The Saltbush Club

PLANNING TO EXIT NET ZERO

By Rafe Champion

The government has initiated an enquiry into the market reforms that will be “fit for purpose” to support the suicidal net zero program.

That is the wrong question because the so-called transition from coal has run its course and we need to start planning an exit from net zero.

We need a plan well ahead in case a government comes to power with the desire to exit, only to find they are short on time and they have no idea what to do.

The plan will have to be sustained by a new narrative about energy that is based on realism and concern for the welfare of people and the planet. Let’s be energy realists and responsible stewards of the environment!

Energy realism rules in China and the rest of the developing world where they scramble for all the coal, oil, and gas they can get.

Meanwhile, the nations of the West emulate the mythical farmer who incrementally reduced the rations of his workhorse until it died.

We run down coal power and gas until there is not enough conventional power and parts of the grid will die on nights when there is little or no wind.

Read the author’s Spectator article: https://saltbushclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/champion-net-zero.pdf [PDF: 233 kB]

The original Spectator article (pay-walled): https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/11/looking-for-the-net-zero-exit-sign/

Original PDF from: https://www.flickerpower.com/images/Change_the_narrative_change_the_game___The_Spectator_Australia.pdf

The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: facing record-breaking threats from delayed action – a critique

By Dr D Weston Allen MBBS, FRACGP, Grad Dip Phys Med

The Lancet pre-empted the Paris Agreement climate targets at COP 21 with its Commission on Health and Climate Change in June 2015. It has since released annual Countdown reports of progress before every COP. This 139 page Romanello et al report by “122 leading researchers from UN agencies and academic institutions worldwide” claims to reveal “the most concerning findings yet in the collaboration’s 8 years of monitoring.” The first of its 6 Panels focuses on 15 health indicators, the second on 56 climate change indicators, the third on indigenous knowledge, cultural and spiritual practices, colonisation and dispossession, the fourth on nature- based solutions, the fifth on limits to adaptation, and the sixth on health impacts of the energy production cycle.

Read the full document: https://saltbushclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/critique-of-the-lancets-2024-Countdown-report.pdf [PDF, 546 kB]

Don’t They Teach Any Chemistry In Medical Schools?

By Dr John Happs

It was both surprising and alarming to learn that a group called “Doctors for the Environment, Australia” were actually calling for members of the public to contact their local Member of Parliament and deliver the message:

“To protect the health of the Australian people I call on you as my elected representative to ban all new coal, oil and gas projects.”

This silly appeal is also promoted by some members of the American Medical Association who foolishly claim:

“Extreme heat, powerful storms and floods, year-round wildfires, droughts, and other climate-related events are caused by “fossil fuel combustion, which is said to be the “primary driver of climate-change.”

The AMA argues that we should be:

“transitioning away from hydrocarbon fuels, coal, oil, and natural gas, and toward renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

Now one might think that medicine would be driven by objective scientific reasoning and that our medical schools would accept only the best and brightest of student applicants, yet the message these groups of medical practitioners want us to spread, exposes their absolute ignorance of the chemistry of hydrocarbon resources and our total dependence on them.

“Doctors for the Environment, Australia” appear to have no idea about how coal, gas and oil have lifted millions out of poverty and enabled us to achieve the high standard of living we have today, along with all the tools and medications that the medical industry relies upon. In fact, there is precious little in the medical world that isn’t dependent on the coal, oil and gas deposits that “Doctors for the Environment, Australia” want to ban.

Continue reading: https://papundits.wordpress.com/2024/10/18/dont-they-teach-any-chemistry-in-medical-schools/

When Green Energy Failed in Broken Hill

By Jo Nova

On October 17th a storm blew seven transmission towers over, disconnecting the Broken Hill area [in Australia] from the national grid. About 19,000 people live there, and with a 200MW wind plant, a 53MW solar array and a big battery, plus diesel generators it was assumed they’d be OK for a while without the connection to the big baseload plants.

But instead it’s been a debacle. They had nearly a week of blackouts with intermittent bursts of power, barely long enough to charge the phone.

The fridges in the pharmacies failed, so all medications had to be destroyed and emergency replacements sent in. Schools closed. Freezers of meat are long gone… Emergency trucks finally brought in food and eventually the schools reopened. Full reconnection did will not happen until November 6th.

