Friday, November 9, 2012

How to have a prosperous South Australia


20 20 Vision for South Australia: What goals are sensible for year 2020? How do we get a more prosperous SA and Australia when we have ever increasing power and water bills? The more we have to pay for utilities, the less money we have left over to pay for other goods, for fun things and luxuries (home, car, holidays etc).

To be more prosperous we MUST have the cheapest electricity and water possible. BUT the reverse is happening, noticed? The reason is that we have some very stupid politicians in Labor/Green Governments at the State and Federal levels following an anti-carbon eco-religious belief system.

In South Australia, let's have as a goal the cheapest electricity possible. First thing to do at the Federal level is to get rid of the RET bill, which specifies that 20% of our energy must come from renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydro etc. Renewable energy is good stuff, particularly hydro (none in SA), but the Greens are TOO impatient. Renewable energy will come gradually but it doesn't need subsidies from Government that distort the energy market.

In South Australia we must develop our coal and gas resources for power generation; coal for base load generation and gas for covering peak loads. There must be a STOP to any further Government subsidy of wind farms and any large solar plants (eg solar/gas plant at Pt Augusta) which are fundamentally unsound economically. Plans can be made for phasing out the worst and most inefficient wind farms and have the landscape restored to the original pristine state (good Green jobs here for redundant Climate Change bureaucrats). It will take a decade going in this new direction to get reduced power bills and a sensible energy policy established in this State.

More needs to be said regarding coal exploration and development and modernization of existing coal plants, and the possible role of nuclear power. That's enough for today, but then we are only half way to prosperity .... there is WATER to worry about and what a supply disaster that has been!!!!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

The wind farm SCAM in Australia and the USA


The monster storm engulfing the East Coast of the US demonstrates the stupidity of people relying on wind farms for electricity supply. Not only are wind farms uneconomic and supply only a dribble of electricity when and if the wind is blowing at a suitable speed, they are NOT WEATHERPROOF and can be wiped out by a storm or bush fire. In contrast, coal-fired power stations are very compact and provide the cheapest electricity and are WEATHERPROOF. They also release to the atmosphere valuable free fertilizer in the form of CO2. The idea that we should move to a low carbon economy is just eco-religious bunkum.

In Australia we are experiencing a continual rise in the price of electricity. My last power bill increased by 20% with a cost to consumers of 30 cents per Kilowatt hour. South Australia, where I live, also has the most wind farms of all States, 28 at present and no sign of it stopping since we have the incompetent Labor Government of Premier Weatherall.

In the USA the situation is similar with President Obama promoting wind energy where ever it is to his political advantage, irrespective of power costs to the consumer. In contrast, Mitt Romney sensibly promotes the use of carbon fuels, oil, gas and coal with the objective of the US becoming energy independent. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, are barely mentioned.

People are kept in the dark about the non-viability of wind farms and the SCAM involved. Two important articles on the subject are as follows:

US scene: "Twenty Bad Things About Wind Energy, and Three Reasons Why"

Australian scene: "Facts about "clean" energy. Wind and Solar are worse than coal"
Also "Myths About Renewable Energy"

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

A new Nuclear Power alternative for Australia


Australia has been unfortunate to experience at the State and Federal level a series of incompetent Labor Governments that have stuffed up the optimal use of our energy and water resources in pursuit of a false ideology or belief system that is anti-carbon and believed to "Save the Earth" from impending destruction.

This has resulted in the construction of many enormously expensive desalination plants (2 to 5 billion dollars, now destined to be mothballed), innumerable uneconomic wind farms (28 in Sth Australia alone), the earmarking our cheapest coal fired power stations to be closed down. The people responsible for these mad decisions should be arrested and charged with treason at least, or jailed for giving us a bum steer, as in Italy with scientists not predicting an earthquake (watch out Tim Flannery).

Development of nuclear power in Australia has been prevented by the Labor Party for political reasons (anti-nuclear policy is a vote getter among the uninformed). However, it has occurred to me a possibility that seems not to have been considered. That is the employment of floating nuclear power stations. These have been developed by the Russians for providing power to the Arctic shelf region where oil and gas resources are being exploited. Such nuclear power stations could be utilized in Australia and hopefully prevent any more useless wind farms being built.

Wikipedia provides a useful description of them. The first one, called "Akademik Lomonosov" was launched in 2010, and at least 7 are planned to be built by 2015. It is a nuclear power station barge of 21,500 tonnes and has two KLT-40S Nuclear Reactors (Icebreaker type) producing 70 MW electric or 300 MW heat power, enough for a city of 200,000 people. Also it could be modified as a desalination plant producing 240,000 litres per day. Some 15 countries have expressed interest in hiring such a device.

Perhaps it could make sense to hire one/some over our hot summer period of December, January and February and park it/them in the harbor of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide etc when electricity consumption is highest? Winter time it could be towed to the northern hemisphere to Tokio, or Los Angeles etc In future, I for see a specially designed nuclear power station ship providing say 500 MW power, available to be hired worldwide... something for the Americans to consider building. All we have to do to achieve a prosperous future is get rid of PM Julia's awful Labor/Green incompetent Federal Government so we can dismantle their obstacles to progress.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

South Australia ENERGY and WATER policies ... Concentrated madness.


Yesterday I got my quarterly electricity bill from Origin Energy and note with dismay a 20% increase, due to the charge rate going from 25 cents/KWH to now 30 cents, which is one of the highest rates in the Western world. The Labor pollies & bureaucrats smother us with spin explaining it is necessary and normal. What bunkum!

First defense is that it is due to necessary infrastructure repairs and development. Bollocks. This is a half truth twisted to cover their backside. The disastrous promotion of wind farms, (28 in South Australia so far) has meant a restructuring of the power grid which would have been unnecessary if there were NO wind farms, which is a superior state to be in. Each wind farm requires almost a 100% backup from conventional power stations, either gas or coal-fueled which have to be on standby for when the wind doesn't blow, which more often than not is during peak demand and heat waves. So you might just as well NOT build a wind farm since the backup has to be there running anyway. Alternatively, you could dig a hole and bury your investment money for same result.

South Australia has large coal and gas resources sufficient to last 100 years or more without worries. It is essential to rid the state of the present Labor Government which has shown itself to be so incompetent in energy management and water management. The ridiculous building of an unneeded 100 GL desalination plant & pipeline costing over $2 billion is a glaring example of their stupidity. Likewise is the Premier Weatheral promoting a nonsensical "healthy river" solution to the Murray Darling Basin plan. The major problem for the Basin is the SA Government's mismanagement of the Lower Lakes and their demand for them always to be fresh water no matter what the climate and cost. This is just eco-religious madness.

A PROSPEROUS Australia can only be achieved by ridding the country of the present Labor Governments, Federal and State, since they are driven by an anti-carbon belief system which is a nonsense scientifically. Next the RET bill must be rescinded or neutralised by changing the target date from 2020 to year 2200. The Carbon tax and mining profits tax must be eliminated in the first year of the Coalition Government lead by Tony Abbott.

What bunkum and spin Labor promotes trying to justify these new taxes which stifle our private enterprise and investment!! We must redistribute the mining wealth generated they say, forgetting that their misguided actions will kill the golden goose. It is much better to leave things as they were, since if and when there are "super profits" the benefits are distributed widely as dividends and capital gains to shareholders, including superannuation funds held by all workers throughout Australia. Regards to all. Allano

Thursday, August 30, 2012

List of BUZZ WORDS grows..now QE, or "Quantitative Easing" is added to the list.


When the economy is stuffed up, such as it is in most Western democracies, the lefty politicians and the media tell us we are going through a period of "Negative Growth" which they will remedy by "Quantitative Easing" This translates to making the economy worse by the Fed printing fake money. Buzz words abound in the eco-religious world of carbon emissions q.v.

"CARBON" = CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS are our friend and must be cherished and put to good use. The idea of the need to head to a low-carbon economy is just eco-religious bunkum and must be ignored.

In Australia, we don't have to follow, like lemmings, the socialists of the EU over the cliff to economic failure. Last century was plagued with two European wars which we won, yet we have not learnt our lesson, and that is to ignore/quarantine all the political/eco-religious bunkum that originates from the European, EU region. Let them stew in their own stupidity and so not spread their false ideology around the world.

Australians (and Americans)must not be blind and gullible followers of those fraudsters out to rip off the system, be it in banking or energy production, doing it in the name of promoting renewable energy no matter what the cost, in order to "Save the Earth", so they say. Their ideology is contiguous with specially designed and deceptive GREEN BUZZ WORDS which are used all the time to conceal the truth and confuse the layman. It all started with "global warming" then it progressed to:
climate change
carbon footprint
clean coal
carbon sequestration
clean energy
wind farms
carbon pollution
carbon tax
gay marriage
healthy river
ocean acidification
QE, quantitative easing
negative growth, and on it goes, by design and not by accident.

All of these double banger GREEN BUZZ WORDS are designed to confuse the issue and deceive the public. Even "gay marriage" ! the homosexuals have already buggared up the meaning of the formerly respectable word "gay", so at least let's keep meaning of the word "marriage" the way it has always been, i.e., the special legal relationship between a man and a woman... is that too much to ask for?

