By Jo Nova
Coal is not and never was a stranded asset
Such is the demand for electricity, Donald Trump wants every reliable generator he can get.
One coal plant in Colorado was a week away from closure on Dec 31, when Donald Trump pulled it back from the brink:
Colorado’s coal plant closures and clean air policies go too far, Trump’s EPA says while rejecting plans
In December, President Donald Trump’s Department of Energy issued an emergency order demanding that Tri-State Generation’s Craig Unit 1 coal plant stay open past the long-planned Dec. 31 shuttering date. Tri-State is now fixing broken parts at the plant, which it had previously not planned to do given the closure, and will bring it back online. The co-op generator says it has not heard any plan on who will pay the up to $80 million annual cost of running the plant in 2026.
The EPA on Friday cited the Department of Energy’s emergency action in calling out Colorado. “These plants are vital to delivering reliable and affordable energy to Colorado families and meeting the surging national energy demand,” the EPA announcement said.
The Colorado governor was not happy. And nor were The Blob NGOs — one spokesman at Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office accused Trump, of all things, of being ‘ideological’.
The pace of ’emergency coal rescues’ is quickening:
By November, Chris Wright, the US Secretary of Energy, had stepped in three times to keep coal plants running, but in December, the pace quickened. Wright not only saved the Colorado plant, but also ordered a coal plant in Washington, and two plants in Indiana to keep running.
Trump Keeps Several U.S. Coal Plants Running, Defying ‘End of Coal’ Predictions
By Kevin Killough, ClimateChangeDespatch
Under federal law, the Energy Secretary has the authority when an emergency exists, including a shortage of electricity, to make temporary orders regarding electricity infrastructure to address the emergency.
On Dec. 17, Wright ordered the last coal power plant in Washington to remain operational. It was slated for retirement at the end of last month.
On Christmas Eve, Wright also blocked the closure of two coal-fired power plants in Indiana, which were to be shuttered the following week.
Even DeSmog has noticed
Joe Fassler at DeSmog had already tallied up 15 coal plants whose lives had been extended in the USA since Donald Trump was elected, though he admits this was also driven by AI, and data centre demand.
Trump made a promise to revive the US Coal industry and to End the War on Coal.
“Keeping this coal plant online will ensure Americans maintain an affordable, reliable, and secure supply of electricity. The Trump administration is committed to lowering energy costs and keeping American families safe,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.
If only the Australian government could say the same…
Photo: Dave Johnson
I wish we had a leader who cares like TRUMP.
Come to think of it, we don’t even have a leader, or anyone likely to become one.
(One Nation are good, but no PM candidate as yet.)
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That’s my guy🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
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“The co-op generator says it has not heard any plan on who will pay the up to $80 million annual cost”.
The co-op needs new management. Somebody who does know that it will be paid from the sale of electricity.
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Another curious feature of Australia’s self-destruction of its energy supply is the fanatical urgency with which the power stations must be destroyed, starting almost the next day after closure as was done with Hazelwood. A sensible thing might have been to mothball such power stations. (“Common” sense is rare in Australia these days, not common at all.)
It makes no sense.
It’s almost as though the incompetents or evil doers (pick one or both) who run Australia were deliberately trying to destroy it.
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Also recall the bizarre media spectacle of the Government of South Australia blowing up the Northern Power Station, Port Augusta.
They did it as though they were destroying something evil and claiming it was good thing.
What further proof is needed that Australia is run by ignorant, mal-educated, fanatical Luddites? With similar people voting for such Governments.
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I took some photos of it, while as a scrap heap in Pt. Pirie, it waited to be loaded onto a boat that would take it to China to be melted down.
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Melted down – and turned into another Chinese power station…
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David, I venture to guess it was melted down and sold back to us as a Windmill
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David. These Labor governments are not working for Australia. They are working for the CCP and their aim is to destroy the Australia we know and replace it with a Venezuela type S**t hole. I cannot point to one policy or action taken by any Labor government in this country that was beneficial to us but there are many that benefit the CCP. Judge them by what they do not what they say. In the case of Jew hatred judge them by what they didn’t do.
I went home to Denman during the week. Along the Golden Highway corners are being widened so that turbine blades can be transported to new wind projects. A good opposition would warn the project owners that when elected the subsidies would be withdrawn. That should stop them dead.
