Why advertise at all? If everybody believed in Climate Change, why not put the RET to a plebiscite? A gift of $6Billion a year from our electricity bill to make coal unprofitable and bankrupt every business? So foreigners can own windmills and overcharge us for electricity? Where is our Conservative government? We are going down the devastating socialist path of Venezuela.
Can we please have our non socialist PM back? The one the country elected?
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In moderation. Understandably. Look at the Liberal and National party (members) advertisement full page in this morning’s Australian. No wonder we cannot get a conservative government. This is the Black Hand.
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Really, the Black Hand? Christopher Pyne. Consider some other Black Hand organizations.
1. Europe. Black Hand, byname of Ujedinjenje Ili Smrt (Serbo-Croation: Union or Death), secret Serbian society of the early 20th century that used terrorist methods to promote the liberation of Serbs outside Serbia from Habsburg or Ottoman rule and was instrumental in planning the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Fedinand.
2. America. Black Hand (Italian: Mano Nera) was a type of Italian and Italian-American extortion racket. It was a method of extortion, not a criminal organization as such, though gangsters of Camorra and the Mafia practiced it.
3. Middle East. The Black Hand (Arabic: الكف الاسود , translit. al-Kaff al-Aswad) was an anti-Zionist and anti-British Jihadist militant organization in Mandatory Palestine. It was founded in 1930 and led until his death in 1935 by Syrian-born Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam,[1] whose preaching was instrumental in laying the foundations for the formation of the Black Hand, which he used to proclaim jihad and attack Jewish settlers.
4. Japan. Also an organization which worked through Japanese immigrants in the US and Brazil and a reason Japanese were interred in WW2 in California.
So Liberal ministers are proud of their Black Hand organization which brought down Tony Abbott. We Australians are appalled. We do not need these people to tell us what to think.
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In a full page advertisement with the Australian flag flying, clearly intended to advise voters with the force of both the Liberal and National parties, a bit like the leader of industry advertisement.
It is interesting that the last entry is Trent Zimmerman, the gay official parachuted into Hockey’s seat when he left to take up the US ambassador’s position. Not just a member as listed but also the head of the NSW Liberal Party.
Unsaid is that this is PRIVATE opinion, not Liberal or National policy. It shows why Abbott wanted a plebiscite.
So fully 1/4 of the 48 are current Federal Ministers (Malcolm clearly declined as he has expressed his strong support)
Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education
George Brandis, Attorney General
Mitch Fifield, Minister for communications
Josh Freydenberg, Minister to Environment and Energy
Greg Hunt, Minister to Health
Kelly O’Dwyer, minister of Revenut
Marise Pyne, Minister for Defence
Christopher Pyne, Minister for Defence Industry
Scott Ryan, Special Minister of State,
Arthur Sinodinos, Minister for industry
Nigel Scullion, Minister for Indigenous Affairs
All very fearful that the people of Australia do not agree with them, despite being told repreatedly that support was over 70%.
You do not need to ask the Labor Party or Greens, it is their policy. A direct attack on a religious concept and a demand that politicians and politicians alone should decide such matters.
So it is with Climate Change and the RET. Let’s RET the joint.
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Old news
Boondoggle: How Ontario’s pursuit of renewable energy broke the province’s electricity system
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the latest & greatest from ABC:
18 Sept: ABC: Off-grid trial gives WA farming community cheaper, more reliable power
By Kathryn Diss and Mark Bennett
Going off-grid could be the way forward for communities on the fringes of WA’s power network after a trial of solar units exceeded the expectations of those involved…
“It has been just fantastic, it’s far exceeded our expectations, and it’s very good, clean power,” West River resident Ros Giles said…
WA’s energy utility Western Power offered the systems for free in the search for alternatives to the massive cost of replacing ageing poles and wires…
“It’s good, clean, reliable power and that’s the big advantage,” Bernie Giles said.
“Cleaner meaning frequency and voltage consistencies … and that means less damage to things … like electric fence units with voltage spikes and fluctuations.”…
How the trial improved West River’s power supply
Power outages per property, July 2016 — April 2017
CHART…
“There’s the potential for 3,000 sites that have similar types of reliability on those edge of grid type communities that we could put that similar technology in,” Western Power CEO Guy Chalkley said.
Everyone within the grid pays the same energy tariff, meaning people in Perth subsidise the cost of supplying power to the bush.
It is a problem Western Power believes the West River trial has solved, potentially allowing it to save hundreds of millions of dollars.
