Posts tagged ‘Kelvin Thomson’
“Replace Hazelwood” says local Federal MP to Parliament
Local Federal MP Kelvin Thompson has called on the Federal Parliament to support replacing Australia’s dirtiest power station. “Australians are hungry for action to tackle carbon emissions” stated Thompson, who acknowledged that he has been contacted by many of his constituents urging “strong, effective, urgent action” to reduce emissions.
Kelvin Thomson
Thompson championed Environment Victoria’s report: Fast-tracking Victoria’s clean energy future to replace Hazelwood power station, which outlines a plan for transitioning to other energy sources by 2013. He noted that “replacing Hazelwood will not only cut Victoria’s carbon emissions by over 10 per cent; it will free up 27 billion litres of water each year”. (more…)
What the REC is this?
Don’t reck the REC
The government has proposed giving five times the normal number of renewable energy certificates (REC) to people installing solar panels on their roof until 2015. This means four out of the five certificates will represent energy that isn’t actually produced!
Extra certificates can act as a financial incentive to install solar panels because installers sell them on to retailers. Subsequently, on paper Australia will be achieving its annual targets for renewables, but in reality achieving much, much less.
Further to this, with so much of the annual targets in the first five years taken up by fake solar hot water RECs, there won’t be enough space within the targets to get large scale projects off the ground – including wind projects that are ready to go now.
This may delay large scale projects until 2015, meaning not just delayed renewables, but delayed investment in jobs too. If people thought that their investment in solar panels could reduce large scale investment in renewable energy, this may also be a significant disincentive to install solar panels.
The CPRS – making a bad scheme even worse!
Changes to the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme scheme announced yesterday Monday 4 May, have caused a stir in the media, between the political parties, and even between green groups. The ALP has attempted to compromise by increasing the reduction target while at the same time increasing hand outs to big polluters and delaying the introduction to the scheme.
Climate Debate
Thanks to all the attendees of the climate debate. The night was a great success with over 150 attending.
Video of the speeches is at the Northcote Independent. Below is a report from David Spratt, and following that a report from an audience member which includes a link to his video of the main speeches.
Ellen Roberts
