Do we need wind farms to save the world or not? Not, says Bob Brown.
Robbins Island, North West Tasmania
People can have sleep and health and their views destroyed, but that didn’t matter til a farmer on a remote island off Tasmania made a deal to build one of the largest wind “farms” in the world.
Graham Lloyd, The Australian
Former Greens leader and veteran activist Bob Brown is campaigning to stop a $1.6 billion wind farm development in Tasmania because it will spoil the view and kill birds.
The proposed Robbins Island wind farm in Tasmania’s northwest will be one of the world’s biggest, with up to 200 towers measuring 270m high from ground to blade tip.
He’s written a letter protesting about the view:
Despite the criticisms levelled at former prime minister Tony Abbott and treasurer Joe Hockey for describing wind turbines as “ugly”, Dr Brown said the Robbins Island plan was, visually, a step too far. “Mariners will see this hairbrush of tall towers from 50km out to sea and elevated landlubbers will see it, like it or not, from greater distances on land,” Dr Brown said. “Its eye-catchiness will divert from every coastal scene on the western Bass Strait coastline.”
So Tony Abbott was right. It will be good to hear that apology.
After millions of birds bats and who-knows-what-else has been killed, now he cares:
In his letter on the wind farm, Dr Brown wrote: “Besides the impact on the coastal scenery, wind turbines kill birds. Wedge-tailed eagle and white-bellied sea eagles nest and hunt on the island. Swift parrots and orange-bellied parrots traverse the island on their migrations.”
The birds are just a “beside”.
Reap what you sow — a belief based on superstition with no underlying principles means sooner or later Greens reveal their inner hypocrite.
The ABC reported on this project in Dec 2017. The industrial wind plant was only going ahead if they could also build a second interconnector across the Bass Strait, something the company said it would pay for if it got approval. For some strange reason the Tasmanian Government was spending $20m investigating the business case first…
Why are taxpayers worried about a business case if the company was the one risking the money?
The Hammond family farm high quality Wagyu beef.
Robbins Island farmer John Hammond sees the wind farm as a way to keep the Island in the family.
For his sake, we hope cows do better than people do when assailed by infrasound from giant machines. John Hammonds kids may inherit a farm where no animal thrives. Some “farm”.
The ABC also report that the same company, UPC Renewables, raised the ire of Tasmanians two weeks ago regarding a 170km proposed transmission line. The company said they’d consulted and most people were “on board”. But people were not and just three days later the boss changed his tune saying he “misread the people”.
The ABC have not mentioned Bob Brown yet.
What will your view look like when it’s a desert under 40 feet of water Bob Brown? /Sarc
I love it that this farmer has called these hypocrites’ bluff and is taking them for everything they’re worth. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Tony Abbott sold up in Warringah to a developer with a giant wind turbine penchant?
280
EXACTLY how are these wind turbines going to be made? Fairy dust and air? Is concrete and steel and fiberglass not made with petroleum? Will that not cause pollution? If we leave it in the ground, how are these turbines to be built? What happens when the turbines wear out and need to be taken down?
141
bob green needs to get out there and PROTEST
against ALL wind farms….ALL OF THEM…
Wouldn’t that be a sight to see?
180
Have been at the concrete base requirements. For a smaller 134 metre tower, the concrete base would be around 15 metres across, up to 10 metres deep, and require 590 cubic metres of concrete, weighing around 1416 tonnes. I don’t have the rebar weight for this tower height, but for an 80 metre tower it’s 45 tonnes, so I’m guessing at least another 70 tonnes of rebar, so all up close to 1500 tonnes. No doubt a lot more concrete and steel required for a 270 metre tower.
130
G’day G4,
Ian Plimer gives some figures on page 101 of his “not for greens” book. “About 100 tonnes of steel for a 65 metre tower.”
The other figures in that paragraph are for a 1000 megawatt windfarm.
Cheers,
Dave B
20
Hi David. Just realised that the Robbins Island towers won’t be 270 m tall – that figure includes the blade height.
When you say ..”that paragraph”…, which paragraph do you mean?
Haven’t read Ian Plimer’s book yet.
10
Whyever not? Fascinating book on mining.
10
Sorry Gordon but the concrete and steel is mainly made using – wait for it – COAL
50
Ol’ King Cole oh he’s
a merry ol’ soul,
saved us serfs from slavery,
saved us serfs from famine,
why’s he now so demonised,
could it be conn-spiracy
by our betters who see,
globull issues that we
serfs jest can’t envisage?
Back ter the feudal age, serfs.*
* it’s fer yr own good ‘n good
of the environment. Bwah-ha-ha.
61
After reading Graeme#4’s estimates at # 1.1.2, I think it is most likely perfectly reasonable to state that, unlike many modern parts, they won’t be printed.
(really helpful comment # 1 for today. More to follow, meybe) 🙂 This means is that their manufacture will follow conventional — and very expensive — methods, which most engineers will be familiar with. $$$
30
Gordon
The link is to a Haynes type manual that will tell you everything you need to know about wind farms
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.renewableuk.com/resource/resmgr/Publications/Guides/HAYNES_Edition_2.pdf
The uk has a problem with onshore wind farms inasmuch it’s a small country and the best places for wind farms tends to be those uplands most cherished for their landscape beauty.
As an island there is plenty of coast line and apparently a sea based turbine is erected every 40 hours around our coasts
The largest is in the north sea and They look great when you fly over them and they can’t be seen from shore. Several visible sea based wind farms have been turned down such as one in the Solent near the isle of wight.
We are fortunate in that the large wind farms are able to be put in a shallow area of the north sea known as doggereland
This area was flooded 8000 years ago when the temperatures rose to levels substantially higher than today and the sea level rose some 6 feet in a century causing climate refugees to flee ashore to east Anglia. The event made Britain an island but just shows modern day climate events are puny in comparison.
Perhaps sea based turbines are the way to go. Land based ones can be highly detrinental and you don’t save the environment by trashing the countryside
Tonyb
40
For those interested here is a link to doggerland
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2012/12/doggerland/
Even national geographic agrees the temperature was subsntially warmer 8000 years ago and that the sea level rise dwarfs anything today
Tonyb
10
Bob Brown is onto something here. This deals smells of corporate corruption. Nothing to do with the environment. He is just using that as a loss leader.
https://www.upcrenewables.com/about/#gallery-5d2d0bd052b93-1
The only way of making this wind farm pay is by jacking up power charges across Victoria. They need a new interconnect and a local “lets pump water uphill” for a load. Both items must be Federal Government funded. They will use Tas Hydro as the stalking horse and the power buyer (Momentum). I assume ARENA will miraculously provide a chunk of tax payer backed capital from MacBank via AusSuper (ALP Super) at 8% interest or better.
All that remains to ask is just whom are the personal beneficiaries? Obviously not Bob Brown.
The other scenario is that Energy Australia has told the Victorian state government that Yallourn will shut and a certain level of dread and panic is blossoming.
I like scenario one better. Much of the wind industry finance is easily corrupted.
This will benefit certain Victorians, (probable ex-LNP “leaders”), maybe the “Windabees” in Sydney, ALP super trusts and Brian Caffyn.
141
If the Tas Greens” had received their brown paper bag this story would not be in the Australian.
All palms need to be crossed with silver.
As for the average working class Tasmanian …….
122
Stop Robbins!!!
I wonder if Bob will organise some out of state types to form a process caravan, bravely travelling day by day across Australia raising awareness and gathering support as they inch closer to Bass Straight.
Maybe fund a training camp so that activists can learn how to super glue themselves to the blade tips?
Go Bob! Go! If you need my moral support it is yours for the taking. Just allow me to finish laughing first, okay?
582
The Greens in Tasmania are discussing a motion to expel
Bob Brown for betraying the party’s policy of promoting wind turbines !
(And damn him for heresy as well ! )
I hope they actually do exactly that.
Why ?
Because it would show them up a blithering idiots.
Maybe the Australian Brainwashing Corporation
Would mention it in ‘dispatches’
But that’s doubtful !
380
It would be interesting to see where most “Greens” voters in Tasmania reside.
We know that in the mainland states, they are mostly in ritzy inner city suburbs,
where they know wind turbines can never be located.
270
It might be an idea for the protest caravan from Mainland Australia to drive the other way around instead of trying to cross Bass Straight
150
Why on’t the coal folks of the Galillee basin start . a reverse protest carvan
That goes all the way to Robbinns island ?
Thye could invite Bob Brown to join them.
Now wouldn’t that be lovey to see.
And the irony would be profound.
50
Mariners and elevated landlubbers must not have their views spoiled by the eye-catchiness of the hairbrush?
Well, that sure beats “iconic” for a posh green statement. Bet nobody’s heard that before.
Tramping around Spain I often had my views spoiled at elevation, though more by the cordiness and cablishness between the hairbrushes. But mainly I noticed how people thought twice before turning on the heating. Something to do with the costiness.
440
Maybe, when Green’s views are spoilt by turdbines they’ll somehow, against all odds, realise that anyone not profiting from them are getting the rough end of the hairbrush.
450
We’ve hit peak hypocrite.
470
Good ol’ Bob, eh?
Says “No!” to the Gordon-below-Franklin, “better to build an interconnect with Vic”. Now wants to shut coal and have “renewables”. Except wind farms he finds offensive (others can be offended, just not him!)
And no new dams – so much better to have have several tonnes of lithium bathed in caustic liquid and ready to burn, releasing toxic (and psycho-active) gases instead.
Even bigger laugh – even assuming it went ahead, how much CO2 would be “saved”?. A: 0, nothing, zip, nada.
Wankers.
480
Not quite, he hasn’t declared his support for a lignite power plant, as he did with the Gordon below Franklin DAM fiasco – yet.
But he has likened this wind farm to that hydroelectric project.
120
LOL… You’d be surprised at how deep their hypocrisy goes.
140
Nah! On past form they can surely beat this.
100
That’s because their ABC is in denial.
They’re desperately trying to reinvent the narrative.
However, in the end, Bob’s will have to go under a bus – unless he recants.
I’m looking forward to the next episode with great expectations.
510
It seems the green have hit peak inward-looking NIMBY nonsense……
Its a bit like saying a car was so small, it could fit in its own boot ( trunk )….
190
O/T but what could possibly go wrong?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-16/australian-unis-to-review-links-to-chinese-surveillance-tech/11309598
“Two Australian universities are reviewing funding and research approval procedures due to concerns over links to technology that is being used to carry out mass human rights abuses by the Chinese Government in Xinjiang province.
“Key points
“* UTS, Curtin unis launch reviews amid links to surveillance technology used in China
One academic conducted research for so-called “racial profiling” technology to detect ethnic minorities
“* Human Rights Watch says China uses AI and surveillance to carry out human rights abuses against ethnic minorities
“Last night, Four Corners revealed that the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is conducting an internal review into its $10 million partnership with CETC, a Chinese state-owned military tech company that developed an app that Chinese security forces use to track and detain Muslim Uyghur citizens in Xinjiang.
“In 2017, UTS signed the lucrative deal with CETC to establish a new research centre, which included projects in artificial intelligence and surveillance.
…………………
“Unis urged to cut ties with Communist Party
“As part of the partnership, the Chinese state-owned military tech company owns all intellectual property derived from the research collaboration with UTS.
“La Trobe University associate professor James Leibold, one of the world’s leading experts on ethnic minorities in China, is calling on all Australian universities to immediately end any links they might have with the Chinese Communist Party.
“Essentially by doing that, we’re being complicit in the human rights abuses that are occurring in Xinjiang and in China more widely,” he told Four Corners.
“I think the UTS and other universities here in Australia that have connections with any party state company, particularly in the military or security sector, needs to end those contracts, and to pull out of those collaborative arrangements.”
40
Here is just one of many articles about the trouble they have had in France keeping cattle alive in the presence of wind turbines:
https://stopthesethings.com/2019/05/03/french-farmers-re-volt-cattle-killed-by-stray-current-latest-victims-of-wind-power-onslaught/
I’m wondering why this problem hasn’t been mentioned.
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‘Horses, nervous creatures at the best of times, find the pulsing cacophony intolerable …’
Humans too, apparently.
260
…and dogs, particularly when they are upwind, which is counter-intuitive. My friend who has working dogs and is living on a property where wind turbines have been constructed says that if they are downwind the towers are just noisy, like the surf. If the wind is the other way it does something to the sound, sort of breaks it up and bounces it and that is when they cant sleep and the working dogs all howl and carry on. He is glad he has moved out. The land owners who are getting the money from the wind towers wish they never went into the whole thing. The take over of the property and the disturbance and lack of privacy and the industrialisation of the site and the fact that 1/2 their farm they could not use because they took the fences out and being the third owner of the project, could not care less what was agreed initially. Just a destructive bunfight end to end. And they are just projects to waste superannuation money taken by compulsion. There wont be superannuation at the end of these things. The chance of the projects being appropriately decommissioned is going to be close to zero. Try taking a $2 shelf company to court.
300
You may need to consider the Doppler effect of sound in air.
When the dogs are upwind, the speed of the sound from the windmill is decreased by the subtraction of the wind speed.
As v = f x λ, where v is velocity (ms^-1), f is frequency (Hz) and λ is wavelength (m), v is inversely proportional to λ, then as v decreases (because of wind speed), λ increases leading to a decrease of pitch and an increase of frequency.
Thus, the damaging infrasound from the windmill is exacerbated, which the dogs don’t find counter-intuitive.
I think that’s correct. It’s late and errors may occur.
170
Also consider that it is believed that audible sound makes infrasound more tolerable. Next to a busy highway, infrasound is still experienced but the brain makes sense of it with audible perception of the heavy truck noise at the same time. Upwind most audible sound is stripped away but the infrasound still transmits. The effect of infrasound on its own, on the brain, (research by Washington University)is to continually wake you up from sleep – even deep sleep.
70
Hi Peter, I think that there may be a major difference between infrasound from a highway and alternately from turbines.
Wouldn’t the compressive power from Turbines be orders of magnitude larger.
Covering it with audible “noise” is not likely to remove the danger.
KK
30
Research by Alec N. Salt, Ph.D., Cochlear Fluids Research Laboratory, Washington University in St. Louis found that “Our measurements show the ear is most sensitive to infrasound when other, audible sounds are at low levels or absent. That is why homes and pillows probably contribute to the problem. To clarify, maximum stimulation of the ear with infrasound will occur inside your home, because the audible sound of the turbines is blocked by the walls of the house, but infrasound readily passes through any tiny openings.”
51
Hi Peter, I think that you are missing the point.
VLF pulsing is detected by every organ in the body except the ear.
The largest organ receptor is the skin and probably one of the most sensitive is the network of cavities inside the head and body but especially the lungs.
The pulsing interferes with the neural networks that run our bodies.
Sound perceived by the ears is not all that relevant to this problem, annoying as it may be.
KK
40
No Keith, you may be missing the point. The research done by Alec Salt included brain activity measurement. The brain was apparently stimulated by infrasound entering the ears but not perceived as audible sound. In the absence of audible sound, the subject was more disturbed by the same level of infrasound. Infrasound occurs in nature but nearly always accompanied by audible noise of some degree. Wind turbine infrasound is a very unusual, unnatural phenomena.
40
Right on target.
71
Where’s the RSCPA?
70
Yes, humans too! Read about the forced derating of more than half of the turbines in the largest wind power station in rural Ontario. Residents started reporting the harm from noise from these turbines shortly after they were turned on. Finally they’ve been vindicated.
https://london.ctvnews.ca/turbines-near-goderich-to-be-slowed-down-to-reduce-sound-1.4487408
Next the harm being reported from LFN modulations and infrasound must be dealt with. This harm to the nervous system and to the vestibular system is cumulative and irreversible, according to LFN and infrasound expert Dr. Mariana Alves-Pereira. Listen to the presentation she gave to experts in Slovenia in May of 2018.
Perhaps the Green Party spokesperson could be asked to speak about this.
100
VLF pulsing is a horrible, nauseating, dangerous thing to inflict on any life form but to do it to fellow humans is appalling.
This has been very deliberately disguised as “Noise” for far too long in the western world and caused untold damage operators of heavy, machinery in the transport and mining industries.
Gee, I wonder what the motivation was in hiding it.
It is acknowledged in Iron curtain countries but then you can’t sue your employer there.
KK
110
Dr Alves-Pereira’s is very watchable and highly recommended. Places the infrasound issue in perspective.
10
Best part about wind farms is the satisfaction of knowing those of us who have saved the planet with them will never have to look out the window and see or hear them.
That privilege belongs to those who could never afford them are helping to subsidize them.
Thanks, Nimby Bob.
320
Does anyone know where Bob Brown actually lives?
As soon as my wife heard about this unbelievable hypocrisy, she asked that very question. I’m betting either Bob Brown himself, or some of his friends or relatives, live close enough to Robbins Island to be affected by the windmills in one way or another.
How on Earth does that Dr Bob get to sleep at night?
I suppose if you have no principles; you have no conscience either.
370
I’m pretty sure Bob Brown lives, at the end of a rainbow, on a moon, way left of Uranus……
230
Nope. No where near mine.
140
Ok then, where the sun don’t shine……..happy?
100
🙂
50
It has been muttered over morning coffee at proctology conferences that he has been sighted.
50
I am sure I read somewhere that a large swathe of old growth forest (the kind you cannot log or build a dam anywhere near) was cut down for a collection of windmills in Tassies north west? For the transmission lines as I recall? Didn’t hear old Bob complaining too much about that!
130
From what comments in The Australian are saying today, BB lives on a country property in the north of Tasmania.
70
He has a cottage near Liffey Falls (on the Liffey River West of Launceston). He used to live there, but one day he said to his wife “Ralph, he said, We should move down to the Huon Valley. I have enough to build a mansion. So they did.
Ralph is not his real name. I think it’s Greg.
