Category Archives: biofuel
Katter calls for more truck drivers to help sugar mills and farmers get the cane crop off
Importing overseas drivers a possibility
THE NORTHERN sugar season is turning sour as trucks lay in idle at the Mossman Sugar mill, reeling from a mass driver shortage, Kennedy MP, Bob Katter says.
Each sugar season, cane growers race the wet season to harvest and haul their crop to the mills, but in the Mossman, Mareeba and wider Atherton Tableland region of North Queensland, the clock is ticking while truck drivers are poached to the mines in southern parts of the state.
Mr Katter said, “Critical labour shortages have now reached our cane growers and truckies. We were contacted by the head of the Mossman Sugar Mill who said they were desperate for drivers.
“We have come to the conclusion that if we aren’t able to get a workforce in Australia to do these essential jobs, then we will enter into discussions with Government to get migrants in to do the jobs.
“We didn’t want to do that with farming, but we were left no choice and now we have the Pacific Island Labour Scheme (PALM) in place.”
Mr Katter said, “Just last week we submitted a comprehensive report detailing critical labour shortages across the electorate and provided numerous recommendations to address these shortages.
“Conversations have been held with the Minister for Employment, and will continue until we can get a fair go for our regional, rural and remote areas.”
Bronwyn Dwyer, Chief Executive Officer of Far Northern Milling, says that as the operator of the Mossman Mill, they are a major employer in the region and that if they are unable to find drivers, they could face significant losses which could have dire consequences on the Mill’s survivability.
“Due to the critical driver shortage and predicted wet weather conditions over the coming months, there is a high probability of standover cane, which could see 10 – 20% of the crop remaining in the paddock unharvested,” Ms Dwyer said.
“Effectively, 2 years income for the growers will be lost from this cane not being harvested. Not only will this severely impact the growers’ bottom line, but that cane doesn’t go through the mill either and so the Mossman Mill, that’s already doing it tough, loses substantial income.”
“Far Northern Milling is the second largest employer in the Douglas Shire region. We have 150 full time employees during the season, and we support 570 external seasonal jobs. Finding truck drivers to get this crop off is critical not only for our industry but for prosperity of our whole community.”
Paul Coveny of Logitrix Management Service manages the transport and logistics of the truck fleet that hauls cane from the farms to the mill. He says he’s lost two drivers in the last seven days to the lucrative mining sector.
“We need ten drivers immediately and another 30 in the coming months,” Mr Coveny said.
“We are competing with the mining sector and we need urgent help to fill these empty seats. The trucks can’t sit in idle for long, because once the weather sets in, that’s it for the season. The clock is well and truly ticking.”
Palmer, Hanson, Katter, Newman go head-to-head from the Gold Coast in Paul Murray’s Live Pub Test
United Australia Party chairman Clive Palmer, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, firebrand independent federal MP Bob Katter and Liberal Democrats senate candidate Campbell Newman have partaken in Paul Murray’s Live Pub Test.
They passed with flying colours.
These figureheads are four of Australia’s most colourful figures and have gone head-to-head in Paul Murray Live’s The Pub Test which put them in front of a live audience in an unscripted and televised Q&A format.
United Australia Party chairman Clive Palmer, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, firebrand independent federal MP Bob Katter and Liberal Democrats senate candidate Campbell Newman answered questions from voters in the forum hosted by Sky News Australia’s Paul Murray.
Following the debate and Q&A, Murray was joined for analysis by Sky News Queensland Editor Peter Gleeson, Courier Mail editor Chris Jones and Senator Amanda Stoker.
“I’m thrilled to be announcing our ‘Paul Murray Live Pub Test: The Mavericks’ episode,” Murray said.#
Cairns News strongly supports these independent party leaders being the best of a bad bunch. We would also add Riccardo Bosi to this group and urge readers to get this video to everybody they know. Under no circumstances vote for LNP, Labor or Greens.
