10 significant Australian, news items, - to 6thJuly 2009 TOPICS: Senator Fielding duped?, renewables cheaper, geothermal spin, aboriginal homelands, remote communities, nuclear hypocrisy, energy future, solar, Mega Uranium, Yeelirrie uranium, Olympic Dam expansion,,,,,,,,,........... - more at headings upper left of this page

ExxonMobil 'funding climate sceptics'  ABC News 3 July 09 By Europe correspondent Emma Alberici

The world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups that continue to question the cause and effects of global warming.

The Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE) claims ExxonMobil has reneged on a promise to end financial support to the groups.

It also claims a conference of climate change sceptics in Washington, recently attended by Australian Family First Senator Stephen Fielding, was sponsored by one of the groups that received funding from the oil giant............

..........."Two of the main organisations are the Heritage Foundation and something called the Atlas Economic Foundation," Mr Ward said.

"Now the reason I single them out is that they have been sponsors of a recent conference of so-called sceptics which took place in Washington, and that is mostly a gathering of lobbyists and other people who reject the evidence on climate change.

"Of course it was also the conference which Senator Fielding recently attended.

Exxon still aids denialist lobby Sydney Morning Herald David Adam in London July 3, 2009 THE world's largest oil company is continuing to fund lobby groups that question global warming, despite its public pledge to cut support for climate change denial.Company records show ExxonMobil gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to such lobby groups last year.

These include the National Centre for Policy Analysis in Dallas, which received $75,000, and the Heritage Foundation in Washington, which received $50,000.............

..............According to Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, the NCPA and Heritage Foundation have published "misleading and inaccurate information about climate change"..............................The Heritage Foundation's December "web memo" said: "Growing scientific evidence casts doubt on whether global warming constitutes a threat, including the fact that 2008 is about to go into the books as a cooler year than 2007."............................Mr Ward said: "ExxonMobil has been briefing journalists for three years that they were going to stop funding these groups [but] … they are still doing it. If [it] wants to fund climate change denial then it should be upfront about it and not tell people it has stopped." Exxon still aids denialist lobby

"So I am not sure whether people are aware that those people that he went to talk to, at least some of them are getting funding directly from the oil industry."...................................

"They are trying to mislead people and frankly we have seen these sorts of tactics before, for instance in the case of the tobacco industry, who for many, many years, funded campaigns and misinformation about the adverse effects of their products," he said.

"This seems to be a similar situation in which a

France imports UK electricity as plants shut TIMESONLINE Robin Pagnamenta, July 3, 2009 France is being forced to import electricity from Britain to cope with a summer heatwave that has helped to put a third of its nuclear power stations out of action.

With temperatures

commercial company is funding misinformation campaigns because there is abundant evidence that their products are having an adverse effect."

Mr Ward says he is still waiting for a response to the latest letter he sent ExxonMobil back in May.

ExxonMobil 'funding climate sceptics' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

across much of France surging above 30C this week, EDF’s reactors are generating the lowest level of electricity in six years, forcing the state-owned utility to turn to Britain for additional capacity. Fourteen of France’s 19 nuclear power stations are located inland and use river water rather than seawater for cooling. When water temperatures rise, EDF is forced to shut down the reactors to prevent their casings from exceeding 50C.France imports UK electricity as plants shut – Times Online

Renewable energy may cost less than coal power Sydney Morning Herald Ben Cubby Environment ReporterJuly 3, 2009 USING more renewable power in Sydney would make electricity bills more affordable, according to a study prepared for the CSIRO that challenges assumptions about cheap coal-fired energy.

More intelligent use of the existing energy grid could slash greenhouse gas emissions and cut household power bills by up to $60 a year, the report from the University of Technology Sydney shows…………………

It found building baseload power using coal was much more expensive than focusing on energy efficiency and tapping into a network of small “co-generation” power sources sprinkled in the suburbs.