"Carbon sequestration" never really got off the ground because hardly anybody understood what sequester meant (=to seclude or set aside). The idea of burying underground all the CO2 emissions from a coal-fired power station could only be viewed with enthusiasm by a demented Greens supporter.

Ever tried to buy wind from a "wind farm"? A more accurate name for a collection of wind turbines is a WIND SCAM.

QE, or quantitative easing,is a favorite buzz word of lefty economists used to white-wash the Fed printing of fake money.

"Ocean acidification" is another Buzz Word, like "global warming", that is used to scare people. Rising atmosphere CO2 levels is said to raise the CO2 level in sea water making it acid, which will cause our Great Barrier Reef to dissolve up and ruin our tourist industry. Big Scare!!! Actually, it is all bunkum. Sea water is the world's largest buffer solution and has high dissolved Na and Ca. The pH is remarkably stable at an ALKALINE value of 8.1 so there is no risk of it becoming acid (except at an undersea volcanic vent).

In Australia the Federal Labor Government of PM Julia has recently enacted a ridiculous CARBON TAX at $23/tonne of Carbon emissions, which is total insanity. Federal Labor exists on another planet and actually believe all the mind-contracted eco-religious bunkum that is promoted by the Greens and EU pollies and the United Nations. All of these ideas and derived policies should be tossed in the garbage. One reason being that it is all a great insult to the wonderful element CARBON, which is vital for all life forms, and it makes more compounds than together ALL the other elements in the Periodic Table. How dare they demonize CARBON!

In Australia, the first thing to do is to vote out of existence this awful and dangerous Federal Government of PM Julia & her ignorant eco-followers especially Combet, Wong, Swan, Burke, Emerson et al. Then will come the task of the Coalition to repair all the economic damage they have done.

My friends in America will soon will have to choose between Obama/Biden and Romney/Ryan? Who wants another 4 years of the Obama disaster? I suggest you count up how often each candidate uses these deceptive GREEN BUZZ WORDS and vote for the candidate who uses the LEAST of them, since these words have incorporated within them a high concentration of bunkum, bull, baloney what ever you like to call it (=lies). Allano

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Whether "Bunkum" or "Bull" we don't want any of it.


The new science of "Bullology" is firmly established and is a popular development in Australia (similar to the American "bunkumology"). It includes the study at the micro- and macro- level of the promotion of bull (a shortened form of bullshit) in the country, its variability with time and geography etc and concentration by means of recording (daily, weekly or monthly) the use of GREEN BUZZ WORDS, such as carbon pollution, climate change, clean coal, gay marriage, ocean acidification, healthy river and many more invented Green combo-words. Bull, for measuring purposes, is loosely defined as the use of deceptive buzz words for gaining or retaining political power and/or financial advantage and/or to create alarmism.

Preliminary findings on Australian political Parties are that concentration of bull increases exponentially on going from National to Liberal to Labor to Independents to Greens. Americans take note that our Liberal = US Republican and Labor = US Democrat. It would be interesting to hear of the variability of "bunkum" in the US political parties.

Other organizations may require a new scale, having a possibly logarithmic relation to the Political Party one. Studies are in progress on the media eg BBC, ABC and the CSIRO, Met Office and Royal Society. Progress reports on this research will be listed in this Carbon Cycle blog.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

How high does your Electricity Bill go before you vote out these idiot Labor/Green pollies?


The continued price rise of electricity is now our top concern and there is much buck passing about who is responsible .. the States or the Labor Federal Government, and the power companies are pummeled also, and of course Tony Abbott,who wisely mentions the carbon tax: he is the primary cause of all Labor's problems, thought by some. However, I smell a rat ....there is much, much, bunkum on the air waves, waiting to be absorbed by the gullible voter.

The BUZZ words are "network charges" and "intfrastructure deficit" and many more, which hide a multitude of Labor's fiascos. These Labor Governments and their civil servant followers explain it all by the cost of renewing infrastructure, ie the poles and cables needed for distribution of power. BUT, have you noticed there is not a word about the requirement (unnecessary) to bring into the national system all the useless wind farms (28 in South Australia alone) with their random dribble of electricity which means miles and miles of new cables, poles and monitors to provide "renewable energy" as mandated by the ridiculous Renewable Energy Target (RET) bill (ie 20% electricity from renewable sources by 2020). The Labor/Greenies are quite mad with regard to energy supply and most things else (eg water supply).

The actual cost of renewable energy, which is now forced upon us, is many times more than energy traditionally available from coal and gas-fired powered stations, which have served us well for the last 100 years, before the Greens decided that they know best how we should live. I say POX on them. It is time that we told the Greens and their Labor comrades to GET LOST.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Federal & State Labor have NO CONTROL over future Australia .. it's open slather by the radical groups.


Labor has NO CONTROL over important matters that concern our financial well being. Our northern borders are wide open to anyone that turns up in a leaky boat wanting a free taxi service to our shores, at enormous cost to us for transport, processing and accommodation.

Similarly, with regard to energy and electricity, there is open slather by renewable energy companies wanting and getting subsidies to produce very expensive electricity using solar and wind energy. None of these renewable energy sources can operate without the backup of existing coal & gas fired power stations, due to their intermittent operating nature. They are a great waste of money when we have the coal resources to produce cheap electricity for hundreds of years.

Wind farm companies should be told to get lost and not given licenses to operate, or shut off any subsidies to them.

The source of all the trouble is the Renewable Energy Target (RET)legislation which specifies that 20% of electricity by 2020 must come from renewables like wind farms and solar. This has resulted in a large development of wind farms producing a costly dribble of electricity at random times not to be relied upon for peak demand. South Australia alone has 28 wind farms despoiling our countryside and creating a fire hazard in drought times. State Governments must stop the subsidized development of wind farms and solar, and concentrate on further development of coal and gas resources for electricity supply.

RET bill must be revoked, or neutralized by changing the target date from 2020 to 2200. Similarly, to be scrapped, would be all legislation based on the demonization of the element carbon for reason that carbon dioxide represents atmospheric pollution, which is a nonsense promoted by the eco-religous Labor/Green warmist brigade.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

What do the terms "Gay Marriage" and "Carbon Pollution" have in common?


"Gay Marriage" and "Carbon Pollution" have a lot in common. They are favorite BUZZ WORDS used by the Greens and their gullible followers, many being in the Australian Labor Party and less so in the Coalition, also in the USA with the Democrat Party of Obama.

The answer is that both terms corrupt the real meaning of perfectly honorable words in the English language. I am against corruption of all types, and deplore the people who do it, so I would not support their causes.

A generalization that is helpful for you to decided who to vote for in the Western democracies is check out each political party and determine their frequency of use of the GREEN BUZZ words (= lies). Vote for the Party that lies the least!!

The word "gay" has its original meaning of showy, lighthearted etc but is now rarely used in this way due to its new link with homosexuality. We all know that marriage is the word to describe the special relationship between a man and a woman, and according to tradition, and the Marriage Act, will always be so, no matter that some people want to change the meaning of these words, and force their dubious ideas onto others.

Exactly the same devious Green process is imbedded in the term "Carbon Pollution". The carbon implied is the gas carbon dioxide which is an invisible harmless atmospheric gas that is vital for the growth of the biosphere and all plant life. The biosphere by photosynthesis produces oxygen which we and animals breath and need for survival.

The Greens are quite mad by demonizing and insisting that the gas be buried (sequestration). In fact, carbon is the most wonderful element in the Periodic Table and produces more chemical compounds than ALL the other elements put together. How dare they INSULT this great element by demonizing it right and left in their anti-carbon based legislation.

"Pollution" is something that is foul and filthy, according to my dictionary. No way can the wonderful gas carbon dioxide be described as polluting. Every day we drink and eat this gas and breath it out into the atmosphere (bread, soft drinks, beer etc).

My view is that these deceptive Green BUZZ WORDS are best avoided, and so too are the people who unthinkingly use them. Many more of these BUZZ WORDS are listed on my Carbon Cycle blog posted below.

Comments about this from my Facebook page:
David Andrew Howard: That's the double bluff. Climate can only change, they clipped it from the longer phrase 'Climate change from anthropogenic global warming', which makes sense but they realised as it wasn't happening they had to do something to keep the illusion going, and it worked. I think it's very easy to underestimate people but not to overestimate them, and Goebbels knew perfectly well how effing thick the majority of people are. Sad to have to say it but 50% of people have a two digit IQ.

Allano addition: The Greens are fond of asking "Do you believe in climate change?" which is a bullshit question because climate, geologically speaking is always in a state of change no matter what humans are doing. Of course I believe in climate change (and being a geologist I probably know more about it than any Greenie). Greenies believe in a static world where Nature has little if any influence (until they get wiped out by a volcanic eruption, earthquake or tsunami) the results of which are quickly hushed up, since MAN is presumed to be the greatest destroyer of the Earth, which is bunkum. If you believe in climate change, then according to the Greens and comrades, then we MUST do something about it and STOP it, by demonizing carbon and taxing it! What bunkum they expect us to believe! Allano

Friday, July 27, 2012

Australia's new ENERGY POLICY requires flushing out of all Eco-religious Green & Labor zealots


Australia is the lucky country since we have enough known coal and gas resources to last hundreds of years at the present rate of consumption. The major problem is that there is a misguided eco-religious faction of the population hell-bent on destroying our economy by forcing everybody to use very costly solar and wind energy, for reason that it fits in with their bizarre anti-carbon belief system.

