Malcolm Turnbull says the need for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation remains an “open question” and has dismissed emissions trading schemes as simply another “piece of economic plumbing”, as Labor attacked the credibility of the Coalition’s climate policies.

Turnbull lost the Liberal leadership in 2009 over his backing for the former Rudd government’s emissions trading scheme, and was forced to pledge to retain the current Direct Action climate plan in order to win support from conservative and climate-sceptic colleagues before becoming prime minister, despite having once described it as “bullshit” and a “recipe for fiscal recklessness on a grand scale.”

Under Tony Abbott, the coalition unsuccessfully tried to abolish the corporation, which the former prime minister derided as the “Bob Brown bank”.

The CEFC lends to clean energy projects on commercial terms and has so far lent $1.4bn, which will reduce emissions by 4.2m tonnes annually and also achieve a positive return on the commonwealth’s investments.

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Back in July...

The federal government has ordered the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) not to make any future investments in wind power, instead focussing on “emerging technologies”, trade minister Andrew Robb has confirmed.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/20/malcolm-turnbull-refuses-to-back-clean-energy-finance-corporation

I am not a conspiracy theorist... but I can smell when there are cosy embraces in order to push an agenda. For example the timed rebirth of "someone" (aka Pru Goward) in the Liberal (CONservative) Party demonising wind turbines when the "new" (old refurbished deck chairs) government in Canberra is still trying to assassinate the Clean Energy Finance Corporation... The number of such coincidences tend to point to a certain agreed ballet of media massaging which could be seen by some as a conspiracy of sorts...

Lucky some people see through this artificial (conspirational) fog:

Wind target overdue

Assistant Health Minister Pru Goward's comments on the alleged health impacts of wind farms are bizarre and out of step with the view of public health experts.

Her comments do NSW no favours. The state is competing with Victoria and South Australia for wind farm investment and jobs. South Australia has a state Renewable Energy Target and Victoria will soon follow suit. NSW is without a target and already at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting investment.

A statement from the NSW government correcting the record on the safety of wind farms is now needed to reassure the community.

Leigh Ewbank Yes2Renewables community co-ordinator, Collingwood (Vic)

Someone in the Baird government needs to pour Pru Goward a cup of tea and gently tell her that Tony Abbott has gone and she no longer needs to fear wind turbines and clean renewable energy.

Don Smith Ashfield

Greenhouse gas emissions in Europe have plunged to the lowest level ever recorded after the EU’s member states reported an estimated 23% drop in emissions between 1990 and 2014.

The bloc has now overshot its target for 2020 of cutting emissions by one-fifth – at the same time that its economy grew by 46%, according to the EU’s climate chief, Miguel Arias Canete .

“We have shown consistently that climate protection and economic growth go hand-in-hand,” he said. “This is a strong signal ahead of the Paris climate conference.”

Diplomats are currently meeting in Bonn to try to thrash out a negotiating text for the Paris summit, amid concern that a slimmed-down 20-page proposal has crept back up to 34 pages, following objections from developing countries.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/20/europes-greenhouse-gas-emissions-fall-to-record-low

Meanwhile in Australia the LNP (CONservative party of narrow-minded rich slave-drivers) is planning to reduce investments in Clean Energy and dig more coal (the transport of which will be subsidised by tax payers) — which will add FROM AUSTRALIA to the immoral contribution of FAR MORE CO2 to the global warming equation than it saves, on a dubious "Direct Action" that is designed to line the pocket of LNP "friends"....

THESE IDIOTS STILL DON'T HAVE UNDERSTOOD THE PROBLEM OF GLOBAL WARMING. It is real and anthropogenic.

AND WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING SERIOUSLY EFFECTIVE ABOUT IT. The best solution so far is to reduce emissions of CO2 and methane DRASTICALLY. One of the best way to do so is to ban any NEW COAL MINING. Simple again.

If the Senate Committee into windfarms is sincere in its concerns about the health effects of infrasound, there will soon be an inquiry into the unappreciated dangers of living near the sea or trees, writes Professor Simon Chapman.

