Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Good Fight Against Coal Seam Gas | newmatilda.com

The Good Fight Against Coal Seam Gas | newmatilda.com:
Communities across the country are standing up to riot police and saying no to coal seam gas - and the tide is finally starting to turn. The anti-CSG movement has a lot to be proud of, writes Aidan Ricketts

lockthegateSuddenly, coal seam gas (CSG) is on everyone’s lips. The big issues — water table contamination, public health risks, air pollution and the industrialisation of rural landscapes — are becoming well known. But little more than a year ago the social movement against gas was still just beginning to take off. In 2011 the unconventional gas industry seemed to be on an unalterable trajectory, relatively unopposed except for a few notable blockades and protests in Queensland, where the industry was already well established.
 
As I have argued previously, the power of CSG blockades lies not in winning on the ground on that one drill site, but in forcing the government and the companies into a self-defeating cycle of displays of overwhelming force, as they go about imposing an unwanted industry on unwilling populations by force.
The important dynamic for communities involved in these campaigns is to remain optimistic and persistent. The ability to stand witness to displays of overwhelming force, while remaining assertive and nonviolent is the winning formula for sure. Regrouping and continuing to resist once the show of force subsides is vital; the only catch is we never really know how many times we need to repeat this process before the wheels start falling off the cart — but they are starting to fall off.

Inclusion of ecological communities in the list of threatened ecological communities under section 181 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 - Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula (EC 105) (14/02/2013)

Inclusion of ecological communities in the list of threatened ecological communities under section 181 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 - Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula (EC 105) (14/02/2013):
 Inclusion of ecological communities in the list of threatened ecological communities under section 181 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 - Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula (EC 105) (14/02/2013)

Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula

Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula
Community Distribution Map

Date Effective   27 Feb 2013
Commonwealth Conservation Advice on Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula (Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC), 2013e) [Conservation Advice].

Inclusion of ecological communities in the list of threatened ecological communities under section 181 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 - Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula (Commonwealth of Australia, 2013c) [Legislative Instrument].

Map of Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula (Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC), 2013c) [Indicative Map].






Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Greens name and shame our biggest carbon emitters

MEDIA RELEASE
Wed, 27/02/2013
 
The Greens have today named and shamed the state’s biggest carbon emitters in a bid to try to tackle WA’s growing reputation as one of the biggest per capita polluters on the planet.
 
Greens MLC Robin Chapple said Woodside topped the list of the state’s worst greenhouse gas emitters pushing out more than 12 M tonnes a year from its Burrup development, the equivalent of the annual combined carbon emissions of around 4 million cars.

Next on the list was Verve Energy producing 7.9Mt followed by Alcoa on 4.3Mt and BHP (Worsley Alumina Pty Ltd) on 3.7Mt.

Together the state’s top four carbon polluters were producing in excess of 27M tonnes of C02 a year. Mr Chapple said new developments already in the pipeline, including Woodside’s Browse basin LNG, were expected to more than double the state’s current emissions within a decade.

“When we should be constraining the growth of carbon emissions and making clear plans for a clean economy we are instead charging headlong into a dirty future with the doubling of our emissions,” Mr Chapple said.

“We have a moral obligation to help solve global warming by limiting emissions but our government is paying lip service to this obligation.

“The Government has no plan to curb emissions or rein in big polluters and it doesn’t even consider emissions when granting approvals to industry.

“The Greens hope that by making public the extent of the pollution generated by some of our major companies they will act more like good corporate citizens and ensure they cut their own carbon emissions.

“Naming and shaming companies will give shareholders valuable information about the state of a company and its environmental credentials.”

Mr Chapple said the Greens would publish a list of the worst polluters online and would make sure that when companies did the right thing and cut back their emissions they were acknowledged for their efforts.

“We hope that by making a company’s carbon emissions more transparent it will help bring change and encourage big polluters to do more about reducing their carbon footprint.”

