Never ask advice from someone unless you are sure they will tell you what you want to hear
One only has to look at who our government employs to advise them to get an understanding of how little they actually want advice.
Appointing Grant King to head a panel on how to reduce emissions was a joke.
He was Managing Director of Origin Energy Limited from February 2000 until his retirement in October 2016. He was formerly General Manager, AGL Gas Companies. He is former Chairman of Contact Energy Limited, Oil Company of Australia and the Energy Supply Association of Australia (esaa). He is a former Director of Envestra Limited and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association Limited (APPEA).
So it was hardly surprising when King recommended that the government should change the investment mandate of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to fund coal and gas related projects.
Carbon capture and storage is the go, says King, despite all the money that has been wasted on this prohibitively expensive and universally unsuccessful technology which is purely a fig leaf for a dying fossil fuel industry. It would be much simpler, cheaper and safer to simply leave the coal in the ground.
And the idea that gas is the answer is equally ludicrous. The biggest driver of increasing emissions in Australia for the last several years has been the ramping up of LNG production.
Climate Analytics found that between 2015 and 2020 the emissions growth from LNG will effectively wipe out the carbon pollution avoided through the 23% renewable energy target.
It was estimated that LNG projects will emit roughly the same amount as 12m cars this year.
In July 2018, King wrote an article for the Whitsunday Times lauding the wealth brought by our fossil fuels and perpetuating the myth that our ‘slightly less dirty’ fuels will reduce world emissions.
“Our coal and natural gas are some of the most carbon efficient in the world and continuing to make them available to the world makes both economic sense for Australia and contributes to improved carbon efficiency in other countries less blessed with the energy resources we have available to us.
There were some who were opposed to the development of the LNG industry in Queensland, but industry, government and the community worked together to create this new industry for Queensland.
This same model of cooperation must be used again to make sure Queensland does its bit to ensure Australia continues to remain an energy superpower.”
Never ask advice from someone unless you are sure they will tell you what you want to hear.
King was also appointed as a Director of the infamous Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
Mr King, who votes on funding decisions, has spoken out in support of further development of gas exports at Gladstone port and has said the contentious Adani coal mine proposal would serve the “greater global good”.
Foundation chairman John Schubert told a Senate hearing that the foundation focused on “local actions” to help the reef adapt to climate change and “does not take a position on various policies related to energy or individual company developments.”
Equally unsurprisingly, we have Nev Power, former head of “Twiggy” Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group who now chairs the National COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission, appointed to tell us that cheap gas will be key to Australia’s post-pandemic economic recovery. He wants increased production and the construction of new infrastructure, such as pipelines, and also to move energy-intensive manufacturing to his home state of WA.
Last September, Power had already described the west-east pipeline as “a permanent and low-cost, long-term solution”. He also happens to be on the board of Strike Energy, a junior gasfield developer that is seeking to develop the large West Erregulla find north of Perth.
WA seems to do very well out of Mr Power’s advice.
Of the 12 projects shortlisted by the government under its pre-pandemic policy to underwrite reliable generation, five are gas projects and one is coal. We know the government, run by the Minerals Council, wants to prolong the life of dirty old unreliable coal-fired power stations and even pay for new ones to be built. And they have resisted every international call to cease fossil fuel subsidies.
We now have Angus Taylor looking to change the rules of the CEFC and ARENA to further prop up fossil fuels. And his ‘hand-picked for previously expressed views’ advisers are giving a veneer of consultation to what is a full-court press to prolong the ‘climate destruction for profit’ policies of Coalition donors.
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Michael Taylor
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Jon Chesterson
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New England Cocky
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Vikingduk
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Yes Minister
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Kaye Lee
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Yes Minister
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Yes Minister
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guest
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Jon Chesterson
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johno
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Kaye Lee
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Jon Chesterson
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Kaye Lee
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Michael Taylor
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Terence Mills
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Andrew Smith
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Jack Cade
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Geoff Andrews
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Kaye Lee
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Ray Tinkler
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wam
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New England Cocky
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Kaye Lee
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totaram
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Phil Pryor
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Henry Rodrigues
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Vikingduk
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guest
Return to home pageKaye, in the Public Service there was a common joke we used to share when Howard was PM: “Never conduct a review until you know what the answer is going to be.”
Same mindset, different LNP government.
HOW TO DO NOTHING BUT DESTROY THE ENVIRONMENT AND RIP OFF AUSTRALIA FOR PROFIT
‘Appointing Grant King to head a panel on how to reduce emissions was a joke’.
