Regrow Qld 27 April Issue 15 Vol 3
Q+A success, Plant sale on 15 May, Good News on coal and clean energy, Tesla Dream Car Blog, and Greg considers conservative values.
Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
Well there was great excitement in our circles when Q+A came to Gladstone last week, and our members were very busy booking in to be in the audience and writing questions.
It’s a very competitive process, but we were thrilled to have one our members get a question in. Carol did a great job, and we are so proud of her. You can watch the whole episode here:
https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2022-21-04/13841444
This was her question:
Good evening. The major parties seem to me to be pussyfooting around the idea of transition to a clean energy economy, with candidates from both sides of politics talking up their support for coal and coal mines. It looks to me as though this is because no-one has the faintest idea of how to go about a fair and viable transition. Now, Germany, for example, is now using 50% renewables with a goal of 100% by 2035. Transition can be done with intelligent planning and goodwill and cooperation of the major stakeholders, such as the unions, big business government and the communities. Why can’t we do something like this at a federal level in Australia?
Personally I would have used stronger language than ‘pussyfooting’ - but I will leave that to your imagination!
Anna
Project Update
We’re very excited to announce that our Community Nursery will hold its first Market stall on Sunday 15 May 2022 at the Gladstone Rotary Markets.
TIME: 7am to 12 noon
VENUE: Tondoon Botanic Gardens, Gladstone
We’d like you to pop down and let us know what plants you are looking for and what other suggestions you may have for the project. We will have available a selection of locally grown native plants from the Gin Gin Landcare Nursery, all of which provide habitat or food for native wildlife.
You can pre-order and pay for your native plants through gladconscouncil@gmail.com - we can access a large selection of native groundcovers, shrubs and trees for bird, butterfly or wildlife habitat at a very reasonable price. We will organise the plants for you and you can arrange collection of your plants at our plant sale on Sunday 15th May.
Good News
Our selection of Good News comes courtesy of Future Crunch - Good news delivered free to your inbox every fortnight or you can become a paid subscriber.
In more 'Vladimir Putin, Strategic Genius' news, both Japan and the European Union have announced they will be phasing out their imports of Russian coal. That will affect more than a quarter of all Russian coal exports, amounting to around €8 billion loss of revenue per year for Russia.
Germany's new government just released its 'Easter Agreement,' the most ambitious clean energy target among all industrialised nations. It's the country's biggest energy reform in decades, a new policy that frees up land for clean energy production, speeds up permit procedures, and aims to achieve a 100% renewable power supply by 2035. Deutsche Welle
Up to 75% of the electricity flowing into the Irish grid can now come from variable renewable sources. It's the first national power system in the world to reach this level, overcoming 'major technical challenges' to succesfully integrate electricity from wind farms, solar farms and interconnectors linking it with other countries. ReNews
Tesla Dream Car blog #29
Arthur Hunt
Editor’s note: this article was written in 2021
One of the main questions that seems to concern prospective buyers of an electric car is how it would be charged. After more than 12 months of ownership, I can assure readers that this is almost a non-issue and, in fact, my wife and I appreciate that we do not need to visit a service station for fuel any more. When our car was delivered, it came with a charger that had to be installed and also a cable to connect to a power point. While waiting for an electrician to install the charger, we coped with trickle charging the car from a power point at 2kW.
The electrician had to make some modifications to our meter box, install wiring from the box to the garage and connect the charger. Ergon Energy, at no cost, replaced our existing meter and installed a new one for the car so that the charger is connected to Tariff 33 which is cheaper than Tariff 11, the usual household tariff. Our monthly bill for energy for the car averages about $45 for 1200 km which is significantly cheaper than for a petrol or diesel car. Some people use free rooftop solar power. We generally set the charge level to 80% of capacity which preserves battery life. It takes about 5 hours to charge overnight which is no problem. For car owners living in an apartment, chargers can be supplied and connected to the building power supply with the charging cost debited to each car owner separately. So, living in an apartment building should not be a bar to owning an electric car.
When planning a long trip, we consult the Plugshare mobile phone app which shows location and details of chargers all over Australia. The app shows public highway chargers and destination chargers installed by hotels, motels and shopping centres. It also shows chargers at the homes of car owners who are willing to share with other drivers. The capacity of the chargers can vary from modest 2 kW wall chargers, 8 kW 3-phase outlets, 22 kW motel chargers, 50 kW highway chargers, to 250 kW superchargers. The slow ones are suitable for overnight use, but the fastest ones will charge the car while we get a cup of coffee. On the app, it is possible to tap on each charger icon to show the type. If you then tap on the type, you get more details including comments and reports from users. Readers are encouraged to try this to understand the EV touring experience.
