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The John James Newsletter 55

The John James Newsletter 55
17 April 2015

Information is the currency of democracyThomas Jefferson.
The volume of major military deals concluded by the Obama administration in its first FIVE years exceeds the amount approved by the Bush administration in its entire EIGHT years in office by nearly $30 billion.

Open this interactive and be amazedKeep it in the groundHow much fossil fuel has been extracted since you arrived at this page? Or since you were born? The numbers below highlight the staggering amount of oil, coal and gas we take out of the ground – and how quickly change is needed.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/apr/10/how-much-fossil-fuel-are-we-using-right-now?CMP=EMCENVEML1631
City of Vancouver votes to go 100% renewableVancouver joins Sydney; San Diego, California; San Francisco, California; Stockholm, Sweden; Munich, Germany; and others set aim on 100% renewables and for 100% of heating + cooling coming from renewable energy sources. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/city-of-vancouver-votes-to-go-100-renewable-35733
Video Message From Gaza: We Are Still Under The RubbleMore than 7 months after the ceasefire announcement in #Gaza, not a single totally destroyed home has been rebuilt.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMzCzaQECGE ‘Gaza Is a Tomb’In the rubble of the Gaza Strip, the militias are once again arming, training and preparing for the inevitable war with Israel. “The war could start any minute,” says Abu Mujahid.https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/13/gaza-is-a-tomb-israel-palestine-militias/
Record sea-surface temperatures in Pacific point to record warmth in 2015 and 2016 http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/about/sst_timeseries.shtml and A 1,000 Mile Stretch Of The Pacific Ocean Has Heated Up Several Degreeshttp://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/a-1000-mile-stretch-of-the-pacific-ocean-has-heated-up-several-degrees-and-scientists-dont-know-why
Electric Car Batteries Just Hit A Key Price PointElectric vehicle demand in the past five years has soared worldwide. By the end of 2014, more than 700,000 total plug-in vehicles had been sold (plug-in hybrids and pure battery electrics), up from about 400,000 at the end of 2013. As of 2015, dozens of models of electric cars and vans are available. A major reason is the rapid drop in the cost of their batteries. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/13/3646004/electric-car-batteries-price/
North Siberian Arctic Permafrost Methane Eruption Vents The world is predicted to produce exactly the same mantle methane release from permafrost eruption vents by the 2050’s as occurred in the Late Permian Extinction Event of 252m years ago: called The Great Dying when over 93% of all species were extinguished. Mankind has released a giant, long dormant methane preserve generated between 100 km and 300 km depth and at temperatures of above 1200°C. This is now a region of massive methane emissions with no easy way to reseal.http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/north-siberian-arctic-permafrost-methane-eruption-vents.html Map shows where the Trapp Volcanics released the gasses that instigated the Great Dying
How to Deal With the Iranian Genii? What Israel really feared was not Iran’s non-existent nuclear threat but its ongoing support for the Palestinians. US policy has been to keep the infectious, troublesome Iranians isolated and contained. While the reason was Iran’s nuclear threat, the sanctions regime was really aimed at fatally weakening Iran’s economy and provoking the overthrow of the Islamic government and its replacement by tame Iranian exiles.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41521.htm
Iran approved to join China-backed infrastructure bankMore than 50 countries have now applied to join the bank in a diplomatic coup for Beijing after Washington initially opposed its allies becoming members.http://news.yahoo.com/iran-approved-join-china-backed-infrastructure-bank-103455398.html
All options including military action open on IranIsraeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said that all options including military action were on the table in the face of the “threat” of a nuclear-armed Iran.AND I THOUGHT WE HAD AN AGREEMENT TO END IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM?HOW SOME PEOPLE WANT WAR, NO MATTER WHAT THE CONSEQUENCES.http://news.yahoo.com/options-including-military-action-open-iran-israel-105611579.html
The downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 (as observed from Australia)
A multi-part analysis that asks “Is it correct that on 7 August 2014 The New Straits Times lay out evidence that Ukrainian fighter aircraft attacked the jetliner with first a missile, then with bursts of 30-millimetre machine gun fire from both sides, and that the Russian army has already presented detailed radar and satellite data showing a Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet tailing MH17 shortly before the jetliner crashed?” http://theaimn.com/downing-malaysia-airlines-mh17-observed-australia-part-1/
Guatemalans claim they were deliberately infected with STDs sue Johns Hopkins for $1bnLawsuit with 800 plaintiffs seeks damages deliberate infection with STDs against Johns Hopkins University over its alleged role in the deliberate infection of hundreds of vulnerable Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhoea, during a medical experiment programme in the 1940s and 1950s.http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/02/johns-hopkins-lawsuit-deliberate-std-infections-guatemala
At Behest of IMF, Jamaicans Face the Harshest Austerity Policies in WorldThis poverty- and debt- stricken nation faces budget more severe even than Greece’s. Thanks to policies imposed by the IMF Jamaica has the most severe austerity budget on the planet. The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio stands at nearly 140%, and it has some of the highest interest payments in the world at 8 percent of GDP last year. http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/07/behest-imf-jamaicans-face-harshest-austerity-policies-world-report
$45 Billion in Tax Dollars Goes Missing in Afghanistan http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/04/01/45-Billion-Tax-Dollars-Goes-Missing-Afghanistan
US secretly tracked billions of calls nearly a decade BEFORE 9/11 Secret records of international telephone calls harvesting billions of calls to as many as 116 countries in a program that provided a blueprint for the far broader NSA surveillance that followed. The data collection began in 1992. It was approved by top Justice Department officials in four presidential administrations with little independent oversight. [Ergo, Bush and his successor Obama had/have been lying to the public for years about the ‘need’ for blanket NSA surveillance to avoid another 9/11–when all the surveillance in the world didn’t prevent the first.] http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2015/04/07/us-secretly-tracked-billions-of-calls-for-decades/25434673/
China Spoils Washington’s Economic War against VenezuelaIn countering US economic aggression against Venezuela, China steps in with a 10 billion dollar loan – China is making a habit of bailing out countries targeted by US sanctionshttp://russia-insider.com/en/financial-war-us-china-granted-venezuela-billion-loan/5220
Spain obtained 47% of its electricity from renewables in MarchMost of the renewable electricity being generated in Spain comes from wind, which alone provided 22% of the country’s electricity last month.http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/spain-got-47-of-its-electricity-from-renewables-in-march-21961
Saudi firm buys Australia big solar projectsA company based in the world’s largest oil exporting nation, Saudi Arabia, has become the new owner of Australia’s second-largest solar plant – the under-construction 72MW Moree PV project.http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/opec-nations-turn-to-sun-as-saudi-firm-buys-australia-big-solar-projects-87764
Rwanda revisitedFormer President Clinton said he never knew the extent of suffering during Rwanda’s genocide. But America’s diplomats on the ground knew exactly what was happening — and they told Washington.https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/05/rwanda-revisited-genocide-united-states-state-department/
Dogs trained to detect prostate cancer with more than 90% accuracy An Italian team in several studies stretching back decades raises the prospect of canines’ sense of smell helping doctors identify a number of human cancers and infectious diseases. The two female dogs sniffed urine samples from 900 men, 360 with prostate cancer and 540 without. Both animals were right over 90%.http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/11/dogs-trained-detect-prostate-cancer-accuracy?CMP=ema_565
China will build a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran to PakistanThe pipeline would be an early benefit from the framework agreement reached earlier this month between Tehran and the US to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-to-build-pipeline-from-iran-to-pakistan-1428515277

