EcoRadio

Category: News

Add your news
You can add news from your networks or groups through the website by becoming an author. Simply register as a member of the Generator, and then email Giovanni asking to become an author. He will then work with you to integrate your content into the site as effectively as possible.
Listen to the Generator News online

 
The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
As well as Giovanni’s articles it picks up the most pertinent articles from a range of other news services. You can publish the news feed on your website using RSS, free of charge.
 

  • Climate Institute Report card fails Labor and Coalition, with Greens outright winner

    The Climate Institute report card on the parties’ climate change policies shows a stark contrast between the successful Greens (90%) and failed Coalition (23%) and Labor (40%). The environment and climate change tops the economy as a voters’ concern in 2007.

    "The Climate Institute’s methodology is conservative. For example, it overlooks the huge greenhouse gas policies of both big parties in promoting the logging and burning of Tasmania’s forests and Gunns’ polluting pulp mill which will exude 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Both parties back public monies going to fund these activities," Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

    "The Greens’ policy to retrofit Australia’s 7.4 million homes with insulation and a solar hot water service has not been matched by Mr Turnbull or Mr Garrett," Senator Brown said.

    "And neither party is prepared for the shock news (Guardian overnight)that world oil production peaked in 2006 and will fall 7% per year – an issue Greens Senator Christine Milne has pursued in the senate for years."

    "The Greens’ call for a funding switch from tollways to fast, efficient public transport must be heard by Labor and the Coalition," Senator Brown said.

  • Queensland delivers world’s most expensive water

    More waste-water necessary: A Water Commission spokesperson said the cost of Western Corridor recycled water should be assessed on a whole-of-life basis rather than simply on initial output levels, which would be expected to pick up once the drought broke and restrictions were eased. However, without additional sources of waste-water, there would barely be enough water to supply South East Queensland’s power stations, let alone provide extra potable water for two million residents.

    Grey water could be used: National water officials were not aware of more expensive water anywhere in the world. The Queensland Water Commission had been searching without success for viable waste-water sources for the past six months — yet had turned a blind eye to one of the most obvious. Tens of millions of litres of grey water diverted into gardens and yards each day could be sent down the drain for recycling. It said the Government had been fooling residents when it masked a pipeline cost blowout with the announcement it would have a capacity of 300 million litres a day. The so-called increase in capacity meant nothing in the absence of increased water.

    Dams about to fall 20 per cent below capacity: SEQ dams were on track to fall below 20 per cent of capacity next month without further heavy rain.

    The Courier Mail, 16/10/2007, p. 4

  • UK claims Antarctic sea floor

    Aus claim not pursued: All territorial claims in the far south were frozen under the terms of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. Despite strong indications of offshore oil and gas reserves, a ban on minerals exploration could not be revisited there until 2048. But the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf opened the way for claimant countries to extend their possessions anyway. The Federal Government spent $40 million to survey a claim to about 1.8 million square kilometres of extended continental shelf off the Australian Antarctic Territory, which it lodged with the UN, drawing objections from six countries. In a compromise that avoided more open conflict, Australia lodged the claim with the UN commission, then asked that it be shelved.

    Likely to be shelved, too: "It’s likely not to go far because it is contested sovereignty," said Dr Hemmings, a senior fellow at the University of Canterbury’s Gateway Antarctica. "The UK proposal would be sure to attract a raft of protests too." Hemmings said countries that made claims did so because under the terms of the Commission of the limits on the Continental Shelf they had a "use it or lose it" deadline of 2009.

    The Age, 18/10/2007, p. 5

  • Food prices soaring on international markets

    Impact of international markets: Economists Katie Dean, Riki Polygenis and Amber Rabinov estimated food prices would rise 5 per cent this financial year and were unlikely to retreat much because developments in international markets would outweigh the benefits of any return to normal seasonal conditions.

    Massive price increases due to global demand, constrained supply: An increase in global food demand at a time of constrained supply had helped drive massive growth in many basic foodstuffs. In the 12 months to September the price of barley had soared by 128 per cent on global trading exchanges, while wheat had gained 60 per cent and dairy products such as powdered milk had surged 79 per cent. Adverse weather conditions had hit grain crops, with growth forecasts for global wheat production in 2007-08 slashed from 5.4 per cent to 1.7 per cent.

    Long-term constraints in food supply: Climate change and a decrease in arable land because of population growth, industrialisation and environmental degradation threatened to constrain food supply in the long term.

    The Australian Financial Review, 19/10/2007, p. 18

  • US Speeds up tide power permits

    At the Portland meeting on October 2, FERC officials stressed that for the pilot program to succeed, state and other federal agencies would have to be on board or the timetable wouldn’t work.

    "We need other agencies to develop their own processes for this to work," said John Katz, an energy attorney in FERC’s office of general counsel.

    During a morning panel, wave company officials wondered whether the 5 MW limit on the project is sufficient and suggested the license might be granted for a period longer than five years.

