Supporter Update 09/02/11

Kia ora koutou,

2011 is shaping up as a very big year for the campaign against mining Southland lignite. Solid Energy has announced plans for its pilot lignite briquetting plant in Southland, the first stage of its massive plans to exploit Southland’s lignite reserves. And a wide range of local and national groups are gearing up to stop them.

Before we get onto the latest developments, here are two important messages:

A) The Coal Action Network email list

The campaign against the expansion of coal mining in Aotearoa New Zealand is growing. But it needs to grow a lot more. We think there are a lot of people out there who are concerned about this issue, or who would be if they knew about it, and who will want to get involved in this campaign.

If you are not on our email list, and would like to be, please send names and email addresses to coalactionnetwork@gmail.com,

The mailing list has been used mainly for announcements and updates from the Coal Action Network. But that’s not all it has to be used for. Anyone on the list can post news, discussion points, or requests for help and information.

And now for the news…

1) Coal Action Network Public Meetings Announced

The Coal Action Network is going public with a series of meetings explaining why the mining of Southland lignite is such a disastrously bad idea, and encouraging people to join our supporters’ list and get active in the campaign. Jeanette Fitzsimons, climate change campaigner and former co-leader of the Green Party, will be the featured speaker at the meetings. So far, the details of the Wellington meeting are confirmed:

Wellington Meeting

Keep The Coal In The Hole: Why Southland Lignite Shouldn’t Be Mined
When: Wednesday 16 February
Where: St John’s Church Hall, cnr Willis and Dixon Streets, Wellington
Time: 7pm-9pm
Web page: http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/node/2942
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184510844914298

There will also be meetings in Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland. Please note that the partial details given below are all still to be confirmed. We will let you know the confirmed details.

Christchurch Meeting

Date: 19 April, evening meeting

Dunedin Meeting (details tbc)

Date: 20 April, evening meeting

2) A Meeting on Lignite in Southland

We were not involved in organising this meeting, but we are happy to include the notice from the Transition Towns website:

Venue: Invercargill Environment Centre, SIT Arcade, 46 Esk Street, Invercargill

Start: 14 Feb 2011 15:30
End: 14 Feb 2011 17:00

Join Dr Susan Krumdieck and others for an informal discussion about
lignite issues in Southland.

Dr Susan Krumdieck is the Associate Professor of Mechanical
Engineering at the University of Canterbury and National President of
Engineers for Social Responsibility. She has been studying climate
change and future energy supply issues for more than 25 years.

http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/node/2952

3) Solid Energy Spills The Beans

Solid Energy has always been prone to PR slip-ups, and it appears that its recent announcement of its preferred site for its pilot lignite-to-briquettes plant in Southland may have been a case of a Solid Energy spokesperson saying more than he was supposed to, rather than deliberate strategy.

In any case, the cat is out of the bag: as reported by the Southland Times, “Solid Energy plans to build its pilot briquetting plant south of Mataura, at the site of its former mine in Craig Rd, but a large commercial plant, if it went ahead, would probably be in the Croydon area, near Gore.” – see

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/4572621/Site-for-Solid-Energys-pilot-plant-revealed

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4574618/Solid-Energy-plans-briquette-plant

Solid Energy also announced that it would be proceeding with resource consent applications soon – the proposed site for the pilot plant will face less consenting requirements than the other possible sites.

This pilot briquetting plant is the thin end of the wedge. Solid Energy want to get their first lignite conversion plant up and running as soon as possible, so that it is harder to stop subsequent, larger, dirtier developments. This plant has to be stopped, and we expect it to face intensive opposition – see subsequent updates for more on how you can help with that.

Here is Scoop’s coverage of the Coal Action Network’s statement in response to the announcement:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1101/S00084/coal-action-network-slams-lignite-plans.htm

Here is Greenpeace’s response to the announcement:

http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/press/Briquette-plant-a-crime-for-which-Fonterra-and-Government-will-share-guilt—/

4) Lower Mataura Landcare Lignite Backgrounder: Getting A Copy

As the first Southland Times article linked above makes clear, there is strong local opposition to the project, notably from the Lower Mataura Landcare group.

Lower Mataura Landcare (LMLC)  has prepared a comprehensive backgrounder on the Southland lignite. It’s particularly revealing on the local environmental effects in Southland, which haven’t yet received much coverage in the national media.

At 1.3MB, the LMLC backgrounder is too large to circulate on this list. If you’d like a copy, please email coalactionnetwork@gmail.com and I’ll send you one as a PDF file. It will also be posted to this site shortly.

5) They’re Blue-Green, Just Like Algae

While the Government presses ahead with its plans for massive carbon emissions on one hand, it is still trying to preserve the fiction that it has some environmental credibility on the other. National’s environmental fig-leaf is called the BlueGreens, and the Government used the recent BlueGreens conference to make announcements about marine reserves, a clean technology working party, and other green-sounding things. But Greenpeace has pointed out the absurdity of the Government’s green pretensions when juxtaposed with its coal-mining and oil-drilling plans:

http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/news/blog/bluegreens-gave-me-the-blues/blog/32756

“At the heart of the Government’s thinking is an hypocrisy that undermines climate action. The Government talk about a clean economy, yet they invest millions in subsidising the fossil fuel industries of yesteryear. It  backs moves to dig up six billions tonnes of the dirtiest form of energy in Southland – which would amount to a climate crime of global significance – and have just declared open season on BP-style deepwater oil drilling in some of our most pristine environments.”

The Government is going to have to try a great deal harder than that to be taken seriously on climate change policy. Ending all plans to mine Southland lignite would be a good start. You might want to remind your nearest National MP of that.

