clueless, naive and dangerous in its understanding of its responsibility – what is the legacy?

Posted on January 27, 2015 Posted in Carbon Competition & Consumer, Hot airTagged asset sales, energy networks, governance, Gullen Range, NSW, Queensland, WindfarmLeave a comment

The NSW and Queensland Government have a plan. If they sell off the assets they will be no longer responsible if things go wrong. This does leave a fundamental problem in terms of legacy – A number of problems actually.

Starting with: Will corporate simply view governments as irrelevant in the near future. They already do think that, and as an example when the Queensland Transport Department set traps to catch UBER drivers employed by Google and Goldman Sacks. The corporate told the drivers to continue business as usual and ignore the Department. Google even then disabled the Government ‘s capability to track the drivers. How could they do that – they are quoted nationally as saying the conglomerate has deeper pockets than the government.

Both NSW and Queensland seem to have suitors for the Energy Networks Companies they have on offer. Even the relevant Ministers’ seem confused as to what and how much is for sale. What the public know is that it is very likely two Asian based corporations will be in the front seat for the assets purchase. Both with deep pockets, and both with a high probability on controlling the total business in both states.

Can we have confidence wise decisions will be made? Maybe time will tell. But in NSW at least a very worrying case indicates the Government is more interesting in avoiding responsibility for its choices.

If you follow this story you may feel as apprehensive as we do: Wind farm at Gullen Range a ‘mess’ as matter heads back to court , January 26, 2015. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/wind-farm-at-gullen-range-a-mess-as-matter-heads-back-to-court-20150126-12ygnn.html

“”The scene is set for a right royal mess with no one happy. It follows the protestors, the complainants, the Developers, are all challenging the Minister over who is responsible for a litany of ‘mistakes’. s clueless, naive and dangerous in its understanding of national security. Suggesting the department is clueless, naive and dangerous in its understanding of its responsibility. To quote directly from the story: the Department – and therefore Ms Goward – had taken three different positions on the wind farm, which would be difficult to defend.

Firstly, the Department recommended conditional approval of the turbine changes to the PAC. In turn, this body refused the DA but along the way, the Department had recommended that just nine turbines be moved.

“So if it all goes to court, which position will she defend?” Mr Brooks asked.

“The whole thing is a colossal mess.”

Complicating matters is the Department’s oversight role earlier in the development. The company appointed an independent environmental monitor to oversee turbine placement and report to government planners. However, the Landscape Guardians alleged he had a conflict of interest as director of a consultancy firm that worked on the wind farm.

A Department spokesman told the Goulburn Post that this person was employed by a consultant and not by the government.

“[He] was not involved with the design, construction or operation of the project, having worked as a consultant preparing the environmental assessment for the application.

“Appointing [him] as the project’s environmental representative is in line with the project’s approval conditions and the Department’s procedures at the time.

“The Department has since improved requirements further to require wind farm consultants have an even greater level of independence.”

Adding to an “invidious” position, the Department allowed turbine construction to continue for a year after residents alerted it to their “incorrect” placement, Mr Brooks said.

“My [legal] advice is that the Minister will be obliged to defend the [Land and Environment Court] action seriously because her authority is at stake,” he told the Post.

“I hope the court throws it out, but that would throw up the situation where the PAC has rejected it, and we still have a wind farm of 69 turbines that are not in their approved locations. What happens next?”

A Department spokesman said the appeal was not about the merits of the modification, such as whether any turbines should be moved, but the process the PAC followed to make its decision.

“If the appeal is successful, then the modification application will need to be re-determined: at this stage the merits will be considered again,” he said.

“It would be highly unusual for a court to require new evidence from any party regarding an appeal of this nature,” he said.

Late last year, Mr Brooks lodged a complaint with the NSW Ombudsman about the Department’s handling of the project.

The Ombudsman was currently investigating, he said.

He’s not stopping there. Mr Brooks is also writing a submission for a Senate select committee’s inquiry into governance and the economic impact of wind turbines. He is not only highlighting the Gullen Range wind farm and the Department’s “incompetence” but the fact the developer collected renewable energy certificates, despite alleged “noncompliance” with state and federal regulations, as required.””

Co2Land org therefore must conclude a captains call will be required – then confuse you even more. But in all seriousness – you will note someone will have to pay. Guess who! Hint – you because no one else will be responsible.

