EcoRadio

Author: admin

  • Green Loans debacle continues as audit reports reveal extent of wrong doing

    Green Loans debacle continues as audit reports reveal extent of
    wrong-doing

    Thursday 8 July 2010

    There are more questions than answers remaining about the Gillard
    government’s household energy efficiency programs after today’s
    announcement by Minister Penny Wong.

    The changes to the Green Loans program, rolling it into the already
    planned Green Start program, come as the Minister released damning audit
    reports into the management of Green Loans. Patricia Faulkner’s report
    found that 96% of procurements breached proper practices and there were
    ‘repeated and systematic breaches’ of financial management regulations.

    “The thousands of small business people who have been left in the lurch
    by the extraordinary mismanagement of this program will feel vindicated
    by these incredibly damning audit reports,” Australian Greens Deputy
    Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

    “But feeling vindicated does not pay the bills. These people need
    solutions and today’s announcement still leaves them in limbo, with
    little clarity about the future.

    “Even today’s announcement was botched, with little information provided
    on the changes to the scheme and the audit reports released, then
    removed from the Department’s website before finally being replaced over
    an hour later.

    “The audit reports make for deeply troubling reading, with systematic
    breaches of procurement policies and basic financial management
    regulations.

    “Unlike the understandably rushed insulation roll-out, Green Loans was a
    long-planned election promise. You have to ask how the training,
    accreditation and seemingly every other process went so badly wrong.

    “It is important to note that the ‘new’ Green Start program is not new.
    It has been long planned. The Minister has not made it clear how the two
    previously separate programs will interact, or revealed basics such as
    how many household assessments they intend to procure through the new
    grant administration arrangements.

    “Thousands of assessors are still in limbo, with no clarity as to how
    their numbers will be culled and no news on whether compensation will be
    forthcoming. All those who have been accredited but not yet contracted
    to the department are still waiting for any change.

    “Regardless of the problems with both the insulation roll-out and the
    Green Loans scheme, energy efficiency remains by far the fastest and
    cheapest way to reduce emissions, and the Greens have positive and
    constructive ideas for how to make it happen.

    “The Greens will continue to work with assessors and others to attempt
    to convince Minister Wong to support their desire to help Australian
    householders save money and energy.”

    The audit reports are available at:
    http://www.climatechange.gov.au/media/whats-new/green-loans.aspx

    Tim Hollo
    Media Adviser
    Senator Christine Milne | Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Climate
    Change Spokesperson
    Suite SG-112 Parliament House, Canberra ACT | P: 02 6277 3588 | M: 0437
    587 562
    http://www.christinemilne.org.au/| www.GreensMPs.org.au
    <http://www.greensmps.org.au/>

    PROTECTING THE CLIMATE IS A JOB FOR EVERYONE

    Sign-up to GreensMPs <http://greensmps.org.au/stay-informed>
    GreensBlog <http://greensblog.org/>
    Twitter <http://twitter.com/GreensMPs>

    Please consider the environment before printing this email.

    _______________________________________________
    GreensMPs Media mailing list

  • Gillard urged to spell out plan to tackle climate change

     

    Related Coverage

    “It is as disappointing to me as it is to millions of Australians that we do not have a price on carbon,” she said.

    “If elected as Prime Minister I will re-prosecute the case for a carbon price at home and abroad.”

    Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt told The Australian Online today that the only option open to Ms Gillard was to adopt a form of the Coalition’s policy.

    “I think we are set for the government to adopt significant elements of the Coalition’s policy, but in standard practice, to deny that they’ve done it,” he said.

    He also accused Ms Gillard of engaging in a “deliberate deception”.

    “On the first day she clearly indicated to the Australian people that she intended to proceed with an ETS and carbon pricing. And that was a deliberate deception and she’s been forced to back down within two weeks.”

    Mr Hunt concluded that if the Prime Minister wouldn’t consider proceeding with an ETS until 2012 it would not be implemented until at least 2014.

    Senator Brown has also reacted angrily to the postponement of a carbon price.

    “Australians are going to be thoroughly disappointed,” he said.

    “This is really a failure of action by a future Gillard government and it’s being dragged to the electorate before the election.”

    A paper released yesterday at the Lowy Institute that charting an alternate path to address global climate change also appeared to be dismissed by the government yesterday.

    The paper – co-authored by economist and Reserve Bank board member Professor Warwick McKibbin – recommends that the Major Economies Forum instead of the UN should move to implement a carbon price because its 17 members were responsible for 80 per cent of carbon emissions world-wide.

    It would see heavy-polluting countries like Australia, the US and China agree to set a similar carbon price, to rise over time, while the UN could continue with its own efforts.

    But the office of Climate Change Minister Penny Wong was dismissive of the proposal.

    “Our efforts are best focused on implementing the pledges already made through the Copenhagen Accord, rather than spending valuable time re-negotiating the whole global framework for tackling climate change,” a spokeswoman told The Australian Online.
     

