Showing posts with label Coal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coal. Show all posts

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Massive Anvil Hill coal mine approved by NSW Government


June 7, 2007: Despite ongoing community protests, the NSW Government has approved the controversial Anvil Hill coal mine development in the Hunter Valley.

NSW Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, says he made the decision after 10 months of assessment. He says the total value of the coal reserve at the site is estimated to be about $9 billion. "It was time to resolve the issues and give certainty to land owners and other potentially affected by the mine," said Mr Sartor. But environmentalists say the decision shows that the coal industry is in the climate change policy driving seat...

The Anvil Hill coal mine at Wybong, about 20km west of Muswellbrook, is expected to produce up to 10.5 million tonnes of coal a year over 21 years for the domestic and export markets. It will have a capital investment of about $240 million and will support about 250 construction jobs and about 240 operational jobs.

Minister Sartor says 84 "strict conditions" had been imposed on the mine to deal with dust and noise issues.

Rising Tide Newcastle say the area is home to at least 178 animal species, including 4 threatened bat species, the squirrel glider, the koala, 14 threatened bird species and many more protected under international covenant. It is also home to at least 420 species of native flora, many of which are threatened and 3 of which are endemic to the area, including one newly discovered species of orchid found only at this site.

"This mine would have massive impacts on threatened species in the Hunter Valley, destroying one of the largest tracts of bushland remaining in the region," say RisingTide. "It would destroy a large area of water catchment for the already stressed Hunter River. The 10 million tonnes of coal from Anvil Hill will wreak irreparable damage on the global climate, tipping the planet further towards dangerous, runaway climate change. In the face of such massive impacts, the Iemma government still couldn't find the guts to say no to the coal lobby."

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon says the decision is a disaster and shows the NSW Government is not serious about climate change. "The Anvil Hill coal mine will add enormously to the climate change burden," he said. "Today's decision is a sell-out, not just of proper measures to deal with climate change, but is also of the Hunter community."

Senator Kerry Nettle also condemned the federal and state governments for the decision to approve the giant Anvil Hill coal mine. "The federal government is responsible for this mine as much as the state Labor government. The federal Environment Minister failed to even assess the impact on climate change of this mine," said Senator Nettle.

"The federal government and federal Labor support the expansion of the coal industry. Neither can be taken seriously on climate change if they agree to the expansion of the coal mining industry. The approval highlights the shocking inadequacy of the federal government and federal Labor climate change policies. You can't reduce greenhouse gas emissions by supporting a new coal mine that will produce 27 million tonnes of CO2 each year. The approval of this massive coal mine shows both Labor and Liberal's polices on climate change are worthless."

The approval of the new coal mine is sparking outrage. Greenpeace head of campaigns Stephen Campbell said: "The planning process is a farce. The Department of Planning has ignored advice on the environmental and climate impacts of this mine and ‘rubber stamped’ it... This is an absolute disaster for Hunter communities and for the climate."

About 500 environmentalists protested at the site last weekend, standing in formation to spell out Save Anvil Hill. The protest against the Hunter Valley coal mine has shown people from all walks of life, and not just "environmental jihadists", are worried about climate change.

Greenpeace campaign manager Stephen Campbell said about 500 people made the journey from around the state to show their commitment to dealing with climate change and opposition to new coal mines. "You've got people you'd expect to see at protests, like students and the Greens, but there's other people here who are associated with the mining industry, people who are associated with the horse and wine industry - not the kind of people who normally come to a rally such as this and they came today."

Mr Campbell said such diverse community representation demonstrated how deep and widespread concern about the expansion of the coal industry was. "The coal industry, the Labor party and others try to portray anyone who is opposed to the coal industry as some sort of mad man or environmental jihadist, and what we're showing is that is simply not the case," he said. "People from all over NSW are very concerned about the expansion of the coal industry, they're concerned about the local, social and environmental impacts.

Greenpeace spokesman Ben Pearson said: "People have had enough of new coal mines," Mr Pearson said. "They're ripping up the Hunter Valley. They're contributing to climate change. We know how great the threat of climate change is, but frankly if we're serious about climate change how can we justify opening massive new coal mines?"