200
My lawyer, agent, and girlfriend, have advised me to make it very clear that a) I have NEVER been to Tasmania b) I have never met Bob, Ralph, Chuck nor Barf c) I am NOT the ‘Greg’ referred to above in karabar‘s comment and d) Jacindarella is NOT my
presidentslime minister. Good day to you all. 🙂70
Just for what its worth Greg, reported on local radio, “The very popular New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Arden, will give a talk in Australia on the importance of good governance”. So has her popularity increased over there? How is the gun buy back going? Maybe she’s just really popular with all the luvvies in the world while the real people just shakes their head.
50
Idolatory in action, or inaction, as the case might be.
30
This was meant as a response to Sambar #9.1.3.1!
I was having trouble logging in and went back to the wrong comment…sigh!
20
Hello all, I’m back. This government here in NZ is the most incompetent, most dishonest and frankly the most dangerous to any real prosperous future ever. The level of deek headedness so far shows that delta x has gone to zero as an engineering mate of mine was fond of saying. This is good because at the next election they will be eviscerated. They are too stupid to even pick sides. They have a negative effect on everyone.
50
Sambar, as you say, it’s the international set and ‘all the luvvies in the world’ frothing and drooling over the filly and her fisherman and young family. Meanwhile, back here in the real world, it’s like we’re having our very own AOC moment with lofty ambitions but starry-eyed (empty) bank balances. Then again, with her Bachelor of Communication in politics and public relations, she’s a B-grade actor from the same script AOC was schooled in. And as for the Great Confiscation Scam of 2019, this comment sums it up: “Well if no one hands in their weapons… think of all the money the Government will save!!!”
https://www.whaleoil.net.nz/2019/07/the-confiscation-blow-back-debacle/
Despite all the P.R. and media manipulation (see headline below) the first ‘showcase’ was a bit of a fizzer – can’t imagine why.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018703919/police-hope-hundreds-will-turn-up-to-first-gun-buy-back-event
And don’t start me on James ‘the Green’ Shaw (MP who’s flown the most carbon [sic] air miles since being in office) nor Julie-Anne ‘Green Yank’ Genter (who nobody voted for yet she slid in on her gang’s coattails) who wants to ban all private cars ASAP and make everyone walk or ride a bike and live under windmills: The Giant Leap Backwards! ‘So has her popularity increased over there?‘ Cough! Let me know how your PM gets on with her and if our two countries are still ‘allies’ or simply all lies.
30
Sounds like implausable deniability to me
00
Not sure where in Tasmania he lives, but I do recall an article with a picture of Bob and his partner standing in front of their cottage, with billowing wood smoke coming out the chimney.
As an utter hypocrite he has form.
130
What a classic NIMBY hypocrite!
The greenies were ok with all those hairbrushy eyesores while the lower orders had to live with them. Beautiful places in many countries have had their views and their birds and bats wrecked. I think of Scotland and Cumbria and the wreckage of that lovely coast in the Solway Firth. I think of Cyprus and those lovely hills (I nicknamed ‘The mountains of the moon’) that you see as you come away from Larnaca Airport, now with wind turbines atop them. I think of all those cluttering the view along the main road from Alberta to Vancouver through Crow’s Nest. Grrr.
300
And our own Western district Annie, A recent trip to South Aust was memorable for the rows of mills seen from the western highway, many just sitting idle while others in the same cluster just barely revolved. The good lady wife ( who never repeats herself ) just muttered endlessly, “they look bloody awful “
350
🙂
150
Those windmills are not idle, they are working hard at generating subsidies.
471
Red by mistake , see as green
110
I understood that they were allegedly never idle. They are required to turn in order to prevent damage to the bearings. Thus, when there is an insufficiency of Gaia flatus, they draw power from the grid to protect their innards.
201
I understand that they are never idle, but rather always “idol” for some.
20
About 15 Kw/hr per turbine! Very hard to find an exact figure though!
30
The ones barely moving would be CONSUMING power….
To protect the bearings….
60
No worries Annie.
They’ll all be decommissioned in about 10 years when they reach the end of their working lives.
Then they’ll be taken down and the view will be restored.
They will be taken down: it’s in the contract.
Of course they’ll be taken down.
The owners would Never leave them there and pocket the money required for their decommissioning.
Would they.
KK
401
Probably takes more energy to demolish the things than they produce.
330
We don’t need another wind farm,
We can’t wait until the wind blows,
All we want is life beyond…..Snowy 2.0..
Deepest apologies to Tina Turner.
50
Snowy 2…..
Another waste of money for a “battery”.
40
Accidental red there KK, leaning while reading. Assume green instead. 🙂
50
Unlike Germany, I don’t believe the operators are required to remove the turbines at the end of their life. So they can sit there, rusting away and shedding bits of blade all over what was prime farming land.
90
This issue keeps cropping up.
I can’t believe that the approving authority would not require a bond or some other form of guarantee ensuring the “make good” (rehabilitation) of the site before signing off on the approval for these monstrosities.
I’ll have to do a bit of work on sorting that out. Any suggestions?
80
“I can’t believe that the approving authority would not require a bond or some other form of guarantee,,,”
You’re talking about the real world there Sam, unfortunately we are now in U.N.territory.
70
Only from memory, I believe there is a statutory bond of sorts, but only for a few thousand dollars per turbine in Oz. The real cost of total site remediation and disposal of components runs into the hundreds of thousands per unit, with estimates in the US of up to half a million each when the cost of removing the concrete base, transmission lines, access roads across paddocks and wilderness etc is fully accounted for.
It doesn’t answer your question, but it gives you an idea of the scale of the problem to learn that in the UK, the decommissioning cost for offshore turbines alone is projected to be more than £3 billion. Offshore is more expensive than onshore, but even so the cost is going to be massive. (I had a 2015 link to that but it’s dead)
Others may have more relevant figures.
70
At over 1500 tonnes of concrete in each base, I doubt that the bases would ever be removed.
40
All of these remediation costs should be viewed in the context of the much shorter life span of turbines than the 25 to 30 years wind promoters like to spruik. Average productive life (even allowing for subsidies) of onshore turbines is about 15 to 17 years; for offshore about 10 to 12 years. So whatever the cost of remediation is, it needs to be funded a lot more frequently than the wind scam industry would have you believe. Certainly you will get individual turbines that last 25 years but they are the exception, not the rule and would still be of doubtful economic viability at that age.
50
Sam, the problem will be that the wind farm companies, the local council and the state govt will all claim commercial-in-confidence, so we may never know, until they are finished and comes the time for their removal. The sad pictures of the old turbines in California being left to fall down is not a pretty sight.
60
Have just seen this report on end of life turbines in the US.
https://americanelephant.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/14000-abandoned-wind-turbines-litter-the-united-states/?fbclid=IwAR3k9x5YuC3cLwmiPOUUY6da32-XdD3qag7qCfjQ-TvLgvPQC7jQhNaLBXs
40
I have just had two weeks in Scotland, Annie. Turbines cluster on both sides of the A8 from Edinburgh to Glasgow, despoiling magnificent farming land and, horrors, form a backdrop on the hills behind Stirling Castle, absolutely wrecking the appearance of this magnificent piece of history. As a expat Scot, I wept.
220
Peter, what they have done to Scotland is disgraceful. I still shudder to think of all those (idle at the time) wind turbines you fly over on the way into Glasgow Airport. Environmentalism…pah.
100
One of my favourite places Scotland. I am glad I have missed this era and have no risk of seeing it. Sounds like environmental crime really.
10
Oh , isn’t it luvly to see him squirm. 🙂
I now expect him, and the Greens to campaign against EVERY wind farm built in Australia.
They ALL destroy views
They ALL destroy bird life.
440
All or Nothing.
🙂 🙂
150
Body and soul. Every 200 metre long blade, every last cubic tonne of cement and steel, and no RIP.
00
Not to mention,
Economies and Power Grids!
170
But not his views.
80
Bob Quixote tilting at windmills. Would make a great movie? Classified as Brown comedy, I reckon.
240
The Man of La Campaña.
120
But does he tilt?
60
… give him a big enough spear and he’ll tilt all over the place 🙂
80
Lost in La Mancha: Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong.
Directed by
Terry GilliamBob ‘McNimby‘ Green-Brown. Rated: Disaster.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dGJnttADJA [1′ 30″ Trailer]
Lost in Tasmania http://mtmawson.info/snow-cam/ “Snow fall last 24hr: 30 cm. Snow Depth: 70 cm. Forecast: Snow falls continuing all week“. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spanish satirist/sceptic) will be chuckling in his grave.
50
see https://www.xkcd.com/556/
80
Brilliant stuff.
Even has a profile of the Boston and New York skylines with an approximation of the last ice age superimposed.
50
I will not stand for socialism masquerading as environmentalism – PM Tony Abbott.
He was right about that too.
300
Aside from the health and wildlife impacts, look at the cost! $1.6 billion! You could build half a real power station for that. How dumb are the Greens? And the Browns? F- for Finance & Economics, anyhow.
220
Stuff Bob Brown I say . . . Build the barstard !!
GeoffW
101
According to karabar at 8.4 above, “Ralph” has that well in hand.
60
Considering the future all these “woke” environmentalists wanted to leave for generations to come.
I henceforth propose that the VLF produced by wind turbines shall be forever known as ‘The Brown Note’.
210
and it’s effects as the Brown Factor …
60
The other day I discovered the Blake Event and have been wondering if all interglacials end this way?
20
there is no climate change, thre is no global warming, there is no carbon in atmosphere.
carbon it too heavy
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/carbon-dioxide-density-specific-weight-temperature-pressure-d_2018.html
and the highest ever level of co2 )apparently, fake science always leads too fake results) is 0.04 per cent that is 4 parts per ten thousand. this is beyond any senscle or plausible logic, only leaves corruption
190
four molecules per ten thousand.
It does a lot of Warming! Ooodles and oodles of it.
“Like a blanket,” says Skepticalscience.com. (alright! I’ll wash my mouth out! Later!)
Yep, that’s what they do say: four molecules per ten thousand acts like a blanket!
Absolutely no sense of proportion, Idiots. 🙂
150
oops:
forgot
</sarc>
30
😀 Did he look at the site stopthesethings.com!
Must have been torn between killing birds and ‘saving the planet’ with un-renewables! Oh what a dilemma.
Bet he cant sleep. What more can you say.
150
You cant make this stuff up!
120
Reality trumps fiction
In Brown’s Green world !
80
Remember that joke about “What is green with brown arms”?
40
Nope.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%E2%80%9CWhat+is+green+with+brown+arms%E2%80%9D&atb=v79-1&ia=web
10
and no turbines for The Hamptons, naturally. lengthy, details re tax credits, etc; other projects. read all:
Updated 13 Jul: Newsday: Developer: We won’t pursue wind farm in waters off Hamptons
By Mark Harrington
The developer of a wind farm that would have spanned the Hamptons has withdrawn its tentative plan in favor of sites to the west, and is urging the federal government to restrict turbines from East End waters, according to the Germany-based developer’s top U.S. official.
The decision highlights the daunting odds the proposals for wind farms 20 miles off the South Fork face as the federal government finalizes proposed lease sites amid state and local opposition to Hamptons-region arrays.
Bill White, managing director of East Wind LLC, a subsidiary of EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, said Friday the decision to withdraw and recommend against development off the Hamptons was primarily related to concerns about impacts on fishing.
East Wind had identified six sites for turbines off Long Island, each requiring around 79,000 acres of sea bottom…READ ALL
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/hamptons-wind-farms-1.33761328
70
In the UK we have been sitting understand high pressure system for ten days, with very low output of electricity from wind.
Heaven help us if this happened in winter.
I hope the wind farm owners are being paid only for the amount of electricity they produce, and not their nameplate capacity.
If I remember correctly some wind farms were paid for the electricity they might have produced when wind speeds were very high and they had to feather the blades to avoid damage.
Also as I understand it they windmills actually consume power when there is very light or no wind as they have to keep the sails turning in order to avoid damage to the axle.
I would love to see an accounting of both carbon dioxide emissions for the whole of a wind farm installation from groundworks to final connection to the substation, as well as a financial account (pre subsidy of course)
150
One of the UK’s winters not long ago was just like that…weeks of dull, still weather. Wind and solar are not much use then, are they?
100
UK wind generation now down to 0.32GW.
80
Bob lives with his partner down the other end of the island in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart. before that, he used to live in Liffey. So, no apparent physical connection to the north-west of Tassie. Therefore, he is a hired gun to stop the project. The hypocrisy..it burns!
180
Not so different from his wood fired heater, eh?
110
.. you’re referring to his business “partner” I take it?
40
That would be a no, LD. A life partner to be euphamistic.
50
Bob Brown; There’s a joke in there somewhere, but I just can’t put my finger on it.
60
i’d like to know who wants them…unless there’s money involved. these regional newspaper articles rarely appear when I do online searches:
12 Jul: HartlepoolMail: Fears over impact of planned 300ft wind turbines on children at new Hartlepool school
Children at a planned new free school for Hartlepool could be impacted by a proposed 300ft wind turbines in the same area, a councillor has claimed.
by the Newsroom
Plans are pressing ahead to create a new free school for Hartlepool to cater for children with special needs.
Land has been allocated on council-owned grazing land behind Golden Flatts Primary School.
The new school will be for children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs.
Councillor Leisa Smith said the school would add to concerns around plans to install three on-shore wind turbines in the town, two of which would be off nearby Brenda Road.
She said: “I would like it to be noted there are two wind turbines that are going to be proposed to be put along Brenda Road and I think that those with social, emotional and mental health needs, with the noise and the flicker, it would become a distraction for their concentration…READ ON
https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/politics/council/fears-over-impact-of-planned-300ft-wind-turbines-on-children-at-new-hartlepool-school-470471
12 Jul: EasternDailyPress: Could windfarm projects cause Norfolk mussel population to die of stress?
by Eleanor Pringle
New research has suggested that Norfolk’s famous mussel population could be at risk if precautions aren’t taken to limit noise from the creation of offshore wind farms.
Marine scientists from Edinburgh’s Napier and Heriot Watt universities have discovered that the molluscs can detect changing sound levels in their environment.
The research showed that increased levels of noise impacts the shellfish’s DNA, meaning it grows slower and spends more time filtering algae – making it more vulnerable to predators.
And with plans submitted by energy giants Vattenfall and Orsted to create two of the largest wind farms in the country off the north Norfolk coast, noise pollution while they are constructed will inevitably rise….READ ON
https://www.edp24.co.uk/business/vattenfall-answers-claims-that-windfarm-could-increase-mollusks-stress-1-6157533
13 Jul: Wind-Watch: Protest planned over energy projects
Source: Source: The Kerryman, Independent Ireland
A major protest is to take place outside county buildings on Monday next as groups from across Kerry protest a range of renewable energy projects they fear are impacting, or will impact, their home places negatively…
The protest is being organised by a variety of groups from North to South Kerry over a range of concerns relating to wind farms, solar farm and batter storage facilities.
Chief among the concerns to be voiced at the forthcoming protest are fears over the potential hazards associated with the fledgling battery storage technology, in particular from a fire safety point of view, and whether or not the authorities would be capable to handling an emergency surrounding the tech.
The groups are also to protest Kerry County Council’s approval of planning for battery storage facilities; the likely expansion of the renewable wind energy sector under the new Climate action plan; as well as the Landscape Character Assessment, which finds much of North Kerry to be of no scenic or tourism value. The protest is to take place between 9.30am and 11am on Monday, July 15.
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/07/13/protest-planned-over-energy-projects/
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lengthy, read all:
10 Jul: ValleyBreeze: Wind turbine rejected in unanimous decision
PIC: Residents at Tuesday’s wind turbine hearing applauded as the Zoning Board of Review issued a unanimous decision against the project
By LAUREN CLEM
Three years of fighting against a wind power proposal paid off for neighbors Tuesday night when the Zoning Board of Review voted unanimously to reject a 462.5-foot wind turbine off Old Smithfield Road…
(Board Chairman Robert Najarian) took issue with Green Development’s characterization of the noise, shadows, installation hazards and possible impact on property values caused by the turbine, questioning whether evidence presented by the company adequately addressed residents’ concerns…
Board members voted 5-0 to reject the application, drawing cheers from the packed room. For some residents, the fight has dragged on for more than three years after public opposition and legal action delayed the project’s original appearance before the board in 2016.
Though residents were celebrating Tuesday night, the process is not over. Green Development Chairman Mark DePasquale told The Valley Breeze the company plans to appeal the decision in Superior Court…
http://www.valleybreeze.com/2019-07-10/woonsocket-north-smithfield/wind-turbine-rejected-unanimous-decision#.XSwfReR7nIU
80
Come on Bob you know we have to do more even quicker
If we don’t munch some birds then all the birdies are doomed. Isn’t that so Bob?
80
14 Jul: WBUR: AP: Vineyard Wind Dealt Setbacks By Local, U.S. Regulators
The company hoping to build a planned wind farm off Massachusetts is appealing to the state after the project hit snags with local and federal regulators.
The Edgartown Conservation Commission on Martha’s Vineyard voted this week to deny Vineyard Wind’s application to lay transmission cables that would pass about a mile east of Edgartown…
Commercial fishermen questioned the plan at a public hearing last month…
https://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2019/07/14/offshore-wind-permit-denied-edgartown-commission-appeal
12 Jul: Wind-Watch: Boston Globe: Vineyard Wind project lands in rough waters
By Jon Chesto
The massive offshore wind farm that would usher Massachusetts into a new clean-energy era sure has hit rough water.
No one said starting a new industry is easy. But wind-energy supporters are getting nervous about the unexpected events this week involving permits for Vineyard Wind’s 84-tower wind farm to be built south of Martha’s Vineyard.
The project, jointly owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, had seemed to be gathering permits the way a kid gathers shells on the beach…
Then the snag: The Edgartown Conservation Commission on Wednesday denied an underwater cable route off the town’s coastline, citing the potential disturbance to marine habitats and other conflicts. (Local fishermen weren’t happy, either.) On Friday, Vineyard Wind vowed to get a “superseding order” from the state Department of Environmental Protection – a more sympathetic venue – that would overturn the commission vote.