“You’d be talking about a saving of about $300 million in terms of current cost of investment and cost of ongoing maintenance of distribution line against the cost of the stand-alone power system,” Mr Chalkley said…
Regulations ‘need to catch up’
But the utility has hit a roadblock…
***This has meant the utility has had to extend the trial for a further three years to allow the households to keep their systems…READ ON
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-18/living-off-solar-and-lithium-batteries-big-success-wa-farmers/8954740
24m Australians, but theirABC loves the Giles:
6 Aug: ABC: Solar could be game changer for rural communities going off the grid
By Kathryn Diss
Ros and Bernie Giles are part of a handful of farming families giving the technology a crack after living through years of frustration at their farm in West River, 500 kilometres south of Perth…
The standalone solar and battery system costs about $150,000 but the State Government is footing the bill…
It has already identified hundreds of other sites where it wants to use the systems but under current regulations, which protect energy generators, it cannot roll them out – a roadblock the nation’s energy regulator is investigating…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-06/solar-could-be-game-changer-for-rural-communities-on-grid-edge/7681398
13 Jun: ABC: Powering the bush: Problems and solutions in rural Western Australia
WA Country Hour By Bridget Fitzgerald, Joanna Prendergast, Matt Brann, Tara De Landgrafft and Kit Mochan
Batteries facilitate off-grid farming
She said to get the cottages off the grid cost about $250,000 and they had received a $30,000 State Government rebate.
Ms Nenke said considering the $70,000 charge from Western Power to connect their system, getting off the grid was “very attractive”…
Ord farmers frustrated by rising hydro cost
The Ord Irrigation Cooperative has also signalled its intent to revert back to diesel generators to pump water into some parts of the irrigation scheme.
Mr Dobson said his understanding was Horizon Power was buying the electricity from the Ord hydro power station and then on-selling it to Kimberley customers at a much greater cost, “which we think is pretty disappointing”.
Horizon Power has been contacted for comment…
Solar trial on great southern farm
***Ros and Bernie Giles farm at Dunn Rock, north of Ravensthorpe, in the state’s great southern region.
As new land farmers they had power connected in the late 1980s, but being at the end of a spur line meant they were plagued with outages.
So when the mixed enterprise primary producers were approached by Western Power to be part of a trial that would see 72 solar panel erected on their property they eagerly put up their hands…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-06-12/powering-the-bush-problems-and-solutions-in-western-australia/8598768
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No wonder they love it.
Tony.
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And who will next pay for the battery and panel replacement costs further down the road?
30
14 Sept: LaTrobeValleyExpress: CET is ‘not neutral’: MCA
by Philip Hopkins
The Finkel review’s Clean Energy Target is not “technologically neutral” because it gives a de facto subsidy for renewables, undermining the case for a new brown coal power station in the Latrobe Valley, according to an energy expert.
Patrick Gibbons, director- climate change, environment and energy for the Minerals Council of Australia, told The Express that a key concept in the chief scientist’s clean energy target was “emissions intensity”…
Any business producing less CO2 than the threshold, or baseline, would receive renewable energy certificates that could be sold to businesses above the threshold…
“A key issue is what level of emissions intensity will be considered ‘clean energy’. How many certificates will be created is a function of the emission intensity threshold,” Mr Gibbons, who co-authored the Committee of Gippsland’s report that recommended building a new brown coal station in the Valley using the latest German technology said.
“Certificates give renewables such a big leg-up. You are providing a de facto production subsidy for certain technologies based on emissions intensity.”
To reach Australia’s commitment to cut emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030 under the Paris agreement, Mr Gibbons said analysts had calculated the emissions intensity threshold at 0.6 CO2 per MWh.
Australia’s average energy intensity is 0.9 CO2 per MWh. Wind and solar are 0 (zero), gas mainly 0.4, and black coal 1.0.
The emissions intensity of Hazelwood Power Station was 1.53, while the figures for the other Valley power stations are Yallourn (1.42), Loy Yang A (1.22) and Loy Yang B (1.24).
With the 0.6 threshold, coal makes the grade only with carbon capture and storage (CCS)…
New high efficiency, low emissions (HELE) coal-fired power stations use “super critical” and “ultra-super critical” (USC) technology, which burns coal at a higher temperature and is thus more efficient, producing fewer CO2 emissions.
Hundreds are being built around the world.
The USC/HELE emissions intensity level is 0.737 – outside the nominal clean energy threshold.
Mr Gibbons said advanced economies like Germany and Japan that also have Paris commitments were investing in HELE coal-fired power plants.
Germany’s newest brown coal plant, built five years ago at Neurath west of Cologne, is the same size as Loy Yang A but has carbon dioxide emissions 25 per cent lower.
It was built in 2012 at a cost of 2.6 billion Euros ($A3.95 billion).
