Energy usage data to give consumers edge with power companies

Consumers will be able to demand their power usage data from energy companies under a federal government initiative aimed at helping customers shop around for better deals.

The consumer data right will enable consumers to access their detailed historical energy usage data and then pass that on to other energy companies to get more competitive energy rates.

Read the story from The Age by Nick Toscano - “Energy usage data to give consumers edge with power companies.”

Students striking for climate action are showing the exact skills employers look for

On March 15 2019 thousands of students across Australia will skip school and join the global strike for climate action. This is the second time students have taken to the streets to demand more government action on climate change. Last time they did so, in November 2018, the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan, told them:

Why would striking students end up in the ‘dole’ queue’ when
they’re seeking to understand a global issue, taking action
 and clearly articulating their perspective? 

The best thing you’ll learn about going to a protest is how to join the dole queue. Because that’s what your future life will look like, up in a line asking for a handout, not actually taking charge for your life and getting a real job.

Politicians are up in arms about tomorrow’s protest too. New South Wales is just over a week away from a state election where climate change is a key issue. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has slammed as “appalling” comments made by Opposition Leader Michael Daley in support of the strike.

Read the piece from The Conversation by a Lecturer in Education from CQUniversity, Australia, by Karena Menzie-Ballantyne - “Students striking for climate action are showing the exact skills employers look for.”

In America’s Science Classrooms, the Creep of Climate Skepticism

STEVE VERNON lives with his wife in a meticulously manicured country club community secured by watchmen in guard booths. He is also a leader of the Florida Citizens’ Alliance, a conservative, 20,000-member organization based in Naples that spearheaded a successful grassroots effort last year to pass the nation’s first state bill allowing residents to demand a public hearing on local school textbooks. With its passage, parents of students — as well as anyone living in a given district — can challenge the books a school is using to teach their community’s children. It was a seemingly parochial piece of civic legislation, but it was one with potentially great implications for science education in the United States.

The creep of climate skepticism in American classrooms.

“Membership increased significantly when we started saying, ‘Look at what’s in our textbooks.’”

On a bright afternoon in September, as Hurricane Florence was lashing the shores of states just a few hundred miles north, Vernon, a retired IBM contracts negotiator and Marine Corps veteran, answered his door barefoot, wearing shorts and a green t-shirt. He had joined the Florida Citizens’ Alliance as a board member in 2012, initially inspired by the organization’s gun-rights advocacy. In fidelity to the IBM corporate ethos, Vernon and others in the Alliance recognized that the group wasn’t optimizing its potential appeal to the Florida citizenry, so they commissioned a team of consultants to evaluate the group’s strategy for obtaining new members.

Read the story from Undark by Sean Patrick Cooper - “In America’s Science Classrooms, the Creep of Climate Skepticism.”

As power prices surge, Victorians are embracing solar — and it's causing problems

Andy McCarthy has been installing rooftop solar panels in Victoria for 18 years, but even he is stunned by the massive recent growth in demand.

Opponents of renewable energy have seized on
 infrastructure issues to criticise the growth in wind and solar.

"It's been crazy," he said.

"We installed our first 100 kilowatt system in 2013. Back then, that was a huge deal.

"Now we are doing three a week.”

The rate of growth is astonishing — every minute, on average, six and a half solar panels are installed on Australian rooftops.

Read the story from ABC News by Stephanie Anderson - “As power prices surge, Victorians are embracing solar — and it's causing problems.”

Energy regulator demands networks' tax records over price-gouging claims

The Australian Energy Regulator is using its powers to demand the tax records of electricity distributors after they failed to comply with its investigation into claims of price-gouging.

The spotlight is being shone on poles and wires companies
after being accused by the ATO of tax discrepancies.

The AER began a probe last month to investigate claims by the tax office that there were major discrepancies between the amount electricity and gas networks were allowed to charge consumers and the amount these companies actually paid.

Read the story by Cole Latimer from The Age - “Energy regulator demands networks' tax records over price-gouging claims.”

Australia can avoid Germany's renewable energy mistakes

Australia's increasing focus on demand response and energy efficiency is setting the country up to bypass the mistakes made by the world leader in renewables, says a German energy expert.

Australia can avoid German's renewable energy mistakes.

"Australia can learn from Germany's mistakes of the last few years," the deputy chairman of the German Business Initiative for Energy Efficiency, the nation's peak energy efficiency body, Christoph von Spesshardt said.

"I can see similarities between the situation in Australia now and Germany 10 years ago," he told Fairfax Media.

Read Cole Latimer’s story from The Sydney Morning Herald - “Australia can avoid Germany's renewable energy mistakes.”

Shareholders target QBE over climate change ‘failure’

QBE Insurance Group has become the latest big listed company to be hit with a demand for more transparency about potential risks it faces from climate change, amid calls by a prominent company director for boards to consider "uncomfortable questions" on the issue.

QBE has been hit with a shareholder resolution on climate risk.

Melbourne NGO Market Forces, which last year filed similar resolutions targeting Santos, Oil Search and Origin Energy, has this time teamed up with the $10 billion Local Government Super to call for more disclosure of climate risks by the insurer.

Read the story by Ruth Collins in The Age - “Shareholders target QBE over climate change ‘failure’."

Are we approaching Peak Oil Demand? Not if the oil industry can help it

Peak oil used to be about running out of supply; now some think that we will run out of demand. The oil companies will ensure that we never run out of demand.

Remember Peak Oil? It was all over TreeHugger, the idea that the easy oil was going to start running out and it would get more and more expensive and difficult to find.

We wrote post after post about Hubbert's Peak and how we were all gonna die, that we are "in the confusion stage now, followed by chaos and collapse and basically the End of the world as we know it as we slide down the slope from the Peak.”

Then along came hydraulic fracturing (fracking), tight oil, deepwater drilling, Trump, Zinke and Pruitt, and the oil and gas are flowing freely and people are piling into pickups. Peak oilman King Hubbert became "a punchline rather than a visionary." And now, over at the NRDC, Jeff Turrentine asks Could Peak Oil Demand Be Just a Dozen Years Away? But he isn't talking about oil supply, he is talking demand, suggesting that electric cars are going to cause a different kind of peak.

Read Lloyd Alter’s story from Treehugger - “Are we approaching Peak Oil Demand? Not if the oil industry can help it.”

Implications of Energy Technology Innovation for Gender and Social Inclusion in South Asia

The focus of this research is the energy transition in developing Asia and implications for inclusive development, particularly gender equity and social inclusion. Project Leader Dr Reihana Mohideen has been leading this work looking at the rural energy transition and pathways to improve energy access and consequently maximise benefits for gender equity and social inclusion.

Asia’s energy transition is being driven by increasing energy demand and the commitment from developing Asia’s economies to decrease emissions in order to reduce the average rise in global temperatures.

Read/watch the research from the Melbourne Energy Institute - “Implications of Energy Technology Innovation for Gender and Social Inclusion in South Asia.”