AT THE CENTRE of claims about wind farms allegedly causing health problems is the infrasound that wind turbines generate as they turn in the wind.

Infrasound is sound below 20Hz, which is generally inaudible. Wind turbines are just one source of artificial man-made infrasound. Others include power stations, industry generally, motor vehicle engines, compressors, aircraft, ventilation and air conditioning units, and loudspeaker systems. Everyone living in an urban environment is bathed in infrasound for most of their lives.

As I sit at my inner Sydney desk writing this I’m copping infrasound from the planes that pass some 200-300 metres over my house sometimes many times an hour, the sound of passing road traffic on a quite busy road 100 metres from our house and the stereo system I listen to as I write. Don’t tell anyone, but I feel fine and I’ve lived here 25 years.

But infrasound is generated by natural phenomena too. These include rare occurrences such as volcanoes and earthquakes, but also sources like ocean waves and air turbulence (wind) that countless millions – if not billions – are exposed to on most days. Anyone living close to the sea is surrounded by constant infrasound from waves.

The inclusion of wind as a source of infrasound is of particular significance to claims made that wind turbine-generated infrasound is noxious.

In a Polish research paper published in 2014, the authors set out to measure infrasound from wind turbines and to compare that with naturally occurring infrasound from wind in trees near houses, and from the sound of the sea in and around a house near the seaside.

https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/what-next--an-inquiry-into-infrasound-from-trees-waves-and-air-conditioners,8410

read from top...

On 7 August 2016, 39,545 Megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity was pumped into the National Grid — it only requires 37,202 (MWh).

"I think it's absolutely fantastic. I'm delighted renewable energy is playing such an important role for residents in Scotland by meeting their energy needs," Mike Brain, chief executive Severn Wye Agencytold Sputnik.

On August 7, Scotland produced enough wind energy to power its homes & businesses for an entire day. @WWF pic.twitter.com/vVAE2l2Nmr

The achievement was confirmed by environmental group WWF Scotland. "While it's not impossible that this has happened in the past, it's certainly the first time since we began monitoring the data in 2015 that we've had all the relevant information to be able to confirm it," WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said. 

read more: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160812/1044199293/scotland-power-wind-energy.html

Gadfly always had a strong feeling The Beetrooter and Gussy Taylor would rescue a dismal election campaign from complete boredom.

Citizens are now focusing on the brilliance of making $79 million from taxpayers by selling rainwater and sending the loot to the Cayman Islands where it is safely tucked up out of reach from the grasping maw of the taxman.

Of course, the energy minister has explained everything to everyone’s complete satisfaction, telling fact-hungry press reptiles, “I’ve already dealt with this”, a re-tweaked version of “let’s move on”.

He went to the trouble of getting O’Brien Defamation Shop to send threatening letters to hacks who tweeted or retweeted unfriendly comments about #watergate. All that did, however, was intensify people’s interest and discussion.

Nobel laureate Professor Peter Doherty tweeted to his 16,000-plus followers and beyond: “We have a water-starved internal river system, yet some bunch of bottom feeders makes a business of ‘retaining’ flood water, then selling it on to the Australian taxpayer. Totally unacceptable: the people who set this up should be permanently excluded from public life.”

Gus [Taylor] was one of the founders of the vendor company but has nothing to do with it. He’s not made a red cent out of God’s rain, so mind your own business. Barnaby, who signed off on the tender-free #watergate sale, knows even less and, whatever, it’s all Queensland’s and Labor’s fault.

You can be sure that as we speak more perfectly reasonable explanations are being planned by swivel-eyed operatives.

At least the energy minister’s energy has been momentarily diverted from tweeting headlines from The Smellograph about the ruinous price of everything under a Shorten junta.

Into the breach has arrived other helpful contributions. Former NSW MP Pru Goward, who lives in Taylor country, explained that it’s the river’s fault: “Let’s face it, it’s a terrible river, between three states with all these competing interests.”

Right on, Pruzels.

Read more:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/diary/2019/04/27/gadfly-gus-...

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