Nuclear question splits EU climate talks | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Nuclear question splits EU climate talks

carbon-free nuclear power MUST be included

Nuclear question splits EU climate talks

David Gow and Ian Traynor in Brussels
Thursday March 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Deep divisions over nuclear power and renewable energy threatened to derail the EU's campaign to assume a global leadership in the fight against climate change at the 27-strong bloc's spring summit which began last night.

Warning that "it is closer to five past midnight than five to midnight" for international measures to combat global warming, German chancellor Angela Merkel, chairing the meeting, urged EU leaders to "deliver results for our grandchildren" by making Europe the world's first low-carbon economy via a unilateral 20% cut in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

But France, backed by several east European countries, insisted that carbon-free nuclear power be included within the proposed EU energy mix and rejected Ms Merkel's proposal to make a 20% target for renewable energy binding on all 27 members.

At his swansong summit outgoing French president Jacques Chirac insisted that he would only agree to binding energy targets if nuclear power were included and proposed that 45% of the mix come from non-fossil fuel sources. France gets 80% of its power from nuclear power plants.

Nuclear energy, according to draft summit conclusions, is a choice for individual EU countries but France won backing for its stance against binding renewable targets from nine other countries, including the Czechs, Poles and other ex-communist countries which believe these will damage their economic growth. Austria, Ireland, Sweden and Germany are all formally opposed to atomic energy.

Ernest-Antoine Seillière, French head of BusinessEurope, the EU's main business lobby, told Ms Merkel: "As regards binding obligations on renewables, nobody has the foggiest idea of what the costs can be - the social or financial costs." But most EU leaders accept the Stern report's conclusions that failure to tackle climate change could plunge the world into its deepest recession since 1926.

Ms Merkel, backed by Tony Blair, wants the EU to commit itself to the 20% cut before the G8 summit in early June where other industrialised countries, especially the US, and emerging economies, such as China, will be pressed to agree a 30% global cut in UN negotiations later this year on a replacement Kyoto protocol after 2012.

But green campaigners, demanding a 25% renewables target and rejecting nuclear energy outright, accused the EU of double standards and insisted it adopt the 30% target forthwith.

They said the EU would reach a 15% cut in CO2 emissions by 2012 because of the collapse of industry in its east European members and required just an extra 5% cut to hit its 2020 goal.

"A leadership role, as Merkel demands, looks quite different," Greenpeace said.

Polar bears 'thriving as the Arctic warms up' | International News | News | Telegraph

Polar bears 'thriving as the Arctic warms up'

W@hats that ? Saint Albert of Oscarville is full of BS ?!#

Pictures of a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining image of global warming but may be misleading, according to a new study.
Polar bear experts said that numbers had increased due to the efforts of conservationists
A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.
In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.
"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the animals.
His findings back the claims of Inuit hunters who have long claimed that they were seeing more bears.
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"Scientific knowledge has demonstrated that Inuit knowledge was right," said Mr Taylor.
While fellow scientists have accepted Mr Taylor's findings, critics point out that his study was commissioned by the Inuit-dominated government of Nunavit.
Critics claim the government has an agenda to encourage polar bear hunting and keep the animals off the endangered species list.
In small Inuit communities, hunters kill bears that wander too close to human settlements and, in this particular region, they are licensed to kill six polar bears a year.
Polar bear experts said that numbers had increased not because of climate change but due to the efforts of conservationists.
The battle to ban the hunting of Harp seal pups has meant the seal population has soared - boosting the bears' food supply.
At the same time, fewer seal hunters are around to hunt bears.
"I don't think there is any question polar bears are in danger from global warming," said Andrew Derocher of the World Conservation Union, and a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. "People who deny that have a clear interest in hunting bears."
Bear numbers on the west coast of Hudson's Bay had shrunk by 22 per cent over the past decade, he said.
"They are declining due to global warming and changes in when the ice freezes and melts in Hudson's Bay," he added. He and other scientists in his group are concerned that the retreating ice in the Arctic may pose a danger to future generations of polar bears because of 'habitat loss'. "The critical problem is the sea ice is changing. "We're looking ahead three generations, 30 to 50 years.
"To say that bear populations are growing in one area now is irrelevant."
However, Prof Derocher conceded that some polar bear-related evidence of the damaging effect of global warming was misplaced.
Contrary to concern over a celebrated photograph of a bear and its cub floating on a tiny iceberg, the animals often travel in that way, he said.
"Bears will often hang out on glacier ice or large pieces of multi-year ice," he said.
The state of Alaska yesterday questioned the scientific justification for proposals to add polar bears to the US endangered species list.
Tina Cunnings, a biologist attached to the Alaskan government, questioned whether they needed sea ice to survive, saying they could adapt to hunt on land and find alternative food sources to seals.
Prof Derocher said the theory was "absolutely fanciful".

BBC NEWS | Africa | Congo arrest over missing uranium

Congo arrest over missing uranium

So this is what Saddam was after?!@


The Democratic Republic of Congo's top atomic energy official is being held over allegations of uranium smuggling.
Atomic energy centre director Fortunat Lumu and an aide have been questioned since their arrest on Tuesday.
A large quantity of uranium is reported to have gone missing in recent years, although state prosecutor Tshimanga Mukeba did not reveal any figures.
He told the BBC an "important quantity" of uranium was taken from the nuclear centre and they were investigating.
DR Congo's daily newspaper Le Phare reported that more than 100 bars of uranium as well as an unknown quantity of uranium contained in helmet-shaped cases, had disappeared from the nuclear centre in Kinshasa as part of a vast trafficking of the material going back years.
But the BBC's Kinshasa correspondent, Arnaud Zajtman, says that as of yet, no evidence has been made public to support the allegations made by the newspaper.
Creation of centre
Uranium is the basic raw material of both civilian and military nuclear programmes.
A mine in Congo's southern province of Katanga supplied the uranium that was used in the atomic bombs that were dropped by the Americans on the Japanese town of Hiroshima in 1945.
To thank and reward Congo, the Americans funded the creation of Congo's nuclear centre in 1958.
It was established on the university campus and only for research purpose.
But in the late 1970s, a bar of uranium disappeared from the centre, raising concern about security at the site.
Moreover, the site of the centre is facing some erosion problems. And people fear a landslide that could lead to a wider disaster, our reporter says.
In recent years, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency has visited the centre and security was believed to have improved.
Last year, a partnership was also signed between Congo's atomic energy centre and British company Brinkley Mining, aiming at prospecting for uranium deposits in the Congo.
But our correspondent says that this new allegation of uranium smuggling might tarnish DR Congo's ability to handle dangerous and expansive products such as uranium and raise concerns about who might benefit.

BBC NEWS | Europe | EU agrees on carbon dioxide cuts

EU agrees on carbon dioxide cuts

but will they deliver?

European Union leaders at a climate change summit in Brussels have agreed to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by the year 2020.
But a consensus on a binding target for the use of renewable fuels, like wind and solar power, has yet to be reached.
German Chancellor and EU President Angela Merkel said she was hopeful an agreement could still be struck.
The European Commission wants countries to pledge, among other things, to boost the use of renewable fuels by 20%.
'Obligations'
After talks ended on Thursday night, Mrs Merkel said progress had been made.
Only if we take the initiative are we able afterwards to engage the rest of the world
Jose Manuel BarrosoEuropean Commission President
Barroso defends 'gas guzzler'
Summit tests EU resolve
Europe diary: Going green "What has been agreed is a massive step forward from whatever point of view you take."
She said she hoped the disagreement over fixed targets for renewable energy sources could be resolved during the second day of the summit.
"We talked about specific obligations - increasing energy efficiency, bio fuels, renewable energy. There is a need for further discussion on these three areas," she said.
The proposal to bolster the share of power from renewables - including wind, solar and hydroelectric sources - to 20% by 2020 has met with considerable opposition.
French President Jacques Chirac has demanded that nuclear power be considered part of the plan.

