By Jo Nova
What a difference an oil war makes…
Five weeks after it started, suddenly Australians are noticing the bonanza under our feet all along.
That most hated thing, the unthinkable brown coal, could save the day if we would only stop beating it down with blunt sticks and Voodoo dolls.
In 2016 Geoscience Australia estimated we have so much brown coal we could keep burning the deposits we already know about at the current rate for our whole lives, and our children’s lives, and their children’s lives too. We could keep going for 40 generations.
“Australia’s recoverable brown coal EDR did not change during 2016. The majority is located within the Latrobe Valley (Victoria). At 2016 production levels, Australia’s recoverable brown coal EDR is expected to last more than 1000 years.”
We burned it to make electricity all year in 2016 but the total amount was so insignificant no one counting national resources could even notice.
Look at the size of the Gippsland Basin deposit. It’s almost like God has a sense of humour putting all that in there so close to socialist HQ.
https://www.ga.gov.au/aecr2025/coal
Brown coal is the cheapest fuel there is for reliable electricity, bar none, but even more importantly, it can be turned into liquid fuels, which Australia desperately needs for trucks, tractors, and mining gear. We need to be able to pour our energy into a tank at room temperature and pressure, and in five minutes flat.
It’s great to see National Party talking about the thousand-year supply, and also about a new method of turning coal to liquid fuel. Do the Liberals have enough gumption to even follow The Nats?
Australia’s coal and uranium reserves would power Australia “for over 1000 years”, Nationals leader Matt Canavan claims
— By Abisha Sapkota and Nathan Schmidt, The Australian
However, 95 per cent of that energy was “locked up in coal and uranium”, Senator Canavan said. “Two things the Labor Party doesn’t like to use,” he said. “In the short term, we need to use the coal and gas we export to these countries in North Asia as a bargaining chip to get liquid fuels.”
In the medium term, the Nationals are urging for the adoption of “coal to liquids” technology, Senator Canavan said, that would turn coal into liquid fuel.
The Nationals also want to get rid of the SafeGuard mechanism (Hallelujah!)
Introduced in July 2023 and reformed in 2023, the [Safeguard] policy requires facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide to keep net emissions below set limits. It’s a policy to assist Australia to reach net zero by 2050.
“Refineries are covered by the safeguard mechanism, which is designed to put refineries out of business,” [Matt Canavan] said. “OK, that’s what it’s there for, so get rid of that.”
David Archibald has been pointing out the benefits and ways to do coal-to-liquid programs for more than ten years.
There are two choices in coal liquefaction processes: Bergius and Fischer-Tropsch, both invented in Germany in the 1910s. In the Bergius process, hydrogen is forced into coal molecules at a temperature of 450˚C and a pressure of 170 kg/cm2 (165 atmospheres or 2,420 psi). The Fischer-Tropsch process burns coal in pure oxygen to produce a synthesis gas that is catalysed to long chain hydrocarbons in an oil bath. Bergius is the better process. In WW2, German synthetic fuel production was dominantly via the Bergius process…
For self-sufficiency in liquid fuels, we need 33 Bergius plants producing 30,000 barrels per day at a cost of $4.6 billion per plant for a total outlay of $152 billion. Somehow we have run up a national debt of $1 trillion in the last 25 years and have nothing to show for it. Building the coal liquefaction plants we need will be an enormous benefit by comparison. We can do it.
Bergius plants are the near-term solution. Longer term it will always be nuclear…
Finally, we see a few key topics hitting the media. Things that should have been discussed 10 years ago.
Brown coal could fill an awesome gap in our national energy profile. Imagine we could make all the diesel, jet fuel and petrol we needed yet we were not doing it because we were afraid of 0.0001% more beach-weather a century from now?
China is already converting 400 million tons of coal each year and we’re afraid to copy that because some teenage girls will cry?
Related posts
Inflation be damned: Brown coal power is just 1c per kilowatt hour in 2024
Commonsense is in very short supply in Canberra.
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And with the remainder of the 34% that put them in.
You know the old saying, “Common Sense ain’t very Common.”
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FWIW
The refrain to John Prine’s “Common Sense” –
“It don’t make no sense that common sense don’t make no sense no more”
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Yep; no sense at all. Albo said this: The future is solar panels on your roof charging your electric vehicle for free overnight.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UFOp0MpKAfA
The resources map may have underestimated the Arckaringa Basin reserves:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/9822955/Trillions-of-dollars-worth-of-oil-found-in-Australian-outback.html?fbclid=IwAR3sbxODtg8Jhb1ZR-EjZBasqSXPYRrsty74r6KS1pMndZIuOK1wN_gNZ5I
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It has been observed that today uncommon sense is in the minority
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Not very common elsewhere either.
