Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
Aboriginal groups have given divergent responses to the moratorium announcement on Wild Rivers legislation, reported Queensland Country Life (22 June 2006 p3). Pearson takes a firm stand: Indigenous leader Noel Pearson told a meeting in Cape York that the struggle against Wild Rivers was about the future viability of indigenous and non-indigenous communities in the Continue Reading →
The chief executive of Australia’s largest renewable fuel company Australian Renewable Fuels, Daryl Butcher, said the government had reneged on a pledge by scrapping the tax-free status of biodiesel, and this could push $60 million in planned investment offshore, reported The Australian Financial Review (26/6/2006, p.9). ARF loses $4.5m contract: Butcher said the decision, which Continue Reading →
Tim Flannery, environmental scientist and director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, has proposed a solution to the perceived problem of bird strikes by wind turbine blades.
Sounds funny at first: He told The Age (26 June 2006, p.11) that the system could work like this: if it is considered likely that a wind farm development might kill a single orange-bellied parrot each decade, for example, the wind farm developers should be allowed to offset this risk by funding initiatives aimed at increasing the population of orange-bellied parrots by one individual each decade.
But it’s not a bad idea: Such initiatives might include the protection of important habitat, feral cat eradication programs, or even support for organisations committed to saving the orange-bellied parrot. Such a scheme has the potential to allow both wind-farm development and save, endangered species in a cost-effective manner.
With flexibility: Dr Flannery added that the system should be subject to review. if more parrots are killed than anticipated, the volume of "endangered species credits" purchased by the wind company could be increased. The same could be done if the measures funded were found to be ineffective in protecting the species.
And equity: If, on the other hand, it could be demonstrated that no dead parrots eventuated, the credit scheme could be suspended and the funding reimbursed to the wind farm.
Wind power a "special case": He said environmentalists might worry that such an offset scheme would lead to inappropriate development, should it be applied more broadly. There was a good argument, however, that climate change and wind-power generation was a special case. "Without wind we are likely to be forced back to dependence on fossil fuels, which will gravely damage many endangered species."
It needs facilitation: He said that if the wind industry was to avoid being destroyed by thoughtless NIMBYs, its fossil-fuel rivals or political opportunism, it desperately needed an endangered-species credits scheme.
The Age, 26/6/2006, p. 11
Source: Erisk Net
The states have crushed a Federal push for uniform guidelines on wind farms, dismissing it as a "bureaucratic speed hump" to slow the development of renewable energy, reported The Australian (24 June 2006, p.10). Existing approvals process "sufficient": A meeting of State and Territory Environment Ministers has voted down a national code granting communities greater Continue Reading →
New evidence suggests global warming from fossil fuel emissions could be up to 78 per cent higher than previously believed, lending weight to claims that Australia should strongly back non-emitting energy sources such as nuclear and solar power, reported The Australian (21 June 2006, p.38). Worse than expected: When combined with other findings, the article Continue Reading →
The USA now seeks to do nuclear waste dumps deals with other countries after the USA EPA set a high standard of radiation emission the US Government must meet for 10,000 years to 1 million years into the future. Yucca Mountain waste dump an election issue: On August 9, 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed Continue Reading →