Killing off domestic low cost energy mix – Queensland style

Posted on January 13, 2015 Posted in UncategorizedLeave a comment

co2land.org

It was some surprise amongst friends that Angus Taylor (thought to be the rising star of the Liberal Party) said gas was the future of a low-cost energy mix. This seemed at odds with Tony Abbott’s (the Prime Minister’s) view that coal is the key. Some react to that story as an OMG moment. We take the story as one that is a design to disguise and deflect on what is actually happening and lead the consumer to a path to pay more. Some might even say it is a centrifuge of fluid appeal. The opening line story is from:

http://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/2791033/angus-at-odds-with-abbott-over-coal/?cs=181

So there is no confusion as to what we believe: Lets us declare we are pro-market. What we question is whether pro-business rent-seekers are slewing benefits for the rent-seekers at the expense of the consumer. After reading the article immediately below, the story should unfold as to why the…

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Killing off domestic low cost energy mix – Queensland style

Posted on January 13, 2015January 13, 2015 Posted in Carbon Risk, Hot airTagged aurizon, declining demand, demand growth, demand risers, national gas prices, peak regional demand, Queensland, upstream electric compression1 Comment

http://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/2791033/angus-at-odds-with-abbott-over-coal/?cs=181

Will Queensland defy the trend of declining demand? By Paul McArdle Wed, 24 December 2014 | Topic Summer 2014-15 in the NEM –

“As early as 2011 and perhaps earlier, we’ve been posting commentary about how growth in electricity demand was slowing, and then began to decline. Across the NEM this trend does not appear to be slowing (and there are a number of reasons for this).

However, within Queensland we wonder whether what we’ll see this summer and next will buck this trend?

Earlier this week we noted articles (Gladstone Observer, Courier Mail and SMH) about the arrival of the first LNG export tanker in Gladstone. Billions of dollars of investment have been sunk into this new east-coast industry, a fair percentage of which being focused on the upstream tasks of releasing the coal-seam gas and delivering it to Gladstone. With the three projects each opting for electric compression of gas delivery to Gladstone, we’re looking to see a sizeable increase in demand for electricity as a result.”

Good stuff, hey! Can you see that only a few benefit? We cannot save you, but we can make you aware!

Lets us look at some of those linked ‘demand risers’ in more detail:

The $170m Bauhinia rail electrification project has just been completed and is a spur line to link with the Blackwater System in Central Queensland. The Blackwater system too was upgraded to double its electrical capacity, so rather than using diesel trains carrying coal from the Rolleston mine all the way to the coast it will be all electric powered haulers, which will no doubt further increase electricity demand. Queensland now has electric locomotives rated to 4,000 kW each as opposed to the previous 3000kW. So this means each locomotives at 100% load factor it would be 4 GW of demand! For more information go to –

http://www.aurizon.com.au/projects/bauhinia-electrification-project

Therefore you can expect: Each new coal train is likely to have three locomotives and each locomotive is about 4 megawatts load rated and drawing current directly from the overhead wires. This is and 12MW additional load on the network for each new train. This load was not required before.

We then read the Queensland people and business in general will pay more for gas than other states in Australia. Despite that state having more than enough gas for domestic purposes. Our Queensland contact said it has something to do with the resources rent policy of the state government. We noted that the quoted price, last week, from traders is Brisbane trades for gas in the order of $4.21 per GJ. This was an increase, which was coincident on the arrival of the first LNG tanker in Gladstone to export gas. At that same time Sydney prices rose to $4.00 per GJ. However Victorian prices remained at around $3.50 per GJ.

Now, 13 January 2015, Paul McArdle reported Brisbane hub for gas trades had reached $8.69 per GJ, Sydney $4.52 and Victoria 3.75 per GJ. While we could argue Sydney and Victoria are merely movements in the market, it is obvious Brisbane is a seismic like demand wave pushing up prices.

We no longer need to speculate that higher Queensland gas prices will mean gas for electricity peaking generation plants will be a higher price. Being that the energy market is a spot market the higher bidder sets the price. In short, as electricity demand increases so does price. What this means for electricity generators is higher demand, higher Queensland gas prices, and the market rewarding them because the higher bidder sets the electricity price for them to benefit. How much higher Queensland gas prices will go will be interesting to follow. We no longer speculate as 13 January also see Queensland peak electricity prices running as much as 300 precent plus higher than the remainder of the eastern seaboard on that day.