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In 1988 Al Gore told the US Congress that CO2 was pollution, the antithesis of life, the great curse which would kill us all. He lied. Heir to a tobacco business, a footballer, he had no science at all. And now a billionaire and former Vice President, he continues the lie which has made him incredibly rich, CO2 is bad for you. And in 1988 the IPCC was born and the fantasy of rapid CO2 driven Global Warming was born. It didn’t happen.
We are told China is a hero nation building windmills, solar panels, hydro. But it is still opening two coal fired plants a week and now produces 40% of world CO2 output. And makes all the world’s solar panels, windmills and pharmaceuticals, having killed millions with their military Wuhan virus with no apology at all.
Australia has been crippled with CO2 taxes by every governments starting with John Howard’s Renewable Eneryg(Electricity) Act 2000 to Gillard’s Carbon Farming Initiative Act 2011 to the appalling Albanese Safeguard Mechanism with 35% Carbon Dioxide taxes. Scott Morrison signed us up to Net Zero without even asking us.
All based on absurd Green science which does not exist. But the endless rivers of our cash are illegal and hidden from parliament and review. It is not taxation because legal taxation goes into General Revenue, not electronic Green certificates.
And all the cash flows to China.
What can we do?
Vote and preference One Nation for a woman who was jailed by the Liberal party for telling the truth and still came back. And Australia should not be ruled from the steps of the Lakemba mosque.
All life is made from CO2 and water and little else. It’s time to stop the madness.
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Brown coal is awesome, but don’t sleep on that uranium. Australia should be looking to imitate 1970s France and do a massive nuclear buildout. You’ve got the uranium, and you’ve got the wide open spaces to build it far away from population centers (not that it is necessary, but it keeps a wary public happy). Australia is an energy powerhouse that needs to stop behaving like an energy pauper (or like a gas station for more ambitious countries). Your leaders say they want Australia to be a player in AI, but unreliable and expensive energy won’t attract investors. Massive cheap and reliable energy availability is the cost of entry into that game. If you don’t have that, investors won’t even listen to your pitch.
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To get to nuclear, we first have to harness what is free and easy. We need money, manufacturing, industry. We are already rich in coal and iron ore and uranium, but not allowed do anything with them. We are sending all our coal to China! But the Labor governement in Victoria in 2007 banned a $400Million sale of coal to India. Why?
We Australians after 38 years of fantasy science and laws have perhaps the most expensive energy in the world cannot and build anything. With our own cheap energy, cheap manufacturing we can build our own nuclear, refine our own oil, enrich our own uranium, harness our own water, not be a mendicant state dependent on the Straits of Hormuz just to go to work. We make nothing and our food output will drop catastrophically because we no longer make chemicals, fertilizer, glass and our steel and aluminum industries are being closed by Green CO2 taxes hidden from public view.
So urgently repeal all CO2 laws, scores of them Federally and State and Council. Close all Climate Change departments enforcing these Acts. End CO2 taxes of all forms. Build better new more efficient coal power stations. Export our endless Brown coal, for cash something banned by Victorian Goverments. Repeal all bans on nuclear, energy exploration, fracking, coal seam gas,…
Our Australian governments have quietly legislated Australians into the Dark Ages. Repeal the lot.
And educate children that CO2 is the gas of life, not the end of the world. The end of the world is when all the lights go out and we cannot defend ourselves. And that is now very close.
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Stop it TdeF, you’ll make teenage girls cry – oops, too late, see below.
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Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation – ANSTO
Thorium Milten Salts Reactor development;
https://www.ansto.gov.au/our-science/nuclear-technologies/reactor-systems/advanced-reactors/anstos-contribution-to
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Good thing it’s in NSW Thorium and Uranium are illegal R&D in Victoria.
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Brown coal is the most polluting and least efficient source of energy available. It’s staying in the ground.
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CO2 isn’t a pollutant, so there’s that, also as Jo and others have stated, it IS very efficient at creating electricity at very low cost from the well proven method of burning it to create steam which turns a turbine/generator creating electrons!!
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If the climate politics advocates were honest they would not refer to Carbon Dioxide as “carbon pollution”, that they deceive people this way is classic sales and marketing “hyperbole and puffery” that lawyers use to try and get clients out of patent and copyright laws breaches
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“Several principal emissions result from burning coal :
Sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain and respiratory illnesses
Nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog and respiratory illnesses
Particulates, which contribute to smog, haze, respiratory illnesses, and lung disease
Carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the primary greenhouse gas produced from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas)
Mercury and other heavy metals, which have been linked to both neurological and developmental damage in humans and other animals
Fly ash and bottom ash, which are residues created when power plants burn coal”
Apr. 5, 2026 433.24 ppm https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2
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Typical utter rubbish. Non science. You have to take the water out. Victorian Brown Coal is 66% water.