The ‘Aunt Dolly Bushfire System’ is doomed to fail

By Roger Underwood AM

Environmental activists and green academics in Western Australia are pushing the government to make radical changes to bushfire policy and operations. In place of the current approach, which integrates pre-fire mitigation with post-fire response, the activists are pushing for “response only”, otherwise known as ‘the Aunt Dolly Bushfire System’.

Specifically, they want the government to abandon the program of mild-intensity prescribed burning, a strategy aimed at reducing fuel levels in a mosaic pattern across south-west forests so as to make it easier, safer and cheaper to control fires under the worst case scenario situation.

Why I did not vote Green

By John McRobert

I didn’t vote Green [in the recent Queensland State election] because of their unrelenting and unjustifiable efforts to destroy the coal industry, the industry that afforded the lifestyle we all enjoy today; the industry that delivered the electrified railway system on which Greens generously offer cheap tickets to those close enough to use them, subsidised by the working country people unable to access this localised largess.

Greens promote free lunches for schoolchildren – what an abrogation of parental responsibility, what a logistical and legalistic nightmare. What are they thinking of?

Greens support subsidising rooftop solar panels, at the expense of everybody, rich or poor, in increased electricity costs. This is an unbelievable transfer of wealth from the homeless have-nots to the haves who own houses on which they can mount these imported, short-life toys that parasitically live off and undermine the efficiency of a once efficient coal-fired grid.

It takes a good person to admit he was wrong, but in so admitting, can inspire others. The road to Damascus is an enlightening story.

Greens have the drive, may they soon see the light.

John McRobert BE (Civ)
CopyRight Publishing Co P/L
Indooroopilly Q 4068
Web: www.copyright.net.au

The Broken Hill Blackout

By John McRobert

Al Jolson introduced Talkies with, “You ain’t seen nuttin’ yet”.

The recent Broken Hill blackout where Wind and Sun failed to provide power when needed, demonstrates we ain’t seen nuttin’ yet. That blackout is a harbinger of big blackouts for big cities when they become reliant on unreliable green energy sources.

I have experienced what that will be like.

On St Valentine’s Day 1985, during a Union-strike power blackout, my office was on the 24th floor of a building in Brisbane CBD. After navigating roads with no traffic lights and reporting for work, lifts didn’t work and the fire-escape access staircase was unventilated. Trudging up to an unairconditioned, unlit, unpowered office, windows would not open and no power points worked.

I walked down the fire-escape to buy lunch and St Valentine’s Day chocolates for my wife. The shopping arcade was in darkness, shop-owner incandescent, stock melted. Back up 24 floors to spend a sweltering afternoon in unproductive endurance. After work, walked downstairs in gloom to renegotiate roads with no streetlights or traffic lights. Returned home to a romantic candlelight dinner of freshly-thawed steak (before it rotted), cooked on a gas-powered camp hotplate.

Reliable energy sources are essential for modern society.
We still need coal.

Why I’m Voting the Way I Am

By John Droz jr.

Someone recently asked me why I like Trump.

My answer was that I don’t really like a lot of things about Trump, but this election is not about choosing the most likable person.

We are voting between two vastly different ideologies. We are voting for the country we want to leave our children and grandchildren.

Trump has proven that he can deliver. He is a patriot to the core and even served his country for four years without pay.

If Green Energy is the Future, Bring a Fire Extinguisher

By Steve Goreham

A version of this article was recently published in The Wall Street Journal.

Alternative energy is exploding─literally. Lithium battery fires are breaking out on highways and in factories, home garages, and storage rooms. The rise in battery fires is amplified by government efforts to force adoption of electric vehicles and grid-scale batteries for electric power.

Blind Freddy on Green Hydrogen

By Geoff Derrick

Everyone knows “Blind Freddy”. He’s the man who sees problematic issues with extreme clarity, who identifies projects based on humbug, who calls out scams and wrong-doings, who is our quiet protector on many controversial social and business issues, and who keeps many of our radical politicians, businessmen and policy makers in check.

It is Blind Freddy who could see that “Green Hydrogen” was set to fail (“Writing on wall for green hydrogen”, Weekend Australian, 5-6 Oct), simply because making green hydrogen by passing an electric current through water is extremely expensive and energy consuming. It is Blind Freddy who sees that this process uses more energy than hydrogen can produce, and that it costs more to make this green hydrogen than its world sale price.

Operating at a loss may well be standard socialist philosophy, but it is not the way capitalism works.

And it is Blind Freddy who can see that renewables will never replace fossil fuels because they cannot do the job of powering a nation 24/7.