A new 1100 MW power station with an estimated cost of $2.3 billion, is in the licence approval stage.
The BOA Plus station, with A-USC technology combined with new coal-drying technology, would have CO2 emissions 35-40 per cent lower than Loy Yang A, and almost 55 per cent lower than Hazelwood.
Its energy intensity is 0.75, but it meets Germany’s emission requirements
http://www.latrobevalleyexpress.com.au/story/4923036/cet-is-not-neutral-mca/
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AUDIO: 14mins22secs: 2GB: 18 Sept: Alan Jones Show: Coal-fired power; a reality check for the drones
Alan talks to the National Party senator John Williams on new coal-fired power stations being built around the world as Australia shuts them down.
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/coal-fired-power-a-reality-check-for-the-drones
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17 Sept: AFR: Mark Ludlow: Delta Electricity to extend life of Vales Point coal-fired power station
Trevor St Baker, the coal baron who is trying to buy AGL Energy’s Liddell power station and Engie Group’s Loy Yang B, is planning to extend the life of Delta Electricity’s Vales Point coal-fired power station beyond its estimated closure date in the early 2030s.
As the Turnbull government overhauls the Clean Energy Target to include more base-load power, Mr St Baker called on the Prime Minister to put pressure on the banks to lend money to companies wanting to extend the life of existing facilities or even build new high-efficiency coal power plants.
“There is no such thing as a 50-year economic life for a coal plant,” Mr St Baker said in an interview with The Australian Financial Review.
“We believe Vales Point is going to last a lot longer than 2029 when it reaches its 50-year age. We are investing in life extension with a capability beyond 2029. We’ll wait and see what happens progressively by then but the technology is capable of extending and while ever the fuel is there we will extend its life.”…
Following the closure of the Hazelwood power station in Victoria in March the NSW generators have been struggling to lock in the supply of coal.
Mr St Baker said they were paying big prices against international customers and recently secured 300,000 tonnes to help the company get through.
“We are scrambling around for more coal and competing with the export price trying to make up part of the generation Hazelwood was supplying NSW previously. But it’s expensive and there isn’t a lot around,” he said…
“The only reason there is no coal-fired power station being built is because no Australian bank is going to be on the front page of the paper lending to coal. We have to go overseas for lending for our Loy Yang bid. It’s ridiculous.”…
Mr St Baker – who said he supported calls by AGL Energy chairman Graham Bradley to bring certainty to the energy sector but warned against government – backed an overhaul of the CET, saying the baseline needed to be adjusted to include coal, possibly as high as 0.8 tonnes of carbon per megawatt of energy generated. He said policy certainty was crucial…
“We’re not adverse to some bipartisan number and I think 0.8 would be a number which would work as long as there is a level playing field for finance. We need to counteract the intimidation of Australian banks and to have policy certainty.”…
http://www.afr.com/news/politics/delta-electricity-to-extend-life-of-vales-point-coalfired-power-station-20170915-gyih1r
18 Sept: Daily Telegraph: Jason Tin: Springvale mine: Blackouts, huge power bills if coal mine shuts
NSW faces the severe risk of blackouts, along with higher power bills, this summer if one of the state’s key coal mines is shut too early.
EnergyAustralia will also argue in court that a fracas over the fate of Centennial Coal’s Springvale mine is already affecting the state’s electricity market.
The Land and Environment Court will soon decide when the mine will have to cease operating, after an earlier NSW Court of Appeal decision that cast doubt over its future…
“We are deeply concerned about the potential for interruption to Mt Piper’s operations,” EnergyAustralia’s Mark Collette said. “The plant is the newest and one of the most efficient coal-fired power stations in the state.”
A 2015 challenge, mounted by green group 4Nature through the partially taxpayer-funded Environmental Defenders’ Office, put in doubt a planning consent that was to add more than a decade to Springvale’s life…
The matter is now back in the LEC, which will decide when operations should stop.
Submissions from both sides will be considered as the matter continues today. It is understood Centennial Coal will push for time to seek a new planning consent to keep the mine going.
EnergyAustralia, which runs Mt Piper, and Centennial Coal are also jointly constructing a $100 million water treatment plant. But both argue that the current lack of certainty around the mine puts the facility at risk…
Mr Collette said the Mt Piper plant was “critical” to energy reliability, saying the closure of Springvale and its impact on Mt Piper would affect power prices, as well as costing hundreds of jobs.
“Mt Piper’s uncertain coal supply is affecting the electricity market today,” he said…
EnergyAustralia is expected to tell the court NSW is at risk of rising power bills and a battle to keep the lights on if the Springvale mine is shut.