That conclusion was reached without factoring in the increased costs to fossil fuel generators that would be imposed if Australia brings in a carbon trading scheme. Carbon trading is expected to raise the costs of greenhouse-intensive power like coal even more

Renewable energy may cost less than coal power

New study: Nuclear workers at higher risk for cancer Brattleboro Reformer By BOB AUDETTE, July 2 2009

In the radiation report, in which Lemstra reviewed 1,725 articles related to radiation studies, he concluded that nuclear power plant workers have a “relative excess risk” of getting cancer.

In epidemiology, excess risk is defined as the difference between the proportion of subjects in a population with a particular disease who were exposed to a specific risk factor and the proportion of subjects with that same disease who were not exposed.

In the case of nuclear power plant workers, that risk factor is low-dose radiation.

New study: Nuclear workers at higher risk for cancer – Brattleboro Reformer

Geothermal Energy - Is Santa really coming to town?

rosetta moon June 30, 2009The Australian Government is sponsoring ‘Hot Rocks’ or “Enhanced Geothermal Systems” as the new clean and green kid on the alternative energy block, but what is the reality in terms of the risks versus the benefits, and are shareholders being told the whole story, or perhaps the gilded lily version omitting some vital facts, adjusting the ethical investment equilibrium…. somewhat?

Today, that big hole in the sacred grounds of Paralana begins and yet have all the questions been answered? The answer is ‘No’ and the Coober Pedy Times must be congratulated for raising the issues and the bar in relation to the assessment of these supposedly ‘green’ projects

Heatwaves can crimp nuclear power output across Europe LONDON, June 30 (Reuters)

-- French temperatures have been at above 30 degrees Centigrade in some regions and are expected to remain at those levels until the end of the week. Forecasts show tempertures will dip by around 5 degrees next week.

-- France, which relies on atomic power plants for 80 percent of its electricity, is especially vulnerable to heat waves. With 14 of its 19 nuclear plants located by rivers, rising temperatures over a longer period of time can trigger cooling problems due to local laws that prevent plants from discharging water in rivers above certain temperature levels.

-- Lower output from reactors located near rivers because of cooling problems usually coincides with surging demand as people crank up air conditioners during the summer...........................

GERMANY

How is the truth and well being of the land being altered when financial inducements are part of the site clearance process and what is the ultimate effect on the indigenous communities targeted in the pursuit of these commercial endeavours? The Times says:

In light of local Elders being approached for a site clearance, Elders are saying “Petratherm need to prove our air and water will be safe.” Hydraulic fracturing (FRACKing) is a technique that involves large amounts of fresh water, mixed with sand, often containing a witch’s brew of cancer-causing and toxic chemicals being injected under high pressure miles down the drilling hole to fracture the underground formation….” A local Adnyamathanha resident reported “We really don’t know much about this process, but locals are getting nervous with everything around the Beverley uranium mine dying. Where are they getting this water from” ?

Coober Pedy Times - June 11 - 2009 Flinders Ranges: Risk Assessment to be Sought on Geothermal Chemical Dumping

  rosetta moon

Nuclear industry accused of hijacking clean energy forum Critics say France is using debate about where to base new Irena global renewables body to co-opt organisation The Guardian Terry Macalister 28 June 09

The nuclear power industry has been accused of trying to muscle in on plans to establish a global body to represent the renewable energy industry at a key meeting in Egypt tomorrow.

France – a major user and exporter of nuclear technologies – is accused by critics of trying to win the top job inside the renewable organisation so it can move the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) towards being a promoter of "low-carbon" technologies – including atomic power..........................

The renewable agency will have a mandate to disseminate knowledge, develop regulatory framework and to actively promote the widespread adoption of renewable energy technologies around the world.

It comes ahead of vital new talks in Copenhagen at the end of this year about how to tackle global warming and amid excitement that the US and China are finally starting to play more constructive roles compared with the past. Nuclear industry accused of hijacking clean energy forum | Business | The Guardian

Australia: Labor moves to shut down remote Aboriginal settlements World Socialist Website By Susan Allan 27 June 2009

Major mining, agribusiness and tourist corporations have long demanded unrestricted access to Aboriginal land, an end to communal ownership and a ready supply of cheap labour.

he move to disperse homeland settlements replicates proposals elaborated in 2007 by Helen Hughes from the Centre for Independent Studies, a right-wing free-market think tank.....................Australia: Labor moves to shut down remote Aboriginal settlements

No answer on waste issue Rutland Herald KATHLEEN KREVETSKI 29 June 09  "......................... the Areva nuclear fuel processing plant — La Hague in France where spent nuclear fuel rods are refined for weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium. La Hague acknowledges that it is intentionally dumping thousands of gallons of radioactive waste into the ocean while the incidence of childhood cancer is rampant in the area surrounding that plant.