More trouble lurks…READ ON
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2019/07/12/vineyard-wind-project-lands-rough-waters/gFEPTGFWV8YeY6QPptLInM/story.html
60
You just gotta love the Lefty, their beliefs are so flexible.
150
Tasmanian Premier Office: Will Hodgman (Liberal Party)
Media release:
15 Jul: Guy Barnett (Liberal Party), Minister for Energy
Anti-everything Greens now targeting renewable energy
Even renewable energy is not safe from the Greens’ anti-everything agenda, with former leader Bob Brown confirming his opposition to the Robbins Island wind farm development.
It beggars belief that Dr Brown would oppose a project that, if approved, will not only create hundreds of jobs on Tasmania’s North West, but also has the potential to inject up to 1000 megawatts of renewable energy into the grid.
When combined with other wind farm developments and our plans for the Marinus second interconnector and pumped hydro, it has the potential to inject up to $5 billion into our state’s economy and create thousands of jobs, particularly in regional Tasmania…
Dr Brown and the Greens have actively campaigned for the shutdown of the entire Australian coal industry and demanded we turn to renewables to deal with climate change. Such is his commitment to perpetual protest that he has now turned his sights to opposing renewables. For him to oppose this project, which is exactly in line with the Greens renewable mantra, is yet another display of breathtaking hypocrisy.
It is now incumbent on Cassy O’Connor to immediately condemn Dr Brown’s opposition to this project and confirm her support for Tasmania’s renewable energy future.
http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/releases/anti-everything_greens_now_targeting_renewable_energy
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pat:
I think that the Minister has spilt the beans.
“combined with other wind farm developments and our plans for the Marinus second interconnector and pumped hydro”
Why is the Tasmanian Government planning a second interconnector when the Developer is supposedly building it?
It doesn’t make financial sense for the wind farm to cut across kilometres of trees to get to the “site of the proposed second connector” when if they were serious it would be cheaper to run the line from the island straight across Bass Strait.
In fact the whole thing doesn’t make sense, given the failure of the King Island project (except it did reduce diesel fuel use a bit).
And, if pumped storage is the answer, why not have the wind farms coupled to the existing hydro scheme and pump water back up? Ready made storage, avoidance of poor output in dry years, no need for more dams to increase hydro output.
No, my view is that the developers are aiming for as much taxpayers money as they can get.
140
I suspect that Hydro Tasmania will fork out some cash for the second interconnector.
70
15 Jul: RenewEconomy: Greens founder Brown speaks out against Tasmania wind farm
by Sophie Vorrath
Plans to build a massive wind farm in Tasmania have come up against an unlikely opponent, with Australian Greens founder Bob Brown adding his voice to protests that the project will damage views and ecology on the island state…
Last month, the Burnie Advocate reported that UPC Renewables had a draft proposal to install a 170km transmission line from Sheffield to Robbins Islands to service the two wind farms.
But these plans have raised the ire of a number of local farmers, with the line set to cut through as many as 17 private properties via a 60-metre-wide easement.
According to Tasmania Greens leader Cassy O’Connor, landowners had received letters from UPC saying compulsory land acquisition of part of their property may have to occur if agreement could not be reached.
Tasmania energy minister Guy Barnett said compulsory acquisition was available to licensed entities which provided electricity or gas infrastructure, but was “a last resort.”
“I won’t speculate on any statutory decisions I might need to make as a minister in the future,” he said.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/greens-founder-brown-speaks-out-against-tasmania-wind-farm-43310/
40
15 Jul: Guardian: Bob Brown rebukes Tasmanian windfarm project as the new Franklin dam
Former Greens leader says Robbins Island proposal could harm critically endangered birds and affect landscape’s natural beauty
by Adam Morton
“It’s got similarities with the Franklin in that it is simply surplus to needs and is a project that is looking to assist outside entities without giving an economic dividend back to Tasmania,” he told Guardian Australia…
Brown said staff at his Bob Brown Foundation had been contacted by “very anguished” people near the windfarm site concerned about its impact on several bird species including wedge-tailed eagles and the critically endangered swift and orange-bellied parrots. “The proponents of this windfarm have zero idea of the impact on migratory birds,” he said…
While the foundation would not campaign against the windfarm, Brown hoped his intervention, which began with an opinion piece (LINK) in the Hobart Mercury, would start a public debate about whether it should go ahead…
“Bob is an intelligent man but he has not seen all the data. It will not be hidden, it will be presented,” (UPC Renewables COO, David Pollington) said…
“It’s all a bit Nimby [not in my backyard] in my mind,” he said…
Brown said he had supported other windfarms in the state, at Granville Harbour and Cattle Hill, but Robbins Island was “a step too far”.
“Windfarms have great positives, they are generating renewable energy, which is helping save the planet from the climate emergency and that’s a very big plus. But they are very diverting to people who have an eye to the natural beauty of Tasmania and its landscape,” he said. “There is no doubt about that.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/15/bob-brown-rebukes-tasmanian-windfarm-project-as-the-new-franklin-dam
40
I was at a Tas Networks meeting when they discussed the budget for the coming five years.
Of course the fate of “Project Marinus” was on the agenda. That’s two more marine cable to the mainland. The justification is windmills in the Northwest.
In order to make it fly it requires a 170 km HV transmission line to George Town.
I got into what might be called a somewhat ‘lively’ discussion when I pointed out that the 100 MW capacity of said transmission line was overbuilt by a factor of five, when compared to a transmission line to carry the same amount of energy annually from a fossil-fuelled power station.
The discussion then became a matter of my claim that the capacity factor for windmills is about 20%, when Hydro insists that on an island in the Bass Strait in the Roaring Forties, it is nearly double that.
I also argued that birds lives matter, and the windmills are doing their best to make the wedge tailed eagle extinct. As far as Hydro is concerned, birds don’t matter when the “environment” is at stake?
In reality, nothing matters to the state-owned Hydro Tasmania but the opportunity to mulct the mainland of as many millions as possible, before somebody discovers that it is getting colder and it it CO2 that doesn’t matter! And if Dan the Commie doesn’t want to sell us cheap gas, mulcted he will be.
220
Interesting. 🙂
80
170 kms wow that’s a lot of cable to lay, luckily with increased CO2 there should be plenty of fibre to produce it.
110
You and my brother would get on famously. Laying a cable indeed…
60
That’s really clever yonniestone, and ninety nine out of a hundred would be saying ….. Huh!
Tony.
70
Well Tony, with the very small currents likely to be involved a fibre cable would probably handle it.
And the best fibre is hemp, and if there was any left over?
50
Small Currants are easily passed in a large fibre cable, too many though and the output can get a bit sloppy……
70
Well Tony there’s a lot going on in those one liners, I guess the regular Novarians have been conditioned to spot the genius hiding within.
50
Please keep the one liners coming Yonnie, the more politically incorrect the better, hope you don’t get flushed by the moderators
50
I fear the wind juggernaut will roll on. Not least because landowners want free money to host the things, but local contractors needing cash flow to keep on top of their ever expanding consumer debt. Jobs for the boys.
90
Hey Jo, could you please make sure Dellers hears about this? I’ve lost his email. This needs international attention. This is a huge win for skeptics. We must make hay while the sun shines. And the CO2 is high.
120
Then there is the question of why a private company would do this, even pay for the link to Victoria.
Because every windmill is a money generating machine, thanks to Bob Brown. It’s always the capitalists behind the good intentions and Bob Brown has just realised that he has been used. There is little sympathy though because he wants to protect somewhere where no one goes but cares nothing for where people live.
The Green politician Bob Brown is just another uncaring industrialist stooge who legislated to wreck pristine wilderness with windmills to stop fossil fuel. And has just realised it. Tough. He can enjoy what he has inflicted on so many other people. The concern of the average Australian is zero to putting windfarms in pristine paradise. They have them in their backyards, thanks to Bob as one of communism’s useful idiots. Like all the Greens.
It is amusing to hear him borrow the arguments everyone has used for years to try to stop his useless, ecologically disastrous windmills.
351
9 Jul: WBSM: Solar Panels Spark Roof Fire at New Bedford RMV
by Tim Dunn
District Fire Chief Jeff Pothier tells WBSM News solar panels sparked the blaze, which spread to approximately “five or 10 solar panels amongst hundreds of solar panels.”
“At this time we’ve knocked down the fire and are attempting to shut down the power to the building and are checking for any extensions,” continued Pothier.
“It’s not really a safe area to access at this time. There’s some water damage in the building, but crews are still in there assessing.”…
VIDEO: 11sec: 9 Jul: WHDH: New Bedford RMV evacuated after solar panels catch fire
NEW BEDFORD, MASS. (WHDH) – The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles branch in New Bedford was evacuated Tuesday after solar panels on the roof of the facility caught fire.
Video from Sky7 HD showed workers evaluating several charred solar panels.
No one was injured…
https://whdh.com/news/new-bedford-rmv-evacuated-after-solar-panels-catch-fire/
VIDEO: 2min11sec: 10 Jul: ABC6: Solar panel fire throws New Bedford firefighters for a loop, cause under investigation
The Registry of Motor Vehicles in New Bedford is back open after 10 solar panels caught fire on Tuesday…
The cause of the solar panel fire is still under investigation.
Officials said this is the first solar panel fire the New Bedford Fire Department has ever tackled.
“It made you call on a lot of your training and past experience,” said Matthew Ostiguy, the department’s acting district chief.
Solar panels rarely catch on fire, so when they do, it’s uncharted territory for the firefighters.
“When the panels are on fire, that changes everything. We don’t know how much is open, what is compromised, and what voltages we are dealing with,” said Ostiguy.
The department had to constantly monitor the voltage of the panels while battling the blaze.
“They’re tricky because we know we have more power sources than normal that we need to isolate,” said Ostiguy.
In Tuesday’s fire, hundreds of panels covered the RMV’s roof with 10 on fire.
The burning panels were in the middle of the roof, so the firefighters had to tread lightly to reach them.
“They had to walk around the panels and put their feet in small openings between the panels,” said Ostiguy.
According to the State Fire Marshal, in Massachusetts there have only been 32 solar panel fires since 2001.
https://www.abc6.com/story/40773652/solar-panel-fire-throws-new-bedford-firefighters-for-a-loop-cause-under-investigation
51
Might be a little off focus of current topic but it goes to the heart of the issue. Norwegian researchers Kaupppinen and Malmi claim they have demonstrated there is no experimental evidence for significant anthropogenic climate change (13 July 2019). They make this claim in a 6 page paper. If they are right we are almost at the point where the message is straightforward enough to be published by main stream media. I have some faith in their approach as one of the authors was an IPCC reviewer and raised the issue of experimental evidence with IPCC. IPCC’s inability to give a satisfactory reply initiated a deeper examination by the author resulting in the current paper.
210
Yes, I saw that on Outsiders. Got any links mate?
50
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/07/12/new-paper-no-experimental-evidence-for-the-significant-anthropogenic-climate-change/
80
The title of the paper is totally correct.
As is the conclusion that clouds, water vapour and the Sun have caused most of the slight temperature variability in the last 100 or so years.
The rest of the paper seems rather lite-weight. !
50
The comments are entertaining and then Javier shoots it down completely.
‘Yes, this must be some type of joke. Is it April, 1st already?
‘That’s not a paper but a pamphlet. They don’t even say where they got the data. And the problem with clouds is that we are terrible at measuring them.
‘This doesn’t deserve an article.’
32
Sorry EG… but you should have continued reading.
Javier was a little fast to comment !
20
To John Watt @ # 34
Kauppinen and Malmi are at Turku University, Finnland.
The Norwegians might be happy and proud to be attributed but the Finns might be upset! 🙂
On its own, the paper is meaningless: just unsupported assertions.
In other words: it doesn’t stand up as a solo paper. It’s actually the last paper in a sequence of earlier papers.
(These are referenced as “ [2], [3], [4] and that may not be the complete chain …)
You need to acquire, as well:
[4]. # J. Kauppinen and P. Malmi
# Major Feedback Factors and Effects of the Cloudcover and the Relative
# Humidity on the Climate
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.11547.pdf
[3]. #Jyrki Kauppinen, Jorma T. Heinonen, Pekka J. Malmi
# Major Portions in Climate Change: Physical Approach
http://butler.cc.tut.fi/~trantala/opetus/files/FS-1550.Fysiikan.seminaari/Fileita/J.Kauppinen-IREPHY-21Nov13.pdf
These are references 4 and 3 respectively — as I’ve numbered them here — for the paper you have linked to. I haven’t been able to acquire reference #2 (YMMV) nor reference [1], yet, which I haven’t even started looking for. Nor have I looked for any papers referenced by the other two, if there are any.
Good luck and happy hunting.
50
Hi Sophocles,
Thanks for the reality check. Apologies to the Finns.
I guess I was attracted by the “whistle blower” aspect attached to the “former IPCC reviewer” status of one of the authors.
Sometime we will get a simple “CO2 is not evil” message that might help to get Brisbane traffic flowing freely again.
John
30
On the same tack……..cloud influence on IPCC predictions….this video is an absolute must see..
It simply tears the whole hoax apart..
https://youtu.be/THg6vGGRpvA
20
that is just too good.
methinks Bob has switched sides. First he won us the federal election by campaigning in Qld for the LNP, now he’s campaigning against wind farms.
Sooner or later he had to see the light….. 😉
190
None so blind as those that will not see.
What price do our politicians have us pay as the price of fanaticism?
This greatest fanatic of all, faced with the unadulterated, ugly reality
resulting from his complete conviction of his own brilliance, folds in disgust
at the full confrontation of the results of that stupid conviction.
After getting almost tossed out of Qld by ‘the mob’, and now this personal
declaration of disgust on what he was always happy for the rest of the nation to
endure, I wonder when our parliamentarians are going to get the message. They
force down the throat of the nation what huge numbers of voters resent, where
politicians destroy a system of energy that was affordable and worked for one
that fails on both counts.
When the zealots begin to fall by the side of the road,
that leaves the destroyers, the politicians standing deserted on the hill.
When will the politicians see the light, or are they too fearful of the reaction
against them by the public if they have to declare the entire CO2 story is the
codswallop that it always was, serving a political extremist left theology
with underlying political aims that couldn’t be achieved by debatable truths
or armed conflict?
150
Covered a lot of ground there DOC.
🙂
80
Just trying to work my way through all this.
Bob doesnt want coal.
Bob doesnt want dams.
Bob doesnt want nuclear.
Bob doesnt want wind turbines.
What does Bob actually want? How will Bob save the world?
170
Can’t answer that on a family forum.
100
He wants us to live in caves
60
Bob down and kiss my a$$!
10
No idea if it applies in this case, but in others old forest is cleared for power transmission lines – permission not required!
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/oldgrowth-trees-cut-down-for-windfarm-transmission-corridor/news-story/5b5971dad67ca6086cd7501259b3528f
How green is that?
100
Send the logs to the chipper
For export to Japan maybe ?
Nahhhh !
The Greens would have epileptic fits
30
So what is the DH a Doctor of anyway?
30
He has an MBBS, no doctorate, a medical practitioner
20
The Tesla owner’s “rooftop solar”. Why wouldn’t you install one of these where your neighbours can see it and be green.
https://smartflower.com/
60
This certainly takes the cake. Not only is Bob against chopping down trees for heating, building dams for hydro and mining coal for thermal power, he’s now turned against wind power. That only leaves solar, and in a cold, wet and cloudy place like Tassie, good luck with that Bob. I can see a Darwin award in progress 🙂
100
It’s OK to be pro nuclear but justifying any decision on the fact that we mine a lot of uranium is just spin. Nuclear plants don’t burn uranium until/unless it is enriched.
We need to do the whole cycle: Mine, enrich, burn and dispose and part of our export uranium contracts should be that we take it back and dispose of the waste responsibly. It can be done.
70
Hanrahan:
The Candu type can use unenriched uranium.
“This allows CANDU to run on unenriched natural uranium, or uranium mixed with a wide variety of other materials such as plutonium and thorium. by operating on natural uranium the cost of enrichment is removed.”
There have been two major types of CANDU reactors, the original design of around 500 MWe that was intended to be used in multi-reactor installations in large plants, and the rationalized CANDU 6 in the 600 MWe class that is designed to be used in single stand-alone units or in small multi-unit plants. CANDU 6 units were built in Quebec and New Brunswick, as well as Pakistan, Argentina, South Korea, Romania, and China.
50
I’ll say it again, S-L-O-W-L-Y:
LFTR
50
I’ll say it slowly as well : ? ? ? ? ? ?
10
The good Dr Brown might prescribe LFTR as the best nuclear medicine.
30
no surprise to see RE opposition in Aspen, tho Aspen Times is a hotbed of CAGW/RE advocacy:
8 Jul: AspenTimes: Guest commentary: New solar farm near Aspen should be seen as solution, not eyesore
by Auden Schendler
(Auden Schendler is an American climate activist, businessman and author of Getting Green Done. He is the Vice President of Sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company – Wikipedia)
Right now, Pitkin County is reviewing a proposal to add 5 megawatts of solar energy to land owned by the Aspen Consolidated Sanitation District south and east (slightly upvalley) of the Brush Creek and Highway 82 intersection — a public hearing will be July 16…
It will help our utility, Holy Cross Energy, achieve its clean energy goals early, reducing the entire region’s carbon footprint and becoming a model for the nation. And it will become part of an upper-valley grid resilience project that will help Aspen ensure that key services remain intact in the event of a power disruption caused by fire, flood or other disasters…
There’s no doubt that this project will have a real visual impact, one that changes our sense of the place we live, and will be opposed by many in the community who see it as an eyesore. But we at Aspen Skiing Co. believe our community can no longer say: “We support clean energy, just not here.”…
Aspen Skiing Co. recognizes that this project is a sacrifice, but it is also a way for us to participate in a solution to the most threatening issue of our time, and an opportunity for us to show history that we understood the challenges we faced and acted at scale…This array ought to be seen as a thing of beauty and of hope, a symbol that also protects the underlying health of our landscape, and the foundation of a noble future we created from a piece of ourselves.
https://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/guest-commentary/guest-commentary-new-solar-farm-near-aspen-should-be-seen-as-solution-not-eyesore/
writer below: Aspen Books: ***Paul Andersen has been a writer and editor for 35 years. He writes books, movies, magazine articles, plays, short stories, and leads the Nature and Society Seminar at the Aspen Institute. He is a regular columnist and contributing writer for the Aspen Times.