Energy Minister Don Harwin’s spokesman said the state was “monitoring the … case closely”. “Keeping the lights on and keeping power prices down is a priority of our government,” he said.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/springvale-mine-blackouts-huge-power-bills-if-coal-mine-shuts/news-story/7810e985c9cbb0f51ade3e2ac31936a0
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Skull & Bonesman Kerry takes the lead at Yale:
17 Sept: AP: John Kerry to lead climate change conference at Yale
Former Secretary of State John Kerry is leading a conference on climate change this week at Yale University.
The two-day conference that begins Monday on the Ivy League campus will feature speakers including General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, World Bank President Jim Kim and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
The conference is hosted by the Kerry Initiative, a program launched earlier this year by the former top U.S. diplomat to address global challenges through teaching, research and international dialogue.
The topics for the sessions next week include the future of energy, the role of the private sector and citizen engagement and activism.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_YALE_CLIMATE_CHANGE_JOHN_KERRY?SITE=MYPSP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-09-17-18-06-40
17 Sept: Yahoo7 News: Protesters set to rally against Australia’s biggest coal project
by Alison Bevege, Reuters
Environmental activists are due to start a week of protests on Sunday against a major coal mining project they say will damage Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and contribute to global warming.
The A$16.5 billion ($13.20 billion) project has been delayed for more than five years by court challenges from environmentalists and indigenous groups concerned about reef damage, climate change, and the impact on native land and water supply…
The “Frontline Action on Coal” and the “Reef Defenders” groups are to start their protests at Bowen, in the Whitsunday region of Queensland where the reef is situated.
Paul Jukes, a Whitsunday farmer and tourism operator, told Reuters by telephone that the demonstrations would start with a march but could extend to direct action such as activists locking themselves to equipment to prevent it from being moved.
“It will be completely peaceful,” he said…
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/37119275/protesters-set-to-rally-against-australias-biggest-coal-project/
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18 Sept: Guardian: Enough tiptoeing around. Let’s make this clear: coal kills people
Burning more coal, knowing what we know, is a deliberate act of arson. We must urgently come to grips with this fact and reconnect with nature and our communities
by Tim Hollo
(Tim Hollo is executive director of the Green Institute)
From the mines to the trains to the climate disruption; from black lung to asthma, heat stress to hunger, fires to floods: coal is killing people in Australia and around the world right now.
Yet we are once again having what passes for political debate about extending the life of coal-fired power stations and, extraordinarily, building new ones. The conversation is completely disconnected from the fact that two thirds of Bangladesh was reported to be under water, record-breaking hurricanes were battering the US, and wildfires were roaring in both the northern and southern hemispheres at the same time…if Malcolm Turnbull, Barnaby Joyce and their colleagues succeed in extending the life of the Liddell power station, let alone building new coal, they will kill people…
How is it that our politicians can be so drastically disconnected from the consequences of their actions? How can citizens not be out on the streets? How can corporate executives be continuing business as usual (a business as usual that is moving away from coal but still nowhere near fast enough to avoid catastrophic climate disruption)? How can journalists and editors report on the politics of coal on one page and bushfires around Sydney in September on another without making the connection?…
We are, today, at the end point of a millennia-long process of disconnection…
In capitalism, we have created the first social organising principle based on selfishness, the first system to make greed, competition, non-cooperation its credo…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/18/enough-tiptoeing-around-lets-make-this-clear-coal-kills-people
let’s trigger Hollo a little:
18 Sept: NamoiValleyIndependent: Boggabri coal-fire power station back on the agenda
by Jamieson Murphy
THERE are renewed calls for a coal-fired power station in the Namoi region, as the government looks to fill the void that will be left in the nation’s power supply when the Liddell station closes.
Chair of the New England Nationals Electorate Council, Russell Webb, said high-energy low-emissions (HELE) power stations were being successfully used in developed nations such as Germany and Japan…
“A lot of other nations are using our coal – why aren’t we using it to create reliable base-load for our businesses and to create employment opportunities for our residents?” Mr Webb asked…
Mr Webb says the HELE station would be able to provide the state with reliable base-load power for the next 30 to 50 years, by which point the technology for other energy sources will have advanced enough to make them viable options.
“We are not against renewables, they will be a very big part of our energy future, but that’s still some way off in the future,” he said…
In a letter to the editor, former Tamworth mayor Warren Woodley echoed Mr Webb’s calls.
“I also would like to see a power station built in the Namoi area,” he wrote.
“We could power all towns between the Hunter and Queensland border, also right out west, using the best of local coal and water from this area.”