A short while a go the Federal Government with the Queensland Government’s endorsing repealed the carbon tax (the inception program was called the Carbon Price) as it was claimed it was to blame for higher energy prices! But now those bodies welcome higher prices, and the investor rent seekers want to hear this glorious venture has raised higher revenues from higher prices. It may be immoral but it is not illegal they say.

We are told gas prices must increase to match world demand and the price continuum. But that is seeming a hollow argument as even Japan now appear to be reluctant to source or pay for our LNG. This is a shift from their previous willingness to pay high prices for gas. Why this shift? Because, new low-cost LNG producers elsewhere are joining the supply side, and Japanese LNG demand is moderating to lower levels of need. Other factors to indicate a lower LNG demand is lower oil prices, and alternate energy sources coming in lower priced too.

Why will the demand increase in Queensland, the key to this is three projects each opting for electric compression of gas delivery to Gladstone, and therefore an increase in demand for electricity as a result.

The confidence trick here is QCLNG and APLNG are electrified using electricity from the NEM, and the GLNG upstream project has gas turbine driven hub compressors and electric driven nodal compressors supplied by open cycle gas turbine generators. Therefore it is the gas prices that is be the price setters for the electricity price, not any increase electricity demand on the NEM. Good double talk is it not?

Then Hugh Saddler said, 7 January 2015, via WattClarity: “The excellent data available through NEM-Review tells me that a large new continuous load of around 400 MW came on line in Queensland on 27 October last. This suggests that the 2014-15 summer peak is likely to be considerably higher, for equivalent weather, than in recent years; this has already happened on 9 and 17 December. However, without knowing what the load is, it is difficult to be certain with such a prediction.”

The later we find most interesting and it is the unknown that is more to worry about. About what price you will end up paying.

Now back to Paul McArdle he continued to say:

“1) We can see that, in summer 2014-15, we have already experienced a higher demand in Queensland than was the case in the whole of summer 2013-14 .

2) Queensland demand (with respect to the competition) has already peaked to the level of 8,472.23MW

3) That demand peak occurred as late as 17:15 on that day (hence as the effect of solar PV injections into the grid had receded). This is something we would not have seen several years previously!

4) We also see that price volatility is starting to look as something like what happened in summer 2012-13 as well.”

Co2land org concluded it will continue to be a good time for ole king coal generators in Queensland and those state consumers will pay the price. A price that will lead to other east coast states rising their prices too. However, it will not the market causing the rise it will be rent seekers and their influence on the policy makers.

The ray of sunshine is it may become too expensive for policy makers to bear!

Our goal – to inspire and learn, a new year resolution for 2015.

Posted on January 4, 2015 Posted in Carbon Risk, Headship, Hot airTagged Accelerating Commercialisation Australia, climate change, climate variability, commercialisation, euphemism, Gamification, spinmeisters1 Comment

Resolutions are always good to start a new year with: Committing to Gamification sounds like a good one. The goal is to maximize enjoyment and engagement through capturing the interest of learners and inspiring them to continue learning. Then it occurs one element you need is narrative and at least one other is immediate feedback. Then it occurs what we are being conditioned, or thought we are being conditioned by our leaders, corporate and political. Other evidence of this is the narrative we increasingly hear is playing down the unpleasant rather than getting to the point – an example of spinmeisters at work deploying euphemism(s) expecting we let the words wash over us without scrutinising the underlying reality.

So now our good intention is turning out to be a communication strategy and not so much a goal to inspire – We are openly massaging our message to our stakeholders to transition our moving forward. But what if, if the intention was only pro-business and pro-market? By this we mean to benefit the rent-seekers only.

It then occurs that while we have good intention in our resolution, others might not share our values that climate change is real and urgent. That merely adapting for ‘climate variability’ is a loser view. It would seem, according to Dr Neil James: Workers, corporate and politicians alike are digging in for a long fight between the ideology of each for 2015. Reported is you just have ask around and you read and hear; “Minister’s who can’t or won’t compromise, Union’s lack the strength to force their issues, and a workforce wondering what is going on here? “

Co2land org does guess it is about the game after all, and we are still in hope for a happy new year. As was said in Monty Python’s Life of Brian – always look on the bright side of life.

