Energy industry calls on Taylor to not give up the energy policy fight

Industry is looking past the anti-windfarm headlines that new energy minister Angus Taylor has generated in recent years and hoping his expertise in the sector will allow him to forge a national policy.

The newly appointed Minister for Energy, Angus Taylor.

The ill-fated National Energy Guarantee played a central role in the downfall of Malcolm Turnbull's prime ministership this month, but the industry is urging Mr Taylor to not give up on energy reform.

Read Cole Latimer’s story from The Age - “Energy industry calls on Taylor to not give up the energy policy fight.”

Winds of change: Britain now generates twice as much electricity from wind as coal

Just six years ago, more than 40% of Britain’s electricity was generated by burning coal. Today, that figure is just 7%. Yet if the story of 2016 was the dramatic demise of coal and its replacement by natural gas, then 2017 was most definitely about the growth of wind power.

Wind provided 15% of electricity in Britain last year (Northern Ireland shares an electricity system with the Republic and is calculated separately), up from 10% in 2016. This increase, a result of both more wind farms coming online and a windier year, helped further reduce coal use and also put a stop to the rise in natural gas generation.

Read the story by a Teaching and Research Fellow from the Chemical and Biological Engineering at the  University of Sheffield, Grant Wilson, on The Conversation - “Winds of change: Britain now generates twice as much electricity from wind as coal.”

Flying Is Bad for the Planet. You Can Help Make It Better

Take one round-trip flight between New York and California, and you’ve generated about 20 percent of the greenhouse gases that your car emits over an entire year.

If you are like many people, flying may be a large portion of your carbon footprint. Over all, the aviation industry accounts for 11 percent of all transportation-related emissions in the United States.

According to some estimates, about 20,000 planes are in use around the world, serving three billion passengers annually. By 2040, more than 50,000 planes could be in service, and they are expected to fly more often.

If you’re flying, you’re adding a significant amount of planet-warming gases to the atmosphere — there’s no way around it. But there are some ways to make your airplane travel a little bit greener.

Read The New York Times story by Tatiana Schlossberg - “Flying Is Bad for the Planet. You Can Help Make It Better.”