I am a geochemist by training and I take a dim view of non-chemists including ex-trade union officials, which includes PM Julia and Greg Combet, formulating the stupid destruction of the Australian economy by demonizing the element carbon and so now taxing "the big polluters" for their emissions of carbon dioxide. It is my view that power station emissions of CO2 are quite harmless and actually beneficial, being a free fertilizer, provided the power station has the usual controls over particulates and sulphur emissions.

The Greens and Labor fellow travelers are the cause of the high price of electricity in Australia now due to mandated use and subsidy of solar and wind energy and the differing infrastructure required. Get rid of wind farms, or at least STOP approving them is a start towards getting a sane energy policy and cheaper electricity.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Green buzz words are best avoided for mostly they contain a high concentration of bunkum


Have you ever wondered who invents the catchy Green double words that are designed to surreptitiously promote the Green cause?.. like the following
global warming
climate change
carbon footprint
gay marriage
healthy river
clean coal
carbon pollution
big polluters
clean energy
carbon tax
ocean acidification
The way these double words are used, either very much distorts the genuine meaning of the words, or presents a false meaning with the aim of supporting the cause, which on deeper analysis is shown to be claptrap. A basic objective and theme is to rob tax payers' money to be wasted on some bizarre scheme. For example:

1. A decade ago we were supposed to be scared of global warming ... nothing happened. It is impossible to measure global temperature changes of a fraction of a degree in a year. Dream on. We have had about 12 years with no detectable rise in global temperature. So global warming was changed to "climate change" and anything variable with the weather is blamed on climate change (in the hope that no geologists object, by saying climate is always changing irrespective of CO2 emissions). The Government grant scam is perpetuated by applicants mentioning "climate change" and promoting the eco-religion that we must do something about it.

2. Next "carbon footprint" was invented to scare people .. what a load of bunkum. It is a foolhardy eco-religion that thinks we can have a prosperous society without burning carbon and hydrocarbon fuels. The gas carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant and its emission is welcomed by the biosphere and farmers as it is a free fertilizer. This is not to be confused with "carbon farming" which also is a nonsense.

3. Gay marriage does not exist. Leave the Marriage Act and the traditional meaning of the word alone. Find another word to describe a gay relationship.

4. "Healthy river" is an inapropriate term to describe Australia's Murray River which is supposed to always flow out to sea at the ocean mouth. This is a nonsense. Over a decade in the Murray-Darling Basin you may on average have about 6 years low flow in drought , 3 years normal flow and 1 year flood. It is ridiculous to expect the river to always flow to sea by stealing more water from the irrigators. It is necessary to maintain water (sea) levels in the Lower Lakes during times of drought.

5. "Clean coal" is a bizarre scheme whereby the CO2 liberated at coal-fired power stations is captured and buried underground in order to stop the "pollution". It is called carbon sequestration (hiding carbon) which is a complete nonsense. CO2 is NOT an atmospheric pollutant.

6. "Carbon pollution" This is a double falsehood. What is meant by carbon is carbon dioxide which is an invisible harmless atmospheric gas vital for the biosphere, and it is implied to be dirty, thus causing pollution. The word pollution is defined in the dictionary as something that is foul or filthy. Using this word to describe the element carbon is a great insult to the most wonderful element in the Periodic Table, that forms more compounds than all the other elements put together, and is an essential component to all life forms.

7. "Big polluters" these are industries that emit large amounts of Greenhouse gases such as CO2, which is considered pollution. None of the major Greenhouse gases are polluting, eg water vapor and CO2. ABC TV continues with TV News images of white steam issuing from the cooling towers at power stations implying that it is "pollution". This is fraudulent media coverage and must be stopped

8. "Clean energy" is supposed to be superior to any other, presumably coal energy, which is the cheapest and we have plenty of it to last hundreds of years. The Greens want us to use solar and wind energy both of which are very costly and have only a limited economic use today, and are not worth doing.

9. Carbon tax: what is being taxed is CO2 emissions, now at $23/tonne, thanks to PM Julia. How crazy can you get? What does an ex-trade union lawyer know about chemistry?

10."Ocean acidification" The oceans are an enormous buffer solution having a stable alkaline pH of ca 8.1

These double buzz words are very deceptive and are largely used to squeeze or demand money from gullible Governments for the development of bizarre Green Projects, with an accompaning threat of the end of the world coming, or its equivalent. Governments should NOT be in the business of picking winners. Leave this to the private sector and R & D financing will automatically follow the most promising lead and at the appropriate speed.

In conclusion, I suggest that these catchy Green Buzz words be forgotten, and/or exposed as inappropriate when used by the Australian Labor Party and the Greens, the US Democrats, and unfortunately in the UK both Labour and the Coalition, God help the UK.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

How to stop the illegal boat "refugees" for little cost


The problem of the illegal boat "refugees" can easily be solved at a fraction of the present cost by issuing appropriate orders to the Australian Navy.

The people smugglers need to be officially told by memo etc that henceforth our Navy will patrol the Indian Ocean solely by submarine and there will be NO surface vessels available for taxis service. At last we have found a use for our operational Collins Class submarine (sorry smugglers, it can't carry passengers). All surface vessels will until further notice be confined to the Pacific and Southern Oceans (they can check out the whales and report any poachers).

Also a warning should be attached to the smuggler memo about the deadly hazards of trying to land on mainland Australia, mention being given of the Great White Pointer shark, deadly sting rays and blue-bottle jelly fish, huge crocodiles, poisoness snakes, scorpions and lack of water along the largely uninhabited coastline. They land at their peril and may encounter stroppy kangaroos. I suggest that genuine refugees come via our front door with our approval, and do not try and sneak in via the back door.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Where to Australia? Hopefully not down the Green fascist gurgler.


Businesses large and small more readily GO OUT OF BUSINESS thru mismanagement than do Governments, where with the latter we get the opportunity to support or vote out of power every 3 years. This seems a long time at present with the fiasco of PM Julia continually promoting "reforms" (spin for stuff-ups) in every aspect of our lives, whether we want it or not.

Now we have Ken Henry, former Treasury secretary and wombat welfare enthusiast, telling us that GST rates will have to be raised above the present 10% and extended to food, health, and education. REALLY? The reason being that there is slower growth in GST raised by the states, and we must make room for personal and company tax cuts. Ho Ho Hum! What dastardly policies these Labor/Green supporters dream up in their spare time!

I remember when the GST was brought in and Costello informed us it would get rid of all the unnecessary little taxes and fees, including "payroll tax" !! Most of the states ignored the Fed and we still have payroll tax, which discourages employment.

I believe it should be made difficult for any Government (especially Labor) to gain more tax revenue because what they do get is immediately wasted on crap programs and policies that only demented Fabian socialists savour. Raising the GST makes it TOO easy for Governments to expand willy-nilly and head down the slippery slope to a Communist dictatorship, and who wants that? (Answer: the Greens).

No, Ken Henry, we do NOT change or raise the GST. The solution is to reduce Government spending by stopping the WASTAGE on hopeless and unneeded things and policies, such as:
Do we need another 12 useless homemade submarines? Better to build 6 Egyptian type pyramids which would at least be a tourist attraction. We don't want ANY of the Climate Change, Carbon Tax, Renewable Energy Target bill, plus the Clean Energy Technology Program and other Green promoting activities ... get rid of them all and save billions.. it is all based on bunkum and lies that even a bright school child could refute.

We need a good clean out of wasteful Federal departments such as the Climate Change dept, including Minister Combet himself. I am pleased to read that Campbell Newman and the LNP in Queensland have started such a clean out of Green Government bunkum in their state. Good on them. They will prosper again! That's all for now. Allano

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Great Barrier Reef is looking good today


The recent international Conference on Coral Reefs in Brisbane seems to me to be less scientific and more politically motivated. The idea promoted that by year 2100 the Great Barrier Reef will be reduced to a pile of rubble due to global warming and ocean acidification is "over the top", or just eco-religous nonsense, I believe.

They say that in the last decade the ocean has become more acidic by 25% thus threatening the reef. In actual fact, the oceans are alkaline, with a very stable pH about 8.1, making up the world's largest buffer solution. It would require a huge inflow of acid (from volcanic eruptions etc) to make a detectable change in pH.

The GBR was a heap of rubble very recently, only 20,000 years ago, just before the end of the last ice age when the sea level was about 130 meters lower. The reef then was part of the mainland. Next the world had a short period of intense global warming (ca 12 degrees over about 4000 years) melting the northern ice sheets and causing the rapid rise in sea level. Human beings were thin on the ground at that time and seem not to be responsible.

Isn't it wonderful how the Great Barrier Reef survived the Ice Age and blossomed again after such a drastic change in climate!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

No Progress with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan


MDBasin plan becomes newsworthy again. Nothing sensible can be done here until we have a Coalition Federal Government, and even then we have to revamp the Water Act which is the cause of all the trouble (just like the RET bill and the need to have a sensible energy policy that will ensure our prosperous future.