SOURCES:
ABC
NQ Register
Daily Telegraph
Sydney Morning Herald
SMH
Rising Tide
Peace Bus
Rising Tide: Media Release

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Rising Tide Perth condem BP/Rio Tinto giant coal plant for Kwinana

MAY 23, 2007 - Rising Tide Perth - Action against Climate Change

Perth Rising Tide crew, are gearing up to take action against the recently announced massive BHP/RioTinto Coal plant for Kwinana...

Rio, BP considering $2b coal-fired power project in WA: 21st May 2007 - Rio Tinto Ltd’s new joint venture with oil giant BP has unveiled plans for a $2 billion clean-coal power generation project at Kwinana.

Hydrogen Energy’s project, which will the subject of a feasibility study, would be fully integrated with carbon capture and storage to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases. The power station could generate 500MW of electricity.

This would be the first new project for Hydrogen Energy, which was formed to develop decarbonised fossil fuel projects around the world, with the contribution of two existing projects in Scotland and in the US.

The industrial-scale coal-fired power and carbon capture and storage plant in Kwinana would generate enough electricity to meet 15 per cent of the demand of South-West WA.

It would capture and permanently store about four million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The plant would draw on locally-produced coal from the Collie region to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide. A decision to invest in the project is likely by 2011, and it could begin operating in 2014.

Energy Minister Fran Logan welcomed the announcement, saying the project had the potential to provide substantial benefits to WA and the nation.

Perth Rising Tide is a West Australian-based grassroots independent climate action collective. Perth Rising Tide say there are serious climate issues occurring within WA right now that require immediate grassroots action to aid their defence. Lets amalgamate, converge and take positive direct action against rapid-onset human-induced Climate Change at a local level...

Rising Tide Principles:
http://perthrisingtide.wordpress.com/principles/

We invite anyone with an interest in climate change issues to get involved. Join this WA autonomous movement against climate change. Please email us here: perthclimatealliance@yahoo.com.au

WEBSITE:
http://perthrisingtide.wordpress.com/

CLIMATE JUSTICE! - International Day of Direct Action against Climate Change and the G8 Friday 8th June 2007: The 8th of June International Day of Action Against Climate Change and the G8 has been called by the International Rising Tide Network.

This is a call for autonomous, decentralised actions appropriate for your town, city, or local area. Use this international day of action to support local struggles against oil refineries, gas pipelines, strip mines and coal-fired power plants. Disrupt the financial backers of the fossil fuel industry. Organise workshops to spread sustainable post-petroleum living skills. Find a weak point in the infrastructure of resource exploitation and throw a literal or symbolic wrench in the works. It’s time to visit your local polluters and give ‘em hell!

By 8th June actions will be planned around the world. Pass this call out on to all environmental justice, climate action, radical sustainability and related movements in all the G8 countries and the Global South.

Rising Tide will create a collection of outreach and agit-prop materials (including this call out in five different languages) that can be used by groups around the world to organise locally.

These materials will be downloadable from
http://risingtide.org.uk
and http://risingtidenorthamerica.org

Direct action and civil disobedience are the rational response in this time of crisis. Support the 8th of June International Day of Direct Action against Climate Change and the G8! Tell us about planned actions for climate justice being planned in your community.

Contact us - info@risingtide.org.uk and contact@risingtidenorthamerica.org In June 2007 the G8 will understand the meaning of rebellion, revolt and revolution. Their recipe for catastrophe will be met with our global resistance!

READ MORE
http://perthrisingtide.wordpress.com

Monday, March 05, 2007

Coal lobby censors climate change website


5 March 2007: MINING INDUSTRY SILENCING DISSENT: A satirical website created by climate action group Rising Tide Newcastle has twice been shut down this fortnight by powerful coal industry lobby group, the NSW Minerals Council...
The website is a parody of the NSW Minerals Council's big-budget spin-doctor campaign to promote the 'virtues' of the coal industry.

Climate activist group Rising Tide built the site to highlight the growing contribution coal exports make to climate change.

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has criticised the powerful coal industry lobby group, the NSW Minerals Council, for attempting to censor the climate change debate by getting their lawyers to shut down a community based climate change website.