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Well, when the people in charge have the same fanatical ideology outlook as the “righteous” Witch burning authorities of centuries ago, we shouldn’t be surprised when they display glee at destroying something useful that they see as evil.
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Unfortunately, it does make sense from the Bowen viewpoint.
Without constant nasty regulations and legislation up the clacker, intelligent hesitation in closing generators of reliable, dispatchable power will persist for many decades.
As it stands, Bowen is paying Hunter and Lithgow Valley coal generators to stay operational while keeping the details of this from the public gaze.
In my quite long life (I avoided Menzies’ Vietnam lottery virtue of being born 6 months earlier than the limit) there are no Govts that I’ve never wished to see the end of but patiently rode them out. Voting mattered then.
With the Elbow Govt though, I genuinely want it gone NOW ! It is truly nastily destructive.
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I think Bowen’s viewpoint can’t last very long at all. It may not even make it to the Royal Commission.
1. Surely after the Bondi massacre no government could survive which had facilitated that event, which this government must stand accused of.
2.On that matter and others also, this government displayed scorn of the Trump administration. For that Trump would be saving a penalty, and when he brings it to bear we will feel it.
3. There is no honour among thieves. At the first sign of sh** hitting the f** this government will devour itself.
Where will that leave us?
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I’ll bet Hazelwood was still warm when they knocked it over.
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South Australia quickly demolished the coal fired power stations there to ensure that if there was a change of state government they could not be re-commissioned.
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The UK too – under both pretend Conservatives, and now under the U-TUrn King, SUr StUrmUr – has also been pretty prompt in destroying coal power stations [of which we have none now left].
Not ‘the next day’, but within a few months – almost utterly unprecedented in the current ‘Government by Stasis’ where it takes years to approve a railway station ….
Our Malignant Mr. Miliband would like, also, to actually salt the sites, to ‘prevent anything’ being built there, but the UK is almost out of salt manufactories, too.
This –
https://x.com/EdConwaySky/status/2012087239162155448
Referenced at =
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/the-uk-is-losing-the-industry-that-makes-everything/
gives much background information.
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Coal is the most polluting and inefficient of all electricity generation technologies, which is why use has been declining over recent decades. Trump’s continued interference in markets are counter-productive and economically destroying. Tariff protection is economic madness. Let the market decide.
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Solar is the most polluting and inefficient of ALL electricity generation technologies when its life cycle and full system’s cost is considered. On the plus side it ruins the woke by destroying their source of funding. Its a virus that consumes its host.
The USA is booming. The trade deficit cut in half. Even as California goes broke and runs out of gasoline while awash with oil, a competition with Victoria.
Meanwhile in Australia we still believe in the magic pudding of debt. The average person cannot afford a house or a family and has no prospect of a well paid job outside of government. We are ruined and await the end point while attaining PhDs in indigenous wealthfare.
No doubt the government and Simon will “save us”. The art of dreaming more important than doing.
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Geoff,
Looked like a brilliant typo, but first used 1923:
wealthfare: (n.) Welfare or other financial aid or assistance that benefits the rich or upper class.Very handy word. Thanks.
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Robert, how did you get courier fixed pitch font to display? I though that feature was removed.
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By using code tags: <code>monospace blether</code> =>
monospace bletherSomething for the site maintainers to look into: the You can use these HTML tags help link for posting comments doesn’t link to anything helpful. That’s where tags, overstrike, etc., should be covered.
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Thanks Robert.
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Thanks for correcting Simon Geoff. You are 100% correct. Added to this, solar requires continual backup storage, usually short-lifetime expensive batteries.
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Drax Power Station has entered the chat.
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Well played.
The following from (of all places) The Guardian 9 Aug 2024…
paraphrasing…
Yet “they” still insist and believe that burning biomass is greener and cleaner than coal.
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Alas, if only that had been the case for the last 30 years or so. Unreliables and everready battery powered cars would not have got off the ground.
So yeah.
Unfortunately idealogically driven governments have destroyed the free market.
…And now they want to destroy free speech.
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Exactly, take away the subsidies and let the market decide.
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Simon, surely you are a CPP BOT or something? If you’re an actual person it’s very disturbing that you are allow to walk free among the population, although, you’re certainly not alone in your delusion.
Please explain how you came to the belief that Coal is the MOST inefficient of all electricity generation technologies?
The same high energy density fuel that can provide power 24/7 for weeks, months at a time regardless of weather conditions or if its day or night that first world nations have relied on for decades.