The idea of starting with how much water to return for environmental flows (2750 or 3000 or 4000 GL) for so called sustainability, or maintaining a "healthy river" must be rejected as an idealistic, Utopian, eco-religious nonsensical concept that doesnt shape up to reality for the riverland's arid climate. The Labor Government must stop wasting taxpayers money with buying back water from the irrigators.

First priority and objective of any MDBasin plan must be to maximize the prosperity of the Basin residents or farmers of the region, plus associated business people, such as in tourism, fishing etc. Any committee for the plan must be composed of such residents having a first hand knowledge of the region and exclude desk bound Canberra bureaucrats and idealistic academics from distant cities.

What about the poor old river and its sustainability, you may say?? The Murray River has been flowing and flooding very well this past couple of years, thanks to Nature. Well, the economic well-being of the region depends on looking after the river and I believe the farming community and its leaders have a superior understanding of the problems than any self-appointed expert from the Labor Government or academia.

A major road block to a sensible plan is the mismanagement of the Lower Lakes in South Australia by the state Labor Government, preventing a stable lake level in times of drought by opening up the barrages. Premier Weatherall's action of taking the water allocation matter to the High Court is a nonsense derived from the promotion of the "healthy river" model which is just eco-religious claptrap. The farmers of the region were quite right to burn the first MDBasin report and the second deserves the same fate. Allano

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Black and Brown Coal should be top priority for electricity generation in Australia


Australia's energy policy is so distorted by nonsense info emanating from the Labor/Green warmist brigade that it's not funny. Even a bright school child could formulate a more sensible energy policy that would ensure our future prosperity for the next couple of hundred years.

The source of the problem is the Renewable Energy Target Bill (RET) that specifies 20% of energy should be renewable by year 2020, which is an impossible objective, and very costly. Both Labor and the Coalition Parties promoted this bill, but now in retrospect we (at least some of the Coalition, and most of the community that pay electricity bills) now realize that the RET, which promotes solar and wind farms,is based on bunkum economics and should be rejected ASAP.

However, in principle, renewable energy is good stuff, at the right price. In Australia we have the Snowy River hydro scheme which provides electricity for NSW State and Tasmania has several hydroelectric schemes operational all providing valuable base-load electricity and/or available to be brought more into operation at short notice for peak demand.

In Australia about 75% of our electricity is generated from coal and lignite fired power stations at low cost compared to that from gas, solar and wind farms. There are no nuclear power stations yet, which is anomalous, considering we are a major producer of uranium ores which are exported.

So what is the sensible road ahead? Don't look to the Rio + 20 Earth Summit for the solution. The warmists are in disarray and now everybody realizes that their yearly Conference is just one glorified expensive junket of no worldly significance, except to organize next year's extravaganza, at tax payer's expense, in another exotic locale.

In my opinion, what should be done is for the Coalition to amend the RET bill by changing the objective date to the year 2200, (instead of 2020). This gives everybody another 200 years to develop renewable energy technology without the need of Government subsidies. There should be no subsidies for solar energy or wind farms.

What's the big hurry? Australia has enough known coal reserves to last a couple of hundred years without looking for more. What about "global warming" and the need to move to a "low carbon economy"? This is all bunkum and false propaganda promoted by the Greens, Labor and businesses that have invested heavily in the so-called Green economy, like US General Electric and many EU companies. I say Pox on them. In Australia we know better and will pursue our own path to prosperity, once we vote out this incompetent Labor/Green Federal Government, which will be ASAP. Allano

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Renewable Energy has a high concentration of Bunkum


In Australia, at last the Federal Coalition is looking at the underlying cause of the continual hike in electricity prices, which is due to the mandated uptake of Green/Labor energy supply (solar and wind) regardless of cost, to meet the 20% renewable energy target by 2020.

So what's the big rush? Why doesnt the Coalition push to amend the legislation by simply changing the target date to year 2200? This gives another 200 years to develop any technologies, and in the meantime we use cheap power from our huge coal and lignite deposits, which are sufficient to last hundreds of years without looking for more.

Rumblings in the Coalition are increasing on this matter. So far, cautious Tony Abbott, Coalition leader, says that most people saw generating renewable energy as an important issue requiring Government support and subsidy. Therefore the Coalition goes along with this idea. Very true! HOWEVER, when such an important issue as energy generation is based on lies and eco-religious bunkum and is causing enormous and undesirable distortion of the Australian economy, the time has come to be brave and rectify matters. The idea of amending the RET legislation by changing the target date to year 2200 is a gentle way of returning to energy sanity.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Let's abolish the Federal Climate Change Department and good riddance to them


I think Australia would operate much better and more economically, by a few billion dollars, if the Federal Department of Climate Change was ABOLISHED and the Minister Combet fired so he could return to blend in with his hopeless Trade Union buddies.

We do need to monitor climate change since it does so change VERY slowly and has been doing so since the Earth began, some 4 1/2 billion years ago. I am happy to see this monitoring done by State Departments of CC with a maximum staff level of SIX each, and with Australia limiting overseas Conference CC staff attendance to about two persons per annum, NOT the glorified JUNKET that exists today which is costly hypocritical rip off of the taxpayer.

The Australian TaxPayers'Alliance under the Freedom of Information laws has obtained info on some of the Federal Dept of Climate Change expenditures (it cost $750 to do so!) The bureaucrats in the Dept. of Climate Change flew 6,528,616 kms last financial year, costing $3,274,286! This included flights to Thailand at $13,093 for two people and Chile $12,805. Some accommodation costs are $265,000 in Thailand, and $265,000 for the delegation in Durban. Next week we have a huge junket to Rio de Janeiro which is to celebrate 20 years on for the UN environmental movement.

My opinion is that the people involved in this taxpayer rip off would be better employed doing something useful for mankind, like picking up rubbish off our beaches, and providing clean drinking water to those poor souls around the world who don't have any. Allano

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Australian Electricity Prices Increase due to Green Policies


The impending hike in electricity at the end of this month (10 to 18%) is in South Australia, largely due to the State's embrace and promotion of "Green Energy" such as solar panels and wind farms, all greatly subsidized. Apparently this is necessary to save the Earth from global warming by reducing emissions of Greenhouse gases. Also there is the new CARBON TAX component to worry about due to come in on the 1st July.

It is high time the underlying false premise that CO2 emissions equate with "pollution" be exposed as bunkum, and all restrictive legislation based on it be declared null and void. This would include the RET Bill (renewable energy target being 20% by 2020), however this could easily be amended by changing the 2020 date to year 2200 which would give nearly 200 years for renewable energy technology to be developed. The Federal Governments demonizing of the 500 so-called "big polluters" in industry must stop.

Whats the big hurry anyway? Australia has coal and gas reserves to last hundreds of years. First lets vote out this incompetent and dangerous Labor/Green Federal Government ASAP. Allano

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Wind Farm Madness in South Australia Continues


SOUTH AUSTRALIA continues in its Green political madness by approving a 150 turbine wind farm at Millicent, near Mt Gambier in the State's SE. This expensive Green legacy of former Premier Mike Rann continues unabated with the new Premier Jay Weatherall. It seems that only by voting out this wasteful State Labor Government can sanity be restored with regard to Energy Policy (and Water Policy). The sooner the better.

The uneconomic nature of wind farms has been well documented. They require 100% backup from conventional electricity generators such as coal or gas fired power stations. They exist due to Government subsidies that have come about due to the mistaken believe that they lower greenhouse gas emissions (which they don't) and greenhouse gas emissions are not a worry anyway, since CO2 is NOT a pollutant.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA must stop allowing wind farms to be built. Subsidies for doing so must be removed. Existing wind farms must be phased out and our countryside restored to its former glory. Such work can be classified as "Green jobs" and earmarked for those unemployed Green supporters. This Green icon is not wanted in South Australia. Let's make South Australia a WINDMILL FREE State and become more prosperous by doing so. Some useful links are:

"Myths about Renewable Energy" by T Caldwell HERE
"Disadvantages of Using Wind Energy" by Allano HERE

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Labor's Toxic Carbon Tax is Crazy; based on Lies and is Just Blatant Thievery


On the 1st of July this incompetent Labor Government of PM Julia brings in a Carbon Tax on some 500 businesses (the so called big polluters) of $23 per ton of CO2 emitted!!!How ridiculous can you get???

I am still hopeful that this awful lying Labor Government will be tossed out on its ear before the end of this June month, probably never to return for ages.

How dare this Labor Government deliberately demonize the element CARBON which is the most wonderful element in the Periodic Table. Carbon is the basis of all life on Earth and forms more compounds than all the other elements put together. The Biosphere is made of CARBON and carbon dioxide is used by plants, crops and trees to build their structures. If atmospheric CO2 levels drop below 200 ppm our plants will die out. Currently atmospheric CO2 is at about 388 ppm and exhibits a few ppm increase annually. We need MORE CO2 in the atmosphere, not less. Plant hot houses, submarines and space craft regularly have atmospheres with 1000 ppm CO2 or more, to their advantage.

The idea promoted by some Western World Governments that we must move rapidly to a low carbon economy and so reduce our emissions of CO2 is just bunkum. There is no need for this move as our coal and gas resources are plentiful. Also the idea that CO2 emissions by man are causing climate change of worrying proportions is also a nonsense.

