Yarra Climate Action Now!

Brought to you by the young people at The Inquiry TV and SYN FM Radio

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the warmest six months, and the warmest April, May, and June on record.

Despite this, and despite releasing a white paper with a 20% emissions reduction target (YCAN will be analysing the white paper in more detail after the Federal Election) John Brumby's Government is still supporting a new coal-fired power station to be built in the Latrobe Valley.

Despite the spin (the company that wants to build the plant, HRL, says that it is clean technology, although it would have the same emissions as a black coal power station) this new power station would increase Victoria's emissions by 3%, thereby cancelling out the State Government's policy of closing 25% of Hazelwood Power Station.

Effectively, instead of replacing one quarter of Hazelwood with renewable energy, Brumby's policy is to replace brown coal with......more coal.

The 600MW HRL plant will receive $150 million of taxpayer money to subsidise its construction if it is to go ahead. It would have 36% less emissions than a conventional brown coal power station, but that is still infinitely more than the zero emissions from baseload solar thermal and wind power - both of which are commercially available now. We would prefer if our money went towards those technologies.


HRL is now working on a plan to submit to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval. If it can slide under the extremely lax emissions standard of 0.8 tonnes of carbon per megawatt hour of energy produced (average globally for rich nations is 0.45, wind and solar are zero), then it is presumed it will get a tick of approval, unless we can stop it politically.

The message just doesn't seem to be getting through to the Labor Party. We have to urgently transition out of coal. Building new coal-fired power plants is insanity. We can go to 100% renewable energy if we wanted to.

If John Brumby and his inner-city ministers that are under threat from the Greens want to be taken seriously on climate change, then this new coal plant must be stopped before the State Election in November.

Big news on the front page of The Age today, with the Brumby Government considering replacing one quarter of Hazelwood Power Station, Australia's most polluting, with a mixture of fossil fuel gas, energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2014. Our campaign is succeeding in getting this issue on the agenda!

However, this current plan is nothing but a hollow attempt to appease the growing community concern over the support the Brumby and Gillard governments are giving to the coal industry and the increasing emissions from the Victorian coal sector, which are worsening the climate crisis. It is rumoured that one of the eight generator units at Hazelwood is broken down anyway, in which case only one unit would actually be replaced.

While the Brumby Government has finally recognised the problem, i.e. our reliance on dirty brown coal for energy, they have yet to come up with a real solution.

Allowing 75% of Hazelwood to continue to pollute indefinitely is not a solution. Replacing one polluting fossil fuel (coal), with another (gas) is also not a solution. The whole thing needs to be replaced with clean renewable energy and energy efficiency as part of a complete phased transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.


This transition is possible with existing technology, and is affordable too - as long as the big polluter corporations aren't allowed to rort taxpayers by getting massive "compensation" payouts as coal-fired power stations are replaced. We hope the Brumby and Gillard governments are able to do the right thing and spend money on compensation and training for laid-off workers, rather than wealthy shareholders, and on price support policies for renewable energy technologies.

So well done to all the people that have been writing letters, doorknocking, leafletting and spreading the word on the Replace Hazelwood campaign. We have gotten it on the political agenda in a big way! We need to keep going, making it clear that we won't accept anything but the replacement of Hazelwood with clean, renewable energy.

100% renewable energy for Australia within a decade is possible and affordable. Come along to the energy event of the year to find out how.

This free public lecture will be the launch of the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan.

Hosted by the University of Melbourne Energy Institute.

Last weekend volunteers from Yarra Climate Action Now doorknocked over 1000 homes in Collingwood and Fitzroy for the Replace Hazelwood campaign. We gathered hundreds of signatures for our petition and spoke to people about the urgent need to replace Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power station with clean renewable energy. We got a great response from the community.

While many first-time doorknockers were nervous at the beginning, with one hour of training and practice, over 20 people hit the streets and had a good time doing it!

First time doorknocker Phil said:

"Thanks for the chance to participate. It was a great learning experience.

"Oddly, I was pretty nervous right at the start. I was worried about how to do the opening pitch when the door was first opened. I went with my partner and watched her as she did a few houses and that helped a lot.

"Following that, and after doing about 3 pitches myself I got over my nerves and started to really get into the flow. I then found it really enjoyable, in fact it really fired me up!"


Our next doorknocking session is Sunday 4 July in Richmond, 1-4pm (one hour training, two hours doorknocking), meeting at Melbourne Girls College, Yarra blvd, Richmond.

We need your help! Sign up now here.

In this election year let's get some action instead of backflips...

What dinosaur lives in the Latrobe Valley and suffers from terrible gas?