The US Can Download the Entire Contents of Your Computer at Border CrossingsNone of the hundreds of thousands of travellers who cross US borders every day have any right to privacy, Based upon little more than the opinion of a single Customs and Border officer, any device can be searched and its contents read, and even seized and its contents copied.http://motherboard.vice.com/read/you-have-no-right-to-electronic-privacy-when-you-cross-the-us-border
Defence Housing to create solar suburb in Darwin, ready for electric vehiclesNew development to create 337kW solar suburb, producing 600,000kWh of electricity a year and saving Defence members more than $4m in electricity costs.http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/defence-housing-to-create-solar-suburb-in-darwin-ready-for-evs-29977
Australia Powered by the People. Help map solar installations around Australia. The team at the Australian PV Institute have created some amazing maps around solar energy installations. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/australian-solar-map
Russian man to undergo first head-to-body transplantDoctors seem to be a step closer to performing a breakthrough surgery by transplanting a human head onto another body. A Russian man with a rare genetic muscle-wasting disorder has volunteered to be the first to try the procedure.http://rt.com/news/248473-transplant-head-body-canavero/
Documents Showing How the Empire Plans to Overthrow PutinThis information was posted on an anonymous blog Drakula’s blog.http://drakulablog.com/2015/04/01/west-and-ukraine-against-putin-and-his-politicians/.  It looks very credible, so , so take a look here for comparison purposes.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41514.htm

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Macfarlane’s judgement questioned as the RET fallout spreads

Tristan Edis 1 hour ago 4

Climate Carbon markets Energy markets Policy & Politics Renewable energy Solar energy Wind power

As investment in large-scale renewables hits rock bottom, stakeholders from across the spectrum of the debate on the Renewable Energy Target are questioning whether Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has let ego cloud his judgement.

Even though Labor’s position on the level of the large-scale RET at 33,500GWh represents:

a 30% cut in renewable capacity additions relative to Labor’s election platform; and
is endorsed not just by the renewable energy industry but also the Energy Users Association, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Aluminium Council, the Cement Federation and (for Senator Jacqui Lambie’s benefit) the Tasmanian Minerals and Energy Council;

Macfarlane continues to claim Labor are asking too much.