In July 2018, King wrote an article for the Whitsunday Times (big important paper) lauding the wealth brought by our fossil fuels and perpetuating the myth that our ‘slightly less dirty’ fuels will reduce world emissions.
“Our coal and natural gas are some of the most carbon efficient in the world and continuing to make them available to the world makes both economic sense for Australia and contributes to improved carbon efficiency in other countries less blessed with the energy resources we have available to us”.
Exactly what is the science behind this ludicrous assertion! Coal is rich in carbon, leaving it in the ground is the most carbon efficient solution period and fracking is darn right dangerous, like producing and dumping nuclear waste in your own back garden. As for natural gas, methane is as bigger pollutant as carbon and taking it out of the ground is not carbon efficient due to extraction and transportation methods, but more importantly gross misinformation; no it’s not carbon, it’s f#cking methane and at $1.60+ per litre in our domestic market delivered on the back of a truck by Elgas is more f#cking expensive than petrol, coal and milk.
And he and Morrison’s mate, ‘equally unsurprisingly, have Nev Power, former head of “Twiggy” Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group who now chairs the National COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission, appointed to tell us that cheap gas will be key to Australia’s post-pandemic economic recovery. Cheap gas for whom and at what cost both to environment and the domestic market?
King was Morrison’s choice to examine emissions reduction and as an appointed director on the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and Power was Morrison’s choice to head up the Covid-19 Co-ordination Commission – Now that’s the joke and it’s on the Australian public! King, a magnate mining idiot with the following CV:
‘Managing Director of Origin Energy Limited from February 2000 until his retirement in October 2016. He was formerly General Manager, AGL Gas Companies. He is former Chairman of Contact Energy Limited, Oil Company of Australia and the Energy Supply Association of Australia (esaa). He is a former Director of Envestra Limited and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association Limited (APPEA)’.
And Power, a director and mate of fraudulent tax dodging, delusional philanthropic, Fontescue metals Twiggy, who has just ripped Australia off with $320 million of Covid-19 test kits which either don’t work or will never be deployed, unsolicited billing of the public purse is not philanthropy! It is corruption and gross profiteering for nothing, but at least it doesn’t destroy the environment.
‘We now have Angus Taylor looking to change the rules of the CEFC and ARENA to further prop up fossil fuels. And his ‘hand-picked for previously expressed views’ advisers are giving a veneer of consultation to what is a full-court press to prolong the ‘climate destruction for profit’ policies of Coalition donors’.
And all this comes from our PM, Morrison the Pentecostal coal digger in Parliament.
You people are all terrible leftwing skeptics to think that young Gussie Taylor is doing anything but looking after his own interests. Remember the $80 million empty glass of MDB water??
Now anybody able to do simple mathematics will understand that breaking down coal releases energy and to reconstruct the coal will take an equal amount of energy for the re-build. So using high faluting technology to do this re-build is really a waste of effort when the financial investment would be better made into solar or other alternative energy production.
At present, the New England region has sufficient solar power projects under way to provide the entire energy demand of Australia … and there are more projects being considered. Marvellous how clean air is so valuable when you can get energy essentially for free. And “Yes” this suits the 19th century ambitions of the Nazional$ because it is important to clear first, the townspeople then the grazier class, from the countryside so that the foreign owned multinational mining corporations may sweep across the landscape without having to worry about these damned environmental policies dreamed up by Greenies living in the windowless basement cellars of inner Sydney.
Carbon capture and storage, cheap gas? Easy. Fart in a jar. New coal mine approved by qld “government”. These traitors have a plan, alright, a plan to keep us in braindead servitude, that messianic cunning shithouse rat, that rotten, rancid sack of putrid vomit, that liar from the shire, will lead us all to the rapture. It’ll cost, though, cost your life, your children’s lives, your grandkid’s lives, the complete destruction of an ecosystem, but, hey, look at that economy go. $20 million wasted on virus tests that are useless, $100 million recycling fund remains unspent, $600 million promised for community projects, unspent. Both promised a year ago.
This is how it works, these f*ckers make the announcement, make it sound like a done deal, we are all to assume it’s a done deal, congratulate the slimy scum suckers for being so generous and brilliant money managers, go back to sleep till next promise, on and on it goes, worthless promises from these degenerate criminals aided and abetted by the miserably incompetent typists that comprise the media.