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Indeed, do let the market decide.
Stop all forms of subsidy and cash incentives to all types of electricity generation on 30 June this year. The market can then decide.
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Simon: “Coal is the most polluting and inefficient of all electricity generation technologies”
1. support your claim with references.
2. Fact: Modern steam plant efficiencies average about 40%. Combined cycle gas plants about 60%. Supercritical plants about 45%. HELE plants around 50%. https://visualizingenergy.org/power-plant-efficiency-since-1900/ Their capacity factor is around 90%. So the effective efficiency is 0.9 x 0.5 (avg) = 45%.
3. Fact: Solar panels average around 15 to 24% efficiency. https://www.igs.com/energy-resource-center/energy-101/solar-panel-efficiency. Solar has a capacity factor of about 20%. So its effective efficiency is 0.2 x 0.22 = 4.4%.
4. Fact: LCOE is a model that presumes that a power plant of some capacity is going to be constructed at a single location. So the only deciding factor is what generation method is most economically advantageous at that single location. All the infrastructure, transmission lines, etc, were going to be built anyway, so is gas, coal, or nuclear the most economical at that location.
5. FACT: Solar/wind require MANY transmission lines from MANY locations to produce the same generation that LCOE models from a SINGLE location. So, LCOE is NOT a rational comparison. FSCLCOE, or Full System Cost LCOE, that accounts for the cost DIFFERENCES is the ONLY way to compare various sorts of generation. And, the solar/wind generators do NOT amortize the costs at 90% capacity factor, but rather at about 25% average combined capacity factor, so the transmission lines are underutilized 75% of the time, so the cost of transmission lines for S/W are 4 times as costly as a gas/coal/nuclear plant for the same generation capacity.
6. Fact: Steam/thermal generators (Coal/gas/nuclear) are DISPATCHABLE. They can be scheduled, commanded, and reliably integrated into the grid. Solar/wind cannot.
7. Fact: Solar and wind generation REQUIRE thermal power plant backup, in real time, to support their unpredictable output. Prioritizing solar/wind CAUSES inefficiency in gas/coal/nuclear plants by requiring them to ramp up and down to accept less reliable power.
8. Fact: Thermal generators have INERTIA. ALL of their alternators are electromechanically synchronized in real time by virtue of their magnetic field coupling at frequency. The entire mass of ALL of the turbines and alternators are combined, providing instantaneous stability to the connected grid. Solar/wind “follow the thermal plant frequency”. Thermal plants “follow the load”. So, solar/wind are 2 steps in time behind the actual load. Even synthesized inertia in some inverters can be critical seconds or minutes behind actual load, and are thus not reliable instantaneous sources.
So tell us all : How in the World can you claim that Coal is the “least efficient” generator? Very curious to see your sources.
Your claims are so outlandish as to be laughable. Stable, reliable, dispatchable power, at frequency , at voltage, is the goal. Unless the goal is ideology and not reality.
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Another important factor ignored by the proponents of wind and solar is the cost of disposal and replacement of defunct solar panels and windmills in less than a generation. Furthermore, solar panels contain many toxic elements/compounds which far exceed any ‘pollution’ from modern coal-fired power stations.
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An excellent summary, backed by solid engineering references and data.
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Well said Lance. Also worth noting is hydro is the most efficient source for power generation at around 94% and importantly is dispatchable as well. It just doesn’t make sense in this day and age to be replacing coal fired power with alternatives that have half the economic life and less than half the efficiency of what they are replacing.
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LOL.
The government has been interfering in the market for years!
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Blackout Bowen and the Marxists are the ones that don;t believe in a Free Market Economy. Hence all the Subsidies to the ‘Ruinables’.
Reality meets with Ideology and Reality will win with existing Coal Plants being upgraded with new HELE Plants needing to be built.
‘Ruinables’ cannot provide a secure, reliable and cost effective Electricity Grid. And Batteries cannot fill the yawning Gap when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind does not blow.
A Coal Fired Electricity Plant provides the required inertia for free as a by product of generating electricity.
Blackout Bowen is all about “Electrickery”.
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A now retired engineer who was involved in nuclear reactors and nuclear power stations recently commented that China has already changed the plans for two coal fired power stations and have installed nuclear reactors instead of the coal heated boiler system, and with a new gearing system to control the electricity generators. Apparently successful conversion and China has plans to build more.