Hazelwood brown coal power station near Morwell in the Latrobe Valley is Australia’s most polluting power station and one of the dirtiest in the developed world.

Hazelwood produces a whopping 15% of Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions, and is a major consumer of our precious and scarce water (27 billion litres per year).

It was due to be closed down in 2009, but in 2005, in a shameful decision, the State Labor Government extended its life out past 2030.

If the Australian economy is to begin the transition to zero emissions, and thereby do our bit in avoiding the worsening droughts, fires, floods and sea level rises that will come from runaway climate change, then we need to start by replacing Hazelwood with clean renewable energy by 2012.

A number of groups have begun a campaign, calling on all parties to commit to replacing Hazelwood before the Victorian State Election in November this year. We have already held rallies and started doorknocking in inner Melbourne. This is a key election test – do the candidates in your seat support replacing Hazelwood with clean energy?

We need your help to make this happen!

What can I do?

• Send a letter to the Labor and Liberal Party leaders
• Sign up to the Environment Victoria or Climate Action Centre bulletins
• Join the campaign on facebook
• Follow Replace Hazelwood on Twitter
• Help with letterboxing or doorknocking (see video below)
• Print out and put a Replace Hazelwood poster up in your house or workplace
• Get more information

If you have any questions send us an email on yarracan@gmail.com

YCAN took part in yesterday's launch of the 100% Renewable Energy campaign by adding our voice to thousands of others via this photo of some of our members at the iconic "Fitzroy" sign on Johnston Street. Photos were taken by community groups all over Australia.

This new campaign is calling for an urgent transition to 100% renewable energy for Australia.

Is this possible? Is this affordable? The answer is yes and yes! Just one example of how we can do it is here.

Visit the campaign website for more information and to get inolved, or contact us at YCAN.

Climate solutions research group Beyond Zero Emissions has just released a preview executive summary to their Zero Carbon Australia 2020 electricity (Stationary Energy) plan.

The Zero Carbon Australia 2020 (ZCA2020) Stationary Energy Plan is a detailed, costed blueprint demonstrating how Australia can reach zero emissions electricity by 2020 using proven, existing, commercialised technology.

The report concludes that there are no technological impediments to transforming Australia’s stationary energy sector to zero emissions over the next ten years. The costs of transformation are adequately offset by savings made from shifting away from the business as usual scenario.

No resource constraints have been identified. With adequate societal and political commitment and regulatory support, the goal of an efficient and competitive zero-emissions stationary energy sector is well within Australia’s reach.

Have a read of the 6 page executive summary and be inspired. Let's get on with it!

YCAN's re-branding sessions outside the office of Richard Wynne, Labor member for Richmond are catching people's attention. See coverage below from the Melbourne Leader and Melbourne Times.

Please get in touch to help with the campaign to get Victoria out of coal and into renewable energy: yarracan -at- gmail.com, or drop in to a re-branding session for a chat, every Wednesday, 5.30-6.30pm, 112 Smith St, Collingwood.

Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 3 Feb.

Renewable energy is the fastest growing power source in the world, and already generates baseload electricity on the scale of utilities. Large solar thermal plants with heat storage can dispatch power around the clock every day of the week regardless of whether the sun is shining, and make handsome profits during demand peaks.

Wind power is being installed on scales that dwarf Australian grid requirements. These and other clean energy technologies are replacing coal on modern grids. While Australia continues to throw money at 19th-century technologies, Spain, China, the US and others are charging ahead with zero-emissions power generation, and creating export markets.

Spain consumes about as much electricity as Australia, though its population is about twice as large. Like Australia, Spain is blessed with strong, consistent sunshine, and it uses this attribute to ensure energy security. Already it has built 24-hour baseload solar plants, using molten salt to store heat which is then used to create steam and turn turbines. It started with Andasol 1, a 50MW plant, and has now completed two similar projects. More than 1,800MW of projects are under construction and the government has just approved another 2,440MW for their feed-in tariff scheme for construction over the next three years.

The Gemasolar project is the shining light of the Spanish boom in baseload solar power. This solar thermal plant has created 1500 jobs and will operate at 60 to 100 per cent of maximum turbine output for up to 90 per cent of hours each year. Very low maintenance shutdown requirements allow this efficiency, far greater than coal-fired power generators in NSW. When the turbine is idle, heat is bled off the ''cold'' 290-degree salt storage tank to keep the turbine seals warm, allowing fast starting - as seen in the best hydro and gas plants. This capacity for baseload and fast-start ''dispatchable'' power generation places the Gemasolar plant among the highest-value electricity plants, a fact not lost on investors.

