Energy company proposes gas-fired power station

9 11 2009
  • The Victorian Government is supporting plans to build a gas-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley.
Proposed Gas Fire Plant TRU

The new gas-fired plant will be built next to the coal-fired Yallourn Power plant. (ABC TV)

Power company, Tru Energy wants to build a 1,000 megawatt gas plant next to its existing coal plant, at Yallourn by 2013.

The Victorian Energy Minister, Peter Batchelor, says Tru Energy’s plans are welcome.

“The transformation of Victoria’s energy network to a low emissions system is going to be a long and hard and expensive task,” he said.

“This news by Tru that they’re considering a substantial investment in gas fired generation in Victoria is really good news.”

The gas plant would provide around 13 per cent of the state’s electricity, making significant cuts to carbon emissions.

Read the rest of this entry »





Australia: eastern states’ emissions down 4 per cent this winter

7 09 2009

climate_group_logo_300Greenhouse gas emissions from energy use fell by more than three million tonnes or 4 per cent across Australia’s eastern states this winter compared with the previous winter, according to a new report released today by The Climate Group. This is the equivalent of taking almost 3 million cars off the road over winter.

Total emissions for the season were 74.69 million tonnes. Emissions were down across all states included in the report with South Australia recording the largest relative fall in winter emissions of more than 8 per cent compared with 2008.

The Climate Group’s Greenhouse Indicator Winter Report tracks the main sources of greenhouse emissions (those produced by coal, natural gas and petroleum) in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. Read the rest of this entry »





Gorgon gas project ‘environmental vandalism’

27 08 2009
  • Greens leader Bob Brown says the Government’s approval of the Gorgon gas project off the Western Australian coast is environmental vandalism.

The project involves injecting 3.5 million tonnes of C02 a year into a reservoir under Barrow Island (Chevron)

The project involves injecting 3.5 million tonnes of C02 a year into a reservoir under Barrow Island.

The project involves injecting 3.5 million tonnes of C02 a year into a reservoir under Barrow Island. The carbon capture technique will cost Chevron and its partners more than $1 billion and is the biggest geo-sequestration project of its type ever undertaken.

But Environment Minister Peter Garrett says he is satisfied that the $50 billion project will not cause unacceptable damage to the local environment.

He has given approval to the project’s joint venture partners – Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Shell – as long as they meet 28 new conditions to protect the Barrow Island ecosystem. Read the rest of this entry »





Global warming to open up north-east Arctic tanker route

20 07 2009
  • Melting ice in the Russian Arctic will create a safer, shorter route cut for tankers, but will have even bigger implications for the global energy market

'Soon there will be no summer Arctic ice,' says Norway's foreign minister.

'Soon there will be no summer Arctic ice,' says Norway's foreign minister.

A new “north-east passage” for shipping around Russia‘s Arctic coast and across the North Pole will be opened within a decade as global warming causes the ice cap to melt, Norway‘s foreign minister has predicted.

Jonas Gahr Store, speaking at a recent public lecture in Edinburgh, said the route through previously inaccessible Russian waters, could cut tanker journey times between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Yokohama in Japan by 40%, and provide a safer and “pirate-free” route for trans-global shipping. Read the rest of this entry »





US Government rejects oil drilling deal in Alaska refuge

19 07 2009
Beaver Creek - Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge

Beaver Creek - Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected a controversial land trade that would have allowed oil and gas drilling in part of a national wildlife refuge in Alaska.

The service said it had made a preliminary decision to reject a Bush administration proposal in the works since 2004 to trade out land in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge so that it could be explored for oil.

Opposition from residents of Native American villages near the proposed drill sites, new information on geologic resources and a closer look at climate-change impacts led to the unexpected shift against going through with the land trade, officials said.

“The (environmental review) process worked, though it may have led us in a different direction than we had originally anticipated. Going into this effort, we did not anticipate the level of opposition we heard from some of the most affected communities within the Yukon Flats,” Refuge Manager Rob Jess said in a statement.

The final decision from the service is due in early 2010. Read the rest of this entry »





Los Angeles will end use of coal-fired power

4 07 2009

CoalLOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from cleaner renewable energy sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

Consumers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest city-owned utility in the United States with 1.45 million electricity customers, will see higher power bills in the fight against climate change, he added in his inaugural speech for his second four-year term as mayor on Wednesday.

California does not have any coal-fired power plants, a leading contributor to greenhouse gas pollution, but the LADWP now gets 40 percent of its electricity from coal plants outside the state. Read the rest of this entry »





World science academies push for G8 climate action

12 06 2009

IndustryWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The world’s richest countries and those that are developing fastest need to lead the transition to an energy-efficient and low-carbon economy to stave off the worst effects of climate change, science academies from these nations said on Thursday.

In a message to the Group of Eight industrialized nations, as well as leaders of fast-growing Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, the academies from these so-called G8+5 countries said that tackling this environmental challenge should be part of efforts to rebuild the global economy.

“The need to find solutions to climate change presents a huge but as yet unrealized opportunity for the creation of new jobs and for the stimulation of new and emerging markets,” the statement said.

Released in advance of the July 8-10 G8 meetings in Italy,, the statement offers goals that could be part of any final communique from this gathering, said Mike Clegg, foreign secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Full article Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters








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