List of top four emitters 2013-01-30 TOP4 emitters.pdf
Studies: 
GHG Estimates WA 2012 Final.pdf
Carbon Emissions Inventory Major Resource Projects – AGEIS 2012 data.pdf
 
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255
 

Fears for WA Aboriginal burial sites

Fears for WA Aboriginal burial sites:

 The Australian Greens fear Aboriginal burial sites north of Broome will be destroyed unless the Gillard government stops Woodside moving in heavy machinery near a controversial gas hub site.

The Senate was told on Tuesday the energy giant was preparing to move equipment onto sand dunes near the James Price Point site.

Woodside's proposed $30 billion Kimberley gas hub has divided the community.

Greens leader Christine Milne urged the government to step in to prevent sacred sites being damaged while the Environment Minister Tony Burke decides whether to grant an emergency heritage listing.

Leader of the government in the Senate, Stephen Conroy, said Mr Burke would make a decision when the assessment process was complete.

"The Western Australian state election deadlines are irrelevant to his decision," Senator Conroy 
said.

Broome Community No Gas Radio Adds

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Christine Milne on James Price Point - YouTube

Christine Milne on James Price Point - YouTube

Christine Milne asked Stephen Conroy, representing the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities a question in the Senate about James Price Point.
Is the Minister aware of the huge public demonstration in Fremantle on Sunday against the proposed gas hub in the West Kimberley in which thousands of people marched in opposition to the gas plan promoted by WA Premier Colin Barnett and federal resources minister, Martin Ferguson?

If he is aware of it, with regard to the imminent decision by Woodside to move heavy machinery into the sand dunes at Walmadany, which contain burial grounds and other sites of enormous significance to local Aboriginal people, can the minister tell the Senate, with respect to Minister Burke's assessment of a section 9 request for emergency heritage protection-which he has now had on his desk for more than 18 months-where it is up to, when it will be completed and when it will be released?

We Wont Back Down, We Will Stand Our Ground


Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development - Home page

Western Australia is not involved in this Committee, WHY?
Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development - Home page:
Federal and state government commitments

The Australian Government and Queensland, New South Wales, South Australian and Victorian governments have all agreed to strengthen the regulation of coal seam gas and large coal mining development by ensuring that future decisions are informed by substantially improved science and independent expert advice.

Under a National Partnership Agreement, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria have committed to:

seek the committee's advice at appropriate stages of the approvals process for a coal seam gas or large coal mining development that is likely to have a significant impact on water resources
ensure that decision-makers take account of the committee's advice in a transparent manner
provide input into the committee's research agenda, including in relation to the committee's advice on priority areas for bioregional assessment.

National Partnership Agreement

Under the National Partnership Agreement state governments are producing protocols that identify the criteria for projects on which they will seek the committee's advice.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Woodside reverses on gas hub challenge

 Looks like Woodside it not that confident with the EPA Approval process either.

Woodside reverses on gas hub challenge:
Perth-based Woodside Petroleum has withdrawn its application to join the West Australian government in defending a legal challenge to its planned $40 billion Kimberley gas hub

Greens demand gas hub management plan details - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)


The Broome community is already suffering untold, unreported, unstudied and unmentioned social and economic impacts. As a community, we have witnessed a very server erosion of our local governance, democratic rights, our social justice and human rights ever since Woodside and state government's proposed to build the world’s largest gas refinery within our recreational and cultural heritage heartlands.

The only mitigating impacts strategies Woodside and the state have come up with is the creation of a number of volunteer management committees to oversee the anticipated impacts.  
 

Interesting to note that a Call of Interest for the first of these committees, put out by the Department of State Development, needed to extend the application period because they did not received any local nominations.

How will these committees manage the burdens on our currently stretched health and mental health services when our local hospital does not even have a social worker? How these committees are going to stop the FIFO phenomenon from wreaking serious social damage on our communities will be interesting to say the least.