Also introduced are the further extensions of language to confuse and obfuscate, and from Dr Neil James, executive director of the Plain English Foundation and the author of Writing at Work was said:

“In Australia, the nation’s finances dominated the political “narrative”. The Treasurer divided the nation between “lifters” and “leaners”. The finance minister huffed that our public broadcasters were merely being subjected to an “efficiency dividend”. The government later admitted that, yes, this meant their funding was being cut after all.

Then Amanda Vanstone weighed in as a member of the National Commission of Audit with what must be the mixed metaphor of the year: Let’s fix our roof while the sun is shining because we’re on a course to hit the rocks and we have to fix it.

In the era of the mobile device, we are subjected to more information in more places at more times than ever before. It has never been more important to deconstruct this kind of doublespeak and uncouple the corporate spin. 2014 provided plenty of examples of what to watch for in the year ahead.”

Then there are the ‘we are here to help you’ matters – Like the National Disability (NDIS) scheme where parents of young children are being helped. But there is a catch; your special school can now bill you for the government contribution equivalents and other fees that leave them out of pocket in a way not done before.

Then there are those innovation help schemes. One example from a LinkedIn group member involves the ‘improved’ Commercialization Australia Scheme, called ‘Accelerating Commercialisation Australia’.

Under the heading: Accelerating Commercialisation Australia – up close and personal, Mark Dunn wrote – “Having read all the paperwork, FAQs and consumer guides, I lodged an application with Accelerating Commercialisation, and found out what they are really targeting.

Basically, this is product development funds. You have to have your prototype product or service, and are seeking assistance to convert it into something that a customer wants, e.g. making samples to distribute, or working with customers to determine detailed specifications, or working to develop markets.

The rules say the grant scheme is potentially good for $1 million, for 1:1 matching funds, but to quote their advisor, ‘there is not actually very much money’ in the fund.”

Being we cannot help ourselves we set about looking at common reference tools and found:

Accelerating = Slow down (dictionary form antonym)

Commercialisation = making it easy for companies to engage and successfully exploit

Australia = a sing-along medley of mountains, deserts, reefs, forests, beaches and …

I guess with a sense of humour you could say come a waltzing Matildas with me!

But do we need it, to suffer anymore in 2015 with the ‘necessity’ of euphemism, obfuscation and metaphors aided by corporate and political spin?

Then we read something that is food for thought in showing we are all full of it, and that ideology has little to do with success. It starts with the headline: Government running costs to reach record high as disability expenses mount, by Markus Mannheim, 3 January 2015: The Goulburn Post – “Former public service commissioner Andrew Podger, now a public policy professor at the Australian National University, said the expenses were a better indicator of efficiency than the size of the workforce because they included costs racked up by private contractors as well as public servants.

There have been a lot of experiments in efficiency over the years – outsourcing was one, another is shared services to try to take advantage of economies of scale …” he said.

“We had a period of decentralising government bodies and now we appear to be moving back to centralising a lot of work back into departments.

But you can’t say one method is more efficient or cheaper than another: it should be decided on a case-by-case basis for each program.

Real running costs grew rapidly under the Howard government. Labor, meanwhile, managed to restrain its operating expenses despite its massive spending projects to counter the global financial crisis.

Last month, as part of the Coalition’s “smaller and more rational government” agenda, Senator Cormann detailed plans to abolish or amalgamate about 250 government bodies, though most were small committees.

He also released a paper outlining the Coalition’s philosophy on the role of the public sector.

As a principle, government bodies should not be given preference as service delivery agents, where others are more capable of providing the same service …the minister wrote.”

We must finish with tying all this back to our advocating for a sustainable world, and the headline:

Heat is on Abbott government over climate change as world turns, 3 January 2015. “This could be the year of extinction for the climate-change denier” writes Peter Hannam. He goes on to say about the stance of the NSW Coalition Government: “When the Baird government unveiled the first high-resolution mapping of how global warming is expected to shift the climate for NSW, Victoria and the ACT by 2070, officials were quizzed why they weren’t using “climate variability”, a term favoured by federal Coalition counterparts, to describe the outlook.

This is the NSW government, we believe in climate change!” came the immediate response at the last month’s media briefing”.

Co2land org now asks is Gamification to be accessed in a similar way to narcissism. Classified as good and bad! We say we are good!