Jose Manuel Barroso and Angela Merkel back tough targets
Mrs Merkel said that nuclear energy is not renewable energy but has conceded that it may be considered as part of the overall carbon reduction plan.
Poorer Eastern European countries, which are more dependent on heavy industry and carbon-heavy coal, said they would struggle to make the investment in wind farms and solar power necessary to meet the targets.
'Defining moment'
Ahead of the summit, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the EU's credibility hung on its matching words with action to fight climate change.
He said the summit could be "a defining moment for the EU", in which it proved itself the pace-setter in the race to rein in global warming.
"Only if we take the initiative are we able afterwards to engage the rest of the world," he added.
It is thought the EU could offer to extend its 20% target for emissions cuts to 30% if other heavy polluters like the US, China and India come on board.
Mr Barroso also wants to sharpen competition in the European energy market, by breaking up energy giants like those in France and Germany and dividing power producers from distributors.
"I believe that only with that separation we can create more choice for consumers [and] more attractive conditions for investment," Mr Barroso said.
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Australians will accept nuclear power: Switkowski. 07/03/2007. ABC News Online

Love ya work -- Ziggy

Australians will accept nuclear power: Switkowski.


Online: "Australians will accept nuclear power: Switkowski
The head of the Prime Minister's nuclear task force, Dr Ziggy Switkowski, has predicted that Australians will accept uranium enrichment and nuclear power generation as part of action to curb greenhouse emissions.
He has told a Sydney business lunch that he believes the Labor Party will take the first step by lifting policy bans on expanding uranium mining and exports.
'When the ALP have their national convention in April this year, the leadership have foreshadowed for some time that they will be revisiting the ALP objections to this with a view to reversing their position on this,' he said.
'It may well be that this is the first aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle which sees bipartisan support for lifting restrictions on uranium mining in Australia.'
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Switkowski says rushed green efforts pointless. 08/03/2007. ABC News Online

Go Ziggy Go

Switkowski says rushed green efforts pointless.


The head of the nation's major nuclear science organisation says that there is nothing Australia can do as a whole to make a difference to climate change.
Ziggy Switkowski, the newly appointed head of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), led an inquiry last year into the possibility of replacing coal and gas with nuclear power.
Dr Switkowski has told a business council forum in Canberra that current discussions about how the country could become greener would have little impact.
"Australia is hostage to global warming, not to national warming," he said.
"Arguably nothing Australia does at a local level will make any difference to our climate."
He says that climate change happens slowly and any decisions need to be carefully considered.
"The reality is climate change occurs over long periods of time, and it's much more important in my mind that we set the direction right so that we arrive at the right spot in the middle of the century than to do a whole lot of things at the moment because it makes us somehow or other feel that we are making a contribution," he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Switkowski says insurance companies could easily include nuclear insurance in their policies.
The Greens say any future nuclear power plant owners need to be legally responsible for radiation damage to private property, given that standard nuclear exclusion clauses exist in every insurance policy.
However, in the event of more nuclear reactors, Dr Switkowski says there is no need for concern.
"Happily there is no history of accident and claims in this industry, aside from the two that are well known, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been a lot of work into formulating a framework to handle such an event," he said.
"I don't see that we're going to be pressed to invent something here."

VOA News - Captured Methane Alternative Energy Source in Mississippi

Captured Methane Alternative Energy Source in Mississippi

VOA News - EU Debates Global Warming Plan

But what about the cost of the debate?

EU Debates Global Warming Plan

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says the cost of combating global warming is far less than the cost of doing nothing.
Mr. Barroso spoke in Brussels Monday, where European Union diplomats are debating sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, which many scientists believe are causing the Earth's climate to get warmer.
Mr. Barroso said he understands the cost to economies of capping emissions, but, he adds, not tackling the problem will cost economies more in the future. Mr. Barroso said that other countries, including the United States, are watching to see what Europe does on this issue.
European Union environmental ministers agreed in principle last month to cut carbon emissions from cars and factories by as much as 20 percent by 2020.
EU leaders will vote on the plan at a summit later this week. Some believe the plan is too expensive and are seeking a compromise
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Whitehall 'fails on eco-targets'

Too much hot air from the bureaucrats?

Nature Whitehall 'fails on eco-targets'

Government departments failed to meet targets on cutting carbon emissions, waste and water use last year, a watchdog's annual report says.
The assessment of 19 departments by the Sustainable Development Commission found "patchy data and poor performance across most areas" - as it did in 2005.
Most ministries were "using energy less efficiently" although recycling had increased by 8% over the year.
The government said steps were being taken to ensure the targets were met.
The report said most departments were unlikely to hit the target of cutting carbon emissions by 12.5% from 1990 levels by 2010.
"Overall, government performance is simply not good enough," said Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC).
"Against a backdrop of non-stop messages on climate change and corporate social responsibility, the government has failed to get its own house in order.
"It is absolutely inexcusable that the government is lagging so far behind the private sector, when it should be leading the way."
Missing data
The report, Sustainable Development in Government 2006, examined the environmental impact resulting from the operations of 19 departments and their executive agencies.

Government departments scored well on recycling
The findings showed that the government estate during 2006 was responsible for 806,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, generated 186,400 tonnes of waste, and consumed 25 million cubic-metres of water.
Eleven ministries, including the Department of Transport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), saw an increase in their carbon emissions compared with the previous 12 months.
Although recycling increased, the overall amount of waste produced increased by about 23,000 tonnes. Nine departments could not provide "proper waste data".
During a year that saw widespread water restrictions across southern England, officials consumed an average of 10.2 cubic metres per person, failing to meet the government imposed target of 7.7 cubic metres.
It is time permanent secretaries were held accountable for meeting these targets
Jonathon Porritt,SDC chairman
The study, compiled for the SDC by Entec UK, an environmental consultancy, did highlight areas where progress had been made.
Three percent more electricity was being sourced from renewable sources, and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) located on the government estate were "well managed".
The commission praised "strong performances" by the departments for trade and industry, health, and work and pensions.
But it was critical of "very poor performances" by the Cabinet Office and the transport and culture departments.
Held to account
Mr Porritt called on the government to "get to grips" with Whitehall's environmental impact.
"It must ratchet up responsibility to the most senior level, instead of leaving it to hopelessly under-resourced officials down the line," he said.
"It is time permanent secretaries were held accountable for meeting these targets."
Environment Secretary David Miliband accepted it was not enough just to set targets, but said they had to be met too.
"Government is committed to playing its role in tackling climate change and reducing emissions, alongside the actions already being taken by business and individuals," he said.
The minister added that he had asked Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell to take "personal charge" of delivering the targets.
"And we have asked the prime minister's delivery unit to recommend by the end of April the structures we need to put in place to ensure these targets are delivered," Mr Miliband said.

Global warming condemned as 'scam'

Faith-based science takes a hammering at last

Global warming condemned as 'scam'


LONDON -- With a packet of claims that are almost certain to defy conventional wisdom, a television documentary to be aired in Britain this week condemns man-made global warming as a myth that has become "the biggest scam of modern times." The program titled "The Great Global Warming Scandal" and set for screening by TV Channel 4 on Thursday dismisses claims that high levels of greenhouse gases generated by human activity causes climate change. Instead, the program suggests that the sun itself is the real culprit. The documentary, directed by filmmaker Martin Durkin, is at odds with scientific opinion as outlined in a United Nations report in February, which blames mankind for global warming. In his program, Mr. Durkin rejects the concept of man-made climate change, calling it "a lie ... the biggest scam of modern times." The truth, he says, is that global warming "is a multibillion-dollar worldwide industry, created by fanatically anti-industrial environmentalists, supported by scientists peddling scare stories to chase funding, and propped up by compliant politicians and the media." Channel 4 says that the program features "an impressive roll-call of experts," including nine professors, who are experts in climatology, oceanography, meteorology, biogeography and paleoclimatology. It also says the experts come from prestigious institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the Danish National Space Center and universities and other schools in London, Ottawa, Jerusalem, Alabama, Virginia and Winnipeg, Canada. "It's very rare that a film changes history," says Martin Durkin, "but I think this is a turning point, and in five years the idea that the greenhouse effect is the main reason behind global warming will be seen as total bunk," he says. His program collides sharply with the premise outlined in former Vice President Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," which presents a bleak picture of how a buildup in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide affects the global climate, with potentially disastrous consequences. "Al Gore might have won an Oscar," says Mr. Durkin, in a preview of the documentary, "but the film is very misleading, and he has got the relationship between [carbon dioxide] and climate change the wrong way around." One of the filmmaker's experts, paleontologist professor Ian Clark of the University of Ottawa, says that global warming could be caused by increased activity on the sun, such as massive eruptions, and that ice-core samples from Antarctica show that, in fact, warmer periods in Earth's history have come about 800 years before rises in carbon dioxide levels. Mr. Clark's findings appear to contradict the work of other scientists, who have used similar ice-core samples to illustrate that raised levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have accompanied the various global warming periods.
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Plugging the ozone hole cut global warming too - earth - 05 March 2007 - New Scientist Environment

How cool is this?