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You can make the clean , The Dutch people did it but of no help It must go down in favor of green energy ; in beteween the Dutch energy system has become a nightmare
https://support.theguardian.com/eu/guardian-ad-lite?returnAddress=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Fsep%2F23%2Fdutch-parliament-votes-to-close-down-countrys-coal-industry
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Ultra SuperCritical coal fired powers plants are the most efficient, less polluting sources of power; apart from sodium cooled Natrium nuclear reactors.
Your comment makes no sense.
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Remind we why Australia is shutting down its power supply when a much more advanced industrial country (in terms of industrial capacity), China, is allowed to build two coal power stations per week and has no CO2 emissions limits?
And is it a coincidence that so many of our politicians and ex-politcians are enamoured with China and even have business relationships with them? Mmmm…
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Coal usage is declining in both China and India.
https://cleantechnica.com/2026/01/14/coal-powered-thermal-generation-declines-in-china-india-but-surges-in-us/
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Lower coal use is a good thing. The new coal-fired power stations are more efficient. Means they can go on burning existing coal reserves for centuries more.
Now address what David Maddison said about China’s rate of coal-fired power station construction versus our knocking them down. Seems quite important.
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HELE Boilers run at high pressure and temperature. They require high value thermal coal to run. That means low ash and sulphur content found in Chinese and Indian coals.
China and India will import thermal coal from Indonesia. Indonesia is experiencing a coal export boom. Australia has regulated itself into a debt poverty trap.
The good news is many state governments are on the verge of bankruptcy and will be forced back to the coal mines.
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” The good news is many state governments are on the verge of bankruptcy and will be forced back to the coal mines.”
If we could only get the Grubbnmnt personnel, including the un-elected bureaucrats, to WORK IN the coal mines.
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“If we could only get the Grubbnmnt personnel, including the un-elected bureaucrats, to WORK IN the coal mines.”
I wonder if your Civil Serpents, etc., like most of those here, are somewhat unused to ‘working’.
In the office one day a week [if they have to], and some getting fired for pretending to work.
Indeed.
I wonder if many of them would recognise ‘work’ if it slapped them with a wet fish.
Let alone down a coal mine!
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If true, a very slight temporary decrease.
And much of that slight decrease may be due to them building more fuel-efficient ultra-supercritical coal plant which might be up to 47% more fuel efficient than standard coal plant.
They are still building two coal power stations per week.
And unlike disposable wind and solar plantations with short lives, coal plant remains economic for 50 years plus. (Except in Australia where they are being rendered uneconomic by Government policy or being destroyed for public entertainment).
Thus, these power stations will continue to consume vast amounts of coal and pump out wonderful, life-giving CO2 for at least the next half century.
As the world’s largest industrial country, they need reliable coal, gas, nuclear or real hydro (not SH2) power. It’s simply not possible to run industry on random, expensive “renewables”.
Their supposed “commitment” to renewables is just for virtue signaling. It would look silly if they are encouraging others to use expensive, destructive renewables which they sell to stupid countries like Australia, if they weren’t pretending to use them themselves, wouldn’t it?
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It is true that China is building more Coal fired generation. In that context I don’t grok how it is that their nett generation of electricity fell. Too many cups in this shell game and it doesn’t add up. Simon happily publishes an article that claims a tiny percentage fall in generation as a coup, while trusting any and all information that falls his way as it comes out of China, the most trustworthy Country on the Planet (sarc /off). At the least there is something wrong with the Math, and his studious and wilful ignorance of that fact speaqks volumes regarding his integrity. Sheer wickedness.
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This story was invented by Carbon Brief.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-coal-power-drops-in-china-and-india-for-first-time-in-52-years-after-clean-energy-records/
The author has put in data sources, but something still smells fishy. China and India might be in cahoots to reduce their carbon footprints, to curry favour with Europe.
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It IS fishy. Need to wait until China releases its ACTUAL figures for the whole of 2025. I believe that will show an entirely different story.
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Rubbish Simon. Need to look at the actual Chinese’s reports from their govt agencies such as CREA, not biased sites. In August 2025, CREA reported that China commissioned 21 GW of new coal power, the highest amount. They also projected that by the end of 2025, China would commission more than 80GW of new coal power. When the official figures for 2025 are released by the Chinese govt, you may be in for a surprise.
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These links will help, per your reference to CREA.
