Jennifer Marohasy

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Report on Tumut flooding raises more questions than it answers

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LAST December Snowy Hydro dumped water into the already flooded Murray-Darling, but said it had little choice.   A report just released by the NSW Office of Water clears Snowy Hydro but only in so much as it states that Snowy Hydro operated in accordance with its licence conditions.

At issue has always been whether these licence conditions were fair both to Snowy Hydro and those living and working in the Tumut and along the Murrumbidgee.    In particular did Snowy Hydro’s licence conditions, as enforced by the NSW Office of Water, oblige Snowy Hydro to make releases that contributed to the flooding?

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Carbon Dioxide Follows Temperature: Murray Salby

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ACCORDING to Murray Salby, Chair of Climate at Macquarie University, recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide are from predominately natural sources and changes in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide follow changes in temperature. This was the thrust of the Professor’s message to an audience at the Sydney Institute last week.

You can listen to Professor Salby’s lecture here: http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au/podcast/global-emission-of-carbon-dioxide-the-contribution-from-natural-sources/

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Inefficient Spending, Flawed Government Logic and False Assumptions

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THE lead story on Channel 7’s news tonight was a Commonwealth government program where there has been “inefficient spending, flawed government logic and false assumptions”. [1]

I thought the mainstream media had finally caught on to the absurdity of the Commonwealth’s water reform agenda where the Gillard government plans to spend $10 billion returning end-of-system flows without actually addressing the issue of the 7.6 kilometres of barrages that prevent end-of-system flows. [2]

But, alas, Seven’s political editor Mark Riley was reporting on the findings of a report on indigenous education, health and housing where $3.5 billion has yielded “dismally poor returns”, with progress “mixed at best”.

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Natural Gas, More Polluting than Coal? Only According to the IPCC. A Note from Cementafriend

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Absorption of electro-magnetic radiation in a range of wavelenths of various gases.METHANE is the major component of natural gas (>94 percent) and coal seam gas, which are claimed to be good clean fuels on the basis they have a lower carbon content than coal or oil.

Is this the same methane from the backsides of farting cows that is considered to be a bad greenhouse gas and 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide? And the same methane that when escaping as a fugitive (lost through leakage) gas from coal mining is considered bad?

This is contradictory.

In the following note I consider how potent methane actually is as a greenhouse gas and then compare energy equivalents per heat absorbed all in carbon dioxide equivalents.

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Details of Carbon Tax Package

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“A NEW carbon cop will be given sweeping powers to enter company premises, compel individuals to give self-incriminating evidence and copy sensitive records under a carbon tax package that will force about 60,000 businesses to pay 6c a litre extra for fuel.

“The tough new powers of the Clean Energy Regulator were included in the fine detail of the carbon tax package released yesterday, which enshrines national emissions cuts of 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year after 2016, if the government of the day rejects targets proposed by its Climate Change Authority.

“The package, which shows that the government will cement in law the body of its carbon tax structure in a bid to force Tony Abbott to win the approval of both houses of parliament to complete his promise to scrap it, also tasks the Productivity Commission with inquiries into assistance to trade-exposed industries, international climate change action and the future of fuel taxes…

from The Australian
read more here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/carbon-cop-handed-tough-new-powers/story-fn59niix-1226103778785

Much Revealed in Government’s New Carbon Tax TV Advertisements: Thomas Barlow

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ADVERTISING campaigns are not often celebrated for their honesty. But the Gillard government’s media campaign to “illustrate a vision for Australia’s clean energy future” has a refreshing candour. The advertisements parade various beneficiaries of the government’s energy policies. With surprising authenticity, most of these ventures are small, parochial and inconsequential… writes Thomas Barlow in The Weekend Australian.

ONE of the more remarkable examples of the government’s vision for our future, however, is the wind energy company, Infigen. Infigen is an Australian Securities Exchange-listed company. Its assets include the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere and, judging by the government’s advertisements, it has some pretty happy employees.

But it is also a company that recently reported a $34 million loss during the six months to last December and looks likely from its financial statements to report another loss this year. Equally telling, its very name (a conflation of infinite and energy generation) gives the finger to reality.

There is no surprise in any of that; it is a renewable energy company after all. But think about the symbolism. Everybody knows this government’s vision for a clean energy future involves running Australia at a loss. But normally in advertising you put your best foot forward.

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