Oh yes, lucky country alright, ruled by z grade arsewipes.
A well conceived report indeed. As all sentient life-forms with a plurality of functional grey cells recognize, it is official policy within Australia that no inquiry can be initiated unless the results / findings thereof are first set in high-strength concrete. That applies to ALL investigations which could possibly hand down a report identifying malpractice on the part of any official muppet, whether that be a member of the legislature, bureaucracy, judiciary, or some watchdog. A case in point is the Queensland CCC which really stands for Crime Cover-up Commission. As anyone who has ever dealt with this uber-shambolic organization knows full well, its mantra is ‘insufficient evidence to prosecute’. Mind you the same applies to every other watchdog in Australia, their whole purpose for existence is to protect officialdom. Anyone who disagrees with my assertion is invited to try suing any politician, bureaucrat or be-wigged penguin, it simply isn’t possible to succeed as the establishment is in a position to throw unlimited resources at defending the entity under attack. Don’t even dream about separation of powers, that concept is as farcical in Australia as accountability, democracy and equal access to justice. While I’m on the warpath, I’ll mention Royal Commissions. There has never been a single Royal Commission which has investigated and / or found fault with any official entity, IMO the choice of commissioners virtually guarantees protection of all official muppets and entities, regardless of what accusations could potentially be thrown at them. Then there are the various kangaroo tribunals (AKA civil and administrative tribunals) designed by state governments to ensure that as far as is humanly possible, justice (whether natural or otherwise) is non-existent. These shemozzles ignore rules of evidence, ignore any evidence contrary to the interests of the big end of town, and maintain legislated incestuous and biased relationships with other official entities, especially the Public Guardian / Public Trustee. (highly protected official crime gangs specializing in embezzlement) To add insult to injury, kangaroo tribunals have been given native jurisdiction over numerous areas, meaning one is precluded from approaching a proper court that must give at least some regard to evidence.
Yup, they are a government full of announcements and committees and reviews and foundations and inquiries and contracts without tender.
They aren’t going to release the results of the review into their childcare package. They published the results of their domestic violence inquiry months early – same old same old….no progress, just more reports and recommendations to ignore, a review of the already available literature..
They do the classic statistical manipulation stuff. Why change the base year for measuring emissions to 2005? Why talk about per capita emissions reduction? Why argue for carryover credits? With unemployment data, they swap from trend to seasonally adjusted depending which looks best. They change from talking about inheriting debt to inheriting deficit (which makes no sense since a surplus or deficit is dependent on what YOU have spent in a year).
A bunch of cowardly incompetents who think getting elected is their only job.
@Vikingduk
@Jon Chesterson
@New England Cocky
Please tell us EXACTLY what you really think about our ‘honorable’ elected officials 🙂 🙂 🙂 Or did you folk deliberately hold back for fear of incurring the wrath of the moderator ?
@Kaye Lee
‘A bunch of cowardly incompetents who think getting elected is their only job.’
As always, I have difficulty comprehending why so many are as reticient as they are regarding their criticism of ‘honorable’ officials. Maybe the moderator(s) could publish guidelines to what is acceptable and what is not. Personally I’m inclined to be considerably more explicit / robust in respect of muppets who are supposed to be servants of the people, but who have quite obviously forgotten they work for the people.
A very informative article, Kaye. We can see how these fossil-fuelers delude themselves and try to delude others because in the end they are talking about money – which they have managed to snaffle for themselves – and they are intent on keeping it that way.
The writing from Grant King in the Whitsunday Times is full of weasel words.
“carbon efficient” – CO2 has increased from pre-industrial levels of 280ppm to currently c.415ppm with accompanying rise in global warming
“blessed with energy resources” – but all he can write about is coal and gas
(hence also reluctance to cease fossil fuel subsidies, but happy to cease renewable subsidies)
“some who opposed” – and not just a few, but many in Oz and internationally
“industry, government and the community worked together” – “contrived”, more like it
(see also “model of cooperation” later)
“new industry” – nothing new about the production and burning of gas, just more of it – and more damaging to the environment.
This money/ economics aspect is what drove a speaker from Queensland on The Drum (18/5/20) who spoke glowingly of the coal industry in her state, and how when renewables are built, then no more jobs, whereas with coal we can go on digging… for ever? She was happy for renewables to be part of the mix, but for a “reliable economy” we need coal, she said. No mention of Climate Change/ Global Warming here – nor the effects on future generations.