This shows some graphs of project status. Stages of coal fired generation capacity as commissioned, construction started, permitted, new project started/re-activated.
It also shows how much capacity has been retired. It’s the last graph with the tiny blips. As in not much being retired vs the other graphs showing more commissioned / started etc.
https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/chinas-coal-is-losing-ground-but-not-letting-go/
The link is titled coal losing ground. But that’s just in terms of percentage of generation capacity. It’s not losing ground in terms of coal now having less generation capacity than it did.
There’s this report
https://globalenergymonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CREA_GEM_China_Coal-power_H1-2025.pdf
Which speaks of increased renewables capacity and that coal’s contribution to generation has fallen to 51%. But clearly states that “coal capacity continues to rise”.
Coal contributes 51% of generation but is only 34% of capacity. Which highlights the ability of coal to generate, and the inability of renewables to operate near capacity. Of course, the renewables includes Hydro which is quite reliable and the largest portion of their renewables. Which further highlights that the wind and solar portion of the renewables is really holding back renewables as an output vs capacity.
(Haven’t looked at the India side of things, which Simon also referred to.)
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Thanks for the links, but I still believe that with so much extra coal power coming online in 2025, the end-of-year figures will show a different story.
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The links support that. Even if the percentage mix ultimately changes.
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No; it’s rate of increase is declining as both nations reach their required amount of nuclear reactors.
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Cobblers.
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/coal/coal-is-still-king-globally/
Coal usage is growing in China, India and Indonesia. Also to a lesser extent in other Asian nations. It doesn’t grow exactly equally every year but the trend is unmistakable.
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The only way to counter this shift is for the Chinese Marxist Australian Labor party to legislate coal mining as illegal, except for export to China. And at half price, as usual.
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I just listened to their loony ABC and because of flooding in a very small area of SW Vic in the Otways they reported some upset person yapping about coal plants causing the flash flood and the fires.
Just unbelievable but true.
But floods and drought deaths etc have decreased by 98% over the last hundred years all around the world. We are incredibly safe today and 2025 was one of the safest years on record.
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People who build houses on sand dunes near the sea don’t seem to realise that the sand was put there by the sea and could be taken away by the sea. People who camp by water courses should also be aware that flash floods are very common and were long before we had coal plants.
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The lesson you should realise is not to listen to the ABC.
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Or the Climate Council NGO that was defunded by the Abbott Government 2014/15
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Fire then Flood. Who’d have thought beyond any engineering type in human history?
Even the Bom issued some flash flooding warnings.
If you want to camp on low-ground next to a creek in Australia then learn how to read a weather map.
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2019 – 2020
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To counter this safe age we live in, self-proclaimed Doctors of Science™️ invent ever-more scary [imaginary] hobgoblin terms to keep the riff-raff quivering in irrational fear: from Breakdown to Boiling to this year’s Darkwaves.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/583850/darkwaves-new-research-sheds-light-on-underwater-phenomenon
As anyone who has observed water knows, it seeks its own level, usually downhill thanks to gravity, yet this quack is making a living (“more research is needed”) describing what every schoolchild knows – or used to.
Rain falls on the mountains, tumbles down rivers to the sea carrying mud, rocks, trees (and occasionally vehicles and/or houses) ever since Noah weighed anchor and the unicorns perished. The sea turns murky brown for a few days then clears as sediment sinks to the bottom: rinse and repeat, the endless cycle…
BUT NO! Now it’s our fault because of that old devil ©️climate change©️. Repent oh ye sinners! Sackcloth & indulgences ($) are your only hope of salvation from fires or floods or famine or fanatical flops.
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A similar event at this location occurred in 1985, but probably not as bad. So the area has a history of these type of situations. The caravan/holiday park is always a disaster waiting to happen anyway. Located on the flats of the river which flows through deep valleys close to its output to the ocean. Probably been happening for eons every 40 years or so. Not unprecedented, not necessarily unusual in terms of time scales. Its just now there lots more media covering it, mostly from peoples phones and social media.
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According to one report I saw on this flood, it has previously happened not so long ago, in the 1980s I think.
The goldfish-length memories of modern Australians is remarkable, especially in the climate disaster-worrier class.
It’s surprising that a previous similar flash flood was even mentioned by even one news report.
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Here’s co2 emissions for the world and then OECD and NON OECD and Australia.