The Tesla superchargers offer a marketing advantage as they are designed specifically for Tesla vehicles. But there is a higher cost for fast charging – up to 50c/kWh. The location of Tesla superchargers is shown in the car GPS system. Another mobile phone app called A Better Route Planner will calculate the charging status and charging times to plan a journey which may involve a number of chargers. However, I have not found it necessary.
We were able to travel to Melbourne and back without any difficulty using a variety of charger types. Before leaving we downloaded the Chargefox app and registered our credit card, as most public chargers are linked to the Chargefox network. We used our mobile phone to turn on those chargers and the cost, usually about $5, was debited to our credit card. With few electric cars on the road so far, we found vacant chargers at all locations on our interstate trip, except one where we had to queue. Expert predictions about the likely increase in electric car numbers indicate that many more chargers will be needed in future. In the USA, President Biden has promised 500,000. There is already one location with 64 chargers.
When booking accommodation, we looked for motels that offered free charging. This will become an important competitive advantage in future. Do you remember when motels first advertised STD phones in every room and then free wifi? We are now planning a trip to Cooktown later in the year and do not expect any charging problems. We are looking forward to following the North Queensland Electric Vehicle Drive which provides 7kW chargers at six major tourist attractions. When will we have a Central Queensland Drive?
Arthur
Opinion
Greg Bray
Conservative Values
Folks, I have to grudgingly admit there was one thing I respected about John Howard.
Don’t panic! I’m still taking the pills…
Like Paul Keating, I’m never going to be a member of the ‘I Love Johnny!’ fan club, because there was a lot about Australia’s 25th Prime Minister not to like.
But, he did have enough tattered shreds of conscience to remove Pauline Hanson from his party when she made outrageous statements about Aboriginals in 1995 (although he was very happy to harvest any votes she flung his way after starting One Nation).
To his credit, he continued to stick to his Ministerial Standards, and eleven more of his ministers were stunned to be slung out for breaches of the code during his reign of blandness.
Suddenly, it wasn’t ok to fiddle travel expenses, fiddle accommodation expenses, fiddle with a staffer, own shares in a company you voted to give government contracts too, and so on.
Today, breaches which would have got you dumped from Howards’ cabinet faster than a crappy nappy, are now scoffed at by our current PM.
Obviously, no current minister would get off ‘Scott Free’ if they were filmed murdering someone in cold blood on national TV… probably. But it’s clear all other ministerial transgressions will be viewed through a very blind eye indeed.
So, I was a bit surprised last week when someone defrosted the 82-year-old ex-PM and wheeled him out to campaign for Scott Morrison. Howard, the last LNP PM to have anything resembling ethics, is now shuffling about on the hustings for, arguably, the most corrupt, lying, rorting government in recent history.
Mind you, Scotty was hardly going to ask ex-PM’s, Tony ‘Onions’ Abbot and Malcom ‘I’m ambitious for my leader’ Turnbull for their unwavering support. They’re probably tied up in some dank, Sydney basement at the moment.
Anyway, Johnny, released, blinking in the sunlight, got off to a good start by not repeatedly kicking Anthony Albanese in the crotch for stumbling over some irrelevant statistic.
Then he booted into the small ‘L’ Liberals who, appalled at the antics of their own party, but unable to vote Labor even if their lives depended on it, have turned to the ‘Teal’, conservative, independents.
Since Johnny labelled them ‘anti-Liberal groupies’ their membership numbers have shot up faster than a line of coke in a millionaire’s kitchen. Clearly to the alarm of many LNP ministers who are now in danger of losing their seats, and their place in the taxpayer trough.
I’m not happy that Scotty, the marketing genius, has resurrected the old fossil to campaign for him, but it warms my heart to be reminded of a quaint old time when Australia’s Prime Minister had enough integrity to sling wrongdoers from office.
John Howard might have grudgingly done the right thing, and I grudgingly respect him for that.
Oh Greg‼️ You’re the best‼️ Love your sense of humour ‼️🤣🤣🤣👍