Before George Bush left office, the U.S. EPA had radically increased permissible public exposure to radiation in drinking water, including a nearly 1,000-fold increase in permissible concentrations of strontium-90, 3,000- to 100,000-fold for iodine-131, and a nearly 25,000 increase for nickel-63. The relaxation of these radiation protection regulations had been sought for years by the nuclear industry and its allies in the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission .

In the most extreme case, the new standards permit radionuclide concentrations seven million times more lax than permitted under the Safe Drinking Water Act and would permit public exposure to radiation levels vastly higher than EPA had previously deemed unacceptably dangerous. The public did not get to comment on these changes. What exactly is the radioactive waste that is now being discharged into the Connecticut River. When will our Vermont Department of Public Health start reporting on the trends of cancer incidence rising in Vermont? And Entergy and the NRC thinks its OK to continue to build up the stockpile of the radioactive waste here in Vermont because no one else will accept it No answer on waste issue: Rutland Herald Online

AUSTRALIA: Policy May Force Indigenous Communities From Traditional Lands By Stephen de Tarczynski MELBOURNE, Jun 29 (IPS) - A government plan purporting to improve the lives of people living in isolated areas of Australia’s Northern Territory will be implemented at the expense of surrounding homeland communities and ignores the cultural and health benefits for people living on those traditional lands, warn critics.

The ‘Working Future’ scheme is headed by the proposal to develop 20 remote Northern Territory (NT) communities into regional hubs and will cost more than 160 million Australian dollars over five years..............

........... Detractors anticipate the plan will adversely impact communities living on homelands - the traditional clan lands of indigenous Australians. .........

.......... Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission - an independent statutory body responsible to Australia’s parliament - argues that creating the regional centres should not be done at the expense of homelands. ...................... The movement of people back to their homelands began in the 1970s. There are now more than 500 NT homelands inhabited by about 10,000 people, out of a total remote indigenous population of 40,000.

According to the 1987 report by a parliamentary inquiry into the homelands movement, the return to traditional lands represented "the desire of Aboriginal people to assert control over their lives by establishing communities that are better attuned to Aboriginal needs." AUSTRALIA: Policy May Force Indigenous Communities From Traditional Lands - IPS ipsnews.net

High-level forum stresses need to tackle radioactive waste in Central Asia UN News Centre 29 June 2009

The meeting brought together over 100 representatives from the region, international organizations, donors and others to discuss the problems associated with the uranium tailing deposits – left over from mining during the Cold War in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan – which contain more than 800 million tons of radioactive and toxic waste.

These countries have not been able to deal with the problem adequately due to lack of resources and capacity

.UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said the legacy of nuclear waste and related environmental management issues has a direct impact on human development in the region.As most of the uranium tailing sites are located in densely populated and natural-disaster prone areas of Central Asia’s largest river basins, they represent a major potential risk to the region’s water supply and the health of millions of people,” she said in a statement to the forum.

“Many more are likely to suffer if uranium contamination moves downstream to other areas,” she added.

High-level forum stresses need to tackle radioactive waste in Central Asia

Saying one thing and doing another. Steve Blizard's Blog 29 June 09 It is not widely known that deep within the bowels of the Federal Labor Government, an investigation has commenced for using uranium as a domestic future energy source........................ The Uranium Systems Project is one of the national projects within the Onshore Energy Security Program.
The primary purpose of the Uranium Systems Project is to provide advice to the Australian Government on Australia’s uranium resource potential as well as deliver new pre-competitive datasets and concepts to the minerals industry which will promote new search areas and reduce risk in the discovery of Australia’s uranium resources.”

