Browsing: CCS

• Modelling of 78% revenue loss will make us wary of clean coal investments, says brown coal generator
  
• Expect an initial carbon price 'north of $20'
  
• 'Busting the emissions trading myths'
  
• MRET, MLET or neither?
  
• NSW prospects not so bleak for carbon storage
  
• Transmission concerns a major barrier for renewables

• WA issues compliance reporting guidelines
  
  
  
• Australia's black coal-fired plants emit more CO2 than EU and US plants
  
  
  
• CCS too slow, risky and pricey: Greenpeace
  
  
  
• 'Contraction and convergence criticisms flawed'
  
  
  
• Six steps to avoiding greenwash
  
  
  
• Greens parties to establish international base in Australia

Victorian Premier John Brumby this morning announced a $110 million fund for large-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects, and a further $5.2 million to investigate potential carbon storage sites in the Gippsland basin.



The premier also committed $12.2 million for a new body – called Clean Coal Victoria – to identify future coal resources in under-explored areas.

• Milne slams CCS alliance
  
• 'Ten cent levy would double container recycling rate'
  
• Training system needs to 'move up a gear'
  
• Utility's environmental licence shrinks from 113 pages to nine

An alliance of industry, union and environment organisations launched this morning has urged the Rudd government to set a goal of having the equivalent of three 500MW power stations fitted with CCS by 2020.



As a first step, Australia needs to finalise by this September nationally-consistent legislation and a policy framework to overcome first-mover barriers, the alliance says.

Greenpeace thinks carbon capture and storage is a con and is taking a dim view of a new alliance between Australian mining companies, the mining union, an environment group and a leading climate policy institute that plans to push the technology along.



But the union involved says without more effective leadership billions of dollars of investment in CCS is at risk.

NSW today introduced a bill to establish a 'clean coal' fund that could receive hefty contributions from the coal industry. But, unlike similar Queensland legislation passed last year, it doesn't commit the state to lobby for industry contributions to be treated as offsets under an emissions trading regime.



Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rudd and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong announced funding for cleaner coal projects in China and for a carbon accounting pilot project to help China prepare for 'possible participation in future global carbon markets'.

The Rudd government should remove tax breaks for personal use of company cars and abolish the Fuel Tax Credits scheme that gives tax breaks worth more than a billion dollars a year to the mining industry, Australian Conservation Foundation chief Don Henry told the National Press Club today. (plus audio)



Henry also urged the government to remove tax concessions for aviation fuel and push for resource companies to boost their 'miserable' levels of spending on R&D into technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

The Victorian state government will, in the next 10 days, sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Clinton Initiative that will focus on carbon capture and storage and low-emission and energy efficiency technologies, Victorian Premier John Brumby has just announced.

• Move more quickly to deploy low emission technologies, say mining union and NSW minerals council
  
• NSW releases GGAS transition consultation paper
  
• Victoria issues ballast water protocol
  
• WA releases urban development guide on acid sulfate soils
  
  *'Wait to see details of Australian trading scheme', industry group tells NZ parliamentary inquiry