Lignite(Dried) 22-24Mj/kg
Brown coal briquettes 24MJ/kg
Black Coal(sub bit) 18-23Mj/kg
Black coal(Bit/Anth) 23-33Mj/kg
Even peat (80%) water and when dried 15-22Mj/kg.
Because the chemistry is the same. They are all the same stuff! Just more dirt in the brown coal and peat.
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It takes energy to remove the water and that is where the inefficiency lies.
CO2 is not the only pollutant released by coal when it burns. Some are economic to capture, others are not.
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Waste heat from the flue gas.
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You are breathing out toxic CO2 pollutant right now. Thoughtless. Uncaring. And breathing out water, the other byproduct of combustion. You may drown at home. In fact you are 98% toxic CO2 and dangerous water, most of your body weight.
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Running existing lignite plants flat out and building two more 2GW stations is low hanging fruit for One Nation in Victoria to attract industry and pay down some of the crushing debt burden that all Labor governments manage to rack up through their union corruption.
The moisture is not an issue. It is removed with waste heat in preheat for the combustion air.
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Silly Simon, Gippsland brown coal is the best soil conditioner YOU are too ignorant to ever put on your garden.
Nothing about it is polluting.
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Yes. Its been sold at agriculture suppliers for over 30 years.
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Actually, the least efficient source of energy of all is solar, followed closely by wind. As far a pollution goes, coal makes CO2, which is essential plant food.
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Nuclear needs a good water supply. Most sites are right by one, whether river, lake or coast. Wide open spaces may sound good but aren’t a decisive factor.
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Not necessarily. There is a very successful 20MWe reactor operating in China’s desert region, and it doesn’t use an external water supply. Has been delivering commercial power since December 2023. And many new SMR designs are being setup to not require an external water source.
Not new technology – water-cooled plants have been operating for many years without external water.
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I have explained that to desperate anti-nuclear commentators elsew
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My Civil Construction Company just won a nice job, two months work starting 13 April. It’s our first job and I’m stoked, $800K + GST, good margin, Delay caused by shortages is valid, Rise and Fall included in the contract.
Terrified that we will be significantly delayed I have decided the old sofa I sit on can last a bit longer (leather is worn through on the armrest) and my Landcruiser can do without the long awaitied bull bar for a bit longer. In short, I don’t trust Albo or Bowen, I think Australia is staring into the Abyss, and I ain’t spending money.
The good thing (for me) is that my nacent (and debt free) company will still be here when the tap turns back on and I think I will do very well out of it.
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How about making liquid fuels from natural gas?
Shell has a huge project in Quatar – called Pearl – which produces diesel from methane.
Australia has vast gas reserves…..
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Opportunities abound, but the Oz Electorate is so poisoned by the Gangreens it has suffered not enough pain to be “re-educated.” Yet.
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How can we convince a ludicrously stupid ALP of any value of existing technology and a proven resource?
We cannot. Their only interest is political power.
Are the Liberals any different?
Having had most of the existing cabinet at my dining table I can say from first hand experience that they have no idea how to get elected. They still think power will be handed to them without takling Victoria’s debt. A solution free zone.
Jess Wilson I am yet to meet. I see the hand of Josh Frydenberg up her back. My only advice is cut it off before we have $300B.
I have not heard one idea from the state LNP that could address the impossible problem of $200B of debt without a Federal Government handout.
The last two large remaining Victorian assets are lignite and water. Everything else has been sold off. Water crushed by a desalination plant finance deal and laws preventing new dams. Lignite hung by the Voldemort of gases, CO2. If we compliment our last remaining asssets with well thought out policy eventually private enterprise will rise again.
Government cannot use more debt or increases in taxation to reduce debt. This strategy causes inflation and prevents accumulation of real wealth.
Victoria can only recover if it addresses the real problem. The size of its government.
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“The last two large remaining Victorian assets are lignite and water”
You missed one other Geoff. GOLD. Victoria has very large reserves of this metal yet along with dam building, timber harvesting, brown coal that is actually “free” but priced out of existence by government royalties etc etc. we do nothing.
Enough natural resources to actually pay off the horrendous dept but its like watching young people walk past a dollar coin on the ground, too much trouble to bend down and pick it up.
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And the very latest evidence.
After about 8 years of Coalition Government unable to agree to EU Government (see government dictating to EU member countries and UN associates) demands for certain terms and conditions of trade for a Free Trade Agreement the Albanese Labor Government recently announced they have signed the Agreement.