Plugging the ozone hole cut global warming too

Global warming would be much worse if the world had not put a halt to the destruction of the ozone hole above Antarctica, say researchers.
They say the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which restricts the use of CFCs and other ozone-depleting chemicals, will cut warming by five or six times more than the Kyoto Protocol.
Previous research has shown the ozone layer is recovering and the protocol was hailed by Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the UN, as "perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date".
At the time, it was known that ozone-depleting halocarbons (which include CFCs) were also greenhouse gases and therefore were contributing to warming the atmosphere. What was not known was how much the cooling effect of phasing out these chemicals would add to the cooling effect of patching up the ozone hole in the stratosphere.
The new study, led by Guus Velders of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, calculated that effect: "It was quite a surprise to see it was so large."
Gigatonnes of carbon
The 2007 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that stratospheric ozone has a cooling effect of 0.05 Watts per square metre and that the halocarbons currently in the atmosphere have a warming effect of 0.34 W/m2.
Velders and his colleagues used computer models to simulate how the planet would have warmed had it not been for the Montreal Protocol. They conclude the warming caused by halocarbons would be nearly twice that currently seen, i.e. between 0.60 and 0.65 W/m2.
Another way quantifying the effect is to compare it to the amount of carbon dioxide that would have had the same effect. By 2010, the researchers calculate, the Montreal Protocol will have avoided the equivalent of between 9.7 and 12.5 gigatonnes of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere every year. In contrast, Velders calculates that if all countries were meet their Kyoto targets by 2012, this will have avoided the equivalent of 2.0 gigatonnes of CO2 every year.
Rapid growth
"The gases that were regulated by the Montreal Protocol were growing very rapidly in the atmosphere, so there was clearly potential for very significant contribution" by limiting them, agrees John Pyle, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Although the Montreal Protocol limited the production of ozone-depleting chemicals, it did not require the removal of equipment containing the gases - refrigerators and air conditioners built before 2000, for instance. Furthermore, some of the chemicals which have replaced CFCs as a result of the Montreal Protocol are also greenhouse gases.
Velders says that removing existing equipment that emit CFCs from circulation and replacing "intermediate substitutes" with chemicals that neither deplete the ozone nor warm the planet, would remove the equivalent of a further 1.2 gigatonnes of CO2 per year. That would be more than half the impact of Kyoto.
Climate Change - Want to know more about global warming - the science, impacts and political debate? Visit our continually updated special report.
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610328104)

Liberals full of wind but not harnessing it - David Llewellyn, MHA - Tasmanian Government Media Releases

Liberals full of wind but not harnessing it -


The Liberal Party both nationally and in Tasmania has lost the little credibility it had left on energy security and climate change.
Energy Minister, David Llewellyn, today told a GBE hearing in Hobart of his recent trip discussing renewable energy opportunities in the Sub-continent and Asia.
“The fact that I was in Asia instead of North East Tasmania looking at Tasmanian built wind farms is a sad indictment of John Howard’s energy policy.
“It is also a sad indictment on Will Hodgman and the State Liberals who have not wasted one ounce of breath on trying to change this ridiculous policy.”
Mr Llewellyn said it is an undeniable black mark against John Howard’s Government that wind farm projects in Tasmania have had to be canned due to the stubborn refusal to raise mandated renewable energy targets (MRET).
“The Liberal party may be full of hot air but it certainly doesn’t want to harness it.”
Mr Llewellyn said as a result of this appalling policy Roaring 40s, a joint venture between Hydro Tasmania and China Light and Power, has been forced to look overseas.
“Roaring 40s now has approximately $500 million in projects fully commissioned or under construction throughout Asia and enjoys incredible commercial opportunities ahead.
“Asian countries are showing leadership through strong policy support for renewable energy.
“China is an excellent example here, with the development of the Chinese Renewable Energy Law in 2005, with a mandated target of 16% of primary energy production to come from renewable sources by 2020.”
Roaring 40s has several other projects under consideration in China and has now established an office in Beijing and Hong Kong to assist with further business developments.
“At this stage, Roaring 40s plans to develop around 1000 MW of wind energy in China by 2010.
“The opportunities for renewable energy development in China are enormous, with China set to spend nearly USD$200 billion on renewable energy over the next 15 years.”
Mr Llewellyn said Roaring 40s has also been investigating the renewable energy market in India and now has an office and full-time personnel based in Mumbai.
“It’s a shame Tasmania’s Liberal Politicians don’t stand up for our state and persuade their friends in Canberra to raise MRET, so our own Roaring 40s can use some more of their expertise and skills here,” Mr Llewellyn said.

Hypocrisy Powers Anti-Basslink Propaganda - David Llewellyn, MHA - Tasmanian Government Media Releases

Hypocrisy Powers Anti-Basslink Propaganda -


Minister for Energy, David Llewellyn, used today’s Hydro GBE hearing to once and for all put to bed the nonsense being peddled by the Greens and some sections of the media about Basslink.
“The Hyperbole and hypocrisy about Basslink is staggering and I will once again lay the facts on the table.
“In the face of the usual efforts to obstruct, delay and denigrate major projects in Tasmania, this Government facilitated the delivery of two massive infrastructure projects: Basslink and the Natural Gas pipeline.
“We know, following 10 consecutive years of below average rainfall and this year’s severe drought, that had we not done so Tasmania would currently be in dire straights.
“Without Basslink and gas, Tasmania would now be facing the threat of prolonged power rationing.”
Mr Llewellyn said Basslink and the conversion of Bell Bay to gas have saved the Tasmanian economy many, many millions of dollars.
“More importantly, these projects have allowed industry to invest with confidence in our energy security.
Mr Llewellyn said he was confident that Hydro had acted prudently when it shielded the Basslink project from significant risk through hedging for the next 25 years.
“None of the reports on Sunday were new or particularly well investigated as all this information was available in the annual reports.
“The constant attacks on Basslink through the Hydro are nothing more than a cowardly stealth attack on the government.
“We should not allow the Greens and some sections of the media’s obsession with conflict and conspiracy to slur the standing of an organisation in which all Tasmanians have a stake and can be proud.”
Mr Llewellyn also said a lot of the attacks on the Hydro have been based on, at best, poor reporting, at worst a hidden agenda.
“In November last year, the Mercury newspaper carried a report with the subheading “Tasmania's independent Auditor-General Mike Blake has warned that Hydro Tasmania is perilously close to losing control of its finances.”
“Mr Blake has done no such thing and I absolutely reject any suggestion that his remarks are open to that interpretation.
“The Mercury’s story was a gross and irresponsible misrepresentation of the Auditor General and is the basis for a number of incorrect assumptions about the Hydro since.
“I am bewildered and deeply disappointed by the irrational hatred of the Hydro demonstrated by sections of the media.
“But don’t believe me, I urge Tasmanians who might be concerned by these attacks to read the Auditor General’s report and Hydro’s annual reports for themselves.
“Basslink and the Hydro have saved Tasmania quite literally from economic ruin and it is about time that it is recognised.”

Tasmanian Greens - Media Release - GREENS WARNED THAT BASSLINK WOULD RESULT IN POWER PRICE HIKE - BUT WERE IGNORED

GREENS WARNED THAT BASSLINK WOULD RESULT IN POWER PRICE HIKE - BUT WERE IGNORED

The Tasmanian Greens today said that they have been warning for years that Tasmanian power prices are likely to rise due to the impact of Basslink, a scenario recently confirmed by Hydro Tasmania and the Lennon Labor government.
Greens Shadow Energy spokesperson Kim Booth MHA said that during initial debate on Basslink Hydro’s arguments were that it would make money selling energy into the National Electricity Market (NEM), which the Greens had warned was not going to work, and that Hydro’s more recent argument that the interconnector would drought-proof Tasmania is nothing but spin.
Mr Booth also pointed out that the timing of Friday’s announcement was an obvious and deliberate attempt by the government to control the negative fall-out before Hydro Tasmania was due to be scrutinised by the Parliamentary Government Business Enterprise Committee on Tuesday.
“Basslink was supposed to be all about making money for Hydro Tasmania, but now that Hydro are losing money hand over fist due to Basslink, the damage-control spin has started that the cable somehow drought proofs Tasmania,” Mr Booth said.
“Make no mistake, Basslink will result in a significant increase in power prices in Tasmania, just as the Greens have been warning for years.”
“The simple fact is that natural gas provided complete drought-proofing for Tasmania - by converting the Bell Bay Power Station to combined-cycle the government could have drought-proofed the state for the next twenty years at least.”
“The Greens have always warned and maintained that the Basslink proposal was fundamentally flawed, and would result in the Tasmanian energy consumer having to pick up the tab in the form of power price hikes, which is effectively what Hydro and the Lennon government admitted yesterday,” Mr Booth said.
“The government is clearly in damage-mode over the fact that our power price hike prediction has been proven correct, and are now trying to spin this bad news before GBE scrutiny next week and divert criticism by blaming the current drought conditions.”