"This is an extraordinary case of censorship by the powerful coal industry," said Ms Rhiannon. "The NSW Minerals Council is pulling out all stops to censor public debate on the deadly impact of coal on our climate at a time when robust open debate on the future of coal is urgently needed."

"A recent Hunter survey that showed more than half of people in the Hunter now feel the negative impacts of coal far outweigh the positive benefits, has pushed the powerful coal lobby to this desperate measure."

After lawyers for the NSW Minerals Council complained to the website hosting company that Rising Tide's content was in breach of copyright, the website was shut down. Rising Tide contested this claim and hit back by re-designing the website to ensure it was not subject to copyright, but the lawyers moved in a second time and had the website shut down again. Rising Tide has now filed a counter claim that the NSW Mineral Council's grounds were spurious, and have re-launched their website today using an overseas internet service provider to protect the site from further attack.

"The NSW Minerals Council must be prepared to face open debate about coal instead of censoring community opinions that they are uncomfortable with," said Ms Rhiannon.

- NSW Mineral Council's coal public relations website – www.nswmining.com.au
- Rising Tide's parody website – www.miningnsw.com.au

The website was conceived as a response to the Minerals Council's “Life. Brought to you by Mining” advertising campaign.

The Minerals Council campaign, which argues that mining is inextricable from modern luxury can be viewed at www.nswmining.com.au. Rising Tide members created a parody website at www.miningnsw.com.au in order to present the other side of the story and address the damage wrought by mining to the local and global environment and to the local community.

Steve Phillips, spokesperson for Rising Tide Newcastle said, “The coal export industry constitutes NSW's biggest single contribution to global climate change. There is also growing public awareness of the terrible impacts of coal mining on biodiversity, water and air quality. The Minerals Council want people to know that luxury is dependent on mining: All we want is for the public to be fully informed about the consequences of that luxury, and to realise that while we can have jobs without coal, and we can have energy without coal, we cannot have a coal industry without climate change.”

Rising Tide has now moved the site to an off-shore host in order that the information contained within it can remain in the public domain.

“The Minerals Council is abusing legal process to ensure that its public-relations spin is unquestioned and that community criticism of its methods or message is quashed as quickly as possible” said Ned Haughton, the site’s graphical designer.

Mr. Phillips continued, "We have issued a counter-notice rejecting the Minerals Council's spurious claims. The Minerals Council now has ten days in which to take the matter further."

“The Minerals Council say they want a “balanced debate” on the impacts of coal mining on local, regional, and global environments – we welcome that wholeheartedly. Their rhetoric however, is sharply at odds with their attempts to silence legitimate criticism from community groups.”

For more information:

Ned Haughton on 0417 484 735
Steve Phillips on 0437 275 119.

Background:
* On February 19th this year, the NSW Minerals Council (NSWMC) launched an expensive public relations campaign with the slogan “Life: Brought to you by mining.” The campaign includes billboards, television, and newspaper advertisements, and the website www.nswmining.com.au

* Shortly after the launch of the NSWMC website, Rising Tide Newcastle (RTN)set up a satirical and critical website at www.miningnsw.com.au. This website was a mirror image of the NSWMC website, except that the text was different, describing the negative social and environmental effects of the mining industry.

* The hosts of the RTN website were contacted by NSWMC lawyers within 24 hours of the launch of the site. The NSWMC lawyers abused a clause of the Commonwealth Copyright Regulations to forced the website hosts to remove the site. RTN created the original website as a satirical imitation of the NSWMC site, with rewritten commentary. While this was most probably legal under the Copyright Act's Fair Dealing clause as a parody, the hosts were legally required to remove the site pending a response to the Minerals Council's claim of copyright infringement, which did not specify the articles of alleged copyright.

* RTN then completely re-made the site, with original layout and images that were either original or used with permission, in order to remove all possibility of copyright infringement. The NSWMC lawyers nevertheless contacted the new website hosts within 24 hours, with a similar claim letter, and again had the site removed under Regulation 20J of the Copyright Regulations.

* While the site had not contravened any copyright laws, as the lawyers for the NSWMC may well have known, the host was again legally obliged to remove the site.

* RTN have submitted a counter-notice, rejecting the allegations of the NSWMC. The NSWMC now have a 10 period in which they can take the matter further, which would require taking RTN to court over the incident.