  • Giant solar-powered plane begins pioneering flight

     

    Mr Piccard, 52, and Mr Borschberg, a businessman and former military pilot, aim to build a second prototype that will fly the Atlantic and then, in 2013, around the world.

    That flight will be conducted with five-day hops because of the limits of endurance for human pilots.

    Borschberg and Piccard, who were the two main pilots for the single seater plane, trained to stay alert with only micro-naps for up to five days at a time.

    To save weight and keep the pilot active, the aircraft has no automatic pilot.

    The plane takes off at just over 32 kilometers per hour  and cruises at about 56 kph, making it vulnerable to turbulence and headwinds.

  • Switzerland Brings Electric Cars to Alpine Tourism

    Switzerland Brings Electric Car to Alpine Tourism

    July 02, 2010

    A Swiss green tourism project dubbed Alpmobil promotes the use of battery driven vehicles and leaves them available for tourists to use

     

    A pair of sturdy goats led 10 cows with regional and national flags tied to horns and bridles up towards the mountains this week at the launch of a new Swiss eco-project. Behind the animals came a silent line of 60 brightly coloured small cars, which then sped off – equally silently – towards the nearest Alpine pass.

     

    “I think just one of those cows made more noise than all of us put together,” said bemused Swiss tourism official Federico Somarruga, at the wheel of one of the two-seater automobiles.

     

    The occasion was the launch in central Switzerland of a green tourism project, dubbed Alpmobil, to promote the use of battery-driven electric vehicles by summer visitors to the area some 100 km (63 miles) southeast of the Swiss capital Bern.

     

    The area’s plentiful electricity supplies, created by harnessing the power of mountain waters through reservoirs and dams, have been tapped to provide over 20 battery charge-points serving up, Alpmobil says, totally green energy.

     

    Alpmobil, whose sponsors include the regional hydropower giant KWO and cantonal governments and climate research authorities, has acquired the 60 “Think” cars from the pioneering Norwegian EV company of the same name.

     

    They will be on hire between July and September at hotels, garages and railway stations for 60 Swiss francs (US$54) a day across the area’s Goms and Haslital regions and Alpmobil offers booking on its so-far only German language website — www.alpmobil.ch.

     

    The “Think”, built in Finland by speciality manufacturer Valmet Automotive, was conceived – like most electric vehicles – as a town car, but Alpmobil’s spokesman Dionys Hallenbarter says it is also ideal for leisurely mountain touring. A smooth 20-km (12.5 mile) drive up from Meiringen round hairpin bends to the 2,165-metre (6,800 foot) Grimsell Pass and back suggests he is right.

     

  • New PM, same disregard for the disadvantaged

    New PM, same disregard for the disadvantaged.

    Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson for Community Services has
    today expressed great disappointment with the Prime Minister’s decision
    to continue punitive income management measures in the Northern
    Territory.

    “Despite a change in leader, the Government is persisting with this
    draconian approach to the most marginalised people in our society,”
    Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

    “It is disappointing to hear the Prime Minister repeating the rhetoric
    of Minister Jenny Macklin, making claims about income management that
    are not supported by the evidence.

    “Rather than simply rubber stamping the bad decisions made under Kevin
    Rudd, the PM should be taking ownership of this issue herself. She needs
    to apply close scrutiny to the income management claims made by Minister
    Macklin.

    “The Prime Minister should thoroughly review the so called evidence and
    reflect on the huge amount of money that will be wasted with this flawed
    approach. This money would be better invested in approaches that really
    work.

     “Minister Macklin’s claim that the introduction of indiscriminate
    mandatory income management is ‘all about human dignity’ is nothing
    short of hypocrisy, a look at the on-the-ground impacts of the policies
    on Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory show that this is
    anything but the case.

    “The Prime Minister may be different, but the Government’s attitude to
    marginalised and disadvantaged people around the country hasn’t
    changed,” Senator Siewert concluded.

    _______________________________________________
    GreensMPs Media mailing list
    Media@greensmps.org.au

  • Wilderness Society suspends Marr

    Wilderness Society suspends Marr

    Updated 2 hours 27 minutes ago

    Wilderness Society campaign director Alec Marr

    Mr Marr has been asked to respond to several claims. (AAP: Alan Porritt, file photo)

    The Wilderness Society’s executive director Alec Marr has been suspended by the organisation’s new management.

    Mr Marr was involved in a leadership stoush which has caused months of unrest in the conservation group.

    A break away group, Save the Wilderness Society, passed a resolution to dissolve the existing committee earlier this year saying members had lost faith.

    At the time Mr Marr maintained his committee was still in control.

    Last week, the annual general meeting elected to replace the entire board with eight new members.

    A Wilderness Society spokeswoman says the new management group had asked Mr Marr to step down but he has now been suspended for two weeks.

    Mr Marr has been asked to respond to several claims and is expected to meet the new management again next week.

    He has been suspended on full pay and has declined to comment.

    Tags: environment, activism-and-lobbying, australia, tas, hobart-7000

    First posted 2 hours 54 minutes ago