Finkel’s national hydrogen strategy gets green light, but could be lifeline for coal

State and federal energy ministers on Friday have adopted the National Hydrogen Strategy, prepared by chief scientist Alan Finkel, but serious questions remain over whether it will position Australia as a “green hydrogen” leader, as hoped by some, or if it will instead be used as another prop for the coal industry and carbon capture technology.

Chief scientist Alan Finkel wants a national hydrogen strategy.

The COAG energy council agreed to Finkel’s vision for a multi-billion dollar “technology-neutral” hydrogen export industry, with efforts by the ACT energy minister to limit hydrogen production to only using to renewables, rejected by federal minister Angus Taylor, who chaired the meeting.

In an interview before the meeting, Taylor suggested hydrogen production should be “technology neutral”, indicating it could be down using brown coal. There are fears the strategy will be used as an excuse to prop up the economics of coal and use hydrogen as part of marketing ploy in the same league as “clean coal”.

Read the story from RenewEconomy by Michael Mazengarb - “Finkel’s national hydrogen strategy gets green light, but could be lifeline for coal.”

Coal industry urges re-elected Morrison government to build new coal plants

The coal industry has begun lobbying the re-elected Morrison government to support hardline positions, including building new coal-fired power stations and weakening approvals processes for new mines.

Australia’s coal industry is lobbying the Coalition to
build new coal-fired power stations and weaken
approvals processes for new mines.

The Coal Council of Australia released a statement on Sunday welcoming the election result, praising the Coalition for supporting coal, and calling on Labor to reverse many of its climate-focused policies towards the fossil fuel.

“While elections are about an array of issues, it is important to note in coal-related electorates in both NSW and Queensland, Labor members and candidates recorded strong swings against them,” the CCA chief executive, Greg Evans, said.

In the three electorates home to most of Australia’s large coalmines – Dawson and Capricornia in Queensland and Hunter in NSW – voters delivered double-digit swings to the government.

Read the story from The Guardian by Ben Smee - “Coal industry urges re-elected Morrison government to build new coal plants.”

Why 2017 was a good year for climate

On the face of it, there was plenty of bad news for the climate in 2017. Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement and promised to reverse the decline of the coal industry. The Turnbull government rejected proposals for an efficient transition to a low-carbon energy sector, instead announcing a half-baked National Energy Guarantee designed as a lifeline for coal-fired power. Globally, CO2 emissions appeared to rise by around 2 percent, after remaining stable for three years in a row.

Last nail? Protesters outside the Melbourne offices of the Downer
 Group in June this year. The company was contracted to build the
 Carmichael coal project in the Galilee basin of Queensland, but the
 deal was rescinded in December.

But a closer look reveals a lot more good news than bad, with two major developments standing out. The first is an emerging global consensus, encompassing national governments, financial institutions and civil society, that the era of coal-fired electricity generation must end, and soon.

Typifying this trend is the new Powering Past Coal Alliance, made up of national and provincial governments pledged to phase out coal-fired electricity generation by 2030. Launched with twenty members in November 2017, the Alliance expanded rapidly to include major businesses, and now has nearly sixty members. Its government members include Britain, Canada, New Zealand and a number of other developed countries, middle-income countries such as Mexico and Costa Rica, and developing countries such as Angola and Ethiopia. Not surprisingly, Pacific Island nations, endangered by sea-level rise, are well represented.

Read the story by John Quiggan on Inside Story - “Why 2017 was a good year for climate.”

‘Way off the planet': regional businesses use renewables to slash costs

In the heart of Queensland’s mining belt, a businessman who has grown his enterprise mostly off the back of the coal industry sees the energy sector going only one way.

Businessman Jason Sharam’s Linked Group has spent
$460,000 on a solar and battery installation. 

“I think renewable energy is where the market’s going – what we class as the energy revolution,” says Jason Sharam.

The self-described “dumb-arse electrician”, who will have grown his Mackay mining energy business from a starting staff of six to 150 by mid-2018, says he is trying to help people “see through the politics” on energy.

“We try to stick to the facts and the real numbers,” Sharam says.

In Mackay, as elsewhere in regional Australia, power prices are already eye-watering for small and medium businesses.

One of Sharam’s clients has gone off the grid to run a diesel generator, which is not cheap, but still cheaper than paying for network electricity at an average of 86 cents – and as much as $1.26 – a kilowatt-hour.

Read Joshua Robertson’s story on The Guardian - “‘Way off the planet': regional businesses use renewables to slash costs.

State Labor premiers savage Malcolm Turnbull's energy policy, setting up a COAG brawl

The Turnbull government faces an uphill battle getting states to sign up to its new energy plan, as Labor premiers savage it as a capitulation to Tony Abbott and victory for the coal industry.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with premiers and chief ministers in Canberra.

The government will need all the national electricity market states – NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT – to agree to its national energy guarantee to implement it.

The plan to force energy companies to meet mandated standards of reliability and emissions reduction will require changes to national electricity law, which is state-based legislation that sets the rules for the market.

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg briefed his state counterparts on the policy over the phone on Tuesday ahead of a face-to-face COAG meeting planned for late November. But initial reactions were not positive. 

Read the story by Noel Towell and Adam Gartrell in today’s Melbourne Age - “State Labor premiers savage Malcolm Turnbull's energy policy, setting up a COAG brawl.”