* In the meantime, the RTN website has been relaunched with an offshore host. International copyright law does not have the same automatic take-down clause of Australian copyright law.

SOURCES:
melbourne.indymedia.org/news...
Parody Site: miningnsw.com.au
risingtide.org.au
Sydney Indymedia - Climate Mining

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Australia should stop dirty exports - coal is the new asbestos

February 9, 2007: Australian of of the Year, Professor Tim Flannery, said exporting coal is not in Australia's national interest and the Federal Government should no longer be supporting the industry.

"This government has let the country down. This government has become a menace to the future of our children."

Greens Leader Bob Brown says Australia should phase out coal exports within the next three years. Brown's proposal follows comments by Professor Flannery, who said the "social licence" of coal is being withdrawn across the globe because of its massive contribution to greenhouse gas emissions...
Prime Minister John Howard is at odds with Australia's most celebrated climate scientist over coal. After being named Australian of the Year and vowing to criticise the government, Professor Flannery has called for an end to coal exports.

Dr Flannery said exporting coal could no longer be considered to be in Australia's national interest. "The social licence of coal to operate is rapidly being withdrawn globally, and no government can protect an industry from that sort of thing occurring," he said. "We've seen it with asbestos, we'll see it with coal." Professor Flannery said it was too late for the planet to clean up coal.

Dr Flannery said rather than dirty coal, solar thermal and geothermal technologies could form the basis of meeting Australia's energy needs and they were better options than, for example, nuclear power.

Senator Bob Brown agrees. "Neither the Howard Coalition nor Rudd Labor will tackle our biggest cause of climate change - burning coal. Both the parties support burning more, not less," Senator Brown said. "This is an extreme position considering the massive economic and environmental crisis the world is facing."

"The nation should rapidly transform to being the world's largest exporter of solar power technology, other renewable energy options and energy efficiency technology - creating thousands of jobs and a multi-billion dollar export income in tandem with the replacement of coal," Senator Brown said.

However Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce says Australians would be "living on the streets under a tarpaulin" if the country adopted the plan. Senator Joyce said coal was Australia's major trade export earner, and ceasing exports would cause untold economic harm. Senator Joyce said Australia should be pursuing research into clean-coal technology, but not at the expense of the coal industry.

Senator Brown said Howard's silver bullet of "clean coal" technology was at least a decade away and the government could not wait to phase out coal over 30-years.

Senator Brown proposed a reduction of coal exports and their replacement with exports of renewable energy. He said Australia had fantastic solar energy research which could save the planet but which was being purchased by foreign companies. "We do need extreme measures compared to what has happened in the past," he said. "This government has let the country down. This government has become a menace to the future of our children."

Senator Brown said the Greens saw it as politically unacceptable to have a phase-out over 30 years which would wipe out the lifestyle, economy and jobs of future generations. "The Greens are talking about intervening on the market. The big parties won't and so are therefore saying let this country and the rest of the planet go to perdition because we won't take action," he said.

"We are a rich and wealthy country. We can look after the coal miners and we can replace their fortunes with a much more job-productive industry." Senator Brown said he was proposing a reduction of coal exports and replacing them with exports of renewable energy.

He said Australia had fantastic solar energy research which could save the planet but which was being purchased by foreign companies. Australia can no longer put its head in the sand. Even if we do nothing to phase out coal exports, our customers will. The Europeans are already talking about sanctions and restrictions on coal imports. The issue is not just what we think the future of coal is, but what our customers think the future is. Business in Europe is not going to accept the Australian government freeloading with coal," Senator Brown said.

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on NSW Premier Morris Iemma to meet with
Professor Tim Flannery to discuss the future of the coal industry. "The best thing Mr Iemma could do ... is to announce an end to coal exports and no new coal projects. Voters are looking for leadership and real solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now is the time ... to move past the coal age. A good place to start would be to talk with Professor Flannery," Ms Rhiannon said.

"The links between the expansion of the coal industry and global warming are beginning to resonate with the electorate. We can have a win for the environment and for jobs by phasing out coal. Generating a unit of energy from wind power creates about four times the number of jobs as coal. The Greens are working with a range of community groups to plan for a just transition from the era of coal to a renewable and energy efficient future," said Ms Rhiannon.