Be careful of ‘independents’ read story in Cairns News about Climate 200 supported candidates.
https://www.climate200.com.au/candidates
Watch out for GetUp and voter fraud. There is a story coming.
Greenpeace co-founder Dr Patrick Moore says we need much more CO2 in the atmosphere
by Terry Schulze
I was fascinated by Patrick Moore’s comment about CO2 at 150 ppm and how the plants would die. I went and did some research and sure enough he’s right. Here’s a bit from my research –
Atmospheric CO2 is not alarmingly high, it is too low for optimal plant growth and alarmingly low for the survival of carbon-based terrestrial life. The real danger is not too much CO2 – it is CO2 starvation. Over geologic time, CO2 is ~permanently sequestered in carbonate rocks.
Plants evolved at atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 2000 ppm and greater, and many grow best at about 1200 ppm CO2 – about 3 times current levels. That is why greenhouse operators maintain 1000-1200 ppm CO2 in their greenhouses.
Major food crops (except corn) use the C3 photosynthetic pathway, and die at about 150 ppm from CO2 starvation – that is just 30 ppm below the minimum levels during the last Ice Age, which ended just 10,000 years ago – “the blink of an eye” in geologic time. Earth came that close to a major extinction event.
During one of the next Ice Ages, unless there is massive human intervention, atmospheric CO2 will decline to below 150 ppm and that will be the next major extinction event – not just for a few species but for ~all complex terrestrial carbon-based life forms.
Bullshitter Bill or Sharia Shorten?
Shorten’s energy crisis in the making for Labor
Robert Gottliebsen’s article, in the ‘Australian’, 11/4/19, may force the many potential buyers of EV’s to proceed with caution:
The danger came home to him, when he met up with an affluent, long-time Melbourne acquaintance who lives in a street where there are six Tesla cars. If all six proud Electric Vehicle owners try to charge their EV battery at the same time, the power goes out in the street, because the grid fails – some times, it fails when just three, or four charge at the same time.
You see, our Power Grid is designed to transmit predictable, regular waves of power through it’s wires and transformers. But… suddenly, we began generating large amounts of power from different directions, and much of this is intermittent and based on less predictable sources, such as wind and sunshine. So, instead of being regular waves of electrons travelling in one direction, – choppy electron flows hit the transformers, causing greatly increased operating temperatures.
The power grid has insufficient electricity to charge 600,000 electric cars
You don’t have to be very bright to know that most nights, up to 70% of our population habitually switch on the ‘aircon’, & go to the shower, before cooking the evening meal, (often, while the family are watching TV). The majority of these actions occurs somewhere between 5pm & 10pm, and most rely on power from the grid.
In Bill Shorten’s ‘new green world’, there’ll be yet another task – i.e. Recharging the EV battery in 50% of homes, probably for many hours, after dark.
Statistics reveal, Australian households currently use, on average, approx. 20k/Wt per day. By comparison, a full charge for an electric vehicle battery needs about 60k/Wt – That’s THREE times the normal household consumption. Power Bills could treble.
So, the progression from conventional vehicle to an EV involves :
- a) Buying the pure-electric vehicle ….let’s say, at least $45,000,
- b) Installing a suitable wall-mounted Charger ….let’s say $13,000,
- c) Saving up for the annual Energy Bill – let’s say, an extra $3,000 per annum….
And
- d) Check that there aren’t many EV’s in your street – or you’ll be wasting your money !
That’s a total cost over $60,000…. (the average family may choke on this).
And,
Don’t expect to trade in your old beast – There’ll be thousands of rusty cars everywhere.
Bill says he expects there will be about 600,000 pure electric vehicles on Australian roads by 2030. Yet, the Labor/Greens Alliance are committed to gradually close Coal-Fired Power Stations, the source of most reliable, base-load power.
Bill also says fully subsidised Renewables will provide CHEAPER Energy prices. SURE.