It is fossil fuels, not renewable energy, most supported by US public policy

The coal industry and its allies in the Trump administration have recently devoted considerable energy to arguing that subsidies to renewable energy have distorted energy markets and helped drive coal out of business. “Certain regulations and subsidies,” says Rick Perry, “are having a large impact on the functioning of markets, and thereby challenging our power generation mix.” You can guess which regulations and subsidies he’s talking about.

This is nothing new, of course. It is in keeping with a long conservative tradition of challenging the economic wisdom and effectiveness of energy subsidies.

At least, uh, some energy subsidies.

Energy analysts have made the point again and again that fossil fuels, not renewable energy, most benefit from supportive public policy. Yet this fact, so inconvenient to the conservative worldview, never seems to sink in to the energy debate in a serious way. The supports offered to fossil fuels are so old and familiar, they fade into the background. It is support offered to challengers — typically temporary, fragmentary, and politically uncertain support — that is forever in the spotlight.

Read the VOX story by David Roberts - “It is fossil fuels, not renewable energy, most supported by US public policy.”

Family, air quality and a strong business case: the coal executives defecting to green energy

Australian clean energy activists might have recognised some strangely familiar faces joining their ranks of late – those of their greatest adversaries in the coal industry.

Coal sector executives have been switching sides
to chase profits up for grabs in green energy.

Coal sector executives have been quietly switching sides to chase the lucrative profits up for grabs in green energy and – welcome or not – the experience they bring could prove vital to the increasingly desperate race to avert cataclysmic climate change. From a fifth-generation coalminer applying his hereditary knowledge to harvesting the building blocks of a clean energy economy to a fierce opponent of a price on carbon launching an energy-efficiency start-up, here are a few examples:

Altura Mining managing director James Brown – ‘It’s sad in a way ... we’ve always been proud to be coalminers’

Having dug their way from industrial revolution Wales and Scotland right through to the other side of the world in post-federation Australia, the Browns have made a living out of coalmining for at least five generations.

Read Max Opray’s story on The Guardian - “Family, air quality and a strong business case: the coal executives defecting to green energy.”

What a relief that climate change doesn’t exist

Rose coloured glasses?

As we've sweltered through this terrible summer – and lately, as bushfires have raged – what a comfort it's been to know that climate change doesn't exist and isn't happening.

Or, if it does exist, it's not caused by anything humans have done, so there's nothing we can do about it.

Or, if it is caused by humans burning fossil fuels for the past 200 years, let's say we've got a policy to deal with it, go to international conferences and make pledges to act, then come home and not do much about it.

That way, we'll have all bases covered: something to calm the consciences of those still silly enough to believe climate change is real, but not enough to annoy the party's many climate change deniers, nor our generous donors in the coal industry.

Read the story by Ross Gittins in the Melbourne Age - “What a relief that climate change doesn’t exist.”

Turnbull's new climate and energy adviser worked for coal industry lobby group

Sid Marris - it seems the PM has put the
 fox in charge of the henhouse.

Malcolm Turnbull’s next climate and energy adviser will be Sid Marris, who is leaving his role as head of climate and environment at the coal industry lobby group, the Minerals Council of Australia.

The appointment comes amid a push from the Turnbull government for new coal-fired generators to be built, a suggestion enthusiastically welcomed by the Minerals Council.

Marris has worked for the Minerals Council since 2008, after spending 16 years at the Australian newspaper, filling roles including Canberra bureau chief, online political editor and economic correspondent.

The chief executive of the Minerals Council, Brendan Pearson, said: “Sid is a high-quality professional with very strong analytical and policy skills. We will miss him and wish him well.”

But the pressure group 350.org said the move raised further questions about government links to the coal industry.

Read Michael Slezak’s story on The Guardian - “Turnbull's new climate and energy adviser worked for coal industry lobby group.”

Obama orders 'pause' on coal-mining leases

U.S. Interior Secretary,
Sally Jewell.

The Obama administration, in the first major review of the country’s coal program in three decades, on Friday ordered a pause on issuing coal-mining leases on federal land as part of new executive actions to fight climate change.

The halt could last three years, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told reporters, while officials determine how to protect taxpayers’ stake in coal sales from public lands and how burning coal could worsen climate change.

Read the story -  “As Coal Industry Teeters, Obama Halts Coal Leasing.”

The controversial 'little black rock'

A

ustralia’s mining industry has launched a new ode to coal in the form of a major advertising campaign that hails the mineral’s ability to “create light and jobs”, as well as claiming that new technology will drastically slash its emissions.

The campaign, called Little Black Rock, has been launched by the Minerals Council of Australia.
An eye-catching TV ad shows an extreme closeup of the contours of a lump of coal, as if it were the surface of a rugged, distant planet.

A voiceover explains the “endless possibilities” of coal, claiming the coalmining industry provides $40bn a year to Australia’s economy. It adds that coal “can now reduce its emissions by up to 40%. It’s coal. Isn’t it amazing what this little black rock can do?”

Read the Guardian story - “Mining industry's new 'coal is amazing' TV ad labelled desperate”.

Coal industry polarising many Australians

Coal - villain or otherwise?

The maintenance of Australia’s coal industry is polarising many Australians.

Some, primarily those who profit from it, want us to keep digging and exporting the coal they see as beneficial to humanity, while others object to the mining of the fossil fuel for they see it as the arch-villain in the world’s wrestle with carbon-dioxide emissions.

Australia’s Climate Commission has recommended that 80 per cent of the world’s fossil fuels need to remain where they are, in the ground, while the Federal Government has rejected those calls to wind down the coal industry.

The conversation is outlined in an ABC story headlined: “Government says coal industry vital despite Climate Commission's warnings against fossil fuels”.