{"id":334259,"date":"2024-06-23T10:25:44","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T08:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334259"},"modified":"2024-06-23T10:25:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T08:25:47","slug":"former-aussie-chief-scientist-demands-governments-go-full-fascist-on-renewable-energy-approvals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334259","title":{"rendered":"Former Aussie Chief Scientist Demands Governments Go Full Fascist on Renewable Energy Approvals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Former Aussie Chief Scientist Alan Finkel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will take leadership from the top, with aggressive goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Peter Dutton\u2019s nuclear power push does not address the urgency of the climate crisis we now find ourselves in<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan Finkel
Wed 19 Jun 2024 13.25 AEST<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temperatures are rising much faster than anticipated. We must respond with the following rapid solutions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, with all this in place, it is surprising to see that the transition to solar and wind power in Australia has flatlined. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem? Barriers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second category consists of social-license barriers such as landowner resistance, traditional owner negotiations, heritage requirements, and the outsized focus on protecting local biodiversity irrespective of global biodiversity benefits.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combined, these systemic permitting barriers and the very tangible social license barriers constitute a \u201cwicked problem\u201d that will not be overcome with anything less than an intense and ambitious effort from the highest levels of government<\/strong>, supported by industry and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can governments do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal must be to lower the barriers urgently. Governments must lead.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will take leadership from the top, with aggressive goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biodiversity regulations should also be overhauled<\/strong> to take into account the global benefit to biodiversity, not just the local benefit. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/article\/2024\/jun\/19\/peter-dutton-nuclear-power-plan-coalition-liberal-party-plant-sites-comment<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dr Finkel, the reason a heavy handed approach to the renewable social contract won\u2019t work is power line companies need landowner cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of miles of incredibly valuable copper and steel support structures are a tempting target for thieves. It would be unimaginably expensive to mount constant patrols of power lines. Power companies need landowners to call the police when they spot metal thieves, not make them tea and biscuits.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preventing metal theft without the cooperation of landowners would be a truly wicked problem. In Africa thieves have learned a new trick. They don\u2019t steal the copper wires, which would trigger an instant SWAT team response, they steal the pylon support structures.<\/a> That way the line keeps running, there is no immediate alarm on the control board, and the thieves are long gone by the time the next storm or strong wind knocks the power pylons over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So quite apart from the outrage and distress ramming approvals through by force would do to society, there is the very practical problem that a society which has lost its cohesion cannot protect its energy infrastructure. Just look at the situation in South Africa if you want evidence of what could happen to Australia, were the Aussie government to go full fascist with energy infrastructure approvals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is not even considering the greens who actually care about the environment, who would probably be out there dynamiting construction equipment if they lost access to legal means to stop the wholesale destruction of their beloved wilderness regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously WUWT does not condone or encourage violence or sabotage<\/strong> \u2013 but you don\u2019t have to be a genius to predict the likely consequences of trampling people\u2019s rights, especially in sparsely policed rural regions of Australia. I\u2019ve been to the countryside meetings and seen the anger, the only thing preventing that anger from boiling over right now is rural people are clinging to the hope there are civilised, legal means for them to redress the wrongs which are being done to them. Crush that hope at your peril.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Update (EW): I should have mentioned, most of the rural people I met are willing to compromise, their demand is if the cables are built, they be buried underground, to mitigate the fire risk and impairment of visual amenity. So far to my knowledge power companies have shown no interest in the underground cable option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Finkel, the reason a heavy handed approach to the renewable social contract won\u2019t work is power line companies need landowner cooperation.<\/p>\n

Thousands of miles of incredibly valuable copper and steel support structures are a tempting target for thieves. It would be unimaginably expensive to mount constant patrols of power lines.\u00a0Power companies need landowners to call the police when they spot metal thieves, not make them tea and biscuits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":334261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820459,691818216,691818206,691818181],"class_list":{"0":"post-334259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-alan-finkel","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nuclear-power","11":"tag-renewable-energy","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Screenshot-2024-06-23-102418.png?fit=1204%2C802&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1oXh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":263659,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=263659","url_meta":{"origin":334259,"position":0},"title":"Broken Promises: \u201cA profound slowdown\u201d in Renewable Investment in Australia","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/24\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Power prices are rising, despite recent political promises they wouldn\u2019t, and renewable investment has stalled, despite frantic government efforts to attract new capital.","rel":"","context":"In \"Alan Finkel\"","block_context":{"text":"Alan Finkel","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=alan-finkel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0rr4bm6jbyo8z008jvajx6oexn.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0rr4bm6jbyo8z008jvajx6oexn.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0rr4bm6jbyo8z008jvajx6oexn.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0rr4bm6jbyo8z008jvajx6oexn.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0rr4bm6jbyo8z008jvajx6oexn.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":263919,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=263919","url_meta":{"origin":334259,"position":1},"title":"Great Leap Backwards: Net-Zero Emission Targets Wrecking Western Civilisation","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/26\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Mao Zedong\u2019s fixation with backyard furnaces was one of the principal causes of the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-61. 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