Tasmanian Greens - Media Release - GREENS FORCE ADMISSION THAT HYDRO IS INVESTIGATING BASSLINK PURCHASE

GREENS FORCE ADMISSION THAT HYDRO IS INVESTIGATING BASSLINK PURCHASE

The Tasmanian Greens today secured a major admission that Hydro Tasmania were in the process of investigating the purchase of the Basslink cable, during Government Business Enterprise Committee Hearings, now that National Grid has put it on the market.
Greens Shadow Energy spokesperson Kim MHA, who put the question this morning to the Energy Minister and the Hydro Chairman, said that they had admitted they were in the process of assessing the Basslink bid, that the Hydro have hired independent consultant to evaluate their options, but then refused to go into further detail on the grounds that this is a ‘commercially sensitive’ matter.
Mr Booth also said that the Minister refused to ‘confirm or deny’ that in order to pay for a possible Basslink purchase that domestic and small business power prices would rise by anywhere between 5 and 10 per cent.
“In response to the Greens questioning this morning, we have now had it confirmed that Hydro Tasmania is currently investigating the purchase of Basslink from National Grid, and in fact Hydro have a number of options from their independent consultants before the Board,” Mr Booth said.
“It was very telling that during our attempts to obtain further detail about this potential purchase, the Minister hid behind the phrase of refusing ‘to confirm or deny’.”
“The Minister refused to detail how the government or the Hydro intends to find the money with which to buy Basslink, but then refused to confirm or rule out the Greens’ proposition that the potential purchase could result in domestic and small businesses being hit with power hikes of between five to ten per cent.”
“Alarmingly Minister Llewellyn also refused to rule out applying to convert the cable from an entrepreneurial link to a regulated link, which would allow Hydro to directly charge electricity consumers for the costs of the Basslink blowout.”
“That means the Mum and Dad consumer will directly pay and will continue to pay through the nose for this inept decision.”
“The Basslink burden will allow Hydro to gouge the wallets of the unsuspecting mum and dad as their electricity meters rattle off the wall in winter.”
“Hydro’s own submissions to the original project say it all, yet the Bacon government went ahead in 2002 with a project that had no chance of a commercial return as the truth would have revealed $150 million of unrecoverable hedges and derivates taken out before the project was even approved,” Mr Booth said.

Tasmanian Greens - Media Release - GOVERNMENT EVASION OVER BASSLINK BLOWOUTS

GOVERNMENT EVASION OVER BASSLINK BLOWOUTS

The Tasmanian Greens today condemned the evasive attitude of Minister for Energy David Llewellyn and his refusal to quantify the real costs of the Basslink project in the face of growing concerns that the Tasmanian population may face price hikes and also the re-writing of history by Hydro Chairman Dr David Crean in insinuating that savings in gas power generation were always part of the Basslink business plan when gas wasn’t even available when Basslink was first proposed by the Hydro.
Greens Shadow Energy spokesperson Kim Booth MHA said that it was extraordinary that neither Minister Llewellyn nor Hydro Chairman Dr Crean could give accurate figures on the net cost of Basslink over the past eight months and criticised the fact that ‘savings on gas generated power’ were somehow now part of the benefits of Basslink when the project had always been touted as a standalone money spinner for the Hydro.
“What we heard this morning is that neither the Minister nor Hydro are prepared to put a dollar figure on the real costs of Basslink but instead are spreading the pain over the whole of Hydro by claiming that Hydro’s aggregate profit and cash-flow includes Basslink,” Mr Booth said.
“Minister Llewellyn continuously evaded specific questions on the real cost of Basslink and the impact of price hikes for Tasmanians which he has alluded to in the media and which now seem a real possibility.”
“The Greens have long been on the public record over our concerns with the hidden costs of Basslink project and we also warned that it would be the Mums and dads consumers who would end up paying for Basslink one way or another and this is exactly what we now see unfolding.”
“Hydro has now downgraded it’s profit forecast from $29 million but chairman Dr Crean was unable to give any specific details of just how low it would fall.”
“This is on top of the unbudgeted $70 million blowout in costs which has seen Hydro import $35 million of power over Basslink and a borrow a further $23 million to take it’s debt level up to $1.1 billion.”
“It was the Greens who produced the facts this morning and quoted from Hydro’s own submission to the original Joint Approvals Process which examined Basslink where they said themselves that Basslink, “…is a very thin deal commercially for Hydro Tasmania. Moderate cost increases… would render the project non-viable.”
And also that,
“The break even point for the project for Hydro Tasmania has about a 65% probability of being achieved. . . an increase in costs of the order of 10 % changes the project’s viability to having a 50% probability of not breaking even.” [Hydro Tasmania’s opening submission to the Basslink Integrated Impact Assessment Statement (IIAS) October 2001
“So it is difficult for the government to spin their line that the Greens are doom mongers when Hydro’s own words are there in black and white,” Mr Booth said.

Tasmanian Greens - Media Release - AS HYDRO GOES DOWN,TRANSEND GOES UP (FOR SALE?)

AS HYDRO GOES DOWN,TRANSEND GOES UP (FOR SALE?)

The Tasmanian Greens today said that it was clear that the Lennon government was sizing up Transend for sale to offset the cost of a new Royal Hobart Hospital as Minister Llewellyn responded to questioning at today’s GBE hearing
Greens Shadow Energy spokesperson Kim Booth MHA said that the attractively low debt to equity ration of Transend, currently at around 17% compared with an allowable industry standard of 50%, meant that the government might well be also considering transferring a sizeable amount of Hydro debt to Transend.
“In response to the potential sale of Transend the Minister immediately raised the necessity of funding a new hospital so it would appear that even if the ‘For Sale’ sign is not yet up t it looks like the government is preparing to put some or all of this public asset up for sale,” Mr Booth said.
“No doubt Lennon Labor is preparing to spin the line that selling Transend isn’t going back on their promise not to sell ‘the Hydro’ as it is the transmission section of the old conglomerate however that’s just semantics.”
“With Transend having an asset base of around $800 million and investors prepared to pay multiples of around 1.4 when purchasing assets then this might put a market value of around $1.2 billion on Transend.”
“This makes it low hanging fruit for the government to cherry pick and sell as a short sighted option for funding their hospital treasure chest.”
“The Greens already have an unequivocal position of not selling Aurora, Transend or the Hydro to fund any hospital construction as we would prefer the government to consider other strategies for raising the money.”
“Transend is a vital and valuable public asset and the Lennon government must not go down the route of a public asset fire-sale to get themselves out of financial predicaments.”
“Transend is a profitable business in its own right that was built by past generations and will provide dividends to future generations.”
“Premier Lennon’s financial mismanagement from Basslink to Elwick has created this situation and profitable, public assets such as Transend should not be sold off due to the incompetent actions of this present government.”

BBC NEWS | Americas | Falling ice shuts Toronto roads

Flying icebergs hit Toronto .... Polar Bears sighted in Bloor Street?

Falling ice shuts Toronto roads

Police have closed several major streets in Toronto after huge slabs of ice were reported falling off skyscrapers in the Canadian city.
"Current weather conditions are presenting safety concerns," police said in a statement.
The roads that were closed included parts of the Gardiner Expressway, the main road into the city centre.
The city was recently hit by a snow storm. Plunging temperatures then turned melting snow into ice.
Police said the closures would remain in effect "as long as there is a danger to public safety".
Part of the financial district was closed to traffic, included an area of King Street, home to the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Several pieces of ice were torn loose from the 553-metre (1,815ft) CN Tower, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported. One huge slab - "four feet by four feet [1x1m]" - flew over the Gardiner, a policeman told the newspaper.