These committees cannot save our communities from permanent disruption to our social multi-cultural tolerant fabric, community’s and women's safety and our tourism image. It people, local residents who maintain our social and sporting amenities in this community, not a mitigating committee.

Accompanied all these anticipated impacts will be a range of damaging consequences for both residents and workers, such as: increase costs of living,  relationship stress and breakdown, excessive alcohol and drug use, depression and increased violence across the community's workforce and back into the family units.

How will these proposed committees going to address the ‘us versus them’ mentality that has already firmly established itself in our community of Broome? Woodside is clearly identified and will always be the outsiders, no amount of committees will ever change that. 
After Black Tuesday, the Broome community gained a clear insight into what this corporation was prepared to do to get their illegal works done. They are already referred to as leeches or corporate robots/whores. What is funny is the fact that the people who want their business and love their money but don’t want Woodside to be seen in or around town. How do you mitigate that?

Just like the Gorgon Project on Barrow Island, FIFO workers will be locked up for weeks at a time in camps and banned from town. Many will find they have no family left when they return home, they will suffer from isolation, metal health issues and depression. We can expect, just like the Gorgon project is currently experiencing, an epidemic of unreported suicides that will be hidden from the community. How do you mitigate against death and loss?

Broome and the surrounding communities of the Dampier Peninsula form the core of the resistance and have been highly successful in generating support from major national and international environmental organisations and other communities across the nation and the planet.

It is abundantly clear that if you want to stop corporations invading your community, the best place to start is at the very beginning of their proposal, their early stages of  investigation and exploration because by the time they get around to building anything at all they are faced with a strong momentum of determined educated and resilient local resistance.

Just as Woodside and their security forces have found out, the majority of Broome residents are all on surveillance watch, they cannot move in this community without people knowing and responding immediately. The combination of local resistance and national media attention means that Black Tuesday has simply shown us what to expect for the future from Woodside.

This current state government, Woodside and the WA Police Force may have been able to bully and overwhelm the people of Broome, but they continue to do so at massive political, economic and public relations costs. The massive police operations were simply a festival of force and are not a useful or an enduring model for dealing with community resistance. 

Woodside's commitment to social and ethical responsibilities is evidenced in the way in which they have shown complete and total contempt for the Broome community. It’s only because Broome has such a strong sense of itself and is a strong healthy close knit community that its protection levee banks have withstood the barrage.

People have invested a lot of love into this community and it is this that has fuelled the resistance to this corporate invasion and is the real reason why the campaign has been so strong, consistent and successful.

Woodside cannot sustain a business model based on resisted invasion. Nor can they create committees that will mitigate the devastation people will feel if Woodside enters the dune system to destroy grave sites, law grounds and disrupt the Songline. Because, like community trust once shattered can never be put back together.

Woodside claims in their propaganda that long-term and meaningful relationships with the communities where they operate are fundamental to maintaining their licence to operate. However, what Woodside finds really hard is rejection because the fact of the matter is we do not want a relationship with them. They just cannot understand that they do not and never will get their social licence to operate in the Broome community. 

The no gas at JPP resistance is only growing stronger daily, is in the media spotlight and is gaining influence within both the state and federal elections. Woodside, once again let me articulate “We, the Broome Community will never ever surrender community, country or cultural for a few quick earth polluting soul destroying bucks”. Red


Greens demand gas hub management plan details - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):
Mr Maher says the community has a right to know what is being planned.

"Someone far more cynical that me could conclude that the Premier's Department has requested those plans be kept in confidence because they understand the impact they will have on the electorate so close to the election," he said.

"So one could conclude there are some very scary things in that social mitigation process."

The draft management policies have been forwarded to stakeholders for confidential consideration, including the Broome Shire.

They are also being reviewed by the Browse Social Management Committee, which includes representatives from a range of Government departments, as well as tourism bodies and traditional owners.