Can anyone tell us how Australia could influence their CC nonsense and by how much we could reduce the Earth’s temp by 2100?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=OWID_WRL~Non-OECD+%28GCP%29~OECD+%28GCP%29~AUS
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How much will it change the earth’s temperature.
How many decimal places do you want?
0.0000 C to 4dp
0.00000000 C to 8 dp
I can be more precise if you want.
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Labor ‘expects’ Australia to be a ‘renewables’ superpower, meaning we’ll be broke, vulnerable and only have power during the daylight hours.
Albo, et al, haven’t considered the amount of energy required to power AI. If Microsoft is looking to restart Long Island Nuclear Power Station for AI requirements, how does Albo expect to power our own AI systems?
The current Labor government are ideologically blind to the realities of the 21st century.
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My question on notice is why geographical location matters for the so called AI.
I can’t see it makes any difference whether the heavy duty computing will be done in Alice Springs, Melbourne, USA, or Indonesia.
To me it is like the giant solar panel and battery farms. They are nothing but arbitrage machines for the well connected.
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They are not even at the level of the 18th century. As soon as Newcomen invented the first commercially viable steam engine in 1712 the world rapidly abandoned wind, animal and human power and water wheels on non-reliable streams.
Socialism regresses, free enterprise progresses.
And I think they misspelled “superpower”, they meant stupidpower.
Labor is regressing us 300+ years.
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Again , here’s all the global death rates from extreme weather events since 1900 and PROVES that we are now living in the safest period in human history.
In 1900 only 1.6 billion at risk.
In 1950 2.5 bn at risk.
In 1960 3 bn at risk.
But in 2025 8.2 bn at risk and yet we have the lowest death rates ever recorded.
And Aussies have very low death rates today. When will they WAKE UP?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/natural-disaster-death-rates?country=Flood~Extreme+weather~Wildfire~Drought~Extreme+temperature
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Neville, unfortunately facts just do not matter to these people, and they never will.
They have an ideological target and nothing is going to shift them from that.
They are quite willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to achieve their goals – even when those goals are not even in their own long term interests.
They are ignorant by choice.
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Again, here’s death rates from fires and burns since 1980 and a huge fall all around the world.
But note that the wealthier countries have the lowest death rates.
Also note that Australia and Spain now have the lowest fire + burns death rates in the world. That’s 0.2 per 100,000 people.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fire-death-rates?tab=line&country=OWID_WRL~OWID_LIC~OWID_HIC~OWID_UMC~OWID_LMC~African+Region+%28WHO%29~AUS
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Ideological? I’d say he’s being sensible. When it comes to the Left, ideology blinds them to actual science and obligates them to unquestionably believe in unreliable sources of energy.
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Was interested in this coal plants generating capacity. Craig 1 unit is 427 MW. There would appear to be 3 Units at this site and total combined of all three is 1285 MW. It’s 50 years old and its footprint is tiny when compared to any RE sites of equivalent capacity. How in any way could anyone say these units aren’t efficient? All that’s closing them down is blind ideology. When Victoria lost Hazelwood the state lost cheap electricity. No doubt about it. All to keep some damn Green politicians in cushy upper house Victorian seats in parliament.
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Victoria didn’t “lose” Hazelwood, idiot Dan killed it.
He took it out behind the woodshed and put a bullet in the back of its head.
Hazelwood was going great guns and just about to undertake a major upgrade when idiot double to the royalties on the fuel it used. There went the money for the upgrade and no bank in its right mind will lend money to a company that could be put out of business tomorrow because of an idiotic arbitrary government decision.
Prior to Hazelwood closing Victoria had excess power generation capacity, enabling surges in extreme weather conditions.
Now Victoria doesn’t produce enough power to keep the lights on without importing from other states.
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A point rarely considered is that the Lease to operate Hazlewood had several years left when the Andrew’s Labor State Government increased the price of brown coal (lignite) being supplied to the power station and effectively that resulted in the business not being profitable for the lease holder.
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As we know, Leftism is full of hypocrisy.
Another example is AI and data centres.
Leftist Governments rely on data centres to monitor, fully trace, track and control people.
And Leftist activists rely on AI, social media (except X), compromised information sources like Wikipedia etc. to propagandise and spread their untruths. (Most AI except Grok is fully woke because it is trained on compromised data sources like Wikipedia and because most Big Tech proprietors and AI trainers except Musk are fully woke themselves.)
And yet data centres and AI need vast amounts of cheap, reliable power so have to use coal, gas, nuclear or hydro.
