The Sustainable Hour of Power: Interviews with Peter Yacono, director of the documentary film ‘Our Power’, and Matt Purbrick, co-author of the book ‘Grown & Gathered’.
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Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour
‘Our power’
“Big fossil fuel corporations have got massive influence on policy outcome, and if the community unite… You can’t argue with the community when we are united as one.”
Peter Yacono, film director, in The Sustainable Hour on 15 March 2017
‘Our power’ is a Melbourne-made documentary about the Latrobe Valley community as they bear the brunt of the privatisation of Victoria’s electricity in the 1990s and deal with the devastating Hazelwood mine fire of 2014. It is an emotional and intense roller-coaster that exposes the tragic impacts of the 45 day fire, the fundamental issues facing the community today, and their transition to a ‘post-coal’ world.
We hope you can join us this Friday evening in Torquay, on 17 March 2017, for a special advanced screening of ‘Our Power’ with filmmakers Peter Yacono and Anissha Vijayan. The following Latrobe Valley community leaders will also be on the Q&A panel in Torquay:
• Ron Ipsen – third generation power station worker who wants to democratise the power industry
• Wendy Farmer – President of Voices of the Valley and former medical administrator; Husband has been coal worker for 30 years
• Tara Dean – Latrobe Valley resident during the fire and wrote ‘45 Days’, an interactive stage play documenting the 45 days of the fire
• Andrew Laird – Victorian Barrister and part-time Surf Coast resident who was heavily involved with the campaign to shut down Anglesea Brown Coal Fire Power Plant
Come discuss and share experiences with coal in our own backyard and what are the best ways forward within coal communities.
‘Our power’ is an 100% crowd-funded, independent film. To date, over $20,000 has been raised over the last two years which has enabled the crew to get the film up to this point today. An additional $20,000 is required to master the film and pay for licencing and post production costs.
We hope to see everyone come and support this important story told by the filmmakers.
Organiser: Surf Coast Energy Group
Doors open at 6:30 PM with film start time 7:00 PM
Free entry with donation to filmmakers.
Location details: Australian National Surfing Museum, 77 Beach Road, Torquay
» Read more about the film in this article on www.theguardian.com
» View the trailer
» You can donate directly to help finish the film on www.ourpowerdoco.com/donate
» Recently the filmmakers have been accepted by the Documentary Australia Foundation which gives them DGR status – which means you can donate as a tax deduction, which is starting to prove popular. See www.documentaryaustralia.com.au/films
» The majority of the funds for the film have been raised through Chuffed.org
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Speaking of scare tactics
“The closure of the Hazelwood power station will mean high power bills and massive job losses.”
Simon Ramsay MP, Member for Western Victoria Region – in a headline on a flyer he distributed to over 60,000 homes in Geelong
Simon Ramsay thinks that “the decision to close Hazelwood is bad for jobs, bad for households, bad for business and bad for Victoria.” He also claims it will make black-outs more likely.
ABC The Drum wrote:
“Our energy market has been screwed.” Privatisation, deregulation, greedy companies & Government are all to blame according to Miriam Lyons | #TheDrum
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“For too long South Australian households and businesses have been at the mercy of private companies seeking to maximise their profits.”
Tom Koutsantonis, South Australia’s Energy Minister
Report reveals:
Price shock: Electricity prices almost doubled over the past decade
Competition in electricity retailing has failed to deliver lower prices for consumers, and governments will need to step in and re-regulate prices if the industry does not lift its game, according to a new report Grattan Institute report.
‘Price shock: Is the retail electricity market failing consumers?’ finds prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide have almost doubled over the past decade.
In Victoria, the profit margin for electricity retailers appears to be about 13 per cent – more than double the margin regulators traditionally considered fair when they had responsibility for setting prices. Victorians would save about $250 million a year – about $100 per household – if the profit margin of their electricity retailers was the same as for other retail businesses.
Although lower price deals are available, consumers find the market so complicated that many give up trying to find them. As a result many Australians, including some of the most vulnerable, pay more than they need to.
The way retailers advertise their discounts is confusing and possibly misleading. An advertised “30 per cent discount” can end up being a discount on only a small part of the bill, not the whole bill. And even consumers who take advantage of discounts can end up paying much higher prices when their contract expires.
Competition has also failed, so far, to deliver the promised innovation in customer services. Most ‘offers’ merely provide a discount for people who switch their retailer or pay their bills on time or via direct debit. But retailers have been slow to build offers based on the benefits available through smart meters, or the bundling of new technologies such as solar-power and battery-storage systems.
It is too early to give up on competition, but governments should act to ensure customers get lower prices and better service.
Retailers should be required to tell customers, in ways that are easy to compare, how much they will pay under ‘discount’ deals. They should also tell customers how much extra they will pay if they do not act when the discount expires. And retailers should provide detailed data on their profit margins to an independent body such as the Australian Energy Market Commission.
We may yet see fairer prices and better service. But if competition still fails to deliver the promised benefits, then government will have no choice but to return to price regulation.
