New Australia

Australia: The Coal Country

Fuels for electricity in 2007. (Graph: Nuclear Information Centre)

Australia is heavily dependent on coal for electricity generation - more so than any other developed country except Denmark and Greece. Around 22% of this is from highly polluting brown coal (or lignite) making Australia the worlds worst polluter per head. Electricity in Australia is sold at rates far below international levels which is why it is used so wastefully and why demand is growing so rapidly. In Victoria electricity is sold at just 2.8 c/kWh which is only possible because the power stations are allowed to dump CO₂ into the atmosphere for nothing.

Shifting to Renewables & Gas

Horns Rev offshore wind park in the North Sea near Denmark. (Image: Wikipedia)

NewAustralia supports:

• Turning around the whole tax system to encourage renewables and efficiency and discourage fossil fuel usage.
• An increase in the MRET target, which would not include domestic installations.
• Higher feed in tariffs.
• Diverting fossil fuel funding to renewables (no funding of 'clean coal' projects).
• Encouraging distributed generation of power using renewables or low emission technologies.

Energy Priorities

According to this study by the Atmosphere and Energy Programme at Stanford University, alternatives to fossil fuels can be rated in the following order according to their total ecological footprint and their benefit to human health:

1. Wind
2. Concentrated solar power
3. Geothermal energy
4. Tidal energy
5. Solar panels
6. Wave energy
7. Hydroelectric dams
8. Biofuels (30 times more space to grow enough corn to power the US fleet than would be needed to erect enough wind turbines, while bioethanol would produce more greenhouse gases than wind power.)
9. Nuclear Fission (25 times more carbon and air pollution than wind.)
10. "Clean Coal" (110 times more carbon than building and using wind turbines.)

We would add gas fuel cells to this list due to their very high efficiency and low emissions.

A High Price on Carbon

The Tax Reforms proposed by NewAustralia shift tax from income and payroll and dumps it on to Carbon. This would have a drastic effect on both how power is generated and how much is needed.

Peak Oil

See Energy - Transport.

Energy Conservation

The easiest way to reduce emissions is to improve efficiency. Our proposed Green Tax Shift would drastically changes the cost-benefit equation for households or business considering spending on energy conservation. Energy efficiency would become a key determinate when making any new purchase.

Uranium Exports

NewAustralia does not recommend a complete ban on uranium mining and exports to countries meeting appropriate safeguards. We oppose Australia being used to store radioactive waste from other nations - even if the uranium did originally come from here.

However, many existing uranium mines have major environmental problems that would have to be resolved before mining could continue.

Trying to prohibit all uranium mining is not good policy as:

• Modern Nuclear Power is generally more environmentally sound than coal power - although renewables would be much better.
• Australia can hardly berate other countries about Greenhouse emissions when it refuses to sell uranium but continues to sell coal.
• Refusing to sell uranium to giant nuclear-armed super powers that have come to rely on our uranium would be highly problematic militarily.

(See also our Nuclear Fission Power policy.)

Coal Exports

NewAustralia supports limiting coal exports due to their damaging impact on the atmosphere. This would be done with export quotas and increased coal taxes or royalties.

In particular, any exports of brown coal should be banned.

Energy [r]evolution

Greenpeace strategy for transforming the energy sector (1.2MB PDF).

Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd

Manufacturers of natural gas fuel cells that could power Australia and slash emissions.

Believe it and we can do it

28^th Feb 2010: Renewables could power the world. more...

The Fossil Handicap

3^rd Feb 2010: "No wonder Australia is lagging behind Spain and China with renewable energy, writes Matthew Wright." more...

King Coal?

8^th Nov 2009: "The 10 industries, including coal, that are responsible for 37 per cent of our emissions accounted for only 4 per cent of national production and 3 per cent of employment." more...

Nuclear Delusions

16^th Oct 2009: "The goal of the nuclear industry is to grow to 730 reactors worldwide by 2030. This would require one to be completed every 24 days, every year for the next 20 years." more...

Brown Coal Exports

15^th Oct 2009: Victorian proposal to export 12 million tonnes per year of highly polluting brown coal to India more...

Energy Priorities

Detailed study ranking 11 types of non-fossil fuels according to their total ecological footprint and their benefit to human health. more...

Geothermal Power

Beneath a large area between Geelong and Anglesea lies enough stored heat energy to provide 150 times Victoria's energy requirements. " more...

BeyondZeroEmissions

A site suggesting ways to quickly reduce Victorian CO₂ emissions to zero and below.