Till next time,

Regards
Tim Jones
for the Coal Action Network

Supporter Update: 15/12/10

Kia ora koutou,

Though the end of the year is fast approaching, that hasn’t slowed down
the pace of developments regarding the expansion of coal mining in
Aotearoa/New Zealand: and the tragedy at the Pike River Mine is being spun
by the mining industry as an excuse to allow opencast mining on
conservation land.

Meanwhile, as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment joins
groups such as the Coal Action Network in pursuing Solid Energy for more
information about its lignite mining plans and their greenhouse gas
emission consequences, a new player has arrived on the scene in the shape
of Greywolf Mining, an Australian front company for the Qinghua Group of
China.

There is more news about all that below, but first, what is the Coal
Action Network planning in early 2011, and how can you help with the
campaign?

(1) Events in 2011

The Coal Action Network is planning to step out from behind the scenes
with public meetings in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch in February
/ March 2011. Once we have dates and venues confirmed, we’ll be asking
Coal Action Network members in those places if you’re able to help with
publicity and with meeting arrangements – and, of course, we’ll also be
asking you to come along!

Then, in May, distinguished American climate scientist James Hansen will
be visiting New Zealand to talk about the crucial decision New Zealand and
the world has to take about coal. Put simply, if we dig up the world’s
coal and burn it, then we will ensure that the climate is rapidly and
dangerously changed, and this will be irreversible over timescales
meaningful to the human race. If we leave it in the ground, then we still
have a chance of avoiding, or at least minimising, dangerous climate
change.

And there is enough coal – especially lignite – in New Zealand that what
this country does will make a significant difference on the world scale.
James Hansen, who has himself been arrested in protests against coal
mining in the US, will be adding a powerful voice to the campaign to Keep
The Coal In The Hole.

2011 promises to be an interesting and active year. There will be plenty
more to talk about as the year goes on, but in the meantime, you can:

* Talk to friends and family about this issue. Especially outside
Southland and Otago, there is a great deal of ignorance about the massive
mining developments planned for that region, and their climate
implications. Make sure the people closest to you know what’s going on.

* Write a letter to your local paper. It may seem very “old media”, but
Letters to the Editor are widely read – not least by politicians. Tell
your community why coal has to stay in the ground.

Now for a roundup of recent developments:

(2) Coal Action Network statement on Pike River Coal

There is blood on every ounce of coal.

The Coal Action Network sends our solidarity and sympathy to the families
and communities on the Coast who have lost loved ones in the Pike River
mining disaster.  This was not a ‘natural disaster’ and like many
tragedies in mines that have come before, and the ongoing deaths of
individual workers in mines every year, workers have again died because of
the companies’ drive for profit.

As the human cost of coal through its extraction and through climate
change continues to grow, perhaps it’s time to ask the question: How much
blood for coal?

Here are two independent perspectives on the issue that provide food for
thought – and debate:

Nandor Tanczos: Pike River – the hard coaled facts:

http://www.3news.co.nz/Pike-River—the-hard-coaled-facts/tabid/1341/articleID/188481/Default.aspx

Matt McCarten: Eventually someone will be held culpable:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10692080

(3) Solid Energy: Evasions and Offsets

Solid Energy don’t like being asked awkward questions about their plans to
exploit Southland lignite. When they are asked those questions under the
Official Information Act, they can’t avoid answering, but they try very
hard to limit their answers, and they use the defence of commercial
sensitivity permitted under the Act to remove as much useful information
as they can.

MPs, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and environmental
groups are all pursuing Solid Energy for this information. The good news
is that, even in their attempts to prevaricate, Solid Energy do give away
some useful information. From Solid Energy’s attempts to avoid answering a
recent OIA request by Green MP Catherine Delahunty regarding their plans
for biosequestration, i.e. attempting to offset emissions from their
lignite mining plans by gaining credits for sequestering carbon in living
things, we now know that they are working on the following projects in
this area. Solid Energy says:

“1. Forestry development and acquisition

Along with our currently owned forestry, Solid Energy is investigating
options around exotic and indigenous forestry development.  We have
been actively involved with assessing afforestation propositions and
investigating potential afforestation investments.

2. Mokihinui forest regeneration study

Solid Energy is running a scientific study to investigate the effects
of pest control on the regeneration of indigenous forests.  The
objective of this study is to understand the impact of the removal of
ungulates from native forests and assess the most effective ways to
enhance carbon store.

3. Biomass burial

Solid Energy has continued to investigate the potential of biomass
burial as a source of carbon storage.

- Correspondence from Solid Energy regarding Official Information Act
request, 3 December 2010″

No. 3 on this list is especially interesting. Instead of keeping coal in
the ground, it appears that Solid Energy’s bright new idea is to stick
plant matter in the ground in the happy expectation that it will turn into
more coal in due course.

(4) Qinghua/Greywolf

Australian mining company Greywolf is the recently-formed Australasian
front company for the Qinghua mining conglomerate of China. According to
Greywolf, they have big plans around coal mining, processing and export,
including a lignite mine and lignite-to-briquettes plan for Southland -
see

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/139746/chinese-mining-decision-expected-soon?page=0%2C0

Naturally, we share the concern expressed by the Green Party and
Greenpeace about these plans, and we’re no less opposed to them than we
are to Solid Energy’s lignite exploitation plans. There is a risk that
such projects will be handwaved through by Minister Brownlee and not go
through the full consenting process.

(5) Lyttelton

The Lyttelton Port Company’s plans to expand its facilities to export coal
were set back by the Christchurch earthquake. Their response? They are
applying to have their consent applications considered at the Environment
Court, skipping the resource consent stage. We’re working to oppose these
planned developments as well.

So there’s a lot going on. Let’s all have a good break over the holiday
period, and return energised for a strong start to the campaign in 2011.

Regards
Tim Jones
for the Coal Action Network