14 Jul: Aspen Times: ***Paul Andersen: Solar panels: blight or beauty?
Opposition to a proposed solar array in Pitkin County is understandable and predictable. Neighbors looking down at the site along the Rio Grande Trail south of Woody Creek will see an open meadow transformed into an industrial site.
I don’t envy the county Planning and Zoning Commission at Tuesday’s hearing…
Clean, renewable electricity got big pushbacks on the East Coast when windmill turbines for a proposed wind farm near Block Island, 34 miles off shore from Cape Cod, were vehemently opposed.
The same occurred with Vineyard Wind, a proposed wind farm with as many as 100 turbines about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Both windfarm proposals have been deeply contentious and protracted — and there are more and larger wind farms in the works…
When I asked Connor Goodson, who’s representing the project, how he was received when he met with both opposing entities, he laughed nervously at what was evidently a cool reception. This project is a sore point if you feel it will diminish your viewplane and conceivably lower your property values.
The NIMBY reaction is understandable if your home might look down upon 18,000 solar panels pivoting in the sun. But there’s a larger view to consider. That view is global and reveals the acute need for carbon reduction through renewable energy…
They should do it in Pitkin County where neighbors must learn to view solar as beauty, not blight.
https://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/paul-andersen-solar-panels-blight-or-beauty/
40
Brings back some good memories seeing this article posted here. Used to work at the Aspen Times back in the fifties.
30
does this mean China is not a “climate leader”? lol:
15 Jul: Reuters: China greenhouse gas emissions soar 50% during 2005-2014 – government data
by David Stanway
SHANGHAI – China’s climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions hit 12.3 billion tonnes in 2014, up 53.5% in just a decade, the environment ministry said on Monday, citing the country’s latest carbon “inventory” submitted to the United Nations…
The 2014 figure, based on the most recent calculations by the Chinese government, includes China’s emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, but does not make adjustments based on changes in land use or increases in forest coverage.
The environment ministry said if the impact of forests and other “carbon sinks” were taken into consideration, total emissions would have stood at 11.186 billion tonnes in 2014, still up 17% from 2010…
Total net U.S. emissions were measured at 5.74 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2017, down 0.5% on the year, according to the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.
A study published by the Nature Geoscience journal last year estimated that China’s total emissions hit a record 9.53 billion tonnes in 2013 ***and then declined over the following three years…
The decline in CO2 from 2014-2016 came as a result of falling energy consumption, but it has since rebounded.
Record production levels in carbon-intensive sectors such as steel could mean CO2 emissions are still on the rise and could hit fresh records this year, environmental group Greenpeace said.
50
AUDIO: 8min46sec: 15 Jul: 3AW: Tom Elliott: Former Greens leader Bob Brown takes a stand AGAINST a Tasmanian wind farm
Former Greens leader and veteran activist Dr Bob Brown is campaigning to stop a $1.6 billion wind farm development in Tasmania because it will spoil the view and kill birds.
It’s an unexpected move from the Greens veteran, who has campaigned for renewable energy for decades.
“The environmental and social and economic consequences are beyond avail,” he told 3AW’s Tom Elliott.
“These wind farms, as good as they are for renewable energy … there comes a point where they become too destructive.
“This (Robbins Island) is a focus point for migratory birds all over the world.”…
“We need to see the social, financial and environmental impact studies before we have governments and corporations saying they’re going ahead with this,” he said…
“When we see a big project like this going ahead, we want to know whether it is going to support Tasmania’s schools, and its hospitals, and its police stations,” he said.
“Let’s not get into another round of simply ripping off this state with multinational corporations that are not returning properly to the state itself.”
Tom Elliott took Dr Brown to task for his failure to support the renewable energy project.
“We’re supposed to accept that renewables can take the place of coal fired generation, and here’s you opposing a 200 tower plus wind farm,” the 3AW Drive host said.
“It doesn’t, on the face of it, add up.”
“Would you put solar panels on the Opera House?,” the former Greens leader retorted.
“I think there’s limits to what we do.”
https://www.3aw.com.au/former-greens-leader-bob-brown-takes-a-stand-against-a-tasmanian-wind-farm/
50
Only the north facing sides. They would be great in winter because they have the right inclination to maximise collection during the winter months. Maybe that was a factor in their original design.
60
Solar panels on the opera house are a small price to pay to save the planet, as are windmills in manly warringah. Think of the kiddies.
00
Having robbed the Australian community for twenty years to pay for these money gobbling monsters, when will it stop?
These people are paid cash just for generating electricity at any time, night or day plus the world’s highest prices if they manage to sell it. No other business in Australia gets cash for just existing and our money at that, not taxation but straight from the electricity bills of every section of the community. The theft never ends, even when the windmill has no debts, we have to pay and pay.
How else can anyone explain the world’s highest electricity prices when still 90% of all electricity comes from the same coal we had, the world’s cheapest source?
It’s all theft, to pay for useless windmills or money pumps and who cares about the environmental impact or cost of these monsters? Not the Greens. We are told we are saving the world, except that is not true and it is not even taxation. The government says we do not have a carbon tax. We have legalized theft.
200
Well put TdeFs.
It’s hard to comprehend the enormity of this scam and betrayal of trust even when we’ve spent years getting all the facts together.
The average voter has no way of unraveling it and has to simply trust the integrity of those elected to govern.
As Jo says;
A thoroughly good society on its way down the tubes.
Sad.
90
I beg to differ, their ABC is paid just for existing and produces intermittent versions of the truth when it wants to.
90
More and more people are saying , as with the BBC, ” Is that true. or did you hear it on the ABC?”
90
Dr. (For a doctor he is) Bob Brown is a True Patriot of Tasmania!
He stands for everything I believe in about Tasmania.
“I did but see him cycle by,
And I shall admire him
Till he dies” .
Ah! Tasmania, Tasmania,
Home of the Knave!
Barry – 15 minutes ago
60
He seems to have been brain dead for years, given his inability to think rationally and see his own hypocrisy.
40
Bob is a national treasure. We should do whatever we can to ensure to is kept happy and healthy and ready to lead the anti Adani opening convoy in 3 years time during the next election cycle. Go Bob, you are a legend and genius!
10
Just watching the beautiful scenery in Southern France on the way to Albi. Pretty pastures, rivers, lakes and wonderful forests. Not a windmill to be seen! A nuclear country, something not allowed by the Greens either.
Time will show the Green movement as a destructive force in terms of the landscape where so much of the pretty landscape of Europe and England in particular is man made, from the forests to the lakes and rolling pastures. Mankind in harmony with the landscape. All abhorrent to the Greens who have no idea how man can blend with and improve the environment.
It’s all about being against progress, while they call themselves progressives and AntiFa when in fact they are the dictatorial and destructive, stopping poor people from enjoying the same quality of life they have. Bob Brown complained that his wages and luxurious indexed pension were nowhere near that of top bankers. Hypocrisy hardly an adequate word for the Greens.
120
In fact if Bob Brown wants to stop the terrible self funding windfarms, he only has to support repeal of the RET which pays for them and justifies their building. Windfarm building would stop instantly. Also most would stop operating if only because electricity prices would halve in a day and go down further. It is the RET theft which is making coal power unaffordable and the cash stolen is being given to windfarms. Not to build them. Just to reward them for their special wind electrons even if no one uses them. It’s hardly a secret.
180
I’m hoping that there will come a time when the Elite Bankers and Politicians who are pushing this gigantic money sucking religion will be tried, exposed and punished for their massive deceit and betrayal of humanity.
Go Soros, go Printz Charles and especially go MalEx444.
Directly to the most isolated prison in Tasmania, next to Bob’s new Turbines farm.
KK
140
is this what they call a total brown out!
40
One of our WEA friends messaged us with this news this morning, and we’ve just done a fb post on the subject, as we’ve been running many pieces on the increasing impact from turbines on birds. This is one paragraph:
‘However, as people have said in comments, he has had no hesitation in inflicting wind turbines on other communities, on their precious landscapes, on their sense of place, and on wildlife. So we have to agree that the ultimate nimby is camouflaged in….green and brown.’
We’re heartened to see the immediate response from so many who have commented. Informed, reasoned, and above all, pithy, pointed, and to the heart of the matter, as we see so often from Australia, and greatly admire.
https://www.facebook.com/WindEnergysAbsurd/photos/a.580290932015353/2524699780907782/?type=3&theater
30
Seems changes are in fashion at the moment
“James Bond fans wanting 007 to be either black or female are in for a double treat — with the movie spy about to be played by a black woman, according to a report on Sunday.”
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2019/07/trendsetters-gough-whitlam-and-sir-les-decades-ahead-of-the-007-james-bond-movie-producers.html
Be interesting to see how this one goes
90
Will she do her own stunts?
“The name’s Bond, Jimena Bond,” … seems to lack a little something, perhaps?
Um, yeah. It could bomb.
In a similar vein of high ridiculosity is this little gem about terraforming Mars.
“We know how to warm up a planet, we’ll use factories emitting CO2 …”
I’m not joking! It’s serious! And there’s a lab-tech who is searching for more powerful Greenhouse gases.
I won’t spoil it completely, but it’s most certainly “Oh no!” material 🙂
There’s supposed to be a real scientist involved, but he doesn’t know much about Mars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50N5QoQoc4 Mars Making the New Earth
It won’t work … not with these idiots in charge 😛
90
The James Bond franchise has jumped the shark. They did it before with Casino Royale and David Niven, a spoof on itself. Like the Woke remake of Ghostbusters which took off like a lead balloon.
70
‘Be interesting to see how this one goes.’
Not too well, Bond is dead and somebody else has his number.
On the question of Mars, according to Professor Cox, the place had water but the planet is too small and its dynamo gave out. So its impossible to kick start.
50
If theres a crack in Ian Flemming’s tomb..dont be surprised 😀
40
How about we call them choppers? Might give people pause.
130
Good thought, David.
70
Morning all,
Last night I sent off a letter to SMH alerting them to the Brown turn around.
To my supreme amazement, it was not published. Nor is there any article expanding on my alert. Perhaps tomorrow??
I’ll also check the ABC Just In, just in case, but there was nothing there a few minutes ago.
Perhaps I’ll not hold my breath…
Cheers
Dave B
170
On the other hand Bob Brown is the subject of 2 articles by Graham Lloyd in today’s Australian, including the lead article on page 1. That in turn points to Judith Sloan questioning the economics of renewables.
100
David the Australian Brainwashing Corporation
Has not yet worked out what ‘line’ to take in it’s propaganda.
It seems a bit conflicted.
50
A bit of a tough assessment that, Bill in Oz.
I see your “conflicted” as a preparedness to put both sides of the case.
Unlike their ABC.
40
Oh! Sorry. Oops!
And there I was thinking you were referring to News Corp (as per Graeme No.3’s comment)
ABC = ABC (Australian Brainwashing Corporation). Yes. I agree.
50
I don’t agree Bill. I reckon the ABC is working unerringly to the proposition that they will not pass on any fact/opinion/science which in any way disagrees or challenges, or even questions the preachings from the IPCC.
Except accidentally.
Cheers
Dave B
40
Paging Bob Brown … there is a phone call in the foyer for you …
“The end of a part of the fairytale forest of the Brothers Grimm has been decided.
The contracts between the builders and the contractors are closed, and next year 120,000 trees will be cut down in the Reinhardswald.
They have to make way for 20 wind turbines.
Because the Greens like it that way.”
https://www.journalistenwatch.com/2019/07/12/abholzung-reinhardswald-willen/
Das Aus für einen Teil des Märchenwalds der Brüder Grimm ist beschlossen.
Die Verträge zwischen den Bauherren und den ausführenden Unternehmen sind geschlossen, nächstes Jahr werden 120.000 Bäume im Reinhardswald abgeholzt.
Sie müssen Platz machen für 20 Windkraftanlagen.
Weil die Grünen es so wollen.
70
I have to agree with Bob Brown though
From an avian wildlife point of view Robbins Island is a MONUMENTALLY STUPID place to put a series of large wind turbines.
Local seal population may not like the infrasound and construction work
The owners of the island run Wagyu beef, but in their grab for money, you can better they haven’t considered the effect on their cattle from infrasound.
I hope it doesn’t go ahead, it is sheer idiocy, laden with high known risks.
It will have zero impact on atmospheric CO2, because they will never pay for the CO2 release in their manufacturing and installation and connection.
It basically has ZERO purpose except to funnel money.
But that applies to basically every other wind farm, and it has never stopped them.
140
The Egyptian built pyramids
The catholics in the middle ages built gothic cathedrals
At least they all has the virtue of being permanent architectural edifices
Instead we erect bloody windmills
That makes disturbing noises and kill wildlife.
How the world has changed !
50
Bill,
Wind farms don’t look like much of a starter in the lasting stakes either
40
Perhaps the concrete foundations will remain in perpetuity
For our descendants to look at and ponder
Why the bloody hell
We left all these monstrosities
Scattered around the country side
30
Yeah, I think Bob has failed to make his case of how Robbins Island is so special compared to all the other wind turbine sites. There are migratory birds at Robbins. So??? There are sedentary species everywhere else and there are probably fewer micro-bats to kill off at Robbins too.
It will cause a visual nuisance to passing yachts. So???? There are no permanent neighbours to cause visual nuisance to or sleep deprivation or light-flicker or health issues due to turbine sound pollution. If you are going to push for turbines at all, Robbins seems eminently suitable as a site compared to the rest.
Better yet — ban them all.
60
Nor have the Robbins Island farmers thought about the possibility that as the turbines age, they may shed fibres all over the cow pastures underneath, which in turn can be ingested by the cattle. Remind me later never to buy Robbins Island beef.
50
15 Jul: Daily Mail: ‘He’ll be very proud of me’: Bob Hawke’s granddaughter announces her dream to follow in her ‘Pop’s’ footsteps and run for politics
•Sophie Taylor-Price said Mr Hawke would ‘desperately want’ her to enter politics
•The climate change activist said she would consider the option in her next phase
By Paula Ahillon
Speaking to The Australian (LINK), Ms Taylor-Price, 34, said the third-longest serving prime minister would have supported her tilt at politics…
Ms Taylor-Price, a member of the Labor Party, said a career in politics ‘is something that I’ll consider in the next phase of my life’.
The senior manager for climate change and sustainability at accounting firm EY has urged the government to trust scientists on the issue of climate change.
During a memorial service for Mr Hawke at the Sydney Opera House in June, Ms Taylor-Price recalled her grandfather’s comments on the environment.
‘When I was four years old, I sat by my grandfather’s knee in 1989 when he addressed the nation on climate change. It is actually one of my first memories,’ she said…
‘One of the reasons Pop was such a respected leader is that he trusted his advisers, including scientists. That luck of trust in scientists certainly needs to change,’ Ms Taylor-Price said…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7247397/Bob-Hawkes-granddaughter-announces-dream-follow-Pops-footsteps.html
22
I wonder what happened in the last 30 years that she didn’t notice?
50
15 Jul: PV Mg: Noosa to declare climate emergency in a first for Queensland
Source: NOOSA COUNCIL
“This declaration sends a strong message to all levels of government that the time to take urgent action on climate change is right now,” Mayor Tony Wellington said.
“In making this declaration, Noosa Council joins other local governments in NSW, Victoria, SA and WA as well as the ACT government who have already declared a climate emergency.”…
“Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Government’s own National Greenhouse Inventory reveals that we are not on track to meet our Paris Agreement targets. Indeed, overall emissions are trending up, not down,” the Mayor said.
Across the globe, average land and sea temperatures continue to rise, with the last five years being the hottest on record. The most recent IPCC Report noted that humankind has just 12 years to take action to keep warming to less than 1.5 degrees and avoid more serious global catastrophes.
“Left unchecked, climate change has the potential for major consequences, particularly more severe weather events. And Noosa is not immune. As a coastal community we are particularly vulnerable to impacts of a changing climate.
“Our Coastal Hazard Adaptation Plan will set out how Council prepares for, and responds to, increased severe weather events, storm surges, sea level rise and coastal erosion.
“At the local level, Council has an ambitious target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2026. We will continue efforts to reduce emissions by implementing solar PV, identifying energy efficiencies and by making changes to our landfill site and our operations…
“We all need to take responsibility, and wealthy nations especially need to lead by example.”…
“The science is clear and the weight of expert evidence is undeniable,” the Mayor said. “This is arguably the most pressing issue facing the planet today. Noosa Council will not duck for cover when faced with difficult tasks. We proudly join other governments across the planet in declaring a climate emergency and calling for immediate and swift action to minimise catastrophic global repercussions.”…
Recent polls indicate climate change is among the top concerns of Australian citizens…
https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/press-releases/noosa-to-declare-climate-emergency-in-a-first-for-queensland/
02
Nutty Noosa. A pity, as it is a lovely place. 🙁
60
11 Jul: Yahoo Australia: The popular holiday town where 2000 homes are at serious risk
Climate change experts are warning residents in a popular Queensland holiday town that up to 2000 coastal homes could be flooded by rising ocean levels come the turn of the century.
The Sunshine Coast’s Noosa looks set to declare a climate emergency following a report which will be put forward at a council meeting on Monday, A Noosa Council spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia.
The report also revealed 200 residential lots could be washed away completely from coastal erosion if the current trajectory continues.
“Projections indicate that by 2100, up to 2000 residential and tourist accommodation lots and 29 commercial/retail properties could be within the projected storm tide inundation zone in a 1-in-100-year scale storm,” the report warned.
“Up to 200 private residential lots, and three commercial/retail lots could be within the projected 1-in-100-year coastal erosion prone area.”