This solar generation capacity is in addition to Spanish wind power. Wind turbines supply 11 per cent of Spain's electricity demand, and this will more than double to 25 per cent by 2020. Another 6000MW of wind power is approved for installation in the next three years. That is just shy of three plants the size of the Bayswater power station near Muswellbrook, with all the jobs but no emissions.

Spain is phasing out coal and nuclear, and the companies that built the nuclear plants have re-tooled to build solar thermal plants with heat storage. These companies did not want to own the nuclear plants they built, but they have set up investment vehicles to own solar thermal plants.

Compared to the 10 years it takes to get a nuclear plant up and running, solar thermal plants with 24-hour baseload capacity have construction times as short as nine months, so such projects are not exposed to the same political, industrial and financial risks as nuclear plants. Envisaging a lucrative market for their solar infrastructure and expertise, the Spanish anticipate a healthy return on any subsidies for these technologies.

To read on, click here.

Every Wednesday starting 3 February 5.30-6.30pm, 112 Smith St, Collingwood - 'til the bastards put humanity ahead of coal industry profits

Our weekly re-branding sessions continue and we need you!!

After completing six weeks in a row in 2009, we will now attempt to have a weekly presence outside Labor Minister Richard Wynne's office until the November State Election or until the Brumby Government implements some decent climate crisis policies!

Our actions are already having an effect. Richard Wynne was one of the Ministers that successfully argued to postpone the allocation of brown coal for export to India.

We will be correcting the Brumby Government's image, to match its pro-coal actions, every Wednesday, 5.30-6.30pm, 112 Smith St, Collingwood.

WE NEED YOU FOR THIS TO SUCCEED – CAN YOU FILL A WEEKLY, FORTNIGHTLY, MONTHLY OR ONE-OFF ONE HOUR SHIFT AT THE PROTEST VIGIL ON A WEDNESDAY EVENING? If you can please contact us – Yarracan -at- gmail.com

Also, if you are a musician or performer and feel like busking while we do our rebranding, we would love to have you on a Wednesday evening.

Some recent Brumby Government climate change 'initiatives':

• Investing our money in the construction of a new coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley.
• Lobbying to get the owners of coal power stations more compensation from taxpayers under an emissions trading scheme.
• Accepting thousands of dollars in donations to the Labor Party from coal corporations in return for private meetings in which coal expansion proposals are discussed.
• Investing in research in so-called ‘clean coal’ rather than genuinely clean energy production like 24-hour baseload solar and wind power that actually exist.
• Going back on a promise to introduce a gross feed-in tariff which would pay owners of solar panels for all the electricity their panels produced.
• Looking into exporting dirty brown coal to countries like India.

(references for the points above available on request)

To get on the roster for a shift contact Yarracan -at- gmail.com or show up on a Wednesday.

GetUp’s ReEnergise Australia campaign has been knocking on doors in Kensington and Richmond in the federal electorate of Melbourne, talking to people about the potential for renewable energy to power Australia and create thousands of clean energy jobs. Over 1600 of the 1700 people that GetUp spoke to signed their petition, asking Lindsay Tanner, the Labor member for Melbourne to become a clean energy champion in the Federal Parliament. This is quite far from the current Rudd Government position, which includes wholehearted support for the coal industry and billions of taxpayer dollars for the big coal corporations while Australian technology and know-how, such as Solar Systems is allowed to go belly-up.

The key result from the door-knocking was this – 85% of those people who identified as Labor voters said they would consider changing their vote if the Government doesn’t act.

GetUp will be handing over their petition tomorrow (Friday) at 5.30pm at Lindsay Tanner’s office – 280 King St, Melbourne. All are invited to come along.

The people of Melbourne have sent a clear message, we want the Government to support renewable energy, not fossil fuels, or else we will vote for someone who will.

Reminder:

SAVE SOLAR SYSTEMS RALLY – 5:30 FRIDAY 30 OCTOBER, PARLIAMENT HOUSE

The building of the first large-scale solar power plant in Australia is in doubt.

The Solar Systems power plant will create 1,000 renewable energy jobs, power 45,000 homes and uses home grown, Australian designed and built, world leading technology.

As the administrators look at whether funding for Solar Systems can be found, now is our chance to build momentum for clean energy and demand that state and Federal Governments live up to their rhetoric of supporting renewables.

Join us at the Save Solar Systems Rally, tomorrow, Friday 30th October at 5:30 PM at Parliament House.

Your voice counts. Tell the Government that we want solar not coal.

The Australian Coal Association has launched a campaign in regional marginal seats, telling voters that acting on climate change (in the form of the Rudd Government's Carbon Polluters Rewards Scheme - CPRS) will cost jobs. There are a couple of factual errors here:

1. Acting on the climate crisis will create many more jobs than it will cost. Renewable energy is more labour intensive than coal power and the government investment needed will greatly boost the economy.