BBC NEWS | Business | Carmakers stage green fightback

Henry Ford today would say...

... "Any customer can have a car in any color that he wants so long as it is GREEN. ...?#!@

Carmakers stage green fightback

Green technology is high on the agenda as the car industry gathers for its annual jamboree in Geneva.
A string of new models on display shows how Europe's carmakers are desperate to clean up their act in response to regulatory pressure and changing consumer tastes.
Mercedes and BMW, which have both come under attack because their car fleets emit higher than average levels of CO2, are fighting back with green initiatives.
But Japan's Toyota and Honda are still well ahead of their German rivals, not least with their plans to kit out sporty models with less polluting petrol-electric hybrid engines.

In the past, customers bought cars on a rational basis
General Motors marketing boss Alain Visser
Europe's small carmakers, most notably Fiat, are also benefiting from a gradual shift towards fuel efficient cars.
And, paradoxically perhaps, both Renault and Volkswagen are taking advantage of this shift towards smaller cars by launching larger versions of their most popular models.
On display at the show is the VW Golf estate and a Renault Clio estate concept car.
Under threat
But some of the large cars on display are equally crucial.
Arch rivals Ford and Opel (Vauxhall) are both unveiling key models that must stand up against each other and fend off other competitors.
Ford's new Mondeo and Opel's forthcoming Vectra replacement concept, the GTC, are both about to be launched into a shrinking market.
This market segment has gradually eroded as traditional customers have been making a shift towards people carriers, crossover vehicles, sports utility vehicles or smaller cars.
"In the past, customers bought cars on a rational basis," observed General Motors marketing boss Alain Visser at the GTC launch party in Geneva on Monday night.
"We want to add some emotional reasons for buying [the forthcoming Vectra replacement]."
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Switkowski appointment shows Govt's nuclear plans: Greenpeace. 05/03/2007. ABC News Online

Another conspiracy say the Greens

Switkowski appointment shows Govt's nuclear plans:


Greenpeace says the appointment of Ziggy Switkowski as the chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) confirms that the Federal Government plans to introduce nuclear power.
Dr Switkowski was appointed to the board of ANSTO last year, but stood aside after he became the head of the Prime Minister's inquiry into the viability of nuclear energy.
Dr Switkowski told ABC radio today ANSTO is well advanced in research into all aspects of the nuclear cycle.
Greenpeace's energy adviser Paul Cleary says that backs up his assessment.
"It's essentially the only place of nuclear expertise in Australia," he said.
"It claims that it is only there to produce medical isotopes, but in fact ANSTO is actually doing a lot more than that.
"It's already producing the silex technology which can basically be used for making backyard weapons if it falls into the wrong hands."
Dr Switkowski says the introduction of nuclear power will be not be integral to his role at ANSTO.
"There's no doubt that coming out of the nuclear review that one does form opinions about the applicability of nuclear power in Australia's strategic thinking," he said.
"Particularly in a future where greenhouse gas abatement is going to be a bit of a priority.
"But that doesn't translate into an agenda, and my personal goal will be to facilitate informed debate."
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Nuclear power gaining support: poll. 06/03/2007. ABC News Online

Will Homer Simpson & Friends migrate to Australia to work at our new reactor?


Nuclear power gaining support: poll.

There may be some comfort for the Federal Government in another Newspoll published today showing support for nuclear power is gaining ground in Australia.
The poll published in the Australian newspaper shows 45 per cent of people surveyed are in favour of the development of a nuclear power industry as one of a range of future energy options.
That figure was 35 per cent four months ago.
It is the first time there is more support than opposition to nuclear power.
Prime Minister John Howard has been calling for a new debate on nuclear power in Australia, seeing it as a way to address the problems of greenhouse gasses from coal energy and climate change.

Global warming to push up premiums - Breaking News - Business - Breaking News

Any excuse from insurers to raise premia - more climate change feat the better

Global warming to push up premiums -


TWO new power stations worth $870 million are being planned for South Australia in a move that could ease strain on the state's electricity network.Corporate firms Babcock & Brown and NP Power will this month apply to the Development Assessment Commission to build a 450MW gas-fired peaking power station at Redbanks, near Mallala.
The project, estimated to cost $350 million, has been endorsed by the State Government as a "public infrastructure development" under section 49 of the Development Act.
A separate 560MW power station, valued at $520 million, has been foreshadowed as part of Altona Resources' $3.9 billion proposal to produce petroleum and gas in the state's Far North.
If approved, the two power stations would become the state's second and third biggest, behind Torrens Island's 800MW generator.
The Mallala power station is likely to be operated by Flinders Power, a subsidiary of Babcock & Brown, which directs power into the SA and national electricity markets. Power from the Far North project would be supplied to the national electricity grid and sold on to consumers. Last year, the Electricity Supply Industry Planning Council warned of looming electricity reserve shortages in SA saying new investment in power generation was "essential" to meet continuing growth in demand. The Advertiser has obtained specific details of the Mallala project showing it would be built on 10ha of land at Helps Rd in Redbanks, about 55km north of Adelaide. The project would be carried out in three stages with each stage capable of producing 150MW of power. On average, SA uses 1400MW each day which can double during peak times. Construction at the Redbanks site is expected to start in July but the project would be subjected to comment from the public and Environment Protection Authority before being approved. The power station is described as "peaking" because it would only operate at times of peak electricity demand. It would use open-cycle gas turbine engines fuelled by natural gas to generate electricity. The gas would be supplied through the Moomba to Adelaide gas pipeline which intersects the development site. Babcock & Brown and NP Power would not reveal the cost of the project. A spokesman for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure minister Pat Conlon said the State Government was "aware the companies are investigating the proposal and will await further developments". Redbanks farmer John Worden was yesterday supportive of the proposal, saying it would create jobs during construction. As part of their proposal, the companies say the power station would produce "low greenhouse gas emissions" and would "meet or exceed" EPA requirements. Over the past 20 years, NP Power's employees have been responsible for projects valued at $17 billion, and providing around 7000MW of generating capacity. Babcock & Brown have financially-backed and developed several power projects, including the $460 million Lake Bonney wind farm in the state's South-East. The Altona Resources project involves three mining exploration licences covering 2500sq km in the northern portion of the Permian Arckaringa Basin. Adelaide-based Altona Resources director Phil Sutherland, who is a former chief executive of the SA Chamber of Mines and Energy, said the project was still in the development phase. It would take between seven and 10 years for the project to commence and would also need State Government approval. A spokesman for Mineral Resources Development minister Paul Holloway said the State Government was helping Altona Resources with their project.

AdelaideNow... Exclusive: Two new power plants for SA to meet peak demand

Things get peaky in CrowEater Land

Two new power plants for SA to meet peak demand


TWO new power stations worth $870 million are being planned for South Australia in a move that could ease strain on the state's electricity network.Corporate firms Babcock & Brown and NP Power will this month apply to the Development Assessment Commission to build a 450MW gas-fired peaking power station at Redbanks, near Mallala.
The project, estimated to cost $350 million, has been endorsed by the State Government as a "public infrastructure development" under section 49 of the Development Act.
A separate 560MW power station, valued at $520 million, has been foreshadowed as part of Altona Resources' $3.9 billion proposal to produce petroleum and gas in the state's Far North.
If approved, the two power stations would become the state's second and third biggest, behind Torrens Island's 800MW generator.
The Mallala power station is likely to be operated by Flinders Power, a subsidiary of Babcock & Brown, which directs power into the SA and national electricity markets. Power from the Far North project would be supplied to the national electricity grid and sold on to consumers. Last year, the Electricity Supply Industry Planning Council warned of looming electricity reserve shortages in SA saying new investment in power generation was "essential" to meet continuing growth in demand. The Advertiser has obtained specific details of the Mallala project showing it would be built on 10ha of land at Helps Rd in Redbanks, about 55km north of Adelaide. The project would be carried out in three stages with each stage capable of producing 150MW of power. On average, SA uses 1400MW each day which can double during peak times. Construction at the Redbanks site is expected to start in July but the project would be subjected to comment from the public and Environment Protection Authority before being approved. The power station is described as "peaking" because it would only operate at times of peak electricity demand. It would use open-cycle gas turbine engines fuelled by natural gas to generate electricity. The gas would be supplied through the Moomba to Adelaide gas pipeline which intersects the development site. Babcock & Brown and NP Power would not reveal the cost of the project. A spokesman for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure minister Pat Conlon said the State Government was "aware the companies are investigating the proposal and will await further developments". Redbanks farmer John Worden was yesterday supportive of the proposal, saying it would create jobs during construction. As part of their proposal, the companies say the power station would produce "low greenhouse gas emissions" and would "meet or exceed" EPA requirements. Over the past 20 years, NP Power's employees have been responsible for projects valued at $17 billion, and providing around 7000MW of generating capacity. Babcock & Brown have financially-backed and developed several power projects, including the $460 million Lake Bonney wind farm in the state's South-East. The Altona Resources project involves three mining exploration licences covering 2500sq km in the northern portion of the Permian Arckaringa Basin. Adelaide-based Altona Resources director Phil Sutherland, who is a former chief executive of the SA Chamber of Mines and Energy, said the project was still in the development phase. It would take between seven and 10 years for the project to commence and would also need State Government approval. A spokesman for Mineral Resources Development minister Paul Holloway said the State Government was helping Altona Resources with their project.