Only 32,000GWh is reasonable and sensible, says Macfarlane, even though the speed with which you’d need to construct new projects is virtually indistinguishable from that required under 33,500GWh.

More from Tristan Edis

15 Apr Energy demand disconnects from economic growth
14 Apr Direct Action: a billion-dollar party no one wants to attend?
13 Apr The hidden agenda behind the NSW gas crisis hysteria
13 Apr Talk of Abbott abandoning 2-degree goal causes alarm
10 Apr Grim and grimmer: Analysts deliver double blow to coal

Source: Climate Spectator analysis

Of course, if the government was really worried about running out of time to reach the target, you wonder why they put the industry into suspended animation the moment they were elected by committing to a review of the RET within 12 months of it already having been reviewed.

If we look at the latest Australian utility-scale investment figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (below) we see the real problem with achieving the level of construction to meet the target is the government doing reviews, not the industry’s capacity to deliver. From the fourth quarter of 2012 to Q1 2013 (calendar year), investment died while the industry waited to hear the prior Labor government’s response to the Climate Change Authority review. Once resolved it spiked back up to levels of $800 million per quarter in Q2 and Q3.

If we’d just kept investment at about this level then we’d have been able to build the 8000 megawatts or so of capacity to meet the original 41,000GWh target, let alone 33,500GWh.

Figure 2: Investment in new large-scale renewable energy projects in Australia, Q1 2011 to Q1 2015 ($USm)

Alas in Q4 of 2013 the Abbott Government was elected saying they’d like to review the scheme all over again, and investment dived. Were it not for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (which the government wants abolished) then even the Q3 2014 $174 million investment largely associated with the Moree Solar Farm would have been obliterated.

What’s interesting is that it’s now reached a point where industry stakeholders outside the renewable energy sector wonder out aloud to you what on earth Macfarlane is trying to prove.

He’s arguing over an amount of energy and a level of cost that is inconsequential for the wider energy market (but very important to the renewable energy sector). Not even the big power incumbents see much of a benefit from his position. Meanwhile, he’s spooking the banks and foreign investors that the electricity sector more generally is now captive to the culture wars.

His claim he’ll do a deal with the cross-bench is laughed off as a hollow threat. Glen Lazarus, Dio Wang and Ricky Muir have all made very public, unambiguous statements that they don’t want to change the RET.

But on top of getting one of them to change their mind, he then needs to cobble together a coalition which includes an extreme libertarian; a social conservative socialist and trade protectionist; a defender of Tasmania as a welfare dependent state; Nick Xenophon, who partly counts on voters that would otherwise vote Greens; as well as Bob Day (but he’s really a Liberal Party person in disguise, so not much problem there).

The one thing in Macfarlane’s favour is that this rabble of five are united in their distaste for wind farms. But Lambie wants another free-kick for Tasmanian Hydro. Madigan wants a range of restrictions placed on wind farms that would slow development, threatening timely achievement of the targets and blowing out the cost. While Xenophon wants the scheme’s target banded into separate sections to support geothermal and large-scale solar, which will increase administrative complexity and also blow out cost. Even then, Xenophon would need to think twice before signing onto such a deal because it will cost him an important segment of his voters with a green tinge.

The end result, if Macfarlane can manage to pull it off, is a scheme that’s an administrative headache and risk management nightmare for the big three power retailers, and that would cost consumers more money than if Macfarlane just agreed to 33,500GWh. It has stakeholders from all sides of the debate shaking their heads.

Meanwhile, Coalition backbenchers with the most at stake are finding it hard to hide their frustration with Macfarlane. Ken O’Dowd was the first to speak out. Regional South Australia MP Rowan Ramsay is also feeling the heat from local constituents who can see first-hand significant economic benefits from the substantial wind farm development in that seat. Sarah Henderson wants a deal urgently knowing her Victorian seachanger seat of Corangamite hangs on a knife edge. And even Dan Tehan, who sits in the safe western Victorian seat formerly held by Malcolm Fraser, was driven to publicly urge a deal last week. While being careful to not directly criticise Macfarlane, Tehan said jobs were on the line. Local employer and wind tower manufacturer Keppel Prince has already had to lay off a large proportion of its workforce due to uncertainty over the RET, and there’s a few billion dollars of wind farm investment on the line in that seat. On top of this, Tehan’s seat includes an aluminium smelter desperate to get the exemption currently on offer from Labor.

Given Macfarlane has so publicly dug himself into resisting calls from stakeholders to agree to 33,500GWh, hopes have switched to Tony Abbott intervening to overrule his minister. But so far Abbott doesn’t appear too concerned.
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