Another speaker informed her of the reduced costs of battery storage.
On the same program Adam Creighton also emphasised the economic aspect of the economy, especially of the COVID-19 response. For him, economics trumps science. Did he also recommend nuclear energy?
And then we have Angus Taylor recently spouting forth the Bjorn Lomborg idea that future technologies will save us. Something vague about hydrogen…
Meanwhile Angus has bought up $94m of oil which he must store at huge cost, perhaps in ships floating off the coast of California.
His bright idea reminds me of the man who had hoarded 5,200 rolls of toilet paper in early days of the pandemic. There is certain kind of mentality…
But notice also the total lack of even a mention of Climate Change/Global Warning from the
fossil fuel advocates. No understanding of what warming means.
@ Yes Minister – My truthful rant was quite plain and clear, no fear or holding back here on account of moderation. Don’t know what you are talking about. Are you pooped because I didn’t transcribe my four-ling lettered adjective from the fourth para to ‘the Pentecostal coal digger in Parliament’ who clearly is f#cking with us all?
Idiots are in charge.
Dear Energy Minister –
A “gas-fired recovery” would increase emissions and energy costs and squander Australia’s recovery spending.
We, the undersigned, urge you to rule out taxpayer subsidies to the gas and fossil fuel industry and invest in a renewably-powered economic recovery.
https://nb.tai.org.au/renewables_led_recovery?utm_campaign=gas_fired_recovery&utm_medium=email&utm_source=theausinstitute
Vikingduk – Foockopotamus, I like that one, That’s going in my common usage dictionary. Much to the sadness of one Hippo sub-species now extinct but for two females – Attenborough last night. If only I could in all conscience separate the love from the abject grief – I’ll get over it. We will remember them is not enough!
I liked what one author wrote in the Irish Times about how America had evoked many emotions in the past but pity is a new one.
The Irish Times is actually a great newspaper. One of the few left.
Churchill on the Americans :
“Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.”
What we see in Australia is not even original but importing the American disease of radical right libertarianism for corporates infecting and corrupting politics, government and agencies.
As the Koch’s learnt, if you run for election on such a libertarian platform only <5% of the vote would be possible.
However, if you take over a political party i.e. GOP = LNP plus policy making (IPA), communications (NewsCorp etc.) and hollowing out genuine membership bases, coprorates can then take over agencies etc. then dictate government; while using cultural issues, carrots and sticks to attract voters for election, or have them disengage from politics.
Terence Mills
They have never exhausted all the other possibilities. Don’t hold your breath for ‘The Right Thing’.
I realize that this is a lefty wingy, touchy feely, socialistic, greeny, academic, wishy- washy waste of breath BUT I would have thought that one of reasons for leaving coal in the ground for future generations is not to give them the option to just waste it burning it as we are doing but to assume that there is some latent, valuable property of coal that will revolutionize medicine, say, once it is discovered by a future generation who will look back at our profligacy and curse us. It could be the perfect lubricant for a, machine not yet invented.
While we are waiting for a machine not yet invented, or for viable carbon capture and storage technologies. by far the cheapest and easiest source of carbon abatement is not to mine it in the first place. But our government is not in a position to tell that truth.
Geoff Andrews
Your hypothesizing of a future where the denizens of this world will berate this present one for wasting the possible medicinal properties of coal, lost by burning it, is similar to one I have long held regarding petroleum, which after all, is already a major component in plastics and many other products, makes me wonder if when it does run out, will they look back in utter dismay and ask the question “You what? You burnt it??” After all, in order to escape this world once it becomes utterly uninhabitable, they will need something to make the interiors of their space ships more comfortable. I was going to say, more attractive, but as they’ll all have to be in suspended animation for several years, looks won’t feature large.
All smirko has to do is keep doing nothing but talk bullshit to keep the 40% of believing they are on target and allow the deniers to accept they have to do the minimum for renewables.. Am I the only one here that considers the fact japanese had electric trucks with a 100km range in the 1940s to be significant in the push for electric cars to be made in Australia???
ps
Michel,
We used to evaluate projects by requiring evidence as to the value of the project every aspect was discussed and accounted for in view of the actual outcomes measured against the project
It is a trite comment but I have been involved in several education reviews with costing $100s of thousands that could have been done by a few old teachers from the bush over a weekend with everything open and freely discussed. At one I made an arse by suggesting bush schools should be paired with city schools
@wam: Naughty wam!! Suggesting that metropolitan Sydney kids should venture out beyond the magic circle of the Hawkesbury Bridge, the Nepean Bridge and Tom Ugly’s Bridge to travel across lands where there be dragons or they fall off the edge of the flat Earth. Next you will be telling kids that milk comes from cows, goats and other mammalian females rather than waxedncardboard boxes, vegetables grow in the ground rather than foam plastic covered boxes and meat is actually that large red Hereford steer before slaughter.
