Why should taxpayers fund the most expensive and slowest energy option when so many alternatives are significantly cheaper and pose less financial risk?
Energy
A radioactive issue for the Coalition?
Why has Ian Macfarlane completely reversed his opinion on Carbon Capture and Storage — from such a strong advocate of the when in government to his recent denunciation on Four Corners? asks Michael James.
Buy our brown coal! Now cleaning up on eBay
Victoria’s 13 billion tonnes of unallocated brown coal are now listed as an eBay item, under the seller name “BrumbyGovt”. Bids are open for the next seven days. The starting price is $1,000,000, writes Greg Foyster.
Ban big-screen TVs?
The US state of California is poised to ban big screen TVs in order to cut energy usage and spare itself the cost of building a new power plant. Could this be the way forward for curbing Australia’s energy-guzzling ways?
Queensland farmers rise up to take on the miners
Queensland’s Surat Basin has the third largest energy resource in the world but farm groups are warning that mining areas risk catastrophic environmental damage to food-producing areas, reports Amanda Gearing.
A great energy-saving idea plucked from the air
The tale of how one UK company benefited from clean energy grants is instructive. Rather than try to create good energy (expensive and time-consuming) it found an inventive way to radically reduce demand.
Um, the nuclear ’solution’ just melted
For all those who suggest that nuclear power is the only solution to climate change, writes Tim Hollo there’s a little spanner in the works - nukes don’t deal with the heat…
What Australia can learn from the demise of GM
Australia is as dependent on coal as General Motors was on the gas-guzzling SUV. Will we learn from their example and do away with this relic of the old industrial revolution? asks Ben McNeil.
China’s renewable energy source: human power
China may own the dubious title of being the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, but it’s 1.3 billion citizens also provide much sustainable human power.
Smart energy meters added to every UK home by 2020
Every home in the UK must be fitted with a “smart meter” by 2020 to reduce energy use and pave the way for a low-carbon “smart grid”, under plans unveiled by the government.
Obama’s historic committment to science
Obama has announced he will ramp up research and development spending, create an advanced research agency for energy, and roll out new programs to improve science education in the US.
The coming global catastrophe: what will we tell the next generation?
A British Government advisor is predicting a global catastrophe by 2030 over diminishing food, water and energy supplies. What will you tell your children if he’s correct? asks Martin Flanagan.
Obama’s smalls to get an airing
The founder of Project Laundry List, an effort to get Americans to give up their clothes dryers, hopes the Obamas will hang out their laundry in the White House backyard.
No use planning for climate change without acknowledging peak oil
Last Wednesday, the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas wrote to Professor Ross Garnaut, noting the inconsistency in his Supplementary Draft Report in dealing with the possibility of Australia reaching Peak Oil, reports Edwina Blight.
You can’t take it with you (unless it’s your energy bill)
AGL appears to have begun to charge customers extra for being dead, writes Stephen Downes.
Rudd and Ferguson to dump a core election promise?
Will Kevin Rudd rein in Energy and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, who is stalling on the implemention of election committments regarding nuclear waste management, writes Natalie Wasley.