    "A five-year term is not long enough to get a return on your investment," said Daniel Irwin, president and CEO of Free Flow Power Corporation, a company that designs and manufactures turbines mainly used to harness river energy. "Why not grant a longer-term license and make the investor or company take the risk. If anything meets this threshold it’ll get pulled."

    Irwin also wondered "what thresholds will there be for it to be required to be pulled out?"

    Kevin Bannister, vice president of business development for Finavera Renewables, agreed that the unknowns are a block to more investment in ocean energies. "The investment community looks at regulatory uncertainties as probably the primary barrier to getting involved in this."

    Finavera lowered the first test buoy for wave energy off the Oregon Coast in late August and has a project in the planning process in Makah Bay in Washington. Bannister also wondered whether the same amount of work would be required of a developer for the pilot 5-year license as for a full 30-year commercial one. If that were the case "we’d obviously go for the commercial license."

    Steve Kopf, a consultant with Ocean Power Technologies Inc. (OPT) asked if there would be a reward for positive results. "If there are problems, we take it out. But if not, do we get to build it out?"

    OPT wants to put 14 buoys off the Oregon coast near Reedsport by 2009, which could expand to a wave park of 200 buoys in the area.

    Finavera’s Bannister agreed. "What’s the reward once we’ve proven that our technologies are doing what they do? From our perspective it should be an expedited permitting process."

    Following the meeting FERC’s Katz said he felt the proposal got a mixed reception, with Oregon state regulators more eager to move than Washington ones. "The Oregon folks say: Yeah we’re there. We absolutely want to do this. The Washington folks say there are a lot of problems here. We just don’t know."

    Annie Szvetecz, the southwest regional assistance lead in the Washington Governor’s Office of Regulatory Assistance, mainly agreed with Katz’s assessment. In a phone conversation following the conference, Szvetecz said Washington is facing different challenges from Oregon.

    Oregon is "being very pro-active about wanting the ocean technology," Szvetcz said. The feedback she’s getting from her agencies is that "the time frame for the permits doesn’t necessarily overlap with the six-month proposal.

    Tim Stearns, senior energy policy specialist with the Washington Department of Community Trade and Economic Development said one key is that Oregon wants to put its projects in the Pacific Ocean while Washington is looking toward locating them in the Puget Sound "which has a lot of problems as is."

    From FERC’s perspective, Katz said, it’s important that state agencies come on board. "It’s a large part of the battle if a relevant state agency or state government wants to help out because they have authority to make recommendations. They have the Coastal Zone Management Act. Input into all the other stuff. So if the state says, `We’re comfortable with all this stuff. We can do it,’—That really gives a big push, because they are a major player. Yes it’s a federal license, but the states are major players….It’s one of those things—if there’s a will there’s a way. And if there’s not, it won’t happen."

    Miriam Widman has more than 20 years experience as a journalist and has covered the wave and solar industries for Off the Record Research, an investment research group. She also contributes to NPR and to the Willamette Week, a weekly newspaper in Portland, Oregon.

  • Collapse in carbon price halts green schemes

    Doubts were raised about how a state scheme would merge with any national emissions trading scheme when the Prime Minister, John Howard, released his emissions trading report in May, according to The Sydney Morning Herald (11/9/2007, p.2).

    Energy-saving devices no longer economical: The New South Wales carbon price, already languishing around $11 a tonne, had fallen further in July, when Howard appeared to exclude demand management and energy efficiency abatement from the scheme. At $6, it was no longer econ­omical for companies such as Easy Being Green, Neco and Fieldforce to install light bulbs, low-flow showerheads and other energy-saving devices into homes free or at heavily discounted prices. Paul Gilding, CEO of Easy Being Green, said the scheme’s most cost-effective and efficient way of cutting greenhouse gas pollution would disappear. "That will be a tragedy," he said. "This is the scheme that is cutting greenhouse gas pollution at the mass consumer level."

    Certificates too easy to obtain: The NSW Government had been accused by some market partici­pants and green groups of con­tributing to the collapse by making it too easy to generate cer­tificates that did not represent genuine greenhouse gas cuts. The NSW Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water, Phil Koperberg, had declined a request for an interview. A spokesperson for him blamed the Federal Government for the market crash. The State Government had formed a taskforce to investigate the price collapse.

    Energy efficiency companies struggling: The head of the NSW advisory panel on climate change, Martijn Wilder, from the law firm Baker & McKenzie, had said he believed a number of energy efficiency companies in the market were "on the edge". He said there were two simple factors: the oversup­ply of certificates and the uncer­tainty in the market since the Federal Government announced its carbon trading scheme. Fieldforce’s managing direc­tor, Craig Bathie, said if the price of carbon remained at $6, more than half of NSW householders would miss out on free or dis­counted energy installations, and his company might have to lay off a couple of hundred em­ployees in rural areas. Neco’s carbon services direc­tor, Ben O’Callaghan, had said his company might have to close its regional Carbon Services Div­ision, and 60 jobs in 10 regional locations would be lost.

    The Sydney Morning Herald, 11/9/2007, p. 2