What plan does Bill have to DOUBLE Australia’s electricity supply to enable half the population to regularly charge their Electric Vehicle. Well, BILL hasn’t mentioned it.
THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S PURE FANTASY…..Bullshit Bill can only guarantee Energy Chaos.
Greens determined to have us riding pushbikes and using paraffin lamps
Back to Bolted-Down Industries
by Viv Forbes, Science Writer
Once upon a time Australia was attractive to processing, refining and manufacturing industries using our abundant mineral and food resources, our reliable low-cost coal-fired electricity and a workforce trained in technical skills.
No longer.
Our last oil refinery has closed, leaving just 3 weeks supply of refined motor fuel in the country and for the first time in at least 60 years Australia no longer produces motor vehicles. China and India have about 430 coal power plants under construction but Australia has not built a single coal-fired power station for seven years – some politicians even rejoice when they manage to close and demolish one. Brisbane’s new trains are being made in India, Victa mowers are made in China and most coastal shipping died decades ago. Steel works and refineries producing aluminium, copper and zinc are under stress. All these industries are being pushed overseas by costly unreliable electricity and other government barriers and burdens.
Australia has only three weeks supply of refined fuel available at any time. The ALP, Greens and Liberals have supported closing down of our onshore refineries preferring to import fuel. Australia runs on diesel. The stupid Greens will continue to enforce the collapse of the fossil fuel industry until every citizen is riding a push bike.
Red-green policies being pushed by all major parties are making Australia more dependent on bolted-down industries such as mining and farming that can’t be sent overseas because their basic resources are here. And green opposition to nuclear power increases Aussie reliance on coal.
A century ago Australians relied on wool, wheat, gold, silver, copper, lead-zinc, butter, beef and timber – all products of bolted-down industries.
Red-green policies are pushing us back to those days. Politicians need to remember Newton’s Law of Bureaucracy – whenever the government tries to use the force of law to achieve economic goals the long term results will be equal and opposite to those intended.
So in the long run, red-green energy and environmental policies will make us more dependent on the industries they now attack – mining, farming, forestry and fishing.
Further Reading:
Construction of new coal-fired power plants is increasing in at least 35 countries:
https://climatism.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/world-building-new-coal-plants-faster-than-it-shuts-them/
Asia is returning to Coal:
https://thediplomat.com/2017/02/why-is-asia-returning-to-coal/
Greens Disappointed by Economic Growth:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/11/14/co2-emissions-surge-greens-disappointed-by-economic-growth/
A diesel in the shed
You can have your solar panels
and your turbines on the hills;
You can use the warmth of sunshine
to reduce your heating bills.
You can dream you’re self-sufficient
as you weed your vegie bed;
As long as you make sure to keep
A diesel in the shed.
by Viv Forbes, Science Writer
When I was a kid on a dairy farm in Queensland, we relied on green energy – horses and human muscles provided motive power; fire-wood and beeswax candles supplied heat and light; windmills pumped water and the sun provided solar energy for growing crops, vegies and pastures. The only “non-green” energy used was a bit of kerosene for the kitchen lamp, and petrol for a small Ford utility.
Our life changed dramatically when we put a diesel in the dairy shed. This single-cylinder engine drove the milking machines, the cream separator and an electricity generator, which charged 16 lead-acid 2 volt batteries sitting on the veranda. This 32 volt DC system powered a modern marvel – bright light, at any time, in every room, at the touch of a switch.
As the looney Greens and Labor demolish clean coal-fired power stations, soon the only reliable source of electricity will be your own generator
There were no electric self-starters for diesels in those days – just a heavy crank handle. But all that effort, noise and fumes were superseded when every house and dairy got connected to clean silent “coal power by wire”. Suddenly the trusty “Southern Cross” diesel engines disappeared from Australian sheds and dairies.
In just one life-time, candles and kerosene were replaced by diesel, which was then replaced by clean silent ever-ready electricity.
