The Convenient Untruths
The major parties are committed to protecting the coal industry. They have resorted to propagating scientifically unsupportable myths like “coal can be clean” and “nuclear power can be safe”.
Clean coal is based on the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal. It remains unproven in commercial-scale application and thus no one can say with certainty that it will work or be affordable. Cost estimates vary widely, from $10 to bury a tonne of CO2 to $140/tonne, the latter representing a massive increase in the price of electricity. Further, suitable geological sites for burial are severely limited and the risk of leakage of buried carbon dioxide could result in an environmental disaster.
Al Gore refers to climate change as an “Inconvenient Truth”. The idea that so-called clean coal technologies are an appropriate mitigation response could be called a “Convenient Untruth”. By creating the impression that coal can be environmentally friendly, the proponents are taking the heat out of the political pressure to reduce coal combustion. It is significant that the lowest cost estimates are coming from people with direct connections to the coal industry that stands to continue to make huge profits while Australia fails to reduce its dependency on coal.
Australia’s born-again nuclear power debate is similarly a distraction from the main task of reducing emissions. There are good and well rehearsed arguments for rejecting nuclear power, including: the intractable and long-lived health impacts and costs of storing nuclear waste, the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation, accidents, costs, delays and the severely limited contribution that current generation nuclear technologies could make to reducing greenhouse emissions.
None of these has deterred Canberra’s nuclear devotees. The Prime Ministerial Taskforce into Australia’s nuclear future is more like a show trial than an open and honest investigation. Australia’s nuclear debate has become an opportunity for the uranium mining industry, the Dr Strangelove advocates of a nuclear weapons program and the coal industry to rescue their own interests.
Meanwhile the vision of a jobs-rich, clean energy future is being frustrated and undermined.
For more information:
"Keeping the lead out of the plumbing system: Ways to win Australia’s nuclear debate" Click here for Greens' Upper House Candidate John Kaye outlining the arguments against nuclear power.
"Nuclear energy: Is it the answer for anything?" Click here for Greens' Upper House Candidate John Kaye describing the politics of nuclear power.