Putting it simply, the Federal bureaucrats are ‘assessing the potential of uranium as one of Australia’s future energy sources’..................The Federal Labor government is seriously looking at nuclear energy as a possible means of ensuring Australia’s energy security over the long term............................

Most are well aware of their political campaigns against nuclear energy, attacking those that say we have to keep an open mind; yet quietly behind the scenes are doing all the home work required to prepare for a nuclear energy future in Australia!

Will this be the new “three more uranium mines” policy? Saying one thing and doing another « Steve Blizard's Blog

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE ENERGY BILL? UNDERNEWS 28 June 09 Rep. Dennis Kucinich - WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE ENERGY BILL

Dennis Kucinich Lays Out Why He Voted Against Clean Energy Act THE CLEVELAND LEADER June 27, 2009 -Cleveland area Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) laid out the reasons he opposed and voted against H.R. 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The vast majority of fellow Democrats voted in favor of the measure which passed the House and is on the way to the Senate for a vote. Kucinich stated in a press release:

“I oppose H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The reason is simple. It won’t address the problem. In fact, it might make the problem worse.

“It sets targets that are too weak, especially in the short term, and sets about meeting those targets through Enron-style accounting methods. It gives new life to one of the primary sources of the problem that should be on its way out– coal – by giving it record subsidies..............

...........Nuclear power is given a lifeline instead of phasing it out. Nuclear power is far more expensive, has major safety issues including a near release in my own home state in 2002, and there is still no resolution to the waste problem. A recent study by Dr. Mark Cooper showed that it would cost $1.9 trillion to $4.1 trillion more over the life of 100 new nuclear reactors than to generate the same amount of electricity from energy efficiency and renewables. Dennis Kucinich Lays Out Why He Voted Against Clean Energy Act | Cleveland Leader

".......................While we sit on our hands, a clean-energy industrial revolution is transforming the global economy, with green and clean-tech investment,

products and industries now estimated to be worth $6.3 trillion dollars worldwide.

But without an emissions trading scheme or renewable energy target in sight, Australia isn't even in the race.

With no legislative mechanism, we have no means of generating serious investment in emerging renewable energy industries that could provide thousands of jobs and reduce carbon pollution. It also leaves jobs in traditional industries in limbo.

Coal and steel industries need a framework to adapt

Business Mirror 28 June 2009 THE one-year-old German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI) expects a lot of joint ventures happening between companies of the two countries in the development of renewable energy here, particularly geothermal, wind and solar.

Klaus Schroeder, president of the GPCCI, said this “green partnerships” will now be the trend because Germany is the leader in renewable-energy technology, while the Philippines has just passed its Renewable Energy Act.The Philippines is the first to put that into law in Asia, so it’s a great opportunity, and that is why going green is our focus. It [partnership] has already started, and more are coming,” he told the BusinessMirror.German-RP chamber to focus on renewable-energy projects in RP

their processes to rapidly changing global circumstances..

.................On the best available data, Australia could star in six green industries: renewable energy (solar, wind, ocean); energy efficiency in homes, factories and commercial buildings; sustainable water systems; biomaterials made from starch, sugar and cellulose; green buildings through design, construction and retrofitting; and waste/recycling.....

........New player the US has become the world's biggest investor in green industries, recently ploughing $24 billion into wind and biofuel technology. All this despite, and because of, the financial crisis......... Australian businesses can clean up in the energy revolution | watoday.com.au

Navajo homes razed - uranium contamination Felicia Fonseca, Associated PressS San Francisco Chronicle  June 21, 2009 The federal government plans to spend as much as $3 million a year to demolish and rebuild uranium-contaminated structures across the Navajo Nation, where Cold War-era mining of the radioactive substance left a legacy of disease and death......................

.........The effort is part of a five-year plan that expires

in 2012 in which a numb er offederal agencies joined together to address uranium contamination and its effects on the Navajo people. Navajos who toiled in the mines and their dependents have suffered or died from cancer, lung and kidney disease, and other health problems caused by exposure to low levels of radiation over time............