Investigative journalists have since disclosed that the details withheld to date include EU Government interference in the sovereignty of Commonwealth of Australia, Federation of States, to control land use and other Agenda 21 etc objectives. And another: to impose UN IPCC Net Zero Emissions !!!
They said Morrison signed up, but he didn’t sign an agreement in Glasgow COP 2021 or afterwards.
And this terms and condition inclusion is the proof
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One of the lies the Left tell about lignite is that it has especially high “carbon” emissions (sic, they mean CO2). (Not that CO2 matters.)
That figure is based on the deadweight of its moisture content. But if waste heat or mechanical means is used to dry it, then the energy content and hence CO2 emissions are about the same as anthracite or other coals. Plus it’s plentiful and cheap because so it should be used.
The technology to efficiently dewater it and use it is well developed with work done by CSIRO, CRA and others.
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The Germans have built UltraSuperCritical (USC) coal fired plants which use brown coal. (Neurath F and G)
The heat generated by the process is used to dry the brown coal before being forced into the Furnace/Boiler/Pressuriser.
The are getting almost the same efficiency as black coal burning USC plants.
No brainer really.
The same process was going to be used for an Upgrade retrofit to Hazelwood, but the only upgrade Hazelwood ended up with was gelegnite!
Tony.
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During the UN sanctions on trade with South Africa apartheid period South Africa used coal to produce transport fuel.
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South Africa still runs on fuel made from coal. Approximately 30% to 35% of South Africa’s liquid fuel (petrol and diesel) is produced from coal. This synthetic fuel is primarily produced through coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology operated by Sasol at their Secunda plant, making it a significant contributor to the country’s transport energy needs.
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How much pain will Australians have to endure before they dump the anti-energy Lib/Labs and vote in pro-energy One Nation?
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While the left keep sucking on the gangreens cool-aid and continue indoctrinating the schools, universities and main stream media nothing will happen!!
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David, I’m thinking it will be a lot, so much it will turn us into a country poorer than Venezuela or Cuba before the required amount change their thinking.
There is a solid 30-35% of Simon types who’d rather be destitute in the dirt and staving than admit they’re wrong and turn their backs on their Climate religion…
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One Nation is all headlines and publicity seeking, and as I have been commenting on since 1997 when One Nation was formed, and they enjoyed a brief rise to several seats in QLD State before imploding, all headlines and little detail to follow, and when pressed for answers they are often mission statements or misleading lacking important details.
I do understand disenchantment with the 2PP system of two parties, but I looked deeper and discovered that more often than not the Coalition spent years after forming governments making budget repairs and attempting to repeal Labor legislation.
And with due regard for Coalition periods when they accepted UN requirements or as POTUS Trump warned the UN to cease doing, interference in the affairs of sovereign nations.
Fact is, blame game aside, we have been painted into the corner by politicians and UN.
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If there was a uniparty then One Nation is part, considering the Liberal and National former members now with them
wink
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Great. Maybe we won’t have to bring back Robespierre after all.
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Here is a nostalgic video from 1948 from when Australia seemed to have a bright future and even the Labor Party was pro-energy.
This is about the utilisation of lignite in the Latrobe Valley of Victoriastan.
https://youtu.be/eWXFnVT5Wj0
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Further history. My father was a State politician based in Central Queensland from 1947-63. He was very pro coal and was part of a delegation that went to Melbourne in the late 1940s to promote the export of Callide coal to Victoria. The trade did not develop beyond trial shipments. Callide was opened by Theiss Bros (who went on to establish the Moura mine utilising the first railway dedicated to transporting coal from Moura to Gladstone for export to Asia). This entrepreneurial example led to the rapid development of the Bowen Basin export mines. Fun fact – the old man was particularly flummoxed around that time when Australia’s new Prime Minister, Robert Menzies (Victorian to his boot straps) authorised the importation of coal into ‘energy poor’ Australia. Common sense prevailed of course. But as Victoria clearly shows today being energy poor can result from the physical lack of resources or simply agenda driven politics and bureaucracies. Dumb and ignorant – take your pick.
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Not my favourite source Wikipedia but sometimes good history background source for quick picks;
The Jervis Bay Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed nuclear power reactor in the Jervis Bay Territory, an Australian federal territory adjoining the South Coast of the state of New South Wales. It would have been Australia’s first nuclear power station, and is the only proposal to have reached the design and construction stages as of 2026. Environmental studies and early site works were completed, and two rounds of tenders were called and evaluated, but the Australian Government ultimately decided not to proceed with the project. This was due to the perceived cost, and to the discovery of new coal and hydrocarbon resources that were regarded as more economically attractive.
