January 15, 2008
So our celebrity Environment Minister has made a big move as he is considering banning (or placing a levy) plastic bags. Given this cutting edge green policy by a courageous Minister in a warmed up world, then what is the federal government going to do to address the supply of electricity in the face of increasing demand at peak periods? Leave it to the market to decide?
Andrew Weldon
There is talk about building more coal-fired power stations in Queensland (eg., Kogan Creek) to meet increased energy demand and prevent the blackouts. What isn't being seriously considered in Queensland is meeting the future growth in energy demand via gas and renewable energy sources and greater energy efficiency measures.
Leslie Kemeny, the publicist for the nuclear industry who puts "renewables" in scare quotes and is nostalgic for the atomic age, is back in the AFR spruiking nuclear power as the greenest option. He is talking in terms of greenhouse friendly uranium fuel for energy security and safe and efficient nuclear power for value adding resource industries. The hook for Kemeny this time round is the decision by the Brown Labour government to put nuclear energy at the heart of the UK energy industry.
Steve Bell
As is usual Kemeny doesn't mention is that nuclear power will not survive on its own in the market place. Public subsidies, deals, sweeteners and rigging the market are needed to make nuclear power cost competitive. His mode of reasoning is to say that he has enlightening reason on his side whilst his critics are irrational. An example:
By far the largest contribution to global energy security ad greenhouse gas abatement made by Australia thus far is the "carbon offset" created by the nations uranium exports to 13 of its trading partners , which operate nuclear power plants. The greatest act of environmental vandalism and economic folly any Australian government could perpetrate is to reject nuclear power and a national involvement in a global nuclear fuel cycle industry. Nuclear power is only "too slow" or "too expensive" if perceived through the eyes of pseudo-science or political prejudice.
I expect Luddite will be used next time in this ""no alternatives" rhetoric pushed through the AFR by the nuclear lobby publicists in the guise of an op-ed.
What Kemeny doesn't say is that nuclear companies in the UK want to cap their liabilities and leave the taxpayer picking up the liabilities for waste disposal and plant decommissioning. But then Kemeny wants Australia to be the global repository for nuclear waste. It's what being a part of the global nuclear fuel cycle means. All that's necessary is for the Rudd government to rig the market and provide lots of sweeteners.
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Great cartoon!