They leave the expensive unreliables for we non-Elites.
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I live in Maryland, one of the states that the FERC issued an emergency order to keep fossil fueled power plants operating for the next 4 years. This happened about 6-8 months ago. The state has reduced it’s power generation capacity by more than 26% in the last 20 years, primarily by closing coal plants, while demand has been fairly stable. Currently, the state imports more than 42% of the electricity it consumes but the primary exporter to the state is Pennsylvania and with New York, New Jersey and Virginia trying to increase their percentage of renewable energy, Pennsylvania excess power generating capacity is reaching its limits. It is interesting to note that NY, NJ and Va plus all of New England are members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and pay upwards of $25/ton of emissions. PA is not a member.
The power plants getting an extended life is a coal and alternative fossil fuel plant less than 10 miles from where I live. The coal fed part of the plant will only operate during periods of high demand so will have a low capacity factor and high prices for what it generates. In fact it will make as much money operating 10% of the time as it would if it operated 90% of the time so saving the plant won’t help that much with prices.
The states main low carbon power is nuclear with some hydro, a little solar and even less wind. Because the Mid-Atlantic region has many states that cut fossil generation without building dispatchable power or even much renewable generation, we are experiencing 20-30% price rises in power bills that have just arriving in the mail in the past week. The politicians responsible for creating this mess are blaming the power companies while they constrain generation and push expanded use of electricity. I’m glad that the FERC is pushing to keep fossil generation online but unless the state withdraws from the RGGI, I don’t expect much relief in prices anytime soon. Increase dispatchable capacity will likely take 5-10 years.
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Exactly. The operators have to make money on their investment.
If only the politicians and idealogues could understand this.
I’m certain they live in an artificial alternative reality.
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But isn’t capitalism (and private profits) evil?
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…according to progressive professors at many universities.
Schools and universities are little more than “learing” centres for youth indoctrination.
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I’d still like our silly fantasists to explain to us how we can improve on the SH’s co2 NET SINK finding by their CSIRO?
Here’s the quote from their Cape Grim site. See last sentence.
Of course our stupid lefty extremists can’t wait to WASTE TRILLIONs of $ MORE for a guaranteed ZERO return on their so called investment.
“Seasonal variation”
“Carbon dioxide concentrations show seasonal variations (annual cycles) that vary according to global location and altitude. Several processes contribute to carbon dioxide annual cycles: for example, uptake and release of carbon dioxide by terrestrial plants and the oceans, and the transport of carbon dioxide around the globe from source regions (the Northern Hemisphere is a net source of carbon dioxide, the Southern Hemisphere a net sink)”.
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“(the Northern Hemisphere is a net source of carbon dioxide, the Southern Hemisphere a net sink)”.
Both hemispheres absorb CO2.
The annual carbon cycle is a net CO2 absorber. Nature has been a net CO2 absorber for billions of years.
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Powers stations are not about coal,
More they interest the globalist goal,
Spouting CO2 emisssion,
To enforsc climate submission,
And advance their planterary control.
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And the masses will pay the toll…
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Oops, should read Power and enforce……late night wino, not typo.
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The leftists will will angrily claim that 40-60 years old coal power stations cannot be repaired and operating life extended, but will claim that wind turbines are not replaceable by 20-25 years of operation calling that claim is misleading.
sarc.
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I recall that some years ago there was an old coal fired plant in Bavaria (which was said to have produced power when the Kaiser was on the throne). Not sure which but plant was over 90 years old. Only kept as a reserve.
“One notable coal-fired plant in Bavaria that was operational before 1918 is the Kraftwerk Walchensee, although primarily a hydroelectric power station, it has historical significance related to the early power generation landscape in the region. However, a more pertinent example specifically of a coal-fired plant is difficult to find due to limited records purely focused on pre-1918 coal power facilities in Bavaria”.
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There may be three coal power stations in the U.S., built in 1938 and 1940, still operating.
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And lifespan for batteries.
How long does a typical mobile phone battery last? In my experience maybe 3 to 5 years. With power tools you get more, but then I don’t use them every day. Laptop battery … typical is about 5 years.
So if you need battery backup … in the same 50 year lifespan of a coal power station you would go through 10 full sets of batteries. Big cost there.
Yeah, I get it … over the next 50 years costs will no doubt come down, and reliability will improve … but it ain’t there yet.
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