Background to the project
In 1969, the Australian government proposed to the New South Wales government that a 500 MWe nuclear power station should be built on Commonwealth territory and connected to the New South Wales grid, with electricity generation and distribution being a state responsibility under the Australian constitution. Possible sites were the Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay. The plan, supported by the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, was for a reactor design that could generate weapons-grade plutonium, possibly reflecting Australia’s long-term post-World War II interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.
In December 1969, invitations to express interest in the construction of a nuclear power plant at Jervis Bay were sent to fourteen organisations. Tender documents were issued in February 1970, with tenders closing in June. Fourteen tenders were received, from seven different organisations. About 70 staff were involved full-time in evaluating tenders, principally from the Australian Atomic Energy Commission and the Electricity Commission of New South Wales. More than 150 other staff had a significant part-time role. As a result, a recommendation was written for the acceptance of a tender to supply a 600 MWe Steam generating heavy water reactor (SGHWR), from the British organisation, The Nuclear Power Group.
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Australian Atomic Energy Commission – AAEC – was the nuclear organisation before it became Australia Nuclear Science Technology Organisation – ANSTO.
I many years/decades ago on behalf of foreign clients ordered and exported radio isotopes from AAEC and visited the then second nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, original built late 1950s.
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Do you recall yet another act of national self-destruction in 2009 when Victoriastan banned a lucrative export deal to export lignite to India?
It was for their own good…
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A Baccus Marsh company and Monash University. Patented. Not the CSIRO.
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Ok.
But CSIRO was involved in other drying processes like the COLDry Process, Mechanical Thermal Expression, and Hydrothermal Dewatering, with commercial partners.
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The joint invention was a new way to remove the 66% water in Victorian brown coal. This was anathema to the ignorant Greens. And Labor.
I always thought the story of Chicken Little/Henny Penny was the silliest parable. Who would believe ‘the sky is falling’?
But it was really a warning about mass hysteria, for millenia the essential tool of aspiring politicians like Al Gore.
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The Age ran headlines in their campaign against exporting Victorian coal. They claimed that removing the water would make Brown coal BLACKER! And we all know that black is dirty. As Jordan Petersen explains, it’s the emotion of revulsion. Black, dirty, carbon, coal. No science at all. Diamonds are pure carbon.
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I wonder how many wokesters know that?
In pure oxygen they will even burn with a self-perpetuating flame.
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The writers in the James Bond story “Diamonds are Forever” didn’t know it. The Mafia recover the diamonds from the corpse in Las Vegas after cremation. Oops.
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Pretty much.
That’s the emotional logic behind “carbon” rather than CO2 emissions. Carbon is black and dirty and ugly, while CO2 is invisibly clean.
So we are bombarded with carbon propaganda, and when I point out that using that carbon terminology shows that the user clearly doesn’t know the difference between a solid and a gas, the response is a blank-faced stare.
Stupid is as stupid does. The country has some pockets of excellence, but overwhelmingly prefers mediocrity. It’s safer.
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You’d think a country with a dramatically reducing standard of living, massive national debt, some of the world’s most expensive electricity, deindustrialisation and an economy not totally dissimilar to an oil sheikdom but instead of exporting oil, we export rocks, cheap energy and dumbed-down university degrees to rich foreigners would be keen to exit its cycle of self-destruction…
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And while the country has racked up $1,000,000,000,000, a million million dollars in debt, NSW and Victoria are not far behind on $200,000,000,000.
However if Victoria could mine and export coal, we could pay down our debts. While coal is our biggest or second biggest export, we in Victoria are not allowed export it. And we have a Federal law prohibitign nuclear power and Victorian State laws prohibiting uranium, thorium, coal seam gas and prohibitions on even exploring for more gas. What happened to the new gas discovery in Bass Strait? Why is it out of the news?
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Dunno, ask the Victorian energy minister, Lily d’ambrosio. Ambrosio in Italian means divine or immortal. Sort of like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings- ” thou shall not pass” she screams whenever anyone mentions coal or gas. Actually, before looking it up I thought ambrosio may have translated into nincompoop.
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Nincompoop is hardly strong enough.
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Nimcompoops are on a higher level. So are Umpalumpahs. None are energy Ministers.
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If anyone cares about co2 emissions we only need to understand that the entire SH is already a co2 NET SINK according to the CSIRO and the NH is a co2 NET SOURCE.
Aussies could use all the FFs we needed and the difference would be ZIP. So what’s the problem? There has been an increase in co2 level by 145 ppm since 1800 and that’s just 0.0145% increase of the atmosphere and we now live in the safest period for Humans in the last 300 K years. So what’s the problem?
Why can’t they just look up the data and wake up?
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” Why can’t they just look up the data and wake up? ”
We’ve never been better connected but we’ve never been dumber.