Put a panda in your tank?!

China's Wen puts emphasis on green growth

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will do more to save energy and cut pollution in 2007 while striving to keep its economy humming following four straight years of double-digit growth, Premier Wen Jiabao will say on Monday.
In his annual report to the National People's Congress, China's parliament, Wen reaffirms that Beijing will actively explore ways to invest $1.07 trillion in foreign currency reserves but offers no hints as to how it will do so.
The speech, excerpts of which were seen by Reuters, is light on politics and foreign policy.
Reuters Pictures

But it underscores that Wen has made narrowing the chasm between the nation's bustling coastal cities and struggling inland villages a task that will define his administration's legacy.
"Protect social equity and justice, and let all the people together enjoy the fruits of reform and development," Wen says in his report.
China will lift spending on its restless countryside by 15.3 percent to 391.7 billion yuan in 2007, aiming to improve rural schools, hospitals and incomes as it seeks to ease social imbalances, Wen is due to say.
The need to shun growth for growth's sake and to make China's economy greener and leaner is a recurring theme in the speech. Continued...
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

NZ's Contact shares hit record high

Contact Energy shares rose strongly as the market applauded a $2 billion renewable energy plan and a better-than-expected first half result.
The country's largest listed power company reported a 16 per cent fall in interim net profit to $122.9 million for the six months to December.
However, last year's net profit of $146.6 million included a one-off gain of $33.4 million due to an asset sale.
At 15.15pm Contact shares were up more than four per cent to an all-time high of $8.95, up 37 cents.
First NZ Capital energy analyst Jason Lindsay said the result was slightly above consensus, but the share price driver appeared to be the investment plan, despite the costs involved.
"I guess renewables are flavour of the month at the moment," he said.
"You see what happened to Trustpower, which is 100 per cent renewable generation, [and] trades on a 16 times EBITDA multiple, whereas Contact with a diversified portfolio is down around 10.5 times EBITDA.
"The market, I guess, is placing more value on renewable generation with the expectation that they'll benefit in a carbon constrained world."
Currently about 60 per cent of New Zealand's power is generated through hydro, with wind accounting for 1.5 per cent, geothermal about eight per cent and the rest through coal and gas.
Mr Lindsay did not believe the share price jump was influenced by news that Contact's majority shareholder Origin Energy had called off its merger plans with AGL Energy.
Investors also seemed to ignore Contact's continued "downbeat" forecasts for its four-year outlook and for a "materially lower" full year net profit.
Contact - which generates about 30 per cent of the country's electricity - wants to develop two new geothermal generation around the Taupo region.
It is also investigating four sites for wind farm generation and actively developing two of these.
The $2 billion plan would take place over five years.
Mr Lindsay said he viewed the geothermal part of the plan positively.
"I'm not so sure on the wind - Contact are pretty late to the game with wind, but nonetheless it's something they need to examine."
However, he was disappointed with the decision to hold the dividend.
Contact's dividend was unchanged at 10 cents per share and the investment program over five years scotched plans to return capital to shareholders.
"I would have thought there's ample scope to carry out this development program but also have some reasonable growth in the dividend," Mr Lindsay said.
He noted the company's policy was still to maintain or grow the dividend over time, with an 80 per cent payout ratio longterm.
"Well, they've got 50 per cent payout ratio for the first half. The second half dividend is usually bigger so that should increase to 70 per cent for the full year."
Contact reported a half year EBITDAF (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and financial instruments) of $275.4 million, down from $280.4 million the year before.
Revenue was $995.1 million.
Chief executive David Baldwin said the result was particularly pleasing, despite some challenging trading conditions.
Its average wholesale prices had fallen 37 per cent on the corresponding period, which contributed to a 33 per cent fall in wholesale revenue.
The overall retail electricity market had grown 2.5 per cent, and Contact's share had increased 3.9 per cent.
Contact continued to face significant challenges over the coming year, as the business adjusted to higher priced gas and reduced fuel flexibility, Mr Baldwin said.
© 2007 AAPBrought to you by

Wave energy catching on

we'll have to ban surfing --- afterall surfers soak up all the energy out of the waves -- don't they?!

PG&E seeks permit for Humboldt, Mendocino
Seeing potential in the waves that buffet the North Coast, the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. plans to file a federal application today to study a swath of ocean off Humboldt Bay for a wave power project.
The preliminary permit application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, plus another for an area off the Mendocino County coast, are the first steps in the possible development of a project to produce electricity. The permits, if granted, act like a mining claim, and would give PG&E exclusive rights to study the areas for three years.
”We are going to take a leadership position and study this technology,” said PG&E Project Manager Greg Lambert.
The Humboldt area is a rectangle 17 miles long and eight miles wide, beginning two miles offshore in depths ranging from 60 to 600 feet.
The actual project would take up about 3 to 4 percent of that 136-square-mile area. But PG&E wants to examine exactly where in that area the conglomeration of wave power generators would best be positioned. Power generated by the buoys or other wave-power devices would send electricity to an onshore substation.
Lambert said a final site for what

Australia inspired by Russia or V.V --- whichever you gotta love this heavy handed approach

Moscow is urging its residents to switch to energy-saving light bulbs


MOSCOW: Russia has begun its first major energy-awareness campaign since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, bringing an unfamiliar sight to Moscow streets: billboards urging people to switch to energy-saving light bulbs.
But Muscovites are not being encouraged to go green to save the planet.
The city government in Moscow has realized that the country's wasteful ways with energy could mean that before long there will not be enough fuel to go around.
"It's all about conserving energy supplies and nothing to do with the environment," Igor Bashmakov, head of the independent Center for Energy Efficiency, said of the campaign, started at the beginning of the year.
The dangers of global warming have grabbed headlines and attention around the world, prompting a planned ban on incandescent light bulbs in Australia. But in Russia — the world's third-largest polluter after the United States and China — climate change is generally greeted with a shrug of the shoulders.

Persuading Russians to save energy is a difficult task. In a country with huge oil and natural gas reserves, many people see keeping lights on round the clock and driving gas-guzzling cars as their birthright. Russia has become rich over the past few years by pumping oil and gas to hungry markets in the West, and by energy-intensive mineral and metal mining.
Consuming and selling energy is high on the agenda, but saving it or shifting toward such renewable sources as solar, wind or hydro power, have not been a priority.
Poorly insulated Soviet-era apartment blocks leak heat through drafty windows and thin roofs. When ice and snow cover the streets, drain covers and gutters are ice-free because of the heat escaping through them.
City apartments are heated by municipal boilers which pump hot water into buildings through poorly insulated pipes that often run above the ground.
The temperature, controlled centrally, is usually high. The standard way for people to turn down the heat in their homes is to open the windows, sending clouds of steam out into the freezing air.
But last year temperatures in January fell to minus 35 Celsius, or minus 31 Fahrenheit, prompting Muscovites to plug in electric heaters to keep warm.
The surge in electricity demand overwhelmed local power stations, creating shortages and persuading the authorities to switch gas bound for Europe back to the domestic market.
Andrei Turnitsa, development director at Kosmos — a Russian company that sells energy-saving light bulbs under its own brand — said it was the shock of the power cuts that motivated the Moscow city government to persuade Muscovites to cut power use. "Moscow's government asked us to become partners in an information program," Turnitsa said. "The aim was to explain to consumers that by buying energy-saving bulbs you can contribute to the city and to its energy saving program."
The new light-bulb technology cuts energy use by around 80 percent by using ultra-violet rays and gas instead of heat to create light. The bulbs are familiar to consumers in developed economies but new to many in Russia.
Under the Moscow deal, Kosmos pays for advertising across Moscow but is given a discounted rate as the plan is termed a social information program.
The result is two different posters.
One shows the black outline of an old light bulb next to the slogan: "Save energy." The second is a black poster with yellow lights, some grayed out, bearing the same slogan beneath an old bulb with an arrow pointing to a new compact fluorescent lamp.
Environmentalists and others say this initiative is a drop in the ocean.
They say the Kremlin is shying away from the policy changes that would make a real difference: creating economic incentives to save energy, for example by raising subsidized prices for gas to market levels more quickly.
But Moscow's advertising campaign is having some impact.
"I went and bought three of the new bulbs," Nastya Meshkova, 23, said between puffs of her cigarette during a break from the photo shop in central Moscow where she works.
She stared up at the black and yellow advertisement.
"It's important to save energy and if it's going to save my energy bill of course I'll do it," she said.