2. The CPRS isn't really going to do anything to reduce Australia's emissions, it is designed to give the appearance of action without actually shifting us from business as usual. The coal industry couldn't have hoped for a better deal.

And of course, it goes without saying that the Australian Coal Association couldn't care less about "jobs", what they mean of course is "profits". The coal industry has been responsible for thousands of jobs losses over the last 15 years in the Latrobe Valley here in Victoria.

So we need to fight back! Help get this add on TV to counter the lies from the coal lobby.

The Save Solar Systems campaign is asking for your support. The company Solar Systems has gone into administration making 100 workers redundant. This has put the construction of the first large scale solar power plant in Australia in doubt. It was to have been a $420 million project, that would have created 1000 jobs in construction and powered 45,000 homes.

State and federal governments had already promised $125 million to the project, but so far released less than $3 million of that money. We are asking that the federal government immediately intervenes to guarantee (i) that the Solar Systems factory in Abbotsford remains open, (ii) that the redundant workers are reinstated and, (iii) that a large scale solar power plant is built in Mildura.

We are asking you or your organisation to:
1 Sign the petition
2. Write or call Lindsay Tanner MP, Member for Melbourne asking for the three points listed above. Email him at lindsay.tanner.mp@aph.gov.au or call on 9602 2911
3 Endorse the Save Solar Systems rally, 2pm Sunday 11 October, 45 Grosvenor Street, Abbotsford (off Victoria Street, 109 tram from the city)
4 Publicise the rally, by emailing the details and information to your networks
5 Come to the rally
6 Let us know if you can provide photocopying or other resources for the campaign.
7 Come to organising meetings, every Sunday 1pm, at the Terminus Hotel, 605 Victoria St Abbotsford.

Contact via savesolarsystems -at- gmail.com - if you want further information. If you wish to be added to the email list, send a request with "please add me to you email list" to the same email address.

Below is an interview with one of the sacked Solar Systems workers (wind noise dies down after about 30 seconds), and another rally speaker from the first rally on 18 September:





For more information see the Solar Systems website, and media coverage (1, 2, 3, 4)

I eavesdropped as the father explained to his very young daughter that the black balloons really came from this place, not the washing machine. Looming over us was the Hazelwood coal power station, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Around us were 500 other people, some of who had travelled long distances, as well as many locals, to help send the message that for our own survival, we need to urgently transition away from coal and towards renewable energy and energy efficiency, and that this means switching off Hazelwood and finding alternative jobs for the workers inside.

Scientists have made it clear that getting out of coal should be our number one priority for reducing emissions and avoiding runaway climate change.

We had spent the night before camping with 230 people, discussing tactics for the day and more general climate change topics, as well as sharing a meal and listening to some fantastic live music. On the day, despite early rain, the atmosphere was positive and friendly. We were welcomed to country by Robbie Thorpe, a local Gunai elder and heard from fantastic speakers.


We marched to Hazelwood and were met with a heavy police presence. Twenty-two people managed to get over the Hazelwood fence and deliver a community decommission order. They were charged with trespass. There were many more willing to commit civil disobedience, but were not nimble enough to get over the fence without the police stopping them.

We received blanket media coverage that night on TV and in the papers the next day. A great time was had by all and the importance of peaceful civil disobedience made clear. It was an historic day for all of us fighting for a safe climate future against the insanity of our governments and fossil fuel industries.

It's time - switch off coal and switch on renewables!

See you at the next protest!


Click here for more photos.

www.switchoffhazelwood.org - for a summary of the media coverage

While climate scientists all over the world call for a rapid transition away from coal, the Brumby and Rudd governments continue to support this dangerous industry while allowing crucial renewable energy projects to fall over.

Over the weekend the State Government announced it was looking into exporting brown coal, the world's most greenhouse gas intensive fuel, to India. A week earlier, the company Solar Systems went into voluntary administration putting 150 jobs at risk. The company was not able to raise enough money from private investors to build what was going to be Australia's biggest solar energy plant (so far) in the north-west of Victoria.

Considering the scale of the climate crisis, the Brumby Government cannot allow this project, which is technically sound, and the valuable employment that it will create, to go belly up. If they really believe the things they say about the seriousness of climate change and the importance of clean energy jobs, then this project must not be allowed to fail. If private money will not invest in this project due to the global financial crisis, as John Brumby has said, then government must step in. It's time the government took responsibility for the transition away from coal to renewable energy.

Help us demand the Solar Systems project goes ahead:
Rally to save the solar plant
This Friday, 18 September, 12.30pm
Solar Systems Office, 45 Grosvenor St, Abbotsford