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Nett means CO2 going into the ocean and CO2 coming out, something which most Greens deny.
However as the current CO2 output is 2x as much as the growth in CO2, the new story is that half the CO2 goes into the ocean and the other half just doesn’t. Ever.
This is a new science which is against every principle of gaseous exchange between air and water. And each year it repeats. Half into the water and half out of the water. And why only half? It seems the oceans are full and can only accept half each year. Which redefines the idea of ‘full’. There must be a Visa system?
Anyway it is increasibly obvious that most of all CO2 ’emissions’, most next to water at sea level, go into the ocean within a few months, never to return. There is just no connection between the Green CO2 story and reality.
As for Net Zero, it makes no sense at all. So you have the UK buying woodchips from America for the DRAX power plant instead of using the free and abundant British coal for which it was designed.
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‘ … most next to water at sea level, go into the ocean within a few months, never to return.’
An excellent sound bite for Canavan to pick up on.
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Bergius plants are the near-term solution. Longer term it will always be nuclear…
Bergius plants and oil drilling will be also be the medium to long term solution. I doubt EV tractors and harvesters will be viable for many decades – and road transport EVs are a novelty rather than a solution.
And Minns in NSW is talking about rolling out more government funded EV charging stations for the smug who have bought them. Where is the electricity going to come from when we are already in a crisis?
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Compared to the Bergius process the Karrick process is cheaper, requires less water and destroys less the thermal value (one-half that of the Bergius process)
The Karrick process is a low-temperature carbonisation and pyrolysis process of carbonaceous materials. Although primarily meant for coal it also could be used for processing of oil shale or
lignite or any carbonaceous materials. These are heated at 450 °C (800 °F) to 700 °C (1,300 °F) in the absence of air to distill out synthetic fuels.
In Australia, during World War II the Karrick process plants were used for shale oil extraction in New South Wales.
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Just checked it out and sound like a winner.
With advanced technology we have today and large economy of scale and using “free” hydrogen generated by wind and solar it has to worth a try.
We could also link up with geo-thermal energy to provide low-cost steam.
When one considers for example, the billions totally wasted trying to build / buy a new submarine be it nuclear or conventional it makes economic sense.
The real problem is politicians lack the relevant technical skills. More capable of running a pre-industrial economy.
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Here’s the proof that we’re now living in the safest period in Human history and yet they want to ignore the data and evidence? And that’s a 98% decrease in death rates over the last 125 years.
That decrease in death rates since 1900 is unbelievable but true.
So why can’t the ignorant fools spend a lousy 5 minutes online to find the accurate data and learn the truth?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/natural-disaster-death-rates?country=Flood~Extreme+weather~Wildfire~Drought~Extreme+temperature
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I am moderately impressed that this is now being spoken about by politicians.
Most are either unaware of it or simply don’t care.
It is designed as the final death blow for what little industry we have left so then we can become a total soy latte decaffe non-GMO society.
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That’s all very well and good but just consider the massive hurdles and years or decades of waiting for any major non-green project in Australia, the “can’t do” country.
And all the money (and more) that could be used for this has literally been thrown to the wind or burned by the sun.
The only way to build these plants would be for the Government to implement emergency powers and build them urgently as a matter of national energy security. Even then, I don’t imagine Australia would be the only ones wanting to build them. Like coal, gas and nuclear power plants, there is a long waiting list because smart countries are already building them and tieing up capacity.
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Our communist Dear Leader Albo tells Aussies to take the bus.
https://x.com/i/status/2039364802246529519
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That of course would be a coal-electric battery bus. 🚌🔥⚡⚡
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Not sure about the Coalition ( LNP ) any more.
They’ve actually got “coal” in their name, but seem to only be providing a facade in promoting this energy source. For example, here’s a quote by Malcolm Turnbull in 2017 :-
Wow, so after a quote like that and nearly 10 years later you would think we might have a HELE equivalent brand new coal plant somewhere !!
There’s something completely wrong with Australia’s energy policy and my theory is that there are entrenched bureaucrats in the Ministry who HATE coal. It’s why the pace of decarbonisation increases under Labor/Greens and seems to only tread water when the LNP are in power. With coal being the biggest loser.
It would appear that the LNP have had some plans to build new coal plants, but when you consider the LNP have been the major party in government for the last 30 years, its extraordinary nothing much has happened. Suppose we can blame the states, because like COVID, that’s seems to be where the real power lies. So, I’m not really reassured by Matt Canavan even though he has been a very vocal supporter of that energy source for electricity generation.
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Matt Canavan believes CO2 causes global warming, so he is not much help in that regard, so Hastie remains our best option on atmospheric science.
ANDREW CLENNELL: Do you think climate change is real?