Cellulose is the way to go on biofuels

Gasification may be key to U.S. ethanol



SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The government awarded $385 million in grants last week aimed at jumpstarting ethanol production from nontraditional sources like wood chips, switchgrass and citrus peels. What's surprising is that half of the six projects chosen will use a process first discovered almost a century ago to turn coal into a gas.
President Bush' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> President Bush set a goal in his State of the Union address of producing 20 percent of the nation's fuel supply from renewable resources by 2017. Much of those supplies will come from the conversion of corn into enthanol, fueled by a boom in new ethanol plant construction that's already under way.
But Thursday's forecast from the Agriculture Department that half of this year's U.S. corn crop will be consumed by ethanol producers has raised red flags. Critics say surging demand for corn could push up prices of everything from corn-sweetened soft drinks to meats, since corn is a common feed ingredient for livestock.
That helps explain why the Energy Department is placing a big bet on a process called gasification. Long hailed as a more environmentally friendly way to turn coal into electricity, the process might also provide a faster and eventually cheaper way to produce ethanol from a variety of renewable sources collectively known as biomass, some scientists say.
For corn-based ethanol plants, the process of producing ethanol is as simple as brewing beer: sugars are extracted from the corn kernels and then enzymes are added to ferment it into alcohol. But biomass feedstocks don't easily give up their starches, so more expensive steps are needed to ferment cellulose in high-pressure chambers that have limited amounts of oxygen, according to Lanny Schmidt, a University of Minnesota chemical engineer.
Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Samuel Bodman pegged the current cost of gasification as being about twice as much as the average $1.10 per gallon cost at corn-based ethanol plants.
A gasifier turns plant material into a synthesis gas consisting mostly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The "syngas" then could be turned into a variety of fuels including ethanol, hydrogen and environmentally friendly versions of diesel or gasoline, Schmidt said.
"These gasifiers are some high-tech stuff with high pressures and some more complexities," he said. "But they're probably more versatile at the end of the day to modify them as the demand and supplies change."
Gasification is a fairly simple process, based on chemistry developed in the 1920s, said Robert Brown, an Iowa State University chemical engineering professor and director of the school's Office of Biorenewables Programs.
The syngas produced during gasification mixes more readily with chemical catalysts, so it could be more easily turned into other fuels, chemicals and materials. Just add steam and you could produce hydrogen to power a fuel-cell vehicle, Brown said.
Of the six companies awarded U.S.
Department of Energy' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Department of Energy grants, three will use versions of fermentation technology. But two others will use gasification and one will use a hybrid of both technologies:
• Alico Inc., a LaBelle, Fla.-based agribusiness company, would get up to $33 million to turn yard waste, wood waste and citrus peel into syngas, which would then be converted into ethanol, electricity and hydrogen.
• Range Fuels Inc., of Broomfield, Colo., would get up to $76 million for a plant near Soperton, Ga., to convert timber scraps into syngas to make ethanol and methanol.
• Abengoa Bioenergy, a St. Louis-based division of Spain's Abengoa SA, would receive up to $76 million for an 11.4 million gallons-per-year plant in Colwich, Kan., that would use both biochemical and thermochemical processes to convert corn stalks, wheat straw and switchgrass.
The Energy Department helped demonstrate the viability of gasification in the mid-1990s when it awarded Georgia-based FERCO $9.2 million to help build a power plant running on wood chips. By 2001, the $18 million plant in Burlington, Vt., was generating more than 200 megawatt-hours of electricity a day.
To compete in the marketplace, companies will have to make sure their feedstock supplies are consistent, do more research into catalysts that turn syngas into fuels, and develop better materials to contain the thermochemical reactions, according to the Energy Department.
The syngas would have to be cleaned and conditioned to remove contaminants, which is an expensive task. Energy officials say companies will have to bring down those costs if they're to compete in the market.
Mark Paster, a U.S. Department of Energy technology development manager who's studying ways to turn biomass into hydrogen, said both fermentation and gasification "are very viable and both routes continue to be researched and developed."
Paster said biomass helps reduce greenhouse gasses, so any method that can reach commercial viability will be better than one based on fossil fuel.
"There may not be a single winner, just like there's no winner in how we produce electricity," he said. "We do it in a variety of ways."

More hot air from EU on climate

EU leaders to focus on energy, climate change at summit



BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU leaders will try to breathe new life this week into plans to diversify energy sources and combat climate change at a summit in Brussels amid fears they will only blow "hot air", officials and experts said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will step on to the centre stage of EU politics at the Thursday and Friday meeting when she hosts the 27-nation bloc's leaders for the first time under Germany's six-month presidency.
Officials said that energy policy would be in the focus after climbing high on the EU political agenda over the last year on concerns about the reliability of Russia as a supplier and the need to find less polluting sources.
Despite the growing importance attached to energy, the EU has struggled to hammer out a common approach, with member countries often putting national interests first, much to the frustration of the
European Commission' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> European Commission.
Preparing the ground for the heads of state and government, EU energy ministers moved closer last month to a unified policy by agreeing cleaner fuel targets while watering down a proposal to force the break-up of the sector into production and distribution operators.
"It's going to be a climate and energy summit, these are the issues that are uppermost in our mind," a senior EU official said Friday.
"The only really outstanding question is exactly how ambitious we should be," the official added.
Although the ministers agreed that renewable energy sources should account for a minimum 10 percent of the EU's overall make-up by 2020, the leaders are to consider making a 20-percent target binding.
However, some countries are concerned about setting unreachable targets, with one top diplomat having warned that "there's only a slight difference between high ambitions and recklessness," according to the official.
But if the only haggling is likely to be over how ambitious to be, that is in part because member states have already scrapped the most radical and controversial proposals.
In particular, draft conclusions from the summit seen by AFP make no firm commitment to making integrated energy companies break up their businesses into separate production and distribution operators.
Unbundling, as it is known, was one of the European Commission's main proposals in sweeping plans it unveiled in January, but which ran up against fierce resistance from some member states and especially France.
"Energy policy will rightly be top of the agenda at (the) EU summit," experts at the European Policy Centre said in an analysis released on Friday.
"But there is a real danger that, instead of taking the key decisions which are needed now on the European Commission's energy package, the Union's leaders will simply generate a great deal more hot air," they added.
The summit comes amid a shifting European political landscape with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi emerging shaken from a recent crisis, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair' Tony Blair increasingly a lameduck and looming French presidential elections in April and May.
It will also mark French
President Jacques Chirac' last summit in Brussels, where he has attracted both scorn and respect for fiercely defending French interests and making occasional gaffes during his nearly 12 years in office.
The meeting will also give Merkel an opportunity to cement her reputation as the rising star of European politics after she was widely applauded for her debut on the EU stage at the end of 2005 by playing a key role in brokering the bloc's long-term budget.

Dollars, Thalers and Uranium in Czech Republic

note refs to radon and radiocativity
see ref to last uranium mine in Europe in previous post --
Thaler has got to be a good place to start looking for more Uranium

refs from Wikipedia

Modern town

The first radon spa in the world was founded in Jáchymov in 1906.

After the Communist party took control of Czechoslovakia in 1948, a large prison camp was established in Jáchymov. Opponents of the new regime were forced to mine uranium ore under very harsh conditions: the average life expectancy in Jáchymov at this period was 42 years.

