Coal

The Bylong Valley Protection Alliance has formally been accepted as part of the court case battling to save a valley near Mudgee, New South Wales, from being destroyed by a huge open-cut coal mine, reports Jim McIlroy.

Climate protesters organised a snap action inside a lavish foyer of Barangaroo where Marsh Insurance Brokers have its Sydney office early on March 5, reports Coral Wynter.

More people are saying “politics is broken” and it is not hard to see why. But, as Alex Bainbridge argues, fixing the situation will require breaking the enormous power fossil fuel corporations have over the major parties.

Bullying is never okay, and certainly not from the “lunatic fringe” inner city or “scientists”, writes Carlo Sands.

On December 9, Labor leader Anthony Albanese reaffirmed his party’s support for ongoing coal exports which make this country the Saudi Arabia of coal exports. Absurdly, Labor's supposed “climate action” wing, the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN), backed Albanese and attacked the Greens for questioning Labor's climate credentials.

The Alternative Liberal Party under “climate champion” Anthony Albanese supports Australia maintaining its status as the “Saudi Arabia of coal”. No surprise there, unfortunately.

Farmers have lost an appeal to stop a coal mine extension in the Darling Downs, but they haven't given up.

Regarding the Land Court's 2017 recommendation to refuse the Stage 3 expansion of the New Acland coal mine, Queensland's Court of Appeal decided on September 10 that it does not have the power to consider groundwater quantity impacts when hearing mining objections.

In spite of Adani Australia CEO Lucas Dow’s claim last year that the corporate energy giant did not require a cent, the company looks set to sign off on a secret royalty deal with the Queensland government.

Adani will receive a $900-million-seven-year low interest royalty capital subsidy on September 30. This will mean Queensland will not receive a royalty return from Adani’s mine for years.

The campaigning efforts of local farmers and environmentalists were rewarded on September 18 when the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) rejected South Korean company Kepco’s bid to build a new thermal coalmine in the Bylong Valley, near Mudgee, in central NSW.

Protesters blocked entry to the work site for Adani’s controversial Carmichael coalmine, in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland, for several hours on September 18.

Coral Wynter, who had joined the blockade from Sydney, told Green Left Weekly: “We blocked three gates of Adani’s workers’ camp for four hours, preventing several trucks from entering and leaving the site.”

Australia’s political class is addicted to fossil fuels. We will need to build a people-powered movement capable of proposing and winning clear demands to break that addiction. Zane Alcorn looks at 21 proposals that could pave the way for the kind of just transition away from coal that the current climate emergency demands.