The way out of the present economic/financial malaise of Europe and the US (also Oz) is to remove ALL legislation that is based on the lie that the element CARBON is the bad guy and atmospheric CO2 must be reduced. Some wise countries are already starting to do this. In Australia we have made a start in Queensland after the last state election when we tossed out the Labor Government. We need a Churchillian effort to stifle the influence of these people whose aim it is to destroy our future prosperity, viz Labor, Greens and some Independents. Go to it. Allano

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

South Australia power supply? Coal and Uranium are the best bet.


SOUTH AUSTRALIA: lots of talk-back radio discussions on replacing/upgrading the Port Augusta old Playford A & B coal-fired power station (ca 330MW) with natural gas, or, the lady Mayor wants a solar-gas plant. The Playford plant was built in 1950's and the nearby Northern Power station (coal) of 520 MW was commissioned in 1985. The coal comes from the Leigh Ck coal field ca 280 kms north by dedicated rail link, mining ca 2.5 million tonnes annually.

Will the best decision be made???? God help us in SA!! Already the state is bristling with useless wind farms thanks to former Premier Mike Rann, and our power bills continually escalate. We have an unwanted/unneeded $2 billion desalination plant unfinished and earmarked to run on expensive power from windmills. We have the present Premier Jay Weatherall ignoring the MISMANAGEMENT of the Lower Lakes and how this stuffs up the management of the WHOLE of the Murray Darling Basin.

My suggestion for the future SA power supply, and this should be on the table for review and costing, is as follows: (it's is devoid of eco-BS). The existing Pt Augusta power stations which are coal-fired can be modernized and continued to use Leigh Ck coal. I am assuming that PM Julia's Labor Government and Carbon tax will be voted out ASAP, if not sooner. What Pt Augusta has now with its power stations are a very valuable asset producing the cheapest electricity.

Another prime site for a coal-fired power plant is where the desalination plant is located south of Adelaide (formerly an oil refinery site). A 500 MW plant could be built there with coal shipped in from the East Coast. It could power the desalination plant (God forbid!) and Adelaide city during heat waves etc.

Also, as I suggested and submitted to BHP about the power supply for the Olympic Dam mine expansion, was the idea having a nuclear power station there, building up in stages of say 250 MW to maybe 1000 MW eventually to power electrification of the Adelaide to Darwin rail link plus all the new mining activity in the region.

If you let the Federal and SA State Governments be run by eco-religious socialists you get what you voted for ... ever increasing power and water bills and poverty for the workers and pensioners. Do something about it! Allano

Monday, May 28, 2012

Jobs for the Boys


Today Greg Combet, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, announced that Hon Mike Rann (former Premier of South Australia) has been appointed to the Board of Low Carbon Australia Ltd, with a payment of $50,000 per year.

I look forward joyfully to after the next Federal Election when the new Coalition Government will disband all these wasteful eco-religious Green organizations that are providing jobs for the boys and spreading false propaganda by demonizing the element carbon.

Certain to go is Labor's Climate Change Ambassador, Prof. Tim Flannery who has been shown to be a false prophet and nut case. Even Minister Combet is unlikely to survive the next election, when Australians will get the opportunity to wipe Canberra clean of incompetent Labor and Green pollies, as was done successfully at the recent Queensland State election.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Murray Darling Basin water plan again under fire..please change the SA & Federal Government!


The Murray Darling Basin revised plan is again under attack by South Australian Premier Weatherall. How mind-contracted can you get? I am referring to all the South Australian Labor pollies and the Murray Darling Basin revised plan which they reject, or Premier Weatherall does, and his Green comrades. SA wants more than 2750 GL of water returned to the river for environmental flows to maintain fresh water in the Lower Lakes! What absolute bunkum. It is a stupid and wasteful idea.

Today's Australian newspaper has a front page foto of a farmer who runs 1000 cattle on Mundoo Island which forms part of the barrage system at the ocean mouth of the Murray River. He complains that the river and Coorong are getting too salty to water the stock. He and the pollies want the Basin Plan to set limits of salinity for the Lakes, river and Coorong!!!! Wow. How ridiculous can you get.

It's a bit like the supposed climate change problem. They haven't a clue whats sensible to do. The Greens have their logic tied up in knots and pointing only towards an expensive and ridiculous disaster.

I wont query the sensibility, or economics, of having a tiny cattle station on Mundoo Island, and why the adjacent water salinity levels should be adjusted, if possible, to the detriment of the whole of the Murray Darling Basin, which is the major food bowl of Australia.. no.. but I can ask what do other farmers do for water on coastal properties around Australia .. over 25,000 ? kilometers of coastline?

The Mundoo solution could be to periodically transport fresh water in by barge, or for properties on the mainland, by pipeline, just as we do for Adelaide and the northern pipeline to Whyalla and further. What about bore water, or setting up a mini-evaporative desalination plant to provide drinking water for stock?

Nothing can be done about the MDBasin Plan until the Water Act is amended to allow sensible management of the Lower Lakes that results in maintaining a stable water level during drought times by opening up the barrages to let sea water come in to the original estuarine system. Allano

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Governments are NOT good at picking winners


Paul Howes, senior trade union official, thinks governments should be involved in industry planning and development, such as renewable energy. Government subsidies and trade union super funds are what keep the uneconomic wind farm and solar industries afloat and our electricity bills ever higher. On the other hand, Henry Ergus of the Business Council counters by saying "LOSERS are much better at picking Governments than Governments picking winners". The myths of the renewable energy industry are well documented by Caldwell HERE

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Jacques Nasser, Chairman of BHP Billiton slams the Labor Government for mismanagement


The big guns of the mining sector have let loose at PM Julia and Treasurer Wayne Swan with a broadside from Jacques Nasser, Chairman of BHP. You can't get any bigger than BHP, which is the world's largest mining company, that originated in Australia at Broken Hill.

Nasser condemns the Labor Party for sowing hatred and envy amongst the working class not involved in the mining industry and for ever bringing uncertainty into the tax system. Labor has top priority the redistribution of wealth even before it is created! Nothing is done about making it easier to create wealth and of boosting productivity. Grandiose schemes of wealth distribution are legislated, the funding of which are dependent on supposed tax revenues from the mining sector that are at the mercy of fluctuating commodity prices and adverse geopolitical scenarios.

Don't kill the golden goose. Mining companies are like all other companies and are taxed at the 30% rate on profits. Also, on top of this, depending on the commodity, they are levied a State imposed Resource Rent Tax. Now, this temporary Labor Government of PM Julia has passed a "Super Profits Tax" which is earmarked to pay for all sorts of social security benefits, including an increase of superannuation.

My view is that we don't want or need any of this socialist nanny state legislation. Australians are perfectly capable of managing their own affairs and assisting the not so well off without such horrific Government interference, which is the slippery slope to a mind-contracted Communist Society. If you think BHP and other mining companies are making super profits and ripping off Australia then go and invest your savings in the company, which is what our Superannuation Funds are doing anyway. We don't need Wayne Swan telling us what to do.

I am hoping this awful Labor Government of PM Julia will come to an end ASAP, preferably by the end of this financial year (end June 2012). Let's make it happen. Allano

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Ken Henry reflects on his stimulous package advice to Labor


Ken Henry, former head of Treasury, explains all on Lateline re Labor's economic stimulous package when interviewed by Chris Ulman. VG interview it was. Govn spent billions on much of what could be called rubbish projects to maintain domestic economic activity, which Ken Henry says was necessary, rubbish or not. However, nothing was achieved re building productivity and a sustained economic growth, which is still our problem today.

The pink batts home insulation project was a disaster and the school buildings program subject to price gouging. The underlying rational of the stimulous has been distorted by the supposed need to be "Green" and save energy at any cost, hence the continual rise in power bills and other utilities. Our cost of living should be static or be lowering if the economy was properly managed.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

PM Julia spins the brown stuff on a visit to Adelaide


Yesterday we had a visit from the Prime Minister to reassure wet fish Labor Premier Jay Weatherall that Port Adelaide would continue with its Defence Contracts to build 12 more submarines. A $214 million Feasibility Study was announced to decide which of four options to pursue for the Submarine Corporation, with the idea of building to commence in 5 years time and costing ca $40 billion over 10 years or so.

The option of not building ANY submarines was not considered, nor whether we actually NEED submarines, nor whether submarines today are OBSOLETE and alternative weapons systems being more useful, such as unmanned drone aircraft. The idea to continue with submarines is political decision to maintain a technical work force in the area which still has a Labor held State Government. You could of course more usefully decide to build Egyptian-style pyramids somewhere and boost the tourism and quarrying industry for a change. Our defense capability would be the same.

The present six diesel powered Collins Class submarines built at Adelaide have been a disaster and are essentially useless. The Minister of Defense, Stephen Smith was asked on ABC News what the score was. He replied that two submarines were in for long term modifications, two were having extensive repairs and the other two were sometimes operational, although they really have a full crew for only one submarine. The Submarine Corporation will be busy for the next 5 years keeping one or two submarines operational.