The renewed call comes as a survey by the NSW Minerals Councils finds 64 per cent of NSW residents support the construction of a new coal-fired power plant if it could produce electricity at lower emissions than existing power plants. The survey sampled 1000 people and found 81 per cent of Coalition voters supported the idea, compared to 57 per cent of Labor voters, while regional residents (69 per cent) were more supportive than Sydney residents (57 per cent).
http://www.nvi.com.au/story/4929927/renewed-calls-for-boggabri-coal-fired-power-station/?cs=12
17 Sept: NorthernDailyLeader: Gunnedah Miners Support Group marks 140 years of coal mining in area
The anniversary, organised by the Gunnedah Miners Support Group, kicked off with a parade along Conadilly Street, before finishing up at Brock’s Court for a memorial service and laying of wreaths.
The milestone marks 140 years since the first hole was sunk in Gunnedah in 1877.
The street parade saw NSW Fire & Rescue Gunnedah lead the procession, with other participants including members of the Plains Pipes and Drums, Uke-Alypts and Gunnedah Shire Band…
Gunnedah Vintage Vehicle Club was also out in force, ferrying retired miners for the march…
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18 Sept: Daily Telegraph: Tim Blair: Cheap electricity is a simple equation
AS challenges go, supplying cheap and reliable electricity to Australians ought to be as easy as providing sun to Californians, oil to the Middle East and wool to New Zealanders.
The equation is incredibly simple. We have a population of just 24 million — around the same as the US in 1860, and smaller than the current population of Texas.
To keep all of those people illuminated, warm, employed and alive, we have coal reserves that are among the largest on earth.
According to government figures, if our 40,000 coal industry employees continue mining black coal at 2015 production levels, our stocks of black coal should last until at least 2127.
The figures for brown coal, the form mostly used for domestic electricity generation, are even more impressive. We’re ranked second globally for brown coal reserves, which are scheduled to run out sometime in 3112. That’s right. We have more than 1000 years of brown coal— and that only includes coal in areas that permit mining…
Unfortunately, however, we also have inexhaustible supplies of idiotic politicians and deranged energy policies, which explains our current situation…READ ALL
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/tim-blair-a-simple-equation/news-story/23e2f6407e4395005a22d7abc9d5ac29
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“Unfortunately, however, we also have inexhaustible supplies of idiotic politicians and deranged energy policies, which explains our current situation”
Yes! You Aussies keep f**king each other to keep producing inexhaustible supplies of idiotic politicians. Perhaps f**king Kangaroos would improve the situation. If that actually works, yous could make billions selling Kangaroos to the US that has the same problem on a much larger scale! 🙂
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One Nation responds to my question; -Why did they vote for the two stroke motor (whipper snipper) legislation.
“Hi Paul
Thank you for your message. Short answer is no, we don’t seek to ban two stroke motors, and it’s not a carbon tax that was voted for either.
The vote was to allow for imports of two stroke motors, to be checked for emissions, this charge would add around $1 to the import of new 2 stroke motors for inspection and the regulation applied to new motors only
I hope that helps. We see that Cory Bernardi has maximised the opportunity to grab media attention in this instance.
Kind regards
Dani
National Head Office”
Not sure why they called me Paul. In error I expect.
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Love the ungracious snark towards a fellow conservative. Shows their lack of professionalism.
Since the reply you got was cut and paste, they must have had plenty of questions from knee jerk reacting disappointed old white males who never looked at what the legislation was about.
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“they must have had plenty of questions from knee jerk reacting disappointed old white males who never looked at what the legislation was about.”
I staunchly remain proud but disappointed old white male who never looked at what the legislation was about.
Can you please inform old white males like I, what the legislation was about? Seems like paid political BS. 🙂
50
Will,
it is all in here and always was and will be from the drafting of the legislation to the committee reports to the words said on the floor. It is all free to the pubic coz we pay for it.
http://www.aph.gov.au/
21
OK I’ll reveal more… type emission (tee hee) into the search box on this page
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation
if you click on the explanatory memorandum of the first result you get this
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fr5934_ems_fb1d6290-89ff-43ec-a150-231c7db9e5b4%22
note also the date… there was a whole month to be outraged by this before now.
21
“Will, it is all in here and always was”
Can you please attempt to interpret that for this disappointed old white male who never looked at what the legislation was about. To me it is all bizarre political SCAM. Please stop defending all from your sponsors and instead somehow try to explain such nonsense.
00
so you don’t know what it is or how to understand it but you nonetheless know it is a scam. Why would I “somehow try to explain” to you something you’ve already made your mind up about?
00
What kind of manipulating fools would label themselves “Black Hand” faction?
10