ANDREW HASTIE: Yes, of course. Climate change has been occurring throughout history. The question is, how much does Australia have a role in changing the climate when we produce one-point-one per cent of the world’s emissions?
I don’t think Angus Taylor has the bottle to run a political campaign.
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Hastie no help either!
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Hastie accepts that One Nation is correct and has said that he can work with them.
‘Pauline Hanson, leader of One Nation, disputes that human activity is the primary driver of climate change, arguing that it is a natural, historical phenomenon. ‘
Hastie is now the deputy Liberal leader in the House of Reps and is restricted, so we’ll have to wait until he becomes leader.
01
Commonwealth of Australia, Federation of States that created the Federal/Commonwealth Government.
See primary responsibilities of State governments and local government they oversee.
See Federal Government signing UN agreements and agendas, legislated into laws, complimentary laws enforcement by State Governments that in answer to this #22 have the rights to mining and drilling natural resources, exploration, development applications and Federal involvement too.
Then consider that not very often do governments have control of upper houses of parliament.
And then the important other governance, notably budget repair and general management of departments and national and foreign affairs.
Red tape, green tape, black tape !!!
50
LNP and Labor all UN stooges.
One Nation is the only party that has pushed back hard on all the UN dictates – The Climate Change™ scam; the First Nations apartheid; no borders and no free speech.
40
Also, leave us Victorians alone. We are not a socialist nirvana. Good to remind everyone that most of Australia is governed by Labor/Greens and we voted the federal ALP back in with a past devoted communist as their leader. Indeed WA ( where Jo lives ) is its own little socialist lefty Nirvana.
20
Ross, it is somewhat unfair to call all of Victoria a socialist state, as we readers/commentators on Jo’s blog know, it is mainly the metropolitan areas that are under a majority Socialist delusion while the regions suffer under their voting beliefs as we do not having the numbers to influence the outcome. Hence why a group has started REXIT-Regional Exit https://rexit.au/
“REXIT.AU stands for Regional Exit Australia. The REXIT movement reignites the everlasting conversation of the creation of New States in Australia.
The evolution of Australian states started with the colony of New South Wales in 1787 to federation in 1901 where after 133 years the creation of the six colony’s of New South Wales (1787), Tasmania (1825), Western Australia (1829), South Australia (1836), Victoria (1841) and Queensland (1859) formed the Commonwealth of Australia (Federation) and became states therein. In 1911 the two mainland territory’s were added being the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.
Since federation (The unification of the colony’s to become the states of Australia) in 1901 and the creation of two territories in 1911 the evolution of the states of Australia has stalled.
40
We should all get MAGA caps. Make Albo/Allen go away.
61
Canavan is super optimistic if he thinks we could build a brown coal to oil plant before SMRs are commonplace.
31
Like the ones ordered early 2025 by Albanese Labor, contract and orders placed with Rolls-Royce UK for SSN AUKUS nuclear submarines to be built here in SA.
Maybe the third and operating Opal small nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights Sydney, a First Of A Kind design to produce radio isotopes and for research purposes. ANSTO
20
This is from the Fin Review in 1990, to illustrate how we lacked the political will.
‘Oil can be made from brown coal found in Victoria’s La Trobe Valley for about $30 a barrel.
‘This is the tentative result of a decade of work at the Brown Coal Liquefaction Victoria pilot plant at Morwell – the biggest R & D project ever undertaken in this country.’
So I think a coal to oil will be an election issue, but probably not SMRs.
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It probably wasn’t deemed viable or required at the time in the early 90’s when Esso was pumping out plenty of oil and gas from Bass Strait to the Longford processing plant and on to Altona refineries etc. Natural gas plumbed into various towns along the 220km line to Melbourne.
Politicians don’t appear to be very good at long term thinking, not realising that Bass Strait oil would dry up by now and we’d end up importing 90+ % of our liquid fuels.
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Yeah, it is what it is. Supply and demand, market forces now in turmoil.
‘Angus Taylor says the global energy shock is proof that Australia should fast-track mining exploration and coal and gas project construction, as part of efforts to shore up fuel supply for future crises.’ (Guardian)
21
Another advantage of coal to liquid (CTL) is you do not need expensive 90 day emergency storage for the feedstock, like you need for an oil refinery. The brown coal is just sitting here, easily extractable. It’s like a big battery with a life span of over 500 years.
What put in there- photosynthesis. What will then sequester any expended CO2 from either burning coal or heating using the CTL processes? Photosynthesis- Year 9 science stuff.
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Woo hoo! We’re saved.