The idea of leasing or buying 1 or 2 operational submarines from other navies, such as from Spain, France or Greece, seems not to be contemplated. While extolling the supposed wisdom of building more homemade submarines at great expense, the PM warns that Defense Department is earmarked for cuts of several billion dollars to bring the Budget into balance. So its all SPIN, SPIN and SPIN, none of which makes any logical or economic sense. We are expected to swallow it all without comment.

Meanwhile our friendly neighbor India, last year completed and launched its first nuclear powered submarine of Russian design and is building another. In Australia the present ruling Federal Labor Party is so anti-nuclear that nuclear power stations are forbidden, so too are nuclear waste dumps. The good news is that Federal Labor is long over due to be tossed out of Government never to be returned for decades.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Senator Barnaby Joyce from Queensland comes to visit SA River Murray mouth


7.30 pm ABC News Good to see Barnaby Joyce in SA visiting the dairy farmers at Lake Albert near the Murray Mouth. Lake Albert is hyposaline because it has only a narrow one way channel to Lake Alexandra, which presently is fairly fresh water due to 2 years of normal to flood flows of the river. The good news is that the Lake Albert farmers are proposing "engineering works" (yes!) to build a channel from Lake Albert to the Coorong (about 3 kms) in order to get circulation of water and reduce salinity levels in Lake Albert. The SA Premier, Jay Weatherall pooh hoos the idea and wants more environmental flows (more then 2750 GL) to keep the river mouth open all the time.

My opinion is that Jay Weatherall is uninspiring impediment to getting a workable MDBasin plan. He supports the Greens "healthy river" model nonsense which must be rejected. The farmers idea of getting water circulation by having a channel to the Coorong has merit, in fact there should be MUCH more engineering works done to have a viable Lower Lakes estuarine system. The objective should be to maintain a stable water level in the two lakes by opening the barrages during times of inland drought and reduced river water flows.

Just having a channel from Lake Albert to the Coorong I suspect will not greatly reduce the salinity of Lake Albert, since the Coorong is more saline than sea water. There needs to be a means for sea water to enter the lower part of the Coorong and a good circulation maintained. You need a team of hydroengineers to revamp the whole Lower lakes system to optimise the economic benefit to the community. This wont happen with Labor and Greens in effective control of management.

When the Lower lakes has an aquaculture industry producing 10,000 tonnes of fish/shelfish etc annually I would concede that management is pointing in the right direction. The half dozen dairy farms can get their fresh water by pipe line from the Murray River proper at Wellington. Cheers, Allano

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Federal Labor and its Renewable Energy Black Money Hole


The Labor Federal Government has created a $10 billion Clean Energy Corporation to fund development of renewable energy projects. It will have a short lifetime when the Coalition becomes Government, ditto the Australian Greenhouse Office responsible for issuing grant monies. The latest is a dodgy company testing out wave energy. A wave operated power station? What a rust bucket their pilot plant is at Newcastle.! The sea is a very CORROSIVE element to deal with and has frequent damaging storms. What a waste of money! Why not build a state of the art COAL-FIRED power station where its needed (and for good measure, disband the Federal Greenhouse Office). It wont be long now when Federal Labor is tossed out on its ear never to be seen again for several decades. Cheers Allano

Water Worries -Why is an eco-model more important then a people-model.

It seems that nothing sensible can be achieved with the Murray-Darling Basin water plan until the South Australia State Government comes to its senses about management of the Lower Lakes. Jay Weatherall rabbits on about the idealistic "Healthy River" model and how MORE than 2750 GL of environmental flows are needed to keep the river mouth open at all times. The whole idea is just eco-religious nonsense.
TV News shows the 1/2 dozen dairy farmers left around Lake Alexandra who rely on the freshwater of the lake for operation and they plead for more environmental flows!... what spin and bunkum. Lateral thinking is required. Completely ignored is the pipeline draw offs for Adelaide's water supply and the Morgan to Whyalla pipeline of 320 kms which allow water flows to sea after being USED by humans. Surely it is possible to build a pipeline of 50 kms or so to supply river water to farm operations around Lake Alexandra for use in DROUGHT TIMES if lake water levels were maintained by sea water derived from opening the barrages? Also, adjacent Lake Albert has always been isolated and more saline than the open ocean. And the very saline Coorong lies beyond the barrages so is not part of the MDBasin. In fact, the WHOLE Lower Lakes system should NOT be included in the Murray Darling Basin, but considered as a separate management region.
There is SO much BS produced by SA Government, and also vital data deliberately ignored, that its not funny. Presently the river water system is in normal to flood conditions and has been so for the past 2 years. There is NO need to further cut water supplies to the irrigaters. They should be storing as much flood water as possible free of charge. Allano

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Federal Labor still writhing in anti-carbon idiocy

The rampant idiocy of this Labor Federal Government continues on all fronts. More rumbles are reported of the need to build 12 more submarines to protect us from invasion, to replace the ageing Collins class ones (only one being operational). Why not build Egyptian type pyramids which at least would boost the tourism and quarrying industries? Also talk of replacing the SA Port Augusta coal-fired power station with a solar-gas station like is used in Spain! I don't think we need Spain to guide us into economic ruin, nor are CO2 emissions to be worried about ie, the need to reduce greenhouse gases to go to a low carbon economy is just eco-religious bunkum. We don't need to copy the EU in anything.

The Port Augusta coal-fired power stations have been operational since the 1950's hence are past their used by date and need replacing BUT by a modern high tech coal-fired power station to provide the cheapest electricity. The Leigh Creek coal field needs expanding and other coal fields developed in the region. What is our "Mines Department" doing about it? Has it been replaced by the useless CO2 bean counters in the Climate Change Department of SA State Government? When the Coalition regains Government there will be a great clean out of staff promoting unaffordable and ridiculous Green inspired projects, plus the projects and associated legislation will be consigned to the dustbin. eg RET bill, windfarms, Green Energy Investment Fund etc.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Adios Bob Brown , the Leader of the Green Party in Australia

Bob Brown, the leader of the Australian Green Party is retiring from politics. I wish him a long and enjoyable retirement. The Deputy Leader, Christine Milne, is appointed the new leader. She will find it a difficult job maintaining the present momentum of the Greens which hold the balance of power between Labor and the Coalition. Nationally the Greens poll about 12%. I predict this will slump to 8% by years' end.

Madame Milne says she will devote her leadership to assisting the transition of Australia to a low carbon economy. Thanks for nothing! In my view, a low carbon economy = poverty, whereas a high carbon economy = prosperity. The idea that we must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to prevent climate change/global warming is bunkum. It is the biggest psuedo-scientific scam ever propagated.

Labors' carbon tax legislation comes into effect on the 1st of July. I am hoping there will be a successful vote of no confidence in PM Julia's awful Labor Government before then!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Murray Darling Basin draft plan under scrutiny today

How hopeless can you get? The pollies and environmentalists annoy me greatly. They can't see the wood for the trees. It is all spin, spin, spin and how does my approach effect my voter support.
Jay Weatherall, Premier for South Australia, insists that SA is getting a raw deal with water and that the proposed 2750 GL (billion litres) environmental flows is not enough to meet environmental needs. (The river basin is presently in flood and has been past year). He threatens to take the matter to the High Court. Peter Owen of the Wilderness Society, insists a minimum of 4000 GL environmental flow is necessary to maintain a "healthy river" and flow out to sea.
The NSW and VIC irrigators don't want to loose more water to the environment (and so to be wasted in South Australia, if it even gets there).
SA Labor Gov has commissioned the Goyder Report on the matter which comes to the predictable conclusion that the MDBasin plan should release much more than 2750GL to the river.
In my opinion, the whole media controversy is a nonsense and I suggest that the idea, or model of a "healthy river" that flows out to sea at the Murray mouth all the time is bunkum, or wishful thinking. It hasn't happened in the past and there is no need to force the river to do it now, to the great detriment of having water restrictions for irrigation further up the watershed during drought times.
The current predicament during drought times (maybe 7 out of 10 years) is the MISMANAGEMENT by the South Australian Government of the Lower Lakes system by maintaining a closure of the barrages, or sea dykes, that prevent the sea from entering Lake Alexander and Albert and restoring a natural estuarine system when there are drought conditions inland. Details of the true water state of the region is admirably exposed by Jennifer Marohasy

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Liberals wake up to wind farm scam in South Australia

At last the South Australian Liberals have woken up to the scams allowed by Mike Rann & continued by Premier Jay Weatherall with regard to wind farm development. Opposition spokesman David Ridgeway announces an investigation into the cost of wind energy and the health aspects of living close to the turbines, with the view of limiting wind farm development. They are on the right track to embarrass Labor. SA reportedly produces 20% of its electricity from wind farms, BUT it is not clear in their announcements whether they are talking about theoretical capacity to produce, or actual generation...such important points vanish amongst the SPIN used to promote wind farms, which operate ca 25% of rated capacity, due to the intermittent nature of wind.
I have written about the problem before: "Disadvantage of using wind energy"
Another important writing is:
"Myths about renewable energy" by T Cardwell

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Is Greenpeace a charity when it wants to destroy the Australian economy?

Jo Nova's "best blog of the year" points out the anomaly of the Australian Tax Office still granting Greenpeace a tax-free status as a Charitable Organization! Bob Brown boasts about how the Greens will bring the coal industry to its knees and close down coal-fired power stations. Greenpeace and other anti-carbon envirnomental groups are joining forces to try and do this. The coal industry provides $13 billion tax revenue to Government and employs directly ca 40,000 people.

