NEG: a bipartisan agreement to disagree?

Energy investment is a long-term game. Energy infrastructure lasts 20, 30, 40 years. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about powerlines, fossil power stations or solar farms.

Energy infrastructure is a long-term investment.

So certainty about government policy is absolutely critical.

When you’re investing in the energy sector you need to know what the targets are going to be for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Australian government’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG), as revised late last week, is making good progress but currently still could lock in uncertainty unless both major parties act in our national interest.

“Read the coment by Oliver Yates from today’s Age - “NEG: a bipartisan agreement to disagree?”

California wildfires: Ten dead, tens of thousands flee as fires rip through Napa, Orange County

Wildfires fanned by strong winds have ripped through Californian wine country, killing at least 10 people, forcing some 20,000 residents to flee and destroying 1,500 homes and businesses.

Wildfires whipped by powerful winds have
 swept through Northern California.

Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for northern California's wine-making Napa, Sonoma, and Yuba counties as the blazes raged unchecked and engulfed the region in thick, billowing smoke that drifted into San Francisco and Oakland.

A state of emergency was also declared in Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Nevada and Orange counties.

At least seven people died in the winemaking region of Sonoma, while two died in neighbouring Napa and another was killed in a blaze further north.

At least 100 others were injured, with the majority of those treated for smoke inhalation.

Read the ABC News story - “California wildfires: Ten dead, tens of thousands flee as fires rip through Napa, Orange County.”

Slow regrowth in Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area after devastating bushfire

Aerial view of Lake McKenzie in Tasmania's Wilderness

 WHA one year after after 2016 bush fire.

A year on from bushfires in Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area (WHA), some areas are showing signs of recovery but others are not.

Last summer bushfires sparked by lightning strikes raged across Tasmania.

The unprecedented event scorched about 20,000 hectares of the Wilderness WHA.

There are signs of recovery in areas of burnt eucalypts but not in some sensitive alpine habitats.

Ecologist Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick said once alpine flora such as pencil pines were burnt, they died.

"They haven't got any seed stores, so there's no seed in the soil and there's very seldom seed in the trees themselves, so if you burn the stands you'll often get rid of them for a very long time period," he said.

"It's those plants that actually make it a world heritage area because they're really highly significant scientifically as paleo endemics from the cretaceous period."

The fires wiped out plants more than 1,000 years old.

Read the ABC story - “Slow regrowth in Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area after devastating bushfire.”