Uranium mining ceased in 1964. The radioactive thermal springs which rise in the former uranium mine workings are used under the supervision of doctors for the treatment of patients with nervous and rheumatic disorders.

With uranium at $80 a pound ....

there's sure to be more uranium mines in Europe to be found -- The Canadians & Australians will find them -- if they haven't already -- afterall the word dollar comes from Thaler which was a silver mine that has some uranium with it -- so the story below is sure to be proved wrong

Fortunes rebound for Europe's last uranium mine

OLNI ROZINKA, Czech Republic (AFP) - Everything from the faded blue overalls donned by the miners to the bone-jolting trains and primitive extraction methods seem to cry out for Europe's last operating uranium mine to be turned into a museum.

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The Czech government would probably have closed the state-owned Rozna mine in 2004 if it had not been for the around 1,000 jobs at stake in the small towns and villages nestled in the hills of this relatively undeveloped south-east corner of the country.

But last week, industry minister Martin Riman rejected a 640-million koruna (22.5-million euro) bid by Australian uranium mining company Uran Limited for a 50 percent stake in exploitation of current and future uranium reserves.

And he held out the prospect of a new lease of life for the mine if research uncovers fresh reserves of the now coveted resource.

"Uran's bid is interesting but we can mine and survey for reserves on our own," the minister announced.

The Rozna mine has seen its fortunes improve as the price for uranium, used to feed nuclear reactors, soars on concerns about global warming and the cost and security of fossil fuel supplies, such as coal and oil.

The price hit record highs in February after an eightfold increase over the last three years. It had barely budged during the previous decade.

As a result, Rozna's previously loss-making annual production of around 300 tonnes of uranium now turns a profit. "There is about 0.25 percent of uranium in every tonne extracted compared with about 0.10 percent for similar operations in India. It is a very respectable quality," boasted chief engineer Petr Kriz.

He admits conditions below ground for the 115 miners - the rest of the workforce are support staff and employed in processing and cleaning operations - appear primitive.

Wire netting and rusting corrugated iron panels and air ducts cover the network of tunnels of the 24-floor complex. Engineers cut timber supports at the cramped faces where small teams of miners will work with the aid of hammer drills and a mechanical claw to pull rocks towards waiting wagons.

The Australian company claimed modernisation could boost production and profits at Rozna but Kriz argued: "There is not much space, it is difficult to use other methods."

The mine was opened in 1958 not for profit, but as part of the Cold War uranium mining boom when communist Czechoslovakia was one of the main suppliers of the Soviet military-industrial complex.

It was one of half a dozen major uranium mines dotted across the country which sent 96,600 tonnes of uranium, currently valued at more than 470 billion koruna (16.7 billion euros), to the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1989.

"At today's prices we can clearly realise what a fortune was sent by socialist Czechoslovakia almost free of charge to the Soviet Union," Riman commented dryly.

In the early years of the Czechoslovak industry, the price of uranium mining was primarily human. German prisoners of war were used at first for the dangerous, radiation-exposed work. The communist regime, which seized power in 1948, later sent its political prisoners down the mines.

Over 45,000 people were employed in uranium mining in 1954 with output and deliveries to the Soviet Union peaking at around 3,000 tonnes in 1961, just before the Cold War threatened to turn into a nuclear conflagration.

In Rozna's drab offices, pictures charting the mine's achievements are written in both Czech and Russian, harking back to the brothers-in-arms production era. Today's managers stress that political prisoners were a feature of the earlier post-war mines, but not theirs.

In the 1960's, the environment was mining's main casualty as heavily polluting chemical extraction methods were used at some locations. The massive, multi-billion koruna clean-up is likely to last another 40 years.

When the Cold War ended, so did much of the exports. "The armaments race stopped and fuel for power plants started to be prepared from nuclear warheads with enormous reserves of this in Russia," recalls Jiri Jez, the head of state company Diamo, which runs Rozna.

In the early 1990's, Czech mining plummeted to 20 percent of its average over the previous decade, Jez added.

The 65-year-old, who has worked with the firm ever since starting out as a 17-year-old milling machine operator, now sees a uranium revival beckoning not only for Rozna but for other sites in the north and east of the country.

Inuits blame U.S. for climate change - Yahoo! News

Inuits blame U.S. for climate change - Yahoo! News: "Inuits blame U.S. for climate change

Thu Mar 1, 3:03 AM ET

WASHINGTON - As the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States has come under heavy criticism, including from people who live almost on top of the world.
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The Inuits of Northern Canada and beyond are taking their case against the United States on Thursday to an international human rights commission. They have scant chance of a breakthrough but still hope to score moral and political points against the U.S. and its carbon spewers.

'The point here is that our way of life is at stake,' says Sheila Watt-Cloutier, who was nominated with former Vice President
Al Gore for a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change.

She was preparing to make the Inuit case at a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the 34-member Organization of American States.

The Inuit population hails from Canada, Russia and Greenland, as well as Alaska, where they are known as Eskimos. They have been trying to tell the world for more than a decade about the shifting winds and thinning ice that have damaged the hunting grounds the Northern peoples have used for thousands of years.

Watt-Cloutier spoke earlier this week in Iqaluit, the capital of Canada's Arctic Nunavut Territory abou"

Russia a safe option for energy-starved Japan - Yahoo! News

Russia a safe option for energy-starved Japan - Yahoo! News: "TOKYO (AFP) - Despite rocky political relations, Japan needs Russia for gas and oil imports as the energy-hungry Asian power tries to ease its dependence on the volatile Middle East, analysts say.
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Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, on a visit to Tokyo that wrapped up late Wednesday, pledged his country would be a 'stable' partner.

His visit came after the Kremlin unnerved Japanese and Western investors by taking majority control of the massive Sakhalin-2 gas project, in which two Japanese companies are shareholders.

'Of course you have to be cautious with Russia, but compared with
Iran, Russia is far safer as an energy supplier,' said Koji Nakatsu, a professor at Osaka University of Commerce who wrote a book on the Kremlin's energy policy.

Japan signed a two-billion-dollar deal in 2004 to develop Iran's largest onshore oil field at Azadegan, irritating its close ally the United States.

But Tokyo slashed its stake from 75 to 10 percent last year as the Iranian nuclear crisis intensified and sanctions loomed on the Islamic republic.

Asia's largest economy imports nearly all of its oil from the Middle East and has long sought to diversify. Last week Japan signed a 15-year, 3.5 billion-dollar oil deal with Venezuela.

Japan has increasingly turned to liquefie"

Govt to push for greener homes. 04/03/2007. ABC News Online

Govt to push for greener homes. 0

The Federal Government says it will spend $53 million on an initiative to encourage households and small businesses across Australia to become more energy-efficient.

Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the initiative will involve a mail-out of information about climate change.

Mr Turnbull says households will also be given money to help combat global warming through measures such as tree plantings.

"This $52.8 million program will be about greener homes for a cooler planet," he said.

"Twenty per cent of our emissions in Australia come from our 7 million households and all of us can reduce our carbon intensity, reduce our emissions by a whole range of measures."

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Inuits blame U.S. for climate change - Yahoo! News

Inuits blame U.S. for climate change - Yahoo! News

Time to buy Canadian real estate?

Scientists watch polar areas for changes

- Yahoo! News:

"PARIS - Are we really heading for an ice-free Arctic? More than 50,000 researchers hope to find an answer during a massive study of how global warming and other phenomena are changing the coldest parts of the Earth — and what that means for the rest of it.


Scientists formally kicked off the International Polar Year on Thursday, the biggest such project in 50 years. It is unifying researchers from 63 nations in 228 studies to monitor the health of the polar regions, using icebreakers, satellites and submarines. The project ends in March 2009.

Schoolchildren in Oslo, Norway, many with signs that said 'Give us back winter' or 'We want snow,' built snowmen on the City Hall square to mark Thursday's launch.

The director of the Norwegian Polar Institute described seeing glaciers melt at an accelerated rate in recent years at his Arctic outpost of Ny-Alesund.

The polar year is important because it is 'pooling the resources of many countries in a coordinated effort to solve a major scientific problem of our time,' Kim Holmen said by telephone.

Global warming 'is the most important challenge we face in this century,' Prince Albert II of Monaco said in launching the project in Paris. 'The hour is no longer for skepticism. It is time to act, and act urgently"