So you get taxed for providing an essential service, like electricity generation, but if your organization promotes job destroying polices you are tax exempt. Great logic of Federal Labor Government. How to further increase the cost of electricity and destroy jobs. For more detail see Jo Nova's blog
The future of the coal industry in Australia.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

"The Anti-Carbon Virus"


Neither Kevin Rudd nor PM Julia are fit persons to be Prime Minister. Both politicians are infected with the anti-carbon virus and have enacted economically damaging legislation based on the erroneous idea that carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere constitute "pollution".

Tomorrow's Caucus poll will it seems support the continuation of PM Julia who appears to have some 2/3 of the vote. Kevin Rudd will be confined to the back bench. Both politicians are mad as hatters and dangerous to the well being of Australia. Very soon there will come the opportunity for a successful vote of no confidence in this awful Labor Government and a Federal Election will be called. The Australian people have in aggregate the sense to put out of action for a very long time the pollies Rudd, Julia, Swan, Combet, and Wong who have a bizarre understanding of climate change and carbon chemistry.

A new National-Liberal Coalition Federal Government will have the immediate task of dismantling Labor's anti-carbon legislation. The "Carbon Tax" must go immediately which is an insult to the most important element in the Periodic Table and is the basis of all life forms. How can it be a pollutant? These pollies are quite mad and are infected by the anti-carbon virus.

The Renewable Energy Target (RET) legislation must go, or made ineffectual by changing the target date from 2020 to the year 2200. This would give us a leisurely 200 years to develop new technology whilst still utilizing our enormous coal resources to generate electricity and later liquid HC fuels. The idea of moving the country to a low carbon economy must be scrapped for reason that it is a complete nonsense based on demonizing the element carbon for political purposes.

Use of fossil fuels is compatible with having a healthy environment and a prosperous economy for the next few hundred years at least. See various Helium articles on the subject:
Fossil fuels and the Environment
Climate change and global warming: What we should do about it

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Andrew Bolt reports on demise of Rudd's Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute fiasco.

Extract from the Bolt Report 15 Feb 2012
Quote; "In 2008, the Rudd Government unveiled a typically grandiose plan to fight global warming, with spending of Ruddish dimensions:

Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP, has announced four projects which will move to the next stage of assessment in the $2 billion Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Flagships Program… The $2 billion CCS Flagships Program was announced in the 2009-10 Budget and is part of the Australian Government’s $4.5 billion Clean Energy Initiative.

One of those four projects:

* ZeroGen power plant project west of Gladstone in Queensland, generating 400 MWe and aiming to store up to 2.0 mega tonnes of CO2 per annum;

In 2011, ZeroGen collapsed:

Documents filed with ASIC this month show the company, which had proposed a “world-first” $4 billion clean coal power plant storing carbon emissions underground, is under external administration after a liquidator was appointed on October 11…

The Opposition yesterday demanded an inquiry into what they claim is a bungled project after the Commonwealth contributed almost $52 million before recently winning a refund and limiting its losses to about $43 million." unquote.

Query by Allano: When will our pollies acknowledge that CO2 is NOT a pollutant but an essential and valuable component of the atmosphere? It follows that the idea of moving to a low carbon economy is crazy and having legislated targets to achieve it are a nonsense best got rid of. The RET bill of targeting 5% energy from renewable sources by year 2020 must be negated, easily done by changing the date to year 2200. This gives us 200 years to develop the technology.

Monday, February 6, 2012

"No Easy Choices: Which Way Australia's Energy Future?"


So titled is the Grattan Institute's latest Energy Report (6th Feb 2012) presented to Government today by Tony Wood, the program director. It concludes that we must quickly change the way electricity is generated in order to meet the Commonwealth's goal of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 2000 levels by 2050. The possible role of technologies that generate electricity with near-zero emissions (viz., wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, carbon capture and storage, and bio-energy) is reviewed.

The underlying supposition is that the introduction of a price on carbon (CO2) emissions by the Labor Government will move investment towards renewable energy production, particularly wind and solar and away from coal, or to coal with the costly addition of carbon capture and storage. The conclusion of report is a nonsense since it is based on the false idea that carbon dioxide is an atmospheric pollutant and that it is sensible to proceed to a costly low carbon economy. The idea of actually burying CO2 emissions is bizarre since it is essential for growth of the biosphere; the plants and trees love it! Any Federal legislation dealing with CO2 emissions and the Carbon Tax must be revoked. Our future prosperity is dependent on sensibly using our vast resources of coal, gas and uranium, NOT with costly and intermittent wind and solar energy.

Tonight on 7.00 TV News we see Tony Wood explaining the details of his new report and saying that "Climate change is real" (ditto Tony Windsor interview). Really! Climate change is what makes the Earth a dynamic planet and it has been thus so for 4.5 billion years. Perhaps all pollies and members of the Grattan Institute should do and pass an elementary course in Geology?

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Where to go the flood waters?


The media always highlights the environmentalists concern about lack of water for the Murray River and how it is essential to steal more water off the irrigators for "environmental flows" to maintain an idealistic "healthy river". So far not a squeak about the enormous amount of flood waters presently building up in the headwaters of the Murray-Darling Basin and what all to do about it.

Today we learn that at St George, Queensland, hometown of Barnaby Joyce, the Balonne River has risen to a record 14 metres and is expected to peak at 15 metres on Wednesday. These flood waters are heading south west to the town of Burke which is located on the Darling River. The people of Moree, NSW, are recovering from record flooding of the Gwydir River whose waters eventually reach Burke and flow southward to the Murray River at Wentworth on the Victoria border, and thence to Renmark in South Australia.

These flood waters are God's gift to Australia. Logically one would expect that downstream in NSW, VIC, SA that water users (farmers, town suppliers) would be extracting, using and storing as much river water as possible before the flood waters arrive in a few weeks time. I wonder what the latest unreleased MDBasin Plan has to say about it all, since this action is of great importance to the future prosperity of the Basin, which is Australia's major food bowl.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

"Healthy River" model not acceptable for MDBasin Plan

The "Healthy River" Model of the Murray should be consigned to the dustbin. It is promoted by Don Henry, CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation, as the solution to the problem of water allocation for the Murray Darling Basin. "Healthy river" is spin terminology. It has limited reality. It is more like simplistic eco-religious bunkum.

The objective of the MDBasin plan we are told is to have a "healthy river", says Don Henry. However, alternative objectives must be considered and priorities made when there are multiple objectives. Residents of the region should demand the major objective be "to maximize the agricultural production of the basin", which is already the major food bowl of Australia.

The healthy river idea is concerned with reducing draw-offs by irrigators by 3000 GL for environmental flows, which are supposed to flow into the Lower Lakes (viz., Lakes Alexandrina and Albert) so as to keep them fresh water and then flow out at the ocean mouth. Sounds wonderful, but the idea is not feasible in Australia which has extreme climatic conditions that vary from decade to decade. Such model healthy rivers may be found in the UK or NZ where there is plentiful rainfall year in and year out. .

Australia is different. We have the talent to study the system in all its complexity. First the geography ... what is the MDBasin? Does it include the Lower Lakes? How can a "river" be a "lake" ? A river is a river. A lake is a lake, by definition. The Lower Lakes are not a river but are (were) a sea water estuary that periodically gets flooded with fresh water. A study of the geological system reveals this to have been the case for the past 10,000 years. Prior to that during the last ice age the sea level was ca 120 meters lower and the Lower Lakes did not exist.

We have found out that in times of drought it has not been possible to maintain stable fresh water levels in the Lower Lakes from "environmental flows". The idea is crazy when there is an unlimited supply of sea water available from the Great Southern Ocean which unfortunately is kept out by the Barrages built at the ocean side of the lakes. Sea water floats your boat just as well or better than fresh water, and has a more plentiful supply of edible fish.

Any future MDBasin Plan must consider the merits of a sustainable sea water estuary system. This can be achieved by building Lock Zero at the lower end of the Murray (near Tailem Bend) to control the out flow of fresh water into the lakes. The whole Lower Lakes region including the Barrages needs redesigning by hydro-engineers to maximize its potential for the benefit of the community. More on this later. Allano

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

No Need to Decarbonize the World Economy


I have been pushing this view for many years explaining that CO2 is NOT a pollutant but is a beneficial component of our atmosphere. Now the Wall Street Journal has published an article (27th Jan 2012) signed by 16 scientists entitled "No Need to Panic About Global Warming" which unveils the bunkum associated with global warming alarmism, which is followed by PM Julia in Australia and by Obama. Maybe this is to help the GOP selection for US Presidential election?

Here is what is said about CO2: (quote from Wall St Journal)
"The fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 is a colorless and odorless gas, exhaled at high concentrations by each of us, and a key component of the biosphere's life cycle. Plants do so much better with more CO2 that greenhouse operators often increase the CO2 concentrations by factors of three or four to get better growth. This is no surprise since plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today. Better plant varieties, chemical fertilizers and agricultural management contributed to the great increase in agricultural yields of the past century, but part of the increase almost certainly came from additional CO2 in the atmosphere."