» Read more on www.grattan.edu.au
» Listen to a podcast with David Blowers discussing the report
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Find more information about ‘Grown & Gathered’ by Matt and Lentil Purbrick here:
» www.grownandgathered.com.au/thebook
» Article in The Plant Hunter:
Plant/Life: Matt & Lentil Purbrick
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Electric Vehicles Conference in Geelong
Electric vehicles will be charging their way into Geelong this March at an electric vehicles conference, hosted by Deakin in partnership with the City of Greater Geelong, Geelong Manufacturing Council and State Government.
The event is aimed at the general public, businesses, G21 local government authorities and Deakin University researchers and engineers to inspire more uptake of electric vehicles. The conference will showcase a range of electric vehicles including cars, buses and trucks, as well as some of the technologies used in electric vehicles including:
• Tesla
• BMW
• Mitsubishi
• Toyota Prius
• JetCharge electric vehicle charging station
• Smith Electric
• Deakin/CSIRO battery technology
• AVASS electric bus
If you would like to be in the ballot to test drive an electric vehicle, nominate the vehicle you’d like to test drive while booking.
Date: 29 March, 2017
Time: 9am-12:30pm, lunch will be provided
Cost: Free
Venue: Building Na, Deakin University Waurn Ponds campus, Geelong
RSVP: by 22 March 2017
» Book Now for the Electric Vehicles Conference
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A love song to Clean Coal
“Clean Coal” explained in four minute song (Sung News No. 6)
After the Prime Minister gave a speech about how Australia needs to invest millions and millions of tax payers money into Clean Coal, Peter Joseph Head – a musician from Melbourne – has written this love song for clean coal that he suggests the Prime Minister might like to use in his next speech
Published on 28 February 2017 on youtube.com
» Peter Joseph Head’s Music Channel
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“Meanwhile in Australia, plans are well underway for 13 new steam engine factories creating hundreds of jobs for steam engine mechanics. A spokesperson for the Liberal govt yesterday said, “We are investing tax payers money in big corporations because we see a huge future for steam engines. After all they are very big and powerful.””
~ Grant Webster
ADDITIONALLY:
In other news
From our notes of this week: news stories and events we didn’t have time to mention but which we think you should know about
“We can all step up and make a difference”
16-year-old Jack Nyhof launches YouTube-channel:
“It’s together through small actions change it created.”
Jack Nyhof
Our climate
» Washington Post – 13 March 2017:
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising at the fastest rate ever recorded
“For the second year in a row, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have climbed at a record pace. According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, carbon dioxide levels jumped by three parts per million in both 2015 and 2016 and now rest at about 405 parts per million.”
» Climate Central – 10 March 2017:
Carbon Dioxide Is Rising at Record Rates
“The main driver of climate change is carbon dioxide. So the fact that it is rising at rates unseen in the instrumental record — and likely much longer than that — is cause for alarm. Yet here we are.”
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“People talk about the boiling-frog moment. Well, this was mine. Then last summer images started coming back from the Great Barrier Reef showing massive coral bleaching, and although I accepted the images and testimony of the scientists involved, I really struggled to accept the reality of what they were reporting. This news wasn’t nearly as close to home as the abalone kill, but the implications were so much worse. Nearly a quarter of the world’s largest coral reef was either critically ill or dead.
For a sea lover and activist like me, this was a devastating development. For the scientists who’d been warning of an event like this for decades there was no sense of vindication, only sorrow. And for many Australians these events have been profoundly shocking. But the horror is compounded by the knowledge that all during this catastrophe the federal government has been ignoring global climate science and undermining renewable energy. To add to this folly, the Turnbull regime has done everything in its power to smooth the way for the world’s biggest coal mine in the Galilee Basin just inland, effectively offering to subsidise the largest-known reservoir of carbon pollution and help unleash it into the atmosphere.
But despair is not an option. And cynicism is just cowardice in a mask. Who can afford either?
At moments like these, when our leaders traduce our interests, it’s important to remember that the ordinary citizen has real power. When we share knowledge and passion, when we get organised and gain strength and momentum from one another, we make our will known. That’s when we achieve mighty things, and no government or corporation can resist us. Australians asserted their will at the Franklin Blockade, in the old-growth forests of WA, at Fraser Island and the Daintree. I was there to see it up close at Ningaloo. This is what I remind myself of, steel myself with…”
Tim Winton
Continue reading:
» Sydney Morning Herald – 15 March 2017:
Despair is not an option when it comes to climate change
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Podcasts and posts about climate change
Acknowledgement
We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.
The traditional owners lived in harmony with the environment and with the climate for hundreds of generations. It is not clear – yet – that as European settlers we have demonstrated that we can live in harmony for hundreds of generations, but it is clear that we can learn from the indigenous, traditional owners of this land.
When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that…
The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore climate change are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How utterly disgusting, disrespectful and unfair is that?
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“Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
Pete Seeger, American singer