Hazelwood Power Station – Image: Simpsons fan 66
A bunch of Liberal/National party MPs have reportedly gotten together to form a little club called the Monash Forum, a major aim of which is to push for more coal-fired power generation in Australia.
Apparently, 20 MPs have joined the group – you can probably guess who a couple of them are. There’s a good wrap-up of what the Monash Forum is about on The Guardian.
The “Monash Manifesto”
No doubt Monash University is somewhat cringing at the name chosen for this forum, but the University has nothing to do with it. In fact, Monash University is distancing itself from fossil fuels and will be fully powered by renewable energy by 2030 via its million Net Zero Initiative.
The name was chosen in honour of Australia’s “greatest general who was also one of our greatest engineers”, Sir John Monash. He also oversaw the development of coal deposits in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley and the construction of power stations.
Dubbed the “Monash Manifesto” by Simon Holmes à Court, text from a recruitment document reportedly produced by the group includes calls for extending the life of the clapped out Liddell Power Station and the building of “Hazelwood 2.0” on the site of original Hazelwood, which was one of the filthiest coal fired power generators in the world.
“All the transmission infrastructure already exists; all the environmental permits have already been obtained; and a new low emissions coal fired power station can certainly be built for no more than $4billion,” states the document.
The hefty price of $4 billion would need to met by Government (read: taxpayers) given the fact that finding investors to stump up funds for new coal power in Australia could be near impossible.
The group argues if it’s good enough to export our coal overseas, then we should be using more of it here. Crystal methamphetamine is also produced in Australia, but legal issues aside, it doesn’t mean we should be using it – and brown coal is the ice of fossil fuels.
Meet The New Coal, Pretty Much The Same As The Old Coal
High Efficiency Low Emissions (HELE) coal fired power stations aren’t all that high in efficiency or low in emissions; with carbon emissions ranging from 800-880g CO2/kWh (supercritical HELE) down to 670-740g CO2/kWh for advanced ultra-supercritical HELE. That’s still 670g – 880g CO2/kWh more than wind and solar power and is still accompanied by other toxins including mercury, plus the environmental degradation and other nasties associated with coal mining.
Base image: stafichukanatoly
“Coal is always polluting, regardless of how it’s branded – whether the technology is “ultra super critical”, “high efficiency low emissions” or “carbon capture and storage,” said the Climate Council’s Professor Andrew Stock.
Australians Don’t Want Coal Power
Recently published figures from The Australia Institute based on polling carried out in December 2017 indicate 60% of Australians support the phaseout of coal power by 2030. 18% were unsure and just 22% opposed the idea.
“The strong majority support for phasing out coal power shows how far the community is ahead of the government on climate change,” said TAI’s Ebony Bennett. “The government’s weak targets and coal addiction risks making Australia a climate pariah, as well as missing out on the jobs and investment that the global renewables boom.”
It’s probably about time the members of the Monash Forum finally got the hint.
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The problem is that some voters are sufficiently stupid, to vote these morons into parliament.
After all, someone must have voted for them, for them to have been declared elected.
Whilst the Australian feral parliament is not democratically elected, and, as a previous Chief Judge of the High Court of Australia, had said, the constitution does not give the Australian people the right to choose the members of the Australian feral parliament, it would be good if the Australian Constitution provided for recall elections, or recall referenda, where the voters could actually sack misbehaving members of the feral parliament. But, the members of the feral parliament, would never allow themselves to be held to account for their actions and inactions, like they prevented the voters of Australia, from determining whether Australia should become a republic.
But, someone, in a drug-induced stupor, must have voted for these people, surely, for them to have got into the parliament
That must be why the feral parliament allows that “Crystal methamphetamine is also produced in Australia” – so as to cause the members of the feral parliament, who support mining and burning coal, to be elected in clouds of crystal meth.
And, did you know that, apart from Australia supplying uranium for nuclear power generation, Australia has supplied uranium for nuclear weapons?.
Probably people of the same mentality as the monash forum, are responsible for Australia being involved in the nuclear weapons trade.
If you can access the subscription-only list of the feral mp’s who are part of the treacherous monsh forum, could you please publish a list of the names?
Thank you in anticipation.
If there’s $4 billion at stake, I’m sure the coal companies can give those MPs a few million each to get them to cooperate. This seems to be what modern politics has been reduced to.
It’s up to Australians to vote these dirtbags out.
From what I understand, the members of the feral Looney Neanderthal Party government, that are members of the Monsh Forum, or who have otherwise signed the letter, are
Craig Kelly
George Christensen
Barnaby Joyce
Tony Abbot
Kevin Andrews
Eric Abetz
I have been unable to find names of any other members of the group, so, whilst some say the group has 12 members, and, some say the group has 20 members, if the group membership is to be concealed beyond those 6 members, then no evidence is found of any membership of the group, beyond those 6 members.
Whilst they are apparently supporting Bill Shorten to become prime monster, by seeking to usurp Malcolm Turnbull as prime monster, we will have to wait and see whether the group has the numbers, to force a change in the government (a double dissolution?)
It would be interesting, on the basis of the move by the Stoopid Six, for Adam Bandt or Bill Shorten, to move a motion of no confidence in the prime monster, in the lower house of the feral parliament, on the basis that the prime monster does not have the support of the majority of the members of the lower house of the feral parliament, as shown by his own LNP government.
Please read this news report – it shows that Australian “conservatives” have yet to evolve from the ice age.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-08/uk-conservatives-are-abandoning-coal-fired-power-stations/9630936
It shows they are going to rely more on clean Nuclear power for baseload.
An interesting aspect to all of this, has just occurred to me today (I am getting old, and, I AM Australian, so realisation can take a bit longer than it should), and, that is, of this Stoopid Six of the Loony Neanderthal Party, none are women (or, no women are yet named as being part of this Neanderhal movement (like Beethoven’s Last Movement, as females are not yet shown to be sufficiently stupid, as to let themselves be known to be associated with such a movement).
Why, you may ask, is this so? The answer is surprisingly simple – females are simply not as stupid as some males. Females know better.
That is why this group appropriately deserves toe be described by the name Homo Stupidis.
And, for people who do not already know, the name Homo Stupidis is the name that was first proposed for what is now officially named Neanderthals. It was decided that the species should be named by the loation, rather than the percived attribute. See the wikipedia entry for Homo Stupidis.
So, possibly, as this group of the Stoopid Six, is headquartered in Canberra, perhaps, they should be referred to, as the Canberra Six.
Which makes it even more interesting that, in a recently reported federal redistribution of parliamentary seats, a new feral parliamentary seat is to be created in Canberra, the new seat being named after the well known, Mr Bean. ” ‘Nuff said.”.
Chris – prithee, show me where in the news report, is any mention of, or, otherwise, reference to, nuclear power.
If my memory is correct, the UK is working on, amongst other clean energy projects, the development of giant wind turbines, to be planted in the sea.
Hi Brett,
You could call the Monash Forum The Dirty Half-Dozen”.