To read the full Wall St Journal article click here

Sunday, January 29, 2012

New Coal-Fired Power Station for Bangladesh


Bangladesh Government has signed a joint venture agreement with the Indian Government to build a $1.5 billion coal-fired power station to generate 1300 MW of electricity to overcome the chronic power shortages. Present supply comes from aging and inadequate gas-fired stations. Predictably some environmentalists object saying that emissions of SO2 and fly ash will cause untold harm to adjacent forests and mangroves. What they don't say is that in modern power stations these emissions are at a controlled and harmless level and that the CO2 emissions are very beneficial to the biosphere, acting as a free fertilizer for crops and forests. This is the sort of power station we need on the outskirts of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide to prop up our base-load generation of electricity, instead of wasting $billions on useless and costly wind farms.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Geochemistry and Politics

The carbon cycle is part of the study of geochemistry, or chemistry of the Earth. This includes the solid Earth and atmosphere as well as the hydrosphere. How water dissolves other components and its role in shaping the landscape by erosion and transportation (geomorphology). The time factor is very important. What happened 100 million, 10 million or 50,000 years ago may have some bearing on climate or landscape today and in the near future.

I have always had an interest in geochemistry and pursued the subject at University. I graduated with a PhD degree in Geochemistry from the Pennsylvania State University, USA, after majoring in chemistry, geology and economics from Otago and Victoria Universities in New Zealand. The present involvement of the Federal Labor Government into the realms of geochemistry with its "Carbon Tax", I find alarming, to the extent that I started this blog to expose the bunkum they promote. PM Julia and Combet would certainly be failed students of mine, if I had the chance to grade their activities.

Next we have the WATER allocation problem of the Murray Darling Basin. Water, like carbon dioxide, is subject to a lot of political spin. Trade unionists, lawyers and the media seem to be instant experts on water and are determined to impose a "solution" not wanted by the residents of the region. Recently it has been all quiet on the MDBasin front, until the powers that be bring forth their next modified plan. Watch here for further comments on this topic.

All these undesirable Labor/Green Party policies bears support to the famous quotation of English publisher and writer Ernest Benn (1875 - 1954) who said: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy".

Sunday, January 22, 2012

South Australia Economic Growth Slows


Latest Government report puts South Australia at the sixth State rating for economic growth. Tops are States WA, VIC and ACT. Our future growth lies in the mining and defense industries, it says.

Future growth prospects for SA are not good, although the potential is enormous. What is putting on the brakes? I suggest it is the Labor and Green's Party and their faulty and bizarre philosophies that act like putting sand in the gear box of a car and expect it to run better.

Woe is Australia! At least our economic enemy is brought into focus! Take notice workers, farmers, MDBasin residents and everyone trying to earn an honest buck.

I am all for the expansion of BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam copper/uranium mine which is located in the SA outback. Do people realize that this will be (is already) the largest uranium mine in the WORLD? And yet in Australia we (ALP,Greens) do not accept nuclear power stations as part of our base load electricity production. Even Argentina, a country of comparable population, has three nuclear power stations.

It will take a decade to recover from ex-Premier Mike Rann's ill-founded idea of pursuing renewable energy, regardless of cost, which is reflected in our power bills, and is totally unnecessary.

SA needs a NEW ENERGY POLICY. Our future in the short term lies in coal and more exploration for deposits is required .. take notice Mines & Energy Department. Long term we must establish South Australia as the leader in nuclear technology and power production. Our universities must teach nuclear technology so that we have the personnel to operate future nuclear power stations, most of which will be located in outback regions.

The idea that major future growth of SA depends on the defense industry is problematical. Do we want more faulty and costly Collins class submarines? I don't think so. If we need a couple of OPERATIONAL submarines let's buy/lease them from the US, UK or Japan who are trimming down their fleet. Tell me ONE useful thing our Collins submarine(s) have done in the past 20 years. We would have been better to build a few Egyptian-type pyramids, which would last for a thousand years and be a great tourist asset. Forget submarines and let's build less complicated vessels needed by the defense forces. Enough stirring for one very hot day in Adelaide ca 37 degrees (& the windmills are not turning). Hasta manana, Allano

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Knowledge is Power

STOP the CARBON TAX. Defeat PM Julia's ratbag Labor/Green UnGovernment ASAP, before June 2012. Knowledge is POWER. I have been upgrading my CARBON CYCLE blog by listing in the RHS column the best books on the subject, starting with Prof Plimer's "Heaven & Earth". Some books you may not have heard of and are available from Amazon. Look for the fine print Kindle edition usually priced under $10 which are available for immediate download.

In South Australia, Victoria and NSW we are concerned about the needless proliferation of wind farms which causes our power bills to continually increase. Our pollies should read the "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington.
To battle! Allano

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

South Australia's New Energy Policy


South Australia Energy Policy
New Premier Jay Weatherill of SA's Labor Government is reconsidering the regulations regarding location of wind farms, following complaints from the proletariat. A 2 km free zone from domestic dwellings is being considered, like that in Victoria.

This is typical Labor Party pussy-footing around the whole energy problem for South Australia, and indeed the nation. NO more licenses should be granted for wind farms and the existing ones, which supply a dribble of electricity usually when not needed, should be phased out ASAP, eventually to be demolished for scrap metal. Then the dreaded icon of the Greens will be no more. Our power bills will be capped if not reduced.

The energy future for South Australia lies with coal-fired power stations with nuclear power coming in ASAP once the ALP State and Federal Governments have been voted out of office. Natural gas we have plenty but it is a pity to burn it in power stations when there are so many other more important uses for it. We need to modernize the Port Augusta coal power station and build another coal-fire power station possibly using coal shipped in from the eastern states.

Of course, the SA Mines Department should upgrade and assist coal exploration within the state. The energy future for South Australia looks rosy only if the Labor/Green's stifling influence is eradicated.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Semantic Vandalism

Destroying the meaning of words

The Labor/Greens are experts at spin and distorting the English Language so that the meaning of words becomes blurred. The latest example is the word "reform" which means "to make better or improve"
.
In the Labor lingo of PM Julia, now reform can reliably taken to mean "stuff up". Other examples are the double banger "gay marriage", "carbon" and "carbon pollution", "global warming", "climate change", "healthy river" and now everything has to be REFORMED, including the tax system, pokies and so on, it seems, to infinity. Why don't the Federal pollies just stuff off and leave Australia the way it used to be, that is, happy and prosperous?

Of course it all shows the wisdom of the English publisher and writer Ernest Benn (1875 - 1954) who said "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy". God help Australia.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Where to South Australia?


This January has seen the retirement from SA politics of former Labor Premier Mike Rann. I wish him a happy and productive retirement. Now we have a chance of repairing the damage his Labor Government has done once the State Liberal Party wins the next election. But what has to be done?

Mike Rann is a devoted Greenie and his aim was to make South Australia the leading state for the use of renewable energy, which includes solar, wind and geothermal "hot rocks" technologies. It all sounds wonderful but the idea has proven to be misguided and a great waste of tax payer's (your) money. Our beautiful landscape has been visually polluted by uneconomic wind farms. Subsidized solar panels have cost the Government a fortune and drilling into hot rocks has predictably been a costly subsidized failure, and not needed.

Personally, I would prefer South Australia to be a leader for the nuclear power industry with this technology taught in Adelaide universities. The expanded BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam copper/ uranium mine would be an ideal site for a nuclear power plant. Australia should specialize in application of modular small nuclear power plants to provide electricity for outback mining regions located far away from coal deposits or gas pipelines.

Other disastrous Labor inspired projects are the building of an unwanted and un-needed desalination plant costing ca $2 billion which is unfinished. It is supposed to be run with power from windmills!! Best put it in mothballs, or dismantle it and sell to some Arab country that really has a use for it. This whole idea of supposed lack of water is tied up with the SA mismanagement of water, in particular, that of the Lower Lakes region which is wrongly included as part of the Murray Darling Basin. You can rely on the Greens to stuff up the Australian economy with their contracted and bizarre view of the world. More on this later. Allano

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution is to reactivate and update my blogs, including this one to do with the Carbon Cycle and all things about CO2, and Government policy to do with carbon in all its forms.

I have given it a rest for a year, for various reasons, but now see the need to take up the battle again in order to achieve sensible Federal Policy, which is possible only from a Liberal-National Coalition Government.

What needs to be done is pretty obvious. Firstly, this mad pursuit, regardless of cost, of renewable energy, both solar, wind and geothermal, must STOP (ie No Government subsidies). There is no need for it since we have coal & gas reserves to last hundreds of years. The idea of avoiding "carbon pollution" is just a bunkum concept dreamed up by the fanatical Greens. So the Renewable Energy Target (RET) bill for achieving 5% renewable energy by 2020 must be negated which is easily done by changing the target date from 2020 to the year 2200.

Concurrently, the tax on "carbon emissions" or CO2 liberated by industry must be revoked for reason it being based on complete nonsense. The harmful effect it would have on the Australian economy is enormous and too frightening to contemplate. This would just be the beginning of the huge task a Coalition Government will have of unravelling the stupid laws and regulations imposed by the present Labor/Green/Independent unGovernment of PM Julia. Let's get to work. Cheers, Allano