Senate launches inquiry into threatened species 'extinction crisis’

The Senate has launched an inquiry into Australia’s threatened species crisis after an investigation of national threatened species management by Guardian Australia revealed problems including poor monitoring and a lack of funding.

The southern corroboree frog is critically endangered, with
fewer than 50 individuals recorded in the wild in 2012.

The inquiry, initiated by Greens senator Janet Rice and supported by Labor and crossbenchers on Wednesday, will examine issues including the country’s alarming rate of species decline, the adequacy of Commonwealth laws that are supposed to protect threatened wildlife, and the effectiveness of funding for threatened species. 

Scientists have described the situation confronting Australia’s threatened species as a “national disgrace” and the systems and laws that are supposed to protect them as “broken”.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “Senate launches inquiry into threatened species 'extinction crisis’.”

Coalition backs Hanson motion for new coal-fired power stations

The Coalition has voted with One Nation in the Senate, backing a motion calling on the government “to facilitate the building of new coal-fired power stations and the retrofitting of existing base-load power stations”.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in the Senate on
Wednesday. Her motion ‘to facilitate the building 
of new coal-fired power stations’ was defeated 34-42.

The Hanson motion was defeated 34-32, but the Coalition backed it in the Senate on Wednesday afternoon – a move reflecting a push within the Turnbull government to ensure that coal is given assistance as the government moves to implement its proposed national energy guarantee.

While proponents are framing ongoing support for coal as the price of internal peace, Labor has warned the government that new subsidies for coal as part of any Coalition settlement on the Neg will scuttle the chances of ending 10 years of partisan warring over climate and energy policy.

Read Katharine Murphy’s story from The Guardian - “Coalition backs Hanson motion for new coal-fired power stations.”

CSIRO says Australia can get 100 per cent renewable energy

No technical impediment to Australia
reaching 100 per cent renewables.

The Australian government’s chief scientific body says there is no apparent technical impediment to reaching 100 per cent renewables for the national electricity grid, and levels of up to 30 per cent renewable energy should be considered as just “trivial” in current energy systems.

The CSIRO estimate was made in the Senate select committee into the “Resilience of electricity infrastructure in a warming world,” which is providing some fascinating insight that we will be reporting on (because mainstream media won’t).

Of course, the whole proposition of the committee was considered absurd by One Nation Senator and climate conspiracy theorist Malcolm Roberts, who repeatedly insisted that global warming was not happening and constantly badgered the energy experts on this point.

But what did emerge was a general consensus that the electricity grid was in the midst of a rapid and massive transformation, and a change of rules and regulations could likely accelerate that transformation and make it cheaper.

And amid the toxic political debate about the level of renewable energy, specifically wind and solar, that can be accommodated into the system, CSIRO energy division’s principal research scientist Paul Graham said there were no barriers to 100 per cent renewable energy, and lower levels could be easily absorbed.

Read the RenewEconomy by Giles Parkinson - “CSIRO says Australia can get 100 per cent renewable energy.”

EPA Nominee Pruitt Ordered to Produce Documents About Fossil Fuel Ties.

Scott Pruitt - details of his relationship
 with the fossil fuel industry. 

An Oklahoma judge on Thursday ordered the state's attorney general, Scott Pruitt, to quickly release thousands of pages of documents after years of delay. 

The records could reveal details of his relationship with the fossil fuel industry, which he will be in charge of regulating nationwide once confirmed as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The ruling, in response to a public records request from an advocacy group, came a day before a planned Senate vote to confirm Pruitt as Donald Trump's chief of the Environmental Protection Agency. The state judge gave Pruitt's office until Tuesday to produce the records.

Senate Democrats who have been seeking some of the same records tried to delay the confirmation vote, arguing that the documents requested could shed light on Pruitt's ties to industries he would be charged with regulating as EPA administrator.

Oklahoma district judge Aletia Haynes Timmons issued the order after agreeing to expedite a lawsuit brought by The Center for Media and Democracy ahead of the confirmation vote. Timmons ruled that "there was an abject failure to provide prompt and reasonable access to documents request by plaintiff.”

CMD sued Pruitt earlier this month in Oklahoma state court, saying he had failed to produce public records in response to nine requests the group had submitted dating back to 2015.

Read the Inside Climate News story - “EPA Nominee Pruitt Ordered to Produce Documents About Fossil Fuel Ties.”

Climate conspiracy grips Senate as Coalition attacks latte-sipping opponents of coal

An anti-coal soy latte.
If you see one,
please alert authorities.

The influence of president-elect Donald Trump’s attack on “elites” is taking hold in the Australian parliament, with the Coalition attacking “latte-sipping” opponents of coal mining and joining enthusiastically in a debate questioning climate science in the Senate.

The Minister for Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg, was asked in question time by Greens MP Adam Bandt about a US government report delivered in at the Marrakech climate talks that warned, amongst other things, of a 1.5m rise in sea levels by 2050 if greenhouse emissions continued at current levels.

Mr Frydenberg responded by claiming that Australia had an “ambitious” climate target for 2030 and had been praised “for innovation” and its work on carbon capture and storage at the recent climate talks in Marrakech.

“It it is okay for the member for Melbourne to put his sandals up on the seat, sip his soy latte, sit in the streets of Brunswick and say that it is the end of coal,” but coal would continue to be part of the mix for decades to come, Mr Frydenberg said.

A few hours later, Canada announced it would phase out traditional coal fired generation by 2030 as part of its “vision for a clean growth economy”. The UK is phasing out coal by 2023, and France is phasing out coal too, although it has taken a rain check on that idea because one third of its nuclear fleet are sidelined by safety concerns.

Read Giles Parkinson’s story in RenewEconomy - “Climate conspiracy grips Senate as Coalition attacks latte-sipping opponents of coal.”

Coal miner blocks carbon tax repeal

Clive Palmer.

The coal miner walks into the Senate and blocks the repeal of the carbon tax.

Sounds like a joke and it probably will be if we are ever allowed access to the intrigue surrounding Clive Palmer and the Palmer United Party senators.

The Senate today blocked the repeal of Australia’s carbon tax in a 35 to 37 vote.

It was only earlier this morning that Australia’s PM, Tony Abbott, in a Perth press conference was almost celebrating the demise of the carbon tax legislation.

He was wrong as noted in this report from the Australian Financial Review headed: “Clive Palmer blocks carbon tax repeal”.

For the moment, thanks Clive, but let’s withhold the real back-slapping until next week when the government will rush the repeal legislation back to the Senate.