Then these poor disadvantaged metropolitan kids deprived of open spaces, fresh clean air and their computers will learn that living in regional population centres creates opportunities for self-expression through activities. Why they may even see the benefits of decentralising government jobs to urban regional centres so that other kids may enjoy these healthy options.
I mean, when the kids become adults and remember the advantages of living in regional centres, how will the BIG END OF TOWN network their scams and other mischievous dealings over Duddo’s monitored airwaves rather than long lunches at taxpayer expense?
So go outside and wash your mouth out with soapy water, then off to the naughty corner for you until little lunch …..
@Yes Minister: I have no idea what you are insinuating here. I am a quiet little fellow who would never say “boo” to a fly. But pinching the name of the seminal text on organisation theory ….. that is a serious bit of cheek …..
Leaked Covid-19 commission report calls for Australian taxpayers to underwrite gas industry expansion
The report does not consider alternatives to gas, or mention climate change and the financial risk of investing in fossil fuel as emissions are cut
The taskforce, headed by the Dow Chemical executive and Saudi Aramco board member Andrew Liveris, positions lower-cost gas as the answer to building a transformed manufacturing sector
But it does not consider alternatives to gas, or what happens if greenhouse gas emissions are cut as promised under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
The Liveris report does not mention climate change, Australia’s emissions reduction targets or the financial risk, flagged by institutions in Australia and overseas, of investing in fossil fuel as emissions are cut.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/21/leaked-covid-19-commission-report-calls-for-australian-taxpayers-to-underwrite-gas-industry-expansion
I keep trying to tell John Lord that these guys are brilliant at what they are achieving. Just look at the list of achievements given here as well as even longer lists you can compile if you go back over the last six years. Yet. John Lord writes articles with titles like “Nothing to show”. Why does he keep assuming that they are working towards some objectives espoused by him? I just don’t get it.
One could draw a cartoon, of a huge circle of naked fellatio friendly corporate suckers and lickers, supporting each other as they burn excesses of polluting fuels to keep warm in the middle of a bushfire. May the only pollution today come from the burning of all Murdoch papers before distribution. We could then address the real problems of stopping the excesses and lies. The corporate perverts vaguely talk propaganda lies about a future when they doom ours, and that of the planet. Carbon capture and storage is a huge LIE, worse than Religious Superstition. Our massive annual emissions, said to be seventy Cubic Kilometres, cannot be buried and stored. The Liars, who now want OUR tax money to profiteer, claim that it is in our interests to F–K the planet, ruin the future, all the while moving in private jets, spending on Limos, Whores, (read some stories), hoarding off shore, bribing governments, paying for favoured law. What a herd of unwiped Arseholes there are in business lobby groups, gas and oil execs, corporate fringe maggots (lawyers, accountants, lobbyists) and the bent system of bribery, reward, corruption, favour and benefit seeking. Mafiasauruses all!
I’m sure, despite their one eyed ideological view of the world, that Scummo and the rest of the dickheads in the LNP and IPA, and Murdoch’s minions and Abbott and those climate denying bastards will not have missed the change that a few weeks of lock down has done to clean up the atmosphere. But true to form, their only response will be, but the coal exports mean so much to our way of life….. Fat Gina won’t even have seen the pictures, much too busy on the phone keeping the LNP bastards in line.
Jon Chesterson, no, remembering will never be enough. We are guilty of wholesale slaughter of far too many. Of that, we should hang our heads in shame.
One more for the donny dumpster fans — the don is known in certain circles as Wun Dum-Fuc.
Phil Pryor,
you are right to point to the right wing greedies and the supporting Murdoch/IPA conglomerate. Sheridan in The Australian continues the war on China with a steal from the Henry Jackson Society in the UK exposed this day (21/5/20) by the Loon Pond blog-site. The Pond does not take things at face value in The Oz, but looks further to find the truth.
Sheridan is writing about Australian industry and sovereignty and independence and attacks on authoritarian regimes, etc.
Well worth reading on this subject.