Such significant findings will surely prove alarming to homeowners in the area, especially with tourism such a strong part of the region’s economy…
Community feedback will now be sought in October before a final detailed action plan with proposed measures to help mitigate coastal hazard risks will be submitted in December.
The report comes the same week as Byron Shire council issued a warning to residents as a caravan park appeared to be under threat from coastal erosion at the popular Clarkes Beach.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/climate-change-emergency-noosa-homes-wiped-away-072146414.html
12
from 6min28sec TO 14min22sec: ABC’s Rebecca Levingston interviews Noosa Shire Mayor, Tony Wellington. ends with Rebecca asking listeners if they want their councils to declare a “climate emergency”.
reads a text from listener “sick of hearing about climate change, been happening for thousands of year etc. lol.
AUDIO: 16 Jul: ABC Brisbane: Mornings with Rebecca Levingston
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/brisbane/programs/focus/mornings/11294056
most of the program is about the BIG issue of Coles once again handing out mini plastic toys at the check-out & a Plastic Conscious Parents’ petition telling supermarkets to stop.
31
“Noosa Council… We proudly join other governments across the planet…” qué pasó? The ‘Council’ are not only flat-earthers (‘across’ the planet instead of around it) they also believe they are another ‘government’? Really? That’s rather bigly of them. And if I remember correctly, most of the new(ish) trendy houses were built on reclaimed mangrove tidal estuary swamp gas, no?
The only ’emergency’ will be when sea levels drop and no one will be able to launch their floating gin palaces coz the waterways will have dried up and returned to… mud. It always turns to mud.
30
16 Jul: SBS: Bob Brown compares proposed Tasmanian wind farm to pokies
Former Greens leader Bob Brown has defended his stance against a wind farm proposed for Tasmania’s north west.
By Rosemary Bolger
LINK: Australia on track to reach 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030
“Like poker machines, everything has its limits,” Dr Brown said.
“I support wind power but think this massive project which will power no Tasmanian homes, is too much a penalty scheme for the island.”…
His position puts the Greens, which have long campaigned for greater investment and government support for renewable energy, in an awkward position.
The Tasmanian Liberal Party accused Dr Brown, who has actively campaigned against the Adani coal mine, of “breathtaking hypocrisy”…
The Labor Party in Tasmania are also backing the wind farm proposal which it says will create sorely needed jobs…
Dr Brown hit back, saying senior Labor and Liberal figures should take a “deep breath” and release the project’s economic cost-benefit analysis.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/bob-brown-compares-proposed-tasmanian-wind-farm-to-pokies
60
Off topic but important: Penalty phase coming for the Peter Ridd vs. @jcu firing fiasco
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/07/15/penalty-phase-coming-for-the-peter-ridd-vs-jcu-firing-fiasco/
70
Thanks for that,
I was starting to wonder when that would come, and will watch with great interest.
Cheers
Dave
40
Same old hypocrisy principle. If my dog barks it’s OK. If your dog barks it’s a nuisance.
110
from FB below: The Nietta Action Group (NAG) is a community action group formed by landowners in Nietta, on the eastern side of the Leven Canyon in response to UPC’s plans to build a high-voltage overhead transmission line across the canyon and past our properties. NAG is comprised of community members and other interested persons supportive of our cause…
(THEY ARE ONLY AGAINST THE TRANSMISSION LINE? THEN WHY ALL THE LINKS TO BIRD DEATHS BY WIND TURBINES?)
Facebook: Nietta Action Group
17h ago: What a surprise to see some very familiar faces featured on the front page of The Australian newspaper this morning! Today’s lead article was about Bob Brown’s criticism of UPC’s proposed Robbins Island wind farm, and they also mentioned the Nietta Action Group.
They used an archive photo from 6 weeks ago, taken at the Leven Canyon Lookout. They said we were ‘fighting ***both the wind farm and a transmission line’. This is not correct.
We have only been fighting the UPC-proposed transmission line and advocating for a submarine transmission solution…
The scenic and natural values of North-West Tasmania critically underpin what constitutes “Brand Tasmania” as the 2300+responses to our change.org petition attest (now closed). This, in turn supports livelihoods of tourist operators, incomes of farmers, investment security of landowners, economic multipliers for local businesses and enduring jobs for families in this region, biodiversity conservation values and the wellbeing of the entire North-West community.
We think renewable energy generation and transmission should complement, not destroy, our unique natural heritage. LINK THE AUSTRALIAN
***4 Jul: An interesting perspective calling for independent assessments of research into eagle deaths before wind turbine technology is adopted for a region LINK ABC
***4 Jul: Article illustrating lethal impact of wind turbines on eagles LINK COURIER MAIL
***25 Jun: Many thanks to Brenda Marshall for supplying this article…link BirdLife Tax MR Death by 1000 Blades / Wind Farm/ Bird Migration…
https://www.facebook.com/NiettaActionGroup/
11
theirABC may be ignoring the Bob Brown anti-wind farm story, but not Brown’s other “concern”, Adani. top of ABC radio news bulletins this morning (probably ABC TV too):
16 Jul: ABC: Adani demands names of CSIRO scientists reviewing groundwater plans
Exclusive by Josh Robertson
Adani demanded the names of all federal agency scientists reviewing its contentious groundwater plans so it could check if they were “anti-coal” activists, emails obtained under freedom of information show.
The revelation has alarmed CSIRO staff representatives, who said it indicated Adani had “a deliberate strategy” to pressure scientists by searching for personal information it could use to try to “discredit their work”…
Emails obtained under freedom of information by environmental group Lock The Gate show Adani gave the federal environment department five days to provide “a list of each person from the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia involved in the review”.
“Adani simply wants to know who is involved in the review to provide it with peace of mind that it is being treated fairly and that the review will not be hijacked by activists with a political, as opposed to scientific, agenda,” the company told the department on January 25.
A department spokeswoman said it “consulted with CSIRO and Geoscience Australia about Adani’s request” but did not provide the names “as the advice on the plans was received from CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, rather than individuals within those agencies”…
Days before the demand, in a January 21 newspaper article Adani had questioned the independence of a scientist leading a Queensland review into the company’s bird conservation plan because he tweeted from a climate rally nine months earlier…
Sam Popovski, a former livestock scientist and now secretary of the CSIRO staff association, said it was “the first time it’s come to our attention that names of scientists involved in a scientific process have been requested”.
“We’re very concerned on behalf of our scientists at the CSIRO that a big company would go into looking at the personal lives of our members, including trawling their social media, in order to potentially discredit their work,” he said.
“It was clear that Adani seemed to be suggesting bias, or potential bias, way before any of the scientific evidence was actually presented to the department.
“We are concerned that that type of behaviour might be encouraged or used in the future by other commercial entities or parties seeking to achieve a commercial outcome.
“Our scientists just want to get on and do their best job they can and provide the most rigorous, independent scientific advice, without their social media being tracked, and without their personal lives and potentially their families’ personal lives being assessed and interfered with.”…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-16/adani-requests-names-of-csiro-scientists/11308616
***check the guests below:
AUDIO: 3min7sec: 16 Jul: ABC AM: Adani demanded names of scientists reviewing groundwater plans
By Josh Robertson on AM
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show mining company, Adani, insisted on knowing the names of government scientists reviewing its contentious groundwater plans, so it could check if they were “anti-coal”.
CSIRO staff representatives say it was a bid to intimidate scientists as Adani waited on its last major regulatory hurdle, but the federal environment department says after consultation, it didn’t reveal the scientists’ names.
***Guests:
Sam Popovski, CSIRO Secretary
Ellie Smith, Lock the Gate
Kirsten Lovejoy, former Greens candidate
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/am/adani-demanded-names-of-scientists-reviewing-groundwater-plans/11312228
22
16 Jul: SBS: AAP: Adani justified in demanding names of CSRIO scientists: Deputy PM
Adani has told AAP it sought the names of all CSIRO and Geoscience Australia scientists working on the review because it wanted to ensure the process was fair and free from bias.
In the January email, Adani told the department: “You may be aware of recent press coverage regarding an anti-coal and/or anti-Adani bias potentially held by experts reviewing other Adani government approvals.
“Those media reports have caused great concern for Adani. As a result of those reports, Adani wants to ensure that it is being treated fairly and, in a manner consistent with other industry participants.”
Adani wrote that it was “not suggesting any bias in relation to these organisations” and promised not to contact individual personnel.
“Adani simply wants to know who is involved in the review to provide it with peace of mind that it is being treated fairly and that the review will not be hijacked by activists with a political, as opposed to scientific, agenda,” the email read…
But CSIRO staff association secretary Sam Popovski says he’s alarmed by Adani’s request…
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/adani-justified-in-demanding-names-of-csrio-scientists-deputy-pm
71
Why are they reluctant to be named?
sarc
70
They’re hiding behind the “shield of the Commonwealth” because they do not want to be accountable.
It’s how a politicized bureaucracy operates. It’s union (the so-called “staff association”) defends the politicization; especially since it aligns with the mantra of the socialist left.
Rudi Dutschke’s long march through the institutions is alive and well in Canberra.
40
FT’s Nick Butler has a great idea! behind paywall:
The climate change lobby needs a business strategy
by Nick Butler
Financial Times – Financial Times
15 Jul: from ElectricityInfo.org:
(Financial Times) by Nick Butler: The energy transition is stalling. The world is burning more coal than ever before. Oil and gas consumption is increasing. Last year, hydrocarbons accounted for more than 80 per cent of total energy consumption – the same percentage (***of a bigger absolute number) as 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Investment in renewables such as wind and solar has flatlined and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise…
The strategic challenge for organisations such as Greenpeace is to escape from old paradigms and become instead the source of better choices and solutions. Consumers are not wedded to existing energy sources. They want low-cost, low-carbon energy along with the equipment that allows them to use it…
Instead of simply acting as critics, Greenpeace and the other serious NGOs should move into the marketplace and build partnerships that offer us all sustainable choices. “Greenpeace Energy” has a ring to it. A new green business would be a hugely disruptive force in a market that is ripe for change.
http://electricityinfo.org/news/energy-policy-379/
“Greenpeace Energy” as “a new green business” would be “hugely disruptive”? no doubt about that.
30
The “energy transition” isnt stalling, it has never existed except in rainbows and unicorns land.
00
15 Jul: BBC: Scottish wind power output at record high
Wind power output in Scotland hit a record high during the first six months of 2019, according to figures from Weather Energy.
It has calculated the energy produced by turbines could power every home in Scotland and part of the north of England.
The period to June, it claimed, saw the equivalent of 4.47 million homes’ consumption supplied by wind power.
WWF Scotland has described the trend as a “wind energy revolution”.
Its climate and energy policy manager Robin Parker, said: “These are amazing figures; Scotland’s wind energy revolution is clearly continuing to power ahead…READ ON
188 COMMENTS AT TIME OF POSTING – MANY CRITICAL
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-48981626
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far left Morning Star has a different perspective:
14 Jul: MorningStarUK: GMB slam claim that wind could power every home in Scotland … and more
RENEWABLES researchers argue that wind turbines north of the border could power every home in Scotland and more — but energy union GMB says this is a “ludicrous” claim.
New figures from Weather Energy show wind power output reaching a record high in the first six months of this year…
…GMB Scotland secretary Gary Smith noted that four-fifths of energy used in Scotland “doesn’t come from electricity,” with the rest accounted for by oil-based fuels and home gas supplies.
“The vast majority of homes in Scotland are heated by gas,” he said. “Any idea we are going to move to electric heating any time soon is nonsense.
“We use gas to heat homes and power industry because it three times cheaper than electricity too. If you live in Scotland and you don’t have access to gas, your are probably fuel poor.”…
The current reliance on gas means only 6 per cent of all Scotland’s home heating comes from renewable sources…
But GMB’s Mr Smith hit back, saying: “The thing about renewables is intermittency. What are they are going to do when the wind doesn’t blow?
“The people who peddle the myth of 100 per cent renewables to meet our energy needs either have no understanding of what they are talking about or they are being utterly dishonest.”
He demanded an end to “the renewables rip-off,” saying the sector was “hugely subsidised and produced “no manufacturing jobs to speak of.”…
“The snake oil salesmen of the rip-off renewables sector need challenging,” he added.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/scotland-wind-power-gmb
14 Jul: SundayPostScotland: Skilled workers turn to food banks after wind farm contract sell-off
by Mark Aitken
Skilled workers are relying on food banks to survive as the contract for a £2 billion wind farm off the coast of Scotland looks set to go overseas.
The work could have created up to 1,000 green energy jobs in Fife and reopened the mothballed BiFab yards.
But trade unions fear French firm EDF, expected to make £130 million a year from the wind farm, will instead hand the work to a yard in Indonesia 7,000 miles away…
15 Jul: HeraldScotland: Wind could heat all Scottish homes – and millions more in England
By David Leask
The upbeat numbers, however, do not tell the whole story. Scottish Power, for example, believes Scotland will have to quadruple renewables output to replace fossil fuels being burned for transport and heating. Scotland has Europe’s worst record on renewable heat. New figures reveal that, despite an excellent record on clean electricity, the country remains dangerously dependent on climate-changing gas in order to stay warm.
Only 6% of all heating in Scotland is sustainable – just one tenth of the proportion in Sweden, the best performing nation in the EU-28…
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17770067.wind-heat-scottish-homes-millions-england/
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All wind farms are equal, but some are less equal than others.
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15 Jul: BBC: Climate change: Used cooking oil imports may fuel deforestation
By Matt McGrath
Imports of a “green fuel” source may be inadvertently increasing deforestation and the demand for new palm oil, a study says.
Experts say there has been a recent boom in the amount of used cooking oil imported into the UK from Asia.
This waste oil is the basis for biodiesel, which produces far less CO2 than fossil fuels in cars.
But this report (LINK) is concerned that the used oil is being replaced across Asia with palm oil from deforested areas…
Between 2011 and 2016 there was a 360% increase in use of used cooking oil as the basis for biodiesel…
Because UCO is classed as a waste product within the EU, UK fuel producers are given double carbon credits for using it in their fuels. This has sparked a boom in demand for used cooking oil that is so great it is being met in part with imports from Asia…
In the UK, the most common feedstock source of biodiesel between April and December 2018 was Chinese UCO, totalling 93 million litres. In the same period, used cooking oil from UK sources was used to produce 76 million litres of of fuel.
Now a new study, from international bioeconomy consultants NNFCC, suggests that these imports may inadvertently be making climate change worse by increasing deforestation and the demand for palm oil…
“Although correlation does not necessarily equate to causation, the available evidence indicates that palm oil imports into China are increasing, in line with their increasing exports of used cooking oils,” the report states…
Environmental groups are also concerned about the potential impact that UK and EU imports of UCO are having.
“Making biodiesel from imported UCO is no longer the environmental good ***it was once perceived to be,” said Greg Archer, UK director of the environmental group Transport and Environment…
683 COMMENTS AT TIME OF POSTING; MANY CRITICAL.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48828490
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CAGW-infested The National turns on EVs:
15 Jul: TheNationalScotland: Forget electric cars as a solution … they will only lead us to another disaster
By George Kerevan
CONVENTIONAL wisdom has it that electric cars are going to beat climate change…
However, the trouble with conventional wisdom is that it frequently masks a deal of naked self-interest. And behind self-interest lurks the next big disaster…
Far from solving climate change, they are introducing a whole new set of environmental and social problems.
These problems have a name: cobalt…
We might be reducing CO2 emissions in Scotland by driving more electric cars. Yet the resultant waste from more cobalt mining in the DRC pollutes rivers, the dust from the pulverized rock causes serious lung infections and the great Congo rainforest is fast disappearing. We need to change the system, not just the technology. Starting in Scotland.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17769798.forget-electric-cars-solution-will-lead-us-another-disaster/
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Where was Bob Brown with his then unstated concern about visual pollution and the effects on birdlife when this travesty unfolded? The links to Tonyfromoz are well worth following.
https://jennifermarohasy.com/2012/01/the-musselroe-wind-farm-travesty-keith-h/
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take special note: ***Almost all the major pension funds of the world are invested in India through renewable energy companies.”
15 Jul: REcharge News: India risks renewables growth halt if state bins PPAs: minister
by Andrew Lee
India’s renewable energy minister told one of its key wind and solar states it would be “wrong and against the law” to revise previously-signed power deals with projects, warning of a chilling effect on investment in the country…
Singh’s intervention in a letter to Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister came after the new administration there (LINK) claimed “exorbitantly priced” wind and solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed under its predecessor were behind a “financial crisis” facing the state’s power distributors, which it said are facing liabilities of 200bn rupees ($2.9bn).
The state ordered the establishment of a committee to “review, negotiate and bring down” the PPA rates within 45 days.
Singh told the state that “the renewable energy sector has brought a lot of foreign investment. ***Almost all the major pension funds of the world are invested in India through renewable energy companies.”…
Andhra Pradesh, in India’s southeast, has 4.1GW of wind and 2.6GW of solar in place, according to latest government data, with about 2GW in or nearing construction.
…”The appropriate course would be that action for the reopening and cancelling a contract is only taken in those cases where a prima facie case of corruption is made out based on objective evidence,” reported The Economic Times…
https://www.rechargenews.com/transition/1823554/india-risks-renewables-growth-halt-if-state-bins-ppas-minister
3 Jul: REcharge News: Alarm as Indian state orders cuts to wind and solar deals
Key renewable state of Andhra Pradesh says renewable PPAs signed under previous government ‘exorbitant’ and must come down
Ashish Nainan, an analyst at CARE Ratings, told Recharge the Andhra Pradesh government’s actions could slow down capacity addition there and in the sector as a whole…
https://www.rechargenews.com/transition/1818772/alarm-as-indian-state-orders-cuts-to-wind-and-solar-deals
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classic, read all:
11 Jul: RealClearEnergy: New York City’s Rikers Solar Plan Makes No Sense
by Daniel Turner
(Daniel Turner is the executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs)
One would think a proposal which threatens the electric grid of the world’s most important city was conceived by a people who…frankly…doesn’t really like the city. Yet that is exactly what the City Council of New York is considering…
The Council is considering foolhardy plan to turn Riker’s Island into a solar farm. Proponents, like Alexandria “12-years left” Ocasio-Cortez, say covering 100 acres of Rikers with solar panels allows for the closing of all fossil fuel “peaker plants” (those facilities which come online during highest demand on the electric grid) built in the past 25 years. Because solar good. Fossil fuels bad. This idea isn’t just wrong; it’s dangerous…
I asked Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s investigative energy and environmental reporter to run the numbers. According to Bastasch, the New York City peaker plants can generate up to 9,600 megawatts of electricity when demand spikes.