Today, after Aussies have enjoyed decades of abundant reliable cheap electricity from coal, green energy gambling has taken Australia back to the era which kept a diesel in the shed.
Tasmania is the greenest state in Australia. It once had a vibrant economy that created mines, saw-mills, farms, orchards, oil and metal refineries, dams, hydro-power and railways. It is now a green no-go land. Greens have stopped new hydro developments, opposed mining, crippled the timber industry, prevented new wood-chip developments and will probably celebrate when their last refinery closes.
Tasmanians get their electricity mainly from hydro assets created long ago by their more productive ancestors. But recently a long drought caused a shortage of Tasmanian hydro-energy – they became reliant for up to 40% of their electricity needs on the Bass-link undersea cable bringing electricity from reliable coal-fired stations in Victoria and NSW. However the overloaded Bass Link cable failed, and an old gas-powered station was brought back into service (importing gas from Victoria) to keep the lights on. Subsequently their politicians hurriedly put 150 diesel generators in their shed (costing A$11 million per month).
South Australia is the next greenest state in Australia, hosting about 35% of Australia’s wind turbines. These were force-fed into existence by mandatory green energy targets and tax benefits. In a burst of green destruction they also closed their gas-fired power stations and demolished their coal-fired station. However wind power failed recently and a storm tore down their life-line bringing reliable coal power from Victoria. Now Premier Weatherill is planning to install up to 200 megawatts of diesel generators in his shed. Many residents are following his lead.
As some wag said: Question: “What did South Australians have before candles?” Answer: “Electricity”.
The UK has been badly infected by the green energy virus. Engineers warned that this intermittent and unpredictable supply had increased the risk of blackouts, so the UK government offered subsidies for emergency backup power. This subsidy, plus consumer concerns, put so many diesels in British sheds that they now provide a major backup capacity for UK electricity.
Many Spaniards found a diesel in the shed was very profitable. Their government had been drinking green-ale and offered attractive subsidies for solar power produced. The subsidy was very successful – so successful that someone eventually noticed that some suppliers were even producing “solar” power at night. It was coming from diesels in their sheds.
Finally, our green media likes to feature some green energy enthusiast who is “off the grid”. But it usually emerges later in the show that there is a diesel in their shed too.
Those who remember the days of relying on a noisy smelly diesel in the shed have no wish to be dragged back there by green zealots.
Biofuels pilot plant for Gladstone a big win for Queensland
Bob Katter
The Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter believes the $16 million biofuels pilot plant announced yesterday in Gladstone is a big win for Queensland.
Southern Oil Refining is the NSW-based company behind the plant which has the potential to expand to a $150 million commercial-scale refinery with the capacity to produce 200 million litres of fuel per year.
The initiative aligns with the long established policy of KAP to create a biofuels industry in Queensland.
“The announcement of $16 million for the diesel-from-fibre plant at Gladstone is very big news for North Queensland,” said Mr Katter.
“I think most of us are scared that public money is going into new technologies but very big commercial money has also gone into this, indicating that large commercial players take this project seriously.”
“KAP would like to thank its Queensland MPs, Robbie Katter and Shane Knuth. Their contribution was small but it was significant.”
Mr Katter pointed out that this kind of initiative is linked to the future of development in the North West,
“If we were to do this kind of thing in Cloncurry, and we’ve already had discussions with the new Mayor of Cloncurry about the project, and similarly at Hughenden, onsite production of diesel would be a massive boost for the mining industry. The really big benefit would be to Richmond.”
“In the case of onsite produced diesel, the mines, the railways, the livestock and banana haulage… you’d only have to contact 20 or 30 of these industry actors before you’d have a market.”
But Mr Katter also pointed out the incongruity of the Australian Government’s current methodology to fuel procurement.
“This plant proves the total incompetence of the ALP and LNP Federal Governments that we’re sending $23 billion a year to the Middle East to buy petrol. That $23 billion should be going into rural Australia and specifically regional North Queensland to develop this kind of industry.”
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