....................With more than 500 abandoned uranium mines across the vast reservation, EPA officials acknowledge that the issue of uranium contamination is bigger than assessing and rebuilding structures. Navajo homes razed - uranium contamination

Mega Uranium's poor record in Africa Nuclear Australia by African 26 June 09 Well, lets hope the Vice Preseident of Mega Uranium gets it right in Australia coz the President Stewart Taylor seems to have made a complete mess of the African operations and the Africans were treated like second rate citizens.

Possibly why Mega Uranium has a court order against them in South Africa stopping them from selling any company assets in Africa.nuclear Australia

Tough check on U-mine urged The West 26th June 2009 (image from Bloomberg)

Green groups and unions are pushing for an unprecedented level of environmental scrutiny over plans for WA’s first uranium mine, calling for a public inquiry with the powers of a royal commission to assess BHP Billiton’s proposed Yeelirrie project in the Goldfields.

The WA Conservation Council lodged an appeal yesterday against the level of assessment set for the project by the Environmental Protection Authority, saying the watchdog needed to invoke previously unused powers under its legislation to ensure all possible impacts of the controversial proposal were subjected to an effective investigation.

Destroying Indigenous Populations Atlantic Free Press  Dahr Jamail , 24 June 2009 “……………………….. Most of the Sioux’s land has been taken, and what remains has been laid waste by radioactive pollution..........................…………………The Ogala Sioux are engaged in ongoing legal battles with the pro-uranium state of South Dakota. They are aware of the unequal nature of their battle, but they cannot afford to give up. White Face explains how “… Our last court case was lost before learning that the judge was a former lawyer for one of the mining companies. Also, the governor’s sister and brother-in-law work for mining companies [Powertech] and a professor, hired by the Forest Service to test water run-off for contamination, is on contract with a company that works for the mining company. When I found out the judge was a lawyer for the mining company I knew we would lose, but we went ahead with the case for the publicity, because we have to keep waking people up.”

Other tribes, such as the Navajo and Hopi in New Mexico, have been exposed to radioactive material as well. Furthermore, the July 16, 1979, spill of 100 million gallons of radioactive water containing uranium tailings from a tailing pond into the north arm of the Rio Puerco, near the small town of Church Rock, New Mexico, also affected indigenous peoples in Arizona.

Destroying Indigenous Populations – Progressive Politics and Opinion Opinion

BHP has also lodged documents with the Federal Department of Environment which are open for public comment................

..............The WA Conservation Council, Australian Conservation Foundation, Wilderness Society and UnionsWA will launch a joint campaign today calling for an environmental public inquiry under section 42 of the Environment Protection Act.

Labor and Greens MPs are expected to back it.

Conservation Council director Piers Verstegen said the complex and risky project, which would have impacts on worker and community safety, health and Aboriginal communities beyond the scope of an EPA assessment, needed the highest level of scrutiny.

“The Barnett Government has the ability and the responsibility to put this project under the spotlight with a public inquiry,” Mr Verstegen said.

“We don’t have the regulatory or legislative structures in place to manage uranium mining and even in other States where they have got regulatory structures that are designed to deal with it . . . there are still major failings in that regard.” Tough check on U-mine urged : thewest.com.au

Fears for safety as nuclear watchdog hires staff from firms pitching to build reactors The Guardian Tim Webb 26 June 2009 The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate is recruiting more than a dozen project managers to speed up its review of new reactor designs – even though they work for the companies hoping to build them.

The Guardian has learnt that the government has approached companies including the US groups Bechtel and CH2M Hill, as well as the UK’s Amec, to fill the senior posts. The companies involved are eager to secure lucrative contracts to help build the UK’s first new reactors for decades.Government and industry sources admitted the secondments posed potential conflict of interest problems.

It is also understood that the inspectorate has recruited technical staff from Areva,…………………………There are concerns that the potential conflicts of interest could compromise the safety of the new nuclear reactors if the companies helping the inspectorate have a vested interest Fears for safety as nuclear watchdog hires staff from firms pitching to build reactors | Environment | The Guardian

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