A 100-acre Rikers Island solar farm will generate 90 megawatts, according to city documents. How’s the math so far? It doesn’t seem that 9,600 is the same as 90, regardless of how good you feel…
To be fair, the proposal also calls for 300 megawatts of energy storage capacity. But Bastasch pointed out that, during the heatwave of 2011, New York City demand topped 11,500 megawatts. Those 300 megawatts would barely even make a dent in peak demand…READ ALL
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2019/07/11/new_york_citys_rikers_solar_plan_makes_no_sense.html
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Give it ten years and property in New York will be worthless. The last person leaving will not even need to worry about turning out the lights!
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Places like Germany and Texas, which should know better, have given into wind carpetbaggery in a big way. 30,000 of the evil things in Deutschland, over 10,000 in the Lone Star State. Vested interests, guaranteed markets, subsidies and tax credits. Bad news all round.
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Now it’s 50% renewable energy as the target, is it? 40% was bad enough, but it looks like the downunder virtue signallers are determined to go for gold at the climate scam Olympics.
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15 Jul: Reuters: China June coal output hits record high as miners ramp up ahead of summer
China’s coal output rose in June from the previous month to a record high, official data showed on Monday, as miners ramped up production to ensure supply ahead of peak summer demand for electricity.
The world’s top coal producer churned out 333.35 million tonnes of coal in June, up 6.7% from May and up 10.4% year-on-year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
Output over the first half of 2019 reached 1.76 billion tonnes, up 2.6% from the same period last year…
China’s state planner and energy administration have asked miners, especially big producers in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, to step up production of high-quality coal to meet increasing demand…
Meanwhile, Beijing has been approving new coal mining capacity in recent months ***despite a push to promote clean energy and reduce its carbon footprint…
Meanwhile, China’s production of coke, used in steelmaking, rose 10.7% year-on-year in June to 41.69 million tonnes, with year-to-date output reaching 233.87 million tonnes, up 6.7%, the data showed.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-output-coal/china-june-coal-output-hits-record-high-as-miners-ramp-up-ahead-of-summer-idUKKCN1UA07G
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behind paywall:
15 Jul: Interfax: Bangladesh’s energy transition tilts towards coal
The country is aiming to triple its generation capacity by 2040, with apparently few concessions to its climate commitments
By Damon Evans
Bangladesh estimates it needs $40 billion of investment to boost its generation capacity from its current 16 GW to 60 GW by 2041, with coal playing a key role.
The country plans to expand its coal-fired power capacity by more than three times its current level by 2040, largely neglecting its vast potential for solar power – which could be complemented by gas as a back-up fuel…
A roll-out of coal-fired plants would enable the South Asian nation to take advantage of its coal deposits…
http://interfaxenergy.com/article/34392/bangladeshs-energy-transition-tilts-towards-coal
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15 Jul: PetroleumEconomist: Coal clinging on in South and East Asia
Global demand for coal to power continues to be king, but the upside may be limited
by Gregor Macdonald
For all the fanfare about coal’s demise, figures from the recently released BP Statistical Review show that 2018 demand sat merely 2.4pc below peak, and coal last year was a competitive grower in both global power generation and on the broader measure of global energy.
Details were revealing. World demand for electricity soared by 3.65pc in 2018, to an all-time record high of 938.2TWh. Despite combined wind and solar providing 273TWh of that growth, ‘king coal’ was still the winner, providing 294TWh…
Tellingly, China accounted for over 97pc of last year’s increase in coal demand for power…
“The fight is coming to an end game,” says Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies at environmental economics think tank Ieefa in Sydney…
https://www.petroleum-economist.com/articles/politics-economics/asia-pacific/2019/coal-clinging-on-in-south-and-east-asia
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15 Jul: S&P Global Platts: German renewables generation in Week 28 drops, coal meets deficit
by Karishma Bhimani
Renewables generation in Germany fell in week 28, with wind power down by more than half, data from Fraunhofer ISE showed.
Wind power output fell to its lowest in a month at a average of 6.9 GW in week 28, down 52.3% from the previous week. This marked a mere 13% of the total energy generation mix.
Similarly, solar power was also down by just over a fifth week on week at 7.3 GW, a contribution of 14% of the mix.
In order to counteract this deficit, coal-fired generation saw the greatest week-on-week change, up 60% at 4.3 GW. Additionally, lignite generation also rose over a third to 11.3 GW, taking the year-to-date average to 40.2 GW…
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/coal/071519-german-renewables-generation-in-week-28-drops-coal-meets-deficit
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NRDC, so full of CAGW rubbish:
15 Jul: NRDC: Japan G20 Lacked Ambition on Climate Change & Coal Phaseout
by Han Chen: This blog was co-written with Claire Wang
Leading up to the 2019 G20 summit in Osaka, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised “firm leadership” and “disruptive innovation” on climate change. But the G20 organized by Japan did not deliver on this urgent issue…
Japan’s plans for domestic coal expansion and international coal finance continue to draw international criticism, since OECD countries should be phasing out of coal by 2030. The G20 as a whole has also dramatically expanded coal finance, spending at least $63.9 billion on coal per year, despite committing a decade ago to phase out fossil fuel subsidies…
Japan’s energy policy has been the most concerning area of its climate behavior, as its Long Term Strategy does not provide any plan to phase out coal even in the long term, and relies heavily on expensive strategies such as carbon capture and sequestration instead of renewables, which would only perpetuate fossil fuel dependency. Since 2012, Japan proposed 50 new coal plants totaling 23,000 MW. Of these, 12 plants are now operational, 15 are currently under construction, and 10 are still in the pipeline…
Within the G20, Japan is the second-largest source of public coal financing after China, spending $15 billion from 2013 to 2018 on coal plants and mines. Japan also drew criticism for its watered-down draft G20 communique, which included only a passing reference to climate change buried among a litany of other global issues. The draft failed to mention decarbonization of the global economy, nor did it reference any temperature limits on global warming…
https://www.nrdc.org/experts/han-chen/japan-g20-lacked-ambition-climate-change-coal-phaseout
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Behind a firewall: The Australian, Judith Sloan, explains why so called renewables businesses are on the way out of business, and how the operators were desperate for a Labor Federal Election win and a new start with an increased RET and subsidies, without which their businesses are no longer viable.
Why they wanted the NEG revived and implemented.
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What’s behind the green door? Not Australian manufacturing but UN dictat manufacturing.
Whereas… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reMKOaPidjI
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behind paywall:
16 Jul: The West: WA projects set to make Australia world’s biggest LNG producer
by Stuart McKinnon
Australia is set to eclipse Qatar as the world’s biggest producer of LNG after production jumped 21 per cent last financial year to 75.1 million tonnes.
WA projects were the main drivers of the surge in output, which is estimated to have netted local producers $50.5 billion in revenue in 2018-19, maintaining LNG’s status as the nation’s third biggest export earner behind iron ore and coal.
The data, compiled by Adelaide-based energy advisory firm EnergyQuest…
15 Jul: LNG breaks record with $50.5b of exports
by Angela Macdonald-Smith
Liquefied natural gas has become a $50 billion-plus commodity export powerhouse for Australia after a 21.2 per cent upswing in shipments in 2018-19 and is finally set to usurp Qatar as the biggest exporter this year.
The latest figures from consultancy EnergyQuest showed Australia exported some 75.1 million tonnes of LNG in 1111 cargoes last financial year, generating an estimated $50.5 billion of revenues, behind only iron ore and coal. The bulk was shipped to Japan and China…
Queensland’s exports grew to 21.8 million tonnes in 2018-19, up from 20.5 million the previous year…
Still, no LNG from the Queensland plants was sold onto the spot market in Asia, with all shipments going to fulfil contracts. That signals the LNG exporters in Gladstone, led by Shell, Santos and Origin Energy, are adhering to an agreement with the federal government to offer any gas available beyond LNG sales commitments first to domestic customers…
But on the east coast the increasing exports have helped drive up prices for gas for domestic customers, where some are now paying about triple historical rates of $3-$4 a gigajoule…READ ON
https://www.afr.com/business/energy/gas/lng-breaks-record-with-50-5b-of-exports-20190715-p5278v
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Around this area
““New Solar + Battery Price Crushes Fossil Fuels, Buries Nuclear” Until You Do the Math”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/07/15/new-solar-battery-price-crushes-fossil-fuels-buries-nuclear-until-you-do-the-math/
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full of it. read all:
16 Jul: EcoGenerationAustralia: Renewables funding roundtable: Certainty is power
Australia’s transition from coal to clean energy won’t happen without investor support, but the risks are growing. EcoGeneration asked a panel of experts about the possible tremors ahead.
The panel:
•Andrew W. Smith, global head of energy, specialised and acquisition finance, National Australia Bank
•Kelly Davies, partner, Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
•Monique Miller, director, Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Q: As clean energy technology becomes cheaper, can investors be a little more complacent about federal energy policy uncertainty?
Andrew Smith, NAB: There are a few dimensions to this. Firstly, as new entrant costs fall, all else being equal, less/no subsidy is required and therefore the requirement for energy policy/subsidies to stimulate renewables is less important.
At a macro level, a bipartisan approach to energy policy is crucial as it allows investors to better predict future investment returns. The better able they are to predict the returns, the lower the cost of capital. The lower the cost of capital, the more supply. The more supply, ***the lower electricity prices will be…
https://www.ecogeneration.com.au/renewables-funding-roundtable-certainty-is-power/
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Only a dingbat would offer this sort of reasoning. The inevitable consequence for the next step in this logical sequence is that the return on investment falls. So any certainty is only temporary simply through the available market share. More players reduce other’s share.
The only group who can make money are those left who can provide reliable supply on demand. They are the ones who can charge whatever they like when the supply becomes constrained.
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Take note of how many Pension Funds are invested in the renewable energy scam. Follow the money!
IIGCC is a leading global investor membership body and the largest one focusing specifically on climate change. Our members, mainly asset owners and asset managers, include many of the biggest names in the sector, alongside more specialist investors and select financial service providers.
MEMBERS 170 +
COUNTRIES REPRESENTED 13 (EU)
€23 trillion IN ASSETS
https://www.iigcc.org/
OTHER COUNTRIES
https://globalinvestorcoalition.org/
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Everyone with super funds should avoid funds investing in wind and solar grid scale projects. The only worthwhile investment of this type is in solar on your own roof.
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blame Abbott!
AUDIO: 4min21sec: 16 Jul: ABC The World Today: Australia’s building industry crisis deepening
By Connie Agius
Builders say rising insurance premiums could force hundreds of companies out of business.
Poor quality structures built during the construction boom and the costs of replacing dangerous cladding are driving professional indemnity insurance premiums to unsustainable levels.
The Federal Government says a national taskforce is needed. It comes as the Victorian Government announces a $600 million scheme to strip flammable cladding from the state’s buildings…
Featured:
Daniel Andrews, Victorian Premier
Brett Mace, Australian Institute of Building Surveyors
Karen Andrews, Federal Industry Minister
Denita Wawn, chief executive of Master Builders Australia
TRANSCRIPT:
BRETT MACE: The insurers are withdrawing from the market simply because they believe it’s not worthwhile, and they’ve estimated what the likely costs of the cladding rectification is going to be and their estimates could be ***in the billions…
CONNIE AGIUS: And Brett Mace says his warnings that a crisis was brewing fell on deaf ears.
BRETT MACE: ***We wrote to prime minister Abbott, as it was at that time back in 2015, along with building ministers of each of the jurisdictions, alerting them that there was a problem related to PI insurance.
And then further to that, back in August last year this was recognised by the building ministers, that there was a problem and they promised a national response – and nothing ever came of that.
Since, we’re in the crisis that we are now…READ ON
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/australias-building-industry-crisis-deepening/11313280
got wondering if any ABC building might have the cladding:
PIC: 20 Jun 2018: SMH: ABC Sydney headquarters cladding ‘no longer complies’ with fire safety standards
By Jenny Noyes
Staff at Sydney’s ABC headquarters have learned a report commissioned in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster has found cladding on the building does not meet current safety standards.
An email sent to all employees on Wednesday afternoon said expert opinion on the safety of the cladding was sought for all ABC buildings nationwide, after recent reports on the potential fire risk posed by certain types of cladding in Australia…
The 12-storey Ultimo centre, constructed in 1989 and extended in 2002, was found to be the only ABC building with cladding that poses a potential fire safety risk.
Despite the risk, staff will continue to work in the building until the issue is resolved…
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/abc-sydney-headquarters-cladding-no-longer-complies-with-fire-safety-standards-20180620-p4zmou.html
quickly resolved for we (ABC), but not for thee:
ABC spends $33m removing Ultimo dangerous cladding
Daily Telegraph – Dec 14, 2018 – The ABC is spending 33 million on renovations of its Ultimo base including stripping it of potentially deadly cladding…
can’t post url:
PDF: 28 Mar 2000: THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA: PROPOSED ABC SYDNEY ACCOMMODATION PROJECT, ULTIMO, NSW
P26: MATERIALS AND FINISHES
104. External wall cladding will be a combination of high performance low reflectivity curtain walling and precast concrete panels similar to the existing precast and glass curtain wall…
P30: Energy conservation measures
139. The building will be designed to be energy efficient without reducing accommodation standards.
140. The building design will use both active and passive energy conservation measures to minimise environmental impact in accordance with the Commonwealth policies for energy conservation and economically sustainable development…
142. It is proposed that the following design concepts, functionality and equipment will be incorporated to provide energy efficient services –
* the air conditioning systems will be designed to incorporate economy cycles where architecturally feasible to provide savings when outside air temperatures are suitable and offer improved indoor air quality…
* use of natural gas for space heating will reduce ***carbon dioxide emissions…
COST AND TIMETABLE
155. The estimated out-turn cost for this proposal is $109.5 million, inclusive of all escalation costs, contingencies, and all professional fees and authorities charges…
157: After technical fitout, it is anticipated that the building would be fully operational by mid-2002.
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“Let’s buy some cheap ‘certified’ cladding from China. What could possibly go wrong?”
Dan’s $600 mill includes half paid by the feds, money Freidenberg says they can whistle Dixie for.
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14 July – City street finally reopens 10 days after panel falls from apartment building:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249387
“Ten days after a cladding panel fell from an apartment in Auckland’s CBD, the road below has finally reopened. The 40kg cement panel plunged 13 storeys to smash into the street below on June 4, after being ripped off the Victopia apartment building in stormy weather. The building, on the corner of Nelson St and Victoria St West, is undergoing $40m of remedial work.
“Engineers then found dozens more loose panels on the building, which was netted off as a precaution.
“Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has demanded answers about the building’s safety following the incident, with body corporate documents showing the tower had been shedding corner cladding as far back as 2012.”
Saving the planet, right? Thankfully no pedestrians were hurt, crushed, nor worse, in the making of this façade. Regrettably no Green MP cyclists nor EV drivers were neither. There’s always next time…
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Greg in NZ –
NZ$40m for your building; AU$33 for the ABC building.
thousands of Aussie buildings have the bad cladding.
we’re talking about serious money. Daniel Andrews’ $600m (which is really $300m with the hope the Federal Govt will provide the other half (ABC The World Today credited him with the lot), is merely virtue-signalling. besides, why should taxpayers be paying for this?
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It will be justified with similar logic that said “we” had to bail out banks that deliberately took us to the brink of economic collapse ten years ago: It’s for the greater good. We can’t afford to have the building industry collapse.
How many other industries are too big to fail?
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Hanrahan, ‘How many other industries are too big to fail?‘ My one-and-only suggestion would be the human industry which is being clobbered and squeezed from every conceivable angle by the Evil Death Cult today. Consider this:
“Reducing speed limits won’t make car journeys longer”. Ponder that Green pearl of wisdom for a moment…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/394542/road-to-zero-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-government-s-new-safety-strategy
https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/114269306/new-strategy-aims-to-reduce-number-of-road-deaths-by-40-per-cent
Carbon Zero; Road To Zero; Vision Zero – “Vision Zero does not mean ‘zero crashes‘” pontificated the unelected MP Julie-Anne Genter, she of the above quoted Green new physics or Action™Mathematics (ATM). True that: zero vision means you’re blind! Very lively debate this morning on the country’s 2 talk-back radio stations and so far the overwhelming majority of
deniersrealists are winning.20
I cant help thinking there is more to the whole cladding fiasco. Back in the 90s i was involved in a long winded office relocation project in Melbourne. Two buildings across St Kilda road where being renovated from offices to apartments. To make the exterior look more residential they were attaching large polystyrene blocks to the outside then rendering over the top. I remember thinking at the time “seriously?”
00
Check this out! In the UK just now there is NO WIND over 4 knots. They are surviving on thermal power burning WOOD FROM North Americas
https://www.windy.com/?2019-07-16-03,53.475,3.735,5
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Don A –
Terry McCrann on Sky’s Jones & Credlin tonite said only 1% of wind power in the UK is being generated at present.
see comment #77 re drop in German wind power.
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Wind and Daniel Andrews go together.