Fuel for all, anytime now (as we need it NOW, not 2035)
/sarc
20
From conversations I believe that most Australians are blissfully unaware of the abundance of natural resources including energy sources unrealised based on UN agreements and agendas legislated into laws and regulations here, Federal and States governments, and Local Government.
Australia is a major exporter of energy but could be a world leader and self sufficient nationally.
As Taylor and Canavan (both former Ministers for Energy) are pointing out right now.
Everything Australia needs to become self sufficient, to secure national prosperity is here now.
What it would take is elected representatives determined to act in the best interests of all constituents and work in the majority including Upper Houses of Parliament to make it happen
30
Not only the politicians- you need a fully co-operative public service. They’re the guys and gals (sorry, he/hims and she/hers) who action any policy and will impede anything they don’t like. Bowen, Taylor, Canavan are:were only the PR reps for the ministry, so are confined by the edicts of that bureau. Then as ministers they also have to conform to general government policy, even though they may disagree with it personally. This is one of the major defects of the Westminster system.
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“Yes Minister” 😉
20
Stop it! You’re hurting Chris Bowen’s feelings.
10
Greetings, Kermit the Frog here
And today I’d like to tell you a little bit about the color green
Do you know what’s green
Well I am for one thing
You see frogs are green, and I’m a frog
And that means that I’m green, you see
It’s not that easy being green
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow, or gold
Or something much more colorful like that
It’s not easy being green
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
And people tend to pass you over
‘Cause you’re not standing out
Like flashy sparkles in the water
Or stars in the sky
source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/muppets/its_not_easy_being_green
20
This is well known, Gippsland also has 1000 years of gas…But you know the communist/green loonies who ‘own’ the Peoples Republic of Victoria actually changed the State’s CONSTITITUTION, so no one could frack for gas!
60
Not a long way from the SA Moomba Gas Fields is another believed to be larger gas and oil field below the District of Coober Pedy
30
Howdy Guys from the cold, frozen north of AK –
Lots of coal in Oz. Looks like lots of natural gas. Petroleum, not so much. Solution would be a combination of natural gas / GTLs (Fischer Tropsch) for heating and liquid fuels and natural gas for electricity. Coal can contribute via CTLs (Fischer Tropsch once again) for liquid fuels, heating and electricity. In short, you guys are set to simply use what you have in place without even using coal for electricity.
Up here, our energy use is a third vehicular fuels, a third electricity, and a third heating. Natural gas does 2/3 of the total, imported gasoline / diesel the remaining 1/3. Looks like you guys can do everything you need to do with what you have in the ground for 1,000 years or until you figure out how to deploy enough nukes. Congratulations. Cheers –
10
As always, good work but I would urge caution on the brown coal to liquids options.
From the article “There are two choices in coal liquefaction processes: Bergius and Fischer-Tropsch, both invented in Germany in the 1910s. In the Bergius process, hydrogen is forced into coal molecules at a temperature of 450˚C and a pressure of 170 kg/cm2 (165 atmospheres or 2,420 psi). The Fischer-Tropsch process burns coal in pure oxygen to produce a synthesis gas that is catalysed to long chain hydrocarbons in an oil bath. Bergius is the better process.”
I had spent some time looking at Gippsland coal. It has incredibly high water content, so Fischer-Tropsch will never work economically. I don’t know enough about Bergius process to have a definitive position, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it ran into the same problem. It is good to remember that Gippsland basin coal is basically wet dirt that burns, barely. There are a few other technologies that may work, but if the Aussies (whom I love) put their hope in Coal to liquids, good luck.
Burn brown coal and become the electricity supply for the world’s data centers. You will thrive.
10
🔥🔥The Bergius process or others like it could be basis for the much-promoted new hydrogen-economy.
It can use “free” solar power / wind to produce hydrogen “on site” removing the need to transport the “impossible gas” leaking out all the way in low (mass to volume) energy density long distance pipelines.
00
A topic for a new article: 💪💪
How the Germans burn coal even when not using it to make electrical power if renewable power is available.
Renewables get used first but the coal fired power station must still be kept running on standby.
NOTE:
The coal burnt on standby is not counted when calculating the whole of life cost of renewables and the carbon dioxide created supporting renewables. 🔥🔥💰💰🤡🤡
10
Coober Pedy – How does a company find an ocean of oil under the Australian desert and go bankrupt?
https://archive.ph/o7w5k
https://archive.ph/FpKeV
This is how –
The “phenomenon” of innovation, industrial, and commodity control –
https://archive.is/7nIlg#selection-167.0-211.89
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The STUPID INCOMPETENT Victorian Labor Government has refused FREE UREA and FREE FUEL for 5 years. Now NZ has the benefits. Watch this. https://youtu.be/2MdOlJBQP3Q?si=x5UUg_mMLWuIVcVm
10