Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
Three kinds of people came to Tone Wheeler for help. There were the
“green fanatics”, the “green aware” and the “green dumb”, said the
Sydney architect and author, reported The Australian (26/11/2005, p. 9).
The state government of Western Australia claims to have created
the first tradeable right to offset carbon dioxide pollution by tree
plantings in Australia, according to Tony McRae, secretary to the
Agricultre Minister. An international market would allow sale of this
credit to an ever-increasing trading network. Australia’s refusal to
enter into the Kyoto Protocol results in Australia being locked out of
this lucrative trade, he said. The new scheme will use Mallee Eucalypts
to hold carbon dioxide permanently.
The carbon Credits are being purchased by a Japanese power company.
Senior government ministers ask the Prime Minister to release $1million
in research to develop an Australian Nuclear Electricity industry.
Their logic is that we are giving away a valuable energy resource in a
time of impending energy shortages.
Electricity retailer Integral Energy introduces new tarrif to penalise
use of air conditioners. Responding to ongoing calls for demand
management to prevent Australian demand for electricity outstripping
our capacity to supply it, the company has introduced a tarrif
structure that will penalise large electricity users.
Geodynamics optimistic of getting; hopes to be awarded a federal government grant in
the order of $50 to $70 million for its zero emission project
Geodynamics managing director Bertus de Graaf is optimistic of getting
his hot rock energy project back on track by next May. The
three-year-old budding alternative energy supplier project was set back
a year into its quest to turn the scalding 250-degree hot granite rocks
under the Cooper Basin into energy by capturing the super-heated steam
inside its underground heat exchanger, reported The Courier Mail (24 November 2005, p.27).
By 2010 Australian greenhouse gas emissions from stationary energy will
be 61% higher than 1990 levels, and by 2020 will be 116% higher, if
nothing is done to reduce them, according to the Australian Bureau for Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE) (23 November 2005).