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hilarious. read all:
16 Jul: ClimateChangeNews: Non-Green MEPs largely ignore climate on Twitter
Parliamentarians from the EU’s power blocs might talk tough on global warming, but don’t engage with the most influential social media accounts, analysis shows
By Natalie Sauer
627 out of 751 MEPs may have Twitter accounts, but the vast majority are yet to join the conversation of the century…
European representatives also took little notice of what ten of the world’s top climate scientists had to say. Pennsylvania State University’s Michael Mann was the most followed. But out of his 150,000 followers, only 7 were MEPs, with 5 of these from the Greens, 1 from the S&D and 1 from the EPP…
https://climatechangenews.com/2019/07/16/non-green-meps-largely-ignore-climate-twitter/
15 Jul: ClimateChangeNews: Von der Leyen offers 55% CO2 cuts by 2030 in bid for EU top job
She also raised the threat of a carbon border tax on imports from jurisdictions with weaker climate protections, to address concerns about competitiveness of EU industry…READ ON
https://climatechangenews.com/2019/07/15/von-der-leyen-offers-55-co2-cuts-2030-bid-eu-top-job/
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massive PR from the Beeb, as usual:
16 Jul: BBC: Extinction Rebellion: Who are they and what are their aims?
What is Extinction Rebellion?
Extinction Rebellion (“XR” for short) describes itself as an international “non-violent civil disobedience activist movement”.
It wants governments to declare a “climate and ecological emergency” and take immediate action to address climate change.
Its origins can be traced to a group called Rising Up!, created in 2016 by a small group of activists…
However, the group doesn’t say what the solutions to tackle climate change should be.
Instead, it wants the government to create a “citizens’ assembly”, made up of randomly selected people representing a cross-section of society.
Its members would decide how to solve the climate crisis, with advice from experts…
It has also defended causing criminal damage, such as smashing windows. It says such tactics are sometimes necessary and that it is “super careful” not to put anyone at risk…
Young people are most likely to agree with its aims, a survey of 3,000 people conducted by YouGov in April suggests…
And the band Radiohead recently said proceeds from previously unreleased music tracks would go to Extinction Rebellion.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48607989
16 Jul: UK Sun editorial: (scroll down) Misery mob
WHY do the Extinction Rebellion mob imagine they can persuade the public by repeatedly inflicting misery on them?
Their “summer uprising” will merely enrage those they most need to convince.
Ground flights using drones and you wreck family holidays. Block roads and you ruin the working day.
When you talk of “climate genocide” and claim “the Government’s inaction is criminal” you are spouting clueless, puerile guff.
This Government already leads the civilised world in carbon reduction. And no major nation could ever eliminate all emissions within six years.
Legitimate protest is one thing. This is an orchestrated campaign to inflict hardship, based on ill-informed hysteria.
Our police and courts must not indulge these arrogant idiots.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9514272/boris-johnson-jeremy-hunt-decent-pm/
21
Anyone want to bet on how many extinction rebels we will see doing anything in the depths of winter?
00
two from Reuters:
16 Jul: Reuters: Climate activists disrupt London’s biggest concrete supplier
by Guy Faulconbridge
Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion on Tuesday disrupted London Concrete, the British capital’s biggest supplier of ready-mixed concrete which supplies a major road tunnel project under the River Thames.
Dozens of activists holding a banner saying “The air that we grieve” blocked entrances to the site in east London. The group said it would disrupt the site for the day in an attempt to halt the expansion of the works…
“Concrete has a huge environmental impact and building another tunnel will only make air pollution across East London worse,” said Eleanor McAree, 25, from Extinction Rebellion…
Extinction Rebellion wants non-violent civil disobedience to force governments to cut carbon emissions and avert a climate crisis it says will bring starvation and social collapse…
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-climate-change-britain/climate-activists-disrupt-london-biggest-concrete-supplier-idUKKCN1UB0GZ
16 Jul: Reuters: Climate activists disrupt five British cities with ‘summer uprising’
by Matthew Green
“Right now we’re in a phase of movement building,” Larch Maxey, one of the movement’s organisers, said outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, where several hundred protesters blocked the road…
“We’re going to be doing more disruption in October in major cities around the world,” Maxey told Reuters, standing near a sailboat emblazoned with the slogan ACT NOW, one of five brightly-painted vessels towed to protest sites in each city…
Modelled on civil disobedience campaigns such as the U.S. civil rights movement and Britain’s Suffragettes, Extinction Rebellion has pushed climate up the agenda in Britain…
Critics of the movement say policing its protests is a major drain on resources at a time when authorities are struggling to contain an outbreak of knife crime in the capital, while its blocking of roads has inflicted losses on businesses.
The group has inspired offshoots in more than a dozen countries…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-britain/climate-activists-disrupt-british-cities-with-summer-uprising-idUSKCN1UA0V6
have a feeling the XR Brisbane protest week failed to happen today.
11
16 Jul: Sky News UK: Michael Gove: ‘Time running out’ to tackle climate change
In what could be his last speech in the job, the environment secretary will issue a dire warning of the consequences of inaction.
By Jon Craig
A warning of infertile soil, oceans full of plastic, contaminated water and severe weather – unless climate change is tackled – is being issued by the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove.
In what could be his last speech in the job, with a new prime minister replacing Theresa May next week, Mr Gove is warning that time is running out to repair the damage done to the planet…
“And there is a moral need to act – because, as Margaret Thatcher reminded us, we do not have a freehold on this planet, it is not ours to dispose of as we wish, we are partners in the great chain of evolution with the rest of nature and endowed as we are with reason we therefore have the responsibility to steward and protect.”…
“Time is running out to make the difference we need; to repair the damage we as a species have done to the planet we have plundered.”…
“Internationally, we are showing leadership and our higher level of ambition at a series of international summits in 2020, a crucial year for deciding the future of our planet.”…READ ON
https://news.sky.com/story/michael-gove-time-running-out-to-tackle-climate-change-11763945
16 Jul: Bloomberg: U.K. Guarantees Jaguar Loans After Pledge to Make Electric Cars
By Alex Morales and Christopher Jasper
The guarantee to JLR by the U.K. Export Finance agency was granted to support the design, manufacture and export of electric cars, Prime Minister Theresa May said after a round-table meeting of auto-industry representatives in Downing Street on Monday.
JLR, a unit of India’s Tata Motors Ltd., will invest hundreds of millions of pounds transforming its Castle Bromwich site near Birmingham after previously committing to electrified options of all new models from 2020…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-15/u-k-gives-jaguar-land-rover-500-million-pound-loan-guarantee
***RSA is Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Guardian seems reluctant to spell it out.
Wikipedia: RSA: Notable past fellows include Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Hawking, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Nelson Mandela, David Attenborough, William Hogarth, John Diefenbaker, and Tim Berners-Lee. Today, the RSA has Fellows elected from 80 countries worldwide.
16 Jul: Guardian: True cost of cheap food is health and climate crises, says commission
Radical change needed to make UK food and farming system sustainable within 10 years
by Damian Carrington
The commission’s report (LINK), which was welcomed by the environment secretary, Michael Gove, concluded that farmers must be enabled to shift from intensive farming to more organic and wildlife friendly production, raising livestock on grass and growing more nuts and pulses. It also said a National Nature Service should be created to give opportunities for young people to work in the countryside and, for example, tackle the climate crisis by planting trees or restoring peatlands…
“Time is now running out. The actions that we take in the next 10 years are critical: to recover and regenerate nature and to restore health and wellbeing to both people and planet,” said the commission, which was convened by the ***RSA, a group focused on pressing social challenges…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/16/true-cost-of-cheap-food-is-health-and-climate-crises-says-commission
01
16 Jul: CarbonPulse: New Zealand agriculture sector to face carbon price from 2025
New Zealand’s government has reached an agreement with farmers to price the sector’s carbon emissions starting in 2025…
clearly CAGW policies are designed to utterly destroy the entire world economy:
15 Jul: InsideClimateNews: Could Climate Change Spark a Financial Crisis? Candidates Warn Fed It’s a Risk
Some of the Democrats running for president are urging the U.S. central bank to actively confront climate risks to protect the nation’s financial system.
By JOHN LIPPERT
The candidates are urging the Federal Reserve—the United States’ central bank—to work with financial institutions around the world to confront climate risks that could trigger cascading collapses.
They also want regulators to ensure that America’s financial system is resilient to the impacts of climate change.
It’s not just that fossil fuel projects, like other infrastructure investments, are at risk from severe weather events, a risk that lenders and insurance companies must shoulder. It’s also that when the world finally weans itself away from the fossil fuels whose use is driving global warming, the business models of some of the most heavily capitalized world industries could crumble along with demand for their products…
When Powell testified before the Senate last Thursday, he told Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, one of the letter’s authors, that he disagrees with a recent Bank of England recommendation that climate risks be incorporated into the day-to-day supervision of banks. “I see climate change as a longer-run issue. I don’t know that integrating it into the day-to-day financial supervision of financial institutions would add much value,” Powell said. “We have lots of things to supervise them for.”…
But in a recent letter, the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank cited climate change along with an aging population and new technologies as one of the three main forces reshaping the economy, and explored how it should affect Fed governance.
It warned that climate risk “could threaten the stability of the financial system as a whole,” and even spark “in the extreme, a financial crisis.”…
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15072019/climate-change-financial-crisis-fed-powell-presidential-candidates-stranded-assets
01
nothing more than this, but picked up by NYT and others:
16 Jul: Reuters: Brazil vice president says country is staying in Paris climate accord
by Rodrigo Viga Gaier
Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourao said on Monday he considers it “impossible” for Brazil to leave the Paris Agreement on climate change.
French President Emmanuel Macron had said prior to the agreement of the European Union Mercosur trade deal in June that France would not sign onto that pact if Brazil leaves the Paris Agreement.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-climate-paris-agreement/brazil-vice-president-says-country-is-staying-in-paris-climate-accord-idUSKCN1UA1U7
27 Jun: Reuters: Macron warns he won’t sign Mercosur deal if Brazil leaves climate accord
by Michel Rose
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he would not sign any trade deal with Brazil if President Jair Bolsonaro pulled out of the Paris climate accord, threatening to put a spanner in the works of EU-Mercosur trade negotiations…
“If Brasil left the Paris accord, as far our we are concerned, we could not sign a trade deal with them,” Macron told reporters in Japan ahead of a G20 meeting…READ ON
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-brazil/macron-warns-he-wont-sign-mercosur-deal-if-brazil-leaves-climate-accord-idUSKCN1TS1KB
01
16 Jul: ABC: South Australian buildings identified in statewide flammable cladding audit kept secret
Exclusive by Rebecca Puddy
A list of South Australian buildings that could contain highly-flammable cladding will remain secret after the State Government refused to release information through Freedom of Information (FOI) laws.
The ABC applied for access to the information from the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI) in October, amid significant international concern over the use of the material in high–rise buildings.
However, DPTI has refused to provide the list of buildings identified through a statewide audit, citing among its concerns the impact on the department’s “business affairs”…
The refusal to release the information comes despite Infrastructure Minister Stephan Knoll’s release of a list of four high-profile buildings in the CBD containing aluminium composite panels, with another release in May 2018 of a list of some public buildings identified during the audit.
The high-profile buildings included the newly-built Royal Adelaide Hospital, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide Convention Centre and Adelaide Oval.
The Government said all four buildings were assessed as having a “low or moderate risk” in the case of a fire…READ ON
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-16/cladding-audit-documents-kept-secret-after-foi-request/11312910
Fire and Rescue identify 171 potentially combustible buildings in Parramatta
Daily Telegraph – 9 hours ago
629 buildings have been identified by the NSW Cladding Taskforce as…
NSW Cladding Taskforce identify 17 ‘unsafe’ cladding buildings in Ryde
Daily Telegraph-8 hours ago
It comes amid fresh revelations that neighbouring Parramatta … The taskforce says FRNSW has identified 629 buildings across the state as being high-risk. … “Fire-safety risks depend on the amount of combustible cladding …
16 Jul: Daily Mail: Australia’s building crisis deepens: How THOUSANDS of ‘death trap’ unit blocks could contain the same combustible cladding that caused London’s Grenfell Tower tragedy
by Alana Mazzoni
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7252099/Hundreds-death-trap-apartment-buildings-contain-potentially-dangerous-combustible-cladding.html
16 Jul: Mirage News: City of Parramatta statement regarding cladding
City of Parramatta Council would like to correct a recent media report relating to the number of buildings identified as having combustible cladding in its Local Government Area (LGA).
In the City of Parramatta LGA, 171 buildings have been identified as having some of form cladding, however, it is still being determined what the nature of those materials are and if they pose any safety risk.
At this stage, six buildings have been found to contain combustible cladding and Council has issued orders to ensure the problems are rectified and the buildings meet the relevant safety requirements.
Council is still in the process of investigating and liaising with building stratas, and is prioritising residential buildings as part of this process…
https://www.miragenews.com/city-of-parramatta-statement-regarding-cladding/
01
Guardian – what’s the bet most of those paying for this rubbish believe in CAGW?
16 Jul: Guardian: $90 for a bottle of melted glacier? Inside the world of luxury water
People pay top dollar for ‘premium’ brands indistinguishable in blind taste tests from tap water – is it about status, wellness or something more fundamental?
by Adrienne Matei
Last year, judges at the 28th International Berkeley Springs Water Tasting competition deemed the best bottled water in the world to be an Australian brand “infused with the sound frequencies of love, the moon, and light spectrums of the rainbow”.
Called Frequency H2O and sold for A$3.30 a liter (US$2.30), the water is, according to its creator Sturt Hinton, an “ultimate elixir of life”. Also recognized by the judges was Svalbarði, a company that sells $90 bottles of water freshly squeezed from – wait for it – melting Norwegian glaciers…READ ON
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/16/luxury-bottled-water-is-absurd-so-why-is-it-so-popular
01
Is there a place to see the full details of this proposal? Reportedly costing $1.6 billion, with possible nameplate capacity of 600-1000 MW. But does that include the cost of the proposed new interconnector to Victoria?
Let’s assume 40% capacity factor, so delivering 200 MW on average, range 0-400 MW.
Total Tas demand averages 1200 MW, peak about 1400 MW.
Tas regularly sends up to 500 MW to Vic.
Does this make sense? Build Australia’s largest wind farm in the most remote area imaginable.
What are the economics, and how dependent are they on future mandated use of “ruinables”?
11
The link to the company’s website is: https://robbinsislandwindfarm.com/media/.
And another link: https://www.upcrenewables.com/pf/robbins-island/
More details of the actual Robbins Island wind farm are here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-15/wind-farm-on-robbins-island-off-tasmania-dependent-on-cable/9263116
Actual details of what’s planned are confusing. A 2017 ABC article (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-15/wind-farm-on-robbins-island-off-tasmania-dependent-on-cable/9263116) says initial build of 300 turbines on Robbins Island, nameplate 450 MW. If an interconnector is available, their plan is to increase the wind farm to nameplate 1000 MW. An earlier report (https://epa.tas.gov.au/assessment/assessments/upc-robbins-island-pty-ltd-robbins-island-renewable-energy-park-northwest-tasmania) said 200 turbines for 1000 MW.
It appears that the Tasmanian Government will contribute $76 million to the new interconnector – they have already contributed $20m for an initial study.
This link shows the planned route of the 170 km power line with the 60 m easement: https://robbinsislandwindfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/UPC-Project-Update-April-2019.pdf
The route of the line has now been changed to avoid the Leven Canyon Reserve.
10
The levels of power being quoted make the “battery of the nation” marketing just sound like pure BS, which it is of course.
10
Never forget where Bob Brown got his start – campaigning against renewables – Hydro in that case. Looks like he’s reverted to his roots in senility.
West coast of Tasmania is probably just about the only place in Australia where wind makes sense — plenty of wind, energy storage with hydro and no people.
20
VIDEO: 2min39sec: 16 Jul: CBS2 Los Angeles: LA Now The ‘City Of Rats’? Report Warns Of ‘Alarming Increase’ In Rodent Population
by Ben Lurkin
Pest control and public health experts are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a public health emergency over what they say is a sharp rise in the state’s rodent population.
“California is being overrun by rodents – and without immediate emergency action by state and local government, we face significant economic costs and risk a public health crisis,” said Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, at a news conference Tuesday at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles…
The study surveyed nearly two dozen private pest control companies that operate throughout California and found all of them reported that Rat Service Requests were up as much as 60% in the last 12 months. Not a single company reported that service requests were down or in line with the previous year, according to the report.
Pest control professionals and sanitation workers told the survey team they observed an “alarming increase” in Norway rats moving around during the day, behavior that experts described as “highly abnormal”.
***But despite some studies linking rodent activity to climate change (LINK), the report says environmental factors are not to blame for the state’s rat increase. Instead, the issue is “directly related” a spike in the homeless population and the elimination of effective rodent control methods under legislation such as AB 1788, which would ban the use of ban the “second generation” category of anticoagulant rodenticides in California.
The backers of that bill claim the rodenticides are harming the environment and are killing innocent wildlife…
Rodent infestations, the study adds, are also fueling an increase in reported cases of dangerous diseases such as typhus, including an outbreak at City Hall earlier this year.
“Thank you for coming out today to the City of Angels, but unfortunately it has become the ‘City of Rats’”, said Konstantinos Roditis, former candidate for California State Controller, and Vice Chairman of Reform California…
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/07/16/la-rats-rodents-california-health-emergency/
just had to include Mr. RODITIS’s remarks.
30
update on comment #87:
16 Jul: Reuters: Germany’s Von der Leyen secures powerful EU executive top job
by Foo Yun Chee; Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel, Philip Blenkinsop and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels and Alexandra Regida and Peter Maushagen in Strasbourg
Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen secured European parliamentary approval on Tuesday to become the first female European Commission president on a platform of a greener, fairer and rule-based Europe…
The German conservative got the thumbs up from socialist and liberal lawmakers which, together with the endorsement by her fellow conservatives, gives her a stronger mandate to tackle issues such as climate change, trade and maintaining democracy in the European Union…
With 52% support, von der Leyen’s victory margin was in line with recent trends. Current Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker received 56% while his predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso had 52% for his second mandate and 56% for his first term…
Greens lawmakers, who voted against von der Leyen, questioned her ability to carry out her promises. Some of the plans would need backing from EU countries that typically are wary of ceding more powers to the EU executive.
“Good intent alone is not enough. We were elected on an agenda for change and we did not hear enough on our key demands, namely on concrete proposals to avert climate breakdown,” Greens party leader Ska Keller said.