Others are saying Professor Flannery should address Parliament about his proposal for solar-thermal geothermal energy to replace the dirty coal industry. WA Rights group Project SafeCom said "Mr Howard stumbles around in Parliament like a greedy child in a pitch-dark school tuck shop on environmental issues, and that Mr Howard can only do what he thinks is best - and that is to support his 20th Century friends in the coal industry."

"The Prime Minister either has no idea that solar technology already can supply all base load energy for Australia's energy needs, or - more likely - that he tries to hide these options at all costs, even showing that he and his government is prepared to lie about the baseload generation capacity of these technologies. Tim Flannery can wake them up, and make them think clearly again. He should be given the opportunity to make his case in Parliament in a joint sitting of both Houses." Mr Smit said.

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Senator Christine Milne said Labor's refusal to accept that coal is part of the greenhouse problem shows it has failed to come to terms with climate change and the actions needed to combat it.

"The Australian Labor Party cannot expect to be taken seriously on climate change while it adopts the coal industry's line that exporting fossil fuels to power the world is of no consequence for global warming," Senator Milne said in Canberra. "Australia under the Howard government has spent 11 years evading its international responsibility to help reduce emissions while making handsome profits from selling coal. We have plenty of other options, including solar thermal power, wind, biomass and geothermal. It's time to get on with creating more jobs and wealth from building these industries."

Meanwhile, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, which represents coal miners, declared its support for establishing a carbon market. "Coal miners have voted to support carbon trading and, frankly, it is a disgrace that the Howard government has taken 10 years to even start talking about it," CFMEU president Tony Maher told the ABC. The prime minister disagreed. "Union leaders don't necessarily speak for workers," Mr Howard told parliament. For the last 10 years, a lot of coal miners have voted for us."

Mr Howard said coal-fired power stations were a very cheap source of energy in this country, and Australia was the largest coal exporter in the world. Ignoring the benefits and availability of Renewable energy, Mr Howard said as "clean" coal became more expensive, we could then start to look at nuclear power. "At the moment nuclear power is not economic, compared to dirty coal. But if you apply new technology to that, the cleaner technology becomes dearer and make nuclear power economically more feasible."

Professor Flannery said that in the future, coal would be seen as just as dangerous as asbestos is now. "As the situation unfolds and the matters get more critical, the world is not going to allow people to pollute our common atmosphere, as occurs at the moment," he told ABC. Dr Flannery said solar thermal and geothermal technologies could form the basis of meeting Australia's energy needs and they were better options than nuclear power.

His comments were immediately dismissed by the Prime Minister, John Howard, who said money would be better spent on developing technologies to clean up coal production.

Meanwhile, Beach Petroleum last month announced a $30 million investment in Petratherm's hot-rock project in South Australia. If successful, the project will supply electricity to the Beverley uranium mine and eventually link to the national grid. Petratherm is also working to help China establish its geothermal potential.

The Earth's atmosphere is not as big as many assume it is, for example, it is much smaller than the ocean. Professor Flannery says our thin atmosphere is about one 500th the size of the ocean.

He says "that explains why we've had three atmospheric emergencies, if you want, through my lifetime, you know. We had acid rain, then we had the hole in the ozone layer and now we’ve got greenhouse gases and climate change. We haven’t yet precipitated a global oceanic pollution crisis. It is not that we don't throw rubbish into the oceans, it’s just that the oceans are so much bigger."

--

Coal exports earned the nation $25 billion last year. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, coal mining employs 28,300 workers. Over the last 12 months, employment growth was over 299,000.

SOURCES:
PM fights Flannery at coalface - February 8, 2007 News Ltd
PM, Flannery clash on coal industry - February 8, 2007 SMH
Brown back eventual coal export ban - February 8, 2007 The Australian
Flannery should address solar-thermal power - February 8, 2007 SCOOP
Labor's climate policy in tatters over coal exports - February 8, 2007 Greens Media Release
oyce blasts Greens over coal exports- February 9, 2007 The West
Coal will be the new asbestos, says Flannery - February 9, 2007 SMH
The Australian Editorial: Keeping the message cool on climate - February 9, 2007
ABC LATELINE Tim Flannery