The European United Left-Nordic Green Left was scathing.
“We will resist von der Leyen’s status quo policies that have entrenched inequality and fueled the far right,” its president Martin Schirdewan said.
The liberal group Renew Europe and the Socialists and Democrats Group had earlier announced support for the 60-year-old Von der Leyen regardless of the EU lawmakers’ decision…
Earlier on Tuesday, she set out her climate goals, going further than current targets, in a bid to convince both socialists and liberals. She had already pledged the ambitious targets in letters to the two groups the previous day…
***Her plans include making Europe the first climate-neutral continent in the world by 2050, launch a Green Deal for Europe in her first 100 days in office, turn parts of the European Investment Bank into a Climate Bank and introduce a Carbon Border Tax…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-jobs-vonderleyen/von-der-leyen-wins-liberal-support-for-eu-executive-top-job-idUSKCN1UA2JO
01
nothing to be found on ABC about this report, which is of great public interest:
Farmers too scared to clear firebreaks on their land
The Australian – 15 Jul 2019
An expert review of last year’s “catastrophic” Queensland bushfires has warned the Palaszczuk government to clarify its tree-clearing legislation
15 Jul: BrisbaneTimes: Farmers ‘worried’ about breaking Labor law during catastrophic fires
By Lydia Lynch
Releasing the report into central Queensland’s catastrophic bushfires and north Queensland’s flood disaster, Acting Inspector-General of Emergency Management Mike Shapland said the government needed to provide more clarity about what farmers were allowed to do to mitigate fire risk on their properties.
“Landowners that we spoke to were very aware of their responsibility under that [vegetation management] legislation and were worried about breaching that aspect, there was some caution in terms of their approach to back-burning on that basis,” he said…
The 2018 bushfires razed about 1.4 million hectares of Queensland, as 35 communities across the state were aflame…
The bushfires came months after the state government tightened restrictions around farmers’ rights to clear vegetation from their properties…
During the 2018 blaze, Mackay councillor and farmer Martin Bella told North Queensland Register that controlling the fires was made more challenging by the lack of maintenance on government land.
“It was extremely frustrating because the ability to push breaks through government land has been hampered. With the old tracks overgrown, we couldn’t get a ‘dozer up there,” he said.
“It’s disgraceful, there’s no fire breaks of any significance, vegetation laws prevent us from putting in fire breaks of any significance.
“I always say the worst neighbour you can have is government land.
“There’s crap right up to the fence line that you can’t clear back, there’s no grid lines through the place, all the tracks are overgrown,” Cr Bella told the Register…
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/farmers-worried-about-breaking-labor-law-during-catastrophic-fires-20190715-p527ec.html
20
however, ABC has time and space to post XR video and 2 previous protest pics for this mob:
PICS: 17 Jul: ABC: Extinction Rebellion protesters arrested in Brisbane after blocking CBD traffic for second week in a row
XR VIDEO 2mins (with police intervention)
Queensland police said nine protesters were arrested on Wednesday in addition to seven protesters who were arrested on Monday.
Vision of Wednesday’s protest was posted online showing two activists laying on Countess Street in the CBD blocking traffic…
Extinction Rebellion said it will continue its rallies until the end of the week.
It is not known if further traffic protests will take place after that.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/climate-protesters-to-hold-up-brisbane-traffic-all-week/11307566
10
like the above ABC piece, these two were posted in the last hour:
17 Jul: ABC: Kangaroo Island ecotourism project given the green light as the State Government seeks to ‘open up’ national parks
ABC Radio Adelaide
A controversial ecotourism accommodation project on Kangaroo Island has been given the green light — and it could lead the way for similar projects that will open up South Australian national parks currently “under lock and key”…
Environmental groups say it could damage native wildlife
Environmental campaigners have raised concerns the project would still damage vulnerable native wildlife.
Friends of Parks SA spokeswoman Bev Maxwell said she was disappointed with the location of the project.
“It has allowed the door to open for the untouched areas of the park to be invaded,” she said…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/kangaroo-island-eco-lodge-accommodation-gets-the-green-light/11316298
headline on ABC “Just In” page:
Origin Energy accused of pressuring NSW Government to shut down popular sports camp
By Nancy Notzon and Ben Millington
ABC willing to back the children staying in this spot, even when they could be pursuing their usual anti-coal agenda?
17 Jul: ABC: Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation Centre received a call to close — and these documents dispute the reason why
By Nancy Notzon and Ben Millington
It was Friday, March 29, and Mr O’Toole and 200 others were deep into the second day of an international waterskiing competition at the centre.
He was told they had to evacuate. The competition was over…
“I remember the kids’ mouths dropped, their jaws had dropped. They just went, ‘you’re kidding me’.”…
In the phone call, Mr O’Toole was told there was a risk a nearby coal ash dam could collapse on the facility in the event of an earthquake…
Twenty-four days before Mr O’Toole got the call to evacuate, an email obtained by the ABC showed Origin Energy advised the NSW Office of Sport that the wall of a coal ash dam attached to its nearby Eraring coal-fired power station could fail in the event of a magnitude 5.7 earthquake — an earthquake deemed as a once-in-a-5000-year event…
In a letter to then chief executive of the NSW Office of Sport Matt Millner, who stepped down in May, Origin stated the material beneath the dam was susceptible to liquefaction — a process where soil might break down into liquid form in the event of a stress like an earthquake…
***But internal documents obtained by the ABC under Freedom of Information revealed the NSW Office of Sport, which operated the Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation Centre, went against the advice of its own government experts when it suddenly closed the popular Lake Macquarie facility.
In an email sent the day before the centre’s closure, the head of the NSW Dams Safety Committee, Chris Salkovic, warned the NSW Department of Industry against evacuation…
Independent MP for Lake Macquarie Greg Piper said he believed the centre’s closure could have benefited Origin Energy…
Origin Energy’s initial report, completed by engineering firm Stantec, has not been publicly released, and is being reviewed by the Dams Safety Committee, which is expected to deliver its findings in the coming days…
The Myuna Bay Waterski Club is still pursuing compensation from the NSW Office of Sport for expenses incurred by the Australian and NZ teams and the club for the cancellation of the competition.
Origin Energy has offered to pay for the relocation of the centre, which it estimated would take two to three years.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/myuna-bay-sport-closure-after-coal-ash-dam-earthquake-risk/11314374
01
AUDIO: 2min 50sec: 17 Jul: ABC AM: Queensland govt to prosecute Adani over ‘false and misleading’ information
By Rachel Mealey
The Queensland Government is prosecuting the mining company Adani for allegedly providing “false and misleading” information to the Environment Department over the site of the Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland.
The prosecution falls under the Environment Protection Act…. and carries a fine of almost 600 thousand dollars or two years jail.
Adani says the company reported its mistake to the Queensland Environment Department last year and that no environmental harm happened because of the error.
Featured:
Derec Davies, Spokesperson, Coast and Country
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/am/qld-govt-to-prosecute-adani-over-false-and-misleading-info/11316274
AUDIO: 3min 16sec: 17 Jul: ABC AM: Climate change driving spike in dengue cases in South East Asia
By David Lipson
In another sign of the immediate impact of our changing climate, the World Health Organisation is warning countries throughout South East Asia to brace for a significant epidemic of dengue fever for the remainder of this year.
The Philippines has just declared a national alert after a major spike in reported cases, and there are also outbreaks in Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia.
2019 is now on track to record the highest number of dengue cases ever.
Featured:
Dr Gundo Veilerm, World Health Organisations Representative to the Philippines
Dr Scott Richie, World Mosquito Program in Cairns
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/am/climate-change-driving-spike-in-dengue-cases-in-south-east-asia/11316160
10
as with all their other coverage, ABC lauds Daniel Andrews for his $600 million offer, without mentioning it is really $300 million. even if it were $600 million, how is that supposed to fix 500 private buildings?
17 Jul: ABC: ‘Extreme-risk’ apartment owner welcomes Victorian Government $600m combustible cladding fix
By James Oaten
Marcus Veerman’s Brunswick apartment looks like it has been built with concrete, but rather than something hard and solid, many of the external walls are actually made from polystyrene.
His apartment, which the ABC has chosen to not identify due to arson concerns, is one of 72 properties classified as “extreme risk of fire”.
“We know once it’s lit, it burns like petrol,” Mr Veerman said.
“You’re constantly concerned about if people are smoking on their balconies.
“Or if they’re burning their sausages on the barbeque.
“The great Australian barbeque is under threat because we can’t just relax in our own homes because we’re concerned that one wrong move and you might burn down all your friends.”
***On Tuesday, the Victorian Government announced a $600 million plan to fix 500 private buildings considered at the “highest” risk of fire…
The ambitious five-year program will be overseen by a newly established agency called Cladding Safety Victoria (LINK).
Fifteen buildings have already been identified for urgent repairs, while residents in other buildings will be notified in coming weeks if their homes have made the cut…
But many are concerned such an approach, if applied to all 500 buildings, could easily force the cost of the entire project into the billions, especially as other issues of non-compliance are exposed when the cladding is removed…
Engineers Australia’s Society of Fire Safety national chair Jonathan Barnett: “To make it work within the budget, we’re going to need some creative solutions that are innovative, that are safe, that are cost-effective.
***Mr Barnett has been researching alternative methods that could provide cheaper methods to reduce the fire risk, including fire breaks and installing non-combustible materials on balconies to isolate the potential outbreak of fire…
RMIT University lecturer Simon Lockrey said the Government’s $600 million figure could be maintained if everything went right…
“We’re pretty used to stories of cost blowouts on government projects. This could risk a blowout if they don’t manage it properly and we could likely be talking about a few billion [dollars].”…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/apartment-owner-welcomes-victorian-combustible-cladding-fix/11315278
funny how Grenfell gets mentioned by all our MSM, but no-one seems to recall Dubai:
Jul 2016: IFSEC Global: Dubai High-Rise Fires: Sky-High Cladding Costs Might Prompt Focus on Active Fire Protection Instead
Fire safety experts have attributed the rapid spread of these fires to the use of combustible plastic-filled aluminium composite panels – sometimes without fire breaks – in at least 30,000 buildings across the Emirates. The Sulafa Tower was built in 2010, three years before the material was outlawed in Dubai.
IFSEC Global reported on the issue back in 2013, with Claire Mahoney, editor at Security Middle East Magazine, noting that “cost-conscious developers have left a legacy of fire risk in many of the United Arab Emirates’ iconic high-rise towers (LINK).”…
James Lane of BB7, a UK-based risk and resilience consulting firm, suggests the financial implications of rectifying the fire protection shortcomings in the city-state’s towering skyline might necessitate some out-of-the-box thinking. “What is the cost of repairs? I can have a reasonable guess at how the insurance industry will react,” he said.
“Maybe now is the time for the owners of buildings with these external cladding systems to consider what alternative measures can be adopted to improve fire safety for their residents, such as suitable power supply to lifts for use in evacuation or sprinkler or watermist protection…
However, a building code introduced in in the city-state in 2012 to halt use of flammable aluminium composite panels has still not being fully implemented because of the high cost of system tests…
James Lane also wrote an articleon Dubai’s high rise problem in January…
“Suggestions for a solution include spraying the external surface with fire resisting coatings, retro-fitting façade sprinklers or “simply” recladding all the affected buildings. Either of which would attract massive costs.”
The retro-fitting skyscrapers with exterior sprinklers or spraying them with fire-retardant materials is likely to be delayed until legal wrangles over whether developers or building owners bear the prohibitively expensive costs are resolved…
https://www.ifsecglobal.com/global/the-grim-inevitability-of-yet-another-dubai-skyscraper-fire/
Jan 2016: Reuters: Dubai blaze raises questions over Gulf skyscraper design
by Andrew Torchia
In an article published soon after last year’s Torch fire, Barry Greenberg and Michael Kortbawi at UAE law firm Bin Shabib & Associates said the cost of replacing cladding on skyscrapers with safer materials would be “prohibitive”.
But they added that the cost of not acting could prove even larger. “Total loss of a supertall building – requiring demolition and replacement – is a distinct possibility in the event of a fire,” they wrote…
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Andrews has offered $300 million from Victoria’s taxpayers, ABC. get it righ.
at least u mentioned the Fed Govt response:
AUDIO: 8min46sec: 17 Jul: ABC Breakfast: Fran Kelly: Prevalence of building defects a ‘systematic failure’: ABMA director Lynda Kypriadakis
Victoria has announced taxpayers will fork out $600 million to fix hundreds of buildings covered in flammable cladding, but the Federal Government has rejected Premier Daniel Andrews’ request to pay half of the bill…
Guest: Lynda Kypriadakis, director, Australian Building Management Accreditation
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/prevalence-of-building-defects-a-systematic-failure:-abma/11316328
AUDIO: 8min37sec: 17 Jul: ABC Breakfast: Fran Kelly: IFRC announces new guidelines to help cities worldwide to deal with severe heat
The recent heatwave in Europe and unusually warm conditions across the Arctic and Eurasia has seen the month of June record the Earth’s highest ever temperature.
New data released this week by the American Space Agency NASA shows the planet’s global temperature in June was 1.7 degrees above the norm.
Heatwaves are also Australia’s deadliest natural hazard, but many vulnerable people do not have plans to cope with extreme heat.
Now, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has announced new guidelines to help cities deal with severe heat.
Guest:
***Julie Arrighi, climate expert, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/ifrc-guidelines-to-help-cities-worldwide-deal-with-severe-heat/11316126
***LinkedIn: Julie Arrighi
Education
Columbia University in the City of New York
M.A., Climate and Society
2008 – 2009
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AUDIO: 9min 45sec: 17 Jul: ABC The World Today: How climate change is affecting what we grow and eat
By Jess Davis
Farmers and scientists are finding new ways to keep food on the table as rainfall patterns change and heatwaves increase.
Climate change is affecting what we grow and eat as those on the frontline adjust to producing food differently.
Featured:
Annmarie Brookman, farmer, Gawler South Australia
Professor Richard Eckard, Director of the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre University of Melbourne
Mark Adams, Grain farmer, Mt Barker Western Australia
Angelo Lamattina, Carrot farmer, Wemen
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/how-climate-change-is-affecting-what-we-grow-and-eat/11316922
still nothing from ABC on Bob Brown/wind story, but RenewEconomy manages a mention:
16 Jul: RenewEconomy: Abbott era advisor re-emerges to oppose Crookwell wind farm
by Michael Mazengarb
Abbott era business advisor Maurice Newman has reignited his ferocious opposition to wind farms and has penned a personal submission to an independent planning review of stage 3 of the Crookwell wind farm that revives old myths about the impacts of wind turbines…
Many opponents to the proposed wind farm are familiar voices in anti-wind farm sentiment, including Newman, who made a personal submission to the independent enquiry calling for the rejection of Crookwell 3, labelling the project “socially divisive”…
Newman’s claims almost channel those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who claimed that wind turbines shake worms out of the ground…
***Ironically, Newman may also find an unlikely ally in former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, who has expressed opposition to the Robbins Island wind farm in Tasmania’s north-west. Brown shared his own concerns about the visual impacts of the Robbins Island wind farm, labelling it a “hairbrush of tall towers” and suggesting it would kill birds…
However, when RenewEconomy spoke to landholders in the (Crookwell) region, some pointed to the fact that the ability to host wind turbines on an agricultural property can help alleviate pressures on the land.
With the turbines providing hosts with an additional source of revenue, landholders have less pressure to work the land quite so hard, leading to reduce degradation of grasslands and soil.
Fourth generation Crookwell farmer, and member of the board of directors for Farmers for Climate Action, Charlie Prell, also told a public hearing with the Independent Planning Commission that climate change was also a looming threat to agricultural production, and that its impacts would eclipse those of any wind farm unless action was taken.
“I also hear the sound of the sheep and the cattle on my farm. I hear the birds in my – in the garden around my house that were all supposed to be killed by the turbines that are now there, and I also hear something else.
“There’s a much quieter sound out there that not many people are hearing but more and more are waking up to, potentially, the most damaging amongst all of this cacophony, and that’s the silent creep of climate change.” Prell told the hearing…
https://reneweconomy.com.au/abbott-era-advisor-re-emerges-to-oppose-crookwell-wind-farm-48652/
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followup to reply #85.1 –
14 Jul: BBC: Scottish wind power output at record high
FROM 206 COMMENTS (latest first):
199. Posted by GeorgeH
on 16 Jul 2019 09:27 (AROUND 6.30PM YESTERDAY IN AUSTRALIA)
The ‘record output’ from the entire wind industry has just dropped again to 1.34% !
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-48981626
how does one check this figure, or McCrann’s claim on Sky last nite? I can find nothing online.
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I personally would like to know how the towers and tonnes of steel and concrete are going to be transported to Robbins Island. There is no bridge to the mainland. Smaller 4wds can cross on the sand when the tide is out. Like to see them try it with a cement truck.
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No bridge at the moment; seems a small undertaking given the scale of the project and the need for ongoing maintenance access to 200 turbines.
00
The best solution to this conflict is to use different types of Wind Turbines that would not kill birds. There are at least 4 types of smaller wind turbines on the internet that will not kill any birds. That they are smaller would mean that they would be easier to transport to Robbins island. One of the birds I research, the White-throated Needletail is the main species being killed at a wind farm near Robbins island, inspite of it being one of the fastest birds in the world. Because it flies all day it is going to pass many wind farms and risk being killed. Two weeks ago the Australian Government accepted my application and declared this species as Vulnerable.
Also near Robbins island, Short-tailed Shearwaters or Muttonbirds are also being killed by wind farms of the same type that are used across Australia. Which politician has shares in this company. Lets solve the problem by using the types that will generate cheap electricity and do not kill birds.
Prof Mike Tarburton.
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Prof Tarburton, thanks for your comment. I will be posting again on Robbins Island very soon, and will include this information. The truth is that Robbins Island is the wrong place to build wind turbines for lots of reasons. The wind is so variable there it will destroy baseload cheap providers as well as birds.
The deeper question though, is there anywhere that’s useful to build wind farms?
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